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 Rhinoceros!”

“Good catch,” said Becca, surprised.

“At just Minor God…” Brom rummaged through a pocket, picked out a telescope, and pointed it at Zane.

“What a fantastic body,” muttered Brom. “The density of the muscle fibers—exquisite!”

He started jotting down notes.

*** Somewhere, Reina narrowed her eyes for no reason she could identify.

***

Becca and Tyler just looked at each other again.

“A top-tier physique,” said Brom, nodding. “There’s no doubt about it.”

“You can tell all that just by looking?” said Tyler.

“Pshh!” Brom puffed up. “I’ve made it my life’s business to rank the greatest men of all time—I’ve made a great study of every one! The more I look, the more certain I am.”

His mustache quivered with interest. “I’d heard this Zane was a beast of a man—I was ready for a #1 Rising Dragon Physique…but this—this is a pleasant surprise.”

“So… where does he rank?” said Tyler. “I’m sure listeners at home are curious.”

“I’ll have to see a little more,” muttered the Professor. “But just from this initial impression—promising. Promising indeed! He could possess a once-in-a-Chaos-Cycle physique. Perhaps better. But looks are one thing. The only real gauge of such a thing is battle. It is battle that reveals the heart, as the Sword Saint always said… which is all to say—Zane has the look! But can he fight?”

“…I don’t think you need to worry about that, Professor,” said Becca.

“Looks like he’s gearing up!” said Tyler.

Zane was cracking his neck. He held out his hands.

Brom squinted.

“Say,” he said mildly, “might we get a closer look at that wave?”

The scene zoomed in. Brom’s mustache went still.

“Those Signatures…” he said. “Tier 7 True Gods—two of them—and they’re Three-Headed Dragons!”

“Looks like it,” said Tyler.

“No, good sir,” said Brom, shaking his head with vigor. “Those are the diluted spawn of Malzareth itself! And those Laws…”

Dark elements burned in their throats. One mouth spewed black fire, another black wind, a third black ice.

“Behind them—right there—twenty—twenty-five True Gods?!” Brom turned to Tyler. “Reinforcements must be called—now, good sir—it might already be too late…”

“It’s alright, Professor,” said Becca, a tad bemused.

“Yeah—it’s a heavy wave, but this is Zane we’re talking about,” chuckled Tyler. “He’d never run from a fight.”

“Sir—madam—you don’t seem to grasp the severity—your man is about to be run over!” The Professor looked stricken. “To let that specimen of man go to waste…”

Then Zane unsheathed his Chains.

A furious red aura exploded out of him.

“...Eh?”

Brom rubbed his eyes, looked closely.

His mustache began quivering like never before.

“That Law… it can’t be—True Destruction?!”

“That’s right,” said Tyler cheerfully.

“At Minor God!”

“He’s done all us earthlings proud,” said Tyler, nodding.

A pause.

“…Professor?” said Becca.

“My dear madam,” croaked Brom. “Only four Minor Gods across all eternity have done such a feat…”

He paused at the expressions on their faces.

“Professor,” said Becca, hesitant. “…Zane took in that shard at ascendant.”

Brom choked.

“He what?!”

As Zane advanced toward his foe, the Professor’s eyes took on a dazed look—like a great many thoughts were flashing before his eyes.

Then he whipped out a notebook and began furiously scribbling, eyes glued to the scene as Zane advanced.

“…Professor?” tried Becca.

“Not now, madam!” Brom cried. He started muttering under his mustache. “…Muscles… tight… such destructive power… Law… great Heavens…”

He was lost in a cloud of his own thoughts. He trembled slightly as he scribbled.

“Right!” said Tyler. “Err—well. Two Tier 7 True Gods. That’s Zane’s hardest test yet, folks—but he’s been making improvements every week, even after he upgraded to Red Giant. His body’s a lot stronger now, for instance. You’d be hard-pressed to find a True God with a strength advantage.”

As though to prove the point, Zane hurled his Chain in a lasso. It caught one of the dragons clean—bound three heads tight.

The moment that Chain made contact, it nearly pitched the beast over, by virtue of its sheer heft.

Then he bellowed, flexed, and dragged the beast so hard he pulled it from flight.

That dragon was the size of a mountain range.

But Zane’s chains carried the weight of Red Giants.

