Savage Awakening 569. The King (II)

A/N: Edited in that the King is 500 feet tall! 

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Kain had gotten him off to a good start. It’d be much easier to bring the King down now with it wobbled like this. Right now it couldn’t even brace properly. 

It was a simple maneuver, putting the King down—at first it almost felt silly throwing such a massive effort at it. They were just trying to throw it on its side, after all; they weren’t hitting it with some Empyrean-grade curse or crippling it with some Destruction-stuffed ultimate blow....Zane had been a little skeptical it’d be worth it. But Kain had convinced him.

“In pure firepower, we will be outmatched,” said Kain. “Don’t underestimate a Peak T1. We are serpents fighting a dragon. We cannot win in open air. The only way we win is if we take it deep underwater, and there, in the fathoms, drown it. It is a great deal of essence expenditure, but it will be worth it. It will, in my estimation, be an efficient method. Far more efficient than if you spent all that energy slashing it repeatedly.”

He explained the rest of the idea, and Zane had agreed it made sense.

Kain smiled. “As for the simplicity of it, why waste effort on complexities when simplicities get the job done? When the target is the size of a small mountain and weighs several planets, simply bringing it down and tying it up is more devastating than any paralysis curse. Find the simplest, most efficient way to deliver the most devastating result. That’s the game of all life.”

Zane took that for what it was. But he still gave Kain a look.

“What?”

“There’s no way knowing one technique’s the most efficient way to fight.”

“…That’s different.”

They moved on. Kain pointed out that chained up like this, it’d take the King far more effort to get back up than for him to put it down. If it managed to get up at all, it’d be far too late.

That was the theory, at least.

Zane put it into practice. He set his whole body to the effort and wrenched.

The King teetered a little more, barely noticeable despite the massive force Zane put through his chains…

He realized he needed more firepower.

So he threw himself right into an Overlord Annihilation Charge—a use of the Skill he’d never tried before. He got down three steps without budging a single foot.

Instead all that explosive force went straight through his straining body, straight into the chains… it was hell on the body. 

But now the King began to tilt in earnest.

It groaned, straining against the chains—putting even more force through Zane’s muscles, making him bite down harder. But that alone wouldn’t stop its fall.

Then the King’s prow lit up.

A sea of Gravity Laws tried wrenching the King back upright. It wasn’t even taking aim at Kain anymore. It threw all its efforts into resisting him.

That felt like confirmation to Zane. The King, recognizing the threat of him.

That only got him even more fired up.

Zane pulled out every stop he had.

He dropped his own Gravity Laws. Not as strong as the King’s, but combined with his physique, it was strong enough to wrestle back the momentum. He stomped a fourth time, a fifth, a sixth—

It felt like his muscles were on the verge of tearing off his bones.

He didn’t know what the Gravity Laws the King had summoned were, but he swore they had to be strong Tier 7—it felt a lot like the Barbarian Sage’s Black Hole Laws, just without nearly as much Destruction. They were still backed by nearly a plate's worth of Creation.

It made him fight for every foot.

The King was falling. But little micro-tears started racing up Zane’s body now; he heard the tearing going through him. At this rate, with the force going through him, he wasn’t sure even Hide of the Ancients’ toughness would be enough to keep his muscles intact…

Then ethereal chains broke all over his body.

He felt the power surge hit him like a flood.

He roared one more time and wrenched, just as another Kain-beam blasted that thing to the dome—sacrificing a few torn muscles just to get the force through.

That got the job done.

The King had been falling as though in slow motion.

Then it jerked several dozen degrees.

And he wrenched every single pillar-leg but one straight out of the ground.

Even Zane was a bit surprised how much faster it fell; and now that it was falling fast, it was so much easier to gather himself and shove it those final few dozen feet… it groaned in protest, but Zane knew he’d won this fight.

Its impact was an earthquake unto itself.

Zane almost staggered to a knee as all the pressure through his body eased at once.

But he’d succeeded.

And the moment he felt that thing hit the ground felt euphoric—just in a purely physical way, like he’d had some great deadlift PR locked out.

It groaned, trying to stab its pillars back down, trying to build itself back up, but Kain slammed it back down with a pillar.

“Ready?” said Kain.

He could’ve used a little breather. Pounding two Overlord charges back-to-back was pretty taxing, even for him, but there was no time for that.

So he just knuckled down and nodded. “Let’s do this.”

The bulk of the work was still ahead of them. They did massively inconvenience the King; it couldn’t even crane its head in the right direction to blast at them. Nearly all its attacks were cut off.

That meant Zane had no other considerations. No other Astroliths in the field, nothing to hamper him. All he had to worry about was stacking as devastating a blow as he could.

He’d only have the time and conditions to do this once.

He saw the King trying to stomp a leg into the ground, trying to prop itself up, but its own weight, chained up, made it an awkward effort. And Kain kept walloping it. Just when it seemed like it might find purchase he sent it crashing back down, sending up more tides of dust.

He knew there was no way they’d keep that thing down forever. If it didn’t build back up, it’d get its cooldown Skills back. Kain was buying him time.

Nine steps, six slashes. That was the figure in his mind. That was everything he had in a single blow. That had to be enough to break T1. 

If he got there and struck the very spot Kain had been hammering all fight… he was pretty sure he could finish this for good.

In just seconds, he’d gotten his first three stomps down. He saw the King already making progress, even with all those chains binding it up. It’d gotten up to two limbs but he gave it a good one-two slashes.

That, combined with another quick blast from Kain, was enough to send the King stumbling again.

He got down a fourth step. By then, he was nearly at the King again, but this time he didn’t charge up the thing. He went around it, making a wide circle, slashing and stomping as he did. Five steps in, three slashes, and he felt a devastating momentum burning up his limbs again. He streaked across the battlefield, a blur of raging light.

