Lev breathed in deep with difficulty, his entire body shivering like a leaf in the wind. Besides him, everyone else had passed out. Even Beatrice was knocked out cold, her unconscious body trembling violently inside the powered armor.
Tying them all against the walls of the small bubble, he mentally adjusted to the loss of the Intelligence buff as quickly as he could. His skills were slightly weaker now, and even his Perception was affected by the loss of manipulation range.
Time was running out. Willpower, as damaged as it was, needed to be deployed. Lev didn’t take any risks and only selectively empowered his armor and all associated manipulation, while keeping another chunk ready to act on his bubble. Still, that was far from all he could bring out, though any more would be disastrous.
The Stormfury’s aura continued to just exist. It wasn’t actively hostile, something extremely rare for a monster, nor was it looking to impede the Earthen Devourer or Lev in any way.
Unfortunately for him, his teeth wouldn’t stop chattering as emotions overwhelmed his mind. Fear ran rampant, and regardless of how much he tried to ignore it, the terror was inescapable.
Hopelessness and overwhelming adversaries were old friends, except he hadn’t ever come face to face with something like that monster.
Time to prepare wouldn’t have mattered against such opposition, and the monster didn’t give him any anyway. Its presence became sadistic again, but then he reassessed the situation when the presence started to move.
It reached the devourer in a blink, easily shearing through flesh and bone to reach the bubble. Only Lev’s preparation saved all the humans from instant death.
The drill tilted to the side, drilling slightly to the right. Connected, the bubble was dragged along that new trajectory, just barely dodging a lethal lightning bolt.
Lev’s eyes were wide as he took in the projectile, able to see it for a single moment due to the proximity. Inside that attack was a single feather, and it was packed with so much willpower that it felt like looking at the monster itself.
The brush also revealed some depressing yet important points. First, the feather had so much mana in it that he would need to watch out for the lightning bolt’s return. Second, the Stormfury could easily observe him through the feather, though by using means he couldn’t even begin to decipher. Third, his pools were tiny compared to the power inside the feather.
They really weren’t going to make it out alive, but he would be damned if he didn’t do his best.
A gear shifted in his head. No more did his mortal limitations register, not in that freed mind. Only the state of his willpower was considered, and all other concerns were simply shelved away.
Perception spread out as wide as it could, and so did his full aura. A part of him noticed how the lightning bolt had ripped through stone as if it were air, but the rest of him was looking through the same stone, past the Earthen Devourer and straight into the Stormfury’s eyes. He could feel it watching his every move, and he wasn’t about to give it the satisfaction of a rat’s death. It would face a human’s resolve till the very end.
Another lightning bolt ripped a hole through the devourer, almost clipping the bubble. Lev guided it out of the way at the last second, looking straight at the feather inside.
An almost visible eye stared back, the pupil emotionless but so very expressive. Two more bolts followed in quick succession, and this time, there was no room to dodge.
Finding the best angle, he pinned the bubble to the tunnel wall, letting the first pass by harmlessly. The second was close behind, giving him just enough time for one move. An orb exploded between the bubble and the wall it was pinned against, pushed inside that cramped space just in time.
Lev and everyone else smashed into the other side of the small tunnel, and he had to drag Beatrice out of the way as the bolt tore through a section of the bubble, just barely missing the drill underneath.
Mana Perception prickled the back of his neck just in time. The bubble rocked to the other end of the tunnel violently, saving the drill from being destroyed by a returning bolt.
It passed mere inches from him, as he had stupidly decided to put everyone behind him. What was his armor even going to accomplish in the face of those bolts?
Unfortunately, the matter of putting himself on the front or using someone else as a cover didn’t even cross his mind. All of his focus was dedicated to the bubble’s movements, one that shrank even more.
Over the next minute, an eternity for his Perception that the monster was giddily matching, the bubble was reduced to the size of a round dinner table. Everyone was tied to its walls to remain somewhat stable. The drill remained the same size, carving a tunnel that provided more room to move around in now.
He had tried accelerating, though that didn’t make much of a difference. The Stormfury could kill him from hundreds of meters above ground, and yet it probably just disintegrated its way underground, never more than two hundred meters away from the bubble. It naturally also kept up with the drill without an issue.
By now, Lev was dealing with a dozen bolts. The monster didn’t bother creating more of them, just sending them back at him after every dodge.
Three of them silently roared towards him, the feathers inside them providing all the fuel they could possibly need. His eyes hardened even more, recognizing the futility of his actions.
The first was dodged by the barest margins, leaving just enough time for the bubble to jerk to the side, evading the second.
In that moment, however, his Perception finally saw an upgrade as Mana Perception evolved. He almost wished it hadn’t.
Lightning erupted inside the bubble, stressing its structure until parts of it melted off from the overwhelming infusion. Another three lightning bolts, barely noticeable, tried to skewer the humans from below, whereas one of them was still descending towards Lev’s face.
They moved tauntingly slowly, very, very slowly compared to what the Stormfury could achieve at full strength. He still tried his best, somehow moving out of the first’s way, leaving only the three below.
