Flanked by a pair of kobold centurions, Zeke stepped out of the tall grass. He knew that the river naga had already seen him. How could they not, when, in his colossal form, he towered so tall over the grass? And yet, he didn’t acknowledge the force arrayed before him. The naga were hundreds strong, and each one of them was armed with a harpoon. Still, he ignored them, just as Jasper had advised him to do.
He crossed the open ground, barely noticing the flattened grass as he approached the village. Its construction was a little more advanced than some of the smaller naga settlements, but the buildings still looked flimsy to Zeke’s eyes. He wasn’t there to critique architecture, though. Instead, he intended to issue a challenge.
Once he had reached a spot only ten feet from the closest naga, he drew to a stop and, for a moment, studied his would-be foes. Up close, the river nagas’ green scales had an iridescent quality that reminded Zeke of pearls, and their features were a little more humanoid than he’d first expected. Still snake-like, especially with their flared hoods, but more human than his first impressions had suggested.
The same went for their scaled torsos, which were roughly humanoid in shape as well. That changed at their waists, when their abdomens tapered into thick, serpentine tails. The scales on their underside – meaning, the bottom of the tail, the front of their torsos, and their faces – were slightly lighter colored than the rest of their bodies.
For a long moment, Zeke stood unmoving. According to Jasper, river naga were incapable of speech, which made challenging their water seer a little tricky. Making things even worse was the fact that Zeke was surrounded by the enemy. One wrong move, and he’d be overwhelmed by those serpentine creatures.
Which would prove annoying, even if it probably wouldn’t be deadly. After all, Zeke had completely recovered, which meant that he had all of his tools available. With his skills and Will, he could destroy the entire village. Yet, he didn’t want that, and not least because he didn’t want to potentially be forced to spend weeks in recovery. In addition, he just didn’t have the stomach to kill a thousand naga if he didn’t strictly need to.
“You’re going soft,” Eveline chided.
“I’m not a murderous psychopath. If that makes me soft, then so be it.”
It really hadn’t been that long ago that he’d spent days respectfully burying the people who’d been murdered by a group of opportunistic drachnids. He’d even been awarded an achievement for his compassion. But so much had happened since then. He’d killed so many people, monsters, and demons. Had it changed him? Certainly. How could it not? But his heart hadn’t hardened so thoroughly that he would kill a bunch of creatures just because they happened to be in his way.
“Unless they refuse to move,” Eveline pointed out.
Zeke didn’t respond, but in the back of his mind, he had to acknowledge the truth of her statement. If they wouldn’t move, he would move them, and by any means necessary.
With that in mind, he summoned Voromir. It was easy to ignore the look of his weapon, but when he did notice, he couldn’t help but remember how much it had changed. When he’d first gotten the weapon – dubbed a mace by the Framework – it had been little more than a club. A powerful one, certainly, but a club nonetheless. However, over the course of Zeke’s adventures, the weapon had slowly morphed into a full-fledged hammer.
Zeke kept hoping that it would develop some additional characteristics, but aside from behind indestructible – at least as far as he could tell – the hammer’s only power was that it changed weight according to his own strength. So, to him, it felt no lighter or heavier than it had when he’d first picked it up, and yet, he felt confident that if he were to put it on a scale, it would weigh thousands of pounds.
Eveline interrupted his thoughts by saying, “Probably tens of thousands. You really have no concept of your own strength.”
“Hard to get a handle on it, honestly,” Zeke said. “Not like I have a weight set lying around. Bet I could lift a car, though. I think the pieces would come off before I got it into the air. Like, I never understood that about Superman. He could hold a plane up from the nose, but if he really tried to do that, he’d go right through the thing. Or it would at least crumple under the weight of the plane.”
“I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Eveline said.
“You can literally read my memories. You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
“But I wish I didn’t, so I’m just going to pretend I’m ignorant. Nerd.”
“Did you just call me a nerd?”
“You know I did.”
“Huh. That’s a first.”
Zeke realized that he’d been standing motionless for far too long; at the speed of thought, he could communicate with Eveline very quickly, but his mind could only move so fast. Because of that delay, the naga looked as if they were getting somewhat antsy. So, Zeke dropped the head of his hammer to the ground precisely as Jasper had instructed him to do.
