320. The Gauntlet (V)
It seemed only then that Vadros started to appreciate the danger he was in.
The Prince was now the one with whiplash—he whirled around, pale eyes bloodshot, trying to find a way out, finding none. Whirling on Zane now, staring like he couldn't believe—would've never thought a creature like Zane could outmaneuver him.
And all the while, the walls closed in…
ℕ𝕠! shrieked Vadros, whirling back on Zane.
Shadows extended down the lengths of his claws. Sharpening, hardening, until their edges smoked.
𝕐𝕠𝕦'𝕕 𝕔𝕣𝕦𝕤𝕙 𝕞𝕖, 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕕𝕒𝕞𝕟𝕖𝕕 𝕒𝕡𝕖?! 𝕋𝕙𝕒𝕥'𝕤 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕞𝕒𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕡𝕝𝕒𝕟?! He sounded on the edge of hysteria. 𝕐𝕠𝕦'𝕝𝕝 𝕓𝕖 𝕓𝕝𝕠𝕠𝕕𝕪 𝕣𝕚𝕓𝕓𝕠𝕟𝕤 𝕝𝕠𝕟𝕘 𝕓𝕖𝕗𝕠𝕣𝕖 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕘𝕖𝕥 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕔𝕖!
And the Monster Prince lunged.
Zane's eyes were narrowed on him the whole time. Just feeling closely his state of mind—feeling as the fellow grew more wild, as he started falling apart, going jittery, then feral, ferocious—
This would be a very close thing.
Vadros descended in a black fury.
His domain pounced before him, a jagged maw of night looming over Zane, crashing down, a void streaked with teeth…
All Vadros's Bloodline had gone to blinding points, glinting down those shadowy blades.
The Monster Prince was going for broke.
If those things got on Zane and found their targets, he wasn't sure he could take it.
But if Zane could just get his hands on the fellow he was sure he could end him, too.
It was a game of chicken—and the stakes were life and death.
A world of bleakest night closed in, chased by a storm of thundering purple…
Zane set his jaw. Stared Vadros down in that split-second.
There would be just one try.
He bared his teeth.
The Prince laughed—a hyena sound—and blurred to speeds Zane could barely understand,
And his claws pierced Zane clean through.
***
𝑺𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆…
"My gods…" whispered Viria.
"The lad had that in his back pocket!" Summersteel was delighted. "But it looks like he hasn't got much left…"
Zane's body was shuddering—he was so torn open you could see the cords of muscle and tendons lit up with pure top-tier Godbeast Blood—see the inner workings of that great machine, bared, gored through…
He had to be on the edge of Critical Health.
They saw the flaming walls closing in. Saw Vadros losing his mind, pouring all his might into his claws…
Saw him pounce. A predator going for the kill.
It was clear what the Prince was slicing for. Zane's throat. Zane's heart.
He wanted to execute the big man in one fell swoop.
Every muscle on the Barbarian Sage's body was strung taught. "Come on, lad!" he bellowed.
There was a split-second where Vadros went hyper-sonic mid-air. Where their hearts leaped to their throats—
Zane's chains couldn't catch him. Vadros would strike first—and that would be the end. They hoped Zane could find it in him to block.
But the big man only moved at the last possible second.
An instant before impact—he stomped down. And jerked his whole body.
And every claw drove deep into him with sickening thuds. With so much force it brought him to a knee, staggered him. He roared, defiant, but there was a ragged edge to the sound. It was the death throes of a dying beast.
Blood showered out of him.
"No!" screamed Viria.
Spears of jagged void stuck Zane clean through. Spears smoldering with a poison that ripped up reality itself. Impaling him down their lengths, slick with his vital blood—breaking through all the muscle of his broad back, pinning him to the ground….
"Wait," breathed Summersteel. "Look—look where they've stuck him!"
Half those swords stuck through the right side of his chest. The others impaled his shoulder.
Just to the side of the neck. Just over the heart.
For a fraction of a heartbeat Vadros gaped. Like he couldn't believe he could miss. He tried pulling out his claws—
Then felt an arm as wide as his torso clamp down, and wheezed.
"Got you," Zane growled.
And exerted his force.
A deluge of crunches broke out. The sounds of entire bone systems shattering at once.
Then a scream of animal pain.
Vadros bucked, thrashed, howled, an animal caught in a trap. And in that moment Zane seemed to find a second wind.
There was a bright, hard look in his eyes.
It was a killer instinct.
He knew he had his prey caught. And he would not let this chance go.
Zane's arm crunched in strong. And all Vadros's pride seemed squeezed out of him in an instant, along with the air in his lungs—his eyes bulged, as he kicked, writhed, desperate to get away—
ℕ𝕆𝕆𝕆𝕆𝕆𝕆! shrieked the Prince.
But no matter how he bucked, Zane's arm was its own cage. Pinning the Prince down.
The last thing Vadros choked out as the walls closed in—𝕋𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕤𝕥𝕣𝕖𝕟𝕘𝕥𝕙—he gasped. ℍ𝕠𝕨 𝕔𝕠𝕦𝕝𝕕 𝕔𝕠𝕦𝕝𝕕 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕓𝕖 𝕤𝕠— ?!
Then he was lost in a pyre of Stormfire.
Flames descending on a new meal, on raw flesh softened up by the brutal application of force, made vulnerable as the fires, tinged with Destruction, invaded. And did their nasty work. Sinking past the skin—
Finding the lifeblood beneath.
The flames grew blinding-bright. And for a few seconds the silhouette of a Monster Prince clawed against the blaze…
Then the light faded.
