Silver rained down. Gold poured up. They met in a single line of pure light.
For a second they held there. Soundless, shining.
Then the line started to move up. And up. And up.
The gold was only gaining; the silver stuttered. The Eagle felt baffled. Evan felt angry.
The Eagle was forced to break it off. It twisted midair, twirled, and winked out at lightning speed. There was a schism of air in its absence—then the gold swept by, hitting nothing. The Eagle was circling the far side, trying for another shot.
"Sunblade arc!" Evan cried.
In Zane's eyes Evan felt everything intensely. Only now did Zane realize that was just normal for him. This was Evan when he was truly intense—determination and anger gushed out of him like great rivers. His feelings burned so hot he was shaking with them.
Then a huge power welled up in him. It crossed the air in a blink. The Eagle was fast, so fast when it moved you could barely make it out with the naked eye. This slash was fast, so fast it seemed to have no distance at all—the way bullets seem to have no distance. It was here, then it was there. This massive arc of gold biting into the Eagle's slick feathered wing, drawing a shower of blood.
Suddenly the Eagle was spinning out of control. It shrieked, flapping desperately, trying to right itself, even as one of its wings hung on by strips of flesh and gristle.
Then he saw Evan hunch over, starting to gather his powers for one final blow.
Zane had healed past Critical by now. He was ready to help. He would've done something, but looking at Evan he decided to hold back. Something told him the boy was handling it just fine.
Evan shook, wobbling a little, like he was struggling to hold up something far, far bigger than himself. His sword shone so bright it felt like looking at the sun with a naked eye. The power was breathtaking. Where was Evan getting it all?
Zane probed a little, and he felt it. Evan got it from his feelings—feelings about Zane, strangely enough. He was really mad the Eagle had tried to kill Zane.
With a cry, he let it loose. The slash tore across the world so fast it was like everything else stood still. The Eagle tried getting out of the way—its wing was at the top of a flap. It hadn't got halfway through by the time Evan's slash struck it.
A gold line ripped across the steel wing Eagle's torso. And half of it fell one way, the other half the other. In between, there was only blood.
He just tore that Boss in two. With one blow. … Huh.
It took everything out of him. Suddenly Evan's soul flickered like a candle in harsh winds, barely there. He felt like he was about to go out any second. But something in him held on.
He turned and wobbled over to Zane, his trembling bright blue eyes wide. "Are—are you okay?" He slurred.
"Yeah," said Zane. "I'm fine."
"Oh!" Evan said. Relief washed over him.
He went out like a light. Zane caught him before he hit the ground.
…Had he been holding on just to make sure Zane was fine?
He had no essence left—literally zero. He gave everything he had and then some.
Zane thought back to his Skills, frowning. There could only be one explanation. This had to be that 'Power of Determination' Skill.
He imagined how confusing it'd be being on the other side of it. It was as though there was no end to his power. Really, it depended on Evan's determination. And this baby-faced boy, sleeping peacefully, seemed to have an endless well of it.
Strange thing, too, Zane's Fiery Renewal was slower now. Only now did he realize it was that 'Power of Friendship' Skill boosting him earlier, making it work better.
Well. Zane scooped Evan up and started backtracking a little—just to the tunnel mouth they'd come out of. Safely inside, he put Evan in his own sleeping bag, fed him a little Essence Elixir, and patted him on the head. He did good.
Every passing hour, it seemed, Zane was more and more glad he let Evan come along. With how fast that bird was going, it would've been a real hassle.
…Also, he kind of just liked Evan. There were very few people Zane would choose to be around over being alone. Somehow Evan was now one of them.
***
While Evan slept, this was a good chance to get the rest of Zane's Law work done; he was feeling a little tired. His Law Fruit was wearing off. He was close to his limit—two Major Laws a day, and he could feel it. A dense fog was settling in his mind. He had to push. Just a little more before he ran out.
He sat down and fell easily into his Law trance.
Indomitable compactness. Gravitational dominion. Unbreakable bonds. They swirled around in his mind, weaving together…
Soon—
𝕃𝕒𝕨 𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕡𝕣𝕖𝕙𝕖𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕕!
