Exiting the void with a quick midair step, Zarian took a behemoth punch that nearly caught him off guard. He would’ve gotten splattered if he didn’t have a few things working in his favor.
A plasma-blue force from the skill Grand War Mage Body Furnace covered his body, increasing his Strength and Agility to great heights. The skill scaled with Willpower, Wonder, and Mysticism, making it ridiculously strong for him.
There were some trade offs, however.
Grand War Mage Body Furnace burned vitality and aura both at a rapid pace. The trait Outer Planar Scourge made his three main stats stronger, which made the skill stronger, which also made the burn stronger.
Fortunately, he had the trait Aura Magnificence, which reduced the aura burn significantly.
Eldritch Existence usually made the vitality burn less of a problem. But the eldritch trait relied on his enemies being afraid of him. There was a notable lack of fear from Shadowfell’s newest toy, so that was a big issue.
Zarian wasn’t without solutions. He had free evil +7, after all. He adapted quickly, flickering Grand War Mage Body Furnace on and off for an instant boost at the point of impact and no more than that.
Taking a punch that nearly blindsided him, Zarian had to flicker Grand War Mage Body Furnace on and off four times.
Once for the punch.
Twice for the two spires he crashed through while hurtling miles across the Stone Sea River at mach speeds, his body leaving shockwaves behind him as he flew.
Then he used the skill a final fourth time when he struck a thicker and hardier spire.
His landing snapped the spire in half.
Hundreds of thousands of tons of heavy stone collapsed on top of him, cascading into the dark waters below with an ear-thumping roar. Zarian endured it all with the plasma-blue light of his body skill covering his frame, burning his energies like a gas-guzzling engine.
Once the spire fall was over, and he had a moment to breathe, he turned off the skill. He pushed up to his feet on the broken half of a colossal spire.
“Damn, that thing’s strong and fast,” Zarian said, his lion tail whipping left and right.
“I want to eat it,” Para hissed, her kilt-shaped body slithering and coiling aggressively.
That was about all they could say. Shadowfell’s newest toy closed the gap faster than a creature its size should be able to achieve.
In the miniscule time they had before another collision, Zarian got a better look at the creature. He tried to plot out a way to win without breaking his dark cultivation and aura curse training. The purple gravity web on his back remained, but keeping that safe with Aura Mastery cost him some.
Despite his pride, nobody would blame him if he’d powered up all the way against this latest challenge. Even his Devourer of Secrets and Stories was giving a long list of reasons for him to break his cultivation training or run away.
<Greater Aberration, Corrupted, Level 128 Toy Knight +1 (Mythical), Evil +5, Master Ranker.>
<Total Base Stats: 4,627.>
<Best Three Stats: Strength, Agility, Wonder.>
<Alpha Skills: Behemoth Physicality +4, Shadow Movement +3, Moon Armaments +2, Rapid Evolution Adaptability +2, Steam Force +2.>
<Traits: Greater Shadowfell Corruption (Mythical), Orange Hellion Moon Mutation (Legendary), Blue Strider Moon Mutation (Legendary), Greater Star System Monster (Epic), Titanic Movement Boost (Epic), Old Era Bonus (Epic), Horrific Chimera Physiology (Epic), Sea-Air Integration (Rare), Knightly Battle Arts (Rare).>
<Expanded Details: Your actions have inspired your shadowy goddess wife. She has put more passion into this creation than any other before it. Behold the Greater Aberration Corrupted. It is a monster that is of the Star System, while also something that is wholly unique from other monsters. This current version of the creature wasn’t this powerful a few days ago. Shadowfell made it stronger with her corrupted touch. Yes, the moon mutations make it even more dangerous, but that’s the least concerning part.>
<More Expanded Details: Notice how its class, a Level 128 Toy Knight, has a +1 behind it. There are no monsters in the Star System that have that. None whatsoever. It’s as if the class of the creature is acting as a skill. That’s not part of the Star System Monster Sub-Parameters. The implications of such a change to the sub-parameters are … scary. Please kill it.>
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<Side Quest 4 (Mythical): Kill Shadowfell’s Latest Toy For Being Too Scary.>
Zarian was usually selective with his notifications while crossing the Stone Sea River. He was stocking up his gains for when he made it on the other side.
But he really needed as much as he could get on the Level 128 Toy Knight +1. The damn thing looked and fought in scary ways that its profile suggested.
It stood nearly a thousand feet tall while jerking about with the movement of a puppet. Its invisible strings were being wielded by an even bigger and more godly unseen hand that belonged to Luciana, no doubt.
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As for the more specific details of the gleefully evil creation, the Toy Knight +1 had a giant bestial helmet made from the molten slag found in underwater volcanic vents and from pieces of giant meteorite fragments dropped by both the blue and orange moons. Its bulky torso was covered in more torn, jagged, and dense volcanic plate armor with more blue and orange moon rocks studded on at random.
Steam hissed out from every jagged opening or gap in the titanic armor that draped over the torso and the five arms extended from the sides, chest, and back. The Toy Knight +1 also had sky-covering wings that spanned out for nearly a mile. Its lower body was a collection of sea-themed extensions – armored crab legs, flippers, and tentacles.
Every part of the corrupted creature’s body that wasn’t under armor or steam had the shadowy, oily, and corruptive ooze of Enhanced Shadowfell Tears dripping off its body. There were also the blue and orange lights of the moons that beamed through the armor’s cracks and the wavering steam clouds surrounding its body.
