Rune Seeker

Hiral punched out with his left hand, spearing the first bat with Death Knell, then swept the same hand up and down. The glowing blue blade followed his motion to drive itself into the stone of the disc right beside a startled Dr. Benza. A thread of solar energy ignited Cutting Field, and a new column of blue light covered the entire platform.

That should make any monsters regret landing here even more.

Leaving that weapon where it was, Hiral lashed out with a spinning Stormstrike to cut the wing from another bat while he pulled the Blightsteel Sabre under control. Once again with two weapons dancing beside him, and his doubles at his side, the music of the Chord of the Primal Echo washed across him like a refreshing wind.

A wind of death that cut down all comers.

More and more of the monsters managed to successfully land on the speeding platform despite the invisible razorblades slicing across their flesh, but that just gave Hiral and the others more targets. The six infernal wolves of The Pack finally had a chance to show their worth, leaping in pairs to savage anything that got close.

While one would nip at legs—nips that often simply removed legs—the second would go for the exposed throat. A thrash, a gush of blood, and the maimed monster got thrown off the edge. As if the terrifying teeth weren’t enough, the spines that sprang from their joints and along their back extended as they joined the battle, and their eyes glowed with deep red light. A single swipe of a clawed foot was enough to disembowel, while powerful flaming jaws popped monster skulls when they got the chance.

As Hiral spun and danced across the disc, swords cutting apart enemies from edge to edge at his gestures, he turned his attention up. The wolves had the platform covered, but that wouldn’t mean a damn thing if an unlucky monster crashed right down on Laseen, Fenil, or Dr. Benza.

A twist and a thrust with both arms drove his swords into a creature that would’ve done just that, sending pieces spinning off the sides of the disc, but he needed to switch weapons. Letting both swords return to their spots floating beside him, Hiral spun power into his Runes of Time Contraction and Dilation.

Everything around him slowed in an instant until it felt like the world had paused, the familiar pressure building in the back of his skull.

Looking ahead, he spotted the edge of a city very similar to the one from the previous island. But the Growers don’t have buildings like ours... No, that was a question for later. The disc would reach it within a minute at the speed it was going. That still left plenty of time for bats to make their way onto the platform, and the swords had been his best weapons for the job. With them basically on cooldown to keep Ever Changing+ going, it was time to… test something.

First, Hiral coated the inside of the blue dome with energy from his Rune of Sealing, then tied himself to the disc itself with his Rune of Gravity. Next, he surrounded his fists with powerful Runes of Impact and prepared Runes of Rejection under his feet. Finally, with the pressure in his skull building into the realm of uncomfortable, his eyes picked out six of the bats within the dome.

As an added bonus, View kicked in to give him a name for what he was fighting.

Screeching Bats – Low-C-Rank

Guess that explains the ability they used…

Letting the commentary in his head slip away, he released his hold on the two time runes, then grabbed on tight to the Chord. Rejection launched him up at an angle, clipping the first bat with a punch that took its head clean off. Blood still trailing him, Hiral flipped in the air, his feet landing against planes of Rejection on the inside of the now sealed dome, then rocketed off again.

Like a high-speed pinball, Hiral bounced around the inside of the domain he’d created, Impact-enhanced fists and feet smashing Screeching Batswith every pass. As the seconds ticked down on Ever Changing+, he let the runes around his knuckles fade and pulled his new Bestial Axes into his hands.

The bone handles were cool to the touch, but a kind of primal growl filled his mind. The axes didn’t just draw blood; they wanted blood. Well, he was going to give them plenty of it.

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Falling like rain, most of the bats continued to miss, but it was just a numbers game. With hundreds coming down, more and more were bound to make it on. Atn and Dex pushed to their maximum, Hiral cut back and forth through the air—never stopping, never slowing—as he focused on the monsters with a line on the NPCs. Those that would crash to the stone floor of the platform, he left for his doubles and the voracious wolves, and his axes cut, cut, cut monsters apart.

