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Savage Awakening 443. The Second Challenge (IV)

When Zane stood, his aura pierced the skies.

Eh?!” shouted Brom.

Zane slammed a fist right through the Chief’s shattered face. The meaty squelch burst through the yard.

Then what bones the Chief had left broke in a thousand different places.

Even Zane’s f...

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Savage Awakening 442. The Second Challenge (III)

The Professor had barely finished his sentence when Zane's domain made contact.

And steamrolled those Tier 7 fields.

“What the—” was all he had time to choke out.

Then Zane went to work.

Ten blows.

That was all it took for Zane to crush that horde. Those spears...

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Savage Awakening 441. The Second Challenge (II)

3 hours until the Second Challenge…

Tyler and Becca were on the case. Behind them, on a giant split-screen, were all of Earth’s top Rankers. There was Eze polishing his gauntlets and Vanessa testing blizzard portals.

At the center of it all was Zane, sitting there...

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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...

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Savage Awakening 439. The Second Shard

Zane tossed the Shard of Destruction around in his hand, feeling its weight.

What little of that light made it out was destroying the ground around him. Not melting, not vaporizing, not evaporating—destroying. Simply erasing from existence. The most pure, most terrible form of Destruction...

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Savage Awakening 438. Red Giant (IV)

The scene zoomed in—and there stood Zane, shirtless as usual, with his back to them, facing down an encroaching black sea.

Brom gave a start. “Is that…?!” he gasped.

He leaned a little closer.

“Never in all my years,” he whispered. “The Million Year Bone of a Titan...

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Savage Awakening 437. Red Giant (III)

Zane pulled up the next challenge. The box glowed before his eyes:

Countdown to 2nd Challenge: 2 months

He’d get his first Shard of Destruction long before then.

He figured it wouldn’t be long. And sure enough—the chance came just two weeks later.

...

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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 ...

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Savage Awakening 435. Red Giant (I)

His domain was a field of furious colors.

The red of the Red Giant—harsh and dense, seared through with the white of destruction, seared through with darker reds, the reds of battle blood. The color burning through his body.

Chains shattered down his chest.

He turned to the Ph...

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Savage Awakening 434. All Out (II)

Zane stomped. And brought the full strength of his domain to bear.

Magnetic Hotspot raged to life, bolstering his hammers; heavy Solar Winds tore out of the edges of his Axes.

They struck the birds head-on.

Feathers melted like wax.

They screeched and blurred away. A blink...

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Savage Awakening 433. All Out (I)

By the end of it, craters razed the dunes flat. The desert was a smoking wreck.

Warning!

Health under 75%

Calculating…

+0.28 Credits

That’s what he was talking about.

This past week had bee...

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Savage Awakening 432. Farming Credits (V)

A/N:

We're back!

//

The explosion snuffed out, and Zane stood.

The cyclops looked down, nose wrinkling, as if it smelled something very foul.

Zane looked like he’d just finished a fight. He stood there, chains out. His hammers were already on fire....

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Savage Awakening 431. Farming Credits (IV)

In the first week, just two other Monsters' surges needed Zane’s intervention. He crushed both with little trouble.

+0.11 Credits

+0.24 Credits

That first Credit was in striking distance.

***

In the second week, he faced his first ...

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Savage Awakening 430. Farming Credits (III)

World Rank #44 Gunnar Beck took a drill of a claw straight to the chest. His knotted beard splattered red.

His bracer shattered, its Steelheart sigil breaking apart before his eyes…

He rolled, got to his feet, and grimly took out his Spirit weapons—dual-wielded axes slicked with d...

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Savage Awakening 429. Farming Credits (II)

He decided he’d head off right after he had one last lunch.

So he sat there stuffing in some of his new Dreamsteel on a beach, just enjoying the weather. A few seagulls looked at him funny.

He kept munching.

He saw himself getting that Stone pretty soon for sure. And after tha...

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Savage Awakening 428. Farming Credits (I)

A/N: Changed the incentive structure for the coming waves! Zane will have more chances to earn Credits. The Shard of True Destruction has been adjusted to cost 12 Store Credits

//

Zane woke and groaned.

It felt like his skull was a sheet of metal, and a crowd of...

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Savage Awakening 427. Heart Demon (III)

A howling jagged void tore open. First down the middle of the sky. Then—in two violent rips—running down the horizon.

