52 (II) Escape

52 (II)

Escape

It was a hard kick. It was a savage kick, capable of turning an Adept’s face into nothing but blood and dust, of turning a hill into a plain. The kick bruised Shiv’s chin. The shockwave, however, made Uva flinch back—she nearly let go of Ikki.

A high vampire had torn the throat out of his Compact adversary, and was now trying to beat Shiv to death.

Shiv decided he was offended by this, and clawed out blindly. He caught something soft, and he squeezed. He felt two sensitive organs pop in the palm of his closing right hand, and that’s when Shiv realized he had crushed the high vampire's groin. The high vampire screamed. Shiv didn’t let go. The vampire clawed Shiv’s face and broke his fingers against Shiv’s hardened Adamantine Adaption. This offended Shiv more, and so he started dashing the high vampire against the carapace of the Jealousy over and over again.

The vampire likely had something near High Adept in terms of Toughness. High Adept was not a very good matchup against Gravitic Wrestler. Shiv slammed the vampire back and forth, the bloodspawn’s body practically disintegrating with every blow, blood spraying everywhere, his organs dislodging from shattering bones. But the High Vampire shaped spells, rapidly healing himself. And Shiv found himself even more infuriated by this—even enraged.

He remembered healing himself and just getting cancer for his troubles. Before he got his Woundeater Evolution, Shiv suffered, and Shiv died. That was how he recovered. And these high vampires managed to circumvent all that because their hearts were special or something. And that infuriated Shiv. So he started slamming the vampire around even harder.

As another wyvern landed, Shiv swung the vampire out like a club. The wyvern’s head simply ceased to be, and its rider tumbled off, only to crash into Uva’s extended hand, which promptly flung the spell into his face. The man’s Magical Resistance shattered from her Psychomancy spell, and then she drove a long blade of ice through his screaming mouth. As he tumbled off, she flung that same shard of ice and impaled another rider through their armpit.

“Nice work,” Shiv thought. She gave him a smirk, a smirk that turned into a wide-eyed gasp, as suddenly, before Shiv could even react, a spray of blood erupted from her neck.

Just then, the air crackled, and a new figure emerged, bearing a strange curved knife with a vibrating edge. She turned to glare at Shiv. Her armor was barely existent. Her arms were exposed, carved with whirling runes that glowed in the dark, and her face showed she was a ritualistically scarred human. She licked her lips. “Good prey,” she hissed.

Uva collapsed, almost falling from the Jealousy’s back, but Shiv caught her. Ikki screamed her name. The synchronized link between the group broke as Uva’s focus collapsed.

Shiv snarled as he flung the high vampires in his other hand at this adversary. She sidestepped—her speed more than equal to his. And then she was upon him, slashing her curved knife across his eyes. The slash didn’t go very deep—but it was deep enough. Both of Shiv’s eyes vanished, turned into pits of severed flesh. The bridge of his nose was split. His Adamantine Adaption caused her shaking blade to chip and break, earning a grunt from her.

But the work was done. Shiv was blind. Shiv was hurt. And Shiv was pissed.

Pissed enough to fuel his Woundeater. He didn’t target himself first. He released Uva for a second. And then—in the moment it took for the enemy Pathbearer to cut him three more times, splitting open his neck, taking a chunk out of his left ear and leaving her blade partially embedded into his chest—he sent out a wyrm, consumed Uva’s throat wound, and cast the Woundeater into the enemy Pathbearer.

Magic moved faster than most physical attacks did, and the spell connected directly. However, when the wyrm crashed against the knife-wielder, Shiv found her Magical Resistance to only crack under the assault, and she would have continued attacking him, if not for Uva striking her directly afterward, launching a Psychomancy spell into the knife-wielder's mind.

Shiv felt the enemy Pathbearer’s Magical Resistance shatter and her mind come asunder. A psychic scream of misery and pain erupted, washing over him. He remembered screaming like that himself when facing the Jealousy, and he shuddered.

A second later, he fed his new wounds into another wyrm, and he flung that into the enemy Pathbearer, who was still clutching her head. His sight returned. His missing ear was whole. The wound in his chest vanished. Her eyes erupted. Her ear flew off. Her chest blew open in a chasm of blood. She gurgled and slumped off of the Jealousy, but not before Uva hit her again, shattering her mind for good.

“Are you all right?” Shiv called out Uva. He felt her terror, felt her shock, but also felt her discipline, her focus. Her magic seeped back into his mind and reconnected him with all the others.

“I’m fine,” she said, rubbing her throat. She blinked at him. “How did you…Was that your Biomancy?”

He summoned a wyrm and made it dance around his hands. “Yeah, that’s Master-Tier now too. Uh, I’ll tell you about it later.”

She blinked. From her brooch, Shiv could hear that asshole from earlier let out a string of violent curses.

Just then, a massive shadow swept over them; that of a huge, wedge-shaped sword. Frankly, it was way too large to be called a sword. It looked more like a growing chunk of metal that just kept swelling larger and larger until it was the size of a skyscraper from the ruined city on the surface. The Pathbearer holding it leapt from their wyvern and roared as they prepared to cleave through the entire ravine in a single strike.

