Savage Awakening 440. The Second Challenge (I)

Zane didn’t know Noughtfire could get that angry.

That was awesome.

The sight of that pillar stayed seared in his mind.

That Dark Elf Prince had run through Empyreans. And Noughtfire had obliterated him with hardly a thought.

It really went to show—there were levels to this.

Every time he saw a display of strength like that, it only fired him up more. He liked having something to chase.

Grinning, he checked out his new Red Giant. He had just made a small version, very controlled—the size of his fist. Thick white streaks ran over it like storms streaking the surface; the bulk of the Destruction was packed tight into the Core.

He had a feeling he’d only see the full extent of it when he found a Monster that could survive contact with his power.

He had a feeling nothing of the sort would happen before the Second Challenge. The Monsters had slowed to a trickle.

Good thing for him—that challenge lay just around the corner.

Second Challenge begins in 36 hours

***

Sure enough—there wasn't much in the way of Monsters that next day. He spent most of it munching dreamsteel, listening in on his amulet radio, and watching some galactic broadcasts. A war reporter ran through the Azure Flame Faction, ducking as Empyrean dragons, one Monster, one True, wrestled, bashing their way through solar systems. The Thousand Seas Tribe came together to raise a galactic-sized tsunami—enough to drown a Tier I dungeon.

In the meantime—

Skill up!

Asura Titan’s Body, Second Form VIII -> IX

Friend of the System, Tier II — 22% Progress

Even when he didn’t make the full Skill Level, he noticed his body slowly getting stronger. It wasn’t the monumental breakthrough of a full-on Skill evolution. But it was 10%, on 10%, on 10%, consistently, every week or so—the changes to his body stacked up over time.

He did feel a cap coming up, though. His muscles were quickly filling out with steel.

He’d need another Sacred Bone to progress beyond the Second Form ceiling.

He figured it’d be like last time he hit a physique ceiling. He figured he might get a few overflow Levels.

After that…

He could get another Million Year Bone. It was up for grabs, right on the store—he’d have it before long, he felt. But you could only get two bones total at Minor God. There were no Minor Gods with two million-year bones in history.

But he wasn’t competing with anyone else. Zane was already far beyond that. It wasn’t pride—it was a simple fact.

His sole competition now was himself. How much he could push the limit. He had to—especially when he knew, had felt up-close, the caliber of the Monsters that were coming for him.

And when the 10 Million Year Bone was right there…

There was no choice in his mind but to go for it.

It was a gamble. If he didn’t manage to earn those 34 Credits in time, he might just end up empty-handed.

But when it came down to it, Zane would always bet on himself.

***

Reina left a message—she’d already started her breakthrough. It seemed she was still going through it.

But he did meet up with a cheerful Evan and Avery.

It’d been a hectic few weeks for them. There’d been a sketchy moment where they had briefly gotten swamped by a giant True God wave—pinned under heavy fire.

But Chomper simply ate all of the attacks.

At first, Zane thought the big dog had tanked them—but Avery shook her head. She opened her mouth and pointed.

He blinked. “Really?”

“That thing can eat anything!”

That made enough of an opening for them to break through and get out of there.

Chomper did have a tummy ache afterward; he’d whined a little. Evan patted Chomper on the head, and he licked him. “He’s a good boy,” said Evan happily.

Evan and Avery were both saving up their Credits in hope of getting the same Law breakthrough Zane did.

Luckily, the Planet Ranking reward was coming up. It was meant to drop right after the 2nd Event Challenge.

The Credits would really snowball from there. Evan had his fingers crossed it’d put him over the top. He was hopeful.

His next law was the Law of Starscape.

“We smacked so many fricking Monsters,” said Avery.

She’d gotten a lot better at her mirages lately, mostly because she spent a lot of time running screaming from giant hordes of Monsters. This proved a very effective learning incentive for Avery.

Now she could mask their presence almost completely. Even True God Monsters had trouble locking in on them—and she could hit them with all kinds of illusions and dizzy-spells.

Their battle plan amounted to Avery frantically throwing up all kinds of illusions and running around, trying not to get whacked, while Evan and Chomper blasted until all the Monsters fell over.

Chomper’s Laws had to do with eating—it seemed to come from his Godbeast Bloodline.

Unfortunately, Avery was having trouble fooling him because he just ate them. They’d yet to find something Chomper could not eat.

Avery still had a suspicion he was a secret agent sent by Malzareth. She thought these powers could not be natural.

“I’m gonna catch you,” she declared, squinting at him. “Better not slip up, Mister!”

Chomper just sat there, panting happily. There wasn’t a single thought in Chomper’s head.

In the meantime, Evan gave him a demonstration.

“Sit!” cried Evan.

