Book 5: Chapter 9 — Turning Up the Heat |
The Embercrest Shimmerwolf had backed Aurelia against a wall of crystals, its molten plates glowing white-hot from all the fire it had absorbed. Heat waves distorted the air around them both, but Aurelia was clearly getting the worst of it. She was fire-resistant, but not immune, and sweat dripped down her face as she slashed her chain-blade for all she was worth to keep it back.
The beast opened its jaws, and Noah saw fire building in its throat—enough stored thermal energy to incinerate everything in a twenty-foot radius.
He hit it from the side at full speed.
The impact sent them both tumbling, Noah's Dragon Scales sizzling from contact with the superheated crystals. The wolf snapped at his face; he caught its jaws in his clawed hands, straining to hold them apart.
Dragon Scales have resisted [Thermal Burn-III]
"Aurelia! It can't absorb what I'm giving!"
She understood immediately. While Noah held the creature's attention, she darted around behind it. Her blade bit deep into the wolf's hindquarters.
The Embercrest wolf howled, thrashing. Noah felt the heat building in its chest, the stored fire straining to release. If it let go now, this close—
He shoved his hand down its throat.
[Life Siphon] activated
Master, your arm—
"I know!"
“Tony will help!” Tony shifted his body into Constitution mode, then pushed it even further. Rather than augmenting his whole body, he focused in on that one arm and shoulder, straining to push it far beyond its natural limits.
His Dragon Scales were cracking, the heat too intense even for draconic resistance. But he could feel the wolf's life force flooding into him, feel its stored fire converting into raw energy that his own abilities could use.
The Embercrest wolf's eyes dimmed. The glow in its crystalline plates flickered, faded. Its struggles weakened.
"Almost there—"
It screamed, a sound that cut through the battlefield as its crystals cracked and its internal fire consumed it from within. Noah threw himself clear as the creature collapsed, molten crystal pooling beneath its dying body.
You've killed [Embercrest Shimmerwolf (Rare) - lvl 478]
"Aurelia, now!"
She rose from the ground in an eruption of flame, her power unshackled with the fire-eater dead. Three wolves that had been trying to bite through her armor became torches in an instant. The others scrambled back, yipping, their already damaged crystal coats not able to take her fire. Individually, Aurelia might not have been able to do much against creatures so much higher level than her, but when paired with the ongoing damage Wyrm’s Curse inflicted on the wolves?
She was very effective.
Behind them, the Voidtouched wolf finally stopped thrashing. Noah's chains had drained it dry.
You've killed [Voidtouched Shimmerwolf (Rare) - lvl 482]
But the Alpha howled, and the pack steadied.
"Here we go," Noah muttered.
The Alpha exploded outward, trailing smoke and blood, its remaining crystals flaring with desperate light.
Noah's instincts screamed at him to take flight, to gain the advantage of altitude, but the crystal canopy overhead would shred his wings in seconds. Instead, he drew on Arcane Step—
And appeared thirty feet past his target, stumbling into a tree trunk hard enough to crack bark.
"Damn it."
The Voidtouched wolf is dead, Tony said. But its spatial disruption has left residual interference. Tony needs time to recalibrate.
The Alpha wheeled toward him, jaws gaping. Noah threw himself sideways, rolling through the leaf litter as crystal teeth snapped shut where his head had been. He came up with his chains in hand, lashing out—
Too hard. The blow that should have wrapped around the Alpha's foreleg instead tore through it entirely, sending the creature spinning with a shriek. Blood sprayed across the fallen leaves in a wide arc.
"Okay, that worked, I guess."
The Shimmerwolf Alpha collapsed, one leg simply gone below the joint. Its remaining crystals pulsed erratically as it tried to gather energy for another blinding flash, but the Crimson Rot had spread too far from his earlier attack through the crystal network. Darkness crawled through its veins, visible even through its glassy fur.
Then the crystals along its spine flared with light.
Noah felt a wave of purifying light roll outward from the Alpha's body. The Crimson Rot in its veins ignited, burning away in threads of golden fire. The darkness crawling through its fur simply... evaporated.
[Crimson Rot-IV] has been cleansed
[Wyrm's Curse] has been cleansed
[Bleed-IV] has been cleansed
"What the—"
The Alpha rose. Its severed leg remained a stump, but even as Noah watched, crystal formations began sprouting from the wound, forming a jagged prosthetic that scraped against the ground with a sound that set his teeth on edge.
Its amber eyes fixed on Noah with cold intelligence. This was a creature that had survived in this arena for centuries, that had clawed its way to the very edge of A-Rank through countless battles. It had survived worse than Crimson Rot.
Noah backed up slowly, reassessing. A creature this close to rank breakthrough would have accumulated tricks, trump cards, abilities saved for desperate moments. He'd underestimated it. "Aurelia, we might have a problem."
The Alpha threw back its head and howled. The crystal crown atop its skull pulsed with rhythmic light.
