Silan was impressed by my idea. Not that it was hard to impress him. From everything Khagnio told about the man, he already held in very high esteem. I could do no wrong in the old Therioceph’s eyes.
So when I said that I wanted to destroy Uralivanth from the ground up, Silan bared his jackal fangs in a wide grin. I now saw why his second na was Blackfang.
“You understand that turning the entire might of Ring Zero against House Uralivanth of all people is a monuntal task, yes?” he said.
“Yes,” I said. “But you don’t sound like you’re backing down.”
“Of course not. I’m old. One of these days, I’ll have to croak. That’s just life. But if I can go out shooting for the distant stars, then why would I ever back down?”
I slowly nodded. Khagnio didn’t look like he appreciated that line of reasoning, but he didn’t raise any specific concerns. “That’s why I’ve already started the rumour mill. Which you’ve been helping with, of course. I appreciate it.”
“Yes. That was a good start, and it helped propel the blow you delivered to their finances. Their economic standing in the broader financial landscape of Zairgon has taken a terrible hit, Moreland. You must understand, all their competitors, all the other gangs they’ve been helping their favoured groups oppress, they are all champing at the bit, ready to rip into them.”
“Good. Just what I’ve been hoping to incite.”
I had figured that no matter how strong the Roaring Claws, no matter how much of a stranglehold House Uralivanth had on their side of Zairgon economy, neither group was without competitors. Without enemies who were circling like sharks sensing blood. It was satisfying to receive confirmation that it was as true in Ring Zero as it was on every other Ring.
“The only thing is that you want us to take the heat for it,” Silan said. “Riptide would ostensibly be the one dealing a mortal blow to the Roaring Claws.”
“You don’t have a problem with that, right?” I asked.
“Of course he doesn’t,” Khagnio said with a flicker of his serpentine tongue. “He’s been wanting to do that for as long as I rember, from even before I joined, going by what so of the others had said.”
The other mbers of Riptide weren’t present. That wasn’t a problem, according to Khagnio. While they were all free and independent, the leader of their little coalition was very much Silan Blackfang. If he decided on a direction, then the rest of them would have to accept it.
“Yes,” Silan confird. “I’ve killed two of their old leaders. It’s annoying how they keep sprouting back up.”
“Why haven’t you killed Shagor yet then?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I haven’t found a specific reason to do so yet. The others before him went out of their way to piss off on purpose, so they had to go. Shagor has been a lot shrewder about it. Plus, he’s a whelp. Just like you. Slaughtering him now would just make look pathetic.”
I raised my head higher. “Pathetic to whom?”
“To my sensibilities, alright? Even a lifelong undercity crook like needs so kind of morals to stick to, Moreland.”
I grunted. “Fair enough.”
Khagnio had ntioned Silan was powerful. While he himself was unaware of his superior’s ranks and other pertinent information, he had surmised that Silan had to be at least low Opal-ranked.
That sort of power was sothing I could have used in the operation going forward. But of course, I was relying on no one but myself.
“When?” Silan asked.
“Tomorrow. At dawn. I’m going to end the Roaring Claws and all the stupid threats and annoyances they’ve been causing. And then I’ll deal with their masters.”
Silan t my eyes, golden pupils boring into my own darker ones. “Then I wish you fair fortune, Moreland. The path you tread is full of great danger, but you’re clearly a man who ets danger head-on. I admire that. When the ti cos, I will be there to assist. Riptide stands with you, Ross Moreland.”
Slowly, I nodded. The reassurance did a lot to lift the pallor on my heart. I had help. I had friends. For all the enemies I had, I had a great deal more aningful relationships I could count on. It made feel both humble and grateful as I exited Riptide’s base.
“You’re really going all out, mageling,” Khagnio said. “The fallout from this… is going to be massive.”
“I’ll worry about the fallout when I can stop thinking about these bastards. Right now, I need to make sure Uralivanth and the Roaring Claws don’t pose a problem after I’m done.”
Khagnio snorted a little. “You’ve even got the old geezer excited. I haven’t seen him this eager for anything in a decade.”
“He’s…” I hesitated, not sure I wanted to state the thoughts about Silan that had popped up in my head.
“Stop hiding it, I know what you want to say,” Khagnio said. “He’s already dead, so now he’s happy to see the world burn. Or sothing along those lines, right?”
“You’re the one who said it, not .”
Khagnio muttered out a curse. He said he wanted to be a part of my team tomorrow, so I told him the exact ti and location we needed to gather. Apparently, Khagnio had full faith in Silan and the rest of Riptide to provide whatever support would be necessary.
“Just one last thing before you go, mageling,” Khagnio said. “There better not be any dying tomorrow.”
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I shook my head. “Of course not. I’m not dying before I make them pay.”
He gave an uncharacteristically grim look as I finally left.
I blessed the fact that I didn’t have claustrophobia. Though, even without it, my heart was constantly on the edge of panic. I was in darkness, my body cramped in the tightest of confines, and the lack of air was starting to make my lungs seriously hurt.
This was the first ti I wished I had sothing akin to the immortality the Scarthralls possessed. Which…
Would Reverence Everlife help if I started suffocating for real? Was it already helping? I had heard that the lack of air was an intended feature. Sothing to forcefully pacify the poor monsters and other creatures they normally carried in these boxes. But with the help of Riptide, the monsters they were carrying this ti weren’t exactly the easily-compliant sort.
“Careful,” one of Claws hissed outside my box. “Don’t jostle them too much.”
“I’m trying,” said another. “Can’t help it. These things are heavy.”
“This is why I keep telling you to pay so attention to Power instead of just Agility all the ti.”
The other Scalekin scoffed and made excuses. They continued bickering. I didn’t pay attention, just tried focusing through the lack of air on the mont I needed to act.
