Savage Awakening 93. Dungeon Dojo (II)

A/N:

Added in that he takes Law Fruit last chapter before this encounter!

(1/2)

//

Zane was feeling quite pleased with this strategy.

Then the first Eaglet hit him like a speeding truck. CLANG-THUMP! And he went flying.

It blasted the wind out of him. It felt like it blasted everything out of him. He crumpled in, hacking and coughing. His whole front side stung head-to-toe.

Then his Chains caught him, yanked him back down. And the real beating began.

An Eaglet struck him from behind. He went flying—right into another wrecking-ball bird. They started playing pinball with his body, whomping him all over the place.

"Hang in there!" cried Evan.

They tossed him like a rag doll, blasting him every which way—CLANG-THUMP! CLANG-THUMP! He had to focus. He had to find his peace. He closed his eyes even as he felt his body twisting, crumpling oddly. He tried to let all that stinging pain go—just feelings, rising and falling…

It was pretty darn hard, even for him. They kept snapping his head back and forth, breaking up his thoughts. It was a little nauseating flipping all over the place. And the sounds—the CLANG-CLANG-CLANGING, the furious screeching, the steel-on-steel raking of those massive talons as they skidded around, the gale winds howling in the background—it was a lot.

You had to have a certain mix of innate calmness, comprehension, and sheer stupidity to try a Law trance while getting the shit beaten out of you. But he knew he had all three of those things. He just had to put them together….

He was getting there. Yes. His body might be flailing all over the place, but his mind was slowly growing still. He could feel himself floating away little by little….

The pain and the sounds were soon like colors in his field of view. Just feelings drifting in the void. And he saw what lay beneath—the Laws weaving it all together.

Warning!

Health under 75%

It hurt a little more every time the Eaglets hit him. He was bruising pretty badly. The blunt force was seeping through. Echoing Clangor could only do so much.

But he looked past all that. He felt the way Steely Density wove through those feathery forms. He felt it especially sharply as they rammed him. The Law changed the structure of their bodies at the tiniest of levels. It was so clear to him now… the patterns of the steel, the way it all held together, drawn taught with essence…

They struck him over. And over. And over. Until—

Law Comprehended!

Minor Law of Unbreakable Bonds (Elemental Law of Steel)

He grinned. Something blasted him in the face and he lost a front tooth. He kept grinning. One down.

His thinking shifted. He focused now on the sheer weight of it—

He had to take a moment to choke out a few mouthfuls of blood.

They were really hitting him hard, weren't they? He seemed to be breaking up a little. Even with all his dampening, he felt the trauma deep inside—jolts of sharp pain lighting up his chest, his belly, every time they hit him.

Warning!

Health under 50%

Savage Body activated!

Strength increased 25%

Speed increased 25%

Vitality increased 25%

Just one more! The notification gave him a jolt of fresh energy. He was getting more excited, getting into it.

Then a bowling ball of a bird struck Zane head-on. It felt like being struck by lightning. They were so close—and he was so high on his feelings, on Law Fruit—in that violent split-second their minds were one. He could feel all its monstrous fury. He could feel its Skill, its Law. He felt the way denseness gave way to mass—the way the Universe gave heaviness to Steel…they pulled apart but the impression shone clear in his mind.

Law Comprehended!

Minor Law of Steely Gravitas (Elemental Law of Steel)

He had all he needed.

It felt like waking from a deep sleep. Usually you'd feel refreshed from that kind of thing. But as he came back all his sensations started feeling real again, close again. Everything hurt.

Burning spheres of pain up his belly, his chest, down his spine, flaring up his face… He seemed to be cartwheeling midair. Then a huge force blasted him up the side, sent him bouncing down the bough like a pebble on the surface of a lake. Straight into another brutal roll.

He spat out another mouthful of blood. He frowned at his arm. It was broken in at least two places. And he wasn't a doctor, but he'd ruptured organs enough times he could tell when he had a few sloshing around in there. There were some telltale signs—when he tried twisting his torso, it felt like hot pokers were stabbing his insides.

Plus Evan was standing on the sidelines over there, hopping foot to foot, and Zane could feel how stressed out the boy was… he felt kind of bad about it. Time to end things.

Zane yanked his Axes out. And sent them spinning all around him, carving into those spinning balls of steel and flesh.

Rising Storm Slash!

It was like slicing a fruit in half. The blade went straight through the nearest ball—tore past the feathers like they weren't there, ripped through the middle, came out the other side stained red tip-to-hilt.

And with a shocked squawk, the fat bird exploded.

Zane grinned as his other axe popped a bird on the other side. They were shaped like balloons and they popped like balloons—popped to big flaming sizzling fireballs. His Axes lurched around in a wild loop. The Monsters were silly enough to bowl at him full speed. He shredded them one by one. POP-POP-POP!

Then something hit him from behind so hard he face-planted into the bough. An angry bird face loomed over him, blotting out the sun. Its beak was like one of those plague doctors' masks. It started stabbing pecks at him. It opened a deep gash down his belly.

