Alistair had descended some distance from the Kaiakos, which loomed above them in high orbit. Desily accompanied him, and once they fully entered the atmosphere, he released King to join them. They watched as the four Valrus platforms deployed, slowly descending in a tight formation toward a massive cluster of Wendigo nests in the mountains and hills below. Lights of spells and cannonsflashed almost immediately as a seemingly endless swarm of tiny dots started to fly at the Valrus formation. Desily glanced at Alistair, puzzled when she realized he wasn't rushing ahead of the platforms.
"What are we waiting for?" Desily asked.
Alistair smirked. "There's something I want to try. How often does someone with a kinetics core affinity get the chance to indiscriminately bomb monster hives from orbit?"
Desily frowned, still unsure. "I don’t get it. What’s your affinity going to do from this distance?" She sounded a bit concerned, worried he had a plan that might give him an edge in their bet by wiping out a lot of Wendigos at once.
Alistair let out a dark chuckle. He had requested map data from Nessyra on the major hives they were targeting and had positioned himself directly above the largest one. He'd been refining the concept of mass for some time, and while it had numerous practical uses, one of the most devastating applications, a 'Heavy Mass Blast,' was something he would rarely have the opportunity to unleash as it required very specific circumstances to be useful and unleash its true potential. He extended his hand, palm facing the starry sky, as a deep black spherical mass began to form above it, rapidly growing in size and density. Desily watched with a mix of confusion and concern as the orb expanded, unsure of what Alistair was planning.
When the mass reached its optimal size, Alistair turned his palm downward, aiming at the largest nest situated on a hilly mountainside riddled with large, visible holes even from their altitude. He began accelerating the blast, carefully controlling its speed. He could have done it much faster as he had made big strides in the concepts of velocity and acceleration, but he wanted to avoid causing more devastation than necessary.
Desily remained puzzled, unable to grasp the destructive potential of a high-mass object launched at high speed from low orbit. Her home planet wasn’t technologically advanced, and fairies weren’t typically warlike, so she had no idea just how devastating such an attack could be. As Alistair released the blast, she watched it shoot downward, accelerating rapidly until it disappeared from sight.
"If you’re done, we should get down there. The others are already fighting, and I don't see the point in warning them by knocking on their door with that heavy ball," Desily remarked, preparing to descend. But to her surprise, Alistair gently and effortlessly halted her with his telekinesis.
"I agree," King added gruffly, circling below them, clearly eager to engage the enemy.
"Hold on, you don’t want to miss this," Alistair said with a grin, pointing downward as he sent a message to the rest of the clan, alerting them to watch for the incoming impact.
With no shield or barrier arrays in place and no interceptors to counter the attack, the only thing standing between his blast and the hives was the magically infused rock of the mountainside, allowing his blast to reach its full potential. The rock had also been so thoroughly weakened by the Wendigos’ relentless tunnel burrowing that it resembled Swiss cheese more than any kind of protective barrier.
They waited in tense silence, Alistair keenly aware of both Desily's and King's growing impatience. Then, in a flash, the blast hit the mountainside. The sheer force of impact was staggering, instantly liquefying the rock in a rough circle, vaporizing the stone as the high-density mass drilled deep into the earth before cooling just as fast. The entire mountainside collapsed like brittle glass, leaving behind a massive crater with spiderweb-like fractures rippling outward from the impact site where the wendigo nest had once stood. A series of chimes rang in Alistair's mind, confirming the success of his strike.
Alistair checked the notifications, noting that his Devastator title he had obtained oh so long ago, had upgraded. The fact that it jumped from uncommon to epic worried him as it meant that Supreme would likely require him to blow up a planet, which was a worrisome prospect and he hoped he would never have to do that.
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TITLES:
Tier: [Epic]
Name: Devastator
Effect:
Enhances [Power] by a factor of 1.5 for area-of-effect attacks.
Origin: Earned by obliterating an incredible amount of hostile monsters alongside the terrain.