𝕄𝕒𝕛𝕠𝕣 𝕃𝕒𝕨 𝕠𝕗 𝕊𝕥𝕖𝕖𝕝𝕪 𝔻𝕖𝕟𝕤𝕚𝕥𝕪
Yes.
He wondered how close he was to the full Elemental Law now. At least one or two Major Laws off, he felt like. He knew for certain one. That big bird had had 'Magnetic Command.'
Something fizzled in his head and he yawned mightily. He was crashing a little. Shit.
Before he did, he had one more thing to squeeze in.
He thought of his Man of Steel Skill. And how steely density could weave right into it—slotting right next to his other Major Laws. It came pretty easily.
𝕊𝕜𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕦𝕡!
𝕄𝕒𝕟 𝕠𝕗 𝕊𝕥𝕖𝕖𝕝 𝕀𝕀 -> 𝕀𝕀𝕀
Before, he could make his body as dense as Spirit Steel. But now when he raised his density he felt his whole body tighten far beyond what was naturally possible. He pushed his body to the very limit. Then it took some effort to keep his limbs up, to keep his spine upright. His feet started sinking into the Titansteel bark. Everything took on an enormous weight. Even his eyelids felt weirdly heavy.
He flexed his fingers, blinking curiously at them. How much did each weigh? Fifty pounds? A hundred? This was pushing beyond his physical limits—this was a new state. It took some serious essence to hold his body here. He couldn't stay here forever. He didn't want to anyway. It'd be pretty inconvenient. But in battle… yes. This could really come in handy. He smiled.
He'd put nearly a full Elemental Law in Man of Steel now. He was probably close to peak Steel durability—at least with this Skill.
He was itching to test it. But Evan was still sleeping and Zane wasn't about to leave him here, even if he was pretty sure the boy would be safe. He wouldn't wake Evan either. The boy deserved a good long rest.
Maybe 'boy' was selling him a bit short. He was homeschooled, but he'd said he planned on going off to college out-of-state next fall—until the Change struck, that was. So he was probably eighteen or nineteen. There was just this… Zane didn't know. Grown-ups just weren't this kind, in Zane's experience. Something about time passing twisted people, but it didn't—or couldn't—twist Evan.
Hours later, Evan yawned and got up, rubbing blearily at his eyes. He blinked around, then saw Zane sitting there. He beamed.
"You're okay!"
"Yes," said Zane, ruffling his hair. "You did good. You sure showed that bird."
Evan blushed. He was so happy his eyes were shining. If he had a tail it'd be wagging right about now. And when Zane inspected him, he was Level 95 now. Go figure.
Zane would have thought he'd need a little more time to recover, but Evan was ready to go again almost immediately. He was excited even. He was like a spring—you put him down, and he was bouncing right back up again.
It was hard to imagine it was possible for him to get angry. Angry enough to two-shot a Level 97 Boss. Looking at him now, you'd swear he'd never hurt a fly.
Oh. And that little 'Power of Friendship' boost was back. Subtle, but now that Zane knew what to look for he could feel it—this little soul bond connecting them. It only seemed to be growing stronger over time.
***
They took to the winding ridge path again. They picked up some treasures hanging off the bough—
𝕍𝕚𝕥𝕒𝕝 𝔹𝕒𝕣𝕜 ℙ𝕚𝕟𝕖𝕔𝕠𝕟𝕖 (𝔹)
𝔸 𝕡𝕚𝕟𝕖𝕔𝕠𝕟𝕖 𝕔𝕒𝕣𝕣𝕪𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕕𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕚𝕝𝕝𝕖𝕕 𝕡𝕝𝕒𝕟𝕥 𝕖𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖𝕤 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕘𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥 𝕋𝕚𝕥𝕒𝕟𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕖𝕝 𝕋𝕣𝕖𝕖. ℍ𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕝𝕪 𝕣𝕚𝕔𝕙 𝕚𝕟 𝕎𝕠𝕠𝕕 𝕃𝕒𝕨𝕤, 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕥𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕤𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕚𝕤 𝕒 𝕣𝕒𝕣𝕖 𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕡𝕣𝕖𝕙𝕖𝕟𝕤𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝕒𝕚𝕕.
