Chapter 21 #2
“Exactly.” Alex grinned in approval, electing not to tell her the other reason.
Just one more card best held close to his chest, should he need it.
“Remember, few things help one grow faster than using your abilities in combat. So when predators come our way, visualize blooms of algae underneath their paws as hard and fast as you can! If you can actually make it a viable thorny attack, that’s even better.
But just marking it will hopefully be enough for your efforts to count in our future…
Linnea, trouble from below! Watch your feet! Get ready to Crimson Corkscrew!”
Alex’s guts twisted with an awful sense of foreboding as he shouted for all he was worth.
“Ya Ling! Something’s flowing through the ice! You’re overwatch! Lao Tie! Trouble under us!”
Yet before half the party could even register his words, Alex was leaping and rolling, Rachel held in protective arms as a massive scaly head of ice and peril attached to a long, sinuous neck erupted from the snow as effortlessly as a shark snapping its jaws through the waves, right where Alex had been loping along.
The creature, so much like a serpentine ice dragon, hissed in startled fury when it was struck a heartbeat later by Linnea’s Crimson Corkscrew cutting into the snow.
“What the hell’s going on?” Wu Xien roared even as Alex locked gazes with Ya Ling, who somehow instantly understood what he needed, not hesitating to claim a yelping, panicked, and very fragile Rachel while Alex took advantage of suddenly empty hands to unsheathe his blade…
Just a heartbeat before the ground under his feet erupted once more in a fresh explosion of ice and snow and sharp deadly teeth that could so easily shear through flesh and bone.
Alex glared at his target as Wu Xien and Tang roared and charged, deadly fast arrows shot from Kuaisu’s instantly summoned bow bouncing harmlessly off what looked like scales of impossibly resilient ice as Alex did what he could to sense his foe’s strength, defenses, and the flow of Qi when it attacked…
in the frenetic seconds they had before it dove under the snowy surface once more.
Alex’s features tightened with worry, all too aware that their serpentine foe could burst free of the ice sheet at any place and time.
“Tang! Wu Xien! Ready yourselves!” Lao Tie commanded as he and Linnea joined hands, having found their common ground in the form of a howling vortex of blazing-hot plasma swirling about them both.
Alex flashed a relieved smile, even if he knew it wouldn’t be enough.
Because he felt it. The minutest tremble through earth that was actually ice that he still hadn’t come close to truly understanding, let alone mastering…
“Run!”
He projected the panicked thought that was almost a command, the very moment Wu Xien and Kuaisu were both sent tumbling as the massive serpent erupted from the now moss-covered ice.
And the sound of Tang’s startled cry had Alex racing forward, protective lamellar tiles shattering as Tang struggled desperately to break free of vicious serpentine jaws.
Alex had only a heartbeat to catch the older man’s despairing gaze as the serpent, glaring Alex’s way with too-clever eyes, tossed the man high to swallow in a single bite.
Bullrush!
Cloudstep!
Quickness check: success!
The air rang with the serpent snapping shut its own monstrous jaws as the air exploded with lightning from the tip of Alex’s dao. It stunned the massive primal serpent for long seconds as Alex raced through the air.
“Open your fire ward!”
Lao Tie gazed at Alex in awed disbelief until Linnea nudged him, and Alex, who had no time to even respond to the gasping man he had rescued, gently tossed Tang into the now-open ward, roaring only, “Get behind the fire ward!” to equally stunned Wu Xien and Kuaisu.
They picked themselves up off the ground as Alex twisted around and headed for the serpent once more.
“Be careful! It’s an ice drake! It can kill you with poison!” Lao Tie desperately warned.
The massive serpent, clearly sapient, glared Alex’s way and hissed, before filling the air with a stream of caustic bile.
“Alex!” Ya Ling’s panicked voice echoed loudly in his mind.
Storm Shield successfully summoned!
Yet his left hand had already summoned forth a swirling shield of Water, Wind, and Metal crackling with Lightning as he roared and charged, deflecting the monstrous stream of caustic spittle that hissed and spattered in the ice in a deadly cloud of poisonous steam that he had successfully deflected from touching him or the whirling barrier of fire that he sensed had been its true target, making it damn clear that it was time to quit holding back.
His dao turned jet black as he charged right for the massive snapping maw of the giant serpent that was clearly as eager for Alex’s blood as Alex was to put the abomination down.