Shiv cursed. He flung the Jealousy’s limbs, and they impacted the edge of the blade. It was sloppy, but it was enough. He pulled off one of the strangest parries he performed in his entire life, using a comatose Greater Demon to knock a hundred story tall blade off course. The blade bit deep into the cliff face on their left, cleaving a massive portion off from its side, which caused a rockslide to rain down on Shiv and the Umbrals.

Parry > 50 (Skill Evolution Imminent)

Shiv cursed, opened his own chest, crushed his heart, and flung the wyrm at the Master-Tier adversary. The man tried to dodge, but the spell impacted against his chest, and Shiv heard his foe cry out. However, they didn’t die, so their Magical Resistance must have held.

This time, Uva blinked at Shiv again. “Did you just tear yourself open and throw your wound at that man?”

“Yeah, I’ll tell you about it later,” Shiv repeated.

She shook out from her stupor and launched her own spells at more enemies. Just then, the voice in her brooch cried out:

“Wait, Shiv, turn into the landslide. If you’re strong enough, ram through it.”

“What?” Shiv said.

“Into the landslide—trust me. And use your bloody Momentum Core!”

“Momentum Core?” Shiv blinked, and another piece of his mind slid back into place.

Right, that was his first Master-Tier Skill. That was the only reason he survived against… Harkness

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

They responded immediately, without hesitation.

Each of the group slammed themselves against him, clinging with desperate limbs—several even casting their weapons aside. Shiv could touch them. Shiv could feel them. And whatever he touched, his gravitic field could protect, could seize. They were enveloped by his strength, and Shiv clenched his jaw as he let the rock slide hit him. His Adamantine Adaption helped him endure, but several of the Umbrals cried out—their armor deforming, their bones cracking.

Shiv ignored the extreme agony as he taxed his mana field to shape a few more wyrms, swept it through the others, and assumed their wounds himself. Meanwhile, his momentum filled.

Beneath the entire rushing landslide, time seemed to slow—his core reached maximum capacity—and he clutched the Umbrals and the Jealousy to him as tightly as he could before he discharged. A massive blast of kinetic energy rippled off of him, displaced by his gravitic field with a surge of effort from Shiv. The blast wave exploded out behind him—swatting vampires and riders alike out of the sky.

Then Shiv was smashing through the mountain, drilling deep into stone and splitting ore, like a colossal hammer made to split the very earth in half. The world turned into a chaotic mass of falling stone and debris and deafening noise. By the end, he was ragged, broken in so many places, but he still had his field, and he still had his Adamantine Adaption. He was a Master Pathbearer. They weren’t. This was what he was for. This was what being a Pathbearer meant.

When his Momentum Core finally ran out, he found himself dropping—as if falling down a large hole. Several Umbrals shaped spells so he could see in the dark, and he realized he was descending down the center of the mountain. It looked hollowed out by something, with towering, metal supports holding the structure up, but it seemed destabilized by Shiv’s sudden intrusion.

He plunged—the Umbrals and everyone within the Jealousy going with him, deeper down into the dark. Small hollows and caverns lined the sides of the vast, inner cave. He saw serpents he’d fought before in a hole in the ground after he was burned, and then other strange creatures—large snake-shaped humanoids—mining ore veins in the mountain. They turned to regard him with surprise, but he was past them in an instant. The Jealousy’s immense bulk crashed against the artificial, vertical tunnel's sides, tumbling from side to side. Its tentacles tore chasms into the wall, compromising the mountain even more.

Finally, Shiv braced and pulled up, trying to slow its descent. But the moment he did, it crashed hard—and he felt the bodies of the Umbrals around him crack in places as they slammed into the carapace. He assumed those wounds too and almost slumped over from the pain.

“Shiv, stop! Stop taking wounds into yourself!” Uva yelled.

Shiv blinked. “That’s fine. I’m just gonna…” He pulled out one of his old bodies, chucked it before her, fed his current wounds into a wyrm—nearly blacking out from the pain of renewed mana strain—but managed to finish the spell and transfer it to his old corpse.

Uva blinked. The other Umbrals gasped. Ikki laughed. “Composer! That does it. Shiv, you’re coming with me anywhere I go. I’m never going to Cradle anymore. You’re the only doctor I need!”

Just then, a massive rumbling of stone descended, and Shiv cursed. He released the other Umbrals and held his hand up, bracing against the mass of falling stone with gravity-ruling strength. At first, it felt light—his might was immense. And then massive parts of the inner mountain began to collapse, pounding down on him. What was a feather for a Pathless became a massive slab of metal, became a falling wall, became an entire building.

This… this was a real mountain. Not a small one. Not a Greater Demon shaped like a mountain. An entire, literal mountain falling on him. And Shiv… Shiv was strong. But he definitely wasn’t strong enough to hold up an entire collapsing mountain. He cried out, straining himself. His Adamantine Adaption was his saving grace—it endured, forcing his bones to harden before they could shatter, forcing his ligaments to turn denser, stronger in the face of immense strain. But it wouldn't give him more than a few seconds.

