Adrenaline Junkie [Book 2 Complete]

The floor behind him ruptured in complete silence, similar to when a water droplet lands in the middle of a basin. The stone, dirt, and silicon flooring rippled under the corpses of the tens of corrupted miners and molerats.

However, instead of sinking into the now watery ground, their corpses rose along with the stone and silicon flooring.

A blackened, semi-reflective plating shimmered in the light of Tim's flames that lingered atop the corpses of the corrupted miners and floor, with streaks of dark purple mana-like veins as a hulking monstrosity rose up behind Archie – a towering fusion of stone, corrupted silicon, and a large, jagged dark purple crystal right beside its core.

Archie's hands were halfway through tearing the upper jaw off a molerat when it happened. His body stiffened – not because of Aoife's shout, but because of Sixth Sense suddenly blaring in his head.

Every instinct in his body was screaming at him to move.

Mana and stamina surged beneath his skin. His muscles tensed as Adrenaline Rush began to activate.

But he was not fast enough to act upon his senses. The molerat seemed to move impossibly fast for its size.

The corrupted elemental's arm – four times the size of Archie's torso and plated in silicon armor – swung sideways like a battering ram.

Crack!

The blow landed flush against Archie's side. His flame- and vine-wreathed form was torn from atop the mound of corpses like a ragdoll and launched across the sublevel.

He slammed into one of the many rusted, reinforced support pillars with a thunderous boom. Stone fractured. Dirt split. Silicon shards and pulverized debris erupted outward in a cloud.

The pillar buckled, caving in under the force. The entire corridor groaned in protest as rubble rained down around the impact site. Archie was lodged deep into the wall, smoke rising from the crater around his body.

Aoife's breath hitched, her feet instinctively grounding deeper as a pulse of mana surged outward from her body. Her half-cast cybernetic feet stomped against the earth once more as Reinforcement of the Depths was being surged with even more mana in a silent flash of dark grey.

A thicker veil of mana webbed across the ceiling and walls. Cracks in the sublevel shimmered and sealed themselves in real-time, stabilizing the structure and halting a potential cave-in while also attempting to push Archie out from where he was embedded in the wall.

But it cost her both mana and time.

Time, she didn't have.

Tim shot through the air, his wings flaring with yellow-orange fire. "I'll keep the zombie knockoffs and elemental off you!" he shouted, diving straight towards the elemental and away from Aoife. "You just focus on getting Archie out of there!"

From one of the tunnels, a pack of molerats surged out, clawed limbs scrabbling against the stone. Behind them, more corrupted miners spilled into the sublevel, their movements twitching and chaotic, cybernetic limbs sparking with dark purple energy.

Both groups, having heard the commotion and began rushing over to see what it was that caused it.

"Hey! Over here, you crystal-headed freaks!" Tim chirped, spinning mid-air and unleashing a cone of fire that lit up the approaching wave of molerats and corrupted miners.

Molten flames washed over the nearest molerats, sending them into frenzied shrieks as they scattered, some alight, others simply dead by the intense heat.

Tim banked hard, diving low to drag a streak of fire across the floor, cutting a line between Aoife and the oncoming horde. "Try crossing that, bone-heads."

The corrupted miners, with seemingly a minor semblance of sentience, didn't take kindly to his words, but the line of flame forced them to split their attention – some skittering toward Tim's moving form, others toward the larger threat: the elemental.

Tim zipped between pillars and broken stone, his small body leaving trails of flame and distraction in his wake. He dropped small flare bursts behind him, each one erupting with blinding heat and light to further disorient their movements.

Meanwhile, Aoife pivoted smoothly in place. Her shield raised and angled, lance held just above her waist. Despite splitting the majority of her attention off to focus on reinforcing the sublevel, she stepped forward into the space Tim had bought her, meeting four of the charging corrupted miners head-on.

Her Scutum absorbed the impact of their pickaxes and drills with a loud clang, and with practiced ease, she twisted her body and rammed the miners back with her shield, her body glowing neon gray. The corrupted husks stumbled, and her lance glowed red as it shot forward.

First thrust, straight through the stomach. Second thrust straight through the head. Third thrust straight through the solar plexus. The fourth and final thrust straight through the head. The tip burst from their bodies in a spray of darkened blood and shattered crystal.

"Just hold a little longer," she muttered to herself, eyes narrowing.

She pulled back, shifting her stance, another pulse of mana humming from her feet and crawling up the weakened ground on the sublevel as Tim kept weaving in between the thunderous strikes of the corrupted silicon elemental.

