Chapter 58 - 3-Star

While the western half of the valley drowned beneath the violence of the Raid Team’s battle, something far more destructive was unfolding around the central pool.

Adesewa Afolayan stood ankle-deep in water nearly thirty meters from the island, bronze spear held diagonally across her body as the two Regal Coil Lions separated around her. Their immense serpentine bodies displaced sheets of water with every movement.

One circled from the left while the second slid behind her, each Greater-ranked monster stretching more than twenty meters from its lionlike head to the end of its scaled tail.

The golden spines surrounding their necks had risen completely, transforming their manes into crowns of sharpened bone, while Mana leaked from between their bronze-black scales in visible waves. Against either creature, an ordinary 1-Star Awakener would have been completely outmatched. Adesewa was fighting both.

The difference between Star Ranks wasn’t merely a larger reserve of Mana. Each ascension strengthened the foundation that Mana flowed through: muscles, bones, organs, circulation pathways, physical resilience and the amount of supernatural power the body could safely output.

A 3-Star Awakener wasn’t simply a 1-Star with three times the Mana. The body itself had crossed successive thresholds, each one allowing greater force to be generated, endured and controlled.

Adesewa demonstrated that difference without explanation. The Regal Coil Lion on her left lunged, one enormous paw descending toward her with enough force to crush stone. Adesewa moved only when the claw was meters away.

BOOOOM!

The island shook.

Water exploded upward in a towering curtain where she had been standing, but Adesewa was already beneath the creature’s extended foreleg. Her bronze spear swept upward and struck the underside of its elbow.

CLANG!

The collision sounded like metal striking an anvil. Several scales cracked, and the Greater Monster’s limb was knocked sideways. Before Adesewa could follow through, the second Regal Coil Lion attacked from behind. Its python body whipped across the pool, throwing water in every direction. Adesewa planted her spear against the lakebed and vaulted. The enormous tail passed beneath her, struck the island’s edge and shattered several tons of white stone.

CRAAAAACK!

Fragments sprayed across the pool.

Adesewa landed atop the moving tail.

She ran along it.

The Regal Coil twisted violently, but her feet struck its scales with enough force to produce sharp cracks with every step. She reached its back, drove her spear downward and penetrated between two scales. Golden blood burst from the wound. The beast roared and threw itself sideways, forcing Adesewa to release the weapon and jump. She landed twenty meters away in knee-deep water, then extended one hand.

The spear ripped itself free and flew back into her palm.

Both Regal Coils charged.

For the first time, the Divine Rune covering Adesewa’s body became visible.

Dark-gold markings emerged from beneath her armor, climbing her neck and spreading across the backs of both hands. At their center was a stylized double-headed leopard standing upon a circular pattern of intersecting roads. One head faced forward. The other looked backward. Hundreds of smaller markings resembled footprints traveling in opposite directions along her arms.

Her Divine Rune was called Agassou, the Twin-Headed Leopard.

Rank: S.

Authority: Pursuit.

The Rune didn’t grant teleportation or simple speed. Its Authority revolved around the fundamental relationship between hunter, quarry and the distance separating them. Adesewa had spent decades learning how far that concept could be pushed without exhausting herself, and her first ability had become the foundation of her fighting style.

Hunter’s Crossing.

The first Regal Coil’s jaws closed around her.

They caught nothing.

Adesewa appeared beside its shoulder.

There had been no blur between those positions. Hunter’s Crossing allowed her to designate a visible target as Quarry and consume Mana to cross a portion of the distance toward it in a single movement, following an actual traversable path rather than teleporting through space.

The greater the distance, difference in elevation or obstruction, the heavier the cost. Against a creature as large as a Regal Coil Lion, however, there were always parts of the Quarry within reach.

Her spear struck.

THOOM!

The Greater Monster’s shoulder dropped several centimeters as the blow shattered scales.

Adesewa crossed again.

She appeared near its ribs and thrust twice.

Golden blood sprayed.

The second Regal Coil attacked her flank, but Adesewa designated it instead. One moment she stood beside the wounded monster; the next she crossed the space toward its attacking head, slipping past its claws and driving her knee beneath its jaw.