At first, the naga didn’t respond. Then, suddenly, they parted, allowing another, much different figure to pass through. She didn’t stop until she was close enough to strike at Zeke, if she so desired.
“We accept your challenge,” she hissed. The moment she spoke, Zeke used [Inspect]:
Naga Water Seer – Level 61
He almost sighed in relief, which probably would have ruined the stoic image he wanted to portray. She was only level sixty-one, which meant that defeating her was well within his capabilities.
“Don’t underestimate her,” Eveline cautioned. “You’re going to be fighting on her turf.”
“Is that so big of a deal?” he asked, looking the seer up and down. She was plainly female, at least according to the shape of her torso and delicate features. “Why does a reptile need breasts?”
“Seriously? That’s what you’re focused on?”
“I mean, they lay eggs, right? Most reptiles lay eggs. They don’t need mammary glands.”
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“I’m sure I have no idea. Pig.”
“I’m not admiring them!”
“I can read your mind, remember?”
“Then stop.”
“Believe me, I’m trying to. Now pay attention.”
Zeke nodded at the seer, and without another word, she turned and slithered back whence she’d come. He followed, feeling every inch as isolated as he probably was. In the middle of so many enemies, he could easily be dogpiled, and getting free of such a melee would be incredibly difficult. The cost would be much higher than he wanted to pay.
To distract himself, Zeke studied the naga seer. On the surface, she looked much like the rest of her kin. Green scales, with a humanoid torso and snakelike lower half. But that’s where the similarities ended. For one, unlike the others, she wore plenty of jewelry. Around her waist was a delicate chain of gold, and a similarly golden torc adorned her neck. Finally, a bejeweled tiara rested on her head.
She certainly looked the part of a ruler, though Zeke did find himself wondering where she had attained so much delicately designed golden jewelry.
Such thoughts occupied Zeke until he watched her slither from the riverbank and into the shallows. Zeke followed, his colossal feet leaving deep tracks in the muddy shore. When his feet touched the water, he got his first surprise – the normal attunements were present. Earth. Unattuned mana. A bit of nature. But it was hard to feel any of it beneath the tide of water-attuned mana.
Already, Zeke knew that his skills wouldn’t be able to exhibit the same degree of power as was normal for him. More, his regeneration would be negatively affected as well. He needed to end the fight quickly, or he stood the chance of being gradually bled dry of both mana and vitality.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” he muttered to himself. However, he didn’t back down. After all, if the fight started going poorly, he could always let his Worldbreaker technique loose. It wouldn’t be pleasant, but it was better than being overwhelmed by snake people and killed.
So, there was that.
“You’ve also got your backup plan.”
“That is the backup plan.”
“The backup to the backup, then.”
Zeke didn’t respond, but he knew precisely what she was talking about. He’d never really been one to hedge his bets, but he wasn’t above cheating, especially when his life was on the line. So, he’d set the tower gate up about a quarter mile into the grassland. Just far enough away from the riverside settlement that they wouldn’t notice it, but still close enough that, if he got into trouble, the naga village could quickly be buried beneath an army of angry kobolds.
Eveline said, “Your willingness to break the rules of a sacred battle brings a tear to my eye.”
He didn’t get the chance to retort, because at that moment, the naga seer let out an ear-piercing scream and threw her hands in Zeke’s direction. A second later, the river burst into motion, sending a trio of streams of high-pressure water to cut into his chest. In only an instant, they’d carved three deep grooves into his torso, sending a spray of metal, rock, and mercury-like blood into the water.
The surrounding naga cheered.
Zeke threw himself aside, then leaped high into the air.
Or that was what he tried to do. The moment his feet cleared the surface, the seer gestured again, and a giant claw of brown water reached up and snatched at his legs, then yanked him back to the river.
He broke free a moment later, but by that point, the streams of water had once again found him. He roared in anger, embracing [Cambion’s Awakening], but fueled by only his personal mana, it wasn’t nearly strong enough to completely reverse the damage. Still, it was better than leaving the increasingly more devastating wounds untreated.
With that, though, Zeke had decided stop restricting himself. So, he quickly wrapped his mind around [Center of Gravity] and tried to yank the seer toward him. And at first, it worked. However, she reacted quickly, and after falling only a few feet, another watery claw reached up, grabbed her around the waist, and kept her from falling further.