On the very instant I was going to start ripping apart the Roaring Claws.
The opportunity arrived monts later. I had to be a bit patient for it. The Claws lingered too long even after depositing the boxes. To the point that I just cursed and decided I had spent long enough waiting.
Silan had provided a few tools to extricate myself from the boxes, but I found a faster way to get out. The boxes were made of light stone. I considered warping it with Granular Control, but really, I could just apply so Atomized Oblivion to reduce it to nothing. The radiation washing wasn’t too bad since I had Intake active and my target was small.
I briefly wondered if I could control the atomized matter with Granular Control, but I could experint later. It didn’t take long before I was free and dusting myself off.
Now. To begin.
It was, of course, Gravity once again. Field Manipulation went first. A wide field of void-purple energy swept through the room, then expanded further outwards when I concentrated. The energy grew and grew, especially since I Sacrificed multiple casts to boost the next one that much more.
Cracks thundered through the building around . The air itself began shivering. Everything started shaking.
My power was unleashed.
Monts later, the Roaring Claws’ hideout began breaking apart. Beams fell, bricks broke, windows shattered, and doors splintered.
I did the sa with Ignition Charge. Instead of unleashing Orbit as soon as I thought about it, I Sacrificed the first two Ignition Charge casts. I had built up quite a few charges over the weeks. There was no need for to hesitate.
The hideout continued shattering. Threads of Gravity went far and wide, Granular Control weakening everything around so that Field Manipulation could make everything collapse that much faster. With Orbit active, none of that bothered either. Everything that fell was caught up in a funnel, turning my surroundings into a destructive cyclone of broken stone.
The noise grinded against my eardrums. A roaring tornado combined with the roar of a jet engine. A maelstrom of pressure hemd in from all sides, the fury of my Gravity unleashed nearly to its maximum capacity.
And then ca the screams. In the pandemonium of an entire building being ripped apart from within, they were faint. Almost imperceptible, if I was being honest. But I was keeping an ear out for them specifically, hoping to hear the exact fallout of my assault on the Roaring Claws’ base.
Not that the screams lasted long. I spotted body parts revolving around with the rest of the debris here and there, barely noticeable just as the screams had been. Limbs in one location, organs here and there, blood whirling like an eldritch rain.
“You!”
The shout of the familiar voice, now tinged with rage and the first hints of fear, pulled my attention upwards. Shagor was floating along with everything else, his body talized to prevent the debris from tearing him apart.
“You won’t—”
I didn’t give him the chance to blather on and on. Waste of my ti. Instead, I intensified Orbit’s effect specifically on him, slamming him around faster and faster to have him crashing through more of the debris. Bastard was lucky I wasn’t burning him alive with Flare and blinding him with Illumination.
He tried to fight back, such that he could in his compromised position. I saw fire sparking around one arm, lightning buzzing to life in the other. But with how fast I had caught him in Orbit’s trap, anything he sohow managed to throw off went well wide.
Especially when there were so many other sources of Gravity active around . I was impossible to take out from a distance.
It didn’t take long to completely debilitate Shagor. Strong though his Vitality was, my Gravity’s Ignition Charge was far stronger now. Especially after I had boosted it to such a high degree. Vomit and blood now swirled alongside Shagor’s body. Whatever attempts he had made to fight back earlier had now faded to near-unconsciousness as I threw him round and round.
I let it go eventually. A small avalanche crashed down with enough force and noise to wake the dead, and I was montarily shaking with everything else. No doubt, the commotion was going to draw in the majority of Ring Zero over here specifically.
“You—” Shagor gurgled, as he tried to speak. Despite his attempt to protect himself with his tal-based Aspect, I had managed to break through his defence at several areas. His body was perforated with spiky debris here and there. “This will—”
He coughed, spitting more blood. A cloud of dust had blanketed the whole area, which was granting so nice privacy, while Granular Control and Massless Interaction ensured I wasn’t hacking out my lungs like my poor victim here.
“You and your Roaring Claws have been working against for long enough,” I said, intensifying the smaller Field Manipulation and Infusion I was applying where Shagor had fallen. He was struggling to rise, but in his current state, he was finding it impossible to free himself. “You’re dead now. All the mbers inside your little hideout, all the idea of strength you projected through Ring Zero, all gone.”
Shagor just tried to hold up a rude gesture.
I had to respect his defiance, if nothing else. Man might have been my enemy, but he wasn’t really a prick.
Which was why I raised my mace high, pushing in Gravity with Infusion and drawing in heat with Concentration, attaching it to my mace with Massless Interaction. It took only a few heartbeats. Shagor stared up at , maintaining his defiant expression despite staring up his inevitable fatality.
“You’ll… upheaval…” he ground out. “You’ll… pay.”
“Sure I will,” I said. “Except, everyone who might benefit from making pay will either be dead, or in no position to enact any silly ideas of revenge.”
I crushed my mace down. The blow gonged and cracked against Shagor’s tallic head, heat bursting out with lting power at the mont of impact to literally lt his skull. All that was left of his head was a burned and molten stump.
There was a surprising amount of silence afterwards.
[ Rank Up!
Your Thauma Attribute has risen by one Rank.
Your Gravity Aspect has risen by one Rank.
Your Path of Starforged Firmant has risen by one Rank.
Thauma: Gold VI
Gravity: Gold X
Path of Starforged Firmant: Gold IX ]
I ignored the blue screen, letting it fade after a cursory glance through the Weave’s notices. Shagor was down. The operational arm of the Roaring Claws were now no more. I looked over to where the remains of the boxes that were supposed to carry monsters—but instead held just rocks—lay.
It was ti to deliver the sa blow to House Uralivanth.
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