[Voidknight Ascension] Chapter 90: Big, Big Chicken

You could say a lot about Sam. He was brash, not exactly the smartest person, and his growing love for combat bordered on the concerning.

But what you couldn’t say about him was that he would stand around, paralyzed by fear or indecision, while a monster calmly descended as if it were a princess at a ball.

A princess preparing to slaughter them all.

As soon as he spotted the creature, he began moving to the side until he was out of the way. Music stopped emitting from his armor, the magical spells cut off in favor of silence’s safety.

Even Komachi’s [Stealth] couldn’t hide those spells entirely.

The rest of the group went quiet, taking cover amongst the debris and foliage. Even the injured woman ceased her babbling, but she didn’t have the presence of mind to hide yet.

Sam bent down and threw his [Dullahan Greatsword] with all of the force he could muster, straight up into that deadly shadow.

Various spells primed and readied, everyone that could see in the dark watched the massive flying sword with bated breath.

He wished, with all of his heart, that he could jump that high. But even his considerable Strength had its limits. He knew that there was no way he would have made it, much less without attracting the attention of the bird.

But his sword? It scythed upward and sheared off the creature’s left wing before it was halfway to greeting them. Sam could feel the gathering Wind mana from here, and it just so happened that the sword met it as it was about to release the spell.

Sam and Raiko were already dragging the shellshocked woman to the side, stuffing her under a narrow overhang so she was out of the way.

The [Abyssdiver (Boss)] squawked and the column of scything air went wide, smoothing the ragged edges of a nearby cliff until it resembled an old eraser nub.

Down the creature spiraled, flapping madly with one useful wing. Sam kept an eye on it, while also trying to take notice of where his sword was falling.

In the gloom, it was hard to keep track of both, and he had to choose which to pursue. Seeing where the [Abyssdiver] was falling, however, made the choice for Sam.

It was headed straight for Matt and Kai on the lower reaches of the cliffs, where a large enough area would serve as a crash-landing location quite well. Several nests were destroyed and littered the area. It probably looked at close to cushiony as you got on an island with jagged cliffs.

“I’ll fetch your weapon.” Raiko swiped a gold dripping hand across Sam’s armor that left behind a glowing symbol, imparting a buff that instantly reminded him of fighting the Empty during the Shard’s End.

The awareness of [Glyph: Refresh] percolated into his head as his flagging MP began to steadily refresh. He hardly had the time to be amazed by the spell that could regenerate someone else’s MP, much like Regen did for HP.

It was stronger than [Rift: Mana Draw], mostly because it was a persistent effect.

Raiko darted after his falling sword without delay. Out of all of them, she was the fastest. His [Traversal] skill was good, but it didn’t hold a candle to whatever she now used.

He was now more curious than ever what she picked for her Second Order Job.

His choice made for him, Sam jumped down and ran toward Kai and Matt, shouting at them as they stared in surprise at the creature headed for them.

They shook off their stupor long enough—or perhaps finally saw the creature since they lacked Sam’s Dark Vision—to get out of the way, but Sam didn’t slow down.

He landed on their level so harshly, the painful jolt of the drop slammed every joint from his ankles to his jaw. Kai reached out a hand to steady him, but Sam was already in the throes of using [Void: Surge].

***

Matt watched as Sam jumped down several stories at a time, never breaking stride, never slowing. He could have played the Juggernaut without any special effects.

There was no way to tell exactly what would have happened without some sort of precognition, yet Sam… somehow knew that the [Abyssdiver] was not only going to crash near them, but that it would attack.

Before Matt knew what was going on, his own hand raised to attack the fallen creature, a wave of Void mana spread out from Sam and created a shimmering silver-black dome.

Matt’s magic was consumed the very moment it left his fingertips. Tiny sparks of black and silver flashed across his hand, and the magic was just gone.

There goes my [Poison Dart] spell.

He turned to complain, when the world suddenly broke open. The noise was deafening.

The [Abyssdiver] was a tough old bird. It didn’t land there without purpose. Only Sam had seen what it would do.

As soon as it slammed into the ground, throwing up a curtain of dust, it raised its head and released a Wind based breath attack that was meant to strip the skin from their bones.

[Reaving Wind]

And it would have. If not for Sam.

Matt stared in silent horror as the Wind rushed around them, eroding the surrounding stone, leaving a small thin island amidst a cliffside that no longer existed.

Before Matt could apologize, or yell, or really do anything, Sam was off like a shot. He never seemed to stand still.

Like out of a fucking movie, Sam leapt through the air and yelled out for Raiko. Through the dust and debris choking the air, Matt caught the glint of Sam’s silvery greatsword twirling through the air.

It slapped into his waiting palm mid-leap; the sound echoing in the dark night all the more for the sudden silence in the wake of the [Abyssdiver’s] attack.

Even the monster was stunned at what it saw. Its surprise attack thwarted, and this tiny creature—compared to it, of course—leaping toward it as if it had no fear at all.

Maybe he doesn’t, Matt thought. Maybe that’s why he rushes into battle, because he isn’t afraid. No hesitation, no distraction. And here I thought my new Job made me better somehow.