Frustrated, Zeke embraced [Hell Geyser], then stomped on the ground. The river split as the ground ruptured, tearing a line of devastation in the riverbed before exploding into a dense column of earth and fire. However, when it faded a second later, Zeke was dismayed to see that the seer had encased herself in a bubble that had obviously protected her from his second-most devastating ability.
But as she dropped to the ground, Zeke saw that she hadn’t made it through unscathed. He had no idea what the nature of that protective bubble was, but it hadn’t completely protected her, as evidenced by the melted scales on one side of her body.
It also didn’t last long, because it dissipated only a second later.
Zeke didn’t relent. Using [Shifting Sands] before she could recover, he felt time slow as he fell into the riverbed. However, it wasn’t nearly as dramatic as it should have been, likely due to the lacking earth attuned mana. Still, it was enough, and Zeke zipped through the earth, erupting upward when he reached the seer’s position.
She wasn’t without a few more tricks of her own, though, and the moment he came free of the earth, a wave of water slammed into him, knocking him slightly off course. To counter it, Zeke used his racial gift to increase his weight, then doubled down on it by embracing [Weight of Two Worlds]. The effect was staggering, even for someone with his immense strength, but he weathered the wave like a true pillar of earth.
Given time, the water could erode him well enough. But time was on his side, not the seer’s.
With his position assured, Zeke summoned his [Colossal Legion], and three bronze golems came to answer his call. The seer moved quickly, sending spears of water to tear into them, but even though their bronze husks were rent asunder, they were not living creatures, and as such, they marched on, surrounding her at Zeke’s command.
That was when he spoke.
“Seer. Surrender. Let me pass. I have no wish to kill you,” he stated, his voice strained from the massive weight on his shoulders. [Weight of Two Worlds] affected her as well, and she could barely remain upright, even with three watery claws holding her aloft.
“No surrender,” she hissed, raising her hand.
Zeke never knew what she intended, because he chose to end the threat, there and then. He’d given her a chance, which was more than he probably could have expected if their roles were reversed.
The golems, which were all armed with spears he’d looted in the war against the hill giants, stabbed forward. The naga seer tried to block their attacks with a wall of water, but the golems were inexorable. Intractable. Indefatigable. And ultimately, unstoppable.
Still, it took a few moments for the spears to make it through, and when they did, the seer tried to summon another bubble. But it was weak – much weaker than the last – and it burst under the pressure the golems brought to bear.
Zeke considered stepping in and ending it himself. He had no doubt that he could. And yet, he stood aside, and let his legion do the job he’d summoned them to do. Even so, he forced himself to watch as they stabbed her to death. After all, even if he didn’t hold the weapons, he was ultimately responsible for his death. The least he could do was watch her last moments.
And so he did.
She fell only a few seconds later, and her body was swept away by the current.
When she was gone, Zeke turned to the gathered naga. The battle had taken him a few dozen yards out into the river, and yet, he could clearly see the surprise writ large on their faces. They hadn’t expected him to win, but then again, creatures like those were probably incapable of knowing their places in the world.
“What do you think will happen to them?” Zeke asked inwardly.
Eveline said, “I don’t know. They’ll be fine, though.”
“Do you really believe that?”
“I’m just trying to keep you from adopting another population of monsters,” she said. “One is enough.”
That hadn’t even been on Zeke’s mind, and tempting though it was to take the naga in, he knew it was impractical. For one, they were just ordinary monsters. By comparison, Mikaena had spent decades – perhaps even centuries – preparing the kobolds for sapience. They were special. The naga were not.
And besides, he didn’t have any bodies of water within the tower, so he had no place to put them.
“For now,” Eveline said. “Give it a few years, and I’m sure it’ll change.”
That brought Zeke up short, but ultimately, he decided that she was right. He didn’t need to adopt another group of monsters.
So, without any more thought, he sent one of his golems back to tell Pudge and the others to enter the tower. He’d give it until he reached the other side of the river before he dismissed the gate, then summoned a new one on the other side.
Once the golem was on its way, Zeke waded into the river, then shifted back to his natural form so he could swim across. As he did, he wondered if abandoning the naga was the right thing to do. By the time he reached the other bank, he still had no real answers.