And there was silence.
Zane slumped.
***
He floated in the dark.
He blinked. Looked around.
He remembered seeing a Critical Health! notification. Feeling his Health dipping quite fast toward zero. He remembered feeling a steely conviction not to let go.
Then, silence.
He floated there a while in that warm blackness. It gave him a bit of time to think—it was rather pleasant in that way.
Things worked out quite well in the end there.
In fights like these, usually he wasn't having much fun for most of it. The end, though, made up for it.
That was quite the satisfying crunching.
Zane had picked up a few things in his time bird fighting that came in handy. Reina liked giving him post-fight analyses too on their long walks, and he quietly absorbed a lot. In the end it came down to chasing them down. Either you went to them or you forced them to come to you.
It was much harder to do the second thing, usually. The cage helped him nicely there.
He hoped he wasn't dead. He'd spent a worrying amount of time in the dark by then… he frowned. He'd made a promise to Reina. He wasn't to die here.
If the light didn't show itself soon, he decided he would go looking for a way out. He would fight his way out if he had to.
Soon, though, a fuzzy murmuring came through—sound. He was pleased to see the light returning to him too, fuzzy pale colors at at first, then sharpening, gaining contrast.
He seemed to be alive after all.
Then a sensation—cold. And the world was shuddering.
𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!
𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!
𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!
𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!
𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!
𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕦𝕡!
𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟜𝟜𝟝 -> 𝟜𝟝𝟙
𝕊𝕜𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕦𝕡!
ℙ𝕣𝕠𝕞𝕖𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕦𝕤 ℕ𝕠𝕠𝕤𝕖 [𝕌𝕟𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕞𝕠𝕟 (ℍ)] 𝕀𝕀𝕀 -> 𝕀𝕍
He thought at first there was some kind of Earthquake. Then the Barbarian Sage's voice came through.
"Don't you die on me now, lad!"
Zane seemed to be being shaken quite vigorously. Another shock of cold hit him in the face—ice water.
Zane blinked. "I'm fine," he informed the Sage.
"Oh," said the Sage. A pause. Then he buried Zane in a bear hug.
"You damned bull, you!" he said. He was grinning but a little teary-eyed, too; Zane was surprised to see. "Beautiful damned fight," said the Sage, sniffling. "That's the stuff a man's made of, eh? That's when you show what you are—and damned if you didn't show it!"
He was squeezing Zane so hard Zane's face was going a bit red.
He pulled back, still wearing that proud grin. "Well! Looks like we sure found that limit of yours, eh?"
Zane nodded.
"You gave us a scare there, lad," chuckled Summersteel.
Behind him Viria nodded. "Zane… that was incredible," she breathed. She touched him on the arm, brow furrowed—"Are you really alright?"
Somewhere far, far away, Reina was in the middle of giving a speech to her high council when she paused and frowned.
Every elf in that chamber flinched at once—their beautiful Mistress had gone from cheerful, to glowering with a sudden killing intent.
It passed quickly—no-one was quite sure where that came from.
Back at the Conclave—
"I am healed," said Zane. He felt there was nothing to fuss about. Then yawned. "…A bit tired."
Tired in soul more than body. He was healed physically, but he still felt exhausted—that kind of fight took something out of you.
Even physically, he felt the lingering muscle stimulus. He'd crushed so hard that fight he expected some growing.
"I'll bet!" the Barbarian Sage helped him up. "Day's done, folks! Show's over. I'd say the lad's earned a good long rest."
He gave Zane a head ruffle.
It was agreed that Zane would head home, get fully ready.
When he returned, it'd be time for the final stretch of his physical training this stint. Capped by a second go at the Titan's Trials.
***
After all that, Zane headed back on home. His doorman—an elite Luminous Faction guard—handed him two letters.
The first was from Evan, about his progress on his quest. The first Boss, the evil wizard Malachor, had plunged Planet Rya into eternal night where vampires and ogres roamed constantly, terrorizing the native villagers. Evan was determined to set things right.
It hadn't started smoothly. Evan had gotten beaten up fighting some of the evil wizard Malachor's minions. Zane frowned.
Some of the villagers, though, helped Evan make a full recovery. And Evan made some friends along the way, too, including an old woman shaman and a blacksmith's son, who gave him a treasure to help ward off the vampires.
This turned out quite helpful. With a new Power of Friendship boost, Evan fought his wall all the way up Malachor's wizard tower. Malachor proved trouble, though—as a mind mage, he inflamed his enemies' worst feelings. Evan got all frozen scared and nervous again at first.
But then he remembered his new friends, who were counting on him, and Reina and Avery and Zane, who inspired him to stand up for himself every day. In the end, he saved Planet Rya once and for all.
Zane was a bit concerned. Evan was a very good bird, but he wasn't meant to be hit much. That was what he was for, as far as Zane was concerned.
It was a good thing Evan was halfway done with the quest, it sounded like. He would've felt better if Evan was fighting behind him.
When he told Reina about this later, she said that mind-screw spell did sound like the kind of thing Zane would eat for breakfast.
The second letter came from Avery.
She was still on her quest for the Sacred Godbeast Bone in the Endless Sea. It turned out it was being auctioned off.
This was very nearly the best day of Avery's life. Until she discovered there was another hefty bidder, a young master backed by a Great Elder of Mount Thundercrest—and after buying that one cloud-making machine, her net worth might just barely not be enough.
She was now frantically trying to sell everything she could before it started. She asked if Zane was interested in a slightly used refridgerator.
"…"
***
Reina came back later that day in a bit of a strange mood.