He heard a flurry of distant shouts as he stomped by—some folks spectating in the distance—but they didn’t seem about to interfere. He ignored them and kept up the onslaught.

It was all going to plan.

Then he felt the King’s fury.

The King’s mind was a slow, simple thing. It felt almost like some celestial object come to life, like if a planet could think; when its fury came on, it came slow and heavy.

Zane’s chains were peak Divine Profound in strength, the same as his physique. And he’d bound that thing against itself, tying those chains in a knot. He didn’t want to be fighting it with his own strength as he built up an execution charge. He’d rather it fight itself.

Then the King groaned, straining, its prow going deep with color… Its cracks exploded with starlight.

An ungodly force erupted off it, sending fissures rippling through reality all around it. More a thrash than a Skill—something he’d never seen the King do, maybe because it’d never been caught like this.

Most of that force went straight into Zane’s chains.

CRACK!

He felt a stab of pain in his soul.

The chains held. But several of them showed golden cracks down their lengths. It slammed again—CRACK!

And Zane knew this couldn’t hold. Kain seemed to think the same thing; he was emptying his reserves now, throwing pillar after pillar.

He pushed the pace. Stomped faster, worked in a sixth step—slashed, slashed again; they did everything they could to slow that thing. A seventh step came down.

The King sent out those force-fissures again.

CRACK!

A huge length of chain broke loose. The chain wrapping all over its back, tying its legs. The main chain keeping it down.

Zane snarled, not just from the pain of it. He couldn’t remember the last time a Monster had been strong enough to shatter his chains, especially after he'd hit the Fourth Form. Kain roared something lost in the wind. They locked eyes, and Zane knew what he was saying.

They’d run out of time.

So Zane went for broke.

It wasn’t the nine steps he wanted, just eight. But Limit Broken, with the strength of five slashes in his limbs… that already represented a near-limit effort from Zane. Still damn near everything he could give.

He let out a war cry and leaped. Just as the King reared its head.

It looked up at the human rising far above it, staring blankly at axes crashing over it, axes torching the skies with a brilliant bloody light; loaded so heavily in that moment that reality trembled around them, like bombs about to blow— Zane cranked all the way back.

Every ounce of physical might he possessed. His Law, his essence, even his heart with his Limit Break—

He gave it the full Zane experience.

He blasted the King straight back into the ground. Just face-planted it, making a yet-deeper crater in the crater already there…

Two shining axes lay sunk in that mighty head.

He fell to the ground, landed on one knee, body smoking, big muscles torn all over his upper body, and saw a canyon splitting down the King’s mountain-body, splitting it nearly clean in two.

For a moment, he thought, hoped, he’d ended it. There was so little left in him right now.

Then he felt the King’s soul flicker. Twisted, just a fraction of what it’d been… but it’d eaten all that power, and lived.

It was so damned close.... Kain, off to the side, had gone down to a knee.

He couldn't let this stand—he had to do something. 

So he just roared and threw himself at it. Even broken as he was. Wrenched out his Axes, and just started wailing on it.

Chipping down those last few chunks of health, one by one; barely putting any essence in since he barely had any left. Just pure physical smashing, the only thing he could do. Flailing brokenly at it with his torn-up, spent body. But that didn’t even matter. He felt himself whittling it down—he just had to get this thing across the finish line… it was almost aggravating how little he was doing in this state. But he was making a difference. Another twenty, thirty of these smashes—

Then he felt something shift in the King’s soul, and his eyes widened.

A screeching sound, like glass grinding, started up in the King’s throat.

Timeshatter roar. The King had gotten it back.

It craned its head to him, throat filling up with vast spatial Laws… Zane sensed the urgency of the situation.

If it managed to freeze them like this, got a chance to recharge, even, this fight was finished. He braced himself to counter, tried to scrounge up any last vestige of essence he had left… 

But a split second before he threw himself at it, he heard Kain shout. A pillar of Destruction screamed out of the sky.

Enough to crush the King back down, turning its head the other way.

Timeshatter unleashed and the bulk of it went straight into the ground. A few reverberations still came back around and struck Zane head to toe.

It didn’t freeze him, which was a relief; it just slowed him, even heavier this time than last… the effects hit everything except for his soul. Even his essence had to fight to move.

The difference between half-step T1 and strong T1 was put on full display just then. The fact that even that pillar hadn’t been enough to kill it…

Kain was still breathing heavily, hunched over. Kain had nothing left.

They locked eyes. Kain nodded to him, and Zane knew what he was telling him.

Finish it.

Zane did.

Slowed like this, and with the reserves he had left, there was no way he could slash it down in time. Even one slash, cranking back and throwing down, would take ages to get off.

He needed something to get through this extreme slowness—hopefully before the King got any of its other Skills back. 

One final tactic came to mind. 

He de-summoned his Axes. A few painfully long heartbeats later chains filled his fists. The King was still groaning, lying there in critical health… it was just starting to stir.

Zane scrounged all his essence and threw it into a Chainstorm Cage.

He could only muster a very weak version of it. But all he wanted out of it was that instant-binding effect; he flexed, wrenched his arms back, the starting motion of the Cage. Even that small motion took a few seconds, fighting all those Spacetime Concepts.

But that was all he needed.

His chains blasted out. Then they shrank in, caged right over the King’s head.

He might’ve exhausted everything but he still had his body—a body that, with the Heart of the Prime Rhino’s regen, had stitched back enough. A body that he knew wouldn’t let him down now.

The King made a deep-earth sound. It tried to struggle, but Zane had the smoking remnants of it locked down tight.

Then all he did was set his feet, and crushed.

All the force his tired body could muster went through his chains, straight into the King’s shattered head.

In the end, that was how Zane finished the Astrolith King.