"Let me take them," said Zane. He felt as confident as he'd ever been. Reina put a hand on him, looked to him, a little hesitant, just thinking.
Then—"Alright." She nodded.
He wanted to just charge up. Rush in, and show them the powers in his hands. That was his most basic instinct, at least.
But he wasn't sure what lay deeper inside—there was a whole horde of fatter red dots in there, out of sight… He looked to Reina. He could tell she had something in mind. He knew she would make good use of him.
He felt he was pretty good at in-the-heat-of-the-moment battle decisions. But when it came to the big picture he trusted her.
Sure enough—"I've got an idea," she told him slowly. "I think… here's what we'll do."
Zane heard her out. And was satisfied with his role in it. There was lots of smashing involved. After inspecting him Reina trusted his new body's durability; his tensed muscles could've been armored plates unto themselves. He would be thrust into the center of things, where he could do the most damage in the least amount of time—whether the entire offense succeeded or failed rested on his shoulders.
He would have it no other way.
Avery and Evan were eager too. And Reina told them their roles, carefully making best use of their strengths, putting them all in the best position to shine.
She would be sticking with Zane the whole time. Healing him, making sure he was healthy. He got the feeling she would be doing that whether it was the best decision or not. He liked having her at his back—it made him feel even more invincible.
That was all then. It was time for Operation Castle Crash.
***
You would have to charge up a steep, cruddy hill to get to the fortress. And that was just the start of it—giant tanks of lava crowned the walls. Drawbridges went over gurgling moats. They saw molten boulders hanging off nets, ready to drop. Smoldering cannons peeked out the walls; Magma Imps were operating them. This wasn't Monster make clearly—they'd taken over some old dwarven fortress and made it their own.
It also made it quite finicky to attack. If Zane started charging uphill right away he would get hit by a lot. At least five or six giant boulders, vats of lava, cannonballs—plus whatever Skill they wanted to throw at him.
But the fortress was just a problem to Reina—a puzzle. Zane knew no one better at solving those. And sure enough, she'd come up with a simple clear strategy.
First a distraction. That was up to Avery. She would throw something way out to the right, something that would catch all those guards' attention. She tried to imagine the scariest thing she could think of charging at her.
She sat there thinking hard for about thirty seconds. Then she had a light bulb moment.
She gave Zane a big grin.
"What," said Zane.
"Hey big fella! Remember that one time in Mount Saint Helens?"
"Uh," said Zane.
Seconds later he was looking at another Zane. Not as he was now—him at full tilt. He had never seen himself like this before, from the outside. His hair was actually floating. His muscles bulged so tight against his skin you could mark out each thick purple vein. And every breath of his was a plume of fuming air; essence trickled out his mouth, like he was part-dragon or something. His eyes were actually crackling a little, bright with Stormfire. His skin too.
"There we go!" said Avery, stepping back to admire her handiwork. "Spot-on, if I do say so myself."
"Do I really look like that?" said Zane, frowning. It would probably work. Still, though… "Huh."
No wonder they got so frightened when he charged. This was… quite something.
"You look very handsome," Reina assured him.
"It's even scarier in person, actually," said Avery cheerfully. "You feel this big looming aura going everywhere—that bit I can't quite get right… but anyway. It'll do just fine!"
She slapped her hands together. "Zane Lite is ready for action!"
Zane Lite gave a big bellow; it sounded like a peal of thunder cracking across the ravaged landscape. And Zane Lite's aura flared to life. You could feel it even in the astral plane—somehow it had a presence, felt real. Even Zane, with his Emperor's Soul, had to really squint to tell it was fake.
"Neat, right?" grinned Avery. Apparently it wasn't really an illusion. It was a simulacrum. Like a shell with nothing in it, according to her. It was one of her new White Fox Bloodline Inheritance Skills. It made for a better distraction than a normal illusion. Much harder to make and control though. She could do it with Zane mostly because she knew him so well.
"He keeps taking his shirt off so it's easy to get the anatomy right," Avery explained, nodding wisely.
"Uh," said Zane.
"Alright!" cried Avery. "Chaaaaargeee!"
Zane Lite thumped his big chest like a gorilla. Zane was about to protest. That was too much. He would not do that. Then he paused, and thought about it.
Hmm.
Zane Lite steamrolled up the mountain.
The Monsters must've thought it was pretty scary too—because they reacted almost instantly. They had already pooled to one side of the fortress once Fake-Zane started making noise. Once he started charging, they started blasting.
Red lightning and black smoke raced down the hill, a downpour from hell. At the same time the floodgates all opened—boulders, lava—it came crashing down in a mad fury.
On the other side, Evan started to do his work too. He started slashing and slashing—little things, quiet things. Cutting off the handles for those boulder-nets. Slicing the wicks off the cannons. He even managed to snipe a few Imps off the top of the walls—he wasn't quite strong enough to one-shot them yet, but he could clip some wings, send them spiraling. Soon he had cleared a solid path for Zane. Not everything—but it would do nicely.
Evan would be master of bird control from here on.
Then it was Zane's turn at last.
He stood. Go time. Reina was right behind him already buffing him, throwing up a connection, dousing him in a warm wave of regeneration—it came easily to both of them now.
He fired up his muscles. And his Bloodline began to burn.
It started first from the center. His heart pumping faster, stronger, sending vital blood to his thighs, his arms, his back, lighting them up as it passed. Waking them from their slumbers. He felt his body temperature start to skyrocket.
And he began to feel it. That familiar heady rush. Zane stood there, letting it build. Eyes trained squarely on the stronghold.
