A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

A slight gesture of his hand, and the priest reacted. He could even see this far. As far as Oliver's Form of Mind reached. Then he likely saw those sparks that had grown increasingly bright by his wrist. Even standing still now, observing, plotting, they continued to grow. Even without fighting, he was growing stronger.

He let it overwhelm him. It was almost maddening.

His body struggled to keep up. It urged him to move. Claudia called out to him even stronger than last time.

"Oh, my dear, what a risk you've taken," she said, her voice painfully sad. "But if this is the path you have chosen, then I can do nothing but support you. The Hero chooses his way, we Gods can only guide him."

"Your mind's twisted, woman. We've grown beyond such delusions. We've seen the real thing. We're no more Gods than the boy is. We're mere Fragments," Ingolsol said, somehow happy by that fact.

"Ah, that is true… But this burdensome knowledge, I can't help but blame myself," Claudia murmured. "If only we had been stronger."

"If only we didn't need your strength," Ingolsol countered. "It was a better time, before you grew enough to speak."

"And you, sweet darkness. There was a time when he could hear neither of us," Claudia said.

"And now he hears both. Welcome, madness, let me show you to your seat," Ingolsol snickered.

"Do not threaten him with worse than he already has to deal with. He will only hear us when he has need of us. As impossible as it is, as this body still belongs to the same boy. We still bow to his will," Claudia said.

"Tsch."

"I have recovered, Oliver," she told him. "And I am strengthened. If you must choose this path, then go all the way."

Right. That was the crux of the matter. When all options were bad, then one merely needed to pick the best path available to them, and charge through it with as much force as they could muster.

He sucked in a breath. He could feel it now, right on the threshold. To pass through, and go all the way to the Third Boundary, it was sure to invite pain.

The Boulder Crab seemed less eager than ever to charge. It was growing wary and weary all at once. It started to fear Oliver's broken blade. Oliver took a step forward for the first time in the fight, as the hunter, rather than the hunted. The Boulder Crab didn't move to meet him.

It pressed itself against the cliff, feeling something stirring, an animalistic instinct, some semblance of something mighty.

By Oliver's left wrist, flecks of darkness began to swirl. He panicked seeing those, and using his Form of Mind he cast his attention out towards Verdant Gavlin. He couldn't sense any sort of reaction. Not to the dark sparks anyway.

"They can't see it. They don't share Fragments with a Dark God. Acknowledge your privilege for what it is," Ingolsol sneered.

On his left wrist, all the way up to the forearm, the darkness swirled. On his right wrist, it did much the same, but with Claudia's light. He could feel both entities within him, with the same sense of certainty that he could tell if a person was standing next to him. They'd recovered, and their presences were stronger than before.

If it was any other occasion, such a thing could have been celebrated with a fervor.

With every step that Oliver took toward the Boulder Crab, the darkness and the light surrounding his arms grew, as did the resistance toward the next step. His body channelled his progression with his steps forward in the real world, as his mind forcibly allowed the taboo transformation to take place.

One step.

Two steps.

Three.

The air in front of him now felt almost like a wall. His arms should have been heavy with the mass that now appeared to surround them, but they'd never felt stronger.

And so it was, a little over two months after ascending to the Second Boundary, Oliver Patrick forcefully broke through to the Third.

He took another step, and shattered the invisible wall in front of him, and inside of him. A wave of ecstasy passed through him. Months, or even years of progress, hit him all at once. He felt a weight on his organs like a punch in the gut, but even that seemed like something he could ignore, at least for now. It became no more than a mild tingle as he focused on the energy coursing through him.

At the edge of his periphery to the left, he thought he could catch the faintest glimpse of a shadow. When he turned to look, however, nothing came into view. To the right, he was certain a woman was standing by him, cast in golden light, but again, he couldn't bring her into the fullest view.

The Boulder Crab sensed something was wrong. Oliver's steps had brought him right in front of its mouth, and still it had not dared to swing at him with his claws. If one was able to catch a glimpse of his eyes, they would have caught the golden flecks that stained his irises, and the purple that swirled around to compete with him.

It gave an alarmed shriek, and stepped back against the wall of the cliff. Finding that it could go no further, it gave another shriek, and attempted to go off to the right. The slightest adjustment of Oliver's feet, and he made it clear that there was no escape there. From an experienced man watching from a distance, they would have wondered why the crab did not flee.
Continue your adventure at empire

But with pressure and presence alone, Oliver already controlled the entirety of that space.

It was forced forwards, that was its only way out. For a mighty creature such as it, every opponent that it hit with its claws was either sliced to pieces or shattered. It decided to put its trust in those claws one last time. He gathered its legs underneath it, and pushed forwards, twisting its body, and generating as much momentum as it could.

The claw that it sent towards Oliver was its fastest yet. It would have been difficult to even track it with the naked eye.