Over-reliance on a single ability was dangerous. Vir just didn’t have the luxury of diversifying right now. He needed to progress as fast as he could, and that meant using his most powerful weapon to its fullest.
He just needed a shadow. Something big enough to…
Wait. That’s it! It just has to cast a large enough shadow!
Vir sprinted to the nearby forest, where he broke down a limb and used his katar to whittle one end of the post into a point.
After roaming for a few moments, he found the plant he was looking for. A type of fern whose fronts ended in a sharp point. A bane when traveling near them, but it was just what he needed.
Vir bit down on the very end of the fern and pulled, careful not to bite all the way through. The pointy tip came loose and pulled a length of sinewy fiber behind it, which Vir fashioned into a cord.
Back at his post, Vir lashed some leafy branches to the limb with his new cord, then layered on more and more. Soon, he had a post with a thick mat of interleaved foliage connected at the top, extending out at an angle halfway between horizontal and vertical. The post was light enough to carry, and more importantly, would cast a long shadow.
Running back to the Shredder with his new contraption, Vir considered how he might adapt this idea in the future. If he could carry around portable items that could give him large enough shadows, he’d significantly reduce Dance’s weakness. There wasn’t much he could do about cloudy days, but at least he’d never want for shadows on sunnier ones.
Vir found the beast lounging at the very center of its domain, licking its superficial wounds, which suited him perfectly.
Placing his post at the periphery of the lair, Vir reactivated Haste, then Blinked back to the beast, re-engaging it in battle.
The fight went largely the same as before, but this time, Vir allowed the beast to gain ground, pushing him to the edge of its domain. Toward the post.
The Shredder grew more and more aggressive, sure of its victory. Vir allowed it.
Just a little closer. There!
At ten paces away from the post, Vir sunk into the shadows, extending an arm from his post’s shadow to let time crawl by.
While Haste’s effects nullified within the Shadow Realm, he didn’t need it. Time flowed at a fraction of its pace, allowing Vir to plan the exact moment for his strike.
The Shredder turned its oversized lizard head from side to side, no doubt confused at Vir’s disappearing act.
He waited until it gave up and turned.
Now!
This was the moment Vir had waited for. Launching out of the pole’s shadow, Haste reasserted itself. Vir Leaped, eager not to lose his moment of opportunity.
His Prana Blade crashed into the Shredder’s flank, shattering its armor where it was weakest, proceeding through its hide as if it wasn’t even there.
Right as the weapon lost speed, Vir flared Prana Blade, evolving it into a Blade Projection that speared straight through the bipedal beast—puncturing its heart.
The Shredder jolted, then seized. It slowly turned its head to glare at Vir. Then it keeled over, dead.
Vir roared in victory, thrusting his katar at the sky. He whirled, eager to show off his kill to Cirayus.
“Did you see that?” he shouted.
The giant had indeed witnessed his fight, as well as Vir’s decisive victory.
And yet, Cirayus’ response wasn’t what he’d expected. Instead of satisfied pride, there was only one emotion painted on the giant’s face—that of worried concern.
22DOMAIN LORD
She swept her eyes over the dead city. Little had changed since her last hibernation cycle. The city of spires stood as it always had. Dead and abandoned, its Prana Swarm clinging as it always did to the central spire, while Wyrms swam through the sky around it.
This time was different, though. It had known what she craved. Long ago, it had promised her a future. That when her cores ran dry, the end would not be the end. It would be a beginning. If only she trusted the one who would come for her.
After having remained static for so long, the realm was changing. She was changing. And she embraced it dearly.
Vir sat cross-legged upon the dead Domain Lord’s lair, enduring agony in silence. It felt like day one in the Ash all over again.
He’d wondered why the prana density here was many times what it was just paces away, but learned that the Colossus upon which he sat emanated prana continuously. In some places, it was just a trickle. In others, a torrent that pulsed rhythmically, ebbing and flowing with each beat.
Must be where its heart is… Or some other vital organ.
The Mahakurma was prana incarnate. Just the excess bleeding off the beast was enough to make Vir’s blood explode if he didn’t maintain his saturation dam, only allowing a trickle to leak into his body at a time. The sheer scale of its size and power still boggled Vir’s mind.
Could an army of 40,000 really take this thing out? Vir thought. He doubted it, and it was likely whoever slapped that rank upon it did as well, given the bestiary’s enormous Balar range from 12,000 to 40,000. While Vir hadn’t seen its maw weapon in action, the beast’s steps alone could crush a whole village in one go.
With something as mammoth as this, it was better to think of how many lives would be lost before the beast was taken down. Depending on the battlefield and circumstances, Vir could imagine it easily reaping 100,000 humans. One might consider running away, but as Vir had witnessed, the turtle could move, despite its seemingly lethargic gait.
Quick strides simply weren’t necessary when each step carried the behemoth several hundred paces at once. While an individual or a team of mercenaries could escape the beast—or even board it—an army, or a city, stood no chance. Vir wondered how long it would take for the Mahakurma to erase a city like Sonam with its maw weapon. Not long at all.
At least these horrors were contained. Ash Beasts had been stuck in the Ash for millennia for a reason; they wouldn’t survive outside with the lower density. Only the least of them could, and none of those were City Enders.
Well, maybe a certain pet Prana Swarm could… But the one Hiranya kept was a far cry from anything he might run into here.
Grak it! Mind’s wandering again.
One week had passed since Vir claimed victory over the Shredder. Seven days of agony. Both from stretching his body’s prana limits and because more than a month had gone by in the Human Realm.
The Mahakurma was still on the move, and to Vir’s immense frustration, it had delved no deeper into the Ash.
And now, even a week later, his body still hadn’t adjusted to the ambient prana levels. Vir wanted desperately to confront the next Domain Lord but knew he wasn’t ready.
There was just so much prana. Three times as much. When multiplied with the twofold increase Vir had dealt with upon entering the Ash’s periphery, once he acclimated, his body could handle six times what it did prior to entering the Ash. Vir doubted even the Prime Mejai could boast such a capacity.
Unfortunately, that meant little in a realm where all the beasts contained more.
The adjustment process was slow and painful. There was little to do other than sit for hours on end, allowing more and more prana within himself as he adjusted. Which left his mind open for plenty of other thoughts, such as ruminating on avenues for progression, like Prana Armor.