Savage Awakening 436. Red Giant (II)

A/N: Editing mistake in previous chapters—Shards of True Destruction should’ve been adjusted to 12 System coins. Changed how event coins were awarded, so the price had to account for that

On with the chapter!

//

Reina didn’t linger much on how things went on her end, other than that they went well, and they’d routed the Monster army. She wasn’t one to brag, but he heard the news. In some of the lulls between battles, he’d turn on Elias’s network—she was on there pretty often as general.

“I heard you wrecked a horde with an Empyrean in it,” Zane offered. He was proud of her.

“The Evergreen Guard did the actual fighting,” she said, looking pleased with herself—pleased he’d heard. “I just drew up the battle plans.”

She paused, gave a little smile. A flash of pride. “But I’m happy with how it worked out.”

He remembered seeing a picture of the seven-foot-tall woman in full battle regalia—the Thundercrest’s Queen Thalia—shaking hands with her. It was the first time she’d acknowledged Reina as a fellow queen.

Now they were having a picnic in a quiet stretch of Frontier. Cheese and grapes and sandwiches were laid out before them, and in the distance Evan played fetch with Chomper.

Reina leaned up against him with a happy sigh; they watched the stars for a little.

“Most of the Great Factions are holding strong so far,” she said, looking up at him. “But Zane…it looks like Malzareth’s planning something huge. From what my Scryers are telling me, it’ll make what we just saw look like a warm-up.”

“Do we know any specifics?”

She shook her head, brow furrowing. “That’s all we have so far. We don’t even know when it’ll hit…”

He nodded, took a bite out of his sandwich.

“We’ll just have to prepare as best we can,” she concluded. Then she perked up. “I did get some news on the Barbarian Sage.”

He hadn’t heard from the old guy in a while. He supposed it was rather hard to send postcards where he’d gone.

“He’s gotten into the Top 4 by kill count,” said Reina brightly. “He just cleared his second Tier 1 dungeon! Maybe he’s less strong than he used to be, but I’d guess there’s only a handful of Empyreans who’d dare fight him.”

“Sounds about right,” said Zane through a mouthful of ham. Good for him.

“If you want an update on Noughtfire…” She knew him well enough—she could just tell. “He’s one of the Azure Flame’s most important generals. They’ve got the most firepower out of any Great Faction—but it also means they’ve seen some of the fiercest battles so far. They’ve had to face more Empyreans than any Great Faction.”

She shook her head. “They’re holding strong, though.”

He took another munch. He could swear this ham and cheese was some of the best he'd ever tasted.

He wasn't worried about Noughtfire. The old fellow wouldn’t let himself get caught. But it was good to know what he’d been up to.

Noughtfire would be quite intrigued by his new Law. Zane wondered when he’d drop by. Maybe after he got a shard of Destruction or two in there.

“Noughtfire’s disciples are doing really well too,” said Reina. “One—‘Straw Hat Lang’—is ranked Top 5 at Empyrean!”

She pursed her lips. “I went over every Empyrean expert in Dragonspire before this all went down, but he doesn’t show up in any of the records. I think he’s a hidden expert.”

Zane thought about it. “I’ve met the guy, actually.”

He vaguely recalled a janitor in a straw hat, sweeping the steps up to Noughtfire’s place.

He was still curious about the full potential of Heavenly Red Giant. He figured Noughtfire would shed some light on that too. He felt he’d only seen a tiny fraction of what he could do.

He’d given Reina a demonstration, and she picked up on them too.

“A few things are clear upfront,” she said, holding up two fingers. “First, the sheer size. Your domain looks like it can cover whole continents now. And your hammers are orders of magnitude denser with essence.”

He nodded. “It takes a lot more work to pull. It feels like I’m hauling a real star, but when I get it going… nothing’s been able to stand up to it yet.”

Only that Pharaoh going all-out had lasted more than a single blow.

“Mhm.” She considered him with a little playful smile. “It suits you.”

It felt to him like he’d swapped out his Solar Flare mallet for a weighty, heavy-duty weapon. A true hammer.

“Then there’s the domain itself… it’s like you’re harnessing the surface of a star,” she said, putting up another finger. “Every inch of your territory’s in a state of constant eruption. It means anything that comes near it gets instantly obliterated.”

It did feel like he was wielding the stuff of stars now—not just its surface flares, but the very essence of it, the firepower that went to its core. The density of that explosive power was something else.

He felt that even without the Concepts that’d complete it.

He figured even with nothing stacked—just raw smashing power—he could go toe-to-toe with a True God with early Tier 7 Laws.

If he went all-out—triggered Limit Break—he could crush it without much trouble. He’d proved that.

Still—he had a feeling he'd only see what he could really do once he got out there.

He took another bite.

It’d only been a few days of rest, but he was already feeling restless. It wasn't just the thought of getting back in action again.

