Dark Matter Ascension

Jace had his sword out and at the ready as he passed silently through the tall grass. Every few strides he would put some extra force into his step to jump up, gaining enough height that he could make out the aura-like shapes around the snake creatures that he was hunting. Thanks to Xera's instant-schooling machine, Jace knew what snakes were despite not having encountered any on Earth.

These were enormous, and as he ran over to the first one he saw, he realized just how much these creatures dwarfed his size. They were easily the size of a train car, and did not appear to notice his appearance. Ollie, Jace thought, how do they detect prey?

Corcelati have the ability to detect heat, Ollie replied, in addition to sight and scent. Once you strike it, I would bet it will be able to find you.

Jace ran alongside the body, barely a whisper in the wind thanks to his Void Stalker Skill, and he slashed down, cutting the head off. The corpse writhed around – battering Jace to the side as he dug his feet in to stay upright. The body and head both surged and pulsed with bright, green energy before they reconnected. Blades of air cascaded from the thing's body, forcing Jace to dodge and deflect the scything wind.

It raised itself up and turned to face Jace, the enormous mouth opening to reveal rows of teeth that were pointed inward and down to keep prey from wriggling out. Two enormous fangs glittered in the light of the night skies, and the creature snapped its head forward. The speed was faster than Jace expected – faster than anything he thought could move. He had barely raised his sword to intercept as the enormous fang went into his leg.

He let out a scream of pain as he chopped sideways at the fang, cutting it loose. The Corcelati reeled back, letting out a hiss that merged with a high-pitched whine; but the fang grew back within a split second.

Jace dropped his sword, ripped the fang out of his leg, and grit his teeth as he hissed out, "Dark Matter Mending (Rank 1)." The wound was repaired instantaneously, and he summoned his sword to his grip as he refocused his attention on the creature that had coiled back for another strike. I need more speed. Ollie, pump the anger response. Wrath's Embrace (Rank 10) [Focused].

On it!

Jace was surrounded by the crackling energy of crimson nebula, and the x6 physical, sensory, and cognitive trait boost increased his speed to that rivaling the Corcelati. It snapped out, and he was able to easily sidestep and slash horizontally, cutting away both fangs with a quick slice. It reeled back, and he was about to move forward when Quinn's voice came over the comms.

"Keep letting it regenerate! Those fangs are worth a lot."

Jace did as he was told, despite wanting to rush forward and chop at this thing he felt an absolute hatred towards. Another strike, and he had cut two more fangs off. But on this third time around, the creature did not reel back as before. Instead, it surged the coiled body forth and tried to slam into Jace to then wrap around him.

He jumped up fifteen feet, bringing his blade down as he fell to the ground. Slicing through the center of the thing, it billowed with arcing blades of wind that cut into Jace despite his enhanced speed. He did not feel the pain thanks to Wrath's Embrace, but he knew he was being heavily injured, as the small HUD readout in the corner of his vision showed portions of his body, mostly the legs and torso, had suffered damage.

Ignoring the damage he suffered, Jace swung down again, chopping the rest of the way through the creature as he activated Dark Matter Mending (Rank 4) [Vampiric], using the harm he inflicted to fuel the healing.

The Corcelati fell limp, flopping on the ground, and as Jace continued to chop away at it with abandon, the body surged with a deep, purple energy. The skin hardened to scales, and with some surprise Jace found his weapon bouncing off of them. Stupid cheat death Skills, he thought as he backed away.

The two halves reconnected, and the chunks that Jace had cut off flew back to reform with the body. It turned on him, the scales covering its whole body with overlapping layers of armor that surged with a purple cascading torrent of wind. It snapped forward, but was slower. Jace could sidestep once more and cut the fangs off. The snake did not rear back, and instead tried to grab Jace in its mouth.

And there's an opening! Jace stabbed his weapon up and into the soft palate of the snake, piercing the brain. He held firm as it wriggled on the weapon, trying to free itself, and he saw the flesh try to mend around it – but the throat was wide open. Dark Matter Dart (Rank 4) [Exploding]. The darts of energy surged down into the body, embedded at various points along the tract of its interior, and detonated.

The exterior scales surged outward briefly before the creature went limp. Jace pulled his weapon out and let Wrath's Embrace fade. "How…how do I butcher it?" he asked as he huffed from the brief combat.

Pulling up the guide now, Ollie replied.

A few seconds passed, and Jace saw a tutorial on how to disassemble the creature for its parts. This will not be enough to fill up the TPSB, he thought. I can fit more since the scaled skin can be compressed down.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Priam liked flying. He had been scared of it at first, but now it was just fine since he knew he would be saved from falling. Dee was enjoying herself, but Greg was all business. "We're almost there," Priam shouted over the wind racing by them.

"We have comms," Greg replied tersely.

"Oh, right," Priam replied. "Are either of you two going to use the Anathema prosthetics? Or the weapons when we get them?"

Greg shrugged, "I could use them, sure. Having the ability to turn off anything once a day is going to be a huge survival benefit. Dee, I'm sure, could use something also."

Dee nodded, "Hand me the eye when we land."

