Savage Awakening 558. Shard Farming (III)

He deposited the shards in an interspatial ring and kept moving. Astrolith beams razed the landscape behind him, but with his Great Sage Mind keeping track of things he had no trouble getting out of the way.

That was a coup, all things considered—just a few minutes’ work for two shards. He surveyed his slopes for more shard meteors coming his way, but he had no such luck. A few meteors, two Creation, one Destruction were just descending into the valley below. Making long, slow arcs to land smack-dab in True Dragon territory… he looked enviously at them. Two fleets of dragons were already swooping in, along with a fleet of phoenixes. The phoenixes and the dragons seemed to be allied, from what he could tell. But this little drop was set to land right between their camps. No shots were being thrown just yet. But there was certainly some tension brewing.

He wondered briefly if he should try barging in and giving it a go. Maybe snatching a shard of two in the chaos.

But he quickly banished the thought. Charging into that mess of T1s… He wasn’t sure he’d want to try something like that even if he had the full Concept.

Besides, more shards would likely fall on Mount X while he was gone. Much easier shards to nab.

There was also the matter of his being pretty physically wrecked at the moment. He wasn’t pulling out another double-stacking attack anytime soon; he estimated it’d be at least a half-hour before body, essence, and soul were all replenished enough to give it another go. Even building back another Limit Breaker would be quite an undertaking.

So he forced himself to look away and find a spot to rest up. Ready himself for when the next meteor came.

Unfortunately, no such rest spot presented itself. Meteors were still bombarding the mountain constantly. The slope was crawling with Astroliths. The only thing keeping the population down was the stunning amount of friendly fire going on.

So he kept on running, letting the Astroliths strike around him. It turned out he could recover just fine on the move.

That friendly fire was something he was putting in his back pocket. Finishing the shard Boss that way had been a happy accident, but he felt it was quite replicable.

About fifty minutes later, another Destruction meteor came careening onto his side of the slopes.

Once again he preemptively charged it. But this time he made sure to add in another zig-zag, just to bring his total up to eight steps.

He roared, slashed, and unleashed so much force he ended up dealing a solid 20% damage to himself—just pure muscular damage.

But he’d dealt nearly 90% damage to that Boss, if he had to estimate, just looking at that smoking husk of stone. Still just barely missing the one-shot. 

He rolled out of the way and let it eat its own minions’ beams, which finished the job. 

That was another two shards of Destruction in hand, just like that.

He was quite pleased with this strategy.

The more he thought about it, the more he realized the unique advantages he had on this battlefield. For one, he seemed to be one of the only folks here going at this shard-hunting business solo. Being alone meant it was much easier to advantage of Astrolith friendly fire. The humans down in the valley were mostly clumped in groups, stuck blocking or dodging—they couldn’t really get in the midst of these things and turn them against each other.

Then again, it was probably quite difficult to keep track of all those Astroliths if you didn’t have the soul and Skill advantages Zane had. He guessed some folk could sense when Astroliths were charging up. But tracking the essence flows, feeling out where those beams were going—then multiplying that across dozens of Astroliths… you’d need some pretty strong soul senses.

Another half-hour rest, and he was fiending to take down another shard Boss.

This time it would take a solid hour and a half for the shard meteor to strike his mountain. He had to stand there and watch as shard meteor after shard meteor struck the valley below… he was just pondering leaving his territory a bit, hunting near the base of Mount X—a zone officially claimed by the dragons—when another shard meteor finally struck his side of the mountain.

This one, to his slight disappointment, was a Creation meteor. Still, shards were shards. 

He took down its Shard Boss even smoother than the first two.

Just three hours in, and he was already six shards up—two more than he’d gathered all season. 

*** 

Princess Jaxarys of the Black Dragons, also known as the ‘Iron Princess,’ unsheathed her claws with a a cry. Her claws grew heavy with superdensity Concepts. Four slashes blitzed out, tearing reality like it was made of paper—more than enough to bring down the Shard Boss in front of her. She carefully collected her sixth shard of the night.

“At this rate, you’ll break the record for shards claimed in an end-of-season shower,” said her uncle Karagas. 

“It wouldn’t do to get ahead of myself,” she said softly. “It hasn’t been done yet.” 

Her uncle Karagas nodded his approval. 

