Thalrex loosed another storm-blast.
It was as though a portal had opened in the great beast's mouth, a portal to some hellish dimension. And a natural disaster poured out.
Evan squeaked—raced out of the way on a beam of golden light. Just in time. He had to zip halfway across the battlefield to avoid getting clobbered.
Thalrex snorted, turned right back around, and kept blasting. Spraying like a flamethrower—sweeping across the field, curving right where Evan was running...
There was a shout. And a bubble burst forth, turning away the winds. It was Avery, her face all scrunched up in determination, pointing her umbrella as fiercely as someone could point an umbrella.
Evan got in another shot. A pillar of sunlight piercing right through the strange solid clouds that made Thalrex's body. But again—that Altar made it meaningless. Pouring strength right back into the Grand Knight. Healing it totally.
It seemed if you wanted to kill the thing, you would have to take out that Altar too.
Evan realized the same thing. And sprinted right for it. He tried blasting the thing, let out a sound somewhere between a heroic cry and a frightened yelp. It was a valiant effort, enough to punch through most Nascent shields, Zane thought. But the Law surrounding that thing was too high Level. Tier 4 Storm-Laws flared up, making a cage. Turning his beam aside.
Evan tried again, but he just couldn't crack it.
In the meantime Thalrex kept blasting. But every time, Evan managed to scramble out of the way...
Zane grew itchy seeing it all go down. When he saw violence his instinct was to wade into the fray. Take charge of it. The fiercer Thalrex's attacks got, the more itchy he became.
"Don't rush it," Reina said, stroking his arm, blinking up at him. Like she was trying to calm an agitated bull. "You're not ready—soon, okay?"
Reluctantly Zane nodded.
He was getting close regardless. Every second he could feel strength returning to his limbs. Feel his fatigue melting away.
Every time the Grand Knight got bored, annoyed—started turning its attention to other things—Evan gored it right through its brow, got it mad again. Got its attention again, sped away. Kept zooming around, holding on as best he could, leading this delicate dance. Burning as much essence as he could bear.
The boy was trying his very best. A little sun of pure determination…and it was working.
Then it seemed like Thalrex had had enough.
The Storm Giant stilled. Its eyes narrowed around its lightning-pupils. It let out a thunderous rumble. Pointed one fat finger to the sky.
Lightning arched down and crashed over its fingertip, gathering until a ball of stark electricity took shape, brightening fast. It burned the eyes to look upon. It rippled the air around it. Like a pebble thrown into the pond of reality….
Zane frowned.
That was no ordinary Skill.
You could tell just by looking at the rest of Thalrex's body. Dimming, powers drawn away, even as that lightning-ball grew stronger, brighter.
This time the Monster felt smug. Like it knew something they did not. It felt a cold certainty.
Zane got a very bad feeling.
He tried to stand, growling even as a dizzy spell struck. Tried to get going, head still spinning—
All that lightning arched out.
Evan was still scampering when it struck.
Evan dodged… and it curved to follow him.
Reina let out a cry. Threw up a radiant shield of life-giving energies. A shining green disc smack-dab in the center of the field, teeming with as much essence and Bloodline as she could muster—and there was Avery, throwing up her umbrella, reinforcing the defense with another thick curving layer.
And behind it all Evan—panicking a little, throwing up his sword as a defense—
Collision.
Lightning ruptured Avery's barrier in a split-second. Avery yelped. It met Reina's shield—and the two forces flared right against each other, struggling for a heart-wrenching moment—before the Lightning won through, punched through, sinking a dazzling hole through her shield. And Reina collapsed right next to him.
Then there was nothing to stop the rest of the strike.
By then Zane had already launched for it. Hurling himself across the battlefield, fast as he could—
Not fast enough.
It hit Evan head-on.
There was a terrified scream.
Silence.
Zane stood there. Blinked the light out of his eyes. Took in Reina pale, sprawled on the ground, coughing blood. Avery flat on her face, unconscious. Evan in a little smoking heap.
Blood roared in Zane's ears.
He rushed over—held Evan upright, brushed the soot off his face… still alive, Zane was relieved to see. Feeble, coughing, whimpering a little, curled up. But there.
Thalrex's attack had done its job.
Zane stood. Trembling.
His friends had given themselves. Just to give him some time.
There was Thalrex. Recharging now—spent from that last attack. Drawing essence from the Altar. It let out a low rumbling chuckle, a sound like thunder…
Zane turned.
He felt such a spike of rage in that moment it almost blinded all his sense.
His Asura state exploded.
Flared to a peak like Zane had never known—spreading wide to the distant horizons, clearing the clouds in the sky… Even with the Storm Laws. The Altar. The difference in levels, in essence—in that moment, his aura towered over the Monster Grand Knight's.
Zane let out a strangled roar.
