NOVEL NEXT Chapter 31: Surge
The smile that spread across Kael's face wasn't his own.
It was too wide, too sharp, too predatory.
The pressure on his chest, once suffocating, now felt like a gentle push.
He didn't just feel stronger; he felt… unleashed, like a damn had broken free in the depts of his body
Every nerve ending thrummed with a raw, almost divine energy, his blood burning with a righteous fury that drowned out all fear, all pain, all doubt.
His vision sharpened, the world around him snapping into stark, brutal clarity.
The Guardian, looming over him like a mountain of nightmares, suddenly seemed less like an unstoppable force and more like a challenge.
A target.
He let out a low, guttural chuckle, a sound that held no humor, only cold, unbridled power.
"Now it's my turn, you bastard."
With a sudden, violent surge, Kael arched his back, his muscles coiling and unleashing a force that seemed impossible for his small frame.
The Guardian's foot, which had crushed him moments ago, was thrown back with a jolt, its massive leg lifting clear off his chest as it stumbled back.
Kael scrambled out from under it, moving with a speed that left a blurry afterimage.
He didn't bother reaching for his fallen sword.
This was beyond steel.
The Guardian, momentarily taken aback by this unexpected defiance, let out a confused, rattling snarl.
It could sense that something about the human before him had changed, but couldn't pinpoint what.
Kael met its gaze, his own eyes burning with a golden hue.
For the next few seconds, they stood in stare lock, quietly assessing one another.
Kael fist clenched as he remembered how just moments ago, he had been its plaything. Treated like a broken toy for it's amusement.
Now, the tables had turned.
The newfound power within him crackled to be released, and he granted the wish with pleasure.
He channeled the surging power, gathering it into his right fist.
The air around his hand distorted, shimmering faintly.
As usual, he didn't have a strategy, nor a battle plan.
It was just raw, untamed power, born from humiliation and forged in wrath.
He lunged forward without hesitation, his fist slammed into the Guardian's colossal leg.
BOOOOOM!
A sound like thunder shook the entire shattered plain.
The ground beneath the Elderbeast cracked and fractured, shards erupting skyward.
The creature itself staggered, a guttural shriek of surprise and pain tearing from its maw.
Its massive form, which had shrugged off elemental spikes and blade strikes, actually buckled under Kael's single, enraged blow.
The Elderbeast roared, a sound of pure, unadulterated fury as It retaliated with it's massive, clawed hand, punching down in a crushing swipe, aiming to obliterate Kael.
Kael didn't dodge.
He moved into the attack.
His boosted agility was still below the Elderbeast's raw speed, but his newfound senses, amplified by the skill, made him see the world in slow motion.
He twisted, a blur of motion, letting the razor-sharp talons graze his side, tearing fabric but barely scratching skin.
The pain was there, a dull ache, but it was just information now, not agony.
He was inside its guard.
He launched himself upward, leaping onto its massive forearm, then scrabbling higher with impossible grip.
The Elderbeast roared, shaking its arm violently, trying to dislodge him like a bothersome fly.
Kael clung on, his fingers digging into its rough, scaled hide, driven by a savage tenacity.
He climbed, foot over hand, scaling its monstrous limb like a living ladder.
The Elderbeast slammed its arm against a jagged obsidian pillar, trying to smash Kael.
Kael saw it coming. He pushed off the arm with a burst of power, arcing over the impact, and landed on the creature's broad shoulder.
From there, he launched himself again, aiming for its head.
The Guardian, realizing his intent, whipped its head around, its empty eye sockets blazing red.
It opened its maw, and that terrifying, silent erasure wave pulsed outward, aimed directly at him.
Kael felt the pressure, the chilling sensation of reality trying to unravel around him.
But the power within him flared, pushing it back.
He gritted his teeth, a feral snarl escaping his lips, and resisted.
The wave buffeted him, blurring his vision, trying to dissolve his very being.
But he didn't vanish.
He didn't falter.
He slammed his fist, again, into the side of its head.
KRAK!
The sound of cracking bone echoed even through the roaring wind.
The Elderbeast shrieked, a sound of pure agony, and staggered backward, its massive head whipping away from the blow.
Its balance was gone.
Kael didn't give it a chance to recover.
He pressed the assault, a relentless, focused storm of punches and kicks.
He rained blows onto its head, its neck, its chest.
Each strike, though not always as powerful as the first, carried the weight of his furious new strength.
The Elderbeast was roaring now, a constant, pain-filled bellow, thrashing its limbs wildly, trying to swat him away.
But Kael was too fast, too enraged to be caught.
He was a buzzing hornet, stinging again and again, pushing the impossible.
He ducked under a flailing limb, sprinted across its back, and launched himself off its tattered wing.
For a moment, he was airborne, silhouetted against the dark, stormy sky.
He aimed for the base of its neck, where the twisted horns began.
This was it. One final, all-or-nothing blow.
He poured every remaining ounce of the newfound power into his fist.
The air crackled around him, humming with suppressed power.
He descended like a vengeful comet, slamming his fist into the Elderbeast's neck.
BOOOOOOOM!
The sound was deafening.
The Elderbeast's head snapped back, a sickening crunch of bone and sinew.
Its roar choked off, replaced by a gurgling, rattling gasp.
The ground beneath it buckled further, a massive crater forming from the sheer force of the impact.
Kael landed, staggered, and looked up, panting, blood trickling from a dozen minor cuts, but his eyes still burning with that fierce, golden light.
The Elderbeast was reeling.
Its limbs trembled.
Its horns scraped the ground.
Its entire body shuddered, and for a glorious, fleeting moment, Kael thought he had done it.
He had actually the Guardian.
But then, the raw, psychic pressure returned, doubling, tripling as it swept over him.
It was a silent wave of crushing force, heavier than anything he'd felt before.
The Elderbeast's head slowly, painfully, lifted.
Its empty eye sockets, once filled with rage and pain, now glowed with an intensity that dwarfed the the lava on the ground.
The creature's maw opened, wider than he had seen it.
A small vortex of pure negative energy slowly began to build inside.
It didn't target Kael directly.
It began to absorb the very air, the light, the life force from the shattered landscape.
The ground cracked further, minerals dissolving into dust.
The distant lava rivers shimmered, their heat being pulled away.
Kael felt himself being drawn in, his feet scraping on the stone.
The Fear effect, which had been pushed back by his new skill, slammed into him with renewed force, amplified by the creature's furious reassertion of dominance.
His legs wobbled.
His vision blurred, not from pain, but from the sheer cosmic terror radiating from the beast.
The Elderbeast took one slow, deliberate step towards him, its eyes fixed.
It was done playing.
Kael stood, swaying, battered, the fire of the skill still burning but diminishing, fighting against the crushing despair.
He had pushed it. He had hurt it. He had done the impossible for a fleeting moment.
But he still couldn't win.
He saw the overwhelming power coalesce in its gaping maw, felt the pull of oblivion.
He knew, with a chilling certainty, that this would be his final erasure.
He closed his eyes, a single, defiant thought burning through the fear.
'I'll never be this weak again.'