𝕋𝕚𝕥𝕒𝕟𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕖𝕝 𝕃𝕖𝕒𝕗 (𝔹)
𝔸 𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕗 𝕗𝕠𝕣𝕘𝕖𝕕 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝔼𝕝𝕖𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕒𝕝 𝕃𝕒𝕨 𝕠𝕗 𝕊𝕥𝕖𝕖𝕝, 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕥𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕤𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕒𝕚𝕕𝕤 𝕘𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥𝕝𝕪 𝕚𝕟 𝕊𝕥𝕖𝕖𝕝 𝕃𝕒𝕨 𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕡𝕣𝕖𝕙𝕖𝕟𝕤𝕚𝕠𝕟. 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕤𝕚𝕘𝕟𝕒𝕥𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕥𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕤𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕋𝕚𝕥𝕒𝕟𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕖𝕝 𝕋𝕣𝕖𝕖.
Two Pinecones and three Leaves in total.
Then they went back to the ridge and kept climbing.
A couple of hundred feet higher, and they hit on their next enemy. A Bark Sentinel. Zane came at it with Steely Density cranked up. He let it hit him. Its fist clanked off his face. He barely budged. He barely even felt that. The thing threw up a shot with that one Density-punch Skill. It felt like getting hit with a flyswatter or something. You could hit him with a thousand of these things now, and they'd do almost nothing.
Zane took a swing at it and missed. He took another swing, missed again. Then he was done playing.
He just marched at it. It came out at him doing boxer nonsense, jabbing and weaving all slick. Zane flailed at it like a gorilla. It must have hit him nine times before one of his wild grabs got hold of it.
Then Zane pulled it closer and grabbed its throat with one hand. He held it up firm as it flailed at him.
He turned to see a wide-eyed Evan. He figured this was another chance to sprinkle in some sage advice.
"You have heard in martial arts movies and fairy tales about underdog stories. The little man can beat the big man if they are skilled." Zane frowned.
"Sometimes this is true," he grudgingly admitted. "But sometimes, the big man is so much bigger they can do anything and still win. Like I just did."
He pointed at the flailing monster he was in the middle of bullying. "Don't be like this guy. Skill is overrated. Become too big to fail."
It was part of his growing 'Brute Force is Always Best' philosophy. He was still hammering out the finer details. He figured Evan could be his first disciple.
Evan nodded; he was listening with rapt attention. "Un!" He got out a notebook and started jotting it down.
Then, to punctuate his point, Zane tossed the Sentinel off the side of the tree and hit it with a Rising Storm Slash. It broke up and burned out in seconds. They kept on climbing.
After a little while, he felt a little tug on the back of his shirt. There was Evan, looking puzzled.
"Zane? Um. What if I like underdogs?"
Zane frowned. "You do?"
"Yeah," he said sheepishly. "I mean. I'm not big like you… and I don't know if I could just grab Monsters like that… I'm not very strong…"
"You can become strong."
"I guess so…" Evan chewed on the thought.
Zane scratched his head and thought about it too. He looked at himself and then at Evan.
Evan was a full head shorter than him… and about half as wide... hmm.
He tried to imagine Evan fighting like he did. He frowned. It just felt wrong.
Zane was coming to a startling realization.
Maybe he should amend his philosophy to 'Brute Force is Always Best for Zane Walker.' He wasn't sure it was a general-purpose thing.
He was trying to play the part of a wise older brother. But this was a problem because he was realizing he wasn't particularly wise. Now that he thought about it, his advice was kind of just… him saying stuff that worked for him. But most of the things that worked for him also tended not to work for everyone else.
He scratched his head. Yeah. He figured from now on, more head pats, less advice.
"Forget what I said," he amended. "You keep doing what you're doing. You're doing great."
Evan beamed. For the rest of the climb, he was just a puddle of warm feelings.
** *
Soon the ridge ended, and they were back up a winding tunnel. This one seemed to go on for quite a while. They mostly met bug swarms inside, which Evan dispatched easily. Yeah—being fast worked well for him. Zane approved. They found a few Titansteel Sap deposits here and there which they collected. They drank them as they went. When they ran out, Zane got out other B-grade essence treasures for them to munch on on the way. Evan tried to say he didn't need it, but Zane made him take it. Zane ended up a little over four-fifths of the way to Level 96. Evan hit it.
It was probably lucky for—well, for the world—that Evan was exactly who he was. If he was half as ruthless as everyone else out here…
Anyway. They were coming up on a chamber. A chamber with a big red dot in it.