Eye of the Storm (Part 2)

Rowan could feel what each and every falcon was feeling, and it was through him that they all executed the same technique in perfect unison. They reached unimaginable speeds that became little more than purple beams raining from the sky. Garda saw the danger in this attack and rapidly wrapped himself in several domes of earth, leaving the rest of the Evergreen college zombies to the fate of the beams. They hit in perfect unison and the entire area flashed purple. It blew a massive hole in the ground and obliterated the majority of the field. Garda released the domes and roared at the sky, looking at the carnage around him as his power slowly declined due to the loss of his subordinates.

Rowan saw another message flash, but he ignored it. He wanted Garda dead, and this was his opportunity, but how at this rate? It was right when he was thinking this that Akari intervened once again and guided him and the power that was the storm. More than half of the blood crystals left shattered when the red mist began to form the shape of a person. It slowly began to look more and more like Rowan until it was a replica of him but, at the same time, different. His hair was longer and ended in beautiful locks and was nearly completely the purple color of the lightning.

Purple tattoos moved across the body of their own accord. The body began to fall from the clouds, and he was acutely aware that it would be no easier to move on his own. The storm began to strike him with purple lightning, but he was Un affected by it. The lightning supercharged him as the purple hair began to sparkle with lightning. The lightning wrapped around his body and formed a slim leather like body armor that coated his limbs. He clenched his fist and two lightning bolts struck them and formed magnificent daggers with blades shaped like lightning bolts.

He lightly landed on the ground and looked up at Garda, who, despite the changes, seemed to recognize him. He roared and charged and Rowan smiled, still feeling the massive changes that not even he fully understood. The daggers danced in his hands and he shot forward like a beam of light. Garda unsheathed the massive sword from his back and swung it, causing a wave of sharp earth to surge towards Rowan. He never even bothered changing direction as lightning formed a barrier around his body and he surged right through the wall of earth and made it in front of Garda with a mighty raptor call.

It was reminiscent of a clap of thunder which caused blood to pour from his ears and him to roar and pound on his head. Rowan struck in the same moment as he dove with both daggers piercing forward. Garda swung the great sword down with one hand but at the same time the earth rose to cage them in and make this a close-quarters battle and limit Rowan's movement. Rowan was going to burst out when Garda reinforced it with even more mana. Rowan chose to ignore the cage for now and spun on his toes and out of the way of the sword and at the same time swung out his left arm, the dagger headed for his neck.

The cage shook as Rowan commanded the storm to bombard it. Garda moved his spine in a way no living human would be able to and leaned back to avoid the blow, his back completely parallel to the ground. This caused him to come back up with massive momentum and try to wrap Rowan in a bear hug. Rowan lightly hopped and balanced one hand on top of Garda's massive forearm, and the cage shook again. Rowan used the strength of his fingers to launch himself toward the ceiling of the cage that was close to 30 feet up. He ground his teeth, not enough strength to reach a higher speed, but it would have to do. Rowan pushed off of the ceiling while creating a purple storm point every ten feet in between them.

Finally, as he pushed off, he activated storm steps at the same time that lightning struck from above and the combined forces from above and below blew a hole right through the top of the cage. Rowan became a massive purple falcon as he connected to each storm point and the world slowed to a crawl, everything but him and Garda. He shot by, but the zombie still reacted in time.

He swung the massive sword that glowed brown with both hands as massive spear-shaped stalagmites crafted from the earth rose with the swing. Rowan maintained clarity as the rain pouring through the hole in the roof restored his 360 degree vision. He blurred through the onslaught while only making slight adjustments to dodge the terrifying attack coming towards him. He slid through the final gap and seemed to magically slither to the side by turning his body fully sideways in the final moment. He passed the blade by centimeters and struck out with his right arm, stabbing it into Garda's lower abdomen and causing all of his momentum to drag them backwards towards the cage wall.

Rowan yanked the blade upward and tore a gash so deep that insides began to spill out. The stopping caused the residual force to rip through easily while they slid; he stabbed his left dagger into Gardas shoulder to stop himself. He then positioned his feet behind him and began super charging storm steps while he controlled the storm once again to curve the lightning around the cage and strike right where his feet touched.

He achieved the desired effect once again and blew a hole right through the side of the cage and dragged them both through it. He yanked downwards and slammed Garda into the ground and stabbed down towards his neck with both daggers in his hand. Garda slapped a palm to the earth at that time and a stalagmite directly tore through the wound that Rowan had left and struck for his throat, forcing him to back off.

Rowan never felt tired during this, just utterly satisfied he could have never imagined a situation like this, but he was loving it. Garda stomped and figures rose from the ground, shambling and made of rock. They combined into an earthen wolf that charged. All the while, Garda placed a hand on the earth. The entire field began to tremble before countless pillars shot from the surrounding ground. The wolf attacked and Rowan dispatched with a single swing, but Garda had already created a forest of stone pillars.

He began to charge through the pillars, his body melting through them like they weren't here and his feet sliding across the earth faster than anything of his size should be capable of. The earth from the different pillars latched onto his body and his sword shrunk down to normal size from a great sword to a milky brown long sword. Earth wrapped around Garda and turned him into a hulking mass of earth, only revealing his head as he looked down on Rowan, the long sword now no bigger than a combat knife in his hands. His lifeless voice ringing out with what Rowan could detect was happiness.

