29. Mount Saint Helens (IV)

Zane had been to a hot spring once. Yellowstone, when he was eight. His mom took him along with his brother Paul. He remembered thinking it was pleasant. Until Paul tricked him into leaning too far over the railing, and shoved him into one of the acid pools.

He still enjoyed the trip despite the burns. Even as a child, not a lot could move him. Seeing Old Faithful erupt a hundred and fifty feet in the air, glorious and triumphant, all ruddy in the dying afternoon light, feeling the dewy rush of it on his face—it moved him.

This hot spring didn't spurt quite so high, but it was wondrous in its own way. There was no water. Just essence, essence clumped so thick it became a kind of mist, heavier than air, spewing up and floating gently down, bright white rings spreading out on the basin floor, making a bubbling lake of pure light.

He made to pull off his shirt and wade in. Then Avery said, "Oh, there's no need. It's just essence. You won't get wet." Pause. She gave him a once-over. "I mean… if you want to—"

"…" He just strolled in. It felt like he'd strode into a sauna, but one whose feeling went beneath the skin, seeped through his whole body. If joy had a physical form, he imagined this is what it would feel like. A great warm bath for the soul.

It came from the essence pouring into him. The essence here was clumped so thick it beaded on his skin, and each little bead so about the same as a Moon Fruit's worth.

"It's totally different from E- and D-rank Treasure Zones, isn't it?" said Avery, grinning. She'd hopped in too. "Ah…"

"Yeah," he muttered, "You can actually feel it."

The growth he meant. If you spent a week loafing around here, doing nothing, he could probably gain a level. It was very nice.

Then, "Shit," said Avery. "Incoming!"

He blinked up at his mini map, red dots drawing in close.

"Those Lizards love essence springs," she said, wrinkling her nose. "Half these springs are just infested. They're clever little bastards too. Sometimes if they see us coming they'll camp out, wait for us to wade in, and then, well…"

He saw about dozens of them coming over the base and Ridge on either side. Most were high Level 30, some low Level 40s.

"Okay," said Avery, "I'll throw up a field mirage, make them think we're going right. Then we can slip left, and—Oh my god."

Around the big geyser of essence, a half-dozen smaller geysers of blood shot up.

Zane's Axes swept around for another loop. One Axe split a lizard down the middle, caught another by the neck, and a third through its rear legs.

The other Axe finished the job. He was starting to think of them as his one-two punch.

Avery blinked. "Fuck," she breathed. "Yeah. Definitely chose right."

Zane shot her a questioning look.

"There was another meathead up in Vancouver I was thinking of going with," she explained, "But yeah, you're definitely… what's the word I'm looking for? Y'know…" she flexed her nonexistent muscles and made a face. "Rawr! … smashier?"

"Please never do that again."

"… Sorry." Then she considered him. "Is that the first thing you think of when you see a problem? 'How can I break it?'"

"Pretty much."

"Huh. I respect it, honestly," she said, scratching her head.

He considered this 'treasure zone'. It was nice, sure. It would make a great addition to his faction. If he made this dungeon a Luminous Faction Safe Zone and sent his people on pilgrimages here, they'd all be Level 30s in just a few weeks. Their military might would skyrocket. This was worth a lot, faction-wise.

But as a personal resource… not so much. He was still better off killing bosses. And laying here bathing was doing very little to ease his boredom.

"Alright. Enough of this," he said. "Where's the boss?"

"No clue," said Avery. "I've only been here like a day. Which, by the way, was a day longer than I meant to be here. What took you so long? Anyway—the good news is, Stroud doesn't know either, and they've been combing this place for days. This brimstone Drake is a sneaky one. All we ever see are those minions. Never where they come from."

She pursed her lips. "It's a good thing, actually. In D-ranked dungeons, the best stuff's always on the second floor. Stroud's already cleared out most of the sunken chests in the Ash Forest—that's this floor. So there's nothing to do but keep looking for that boss."

She grinned at him again. "Lucky for you, you have me! We'll spot this thing in no time. Trust me."

***

'No time' turned out to be at least two hours of fruitless scouring later. He was seriously starting to doubt she knew what she was doing. He was also starting to get bored. One boss had already been cleared here, and all the sunken chests they came across were already looted. There really was nothing to do but search. And blast the occasional Lizard stupid enough to come for them. Avery was delighted whenever he did—"Dude, I've been running from those little shits for a day straight. This is awesome."

"… you can't even kill a Lizard?"

She squirmed a little. "Hey, I told you. Smashing things isn't my forte. That's your thing. We're all good at our things."

So far, he'd seen no evidence she was good at anything useful. She was good for spotting bogs and sitting on those weird ash trees, he supposed. Speaking of, actually—"How were you balancing on that tree earlier? It crumbled when I touched it."

"That's my Law. The Major Law of Harmonic Balance. It lets me flow through things, redirect things, balance things, balance on things…"

"Major Law?"

"That's right," she said proudly.

"How'd you get that?"

"You learn a bunch of related Minor Laws. Eventually, those Laws can be woven together to make a major Law. For instance, my Major Law's made up of Minor Laws of Rhythmic Motion, Physical Equilibrium, Physical Synchronicity, and Physical Reciprocity."

"Huh," he said. "How'd you learn four Laws that fast?"

"It's mostly my Title. Makes seeing things much easier. But I had a head start. I used to be a gymnast. You have to put yourself in situations where you experience the Laws you want to know. I mean, if you want to learn…say, a Fire Law, you wouldn't just stare at fire and wait for something to happen, right?"

