It wasn't burning just one or two drops of Blood Essence. It burned hundreds, maybe thousands. The foundations of its power. Soaked so deep into its muscles it changed the very structure, made it part-flesh part-machine. An engine of tendon and bone and sinew. Its aura flared out of it, burning with sheer brute power…
The Titan Rhino bellowed. And charged straight into the path of the avalanche.
It exploded up the mountain, mowing down a line of trees, smashing through a cliff of rock, and just kept going. Its body exploded with Laws, with Concepts far beyond Zane's grasp. But he wasn't focused on those. He was watching its muscles, the way they fired up, linking together seamlessly, building to an enormous force that just kept going, working and working, rising until they seemed impossible to stop—
But just as impossibly powerful, crashing down from above, came the avalanche.
They surged into each other. Unstoppable force crashing over unstoppable force. And struck halfway up the mountain.
The shockwave popped Zane's ears. All sound went white—static. And a great ripple spread through the world. Like everything solid turned liquid, even the very continents. Waving, rippling out for miles upon miles, fluttering shelves of earth like tablecloth, scattering trees to the skies…
For a tiny fraction of a second the avalanche and the Titan Rhino met there. Deadlocked. Zane watched riveted as every muscle in that Titanic body strained against the rush, the way its Bloodline charged through it, the way its essence burned and burned like so much fuel—it seemed to have no limit. The heavier the load the brighter it burned—every second it just kept going; the momentum of it kept building, driving against gravity, driving against the weight of the natural world—
And the avalanche couldn't keep up. He saw it started to fade, sputter out even as the Rhino's muscles worked themselves loose, straining fiercer than ever—
The Titan Rhino broke through.
Raw power rippled up the avalanche. And its flow arched back, reversing, fleeing back up the mountain, an unimaginable load, a mountain range worth of force, of essence, of raw material flooding the other way, shunting into the sky, a volcanic eruption—but rather than ash and magma it was sleet and snow. Showering the other side of the mountain in sudden snowfall, blanketing the valleys for miles around…
The Titan Rhino skidded to a halt at the peak. Even that little motion knocked the capstone off the mountain, sent it tumbling thousands upon thousands of feet…
The Rhino snorted. Gave a triumphant bellow, a deep rumbling reverberating down the valleys…
The scene ended.
***
Zane stared where the scene had been. His mouth felt dry. He couldn't stop thinking about it. That sheer power…
It wasn't a sudden thing, though there was that explosive start. But the real power was in how it built and built until it became undeniable. Once it got going it just kept climbing.
The only limit to that power was every other part of him: his essence, his will. But if he just kept feeding his muscles, his new body could take them like fuel and become a machine that broke all limits. That could turn back the very tide of nature…
It made some primal part of his brain, which was actually quite a lot of his brain, very happy.
He really liked this.
He needed this.
He closed his eyes, brought those muscles to the forefront of his mind. And again, it came easy, like it was meant for him.
He sat there pondering it, meditating on it, mapping the way those engine-like fibers were onto his body right now…
He'd thought he was pretty strong before. But now he felt a lingering disatisfaction when he looked at his body.
He wasn't sure how he ever thought this was enough. Now he knew what true power looked like.
He needed it now.
He closed his eyes. And as he held it in his mind, molded the thought of those muscles over his own. His new drop of Titan Rhino Blood began to obey. Began to sink through the skin, burn bright, spread far, down his arms, his chest, his back, his legs, soaking into the broad expanses of his musculature… slowly rewiring them. Remaking them, reforging them down to the individual fibers, merging with them until they were one and the same…
It hurt, in the same way that being cattle branded all over his body hurt. But this level of pain was not even enough to draw a grunt from him. He was far more interested in what was happening to his body.
He could feel the way his muscles were changing—the fibers distorting, strengthening, toughening, like a rusty old sword reborn, reforged in the hands of a master smith, alloyed with fresh, highest-grade steel. Bathing in Godbeast Blood, soaking it in… he couldn't even move. Everything was locked in place. He bathed in a crucible of blood.
Sweat began to bead on his temple, drip down his bare chest, his bare arms. His skin, his face, started turning pink.
Hours passed like this.
In the meantime, to the side of him, Reina gave a gasp. Her big warm brown eyes fluttered open, her mouth making a little o. Her dark curls began to float. A foreign aura spread out from her, a spell of Law…
She had figured out the Law of Earth.
Zane wanted to congratulate her, but he couldn't seem to move. He was too busy breaking through.
Not long after, Zane felt a little pop. Like a water droplet rippling down the pond of the astral plane. And Avery popped up grinning.
"Heck yeah!" she said. She must've mastered her Concept. She came up to Reina for a fist bump, who gave it to her. Evan too. Zane was a little too locked-up, so she shrugged, fist pumped herself with her other hand, then scampered outside to go mess around with it.
She threw up random projections—making fake sounds and simulations. One was a Blob King so realistic Zane had to really focus to tell it apart from the real thing, even looking into the Astral Plane with Emperor's Soul.
Next up was Evan. There was a sound like a Bing!
And he started to crackle and tremble. Wisps of sandy blond hair began to float. He shot to his feet.
"I did it!" he exclaimed. "I broke through!"
Reina ruffled his hair. He beamed at Zane, then told Zane again in case Zane hadn't heard. Then he ran out to tell Avery.
Reina broke through again soon after—again. It must be her own Concept.
