Chapter 57: The Last Two

Another explosion rolled across the northern side of the valley.

BOOOOM!

Jet caught only fragments through the chaos separating him from the source: a tower of dirt rising above the grass, something enormous moving through it, and Cassian’s broad sword flashing once before disappearing behind the dust.

Marcus was somewhere farther left. The remaining two peak Lesser-ranked monsters had been pulled well away from the Palladium Tree, but unlike Safiya, Odhran and Bastian, Cassian and Marcus had been unable to isolate their opponents completely.

The two beasts kept circling back toward each other whenever either man gained an advantage, instinctively cooperating despite belonging to different species. Against ordinary Lessers, that would have been troublesome. Against creatures already standing at the boundary of Greater Rank, one mistake could end the fight immediately.

Cassian’s opponent burst through the dust first.

It was a monstrous centipede nearly fifteen meters long, its segmented body covered in dark copper armor that overlapped from head to tail. Dozens of hooked legs tore trenches through the earth as it moved, while four enormous mandibles opened around a circular mouth packed with rotating teeth.

Two whip-like feelers extended from its head, each tipped with a hooked barb dripping translucent venom. Mana pulsed visibly between the gaps in its armor, dense enough that several sections had begun developing a second layer of plating.

Cassian ran directly toward it.

The centipede’s feeler struck.

WHIP!

Cassian tilted his head. The barb missed his cheek by centimeters and punched through the tree behind him.

CRACK!

Wood split apart.

Cassian didn’t slow down at all and continued charging forward.

His faded field coat snapped behind him as he drew the broad single-edged sword from his back. The Divine Rune hidden beneath his right sleeve awakened simultaneously.

Black markings spread across the exposed portion of his forearm: a strange arrangement of nine open doors, each drawn from a different angle, connected by one continuous line running from wrist to shoulder.

The Nine Returning Gates.

It was an A-Rank Divine Rune built around redirected momentum.

Cassian could mark a physical force that passed within his immediate reach and divert a fraction of its remaining momentum through one of the Rune’s Gates, causing that force to emerge from another angle within several meters.

He couldn’t create power from nothing, couldn’t redirect Mana attacks, and stronger impacts became increasingly difficult to handle. More importantly, every Gate could be used only once before requiring time to recover.

The centipede’s second feeler came from his left.

Cassian raised two fingers and the first Gate closed.

The feeler suddenly jerked downward as part of its own momentum changed direction.

THUD!

Its barb buried itself in the ground.

Cassian stepped onto it.He sprinted along the twitching appendage toward the monster’s head, sword raised. The centipede reacted instantly, mandibles spreading as its entire front section snapped toward him.

Cassian jumped.

The jaws closed beneath his boots.

CLACK!

He descended onto its armored head and drove his sword down.

CLANG!

The blade barely penetrated.

"Hard bastard."

The centipede bucked violently.

Cassian was launched upward.

Its tail came around like a battering ram.

He couldn’t dodge in midair.

The second Gate closed.

WHOOOM!

Part of the tail’s momentum suddenly redirected upward. Instead of smashing squarely into Cassian’s ribs, the strike passed beneath him and lifted his body higher. He flipped once, landed badly on one knee and immediately rolled as the centipede crashed through the ground where he’d landed.

BOOM!

Several meters away, Marcus had problems of his own.

His opponent resembled a gigantic black buffalo with six legs, but its hide was covered in thick overlapping scales rather than fur. Three forward-curving horns protected its skull, and clusters of hollow bone tubes rose along its spine. Every time it exhaled, those tubes produced a deep resonating hum that vibrated through the ground.

Marcus stood directly in its path.

His long crescent-bladed polearm rested horizontally across both hands.

The Divine Rune covering his torso remained hidden beneath his armor, but its activation was impossible to miss. Thin golden lines appeared around his boots and spread across the ground in a circle roughly six meters wide.

His Rune was called the King’s Measure.

A-Rank.

Within the circle, Marcus could designate a single measurable physical relationship between himself and one target: distance, direction, or relative footing. For several seconds, the chosen relationship resisted change.

It didn’t freeze opponents in place. It forced both bodies to fight against the established Measure whenever they tried violating it, and the stronger the target, the greater the Mana cost imposed on Marcus.

The buffalo charged.

Marcus planted his polearm.

"Distance."

The circle flashed.

The beast crossed into it and its speed collapsed not because it had been slowed.The established distance between Marcus and the monster resisted becoming smaller. The buffalo roared and forced itself forward anyway, hooves pulverizing soil as raw strength fought the Rune. Marcus’s boots began sliding backward.