The trio sailed through the skies, heading up into the heights of the floating mountains. The flaming birds that traversed the night were on their level, and they seemed quite docile and peaceful. Priam found them enchanting, the way the glimmering red and silver feathers interplayed upon the patterns that he could now see that they were up close.

Landing atop one of the floating mountains, they put the kite away, and Priam handed the eye to Dee. She grabbed it, shoved it into her goop, and then it migrated up to replace one of her orbs where her eyes would be. The black eye with gold inlay was fitting, given her slightly pale-yellow chitin. "Looks good on you," Priam said.

Dee grinned, and was going to reply, but Greg interrupted. "We need to go straight down. Dee? Mind melting us a hole?"

She nodded and put her hands on the ground. Not using a Skill, just her caustic goop, she began to bore a hole down into the floating mountain.

Jace finished his grisly task and used his prodigious strength to jump up once more. The rest of the snake creatures had moved further away from where he was, but they weren't too far away. "Ollie, how many more can we fit into the TPSB?"

Another ten, easily. Then we have to go back and offload. Ollie replied.

Jace began running towards the next one. Be ready, he thought, to get me angry fast. I'm not taking another hit like that if I can help it.

You've got it!

"Void Stalker (Rank 1)." He sprinted through the grassy field, heading towards the nearest Corcelati he had seen. Jumping up a few times, he kept track of its location relative to his own. But when he finally got near it and slowed down, he found something quite odd. The coloration was different. A pale-yellow color.

He ran up alongside it, leaped into the air, and stabbed down. He left the sword embedded in the skull, piercing down through the mouth entirely. He ran away into the grass, keeping close enough that he could see the thing begin to recover. It curled its tail up to remove the sword from its head, and Jace recalled the weapon to his hand before he sprinted out again, sliced clean through the tail, and vanished into the grass on the other side of the creature.

It let out a mix of a hiss and growl as it reared up to gain height over the grasses. But Jace hugged the ground, staying well hidden thanks to Void Stalker. The Corcelati lowered itself once more, and Jace ran forth – but it finally picked up on his tactic, and he had to activate Wrath's Embrace (Rank 10) [Focused] as it faced him. Ollie was doing his job of turning on the chemicals that helped increase Jace's anger response, and he felt supremely confident in his abilities now that he had slain one of the things.

It lashed forward with its head, Jace lopped off the fangs, and then circled around the side of its head as it reared up. Raging Cleave (Rank 10) [Echoing Cleave]. The strike cleanly cut off the head, and the follow-up cleave from the echoing effect re-sliced higher up as the head fell towards him. Jace kicked the head away from him, but it flipped around midair and tried to bite down on him. "No you don't!" he shouted as he shifted that kick into a knee-strike, and the fang missed his shin by mere inches.

The strike accomplished the same task though, and the head went spinning off to the side, into the tall grass. He then shoved his arm into the still whipping-around body. Dark Matter Dart (Rank 4) [Exploding]. The darts shot out from his hand and exploded the creature from within.

Just like the last one, this one began crackling with energy. But not purple – yellow, instead. Jace had to pull back as he saw his HUD display that his armor was damaged. He could see the melted exterior, and instinctively backed off as the blood that surged from the stump seared the ground before him. The head flew back to the body and resituated itself.

Scales of the same pale-yellow color covered the thing's form, and it let out a loud hiss as a cloud of bright yellow cascaded overhead. Lightning shot down towards Jace, and he caught it on Nethaldrim; but the blade began to melt. The (Adaptable) Augmentation was able to keep up with it as gold and silver dust accumulated along the edge to protect it.

The creature snapped its jaws out, and Jace had to dodge – the blade stopping its deflection as the lightning arced at an odd angle to strike at him. He did not feel the pain, but the messages running across his HUD told him enough – he had just been badly burned by the acid. His Primal Hide was tough enough to prevent the substance from eating through him, but his torso armor was shredded.

Dark Matter Mending (Rank 4) [Vampiric], Jace thought as he chopped into the mouth. The thing was smarter than the last one, however, and pulled back so that his swing met nothing but the air. Lightning surged down once more from the storm cloud overhead, and Jace caught it on Nethaldrim again. Okay, screw that. Void Counter (Rank 10) [Storing]. The thundercloud disappeared, and Jace felt a weight in his left hand. He saw a glowing yellow – the same as the acid lightning.

The Corcelati pierced forward once more and he was able to get the sword into its line of sight, forcing it to back off or risk being cut as a part of its attack. It pulled its head back, and he tried to use whatever the Skill was that he had stored. A storm cloud crackled in his palm, and a cascading torrent of acidic lightning surged out, piercing the creature through the skull before melting away the head entirely. "Oops!"

Well, there goes some value, Ollie commented as the thing crumpled.

Jace looked down at his hand, the storm cloud vanishing. "Note to self, use Void Counter with [Storing] more often." He let Wrath's Embrace fade and began harvesting the creature. "These Corcelati, they have different…elements?"

"Yes," Quinn replied. "They come in many different subtypes. All are about equivalent value. The fangs are the most expensive part, so keep trying to bait out the regeneration and get more of those. But once they break through their limits and have that cheat death Skill go off, then the scales are also valuable. Not as much as the fangs, though."

"Good to know," Jace replied as he continued his task.