In fact, that had been exactly what he thought he'd been doing. "…"

"Can't ride a bike by reading about it in a textbook! You have to get out there and feel it. So, I started balancing on stuff, and meditated on it, and balanced some more, that kind of thing. I found some Caverns and treasures in dungeons that boosted Law insight, and spent days in there. Things got more extreme. Bungee cables and skyscrapers got involved… Anyway. With my title, learning Minor Laws comes easy. The hardest part was putting them all together to make a Major Law."

"Is there that much of a difference?"

"Major is much better. It's a synthesis, y'know? More than the sum of its parts. It's really—" She stopped dead. Then looked around. They were in a clearing. A mild wind had turned up, and brushed some of the lesser ash trees off the path.

"Here," she said, grinning playfully. "Let me show you. Come at me. Let's have a spar."

He frowned. "… Really?"

"Wait, wait!" she said quickly. "But like, not with those Axes. Just fists. And keep it to 50% power, at least at first." She was eyeing his hands nervously. "If I screw up, you might actually break me."

"… I'll go light," he said.

"Cool. And I won't use any Skills. Just Law." She made a 'come hither' gesture, smirking. He shrugged and came hither.

She didn't move, even when he was within arm's reach of her. His raised brow went higher.

"Just hit me," she said impatiently.

She must have some trick keeping her safe. So he threw.

She didn't dodge at all, even as the fist drew frighteningly close—his fist was half the size of her head. Was she just kooky? He had a sudden vision he ended up accidentally splattering this very confused girl's brains over the ground. She seemed confused about everything else.

He halted his fist an inch from her nose. The wind of it whooshed past, fluttering her hair, making her eyes flutter too.

"What are you doing?" He said. "Dodge."

"No, don't stop," she said. "Keep—"

He punched her with that last inch of space. And felt something crunch.

"Fuck!" she screamed, doubling over, clutching at her face. Blood spurted between her fingers.

"…"

He'd broken her nose.

So his vision came true. That was... both expected and unexpected. On one hand, obviously. On the other, some part of them still believed she had some magic trick to get out of the way. You didn't get to Level 50 and a Signature Title by accident.

… Right? Suddenly, he wasn't so sure.

"Ogay, Ogay," said Avery. She sounded like her nose was clogged, probably because it was. She was holding it in place, breathing through her mouth. "Wasn't ready," she said. "I was still talking. Ah, shit—"

Something went wrong with her nose, and she bent over again. "Fuckfuckfuck—"

It took about 15 minutes for her natural regeneration to get her face back to normal.

Looking at her now, he was not impressed. How was it that this sad little creature had gotten that Level 54 Lightning Lord and all the cronies to fold? He was starting to think it was a mistake to let her tag along. She'd only get herself hurt.

"Okay," she said, "I'm good." She gave him a bright wobbly grin as though to prove it. "Let's go again. I've got it this time—"

"No," he said, "we're done."

"Seriously!"

He started walking away then stopped, something latch onto his leg, weighing it down. It was her. She'd dive-bombed it like a wide receiver. She glared up at him. "Try. Again."

He sighed.

"By the way," she said, getting up. "You have really thick legs. Felt like hugging a tree trunk."

He had no clue what to make of that.

This time he threw at 1% power. So slow you could've dodged it even if you were a Level 1 child.

And she did this time, kind of. At the very last moment. All she did was turn her cheek. And his punch flowed off her, slipped off her…there was a shimmer in the air, like his fist passed through a heat wave. Then his force was gently shifted, thrown out of the way.

It was the same shimmer he saw when his fire burned with Laws of Ignition. The Universe bending to her will.

"Huh," he said, blinking. "Neat trick." And he meant it.

He tried again, through a little harder, a little faster, and the same thing happened. "Keep going," she said, grinning. "That all you got?"

He did, he kind of tried to hit her this time. He threw a hook to her belly, and she turned with it, shifted. There was a shimmer where his fist tried to land, and all his force went another way. He was sent stumbling.

"What, you big dumb brute? Scared to hit a girl? Hit me!"

He sighed. "Just ask me to hit harder if that's what you mean. You're not going to rile me up. I don't work like that."

She threw him an exasperated look. "Okay, fine," she said. "Then hit harder."

His next punch was just as hard as the first punch—the one that broke her nose. But his hand had to pass through that warped veil around her. It couldn't. He was sent stumbling over himself again. She turned just a little. She'd barely moved, and she was grinning at him. "Harder!"

He chucked a haymaker at her. It slipped right off. He tried another, then another. Soon he was wailing full-on combinations. She kept lightly stepping, pivoting, twirling, shifting, in perfect flow. Smooth, dancing straight through him. It felt so weird. He forgot about holding himself back. He just tried to hit her, actually hit her. And he kept sort of hitting her, he kept touching her, and flowing off. Not bouncing off—just going another way, a way he hadn't meant. The universe was playing judo with his punches.

"Add in Laws if you want," she said airily. So he did. He stacked Ignition on the punch—and to his shock, it couldn't even ignite on her, it skidded right off that distortion field, flopping away. A patch of nearby ash caught fire.

Could he actually not hit her?

"Harder," she purred.

He groaned. "Why are you saying it like that?"

"...Sorry," she said, cringing. "But seriously, though. I saw how you were looking at me earlier. See?"

She spread her arms as though to say, look at me now. She looked quite smug.

"...Fair enough. What else can you do?"

She thought about it. "How much do you want to see?"

"Give me 50%. At least at first."

She grinned wickedly at him. Then she snapped her fingers.