Even as he crushed one, he tanked shots from the other. They watched as he roared, gave a full body heave, lifted hard—and chucked one dragon straight through the other; the two of them went down sprawling.

He charged them head-on.

“Good gods!”roared Brom.

The two dragons unleashed hell on him. A hell of demented elements.

But Zane waded right through it, even as the rest of the Monsters—hundreds of half-step True God Void Drakes—closed in all around him…

For a moment, there was only the black. Then—BOOM!

The raw force of the explosion blasted the whole wave back a hundred miles; rage-red circles cleared out vast chunks of Zane. It was as though he’d simply shrugged that great horde off of him—and every time, a chunk of the world got wiped out.

At the same time, his body hit its physical peak.

By the time he choked out that last dragon, Zane’s Limit Breaker still had half a minute of all-out power left.

His Health wasn’t even Critical yet—he had just over 25% left.

Solid work, he felt.

Level up!

Level up!

Essence Level 521 -> 523

Then came the moment he’d been waiting for.

Engagement Complete

Calculating…

+1.5 Credits

Total Credits: 10.7 -> 12.2 Credits

He grinned fiercely.

Then he opened his System Store and saw it. Like a shard of jagged glass with the edge slicked pure white.

Shard of True Destruction [???]

12 System Coins

The purest form of Destruction, held in stable form by the System. Its secrets are among the most esoteric known to man. But those who can unlock them unlock a greater portion of Destruction.

Zane seized it.

***

“…Professor?” Becca was starting to look worried.

The man had been standing there shaking, face scrunched, for a full minute—just furiously scribbling.

His eyes snapped open.

“Good madam…” he whispered. “Do you know what we just witnessed…?”

“I… think so?”

There was a moment of silence as the Professor collected himself. His mustache stopped quivering.

At last, he spoke.

“The Nameless King, at Minor God, could just barely hold off a Tier 7 True God,” said Brom. “When he was a mid-Minor God, at that! That is borderline Tier I talent.”

He took a deep breath. “Then there’s the likes of Haxorax, the First Prince of Dragons—perhaps the greatest talent of this era… a man capable of fighting such a Monster to a draw. That… is Tier I Talent!”

Tyler opened his mouth, but Brom wasn’t done.

“The Sword Saint Salazar!” said Brom. “2nd Cycle!”

By now his mustache was quivering at hitherto unknown levels. He was working himself up to a real speech.

“The Dragon Ancestor of the 1st cycle! Houyi, of the 7th—Nuwa, of the 3rd—Corbe, of the 12th! Each and every one, a once-in-Chaos-Cycles talent… Each, of the highest Tier—Tier Zero. Each, meriting a statue in the Hall of Eternity.”

“Very nicely put, Professor,” said Becca.

“No, no,” said Brom. “I don’t mean that figuratively, madam—it’s a real hall, I’ve seen it! It’s a place at the very heart of Dragonspye where—if you’ve achieved a certain level of greatness, the system itself generates a statue of you out of Origin-grade dreamsteel!”

“Ah.”

“Each of those names could defeat a Tier 7 True God at Zane’s Stage…”

He took another deep breath.

“But none could take down two and still have strength leftover… please—tell me you hear what I’m telling you!”

“Zane’s one-of-a-kind, alright,” said Tyler happily.
“No, no—not just one-of-a-kind—that man—”

He jabbed at Zane, who was currently puzzling over a Shard of light in his fist. “If he continues this trajectory—he won’t just dominate this Chaos Cycle. He would be in a class of his own—across all of eternity. Such that there has never been, and will never be, a man like him again!” The Professor looked about ready to tear his mustache out. “Thatis the caliber of Zane Walker, dear Earthlings!”

Tyler and Becca blinked at each other, a little befuddled.

“How can it be you’re still not impressed?!”

“Professor,” said Becca gently. “Everyone on Earth knew that already.”

Tyler nodded. “This is just an ordinary Sunday for Zane.”

“I…” The Professor looked like he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He looked like he was bursting with so much to say he could hardly stand still. At last, he let out a shout, hauled out a notebook, and started jotting.

“Is that for the archives, Professor?” said Becca.

“No, no—this is a new project. A project I’ve begun just minutes ago. The Lives of Zane!” said Brom. “Volume One.”

His mustache quivered with ambition. “This shall be my greatest biography yet!”