Flute music picked up, visibly enhancing Sam with even greater speed. It radiated outwards, buffing Matt too, formally bringing him into the fray.

Matt jumped from the island of stone Sam’s Void barrier had made and followed after him. In that moment, Matt realized that he would gladly follow Sam into battle again and again.

***

Roaring with anger, Sam clenched his grip on the [Dullahan Greatsword] and brought it down on the still surprised and bleeding [Abyssdiver] with all of the force he could.

Apparently throwing his weapon, ironically enough, counted as an attack. He used the [Fury] he had generated to make [Shockwave] into a devastating force of destruction.

The island echoed with the sound of splintering bone as Sam brought his blade down and used [Shockwave] on the beast’s massive razor-sharp beak.

He idly thought that it was nearly identical to one of those huge excavators for digging out the sides of hills.

The screech from the [Abyssdiver’s] shattered maw tore the air, but Sam wasn’t done. He knew he had to strike fast before it had any time to gather itself.

It was stronger than him. Stronger than any of them, but that strength took time to use. It couldn’t bring it to bear all at once, and deprived of its mobility, Sam wanted to deal as much pain to it as he could.

Thanks to his allies, Sam had plenty of MP as he rose from the small crater around the [Abyssdiver’s] broken beak. He lunged forward, hand stretched out to touch the creature’s head with his palm.

I’ve never tried this before. Let’s see if it works!

Sam used [Void: Smother (Wind)] on the creature itself. The flames of Void slithered up his arm and spread across the creature’s body, coating it.

Despite the dark flecks of Void mixed in, Sam found that he could easily see the creature much more than ever before. It had always been a shadowy figure in the nighttime gloom, but now it was clearly outlined in dancing silver-black flames.

The others must have been able to see it better too, because Matt wasted no time in sending arcing green darts through the air that impacted the stunned bird and sizzled painfully.

Thrashing about with all its might, the [Abyssdiver] swept its remaining massive wing across Sam and tossed him to the ground with surprising force.

It barely managed to get to its feet, looking a bit like a one-winged, pink chicken, before Kai, Raiko, and even Komachi joined in on the attack.

Sharpened waves of Thunder, lashing vines of Nature and squiggly notes hammered the [Abyssdiver’s] injured side in a coordinated salvo.

Sam rolled over and got to his feet, resisting the urge to charge. He stepped back, curiosity getting the better of him.

The giant bird reared back and once more gathered a massive amount of Wind mana into what was left of its beak.

The Void sensed the Wind mana and seized it.

Silver-black fire burned along the gathering mana, but the bird was not smart enough to know when to give up.

He watched as the Void ran rampant over the Wind mana, consuming and shrinking it even as the [Abyssdiver] surged with Wind to empower its attack.

It focused so hard on its own spell that it failed to see the rest of Sam’s group readying another round of attacks.

Vines, streaks of Poison mana, bursts of Lightning, and even discordant notes of mana all flew toward the creature. It was too busy fighting Sam’s Void mana that it was all but defenseless.

As all the attacks collided upon its breast at once, the creature lost control of its Wind attack and staggered back from the implosion.

Sam winced at the sight of its neck flapping about without a head. It looked like one of those wacky waving inflatable tube men you see at sad used car dealerships.

Either that, or a garden hose at full pressure that you can’t quite get a grip on, Sam thought. Then he remembered what was spraying out, and he hurried out of the splash zone.

Which turned out to be fortuitous, not only to avoid getting drenched in bird blood, but because the [Abyssdiver] didn’t take kindly to being beheaded by its own failed spell.

It began to run around, trampling over Kai and Matt, who were too slow to look down from the skies of rain of blood. It slipped on its own blood, spun around kicking its massive, webbed feet, managed to get up on its legs again somehow, and continued its mad headless rampage.

Raiko jumped off a cliff wall twice, keeping well away from the splatter.

Komachi popped her head out of his armor. “Big, big chicken for dinner, yis?”

“Lots of chicken,” Sam assured her as the [Abyssdiver] slowly wound down its antics like a cheap toy running out of batteries.

It must have taken a full ten minutes for the damn thing to pump all its blood out and finish its impression of a headless chicken, but finally it collapsed and only twitched a few times.

By then, all the notifications began to pour in, ushering in a new wave of power.

Sam felt lifted up off his feet as a surge of mana rolled through his body. To those watching, he seemed to glow internally as if casting out a brilliant silvery light from every pore.

Heat rolled off his body, but Komachi didn’t seem bothered by it. If anything, she snuggled up to his glowing, floating body, and purred contentedly as if all was right with the world.

Sam tried to shout, to call out, to utter a single syllable, but his jaw seemed wired shut. He couldn’t see the notifications for the brilliance that filled his vision, washing everything white.

It was over in a few heartbeats, but it felt like an eternity to Sam. When he could see again, he was kneeling on the ground. He expected pain, but instead felt… light. As if every cell in his body was just massaged, given a good night’s rest, and then for fun, given an injection of coffee.

He was buzzing with mana and energy that rolled out of him in waves of shimmering pressure.

“What the hell was that?” Matt asked, wiping blood from his face and staring at Sam in awe.

He wasn’t the only one.