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Savage Awakening 383. Total Demolition (II)

Beside him, he felt Rhinos squaring up. He raised a fist in the air. His hammers caught fire.

“CHARGE!” roared Zane.

And together they thundered into a Stampede.

He felt the heat coming, pumping through him with each heartbeat. In his new Titan’s Body, every movement felt explosive.

He hurtled into an Annihilation Charge.

He bounded once. Thud. Bounded again, and this step opened craters beneath his feet. THUD. A third, and a terrible momentum took over. TH...

Savage Awakening 382. Total Demolition (I)

Skill evolved!

Asura Titan’s Body, First Form, Overclocked -> Asura Titan’s Body, Second Form [Rare (P)]

Level up! 

Level up! 

Asura Titan’s Body, Second Form I -> III

The moment his Asura Titan’s Body broke through, Zane knew he’d felt this before.

Right now his bones, his muscles, felt exactly like they had when he'd broken his limits earlier. 2025-01-27 02:30:00 +0000 UTC View Post

Savage Awakening 381. Smashing Turtles (III)

The turtle saw him coming, and wisely hid.

Its shell grew. New layers of scale came to the fore. The fortress bulged with new walls. New turrets poked out. And the field hammered Zane with a new density of tar, until it felt like the stuff was slowing down his very thoughts.

But none of it could stop him.

He went ballistic. His axe crushed down, an arc of vicious gold—

BOOM!

A tower blew off the fort. Plumes of Solar Flare spiraled to the heavens; stone avalanc...

Savage Awakening 380. Smashing Turtles (II)

A/N: Bonus chapter! :D

//

Zane went most of the way up the icy slopes and looked back down. Mists shrouded the distance. From here, the Distortion Field was a stain on glassy waters. And silhouetted inside, that hulking castle of a shell.

He looked around, took the measure of things, and nodded.

He could see the beast rumbling with laughter. It thought it’d seen him off.

Bit of a strange thing to think, he thought. It hadn’t even hit him...

Savage Awakening 379. Smashing Turtles (I)

The beast didn't turn as Zane stepped up to the bank. It just lay there, still, as though it were merely some barren volcanic island. Only its eyes swiveled slowly to regard him. 

He crossed into the water and unloaded his hammers. 

His blood began to heat up. A searing vitality poured out of him.

At that turtle let out a rumble of a growl. Zane felt a great deal of irritation emanating from the beast. As it moved monstrous waves sloshed over the surface, as though...

Savage Awakening 378. The Barbarian Sage's Adventure (II)

“You’ve heard of me!” said the Sage, pleasantly surprised.

I knew of your coming. Kalagor’s tails bristled. Each tail was a single enormous Sacred Bone, rising slowly, pale serpents coiled to strike. Venom seethed at their ends. There, reality cracked like shattering glass.

I will make your Bone a gift to my master.

The Barbarian Sage let out an uproarious laugh. “I love it! That’s the spirit!”

He looked out at the d...

Savage Awakening 377. The Barbarian Sage's Adventure (I)

Wish came into the world and showed the full potential of his Solar Flare.

It wasn’t just an explosion. It was a focused funnel of a gold so bright it blurred to white, yawning out, sweeping, punching through all it touched.

Then he felt a great CRUNCH, and he knew he got them.

It was the meatiest crunch he’d gotten yet.

It wasn’t just the bees, he felt. There was a greater, thicker crunching, like he was punching through something huge and thick. He felt cracks ...

Savage Awakening 376. The Scourge Hive (II)

Only the bees were really letting Zane have it now. He was in a hellish new world of ugly sound; storms of buzzing crashed and screeched against each other, bearing down on him, pulling back, bearing down again. They shattered each other, over and over, and drowned him in the fragments.

The sound was getting through to his head, his skull—it was pretty much impossible to block it out. It was quite hard to think.

But he didn’t need to.

He felt what was right, bit down, an...

Savage Awakening 375. The Scourge Hive (I)

Before Zane left, he went up to Mook, who was floating about in the mud-pools, eyes closed, about as happy as a Rhino could get. 

The young Rhino looked up and shook off some mud when he came over. 

“I’ve got a favor to ask,” he said. Mook perked up.

*** 

So it was that he and Mook went off on their adventure. 

The Scourge Hive was last seen in the Question-Mark Woods, and as of Guri’s last gander, they were still there wreaking havoc....

Savage Awakening 374. The Undying Cliffs (II)

It was as if the herd were some great slumbering beast coming awake. All around him, Rhinos exploded into their Annihilation Charges, step by thundering step. Their auras built and built.

Zane was getting going too. His fists were wrapped in Chains. His hammers soared behind him, rocketing with Solar Flare.

It was growing into a full stampede now, gaining incredible momentum. His heart thumped faster and faster. All he could hear was the stomping, merging to an earthquake rumble. ...

Savage Awakening 373. The Undying Cliffs (I)

A/N:

No chapter 1/14, folks--sorry about that! Chapter needs more work than I thought. Will be back tomorrow.

//

When Zane came back, he was pleasantly surprised to find himself mobbed by fellow Rhinos.

It was, as mobbing went, a pretty chill one. A herd of Rhinos came through and treated him to horn-bumps and licks.

Mook came up to him, focused hard for a moment. Then he managed to speak.

"Yay," said Mook.

The Rhino did a little ho...

Savage Awakening 372. Ghol, the Forbidden One (V)

The rumble rolled through the peaks, and all the beasts there felt it deep in their bones.

An angry red flared in the depths of the mist—flushing quickly to sunrise gold, then piercing white.

A roar billowed from the depths—the roar of an explosion, an eruption. But mingled in was the roar of a man.