Sometimes, thick stalks of lightning appeared from all the steam, moon magic, and corruptive energies clashing at once. More lightning appeared as the behemoth jerked, crawled, and flapped its way toward Zarian like a storm-making horror.
Something so large, so horribly designed, shouldn’t be able to stand or fight efficiently. Hell, it didn’t even know how to move properly as Luciana pulled at its strings, seemingly at random. But the Toy Knight +1 was still moving its thousand-foot bulk at speeds faster than non-rankers and lesser Master Rankers could respond against.
Great thing Zarian had free evil +7.
He got his reads, debated some ideas with Para in his head, and then charted a plan of action almost instantly. He made his first real counter move when a blue-orange moon magic sword that was five hundred feet long, the size of a football field and a half, came down at his head at mach speed.
Zarian lunged aside and flipped through the air. He caught the concussive shockwave of the giant sword’s passing with his Aura Mastery. With both hands gripping the handle to Aura Slayer, he drew the shockwave force onto his sword.
The Toy Knight +1’s sword devastated the broken lower half of the thick spire. Dark chunks flew in all directions. Then, without further delay, its body jerked around rapidly with whirlwind speed and carved its sword toward the direction Zarian surfed the air.
Zarian flickered on two skills specifically. He also summoned all of his grimoires into Para’s serpentine grasp.
Black rattled with its spectral chains. Voidling hummed metallically. Gator growled with predatory hate. And Morph came in with a cocky gurgle before letting out a frightful screech at all that was happening.
The noises his grimoires made got drowned out soon enough.
With his own sword swing that looked many times smaller, Zarian layered together shockwave magic, Dark Affinity, and Void Domain. The two skills he flickered on specifically were Grand War Mage Body Furnace and Lion Prince.
Zarian became as mighty as a dark titan. He changed reality just enough to favor him while meeting the Toy Knight +1 blade to blade.
He won the exchange.
An immense civilization-destroying shockwave roared from the sword-on-sword clash. The nearest creatures in the sky or in the water died when the bomb-like force rolled over them, pulping their insides, making them explode into fireworks of gore.
The jerky and horrific Toy Knight +1 lost its momentum and balance. Zarian forced the titan into a stagger, which no creature at such sizes with Behemoth Physicality +4 should have to endure against a much smaller foe who was a wizard.
But that was the case the Toy Knight +1 had the displeasure of experiencing. Not without some input from its unseen puppet mistress. Luciana’s divine fingers flickered, danced, and yanked at the limbs of her toy.
While a majority of the Greater Aberration Corrupted staggered back, many of its limbs adapted, mutated, evolved, and seemed to act out on their own or to Luciana’s controls.
One arm burst with new oily flesh before hardening into a giant armored crab’s claw that snipped at Zarian. Another arm went through the same rapid grotesque change before coming out as an armored mantis shrimp limb that punched out at faster speeds than even Zarian could track.
From the lower body of the hulking behemoth, multiple tentacles shifted until they had barbed hooks at the end. Then the dangerous tentacles whipped upward out of the water with the intentions to ensnare and tear up Zarian.
Para asserted herself with an explosive change of her own.
All the meat that Zarian had fed her from slaying horrifying aberrations, mutants, and aggressive monsters across the Stone Sea River got put to great use.
Multiple serpentine extensions expanded in size from around Zarian’s waist. They grew and moved fast as they replied to every threat to her host.
She clamped down with a titanic snake’s head with thick, bone-crunching teeth on the crab claw, breaking some of its armor while holding it back. She thrust a pointy snake head through the mantis shrimp arm, meeting its broad width with her spear-like extension, and pierced through.
Then she ripped, tore, and gorged upon the tentacles of the behemoth with a wrathful frenzy she was harboring from the start of this journey, ever since the barbed crown came in contact with Zarian’s head.
She used up all of her meat-reserves for this one moment, knowing that she wouldn’t last long. But that was okay. The point was to apply more shock and awe. The point was to surprise the aberration and Luciana. Maybe more so the former than the latter.
Luciana was a loon, and as much as she was angry with her husband, she still adored him for some strange reason. So there was not much Zarian could gain from Luciana’s surprise other than her hesitating on her next move as the puppet mistress.
But if Zarian could get a smidge of doubt out of the Toy Knight +1. Just a smidge. He would be golden. Which was why he struck again with Aura Slayer instead of using a more classical wizard move. It would be a great way to dominate his opponent’s psyche.
From his sword, he used Aura Mastery to extend a sharpened bar of shockwave magic, darkness from Dark Affinity, and Void Domain. He made a black and forceful sword that was five hundred feet long. Then he swung and connected with a hammering force to the helmet of the Toy Knight +1.
That should’ve staggered it.
Instead, the Toy Knight +1 surged back to the offense regardless of the strike to its head. The creature’s mightiness redoubled. Its speed increased. And it came out swinging for the fences while throwing the whole kitchen sink at Zarian.
The Toy Knight +1 flickered its body with Shadow Movement +3 in a phantasmal way to make it harder to hit the titan. The creature also conjured thousands of blue-orange bolts of moon energy with Moon Armaments +2, each bolt the length of a school bus.
With its Rapid Evolution Adaptability +2, the corrupted behemoth changed its limbs aggressively and produced more crab claws, mantis shrimp arms, and razor-tipped tentacles with anti-biting bone spurs.
If that wasn’t enough already, the Toy Knight +1 surrounded the area with thunderous and lightning-filled steam using its Steam Force +2. Almost like making a cage to keep the wizard trap.
At this point, Zarian realized he made a significant mistake.