However, just as she sent out another wave of Reinforcement of the Depths, the corrupted elemental stopped mid-strike and turned slowly toward Aoife.

Its body shifted 180 degrees in an instant as it began to charge toward Aoife, ignoring Tim completely and crushing many of the corrupted miners and molerats that stood in its way.

But Tim was faster.

The dragon sprite streaked in from the side, slamming an overcharged Sunspike into the creature's inner left kneecap, sending it staggering onto its knee and dragging its focus back toward him.

"Oi! Who are you turning your back to?" he shouted. "Come at me, you rejected elemental!"

The Corrupted Elemental snarled – a deep, grinding sound like metal shearing against stone – as it lumbered after Tim, swiping with massive, hardened silicon-clad arms that slammed into the floor and walls, shaking the entire sublevel with each missed blow.

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Tim weaved between the swings like a streak of gnat in the night, sweat glistening across his scales despite the flames that cloaked his body.

"Come on, you elemental reject!" he yelled, spinning midair and unleashing another Sunburst Scatter, a flurry of flaming bolts that hammered into the elemental's shoulder and chest. The blasts didn't pierce its armor, but they slowed it – just enough.

Zipping back away from another blow that would have crushed his body and zigzagging through the spikes of silicon that jutted out of the ground afterwards, Tim muttered, "I'm so getting grounded after I finish this quest."

Tim raised his right claws, funneled with as much solar mana as he could muster within the little time he had, upwards before harshly bringing it down in front of him. The moment his claws tore through the stagnant air that filled the mine, it split, like ripping wallpaper to reveal the bricks beneath.

From the wound bled sunfire.

It poured out in golden threads at first – light that shimmered with barely-contained violence – then burst into a roaring cloak that clung to his scales like liquid flame. The sublevel glowed in his presence, the flickering illumination that lit up the sublevel in its entirety.

His wings flared open, now trailing arcs of that same sunfire.

His voice, tiny and sharp, cut through the air as he spun mid-hover. "Let's tumble, you elemental reject!"

As he shot forward, the sunfire cloak ignited even further, trailing behind him like the tail of a comet. He spun once in midair and flung his claws forward, releasing a Sunburst Scatter, not as neat of a volley as how it had previously been activated, but like a shotgun blast of molten manabolts.

The shots hammered into the elemental's shoulder and chest in a spread, each impact rocking its towering frame. While the blasts didn't pierce its thick silicon plating, the raw kinetic and radiant heat was beginning to melt through – steam and ashen smoke rose off its form as it pushed forward.

Then the ground beneath him fractured for a moment before jagged spikes of dark purple silicon erupted like claws – but by the time they shot out, Tim was already gone, zigzagging through most of them in a blur of flame.

A glancing strike from one of the spikes clipped his side, to which he hissed in pain but kept flying, circling back to Aoife's flank.

"I'm so, so getting grounded after I finish this quest," he muttered, eyes narrowed in blazing focus.

The sunfire cloak shimmered brighter as he drew upon it. With a shriek, he slashed his claws again midair, and this time the sunfire surged outward in a wave before it formed itself into an arm of an enormous dragon.

His Mom had told him that manipulating sunfire outside of either her or his Father's purview was strictly 'verboten', which, according to her, meant it was not allowed.

But considering the situation he was currently in, fighting an elemental 14 levels above his own Race, 13 levels above his Class, and 15 levels above his own Profession, he needed the advantage it gave.

It caught the elemental's feet just as it lifted one to charge – burning into the corrupted silicon, liquefying it.

The elemental stumbled onto its knees.

An opening.

Aoife launched herself forward, her bare half-cast cybernetic feet slamming against the reinforced flooring with enough force to leave faint imprints. Her shield was tucked tight at her side with her Deepiron Lance raised, humming with mana and stamina.

"Fall," Aoife demanded, her voice ringing clear within the sublevel.

Skewer.

She twisted mid-lunge, rotating her body into a brutal, spear-driving motion. The lance's tip found a weak spot just on the upper right side of its chest, where Tim's enhanced Sunburst Scatter had splashed against.

CRACK – SHHHHRNK!

The lance pierced, punching deep into its massive chest with a sickening grind of tearing crystal and metal, to which the momentum carried her in – her shield slamming against the midsection of the elemental for extra force.

Feeling the call of gravity, Aoife quickly shifted her feet to press against the elemental's chest and kicked off, yanking her lance out from its chest and pulling alongside it the corrupted silicon that attempted to swallow her lance whole.