What little space he had wasn’t enough. Disconnecting the bubble from the drill, he twisted it until it was horizontal, except the three bolts were going to reach him in the same instant. There was no way to dodge them all.
Time was already moving slowly as he squeezed every drop of Perception for all it was worth, but it somehow became even more sedate during that moment.
Some part of him sobbed inside at the choice he was forced to make. In that state of mind, however, there was no hesitation. He still tried, evading two of the attacks and squeezing the bubble against the tunnel as much as he could, hoping against all odds that the last bolt would miss.
Reality wasn’t willing to cooperate with him. So without letting his brain second-guess itself, he spun the bubble, bringing Beatrice as far away from the bolt and sacrificing the scouts instead.
Two of them died immediately. The youngest scout and the girl who had informed Lev about Drakys’s notice about looking for adventurers to accompany him.
He hadn’t even bothered to learn their names.
Tongs of extremely compressed lightning lanced from the contact, one of them eviscerating the old scout leader’s head and showering Lev’s armor with blood and gore.
The rest faltered against hastily formed shields, destroying them with ease. It was the same lack of resistance that saved everyone else. Lightning easily disintegrated whole shields; the fuel consumed rapidly to erase every last inch of the solidified mana.
He couldn’t even take a moment to breathe and assess the situation. All the bolts were now returning, and the next wave would claim even more lives. His own life could be snuffed out just as easily as everyone else’s.
The earlier mana that had been stuffed inside Stargazer’s enchantments had been largely wasted. Some of it still lingered, kept inside by the intricate and dense web of runes.
Lev targeted that small reserve first, using it to power all the enchantments related to the blade. His own pool supplied the mana for both a pure mana slash, and for the runes he was carving on the bubble.
There wasn’t much he could do. Not anymore. Whatever he tried would be rendered moot with a single thought from the monster.
But, then again, what else could he do? Lev shut off the last few bits of thoughts still trying to worm their way into his brain. Those would only be a hindrance. Instead, he carved.
Concealments, Lightning Surge, Flameforged Constitution, and several other formations came into existence in the tiny bubble over the next few seconds. Not given a chance to even appreciate his two evolved General Skills, he simply powered up the enchantments.
A shuddering breath escaped his lips. Stargazer trembled from how tightly he gripped her pole. He felt ashamed that he had almost sacrificed her earlier, so he kept her close now. They would go down together, fighting till their last breath.
Unbidden, a shiver ran down his spine, the source right next to him, somehow undetected. Lev looked up, aware that the Stormfury could feel his movements without trouble. It looked back with its unnervingly stable sadism.
So, he smiled and gave it a middle finger, ensuring that his aura depicted the meaning with full clarity.
All twelve lightning serpents whirled towards his position, no longer content with just toying with him. Lev’s smile widened, his smugness yet again displayed by his aura. That was enough to tip the Stormfury over the edge.
It dove, and smashed beak-first into stone. No longer was it mundane. The monster jumped back in alarm, avoiding incredibly sharp spikes that suddenly grew out of the cavern.
Below, Lev didn’t see any of that. His entire focus was on the approaching bolts and the Hunter about to tackle them. Like the day he had been dragged into the dungeon by a large hand, the Hunter’s claws also extended, clashing with the bolts. Terrifying implications about who or what the massive hand back then belonged to were ignored.
Multiple skills were present in their claws during that single clash, and yet, the Hunter almost lost their hands in that single exchange. Lev burnt that single moment into his mind, swearing on Monarch that he would see this debt repaid, one way or another.
Then he was off. Tied to the bubble like everyone else, shadow mana concealed it as best as it could as a deeper layer came alive with lightning.
His eyes kept returning to the corpses during that brief launch. With an effort of will, he ignored them and overloaded the drill and powered up Lightning Surge.
The effect was immediate. In a blink, cracks spread through the drill, requiring his constant focus to keep it going. Stone sped past his eyes, and he kept the bubble going horizontally but also angled slightly downwards, praying to Kassavin that he wasn’t going even further away from human lands.
There was simply no way to know.
However, it became obvious within moments that the Hunter could not keep the bird back for too long. Their strength wasn’t in doubt, but the adversary was a whole evolution above them. Lev had dared hope for more than a few seconds, though he was prepared for that not to be the case.
Abruptly, the drill changed direction, now going upwards. Three lightning serpents were hot on his tail, and the Hunter was right behind them.
He had to buy time. Slowing down the bubble, he let one serpent get close before jerking downwards. Combined with a burst of mana, he accelerated and forced the serpent to slow down and change direction. It fell behind the other two, allowing the Hunter to cleave it in three with a single swipe.
Lev had already left the resulting explosion far behind. He was going up again, barely staying ahead of the other two serpents with jerky movements. They were about to catch up though, so he gambled that his speed would be enough.
Seconds felt like hours as the bubble ascended. For a moment, he felt distant rumbles, and less than a blink later, the drill broke through the surface.
Gray and blue clouds and a drizzle greeted Lev. Looking back, his resolve dimmed when he felt the serpents merely a few dozen meters behind him. The Hunter was right behind them, their claws shining in his Perception, mid-strike.