Zane’s eyes narrowed.

That aura…

It stained the skies with Monstrous colors.

Noughtfire’s words came to him then—to guard himself, since in the...

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Savage Awakening 426. Heart Demon (II)

A/N: Bonus chapter! Also, I a stat sheet to the last chapter!

//

By the 74th attempt, Brad started getting visibly impatient.

By try 82 he started pistol-whipping Zane.

Try 114, and Brad ground a boot into his face as he slumped. “Why—is it so dam...

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Savage Awakening 425. Heart Demon (I)

“These bones have been preserved across Chaos Cycles,” said Reina, breathless. “Even million-year bones have a chance of fading away. But sometimes the System catches them.”

She showed him a few. There were tons—Flood Dragon bones, Golden Roc bones…

Even Titan Rhino.

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Savage Awakening 424. The Summit of Heroes (III)

No-one spoke up.

“Let’s take it down a notch,” said D’Angelo, giving Jason a dry look. But he was smiling. “We're on the same side.”

“I get the concern,” said Zane, standing.

The room quieted when he spoke.

For the most part he got the sense folks knew what...

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Savage Awakening 423. The Summit of Heroes (II)

She wore a dress that looked made of pure frost. Frost aura puffed out around her as she strode through. She made her way to the tower as though there were no crowd at all.

“She’s undergone a Title evolution since we last saw her,” said Tyler, voice a little hushed. “She took her mo...

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Savage Awakening 422. The Summit of Heroes (I)

“Welcome, folks, to WRN's live presentation of the Summit of Heroes!”

There stood Tyler, Earth’s local longtime WRN anchor, in a fluffy parka. Right beside him was his co-anchor Becca in a matching parka. Both were beaming at the camera.

“Over the next few days, all of Earth's...

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Savage Awakening 421. The Great Run (VI)

Noughtfire took a sip of tea. He closed his eyes, a ghost of a smile on his face.

For the old Sage, it was never in doubt.

***

Out in the northern ice floes, the Titan Rhinos were gathered around a roaring fire. Their fishing poles were left out to one side. A heaving net was of...

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Savage Awakening 420. The Great Run (VII)

Zane’s breathing was getting heavy. He'd been sliced up so badly it seemed a miracle he was still upright—a constellation of gory X’s ripping down his body.

“He’s got to be under half health!” said Jake.

“He’s got to turn it around. Now!” growled Mox. “Bef...

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Savage Awakening 419. The Great Run (VI)

There wasn't much room for him to get out of the way of their blows in this little crypt.

But it went the other way too. Once he laid out his Chains, they were stuck here with him.

He quite enjoyed the feeling—like setting molten steel on an anvil.

All he had to do was hammer....

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Savage Awakening 418. The Great Run (V)

“Ladies and gentlemen,” said Jake, a slight tremor in his voice. “We just saw two hundred-odd Minor Gods wiped—just like that!”

He laughed—just sheer disbelief. “He’s warm now, that’s for sure. Good grief!

You could barely hear him over the uproar. The sc...

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Savage Awakening 417. The Great Run (IV)

“Begin!”

The first chamber lit up—a beacon of System-blue light, showing a nest of pale blocks. The rest of the planet went dark.

Zane kicked off toward it and landed.

Beyond—high up in the bleachers—the audience grew quiet, breathless; they faded away in his mind.

...

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Savage Awakening 416. The Great Run (III)

The Eclipse Stadium was one of the premier stadiums in all of the Dragonspire Galaxy, with a history of hosting era-defining events since the dawn of the Chaos Cycle. It had been transformed to host everything from war games to concerts drawing crowds of billions. It was used to big transformatio...

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Savage Awakening 415. The Great Run (II)

A/N: Bonus chapter!

//

Reina looked up and considered Zane—just considered him. She had a curious look on her face.

“…What?” He blinked.

“Nothing.” She settled back in with a little smile. But he knew that look. She was making plans.

She ...

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Savage Awakening 414. The Great Run (I)

“Then we drank some spirits and I left,” Zane explained.

Noughtfire stayed quiet his whole story through, except to ask a clarifying question or two.

“…That,” he said slowly, “explains a great deal.”

Zane looked quizzically at him.

“The year Aiwe made his t...

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