Although being able to live through the first time anything would kill me is already benefit enough Alana thought grimly For a second her gaze stretched upward beyond the three remaining Dragons that were moving to hunt her and to the peak of Mount Olympus where a beast that was almost Level 80 waited with half closed eyes
Hell at this point it had probably returned to its lazy doze on top of Mount Olympus without another thought to AlanaÆs fate the arrogant fuck A resolution had firmed in AlanaÆs heart that she would rip that things heart out and eat that precious organ in front of its children Then she would kill the rest of them to make sure another monster like this would never exist
The wild violence of the sudden resolution shocked some part of Alana but her stoic side accepted it as natural If the Broodmother itself would have moved after its breath attack Alana likely would have died For whatever reason it hadnÆt But the truth that Alana could have died in those desperate moments was not an easy one for her to swallow
How long before Donnyton would find out that she had been crushed like a fly on top of this distant mountain What would they feel so soon after the loss against Randidly in the challenge
This humiliation would be paid back with interest Alana glared upward But then she refocused on those who were currently in front of her
The Dragons above Alana blasted out a heavy rain of cobalt bolts and some strange whim caused Alana to just take a long look at them as they approached her She ceased dodging and simply followed their bright track across the sky toward her Then she flexed her left hand feeling the tingling numbness recede as blood and energy flooded back into the previously frozen limb
Almost casually Alana reached up and chopped with her hand Somehow her instincts told her that attacks of this level werenÆt enough to reach her any longer
With almost comical ease Alana simply smashed aside the Ice DragonsÆ Skils Her hand blurred outward with methodical efficiency as if she was swatting away lazy and fat flies
The Dragons paused in their bombardment and regarded Alana with their bright sapphire eyes Alana chuckled and raised her right hand Her Skill Vengeful Javelin condensed into a bright orange weapon above her hand With practiced ease she threw the javelin of burning energy with enough oomph that the snow in the surrounding area was vaporized by its passage Such was its speed that the targeted Dragon didnÆt even have time to blink its sapphire eyes before one of its wings was ripped off its body
Screaming the dragon spiraled downward to crash into one of the splintering pieces of the shattered ridge Stone continued to fracture and break The two other dragons dived quickly downward hoping to avoid meeting a similar fate to their companions
Alana walked calmly forward unphased by the crumbling ridge beneath her After all she was the tip of DonnytonÆs Spear She bore the weight of all of their hopes and dreams She couldnÆt afford to die here Fights like these
The orange energy around her eddied and began to wane Whereas before the image had felt painted on her Willpower like a glove it now felt fuzzy and difficult to manage The energy continued to deteriorate as Alana blinked in shock for a full second And for the first time since she had encountered this problem Alana had an inkling as to the cause
Was I trying to utilize an image that was too big for me to handle this whole time Alana thought in wonder The energy around her continued to stutter and swirl It wasnÆt that the concept of an image had left her it was more akin to the rare occasions that Alana had tried DozerÆs huge pillar of a weapon out of curiosity
Even if she had the Strength enough to use it there was some implicit understanding of the forces and momentum involved that was missing Her flailings with DozerÆs weapon had been comically bad Perhaps should could master the usage with practice but she had felt uncomfortably unable to exert her Strength while wielding it
Is that why Randidly stepped away from authority for so long To focus his image on himself as an individual Alana looked down at her hands The orange energy around her had died down to almost nothing now The cold and the snow came howling back The passage of the wind shrieked in her ears Some distance away Alana could sense the Dragons pause again unsure of this new change in her behavior
But then as all of the orange energy around her faded to nothing and the wind triumphantly blasted her face AlanaÆs eyes began to smoke and burn When she released a breath the energy blasted outward like a beam of light Fine then I donÆt need to be anything to Donnyton if I canÆt even manage myself IÆm simply Alana Valkyrie of the Red Clay Alaihym Angel with no Lineage And I will spear the heart of the Ice Dragon Broodmother and roast it over a fire
AlanaÆs images came surging back She could feel the glittering feathers stretching out from her helmet and the perfect gleaming spear she wielded in her hand But one small thought swam nervously around the base of her mind
just how much has RandidlyÆs image grown in order to cow the image of Donnyton with brute force He wielded an image so large that it completely suppressed us all Is that a matter of practice or is there something else that IÆm missing
Yet AlanaÆs thoughts had to stop because the present danger demanded her attention
Three Dragons scuttled forward to attack Alana as she stood alone in the ridge at the base of Mount Olympus Two more were swirling downward in the sky above much larger than the four that had come before She had fallen far enough down in elevation that the snow transformed to sleet pasting her hair to her skull and running down the back of her neck to her spine like curious fingers The ground beneath her continued to crumble and split Around her what had once been a ridge was slowly devolving into an avalanche
And Alana laughed as she rode it all into darkness burning like a bonfire
Tatiana scratched her neck as she looked uncomfortably down at the terminal Please make this quick Helen I have a meeting with the government in about ten minutes
Plenty quick HelenÆs reply was short and clearly annoyed Tatiana crossed her fingers under the desk hoping this walking timebomb hadnÆt done something else that would keep Tatiana up at night with stress dreams ItÆs just itÆs so damn boring around here I have to go farther and farther to find monsters worth fighting Do you know how much I walk each day Can we like ship some strong monsters into the area Maybe buy a high Level Dungeon
Tatiana kept her smile polite At least sheÆs focusing her violence on monsters I can work with that There arenÆt any Villages close to us you know that But the Level of monsters is slowly rising Have you tried going down to Lake Apollo IÆve heard
Of course HelenÆs tone was bitter I found a good amount of grubby fish monsters but I cleaned out the entire lake area yesterday IÆve had to go further South to the river And even there the monsters have started running away from me Has there been anyone else suspicious up there That bloodthirsty guy wasnÆt strong but at least he was mildly fucking entertaining
Nothing here just paperwork Tatiana replied as brightly as possible
Ugh Helen hung up the call after a brief pause and a sky Although she didnÆt know much else about the minutia of running a company she certainly understood that she wanted nothing to do with paperwork Which was why Tatiana had kept Helen at bay by bringing it up as much as possible
How long will you be gone Randidly ItÆs only been a few days but IÆm already at my witÆs end The government has been quiet since Helen assaulted the police but how long will that last And now that their representative requested a meeting
Shaking her head Tatiana checked the time 1 19 Which mean her half hour of break time had already dwindled to eleven minutes When you included the time Tatiana planned to spend reviewing her notes about the specific government representative that was visiting her time had basically gone up in smoke
Tatiana sighed and collected her notes
Lee Holloway was originally a lobbyist that was at the center of Zone 1Æs scientific block that controlled Congress for the greater portion of the post System government Eventually he was pulled from the lobby groups to working for Congress proper as an aide for one of the top ten most influential figures in Congress Since then Lee had moved rather rapidly between a number of aide positions for different Senators but they had one thing in common they were all known associates of Senator Heathridge