Seeing that he only had to deal with one serpent, Lev made a decision. The Stormfury was still somewhere far away, casually observing it all from that distance. All his efforts hadn’t let him escape, and he would rather limit the casualties as much as possible.
Barrier threads binding him to the bubble disintegrated. He floated out of the construct just as one of the serpents exploded far below, forcing him to fly backwards to escape the heat and flames that somehow reached the surface.
Only one of the active skills remained. Stargazer was filled with lightning, nearly bottoming out his pool. There was enough mana for a single decisive Fracturing Wave, but he didn’t launch it. Not yet.
As the bubble sped beyond him with the help of several slotted cores, he hoped his instincts about the landing angle would be correct. The drill would keep spinning, taking the dozens of meters underground after the impact, while the weaker concealments would remain active.
Come on, he breathed out, some of his mental faculties returning to focus on the task at hand. Don’t fail me now. What can be more inspirational than a whole ass fourth-threshold lightning monster?
Willpower roused, protesting with a searing pain. He forced it to narrow to the edge of the blade, targeting only a fraction of the stored lightning.
Lev’s plan was simple. Attempting a breakthrough would likely be quite destructive, so he wanted to evolve a small portion of the lightning and learn to do the same for the remaining mana on the fly.
And so, he focused. He had observed lightning, seen its erratic nature, the order in its chaos, the destructive potential, the guided empowerment, the explosiveness born of quantity, the precision and the resulting quality, the brimming strength and so much more.
The element was diverse and powerful beyond belief. He was well aware of his shortcomings and what little he had scratched off its potential. But he needed more, or Beatrice would die, and so would the scouts.
Using the same method he had used to evolve fire into blue flames, he dove inside the lightning mana. A desire was the missing key back then, and he tried to imbue it with the same.
What did he want from lightning? Speed was the first answer. Power the second. Those qualities had always made it stand out, and he still wanted them more than anything else.
Corpses flashed past his eyes.
He wanted it to remain dependable. Untamed, yet still guidable. Tight control would only hamper the element, as it always had whenever he tried to be too precise.
Lightning, easily killing the scouts. A byproduct killing the leader.
Lev squeezed his eyes shut. He couldn’t lose focus, not now. Their survival depended on whether he could-
His eyes snapped open. The approaching serpent had covered only half the distance so far, but it wasn’t even coming towards him. Instead, it was locked onto the distant bubble carrying the unconscious humans.
The meditative state of mind evaporated. All of his suppressed emotions overwhelmed him completely in a tide. Anger, as always, roared the loudest, protesting the unfairness of it all.
How could he have known that his curiosity would have such a steep price?
The rational part of his mind, still whole and sane, realized the hopeless situation and continued anyway. All the negativity was focused on Stargazer’s blade, channeled almost like mana as it empowered the lightning.
Willpower was dragged along, for the emotions were too strong for Lev to control. He didn’t care, regardless. Desire bloomed in his mind, and all he could think about was the only time the Stormfury’s skill had been bested. By a monster, no less.
I want it to die.
A platform formed beneath his feet, giving him the ground to assume a proper stance on.
I want its element to turn against it. To force lightning to become its downfall. I want it to lose hope, to feel the same despair I do right now.
Fracturing Wave was shaped one last time, raring to go.
I want it to be devoured from the inside out.
His muscles tensed. Stargazer almost moved on her own accord, guided by his mind. But Lev didn’t. He couldn’t.
Color drained from his face, and all of the muscles in his body seized. Shivers wracked his body as the Stormfury’s attention narrowed to a pinpoint, except it wasn’t on him.
The monster, the human, and the Hunter all froze for a split second as red bloomed inside Stargazer’s blade.
Lev was pretty sure lightning wasn’t supposed to be red, even when evolved.
Even as he watched, more of the new element came into existence by itself. Only the infused willpower kept it contained to a thin line along the blade’s edge. The moment it was stabilized and ready, it would devour the rest of the infused lightning.
Terror overtook everything else he was feeling. Not once had he felt a fear so potent since looking at the Chaos Core, not even when he was at death’s door.
He was the next in line; Lev could feel that in his bones. The red would claim Stargazer just as assuredly as it would claim him afterwards, and he would be powerless to stop it.
With a scream containing all his desperation, he hurled the quickly destabilizing slash at the approaching serpent. Through sheer luck, the Fracturing Wave impacted it during the insanely fast flight, both of them now moving faster than he could track.
And yet, it wasn’t enough. Not even close. The serpent’s trajectory was altered marginally by the force of the wave, and even a few tiny chunks of it were sheared off by the red lightning.
That was all it did, though. The remaining normal mana exploded, destroying the red lightning and failing to slow down the serpent any further.
Fortunately, that was just enough for a certain force of nature to notice his location.****A/N: Apologies for the delay. I have not been in a stable state of being for some time, and writing is incredibly difficult. Do tell if the chapter turned out to be alright. It was planned to be epic, but life really got in the way.