The elemental roared, shaking the sublevel, as it smashed its enormous fists where Aoife had just stood.

Then, the wall behind Aoife detonated outward in a thunderous eruption of fire and debris.

Archie landed on the stone with a light thud, emerging from the cloud of dust billowing from where he had just been embedded, revealing the thorn-covered vines that covered his body and neck, shrouded in flames and steam.

In a blink, Archie shot forward, Savage Charge exploding underfoot, the floor behind him cracking as he drove forward like a battering ram, Adrenaline Rush at 25%.

His flame-wreathed fist smashed into the elemental's half-lowered head with a thunderclap. Cracks bloomed across the silicon armor like spiderwebs. A second fist followed, then a third, each blow hammering deeper into the corrupted elemental's head and upper chest, generating enough force to knock it on its backside.

Hyper Impact.

BOOM!

Cracks spiderwebbed deeper across the corrupted silicon armor from every impact. Archie hammered it repeatedly, each strike hammering against its head, that it kept trying to reform.

"Get the arms, Tim!" Aoife barked out as she shot herself back towards its legs and the silicon tendrils that were forming in order to skewer Archie.

"I'm on it!" Tim shot back, swallowing back the flames he held in his maw, stopping the formation of an explosive solar manabolt. Instead, he channeled the sunfire in his claws into razor-sharp swords of compressed flame.

Shooting forward and threading the needle between the heads of the corrupted miners and molerats, Tim shot through the gap between the elemental's right arm and Archie's back. His compressed flame claws made of solarfire tore through its hardened silicon, leaving it to smack against Archie's back harmlessly before tumbling to the floor.

Flexing his wings to the left, Tim U-turned back to slice through the elemental's other arm and silicon tendrils that shot toward Archie's back as he moved from its head to the center of its chest, intent on ripping out its core.

With a guttural snarl ripping from his throat, Archie double-hammered the already-cracked corrupted silicon chestplate of the elemental.

THOOOM – THOOOM!

The corrupted armor caved in, rupturing with a sickening crack as the thorny vines shot themselves deeper into its chest cavity, ripping and tearing anything they could.

Steam and ash blasted outward from the molten silicon in its chest cavity – but Archie, who stood above it, couldn't care less about the steam splashing against his face, sizzling the tips of his headdress, and searing patches of exposed flesh.

His fists kept slamming down with unrelenting force, each blow sending fresh splashes of molten silicon spraying around. The flames and thorned vines that wrapped his armored body flared brighter with every impact, as if feeding on his fury.

Aoife, catching movement in her periphery, lunged to the side, intercepting a molerat that had launched itself through the smoke, aiming straight for Archie's exposed back.

She kicked off the cracked ground with explosive force, her Scutum shield crashing into the airborne, oversized rodent. The molerat's body crumpled midair under the impact, its bones audibly shattering before it tumbled away into the corpses and silicon debris below.

Without losing momentum, Aoife landed lightly atop the elemental's massive, cracked, and reforming head.

She pivoted sharply on her sole, dust and ash scattering from the motion, before driving her lance straight down into the molten chest cavity Archie was hammering open.

CHRK!

The lance tip sank deep into the softened silicon and struck the corrupted core inside with a sizzling, sputtering crackle. Purple-black energy leaked from the core, writhing like water in oil.

Archie's hands shot forward, grabbing the shaft of Aoife's embedded lance with both flaming hands, his gauntlets hissing against the steel, and he heaved upward with her.

Together, they wrenched the corrupted core free from its mounting, ripping it out in a spray of molten silicon and shredded mana threads.

The elemental let out one last distorted roar, a noise that rattled the walls, before its entire frame convulsed.
The corrupted silicon cracked apart along its surface like breaking glass, and with a final shudder, the massive creature collapsed into a heap of rapidly cooling debris.

Archie released the broken core with a toss, letting it splatter uselessly onto the ground. Tim swooped down moments later, blasting any still-twitching remains of the elemental with quick, controlled flares of fire, just to be sure.

Panting slightly, Aoife dropped down from the corpse, rolling her shoulder.

"Well," she said, flicking molten debris off her shield, before she landed atop of a crawling corrupted miner, "I guess you got what you wished to find in the mine," she said softly, turning to face Archie who landed beside her, landing and crushing the skull of a molerat.

That felt good, Archie mused to himself. It's been a while since I've had a good fight, as short as it was. I hope there are more of them in here.