His Stormfire flared out in the open. Suppressing everything. Even that Storm-Law quivered a little in the presence of it… it seemed there were tiers even among Mid-Fusion Laws.
Thalrex's cloudy brow curved into a deep frown.
Zane's white-knuckled hands closed around his Chains. And his Meteor Hammers lit up shining purple.
His friends had given everything to give him this one shot.
He seized it, trembling.
Slammed his foot down. Burst through the air like a streaking meteor, hammers flashing, and Thalrex, for the first time, seemed to take the fight seriously. A wall of stormclouds swirled in front of the Monster Knight, bracing for impact—
But Zane's hammers soared over its head.
And dropped right over that Altar. With the most intense Stormfires he had ever summoned.
Two Stormfire meteors met a cage of Storm Law.
For a moment the two held—raging against each other in a fierce contest, stark purple railing against stark white—
Stormfire smashed through.
Sank deep into the marble beneath. And there were three explosions.
The first—the lightning blasting out, giving way in a shocking rush. Then the runes powering the Altar, all that precious material shattering, releasing lakes of Corruption energy stored deep within, flaring out in a wave as Zane's powers crushed their way through.
Then an explosion of pure Stormfire. Conquering all. Swallowing the lightning. The darkness. Even the stone. Until it was all one burning pyre…
At last Zane turned to face his enemy. Chest heaving.
His aura flared in full.
Thalrex bellowed. Fists clenching. And Zane saw a black pearl studding its chest around where its heart was—a kind of Weapon Soul. It flared—and those fists started blistering Lightning Law, making its bloated blue body one big weapon…
It was going all out too.
It narrowed its cruel little eyes at him. Like it was saying it did not need that altar. It would crush Zane on its own. Its expression sent a simple message.
Bring it.
Zane struck in a fury.
His hammers crashed from the sky—and at the same time Thalrex's maw opened wide, stormclouds racing out—
Two attacks thrown at the same time. But the Storm Giant's would strike first. And there was no dodging it.
Zane clenched his teeth and took it.
The jolt that ran through him, locked out all his muscles. Nearly sent him barreling to the ground. It was one of the most intensely unpleasant sensations he could remember feeling. His jaw locked so tight his gums bled. It was like his brain had been frozen mid-thought—then jolted back to motion again—
He could feel his organs roasting inside him, blackening, deadening. Wrecked by merciless lightning. The all-out attack of a Nascent Monster Grand Knight.
Zane's Health plummeted.
𝕎𝕒𝕣𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘!
ℍ𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕥𝕙 𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕣 𝟟𝟝%
He just fought through it. Even as his hammers stuttered, he bellowed and refused to let them drop. He forced his muscles to motion, wresting back control of his body, smashing with all the strength he had left—
Thalrex seemed to have expected that would freeze him. Incapacitate him. It had even shorted out his thoughts for a second.
It looked surprised when Zane's hammers rammed straight through its chest.
BOOM-BOOM!
Blasts of purple and white scarred voids in still air…
At the end of it, Zane's whole body was smoking. His skin was streaked black. Big patches—especially around his chest where he'd taken the bulk of that lightning—were scorched black. Flaking off of him, exposing raw blackened flesh beneath.
He coughed out a mouthful of black blood.
It had deadened so much of him.
But not his heart, and the feelings inside. That was the one part of Zane the lightning could not touch. And it still beat fierce, strong, powering his body even as his essence, his Bloodline, dwindled fast…
Feeling alone would not be enough power here, intense as Zane's was.
He sensed had one more good rush in him.
He looked across the battlefield. The Storm Giant's body looked quite soft—but it felt like the hardest thing Zane had ever struck. It was the caliber of its Law, its body—the way its soul was woven deep into its form. The density of the essence within. The resistance had been enormous. Even among Nascent creatures he had never felt anything like it.
Still, though. Zane's powers showed through.
Thalrex was missing a good quarter of its body. Craters had eaten huge chunks of it. This time there was a good dent to its aura—more than just the flesh wounds had taken so far. Not enough to slay it…
One more rush.
Zane bellowed. And gave it everything.
It was not enough.
In the end, he was a smoking heap. A big lump of ruined flesh. A husk.
Charred almost entirely black. Downed on one knee. Every last bit of essence, of Bloodline, spent…
There was the Storm Giant. A gaping hole in its chest, its jaw shattered, meaty leg pulverized, bending six different ways. Aura flickering. But alive.
Alive, and with power to spare.
It rounded on Zane. Eyes glimmering, relishing its victory.
Zane staggered up. Dragging in pained breaths. Closed his fists around his Chains.
He did have one last power left to him.
One that had been steadily building with every blast he'd just taken… A power he could still use even with nothing of his own left. Because it took from the power of his enemy, and stored it in one single blow.
He struck for the last time.