One meter.

Two.

Blood appeared beneath his nose.

"You’re strong," Marcus growled through clenched teeth. "Good."

He released the Measure. The resistance vanished instantly.The buffalo surged forward much faster than expected.

Marcus had already moved.He stepped sideways and swung the crescent blade.

SHRAK!

Steel carved through the softer scales behind its first foreleg. The monster stumbled but didn’t fall. One rear leg kicked backward and caught Marcus across the chest.

BANG!

He flew through a bush and struck a tree hard enough to shake leaves loose.

Cassian heard the impact. "Still alive?"

Marcus shoved himself upright and spat blood. "Unfortunately."

"Try harder."

Marcus laughed once, then ducked as the buffalo charged through the tree.

CRAAASH!

Cassian couldn’t watch longer.

The centipede was on him again.

Its body curled around his position, dozens of legs digging into the earth while both venomous feelers attacked from opposite sides. Cassian parried the first barb with his sword and twisted beneath the second, but the centipede had anticipated his movement. Its mandibles came straight down.

The third Gate closed.

Cassian redirected part of his own falling momentum sideways.

His body lurched unnaturally through the air.

CLACK!

The mandibles snapped shut beside him.

He landed near the creature’s exposed underside.

That was what he had been waiting for.

The armor beneath each segment was thinner where the plates needed flexibility. Cassian drove his sword upward between two sections.

The centipede shrieked.

SKREEEEE!

Its entire body convulsed.

Cassian twisted the blade and ripped it sideways, opening a deep wound between the plates. Green-black blood poured over his hands.

The monster curled inward.

Cassian abandoned the sword and jumped clear before dozens of legs could close around him.

"Marcus!" he shouted while rolling to his feet. "I opened mine!"

Across the field, Marcus understood immediately.

The buffalo charged him again.

Golden lines spread beneath his boots.

This time Marcus didn’t choose distance. "Direction."

The King’s Measure activated.

The buffalo entered the circle while charging straight north toward Marcus.

Then Marcus moved sideways.

The monster tried turning.

Its body resisted.

The designated direction fought the change.

Its front legs twisted against its own momentum.

CRACK!

One knee buckled. The buffalo crashed shoulder-first into the ground and plowed through the earth.

Marcus ran alongside it.

His polearm rose and the crescent blade descended directly behind the creature’s skull.

CLANG!

Scales cracked but held but Marcus struck again.

CLANG!

The buffalo began rising. A third strike landed in exactly the same place.

CRACK!

The scales split.

Marcus reversed his grip and drove the pointed end of the polearm into the opening.

THUNK!

The weapon sank deep.

The buffalo roared and surged upright with Marcus still holding the shaft. He released it before being thrown away, then stepped backward as the monster staggered drunkenly.

It wasn’t dead.

Marcus wiped blood from beneath his nose and watched it carefully. "Stubborn bastard."

The buffalo charged one final time. Its movements were slower now, one leg dragging, blood pouring from the wound behind its skull.

Marcus waited.

Five meters.

Four.

Three.

Golden lines flashed.

"Footing."

The King’s Measure locked their relative contact with the ground.

Marcus braced.

The buffalo collided with him.

BOOOOM!

Earth shattered beneath both of them.

Marcus screamed as the impact traveled through his arms and shoulders, but his footing held long enough. He grabbed the embedded polearm with both hands and ripped it sideways.

SHRAAAK!

The blade tore through the damaged neck.

The buffalo collapsed.

At almost the same moment, Cassian retrieved his sword from beneath the centipede.

The monster whipped around.

Cassian activated his fourth Gate.

Its own tail strike changed direction halfway through its arc and smashed into the wound he’d opened earlier.

CRUNCH!

Armor plates folded inward.

The centipede shrieked.

Cassian rushed beneath its raised body and drove his sword through the broken section with both hands.

The blade disappeared almost to the hilt.

He pulled downward.

SHRAAAAAK!

The wound split across two entire segments.

Green-black blood exploded over the ground as the centipede collapsed, legs spasming violently before gradually becoming still.

For several seconds, neither First Generation Awakener moved.

Marcus stood beside the dead buffalo, one hand pressed against his ribs. Cassian remained beneath the centipede’s shadow, breathing heavily while blood dripped from his sword.

Then their eyes met across the ruined ground.

Marcus raised his polearm.

Cassian answered by lifting his sword.

The path to the Palladium Tree had just become considerably clearer.