Within five seconds, he already had a Frenzy stack, making the axes a sweeping blur of bloody bone, and got a second just as Ever Changing+ ticked down towards zero. Regretfully letting go of the devasting axes, Hiral flashed back down to the center of the platform, then brought Stormstrike and the Blightsteel Sabre back under his control since their cooldown for use had expired.

The two weapons moved through the air like greased lightning, thanks to the two stacks of Frenzy upping his attack speed by a whopping 50%. How his PIMcould achieve the result without sacrificing control—or tearing every muscle in his body—was just another mystery to add to the list. But damn, it was impressive.

Body parts practically rained down as the two swords scythed through the air in a pair of violent blurs, and Hiral spared a second’s glance to check on everybody else.

The Disc of Passage was in the city now, racing down the streets above the heads of people fighting for their lives. Streams of firebolts hosed across in front of them, mowing down bats thinking to strike the fighters from above. Fireballs exploded overhead like fireworks between winged serpents made entirely of lightning.

Dragons—like Drake. That was what they were. And they were absolutely ripping bats apart.

Yanily, for his part, wasn’t even controlling the monstrous Chain Lightning+ at this point, instead sweeping his spear back and forth. Each swing sent out a blade of... something. It roared like thunder but hit with the same potency as Hiral’s Rune of Separation. It even had the same feeling to it.

An ability of the Spear of Clouds?

“How much further?” Seena shouted.

“Close now,” Dr. Benza replied. “Less than a mile. We just have to…”

A shadow suddenly loomed in front of the disc. Too fast and big to avoid, a giant limb swung down so quick the air seemed to screech at its passing.

Atn and Dex on full display, Hiral reached out to yank Seena, Seeyela, and Yanily back with his Rune of Attraction, while Dr. Benza, to his credit, tried to stop the disc. They were simply going too fast, though, and all he managed to do was slow it before impact. Still, instead of outright flattening them, the claw just caught the front edge of the disc, flipping the whole thing—and its occupants—up and over the monstrosity’s shoulder.

Screams of panicked researchers joined the cacophony of the ongoing battle, but the party itself remained surprisingly calm. Why? Because they already felt the familiar ties of Hiral’s Runes of Gravity and Attractionsnagging them out of the uncontrolled flight.

End over end, the Disc of Passage crashed ahead down the street, bouncing once and then smashing through a whole block’s worth of buildings. Hiral and the others fared much better, hitting the ground with only minor grunts and then rolling a few feet.

Back up and spinning around, Hiral pulled his blunderbuss into his hands to keep Ever Changing+ stacked up, then took aim at the monster in front of him. Easily fifty feet tall, the thing was some kind of cross between a bat and a person. Huge wings spread from its back, blotting out the sun, while powerfully muscular arms ended in three clawed digits, each as long as Hiral was tall. Standing on two legs, the monster pivoted around to spot the party.

(Mid-Boss) Screech, Lord of the Screeching Bats – Unknown Rank

Very original naming, once again…

A closer look at the Mid-Boss showed it was just like the Rat-King. Hundreds, if not thousands of the individual Screeching Bats made up the main body of the thing. Which means the real Screech is somewhere inside there.

Pulling his trigger, Hiral unloaded a blunderbuss blast straight into Screech’s face, the kinetic force of the Impactrippling across its cheeks—and removing maybe one percent of its health bar. And that got its attention. The monster’s bat-like maw unhinged and grew in size, doubling… tripling… quadrupling. Screech leaned its head back, its whole chest inflating as if it were taking a deep breath. Then the Mid-Boss leaned forward and—true to its name—screeched.

The air in front of the monster warped under the power of the shout, which completely filled the width of the street and reached the tops of the buildings. Thanks to Hiral’s high Atn, the assault played out practically in slow motion. The stone of the road first broke, blocks of it lifting into the air, before getting shredded. Walls of the buildings on both sides warped and then ripped off like paper caught in a hurricane, the floors beyond simply dissolving.

Thundering like a waterfall, the wave of destruction raced straight for him, and even with his Dex, there was simply nowhere to go.