BOOM!

The impact lifted the lionlike head.

The beast recoiled, more stunned than injured, and Adesewa immediately understood the limitation of the exchange. She could evade both. She could wound both. Killing them while continuously switching targets would take too long.

The battle around the valley was already loud enough to travel through the Thousand Boughs.

She needed one dead.

Adesewa changed tactics.

Her spear rotated once in her hand before she hurled it toward the first Regal Coil. The monster twisted, and the weapon scraped across its scales instead of penetrating. Adesewa was already following.

Hunter’s Crossing.

She crossed toward her spear. Her fingers closed around the shaft before it fell.

Hunter’s Crossing.

She crossed toward the wounded shoulder. The spearhead punched into the existing fracture.

CRACK!

The Regal Coil screamed and swung a paw. Adesewa ripped the spear free, ducked beneath the claws and crossed toward its rear quarter. Another thrust opened the softer scales near its serpentine abdomen. The second monster pursued her, jaws snapping close enough that displaced air struck her back.

Adesewa refused to turn.

She had chosen her Quarry. The dark-gold footprints across her arms brightened.

The second ability awakened.

Trail of the Unescaped.

Every wound Adesewa inflicted upon the designated Quarry became part of a supernatural pursuit trail. The ability didn’t increase damage automatically. Instead, each successful strike recorded the position and direction from which she had attacked. Once enough points existed, Adesewa could move between those recorded positions using Hunter’s Crossing at drastically reduced cost, effectively constructing her own hunting route around an enemy.

One wound.

Two.

Three.

Four.

The Regal Coil realized something was wrong.

It abandoned attacking and surged toward the island.

Adesewa smiled for the first time.

Running was exactly what Agassou wanted.

She vanished from behind its shoulder and crossed to the wound near its abdomen. Her spear stabbed deeper. Before the monster could turn, she crossed to the fractured shoulder. Another strike. Then the ribs. Then the abdomen again.

THOOM! THOOM! THOOM!

Each impact sent ripples exploding across the pool.

The Regal Coil thrashed desperately. Its tail demolished trees along the shoreline. One sweep carved through three trunks at once, sending them crashing into the water. Another strike shattered part of the hillside. The second Greater Monster tried intercepting Adesewa, but she moved through the established Trail faster than it could follow.

The first Regal Coil roared.

Its golden mane flared.

Mana surged through its scales.

Adesewa felt the pressure spike and immediately crossed behind its head.

The creature released its attack.

BOOOOOOM!

A blast of compressed Mana tore across the pool, split the water to the lakebed and smashed into the valley wall. Stone ruptured. Trees snapped. A cloud of debris climbed dozens of meters into the air.

Adesewa’s coat whipped violently in the shockwave.

She remained standing.

Three Stars of accumulated foundation held her body against pressure that would have thrown weaker Awakeners across the valley. Mana circulated through reinforced pathways without tearing them apart. Her grip tightened around the bronze spear until the muscles along her forearms hardened.

The Trail was complete.

Seven wounds surrounded the monster.

Adesewa crossed.

First point.

Her spear entered the abdomen.

Second.

She tore through the ribs.

Third.

The wounded shoulder split completely.

Fourth.

She struck beneath the foreleg.

Fifth.

The spear penetrated the base of its mane.

Sixth.

Adesewa appeared above its skull.

The Regal Coil looked upward.

Too late.

She crossed to the seventh point, directly behind its head, and drove the bronze spear through the gap between skull and spine with every ounce of force her 3-Star body could produce.

BOOOOOOM!

The spearhead erupted from beneath the monster’s jaw.

Its body convulsed.

Adesewa twisted the shaft.

CRUNCH!

The spine broke.

Twenty meters of serpentine muscle crashed into the pool, throwing a wave across the island and shoreline. Golden blood spread through the water as the Regal Coil Lion’s enormous head struck the stone and remained there.

Adesewa planted one boot against its corpse and ripped her spear free.

Behind her, the second Regal Coil Lion released a roar that shook the entire valley.

Adesewa slowly turned toward it.

One Greater-ranked monster was dead.

One remained.