If he wished, Karagas could’ve swept every other creature off the Pure Yang Lands on his own. He wasn’t just any T2 Dragon; his shards easily numbered over 50. But he’d been given strict orders by the Dragon Ancestor himself not to interfere. Just to observe. He would step in if anything drastic went wrong—if any of the dragons’ interests were severely threatened. But besides that, she was on her own.

It wasn’t enough that she was a talent of a caliber rare even outside of Dragonspire. She needed the deeds to match.

This Pure Yang Land was to be her testing ground. Where she would prove herself worthy to be named heir to the throne of all dragonkind…

It would all rest on tonight, the most consequential night of the year.

In terms of shard count, she had little doubt she already easily dwarfed whoever was in second place—likely her cousin Nefexys. There was no time to rest. If she could achieve double-digit shard count by the time the night was over, she would make herself undeniable. And she felt certain she’d manage it.

The denizens of the Pure Yang Land already thought she was invincible, especially when they saw her in battle.

No one had ever seen her even bleed. They said of her that when you cut her, there was only more iron beneath—that she really was made of iron, just like her nickname suggested.

Jaxarys let them believe what they liked.

“Shards inbound,” said Karagas. A pair of meteors fell right before them—one Creation, one Destruction.

“They seem to be landing just outside our territory,” said Jaxarys.

“The western face of Mount X, if I’m not mistaken. It lies beyond our territory… if you make for them, you will be beyond reinforcements.” He gave her a sharp, testing glance. “What will you do, Princess?”

“I’ll pursue,” she said. “Of course.”

Karagas gave her a slow nod.

But before she lifted off, she saw someone had beaten her to the punch.

“A man,” she said, surprised.

“Kain?”

“No, it’s…” She hesitated. “He means to fight all those Astroliths at once?”

They had to number thirty or forty in total. 

And he rampaged down the slope like Mount X’s legendary embers didn’t affect him at all. Then he wound his axes so far back his massive body was bent like a bow.

He bellowed and unleashed.

The blow nearly decapitated the shard Boss in a single stroke.

“Princess?” said Karagas.

…She’d downed T1s, and she couldn’t have thrown a blow that strong.

“That human… Just who is he?”

“I do not know.” Karagas considered the slope. “Will you engage, Princess?”

Jaxarys looked up—and coincidentally, she found herself locking eyes with the man just as he picked up his shards.

She knew it was a crucial moment. If her uncle saw her back down now, she had no doubt he would count it against her. A future monarch of dragonkind would fear no one.

She knew what she had to do. 

But just as she moved to engage, her uncle held out an arm and shook his head.

“What does it mean when a man is willing to charge down a slope full of Astroliths, all primed to fire? To throw himself into a field as chaotic as that?”

Jaxarys looked at her uncle, puzzled. Then she thought about it. 

Either the man could track all those essence flows for dozens of li, a plainly impossible task, or…

“He simply has no fear of them,” she said. “He doesn’t care how many strike him… because with his strength, it doesn’t matter.” 

That slash—nearly destroying a Boss Astrolith in a single stroke—was still on her mind. Then she noticed he was wearing a disguise amulet. “Uncle… could he be of T2 strength?”

“We do not know if that is his strongest attack,” said Karagas gravely. “On any other night, perhaps… but tonight, we cannot take that risk. You cannot be allowed to fall here, Jaxarys.”

“Yes, uncle.”

Jaxarys nodded.

A small part of her, a part she didn’t want to admit, was relieved.

When they’d locked eyes, she wasn’t sure she could win. Something about that man… 

***

Zane locked eyes with the dragon princess below.

He wasn’t sure what it was with legendarily talented dragon royalty, but they all seemed to have it out for him these days. 

He kind of wanted to fight this Jaxarys at some point in the far future, he’d admit. But that was after he’d gotten a few more power-ups under his belt.

He’d seen her in action all season—including seeing her take down several T1s in a row, all with almost contemptuous ease. 

…He had to be honest, he was pretty sure she’d smash him even if he was at full strength.

In his current state especially, just after unleashing a blow like that…

Zane was not the biggest fan of his odds.

He ended up holding eye contact, feeling a bit nervous, and hoping she would go away.

To his surprise, she did.

“…”

He’d take it.

Onto the next shards.