Chomper gave him a puppy-dog look.

Evan began to tremble. Chomper went down on all fours. Evan started shaking a little more.

Chomper let out a little whimper—this almost bowled Evan over. But he bravely withstood it.

At last, Chomper sat. Evan gave him a cookie and a head-pat.

“I did it!” He looked up hopefully at Zane.

“Well done.” He gave Evan a head-pat in turn.

Avery had a little less success on the Chomper front. She still hadn’t managed to ride him into battle, which was her main aim in life now. However, she had managed to get him in a harness and saddle, after much effort.

Whenever she tried to ride him, though, Chomper got all excited and flung her into space.

Evan gasped and said it looked like Team Rocket. This gave Avery immense psychological damage.

The few Credits they did use, they spent on their Signature skills. Evan upgraded his Power of Friendship to gain a buff of up to 20% of his friends’ powers, if they were nearby.

He showed Zane his new Shooting Star Step skill and accidentally zoomed halfway across the Frontier. They had to go find him. It was 4x as strong as any prior time he’d used it.

Avery bought a buff that gave her illusions a lot more deflection power. Her mirrors could rebound a few early True God level strikes now.

They were all slowly getting stronger, Zane was pleased to see.

***

As for the rankings—he checked 12 hours before the Second Event kicked off.

His individual ranking had gone from #131 to 118 over the past few weeks. Though that was mostly because there weren’t enough Monsters around. He hadn’t gotten a chance to show off his new destructive power.

As for Planet Rankings—in the past few months, Earth had gone all the way from #8,820 to #994.

When they broke down the numbers, his kill count was over 75% of the total.

He didn’t need more motivation—but it was a nice thought that the more he destroyed, the more he could lift his friends, and all of Earth, too.

He took some pride in seeing that number go down.

***

Just before the second Event Challenge began, he got a message from mission control back on Earth. They sent him some notes on a scroll to read over, marked ‘For Zane’s Eyes Only.’ Classified knowledge from some of Reina’s best scryers.

A few pictures were included within. Taken from distant battlefields.

Monsters with strange mutant appendages—almost like an extra Monstrous Bone poking out. But it wasn’t the color of bone. They were all the color and texture of hardened tar.

Pure, hardened corruption.

They weren’t totally sure what these were yet. But they were showing up more and more, especially on the most elite Monsters.

That weird Bone seemed to drive Monsters even more wild than they already were—wild for human life and blood. It also gave them a strange undead durability.

Some were up to a half-grade stronger. But others were much weaker than they should be—they’d cannibalize themselves, or just start shaking and implode. Like failed lab experiments.

Whatever the case—it wasn’t just mankind that seemed to be growing stronger.

The Monsters were growing too.

It was just a matter of who did it faster.

***

Vile Nest

Dungeon X

Millipedes the size of freight trains crawled over a nest of giant bones. Hundreds in all.

Crawling over each other relentlessly; pustules of Corruption bubbled up, popping, splattering everywhere.

They were all True Gods, festering in that awful mix.

The weakest of them was Tier 7. But there were stronger too. Much stronger.

At the heart of that nest lay the greatest of them all.

Endbringer Goloid, the Gigapede [Monster King]

Essence Level 653

A million tree-trunk legs supported a body big enough to crush planets.

Its four bulbous eyes were focused on a murky image of Zane. Roaring, wielding two Red Giants as he took Tier 7 True Gods to task….

Drool leaked from its pincers.

That giant body housed a tiny mind—more bundles of nervous impulses than true thought. All it knew was hunger, hatred, and fear.

That was enough for it to do its nasty work.

It slobbered more just looking at the sight; its dull eyes began to harden.

It crawled over to one of its brethren—a Tier 7 True God. Its pincers unhinged. It chomped.

The Monster tried spasming, fighting back, but its own pincers pinged right off Goloid’s scales.

Scales that smoldered with the power of a Corrupted Bone.

Those were killer blows powered by a Tier 7 Distortion Field. They couldn’t leave so much as a scratch.

CRUNCH!

Its victim went still.

The Endbringer swallowed its life-juices and grew stronger.

But the one it hungered for most was still the biggest of the humans of Earth. Biggest in life and body. Zane wielded a light that burned its eyes—but it was not enough to put fear in the mind of Goloid. It knew it could crush Zane. It had no doubt of that.

There was a creature the Gigapede feared. A creature buried deep in the lowest floor of Dungeon X—a creature so frightening Goloid didn’t dare shiver in its presence.

It was dormant now. But they would all sense at times when the Ancient One descended to work on its most awful creation. Hear the howls of Godbeast ancestors as it welded more and more Bones in…

That creature would wake again one day.

And when it did, it would shake the world.