Chapter 127: Buff’s Up!
The blessing that was Lizzie’s green aura surrounded everyone around the battlefield as the last echoes of the T-Rex’s roar faded into silence.
One by one, the team was coming back to itself. The sleeping effects of the spores dissolved completely, leaving everyone clear-headed and energized.
Jerry blinked rapidly, pushing himself up with a groan, and Zoro sat up next, his patterns flaring back into full brightness as he rubbed his head and muttered something under his breath.
Cassandra stretched her arms overhead and rolled her neck. "This is what we get for being weak," she said with a wry smile.
"You’re the farthest thing from weak, love," Kurt said to her, all the while keeping his eyes on the dazed monster with a tired smirk.
Just then, Lizzie landed lightly beside the group, planting her hands on her hips and grinned wildly. "Looks like ya guys started the party without us."
"Took you long enough," Kurt replied, shaking his head.
"We were busy," she responded, already walking past him toward the Sly-rak, which was still face-down in the dirt and groaning. "Also you’re welcome."
As the group gathered together, Eli straightened his tailcoat and approached. "We apologize for the delay," he said smoothly. "Miss Lizzie insisted on making an entrance."
Kurt let out a short laugh. "Better late than never." He tossed his cigarette to the ground and stomped on it. "I’d say we were about two seconds from becoming dino chow."
The tension from the brutal fight melted away faster than expected. Sam smiled softly and hugged Lizzie before brushing dirt from her clothes, while Morra simply observed the exchange.
However, there was no time to linger on words alone. The Sly-rak began to stir, slowly pushing its massive body upright despite the daze from Eli’s empowered strike.
"Alright, team!" Lizzie’s eyes lit up with manic glee. "Time to finish this properly." She clapped her hands together, then rubbed them together really fast and thrust outward.
A wave of bright yellow aura suddenly washed over the entire group in a second, causing power to surge through every vein as senses sharpened and fatigue vanished.
"Buff’s on, babies! Let’s beat the shit out of this oversized lizard!" Lizzie said cheerfully then began rubbing her chin. "Meh. Need to work on the catchphrase too."
Kurt felt completely different. This wasn’t the usual Lizzie empowerment, it was something else entirely. Every ability sitting in his system felt like it was pushed way past its usual ceiling.
"I could get used to this," he said, flexing his fingers.
Beside him, Cassandra looked down at her own hand as ice formed around her fist without her asking it to, layering itself in dense interlocking plates.
"Hm." She closed her fingers slowly, feeling the structure hold.
"Right?" Lizzie grinned.
The Sly-rak chose that moment to begin standing. It pushed itself up from the crater, its hollow green eyes refocusing as the daze cleared.
While the Sly-rak was still rising, shaking its head groggily, Zoro touched the earth, and wooden tendrils, shot through its leg from the ground, piercing and immobilizing it.
Following this, Cassandra crossed the distance in a flash and her ice-armored fist came up from below, driving into the underside of the Sly-rak’s jaw.
The impact sent a shockwave through the air that flattened the grass around them in a ring, and the creature left the ground, all eight stories of it, launched skyward by the single strike.
Mid-air, Eli blurred into position from the left with the blood sword trailing a crimson arc, and the flat of the blade connected with the creature’s side like a hammer finding an anvil.
The Sly-rak careened sideways, spinning, and its trajectory pointed directly at Kurt who had already launched himself in the air to meet it.
"System, upgrade Dragon ability to C rank," he said to the system mentally, and an interface was immediately pulled up
[UPGRADE CONFIRMED]
[Dragon → Dragon King: C-Rank]
[Cost: 30 Points]
[Available Points: 73]
[New Description: Host’s partial draconic physiology has been enhanced: all stats and regeneration. Prehensile tail acquired]
The tail emerged, pushing out from the base of his spine and adjusting his balance instantly. But he wasn’t done...
"Again."
[UPGRADE CONFIRMED]
[Dragon King → Typhon: B-Rank]
[Cost: 25 Points]
[Available Points: 48]
[New Description: Draconic wings. All physical and nonphysical stats enhanced exponentially. Scales harden to near-impenetrable density. Fire and Lightning dragon breath achieved]
Below, Jerry’s jaw dropped and Lizzie whooped. "Holy shit, Kurt’s got wings!"
Sam stared with wide eyes while Cassandra had a smile on her face.
"That is certainly something," Eli said. If he was also shocked, he did a decent job of hiding it.
Kurt tested the wings with a single powerful downstroke, and the air displacement flattened the grass below. "Yeah," he muttered, grinning. "This’ll work."
The wings caught the air immediately, and his speed spiked up even more as he covered the remaining distance to the Sly-rak in a fraction of a second.
"Typhon." He let kinetic overdrive build in his fist, orange surrounding his fist. "Plus kinetic overdrive." He layered strength aura over the top of it. "Plus strength aura." Then his bones hardened. "Plus Bone King."
The Sly-rak sensed the incoming strike. Its mouth dropped open and heat began building in its throat, the glow climbing fast.
Then the glow stopped, and the jaw snapped shut with a sound like a vault door closing, the creature’s own fire sealed inside its mouth now surrounded by blue energy.
Below, Sam’s hand was outstretched, fingers trembling as her telekinesis clamped down on the creature’s skull with absolute precision.
However, Kurt didn’t bother looking down. He knew who was responsible. Instead, he put everything into the punch.
"You know the difference between a T-Rex and a dragon?" He pulled back his fist as the creature spun toward him, unable to pry its own mouth open. "A T-Rex wishes it could be half as cool."
The fist connected with the Sly-rak’s skull and the explosion that followed turned the creature’s forward momentum into a straight vertical plummet.
It hit the ground hard and Sam’s force field expanded outward in the same instant, a dome of telekinetic pressure containing the shockwave.
It pulled the blast inward so the debris didn’t scatter across the clearing. The ground inside the dome compressed and cracked and the Sly-rak lay still at the centre of it.
The dome dissolved afterwards and silence fell as the dust settled slowly.
Then the system chimed.
[Boss Entity Defeated]
[Dungeon Core Destabilizing]
[Rewards Calculating...]
Kurt hovered for a second longer. Then exhaled. "...Yeah," he muttered. "That’ll do it."