Answering howls rose from the darkness.
Dozens of them.
"Oh, that's bad," Aurelia said, flames gathering around her hands as she moved to stand beside Noah. "That's very bad."
Through the undergrowth, eyes began to gleam. Shimmerwolves emerged from between the trees, from beneath root systems, from hollows Noah hadn't even noticed. The two variants and the others had just been the frontrunners. Now the rest of the pack had arrived.
[Shardback Shimmerwolf (Rare) - lvl 445]
[Shardback Shimmerwolf (Rare) - lvl 462]
[Shardback Shimmerwolf (Rare) - lvl 451]
[Shardback Shimmerwolf (Rare) - lvl 478]
The notifications kept coming. Twenty. Thirty. Forty wolves, all high-level, all with those mana-draining crystal spines, all circling closer with the patient coordination of apex predators.
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Aurelia gasped, her eyes twitching.
Noah's wings ached to unfurl. Every instinct screamed at him to take to the sky, to gain altitude and rain destruction from above. But doing so would be stupid, especially with how dangerous it was—
The Alpha moved. Even on three legs and one crystal prosthetic, it was devastatingly fast. Noah barely got his chains up in time to deflect the first snap of its jaws, and the impact sent him skidding backward through the leaf litter. His feet left furrows in the ground.
"Fuck," Noah screamed. "This is—"
The other wolves surged forward.
“Master,” Tony interrupted. “Tony will help Master fly.”
His abyssal wings erupted from his back, smaller and more maneuverable than his oversized draconic ones, just as three wolves leaped for his throat. He shot upward, but one of them caught his ankle in its crystal teeth. Pain lanced up his leg as the mana-draining effect kicked in, his reserves dropping sharply.
Noah kicked out with his other foot, catching the wolf in the snout, and tore free. Blood scattered through the air, bright and hot.
Below, Aurelia had become a pillar of flame, but even her fire seemed diminished here. "The mana here is tainted!" she shouted up at him. "Something's interfering with—" A wolf crashed into her from behind. She went down in a tangle of fire and crystal, her sword skittering across the ground.
"Aurelia!"
Noah dove without thinking. His wings folded and he dropped, chains whipping out to catch two wolves across their spines. The impacts sent them tumbling, but his chains didn't cut through this time. He'd compensated too hard in the other direction, pulling his strength when he should have committed.
He hit the ground hard, rolled, came up beside Aurelia. She was already on her feet, flames flickering weakly around her hands.
"My mana's draining too fast," she gasped. "It's the crystals. You’re—they're pulling from everything, including the ambient—"
"Fall back," Noah said, grabbing her arm. "We need to get out of their territory."
"The Alpha—"
"Will follow. But we can't fight forty of them in their own hunting ground."
They ran.
The pack followed, flowing through the underbrush with horrifying coordination. The Alpha led them, its crystal leg somehow keeping pace with its remaining natural limbs, its amber eyes never leaving Noah's back.
Tony is struggling, the symbiote admitted, and Noah felt the strain through their bond. The rapid mana drain from constantly repairing his torn wings, combined with Tony's earlier surge, was taking its toll. Tony needs a moment.
"Just keep the wings going. I'll handle the rest."
Noah grabbed Aurelia around the waist and Arcane Stepped. They appeared exactly where he'd intended for once, fifty feet ahead and on a rocky outcropping that jutted from the arena floor. The wolves would have to climb to reach them, which would buy them seconds at least.
"Nice landing."
"You don’t need to sound so surprised.”
“So panic helps with calibration?"
“Guess so.” Noah set her down and turned to face the approaching pack. "Ideas?"
"I have one." She was breathing hard, sweat cutting tracks through the grime on her face. "But you're going to hate it."
"Try me."
"We split up. You draw the Alpha away, keep it busy while I thin the pack. Once the numbers are manageable, we regroup and take the big one down together."
“You’re right, I hate it.” Every protective instinct in him screamed against leaving her alone with thirty-plus predators a full rank above her and close to twice her level. But she was right. Together, they were about to be overwhelmed. Apart, they could leverage their individual strengths. "Don't die."
"Same to you."
Noah launched himself skyward, letting his Dragon Fear pulse outward in a wave of predatory menace. The effect rippled through the pack below. Wolves stumbled and hesitated, some of the weaker ones actually turning to flee.
[Dragon Fear] activated 17 targets afflicted with [Fear-II]
8 targets afflicted with [Fear-III]
4 targets resisted
But the Alpha only tilted its head, watching him with that unsettling intelligence, apparently unaffected.
"Come on then," Noah growled, dropping low enough to be tempting. "You want revenge? Come and get it."
The Alpha howled and gave chase.
Noah led it deeper into the arena, away from its pack, away from Aurelia. His Dragon's Eyes tracked the creature's movements, picking out every subtle shift in its muscle tension, every preparation for a lunge.