Then the gold scorched to the surface, arching through the smoke, and at its head was Zane.

Ghol hardly had time to react before the fist made contact.

A nuclear ...

Savage Awakening 371. Ghol the Forbidden One (IV)

 It didn't even look up as Zane came closer.

Its belly was swollen—it yawned, gave a smoke-cloud belch, and wiped at its face. He got a sense of deep drowsiness from the beast. It turned, as though stomping off to rest before it had a crack at the Rhinos again.

Ghol…. It groaned.

Zane took one last leap, and came down on the very same island—the island on the peak of all peaks. The Monster’s weird energy tore all over it, an ominous wind.

...

Savage Awakening 370. Ghol, the Forbidden One (III)

As Zane trekked through the Plains, he came across a muscled obsidian menace. A Void Mamba. Its crescent fangs tore reality in thin hissing lines, and Zane had heard the venom of their strongest—their Nest Kings—could trouble even Rhinos.

But the beast he met was not their strongest. The thing only had one Bone. It wasn’t much trouble—it barely got him under 75%.

After that, the Blast Eagles and the Sun Lion eyeing him gave him a wide berth. He had a clear path to the Drag...

Savage Awakening 369. Ghol, the Forbidden One (II)

“He’s an Undying Curse Giant. Escaped from the depths of the Superdungeon—a peak Minor God. Chained, pale fellow, skin glowing with Curse marks engraved on his skin. Quite high physical strength, enough to rival a Rhino. His curses give him power.”

She deposited a scrap of bloodied flesh in Zane’s hand.

“He was last seen hunting in the Dragon's Teeth Peaks, just north of here. So-called because they look like a row of rising teeth—legend has it they were formed from ...

Savage Awakening 368. Ghol, the Forbidden One (I)

The Barbarian Sage slapped a knee. “That's what I'm talking about!”

Guri just blinked at Zane. “Well,” she said at last. “I’ll be.”

The Sage gave her a bump. “Eh? Didn’t you say this’d happen? You saw those flames of yours, didn’t you?”

“The flames said he’d do well,” said Guri. “I thought he might get Earthbreaker.”

Then she wheezed a laugh too.

Chief Nog, meanwhile, squinted at the Bone. He stomped closer, squinted harder, then...

Savage Awakening 367. Titan Rhino Tribe (VII)

“Guri!” roared Nog.

The Shaman shuffled up with an oilskin bag in her mouth, set it down, and loosened the drawstring.

Aura billowed out of it in silvery tufts, spiraling into the skies like a storm unleashed in the Astral Plane—though to the eye, it was just a sack falling. All around them, Rhinos were setting up little torches.

“This is one of the most cherished traditions of the Rhino tribes,” Guri said to Zane, eyes wrinkling at the edges. “The Bone Rite. The...

Savage Awakening 366. The Titan Rhino Tribe (VI)

A/N:

Happy late New Year!

//

Zane had to admit—he was skeptical at first about the mud bath. Especially when he first got thrown in.

But it turned out like a hot spring back home, only thicker. The mud was a wealth of essence. It massaged in smooth, forceful whirls, bubbling as it went. It churned violently, sure—but he just floated there, and he was perfectly fine.

Everywhere he looked, he saw the lumpy shapes of Rhinos floating about, most ...

Savage Awakening 365. The Titan Rhino Tribe (V)

A/N:

Off for New Year's--chapters will resume on January 2nd!

//

Zane’s aura showed just Ascendant. But the heft of it was staggering; it loomed in a hazy, shimmering blood-red eruption, jagged at the edges.

He roared and threw himself at the Titan Rhino. And instantly Mook sensed the danger. He blinked—but there was no panic in those dark eyes. Instead, he dropped his horn, which darkened in the licking firelight, a metal transmuting. Growing ever...

Savage Awakening 364. The Titan Rhino Tribe (IV)

It was the rowdiest Zane had seen Titan Rhinos outside of a fight. A bunch were stomping. A few even bellowed.

It was mostly younglings and the white-streaked fighters, and a smattering of gatherers and healers—maybe three-quarters of the camp stood huddled around that white-streaked circle.

A circle that had been set ablaze. And this fire was meant to burn. Not like the Bonfire, which burned almost gently; Shaman Guri said on top of the logs, they burned on the ashes of an anci...

Savage Awakening 363. The Titan Rhino Tribe (III)

The Barbarian Sage buried the big rhino in a hug, which was rather impressive considering his arms barely cleared the sides of his head. Old Nog nuzzled him.

“By the Ancestors, it’s good to see you again, Jogo,” said the big rhino. He had a deep, wheezing voice. “Thought you might never come back.”

“‘Course I’d come back! Just never could find the right time, after all these years… but you called, damn you—what else d’you think I’d do?” He sighed, looking...

Savage Awakening 362. The Titan Rhino Tribe (II)

There was an instant where a violent shudder went through the Monster, as though it was granted a split-second to process just what ungodly force went through it.

It let out the beginnings of a shriek.

It was quickly cut off as its nose flattened like a tin can.

Zane took a moment to appreciate the sight. He had something of a fondness for gross shows of force.

Then its entire form compressed, bowing out; there was a great deal of bulging, squelching, shattering, ruptu...

Savage Awakening 361. The Titan Rhino Tribe (I)

Zane’s fists closed around its broad throat, and Solar Flare blasted down his fingertips.

The next few seconds the Panther gave him hell—it knew it was fighting for its life. A storm of slashes carved into him—dozens ripping through him in seconds, carving to the bone even as it choked and howled. It kicked off his shattered chest with a rabid fury, managed to shake off one of his fists.

But he just roared and smashed it over its snarling head.

Skill up! <...