All its focus was on the shield he dared to hold up, as if the crackling storm could stop a Silver-tier drake’s fury, blocking all view of the inky-dark blade he held off-angle, doing all he could to close the distance, even knowing it was a terrible risk.
If he had misjudged its speed, if it had been holding back, just like Alex had…
Monstrous jaws snapped shut, Alex’s shield disrupted by a backlash that sent him flying.
But not before his blade struck true.
Doom Strike has critically struck your opponent!
The creature’s massive skull reeled back as black lightning tore through its flesh, eyes exploding as the air filled with its horrific screams.
Party Member Ya Ling has been struck by Psionic Wail!
Party Member Linnea has been struck by Psionic Wail!
Party Member Rachel Lu has been critically struck by Psionic Wail!
Rachel Lu has suffered deafness and serious injury!
Alex choked back an awful surge of disorienting pain, doing his best to channel the wild Dark Qi into his hungry bones before it tore too deeply into his own flesh as further messages echoed through his interface.
Vitality check: critical success!
You have successfully channeled Doom Strike backlash into your bones.
You have suffered 2 Light Wounds.
Soul Sight perception check made!
You can now sense the flow of Qi through your opponent!
And it was true. He could so clearly visualize the surge of spiritual energy flowing through his target, no matter how much better hidden it had been, compared to so many other spirit beasts he had once fought.
Because he was finally looking past the urgent panic of the moment, the desperate need to ACT in the heat of combat.
He had made the most of that precious second he was sent hurtling back to ground himself sliding against the wind to take in the wild, crackling flow of Ice and Earth Qi that defined this monstrous beast now perforated by countless Dark Qi burns that had burned and broken countless scales as the creature writhed and shuddered.
Yet to Alex’s horror, what he sensed more than anything else, was that it was preparing for its death knell.
“Alex, please! We can’t take another scream!”
He sensed the awful pain in Linnea’s voice, only appreciating at that moment how close their most fragile party members were to death, Linnea and Rachel both suffering intracranial bleeding.
His heart pounded in furious desperation. He was NOT going to let the woman he could have so easily fallen in love with die. Not when all he had to do was MOVE!
Bullrush! You are before your prey!
Alex could feel it, the furious storm of passion, fury, and desperation howling through them all.
He didn’t bother fighting the currents, trying to force Doom Strike or Doom Blade in those crucial moments where hesitation would cost him far too many precious lives.
Instead, he rode the storm for all he was worth, steering his enemy’s serpentine vessel right into the shoals of oblivion as the howling storm pounded into his foe with such overwhelming force that it had no air to inhale and no way to unleash the sonic death knell it clearly yearned to.
Avalanche has been SUCCESSFULLY fueled by the storm!
Instead, the massive Silver-tier beast was sent windmilling through the air in a crackle of Lightning and overwhelming force as Alex embraced the storm, allowing the howling winds to carry him up to slam into the hull of his slowly descending prey, dooming it like a ship about to sink beneath the frothy waters.
Yet Alex refused to let it surrender to peaceful oblivion, where it might awaken once more.
An enemy at their backs that could strike at any time.
Instead, he forced his titanic foe to taste the sting of coral reefs and the grinding pressure of eternal stone as the howling sea continued to smash into its monstrous bulk with such force and fury that even the titanic galleon of a greater spirit beast was soon broken amongst the stormy shoals.
Avalanche!
Storm Strike!
Avalanche!
Avalanche!
You have catastrophically struck your foe!
Alex howled with the rush of potency now flooding through him, momentarily dizzy with either exhaustion or profound insight, panting over the broken heap of pulpified flesh and scattered scales that would never be a threat to his friends again.
“Angel’s mercy. Have you ever seen anything like that, Tang?”
“Kid’s a monster, Kuaisu. Lao Tie has a knack for finding them, doesn’t he?”
Alex stiffened, realizing that perhaps he had revealed a bit too much of what he was actually capable of. Because this creature had been no half-step Silver.
This foe could have so easily killed any unprepared party… and it was only the second encounter since they had entered this icy, frigid realm.
“Alex!”
Ya Ling’s panicked worry snapped him out of his stupor. He didn’t hesitate to race to her side as his now grounded friend held a completely unconscious Rachel close. Alex winced, seeing Linnea similarly out, Lao Tie holding her with tender care, and Ya Ling didn’t look much better.
He swallowed the lump in his throat, gazing intently at Ya Ling. “Do I have your permission?”