It was learning his patterns. Every time he dodged left, it anticipated. Every time he feinted right, it ignored the deception. This creature had survived for centuries by being smarter than its prey.
Time to stop being prey.
Noah cut his wing power and dropped.
The Alpha's leap passed through empty air where he'd been, and Noah hit the ground rolling, coming up with his chains in hand. He whipped them around the creature's remaining hind leg and pulled with everything he had.
The Alpha crashed down, crystal prosthetic scraping against stone. Noah was on it in an instant, chains wrapping around its throat, around its muzzle, binding it in loops of Arcane-strengthened metal.
The Alpha's crystals flared. Noah felt the drain immediately, his mana reserves plummeting as the creature's absorption ability fought against his chains. It was a battle of attrition now, his ability against its. Unfortunately, the Alpha was winning. A hundred fifty levels was a lot to overcome, even for Noah.
Master, Tony said urgently. Tony can disrupt. But Tony will be empty. For a while.
"Do it."
Tony surged through their bond, spreading across Noah's arms and into the chains themselves. The symbiote's presence touched the Alpha's crystal network, and for one moment, everything connected.
[Symbiotic Disruption] activated
Tony shattered the crystals themselves.
Noah drove the Spear of Crimson End through the Alpha's skull.
Spear of Crimson End has inflicted [Crimson Rot-IV] on [Shardback Shimmerwolf Alpha]
Spear of Crimson End has applied [Bleed-V] to [Shardback Shimmerwolf Alpha]
You've applied [Wyrm's Curse] to [Shardback Shimmerwolf Alpha]
Light pulsed weakly in its crown as it tried to activate its siphon, tried to purge the afflictions before they could overwhelm it.
“Tony did it! Watch!”
Then the Alpha screamed as its own ability backfired, mana cascading through its body without direction, burning it from the inside out. Its crystals cracked, webbing with fractures that spread from spine to tail to crown.
The creature shuddered once, twice, and went still.
You've killed [Shardback Shimmerwolf Alpha (Rare) - lvl 499]
Wyrmblood Guardian has reached level 324.
Noah collapsed beside the corpse, gasping. His mana reserves were nearly empty, and Tony's presence in his mind felt distant, muted.
“Tony is tired,” the symbiote admitted, a note of frustration in his mental voice. That was new. “Tony did not know Tony could do that. But Tony needs to rest now.”
"Take your time," Noah said. "You earned it."
He lay there for a long moment, staring up at the twisted canopy far above, waiting for his breathing to steady. Then he remembered Aurelia was still fighting thirty wolves alone.
"Damn it."
He forced himself up and started running.
—
Seventeen wolves lay dead around her, their spines shattered, their fur scorched black. Aurelia herself stood in the center, sword planted in the ground to hold herself upright, flames barely flickering around her shoulders.
"Took you long enough," she said without looking up.
"I got delayed." Noah scanned the surroundings. The remaining wolves had fled, apparently deciding that two predators who could kill their Alpha and half their pack weren't worth pursuing. "You look terrible."
"You look worse."
"Fair point." He moved to stand beside her, surveying the battlefield. "That was harder than it should have been."
"That," Aurelia said, finally looking up at him, "was exactly as hard as fighting a level 499 Alpha in the middle of its territory should be. And we won, didn’t we?."
"We need to work on our coordination," he muttered, more to himself than anyone.
Tony agrees, the symbiote responded, his mental voice faint but present. Tony felt Master's confusion during the fight. We are lacking synchronization.
"Yeah. We’ll gradually gain it, though. We can do this, Tony!”
Tony is also tired, the symbiote added. That disruption ability. It was instinct… Tony did not know the cost. Tony needs more than a moment to recover.
That was new. Tony had never mentioned fatigue as a limitation separate from Noah's mana reserves. His B-Rank upgrade had changed more than just his speed, it also created new constraints they'd need to learn. And apparently unlocked new strengths, too.
"Take your time," Noah said. "We'll work on the coordination once you’ve recovered."
Aurelia sheathed her sword with a weary sigh. "Well. That was... something." She nudged one of the wolf corpses with her boot. "Though I think we both nearly died at least twice."
"The nearly is what counts."
Noah stored the Alpha's body, already imagining what materials he could harvest from those crystal plates. Then a glint of metal caught his eye, half-buried in the leaves nearby.
He brushed away the debris and found a sword. Human-sized, the blade pitted with corrosion but still recognizable. Someone had dropped this here and never retrieved it.
"Aurelia."
She came to his side, her expression sobering as she saw what he'd found. "That's adventurer gear. Recent, too, no more than a few years old, judging by the corrosion pattern."
"Someone else has been here."
"Someone who left in a hurry." She scanned the surrounding trees with new wariness. "Or didn't leave at all."
Noah tucked the sword into his Cosmic Vault and straightened. "Let's keep moving. Carefully."