What happened next would be a matter of timing. He didn't want to burn out too early. He didn't want to get there too weak either. He wanted to peak—and strike a killing blow as he went.
And now his whole body was fully awake, roaring, burning, steaming essence… he felt it now that he paid attention—the Stormfire crackling over his skin, crackling around his eyes, felt the fuming breaths leaving his mouth like engine exhaust even as he dragged in huge breaths of air—just more fuel…
The air was starting to shiver around him, starting to warp. Mighty rivers of pure energy were rushing out from his heart, pouring in all directions—
He'd never really done this. Sat here, letting it build without releasing any at all—it was kind of torturous. Soon there was so much power inside him he was starting to tremble. He felt his tendons straining with a massive effort—struggling to hold back his muscles, straining too—
It was time.
He bellowed. Thumped his chest.
Blinked.
"…"
That actually felt surprisingly good.
Maybe that guy was onto something.
Then Zane charged.
Unleashed. Exploded. A single enormous bound and he was already a quarter of the way up the giant hill. Reina rushed to catch up, crying out, still holding to the connection—two more bounds, and he was nearly there.
About then the Monsters finally reacted—a snatch of them rushed back screeching, trying to aim their cannons, trying to chuck their boulders—but finding their weapons weren't quite there anymore. A gaggle of Magma Imps showered desperate lightning on him. He felt it running against his muscles—and a few seconds ago he might have seized up.
But there was just too much sheer momentum inside him right now. Too much essence. Too much raw horsepower brimming in ever fiber of him.
He crashed right through it.
There was just no stopping him now. He blasted Stormfire Step after Stormfire Step.
At the same time his fist rose, Stormfire brimming at the knuckles—and he crashed through the wall like a wrecking ball.
For a second the explosion painted the world stark blue. The skies, the grounds for miles, shining that same color… the color of Zane's power.
The fortress shivered down to its very foundations. The world shivered with it. Then—all at once—the whole front face came crashing down. Tons upon tons of molten stone—
Most of it right on top of Zane's head.
But he took it just fine.
He had smashed his way on through.
Unfortunately, a whole glut of Monsters had rushed back to that wall—and they fell on Zane's head too.
Dozens of them. Magma imps. Ten-foot-tall hounds with skin the red-black of molten rocks, drooling gobs of lava. All staring stunned.
A bewildered Monster horde… and in the midst of it, one berserking Zane.
He had already wrapped his hands in Chains. And instantly he set to doing what he did best.
Smashing.
He roared. Caught a hound deep in the underside of its jaw, and Stormfire and raw force came together in one brutal combination, and did their brutal work. The head came apart at the seams, blasting away in a thousand thousand chunks of molten rock. Zane bull-rushed another, tackled it to the ground, smashed it to scattered smoking bits in one clean blow.
Stormfire billowed through the courtyard—searing, scalding, lighting the grounds on fire.
But in the chaos they'd really started swarming him. Peppering him with their little Skills. In the distance he felt Avery throwing up a mass spell and a few of them cried out, suddenly stumbling, robbed of all balance. Those missed.
But a good chunk still got through. Those Lava Hounds' jaws unhinged, sank their molten teeth into Zane's thick arms, his legs… and hit a hard wall.
They drew a little blood. Scraped the skin. That was all.
It was as Zane suspected.
This little force was not enough to challenge him.
Then he took his hands to them, and broke them piece by piece.
Then he made the war zone his own bloody playground. All blocks. Coming apart before his fists. He could do anything to them. A swelling pride rose in his chest, swelling more and more the more he wrecked—
This was who he was. The essence of Zane Walker. And he exulted in it.
Zap.
He grunted.
Glared up. A small cloud of imps had come together, was bunching into a literal cloud. A cloud of smoke and red lightning, a little formation—they blasted him again. He gave a little jerk.
It didn't hurt much. Especially with Reina at his back rushing healing into him. But every time they zapped him he seized up a little—it messed up his attacks. Almost made him stumble over himself.
At the same time though… little flashes showered overhead, slamming into the cloud, breaking it up. They fell apart shrieking.
"You leave my friend alone!" came a distant angry cry.
His anti-bird unit was on it.
He just had to keep smashing. And he did so with a pure simple joy.
Lava Hounds exploded to molten rubble. Imps popped in showers of blood and magma. And before long it was all gone. Reduced to magma surging back down the hill…
He had just a moment to breathe.
The first wave was a smashing success. Their strategy—for Zane to tank and smash, Avery to confuse, Reina to heal, Evan to snipe—was working quite nicely.
But that was not the end of the Fortress. That was just the first wall of it.
The bulk of the Monsters were still rushing over. And more were pouring out of the Inner Courtyard too. A dozen giant red dots on the mini-map.
So far, it was all according to plan. They had planned to face the big guns deeper in.
Zane was ready.
Each step thundered the ground. Sank several feet in. They moved with a mechanical precision. Dense auras of Steel and Earth wafted off of them.
They made for a familiar sight.
𝕎𝕒𝕣𝕕𝕖𝕟 𝕠𝕗 𝔾𝕚𝕝𝕕𝕣𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕣 (𝕄𝕠𝕟𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣)
𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟚𝟞𝟝
Zane went still.
Reina a little pale. She was remembering the last time…
Just a look at those too-wide steel smiles, those swollen black-metal bodies, had him breathing heavy.
The Monsters thought they had found weakness in him, when these things had put him down. They had sent more to finish the job…
Maybe they thought these things would strike fear in him.
Zane did not work like that.
He narrowed his eyes. Clenched his fists. And his fighting spirit erupted.
It was a mistake, sending these things after him again.
He would see who broke who this time.
Round two.