"I, too, prefer small weapons." He moved faster than ever before, no doubt moving the entire earth suit as easily as he raised these massive towers of stone. He slashed down and Rowan dodged, but the knife chased him like a snake. He smashed both daggers into it, forcing it off course, but still causing it to strike his shoulder, causing both him and Akari to both gasp in pain. He did not expect to be able to feel pain in this form, but the wound itself quickly sealed itself with rain, and lighting. Rowan grimaced and a tense battle began between the pillars, with blades dancing and lights flashing.

Rowan slid into a pillar that tried to swallow him and shattered it with an elbow backward, causing it to fall but it did not cause the others to topple, just held it broken and in place.

He was about to engage again when Akari turned his attention elsewhere. "Rowan, that's it. You're out of time, you've gotta pull out of this, and we need to stop me from killing you." It was at that moment that she realized she had messed up wrapped in the fight and there was a lot less time left. Rowan's cyan mental form shook with frustration. "No! I only need ten minutes more. I've got something good. Twenty minutes will be enough time to save me!" Rowan seemed almost crazed and Akari seemed slightly saddened by that.

"Are you truly treating this like just another one of your games, Rowan? This is real! This is your life you are playing with, this is why we haven't talked in months. The whole time ever since we left the orphanage you've just moved from one accomplishment to the next, whether mental or physical, bringing a memento of them back here with pride in your eyes. Rare stones from the top of mountains, impossible flowers from the bottom of ocean trenches."

"You are incapable of taking a moment to stop collecting accomplishments that you have time in your life for nothing else. It was why you could hardly stop for a moment to love back the girl turned woman who has loved you since she was fifteen! Nothing matters to the great Rowan Raid more than his accomplishments, not even his own life!"

"That's why he's come back beaten bruised and battered and each time instead of telling him that you would crumble into nothing if anything ever happened to him, you know that would instead push him away so you tell him what he wants to hear, how proud I am that you have completed another accomplishment."

This time Akari's mental form moved over and hugged herself close to the still stunned Rowan and whispered the words into his chest. "But it's never enough, isn't that right? Rowan, because it's me telling you that I'm proud of you and not your parents." She felt him flinch and try to move but she held tight and shortly after his struggling stopped and he let out a steep sigh as tear shaped stars began falling from his eyes as Akari said the final part, the part that needed to be said the most.

"Rowan, don't you think it's time you let your parents go? I can promise you whatever your stat page looked like before, what it will look like after this will be the difference between the heavens and the ground because of the corner you have forced us into. It's going to activate a weird skill of mine. If me and you are able to grow this fast, then how many others will do the same? If you treat these existences as another trophy to hang up back here, then you are going to die!"

"So if any part of you ever loved me, Rowan Raid, please don't let ghosts be the cause of your ruin." She went to her toes and took Rowan's face in her own before stealing his lips, surprising him, but he kissed her back. He gently pushed her form away. "So you said we wouldn't work, it was just so that you wouldn't hold me back from chasing after my next thing?" She nodded her head. He shook his head and sighed. "I've been so blind Akari." She immediately threw her hand up. "NO! You can't say a word more Rowan, because you see once again I was putting you first, and I decided to give you the ten minutes before I pulled you out because we are connected and I can palpably feel how bad you want this in here."

"I don't know what's driving you to it, but I didn't pull you out before because I was as wrapped in the fight as you were and your feelings for it all clouded over my own clarity. When I finally woke up, I called out to you, but I also noticed that we only had a minute left.

You've been ignoring the messages as well, but you haven't noticed that the time is slowed right now because it's not you that's turning in the quest. The slow time is affecting you because you are nearby when I'm completing a quest."

Rowan audibly gulped and finally looked towards their bodies, where two large fangs protruded from Akari's mouth and gently bit down into Rowan's neck. Rowan expected to see her tear away a large portion of his throat, but she didn't. She just gently sucked for several seconds. She pulled back and her vermillion eyes stared down into Rowans; he felt it all like he was in both places at once. Somehow he was the storm, but he was also Rowan Raid in his own flesh. Just without the ability to move.

Akari gently kissed the spot on his neck several times before a light that Rowan had seen in them once before flashed through them. He turned his thought form to her in the mind space. "Akari, what are you doing?" She sighed and shook her head. "What I had to do to save you? While You may have gotten one quest, I got one extra quest." She did a trick with her hands and she was able to show the quest she received.

[Save Rowan Raid!: Rowan Raid is a brilliant Genius and a being of immense potential but he has still failed to take this world anymore seriously.] [Comment:While both of you are tier zero existences Rowan's soul is slightly more special, his feelings in this new state will be laid bare before you as will his motive it will be suffocating, in the time available resist being overwhelmed by his soul and use this information to save him from himself during the storm.]

[Reward: Blood Essence of Rowan raid] [Comment: This reward while monumental for you comes at a price, your new race has a deep connection to blood, Rowan's blood essence will elevate you to a new level and cause a mutation in your bloodline and several of your skills thanks to your locked skill Carnal Evolution]