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[Skill-Eater] Chapter 159: Glacier
🕑 Added 2024-12-03 18:00:07 +0000 UTCWarren had been a bounty hunter, not a beast hunter. While his spellshots were powerful, there was no guarantee that they would be well-suited to crippling or killing the behemoth beast. Each round was irreplaceable and worth a small fortune, and Edge had been saving them for a rainy day.
Well, look at that. It’s raining now. With a whump of displaced air, the spellshot went streaking for the enraged beast that was coming to slaughter them all. Right now, Edge didn’t have the fine-motor control to hit the broad side of a barn. Fortunately for him and the rest of the team, his target was even bigger.
He had no idea what kind of skill the round held, but they were all about to find out. He was willing to use them all if it let him steal intimidating roar and claim the rewards that the System had promised. He wanted to disable the garax, not kill it, but either outcome would be better than it annihilating the crew. If the first shot wasn’t enough to take it down, he would keep on firing and pray that the beast fell before he ran out of rounds.
One thing was certain by this point. If this didn’t work, they were all going to die.
“What the fuck is going on?” Jumo yelled.
“Spellshot,” Sasha called back. “Get behind cover before it manifests, or we might get caught in the crossfire.”
She had time to take three more steps before the spellshot collided with the garax’s chest. An incredible concentration of mana was released in a flash, as raw magic was converted into kinetic energy. The spell drove itself into the beast’s body like a titan’s fist—throwing it into the air. It landed on the farmhouse, demolishing the building in great spray of wreckage.
It was a solid hit, but it wasn’t good enough. The garax was dazed but it wasn’t seriously injured. However, that was only half the show, because the spell had a second act. Over the next few seconds, the temperature plummeted—going from sweltering noon to an arctic chill in between the drawing of one breath and the next.
Sasha propped Edge up against the corner of a building. Then she leaned forward to watch over his shoulder with her cheek pressed against his own. Every eye in the crew was riveted on the fallen behemoth—hoping against hope that they could still win the fight.
Ice began spreading from the point of impact. A heavy layer of rime crawled across the beast’s skin, growing thicker by the heartbeat as it covered both legs and began engulfing its muscular chest.
The effect died down a few seconds later. It left the garax three quarters of the way encased within a massive block of ice, just as the final seconds of exhaustion ticked past and energy returned to Edge’s body.
The high-rank skill hadn’t been enough to kill the resilient creature. But the shock to its system and intense cold had stunned it, leaving it unable to focus. In that moment, Skill-Eater opened its eyes and roared to life—its gluttony spreading through every cell of his body. It was eager to claim the garax’s power, to the point that its need was nearly a frenzy.
Not that Edge needed any encouragement at this point. His own greed was nearly as intense. Thanks to the glacial spellshot, he had one last chance to steal intimidating roar, even if it meant revealing the exitance of the black chains to Trapper’s crew. Fuck it. In for a penny, in for a pound.
The opportunity was simply too good to pass up, consequences be damned. He would fire off another round to complete the quest, but first it was time to eat.
By this point, he was already sprinting into the range of his chains. As Edge drew near the beast’s feet, he used the final drops of magic in his reservoir to pull off one last leap. He soared into the air, lifted both arms, and then willed [Extraction] to activate.
The living links surged forth in a clinking flash—streaking for a big cut on the garax’s chest that wasn’t covered by ice. They might not have been able to force their way into its core if the scales were still in the way. But at it was, they were able to squeeze through, begin their assault, and drag Edge’s consciousness along for the ride.
The inside of the garax’s core was unlike anything he’d seen before. He was still on Ord, but it was an exotic landscape filled with strange sights. A sparkling gemstone jungle met his gaze. Many of the plants were made of living crystal, though there were plenty of normal species too. Even the ground was covered by wide swaths of minerals that glistened in the sunlight like an ocean of jewels.
Edge was standing at the base of an immense emerald tree that stretched up for thousands of feet. Its crystal branches refracted the light—throwing rainbow checkers of radiance across the ground for as far as his eyes could see. It was a dazzling, jaw-dropping display, and he would have taken his time to enjoy it under other circumstances.
But he hadn’t come here to admire the view. He was here to claim the behemoth’s skills for his own, and he needed to make his move. The beast was only going to be stunned for a few more seconds at best. Even with time slowed down, if he took too long, it was going to recover enough to resist his assault, and he would lose this chance forever.
There were quite a few skills in here. All of them were at least uncommon and rank-three or above. While Edge had his heart set on intimidating roar, it would be foolish not to consider his other options. After all, there might be something even better.
He started looking around to decide which power he wanted, when he received a message from his core. Skill-Eater could only communicate in vague images and desires. But in this case, the meaning was clear. It was telling him to ignore the other skills while drawing his attention to the best of the bunch.
When he turned to examine the power in question, a surge of hunger flooded every inch of his body. A need to devour far more intense than anything he’d felt before. He followed the motion of the chains to where a skill was standing on top of a diamond hill—peering down across the core like a monarch on her throne.
The moment that he laid eyes on intimidating roar, Edge became certain of two things. The first was that he was looking at an epic skill. The second was that if he wanted to claim it, he was in for a fight unlike any that had come before.