His falling Axe caved its head in. The blast of Stormfire was so intense he couldn't even see the rest of its face anymore—just the beak. Whatever held it up must've melted. The thing came sloshing off, clattered to a stop on the bright steel leaves.

He felt another soul coming to get a piece of him and lurched out of the way. He slashed as he did. A bird popped not two feet from him. The heat of the blast had his hair streaming; he felt wisps of Stormfire tingling on his skin. This time he shielded his face so only his arm got bloody. He spat out a clump of hard feathers.

Then he looked around, panting, surveying all the little fires burning around him, burning out. That... seemed to be the last of them? And a good thing too. He was getting pretty low on Health, and had just one arm and leg left to work with.

He was pretty happy about how things ended up. He'd pulled through and gotten exactly what he wanted. Now to condense Steely Density and add it to his body. He felt eager just thinking about it.

A shadow loomed over him. Not just him. It blocked out a full third of the bough. He looked up.

That thing kind of looked like one of those giant stealth bomber jets. With feathers like giant knives, long as his body, glinting cruelly in the bright sun. Its eyes were stark yellow with pitch-black pupils. Its beak was one great sleek hook, ending at a glimmering point. Its legs were coated in burnished iron scales, ending at claws big enough to crush small vehicles.

It blotted out the sun, but it felt to Zane like a second sun—a sun of pure feeling. It gave off rage like the sun gave off light.

Huh.

Steelwing Eagle (Monster)

Essence Level 97

Laws:

Major Law of Steely Density (Elemental Law of Steel)

Major Law of Magnetic Command (Elemental Law of Steel)

Major Law of Ethereal Flight (Elemental Law of Wind)

Major Law of Tempest's Fury (Elemental Law of Wind)

Major Law of Absolute Sharpness

Key Skills:

(!) Blade Wing Maelstrom (Active) [Epic]: Unleashes a storm of steel feathers, each equivalent to the Spirit Weapon of an Epic Class. The signature skill of the Steelwing Eagle.

Tempest Wing Gust (Active) [Epic]

Unleashes blasts of tempest gales that both knock back and shred the enemy.

Ruler of the Skies (Passive) [Epic]

Grants the wielder supernatural aerial dexterity, speed, and reflexes while airborne.

It screeched and Zane's ears blew out. For a second all he heard was a high-pitched whine.

Level 97.

That… looked like it could be a serious problem. Not just its Level. That was a lot of Laws…

Why was there an exclamation point on 'Blade Wing Maelstrom'? Something popped up.

A single ! denotes High-Level Skill. High-Level Skills are Skills that are Level V or above.

Uh. Inferno Cyclone had been a Level V Epic skill. If this was anything like that…

And with how his Health was right now…

Oh boy.

Then the Eagle's wings flared wide, and it unleashed hell on him.

He tried to get out of the way, but his leg—his whole body really—was far too broken. He couldn't move fast enough. He could only watch as sleek lines of shining steel rained down on him.

The sound they made was so subtle—just a sh-sh-sh. Probably because they cut so clean. He didn't realize he'd been cut until he was staring at a footlong wound so deep he could see bone. Then another hit him, and another—he tried throwing up his Chains, tried blocking them out, but it was like there was more steel than air.

Warning!

Health under 25%

It pissed him off, honestly. What a bird thing to do. Wait until he was all worn out, then hit him with its strongest shot—while it was still fresh too.

He kept wrapping himself, kept trying to block, but his ribs were getting sliced open, his thighs, his arms, just everywhere; he was being dissected feather by feather. His head felt woozy. This was bad. It really wanted to kill him. It was giving him everything—huge streams of essence were pouring out of it, slicing into him…

He was dropping dangerously close to Critical.

New plan. Time to bail.

He had to get the hell out but that hail of feathers kept pinning him down. He readied a Volt Step—

Then all the pain was gone. In its place he felt a soft gold light. His body surged with new energy—not his own. He felt warm all over. For a second he thought he'd gone to heaven or something—then he saw it was just Fiery Renewal, burning brighter than it ever had. Burning up new flesh, patching up his wounds… what?

Something was helping. Some kind of… soul connection? He looked up.

The steel rain was still falling.

But Evan was there too, standing over him, sword flashing at a blinding pace. And he struck every feather out of the sky. He was blazing with essence and determination and anger. Zane didn't even know he could get angry. His body was literally shining, spilling gold rays everywhere.

"I won't let you hurt my friend!" he cried.

The gold flared brilliantly—and it started shoving back the hail of silver.

Zane felt the Eagle's disbelief. It poured on even more. But Evan kept slashing faster, slashing harder—the Eagle let out a silver tornado, but somehow Evan kept digging deeper.

The Eagle wasn't letting up—by now the air was a silver wall. It was willing to go down to its last drop of essence. Its powers reached a fever pitch… and so did Evan's.

It was almost like it didn't matter what the Eagle threw. Somehow, impossibly, Evan would find a way to match it. And then some.