Shiv began to bend, and that made him look at the others.

“Okay,” he growled. “Okay, someone start hitting me.”

All the Umbrals started whacking him, and while they did, Uva’s brooch sounded once more:

“Shiv! Shiv! Ah, there you are, I found you. How the hells did you—Okay, never mind. Listen to me. When you discharge again this time, aim down at a 45-degree angle exactly.”

Shiv cursed. More stones piled on him. He couldn’t think clearly anymore. “I don’t think I could get a 45-degree angle exactly right even when I’m not suffering from brain damage and holding up a felling mountain!”

A derisive snort came from the brooch. “Just aim slightly downward, then, you damned fool!”

“Gods. Sure thing, asshole,” Shiv muttered.

His Momentum Core filled—but not fast enough. It felt like an eternity of strain, and it took everything his Gravitic Wrestler had to keep from breaking. He started pawing, moving bits of stone to the side—letting it crash against the Jealousy’s tentacles.

Shiv's strength was running out. He could feel his spine popping, and the Umbrals could feel it too. Their attacks intensified. He drank momentum. His core filled. Time slowed further, and Uva struck him one final time—her jaw clenched in desperation, terror, and a slight hint of regret. She didn’t like hitting him with a weapon.

Oh, that’s sweet of her, Shiv thought, exhaustion making him delirious.

Shiv reached out for them, called for them to hold onto him, and once more, as soon as they touched him, his field seized them, and he discharged. His progress was messier, slower this time. He exploded down—the Jealousy’s immense bulk dragged forward, clenched by his gravitic strength—and Shiv nearly blacked out from sheer exertion. They burst through another section of the mountain, tumbling through the blackness, the monster’s limbs mangled from the immense weight. He did black out in the darkness momentarily, but just then, the final threshold of the mountain burst open.

Dim luminosity splashed over him, and they were once more in the air—sailing over a wide open ground. Before them was a long black expanse, glittering as if there were stars hidden in the rich soil.

Shiv blinked, thinking he was hallucinating, but after a while he realized he wasn’t. He was shooting over a land of glistening silt, a land riven by small lanes of irrigation, far from the conflict. On the other side of the collapsing mountain, flashes and blossoming tides of fire and magic that lit up the night continued to swell. Compact and the First Blood were at war, and they had lost him in the carnage and chaos. Somehow, they had gotten away—for now. Shiv felt a rush of triumph.

But then he was descending at an angle, preparing to crash into the silt fields, and he tried to pull back—tried to pull the Jealousy—but he could only manage to arc its head. His strength finally gave. Shiv dry-heaved, spent beyond stamina and energy. They struck. The Umbrals were flung off into every direction. Uva tried to cling on, but she was launched off as well.

Shiv felt something inside himself tweak. A muscle tore, several muscles in fact, and they kept going until, finally—with a massive furrow dug into the ground—the Jealousy came to a stop.

After a few seconds of just heaving, Shiv slowly lifted his head with a groan. Looking around, he could see the Umbrals strewn around the field along the furrow they dug. They were badly wounded, but he couldn't sense any fatalities.

Shiv tried to shape a spell, but he instead let out a scream as the mana strain nearly knocked him out again. He just had to hope they would all last long enough to find proper help.

Shiv was spent, unable to even keep himself upright. And just then, an arrow crashed beside him—an arrow shaped from spatial magic. Shiv managed a heroic effort—pushing his torso upright and clenching a fist—only to see a new figure clad in sky-blue armor and bearing a bow with far too many silken strings scowling down at him through an open helmet.

For a few moments, the crimson-haired man said nothing, and another piece of Shiv clicked back into place. He remembered who this was now—and why he thought he was an asshole—and how the guy always knew where to go.

“Adam,” Shiv coughed, “well, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m kind of glad to see you. Hey, did you do something to your eyes? Why are they… Why are they so bright at the bottom?”

Adam stared at Shiv. He stared at the Jealousy. He stared at the moaning Umbrals strewn across the silt field. And the Young Lord sighed. “Shiv, why are you even bigger than before?”

Shiv looked down at himself. He stared at his muscles, then flexed slightly, even though he could barely move his limbs. “Oh yeah, I am. I think I got a Master-Tier Physicality thing now. Oh, and I fused that with my Grappling Proficiency. But how did you know exactly where we were? And how the hells did you know where to go while we were in that mountain?”

Adam just stared at him. “Because I’m a Heroic Pathbearer now,” he said, his voice thin, a slight sneer tugging at his lips. “A Heroic Pathbearer in Awareness.”

“Oh. That’s nice. How high’s your Physicality, though?” Shiv taunted.

Adam clenched his jaw. “How many Master-Tier Skills do you even have now?”

Several Umbrals near enough to hear them moaned in despair. Uva just growled. “Adam, Shiv,” she ground out as she stalked in their direction, “you two can… measure your cocks later. Get the regeneration potions out first… before we all die from internal bleeding.”