Chapter 58: Success

Chapter 58: Success

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryugii. This has been pulled from his Spacebattle publishment. Anyway on with the show...errr read.

Success

I threw myself towards the Goliath, rushing straight through the attack to reach him. Having moved a second earlier thanks to the warnings of my senses, I covered most of the distance before it even unleashed the blast and flew through the rest after but a few moments of exposure. My body heated from my adamant skin to far deeper and for a moment I felt like I was being boiled from the inside, but the sensation passed as I escaped the attack and smashed into the beast's forehead. I struck it with all my might and I drove it back, its mighty legs carving trenches as they were forced across the ground.

Immediately, the Goliath's trunk curled up to reach me, black fluid flying from the tip before it was even in place. Levant formed a body behind me and erected a barrier of wind to shield me from the attack as my soul shifted, tiger like limbs forming and raking the Goliath with tooth and nail. The dark liquid splattered around me and on the ground far below, immediately frothing wherever it connected with the latter. In moments, Grimm began to pull themselves from it, many of them flying species probably meant to reach the Goliath and heal its woundsbut this time, I was ready for that trick.

Vulturnus and Suryasta coalesced in the air above the newborn Grimm and fell upon them. Suryasta grabbed one by the throat and dragged it as dark mist began to boil forth from its mouth and nose, squeezing down to shear through its neck and strike another monster. My fire Elemental waded fearlessly into the fray with his bare hands, assured by the fact that his very body was made of searing flames. Whatever he touched burned. Whatever touched him burnt even more. He'd reach out to stick fingers into the flesh of the Grimm, planting points of light like seeds and moving on without paying them any more heed, leaving them to try and claw futilely at their chests and limbs. In the end, it made no difference; flames erupted forth from their flesh, eyes, and throats as the seeds grew larger inside them, growing into orbs that melted flesh around them like wax.

Though he had seemed to enjoy showing off against Pyrrha, he was taking a slightly more minimalist approach now, probably thanks to my request not to be wasteful. As it was, most of the deaths he caused were probably still needlessly extreme, but he was dispatching the Grimm quickly with a relatively small drain on my HP. As long as I could maintain the White Tiger of the West, I could burn my easily restored HP instead of my far more precious MP, so I let him do his thing and destroy the Grimm on the ground.

Vulturnus handled the air. The Lightning Elemental's expression changed between instants, but though his presence in my fluctuated too quickly to make out anything intelligible, I thought he was laughing. His right arm shifted until it was a seething mass of electrical energy that was only vaguely humanit was too large for his body, with oversized, sharp looking fingers. His left arm dissolved entirely, becoming nothing more than a constantly forking stream of lightning that struck the Nevermore from the sky, seemingly at random. Though I gave him no more than a glance, I could see 'paths' in the air, hundreds of invisible lines that weaved through the air like a net and then resolved into a single strike whenever a line was touched.

Though they formed right beside the Goliath, none of the Grimm even came close to reaching it, much less heal its wounds. I nodded to myself, content that they'd be able to handle any created minions, and so focused on my own tasktrying to dig through the Goliath's defense.

It was goingslowly. I had to curl my claws around the edges of armor plates instead of into flesh, because the Grimm's hide was no longer so easily penetrated. If before I'd been like a cat clawing at a person's skindealing a small but potentially dangerous amount of damage, especially when attacking as much as I didnow it was like I was clawing at steel, unable to leave anything meaningful upon it. I pounded it instead, relying on blunt force impacts as my Elementals protected me from distractions, but

It wasn't enough. I felt the Mountain's Strength in action, boosting my might even high above the lofty heights I'd managed to reach until each blow rang against the armor like thunder and drove the beast further and further backbut it wasn't enough.

What I needed, I thought as I broke off to climb swiftly up the Goliath's face, were better claws.

I hadn't had a chance to test it yet, butit was worth a shot.

