146. Second Round (IV)

The Asura King did everything it could to block.

It threw up its towering arms. It smothered itself in its wings; they erupted in roiling Blackflame, a Blackflame purer than any other—so intense it was fringed with a night-black corona. The whole thing looked like a funeral pyre.

Then Wish Upon a Star touched down.

The blast was glorious.

So furious for a few seconds it was impossible to make anything out. So hot everything within tens of miles erupted in flame.

The shockwave nearly tore the bridge in two.

It sent fissures shivering down the stone; massive blocks broke loose, threw up clouds of dust, splashed into the lava sea. And at the middle of it all Stormfire and Blackflame wrestled with each other, climbing to the skies, making that vast expanse a living painting of their duel, a mushroom cloud of seething flame...

The Blackflame held—

Until it didn't.

Its collapse was sudden. And violent. That shining dark tower came apart; flattened, crushed to the ground, crushed to nothing. Like that. And that bright blue smothered everything, shone ever brighter, raged louder, let loose a crackling, echoing roar. A cry of victory.

A new thunderstorm lit the skies. A storm that burned ever outward, torching the cloud layer in shocking white-blues, spreading to the corners of the world... the clouds went up in smoke. When it was done you could see the stars again.

Back on the ground the smoke was clearing.

There in the aftermath, was the Asura King. Cut to half its size. Its arms had been blown straight off its body; on one side, a shriveled blackened stump barely clung on. The wings had been blown to mangled bits—you could see their remains scattered across the battlefield, smoking up, going to nothing. That armored dragon-scaled chest was caved almost all the way in. It had a warbling soft quality to it, like butter left too long in the sun.

And Stormfire had it in a chokehold.

The longer it raged, the more the Monster softened all over; neither its Laws nor essence could do a thing about it. Blackflame kept trying to resist, kept sputtering up shields—and kept getting dominated, crushed out. The Asura King started dripping in earnest, head bowed... it let out a strangled wheezing sound.

"That power... my god!" croaked Tyler. "I've never seen anything like it! You'd think the Savage Sage couldn't surprise us anymore—then—then he goes and does that! How's that thing still alive?!"

"It's the sheer Level difference!" cried Becca. "It's the only thing keeping it standing!"

She let out a shaky breath.

"I don't know about you, Tyler," she said. "But I think we might've just seen the single most powerful shot ever thrown by a man… what—what even was that?!"

Then the Asura King let out a groan. Spat out a pool of hissing black blood. It staggered to a knee, still smoking, still burning—somehow still going, but—

"And he's not done!" roared Tyler.

There Zane went. Walking down the great beast head-on. Not rushing. Moving with a ferocious calmness.

The Asura King tried getting out of the way—

A Smash came down right over its head. And forced it to bow. Then came a second Smash, and it groaned, screeching—but it still went down howling. And it was forced to kneel. The Asura King tried blasting some dragon breath Skill at Zane—a funnel of Blackflame, with the desperation of a fox lashing out as the hunter approaches the trap—

Too little, too late.

Zane didn't so much as flinch. He let the fires wash over him—stood in the mouth of the dragon. And returned fire.

A Smash forced its cratered, broken, melting husk of head to the ground.

Another finished the job.

ℕ𝕚𝕟𝕥𝕙 𝕃𝕒𝕪𝕖𝕣, 𝔻𝕖𝕞𝕠𝕟 𝕂𝕚𝕟𝕘'𝕤 ℂ𝕒𝕤𝕥𝕝𝕖, 𝕙𝕒𝕤 𝕓𝕖𝕖𝕟 𝕔𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕖𝕕!

𝕊𝕜𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕦𝕡!

𝕎𝕚𝕤𝕙 𝕌𝕡𝕠𝕟 𝔸 𝕊𝕥𝕒𝕣 𝕀𝕀 -> 𝕀𝕀𝕀

𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟙𝟙𝟜 -> 𝟙𝟙𝟝

𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟙𝟙𝟝 -> 𝟙𝟙𝟞

***

The world faded to black.

Zane nodded. Smiled.

All in all, he was pretty pleased with how that went.

He was wondering how other Stormfire folk dealt with getting blasted. He'd been clocked pretty good a few times that run. So far, he'd just been tanking it, which was working out fine so far, but…

There had to be some kind of active Stormfire Defense Skill. Right?

He scratched his head.

Maybe he'd find something in one of those Inheritances.

Then—

𝔸𝕤𝕦𝕣𝕒 ℍ𝕖𝕝𝕝 𝔸𝕣𝕣𝕒𝕪 𝕙𝕒𝕤 𝕓𝕖𝕖𝕟 𝕔𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕖𝕕!

And the world opened out before him.

***

Zane Walker staggered out, blinking, and found the whole Plaza swamped with people. Folk cheering their lungs off, waving big signs around that said things like 'ZANE WALKER, WORLD #1!' or placards with his face on it. He looked a little bemused.

The technician cleared her throat and announce shakily, "Zane Walker—final run-time—thirty-two minutes!"

Then Zane looked to the scoreboard.

And his name slid right back to number one.

ℤ𝕒𝕟𝕖 𝕎𝕒𝕝𝕜𝕖𝕣, 𝟡𝟘𝟘 𝕂𝕀𝕃𝕃𝕊.

"Just magnificent!" screamed Tyler. He was struggling to make himself heard over the crowd.