He didn’t need Reina to tell him the hordes would get much stronger, and fast… he could nearly sense them, looming over the horizon. A gut feeling.

Some dangerous creatures were coming for him and his friends.

Creatures like that thing Malzareth had set on him as he broke through.

It wasn’t just the drive of the fight. That was always with him. It was the knowledge that if he didn’t take these things down, his friends—his home—would fall too.

It was as strong a fuel as he’d ever felt.

“I don’t think you’ll have time to get more Concepts until after the wave’s over,” Reina told him. “That’s fine.”

He wasn’t worried about that. He had more upgrades to chase right now than he knew what to do with.

For now, he was focused solely on battle.

He was just a stone’s throw away from the Top 100 True Gods. Not much higher than that was Chosen territory.

And ranked #1 in those rankings, by a big margin, was Haxorax.

He hadn’t thought about the fellow in a while. He’d only seen brief clips of him—raining meteors on hordes of peak True God enemies, devastating solar systems’ worth of Monsters with ease.

All in due time. For now…

He was 6 credits in.

6 more left until he got that shard of True Destruction.

Zane clenched his fist.

***

He was still keeping up with his dreamsteel—and after Minor God it seemed his body could digest a lot faster.

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

Friend of the System, Tier II — 14% Progress

***

His first week back in action started with a bang.

Day 2 of vigil at his solemn asteroid outpost. He sat there cross-legged, eyes closed, letting Sage Mind take in the vast expanse before him.

His senses had sharpened at Minor God. Something about his Class evolution had done it. Maybe it was just his essence. He wasn’t sure.

But he could pick up signatures beyond the bounds of the mini-map now.

Around four hours past midnight, he felt it.

A black tide was bubbling over the horizon, thickening fast…

Zane stood. Hammers dropped—and Red Giants lit up the space sector.

He waited until he saw the direwolves’ slobbering teeth, saw the Thunder Giants’ storm cloud fists. True God after True God…

He let them have it.

***

Those first few weeks, Zane took down over twenty True Gods.

They came in bursts. For almost a week, there’d be nothing worth his time—then seven True Gods, a giant horde, would charge him at once.

It meant his biggest gains hit all at once too.

Level up!

Level up!

Level up!

Essence Level 518 -> 521

Skill up!

Red Giant Smash III -> IV

***

In that time, he wrecked thousands of half-step True Gods too. At this point, he could crush hundreds with hardly any effort.

Even early True Gods couldn’t take more than a blow. It was quite gratifying.

Solar Flare could set off some big explosions. But when Zane put all his power, all his will into a Red Giant Smash, he could wreck Monsters for tens of thousands of miles—just clean-cut whole planets’ worth of space.

After a while, it was almost calming, farming these low-level Monsters. There was a pleasant rhythm to it. He’d head out there, blast, collect his credits, and stomp off somewhere else.

He never got too amped up. Just enough to keep himself warm for the next fight.

All the while, his Credits slowly ticked up…

Credit get!

Credit get!

Nothing he met could take on the Red Giant. It shattered Monsters at every level—first with force, then in flame.

So far, it destroyed by virtue of its sheer size, its power; it was just a very powerful hammer right now.

He looked forward to the destructive burst that new Shard would give.

Total Credits: 8.4

***

There was a longer break between challenges this time. It lasted months. Each Monster Wave was spaced out too—but each came heavier than the last.

A month in, he faced his first Tier-7 True Gods.

He’d just been sitting cross-legged on an asteroid when—

“Rank #59, Vivian Lin!” cried a voice through the transmission. “Incoming—it looks like a code black!”

Zane stood, cracked his neck. “This is World Rank #1, Zane Walker,” he said. “I’m on it.”

He took out his lure.

He had a good feeling about this one.

He watched it far out into the depths of space and felt his challenge roar through the Frontier…

Before long, a rumbling began in every direction.

Six True Gods charged in strong from the south. Another seven or so from up north—red-eyed centaurs with poison-tipped arrows. Giant two-tailed scorpions. Wild hogs with mammoth tusks.

Fifteen True Gods in all.

And up front, leading the charge—two True Gods wielding Tier 7 Laws.

Behind them, making a wall, were nearly a thousand half-step True Gods.

Zane grinned.

“That’s more like it.”

Three steps stomped out in quick succession.

He broke into a sprint—making right for the heart of the horde, towing his hammers behind.

He might’ve seemed just one man against an army.

But the Astral Plane told a different story. The aura coming off him more than matched his enemies. It made them look like distant stars crowding in on two great suns, trying to bring them down. Only when those red giants made contact—

A quarter of that starscape was blasted clean out of existence. A burning hole punched through the night sky.

Then the rest of them descended on him. Swarmed him.

And Zane did what he did best.

By the end of it he was bleeding heavily. Breathing heavily, battered pretty badly—poison hissing all over his body, a few ribs cracked. His Health down to 25%.

But he’d gotten the job done.

Credit get!

Total Credits: 10.7