Getting into a better position upon the Goliath's back and holding firm with phantasmal limbs as it tried to shake me off, I reached into my Inventory and withdrew one of my precious Dust crystals. I'd chosen yellow after a moment of brief deliberation; red, its nearest competitor for what I had in mind, seemed unlikely to work on the Goliath, while green and blue would need for care to make work. No, of the Elements I had experience with, Lightning would probably be the most effective to start with.

I took a breath and slammed it to my chest, right over my heart. I felt my pattern adjust to take it in, responding as I'd learned from my grandmother's gift, and the crystal slipped through my fingers to vanish beneath my skin. I had a moment's pause to brace myself before the agony took hold, like Iwell, like I was being electrocuted. My nerves went haywire, muscles jerked and twitched at the shockand then it eased, my body taking it in.

Dust Eaterone of the two archaic forms of Dust manipulation my grandmother had provided me with. It was the process of infusing Dust into one's own body, much like Dust Weaver was the act of sowing it into clothing; arts that had been mostly left behind by the more convenient and controllable methods of powder and rounds. Bodies would be strained, clothing would fray, and in both cases the process of replacing Dust as it was used was tedious or painful. But for me

My heart glowed, light shining through my skin with each beat, pace quickening by the moment. In seconds, one flash all but faded into the next and trails of yellow light spread down my limbs in glowing patterns. My heart pounded in my chest faster then I'd ever felt before, beating so hard it seemed to hammer the inside of my ribs, but I felt power, too, running through my blood like a circuit on full blast.

And then it reached my Aura.

In an instant, it changedwhite light giving way to yellow and then became lightning. As the power of the Dust crystal writhed over my skin, the shape my soul had taken shifted once more. It went wild, my second tail unraveling into a wicked lightning bolt while the rest became a storm, a vague shape with features written in blinding light and racing arcs. I leapt down from my resting place and back down to face the Goliath, ghostly limbs extending as I landed on a tusk, tails wrapping around it securely. And then, like a lightning bolt, I struck; energy of my tail flowed down into the bone of its tusk while clawed fingered extended towards a single glowing eye. It was as hard as it looked, more like the polished rock it resembled than anything vulnerablebut it was softer, at least compared to its armor, and I poured every watt of electricity I had straight into it even as I clawed at it fiercely. The power flowed from the core of my body in a stream that made my body sizzle and I had to bite down a scream, but I guided it into the creature's flesh all the same.

With a clap of thunder, its eye burst, exploding into pus, steam, and a dark fluid that flowed down its mask even as the tusk I'd stood atop cracked from within. The Goliath screamed, for the first time sounding truly pained, and shook its head madly to try and throw me loose.

I go of let it, flying away at the peak of a shake, curving in the air with a moment's aid from Levant as I withdrew a green crystal. Encouraged by the amount of damage Lightning had caused, I took more of the Dust into myself and my Aura, only just returned to normal, unraveled into wind to a brief feeling of coming undone. In that moment, it was like I was standing in the center of a tornado or a hurricanethe touch of it against my skin was almost peaceful, but I could see the storm of it all, especially through the eyes of Levant. I stood on the air with my own power and then strode through the skies on all fours within a tiger of wind.

The Goliath reacted as I came down upon it. Its trunk swept at me but I slipped over it, flowing the path of displaced air as if it were an actual road. The Goliath planted its feet as I struck, as if bowing against a storm, and then unleashed a cry as it swung its trunk up, blasting at me with radiation. I slide into its blind spot easily, sliding past the side of its head and leapt onto its flank. Whereas before I held on to it with my tiger claws and struck with my human hands, here we switched tasks; I hovered with my wind-shrouded human hands and feet mere centimeters above its skin and ran under its belly and then back up the other side. My tiger's limbs trailed claws as my tails fanned, doing little damage.

That was fine. They weren't supposed to.

Halting for an instant, I unleashed the storm with a roar and it struck hard, following the course I'd set. I hit the Goliath's side as it did, pushing against it with all the force I could muster as the winds gathered beneath and against it. Levant added her power to the process with a beautiful laugh and perhaps that was the breaking point, for at last, the Goliath fell, crashing to the ground like an avalanche.

Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one!

I laughed happily and rose to my feet as if nothing happened. Ten levels. I'd gone up ten levelsfourteen total if you count the Giant Nevermore, which brought me up to forty-six. That wasthat was amazing. As I was now, without a doubt, I was

Smiling brightly, I came around the edge of the statue I'd left, gazing at the Goliath's corpse. Already, dark clouds of smoke were rising from the body, but I searched it slowly until I found what I was looking for arranged neatly beside it and went over to see what I'd gotten.

There was money, of courseand plenty enough of it, at that. It'd be useful, when I needed to buy more supplies; I was really hard on Dust and what I had now wasn't going to last much longer if things kept happening to me. There was a mask as well, which I'd also expected, but which was just as useful. It was shaped like the Goliath's mask, of course, and it would cover my entire face as I'd expected. Those two things were pretty much a given.

But beneath the money and the mask were two more items. Neither was unexpected, per se, but I hadn't known what else would appear this timesometimes I got items, sometimes I got books, and this time, as with the Giant Nevermore, I got both. A white book with a dark sphere in the center and some type of decorated white cloth I didn't recognize, held together in several places with what looked like Grimm bone armor. Pondering it all quietly, I picked the bundle up and watched the windows appear.

You have obtained 450000 Lien!

You have obtained the item 'Ganesha.'

You have obtained the item 'Airavata.'

You obtained the skill book 'Naraka.' Would you like to learn this skill?

I shook my head in irritation. I'd hoped the names would reveal something about the items, but none of it meant anything to menot unusual for the drops I got, but still a little annoying. More than thatI was still a bit nervous because of how the Goliath had been acting before its defeat. Whatever it was up to, I got the feeling that it had thought it had accomplished something, but what? I didn't see anything it could have done and no trap was springing, so what did that leave? Just these things and though I knew logically that there shouldn't have been any real way for it to even know about my power, much less effect it, butwell, it was best to be cautious with Grimm drops anyway, I suppose.

At first blush, though, none of these things seemed too bad. I mean, I'd sure the Goliath's mask would do some untold number of horrible things to anyone else who put it on, but for me, it'd probably be okay. There was the white cloth Airavata, but that'd probably be the sameI was immune to mental status effects and all it would take was a night's sleep to get rid of anything on my body. Root of all evil or not, I couldn't see what giving me a lot of money would do, either. The only thing that left was the book, but I couldn't really see how giving me more skills would hurt me. I mean, I didn't think there were negative skills, and none of the ones I'd gotten from other Grimm had been anything less than superb. It didn't make much sense for my rewards to be bad for me, either.

But just to be safe, I Observed it and found my eyebrows rising in shock.

Skill Book: NarakaRank: Mythic

A skill to form dimensional barriers around oneself, removing one from the normal world. The Dungeons created give rise to Grimm that attack all humans within the barrier, including the user; stronger dungeons may be created at higher levels to create mightier Grimm and cause additional effects. Barrier dissolves if the user leaves.

I just had to stare at it for a minute, somewhat dumbfounded. I meanit would let me do what? The possibilities of such a thing filled my mind in an instant, to many to focus on just onebut if I could create barriers with Grimm inside them, if I could 'remove myself from the normal world'I could train anywhere. It might even be a solution to Raven, though the accompanying Grimm would probably make it difficult, but it was justI just

I pressed the yes button repeatedly.

You cannot learn this skill. Required: WIS 100.

I snorted at that and brought up my status screen. I had the points now and I'd intended to do it anyway, so I just went ahead and raised my Wisdom over a hundred and waited in anticipation to see what skills I would get.

By raising WIS above 100, you have gained a random ability related to your deep understanding.

The skill 'Familiar' was created.

By raising WIS above 100, you have gained the passive skill 'Harmony.'

By raising WIS above 100, you have gained the passive skill 'Pathfinder.'

"Oh," I drew the word out as the profiles appeared before me.