"Last time he astounded us with the strength of his spirit and body. This time it's with sheer power—every time we see Zane Walker, he challenges just what we believe a man is capable of!"

"Just listen to this crowd!" cried Becca. "I've never heard anything like it!"

"Look at Eze—he just got his time beat by a full third! These two just keep racing past each other—but just when Eze thinks he's put some distance between them, the Savage Sage takes back the lead, and doubles it!"

The World Rank #3 stood at the edge there; even he'd stilled at the sight of Wish Upon a Star. Then shook his head. Now he just had a little smile on his face. He tapped two fingers to his palm. An acknowledgment.

They locked eyes; Eze nodded. And left.

He knew he had his work cut out for him.

***

Zane started walking back to the hotel; his mind was already on other things—on the A-Rank dungeons he was about to tackle with Reina. He was excited about them not because he thought they'd be all that hard. Maybe the A-plusses could be interesting, but he figured he could handle normal A-ranks on his own with how strong he was now.

He was excited to be on a team with Reina again. It'd been so long since they fought together. It'd been so long since she'd fought at all—he was pretty sure she hadn't gone on a single dungeon raid after she got her Signature Title. Even she didn't know what she could do.

He tuned out all the folk chanting his name, cheering, that kind of thing. They cleared out of the way pretty easily as he passed. And Elias had dispatched Silicon Coven officials to clear the way for him—just to make sure he wasn't disturbed. It was like he was a one-man parade.

Then—

"Zane! Wait up!" cried a familiar little voice.

He felt a tug on the back of his shirt. He turned.

It was Evan, holding a little crystal microphone. There was a cameraman behind him, balancing a giant recording crystal on his shoulders, hefted there with a tangle of straps and rigging.

"Hi!" beamed Evan. "Can I give you an interview? They asked me to give you an interview!"

Zane blinked. "Sure."

"Okay!"

Evan blinked at Zane. Zane blinked back.

"Um," said Evan.

Zane got the impression the boy hadn't planned this far. He felt a little scared being on camera, especially in front of this many people. Evan was usually pretty good about keeping his nervousness under wraps, but the size of the crowd—and the giant camera in his face—were getting to him a little. Still, he put up a big, if wobbly, smile.

"So Zane!" said Evan. "How're you feeling?"

"Good."

"Awesome!"

There was another silence as Evan struggled to come up with a question. You could see him trembling, visibly sweating. Zane felt kind of bad—he probably should've said more. He just wasn't sure what there was to say.

"So Zane!" Evan went again. "Ummm… How come you're so much stronger than everyone else?"

Zane thought about it, shrugged. "I hit harder than they do."

Evan started struggling again, so Zane tried to give a bit more—"Uh," he said. "My intuition's good. I feel things out. Usually, it works. Fighting is no place for thinking. That's too slow. You have to trust yourself and do what your gut says is right."

Then he paused because he was realizing he was doing the thing where he said what worked for him. But it could be taken as universal advice. So he added a bit at the end—

"Unless your gut is stupid," he said. "Then… maybe it's okay to think a little."

"Whoa!" said Evan, eyes shining. "That was really wise!"

"Thanks."

"Okay, back to you guys!"

The camera-thing turned away and Evan let out a big breath of air. "Phew!" He wiped his brow. "I was really sweating there."

They started walking back together.

"Zane, I got a job!" beamed Evan.

"Good job," said Zane, and patted him on the head. Evan was quite happy then. He loved getting head pats.

Zane asked how it went down. Apparently, they asked Evan to do it, and they seemed nice. So Evan did. He was surprised and delighted to hear they were going to pay him afterward too.

"I think I'm gonna retire and just do rescue team stuff though," said Evan, shaking his head. "It's too stressful! You have to think of stuff to say all the time. I don't have that much to say..."

Zane grunted.

***

Reina came back a little later that night, looking satisfied.

Apparently, she'd been negotiating—with Elias. For the global streaming rights for World Ranker Network, which he'd recently bought an ownership stake in.

"If they put a camera on you," she said, "You should earn a cut of it—and you should get to say when they're authorized to film. They'll have to clear it with us beforehand."

She nodded. "For starters, especially if they're covering a dungeon raid, they'll have to be non-intrusive. Give you a wide berth. Ideally, you shouldn't even be able to tell they're there—they shouldn't disturb your experience of the dungeon at all. They'll have to get a cloaker World Ranker to join the camera crew."

That all sounded pretty good to Zane. "How much is Elias giving us?"

"We couldn't come to a deal," said Reina. She looked at herself in the full-length mirror, admiring herself. She knew she was beautiful. Then began untying her braided-up hair as she spoke. "Yet. He gave a decent offer, but…"

There was a dark glint in her eye. "I'll squeeze him for more. When the S-rank dungeon raid comes up, they'll have no choice but to accept."

She unpinned the last of her hair; it fell in sleek dark curls. "It was silly building you up as their star—and centering their subscription sales and ad campaign around you—when they hadn't even gotten the rights…maybe they thought no-one on your team would notice? They've handed us a great deal of leverage. I'll leave Elias to sweat for a few weeks," she said matter-of-factly. "Then finalize something before the Auction."

She smiled. She looked very pretty, and scary, all at once.

Zane blinked.

Then it passed, and she hopped in bed and started kissing him.

He had the stray thought—not for the first time—it was a good thing she liked him so much.