The moment she did, kelp started blooming through the marble around her. Moss too, and little outbursts of coral. Flourishing, sustained on nothing but her own essence. She blinked, gave a little smile. She was more relieved than anything. She felt a little satisfied, but she probably expected it of herself. Her standards were so high she seldom let herself feel too happy.
It usually fell to Zane to tell her how incredible she was. But he was still rather locked up.
It was just him left. Sitting there sweating. She came over and took his hand, tried healing him, helping somehow, but there wasn't much to do. So she stayed there quietly by his side and left him to it.
By now that blood had seeped deep into his body, touching every cord of muscle. He felt it as a sparse but whole layer. Inseparable.
Some parts of him—his chest, his thighs, his back—were already fully remade. It was putting the finishing touches on him now. He remembered the rhino, how much Blood it stored inside. He was nowhere near saturated. He could take a lot more Blood.
But within the next half hour, he absorbed the drop totally.
His muscles burned when he did, jumped a little, almost like revving engines…
𝕊𝕜𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕟𝕖𝕕!
𝔹𝕖𝕙𝕖𝕞𝕠𝕥𝕙 𝕄𝕦𝕤𝕔𝕝𝕖 (ℙ𝕒𝕤𝕤𝕚𝕧𝕖) [ℝ𝕒𝕣𝕖 (𝔼)]
𝔾𝕣𝕒𝕟𝕥𝕤 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕤𝕚𝕘𝕟𝕒𝕥𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕡𝕠𝕨𝕖𝕣, 𝕖𝕩𝕡𝕝𝕠𝕤𝕚𝕧𝕖𝕟𝕖𝕤𝕤, 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕞𝕠𝕤𝕥 𝕠𝕗 𝕒𝕝𝕝 𝕣𝕖𝕝𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕝𝕖𝕤𝕤 𝕠𝕦𝕥𝕡𝕦𝕥 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕋𝕚𝕥𝕒𝕟 ℝ𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕠𝕔𝕖𝕣𝕠𝕤, 𝔾𝕠𝕕𝕓𝕖𝕒𝕤𝕥 𝕣𝕒𝕨 𝕡𝕠𝕨𝕖𝕣 𝕣𝕖𝕟𝕠𝕨𝕟𝕖𝕕 𝕥𝕙𝕣𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕥 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕦𝕟𝕚𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕤𝕖. 𝔸 𝕗𝕠𝕣𝕔𝕖 𝕨𝕙𝕚𝕔𝕙 𝕤𝕙𝕒𝕜𝕖𝕤 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕙𝕖𝕒𝕧𝕖𝕟𝕤…
Slowly he started his body firing on all cylinders, still running at a low burn, amped… he had to consciously shut himself off. He breathed out, nodded to Reina.
"It's done," he said.
She looked him over appreciatively. Visually the difference was subtle—he looked a little denser, leaner; the veins on his muscles stood out more. Just looking at him, at each individual muscle, you got a strong impression of raw power.
"How strong are you now?" she whispered, wide-eyed.
Zane wasn't sure exactly. But he did know—"Enough to crush this Boss," he told her. He clenched his fist. "At least… twice as strong as before." He wasn't sure, but he felt it had to be true.
Reina stared, blinking. In her mind he was already the strongest man in the world. Which… wasn't wrong, now that he thought about it. She seemed to be having trouble wrapping her mind around the idea he could still get so much stronger.
They all gathered again ready with their new power-ups. Evan had so much energy now—Light and lightning—he was a little hyperactive, trembling a little; he didn't have a firm grasp of it. Sparks flew off him all the time. He spun around like he had a sugar rush.
Everyone's auras were changed. Deeper, denser. Their souls made new, more powerful impressions.
They were more than ready, Zane felt. It was time to put them to the test.
"Alright!" cried Avery. "Roll out!"
They swam their way back into open waters. Back to the center of the dungeon, where the Third Floor Boss made its lair.
It was out in open waters. But it felt like they were stuck deep in some far-underground cave. Darkness all around, pure and absolute. The pressure here was still strong but it hardly affected them now. Zane especially could hardly even feel it. His muscles, even at rest, threw off tons upon tons of water with ease.
Just walking around he could feel how smoothly everything worked together. How effortless his body generated force. He knew he could do so much more at the drop of a hat…
As they neared the Boss Lair a scattering of red dots popped up on the mini-map. And behind, a little ways away, the main big one. Roaming around.
The minions noticed them first—and came barreling.
Soon they saw them. Reapers, one and all, with those little hypnotic bait-lights dangling in front of them. They rushed over in a swarm, lighting up with Elemental Electricity. Ready to blast.
"Evan," warned Reina.
"Un!" Evan nodded.
"Clear Beam Slash!" he cried. "Hiyaaaaa!"
He moved faster than Zane had ever seen him. Which was really saying something for Evan. It wasn't just his footspeed; his handspeed had reached a whole nother level, all twitchy, lightning-fast—Zane watched him whip out so many little slashes in that one second he couldn't even count them.
A storm of brilliant slashes ran through the swarm. Carving through skin, slashing out eyes, lopping off fin after fin.
It lit up the deep—and in that flash they saw the whole swarm, nearly eight of them in total. All in the low Level 190s.
Then there was the thing in the back. A shape so massive you could've mistaken it for a seawall.
They would worry about that later.
First… Evan had mangled a bunch of them, slashed out their eyes, lopped off fins, driven bleeding deep ruts into their sides. But now they were almost here.
Zane clenched his fists. No weapons. He was going for it bare-fisted. He was eager to see, feel up-close, what his new body could do.
Go time.