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The trio stood speechless, gazing at the devastation, until Desily finally broke the silence, finding her voice.
"Well, that's unfair," She blurted out. "Also, they don't count if you don't know how many were in there!"
Alistair chuckled. "Fair enough. That’s one hive for me to keep things interesting," he replied with a grin.
Desily muttered in disbelief, "I think I need to find a dragon to teach me too."
"You really should," Alistair teased with a smirk before growing a bit more serious. "But honestly, that was just physics. Without the Wendigos setting up magical defenses like we did for Rathos, my Heavy Mass Blast had plenty of time to pick up speed. I gave it a pretty fast start, too. You could probably pull off something similar if your affinity is strong enough or if you carry a few tons of tungsten or similar material in your storage."
King stayed silent, circling above, his eyes locked on the rising dust cloud that obscured the crater below.
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"Something's coming. Get ready," King growled, snapping Alistair and Desily's attention downward as they both sensed multiple sources of intense bloodlust surging toward them through the dust cloud.
"Oh, just my luck. Why did I have to tag along?" Desily groaned, backing up as magic flickered and coiled around her hands.
Alistair summoned his poleaxe from storage and began to descend, positioning himself to be the first to meet the approaching monsters.
"Why not blast them with that insane attack of yours?" Desily asked, tension clear in her voice.
"I can't," Alistair replied, shaking his head. "That attack only works in specific situations. These things could easily dodge or deflect it with a barrier, and the blast could cause more unnecessary damage to the planet."
Alistair frowned as his Conceptual Awareness revealed the shapes of their attackers. One stood out—a hulking, almost impossibly large figure. He wondered how he hadn’t noticed it in the crater earlier, suspecting it had been buried beneath the rubble. The creatures moved silently, likely hoping the lingering dust cloud would conceal their approach until it was too late. But Alistair had already sent a warning, and Riseth was rushing to their position—one of the few who could handle this threat aside from King. Alistair glanced at Desily, considering sending her away as the situation was about to become far too dangerous.
"Desily, I recommend you leave. There aren’t many, and I can handle them easily enough, but these things could pose a real threat to you," Alistair called out.
"Fuck that! I stay and provide ranged support!" she shouted back.
Alistair charged his newly developed kinetic blast varient, which hadn't yet integrated into his Blast Master compound list—likely because he intended to refine the skill separately. Unlike the standard blast, this one gained velocity as it traveled, with a dense core of mass tightly infused with kinetic energy, causing it to crackle and glow ominously in his hand. He had also enhanced its force to strike even incorporeal opponents. This potent blast variant, which he tentatively named 'Kinetic Strike,' had the potential to obliterate less powerful and defensively equipped enemies if it hit them—at least in theory. He hadn't yet tested it on a live target, but that was about to change. Alistair raised his left palm, aiming the blast at the largest of the approaching monsters. With a resounding crack, he unleashed the Kinetic Strike into the dust cloud, dispersing it instantly.
The Kinetic Strike hit the beast even as it sensed the danger and tried to coil out of the way. The blast was too fast, tearing a massive chunk out of the long, draconic, serpent-like body of the [Wendaxzal Empress - lvl 161]. In the wake of the impact, three [Wendaxzal Hive Guardians - lvl 112] were revealed as the dust cloud began to further disperse.
The Empress was an almost serpentine creature, reminiscent of a Chinese dragon. However, her monstrous torso resembled that of a lamia, with six long arms ending in razor-sharp claws, each as long as Alistair himself. Her visage was nightmarish—a gaping maw filled with rows of jagged teeth, and four large, red-and-orange eyes with slit pupils that regarded him as nothing more than slightly more resilient prey. Her exterior was a grotesque mix of scales, bones, and spikes, all covered in bladed edges. She had two sets of large, leathery wings that shimmered in a bleak, greyish-white hue, matching the rest of her body.
To Alistair's annoyance, the Empress retained the Wendigo's ability to regenerate. The grievous wound he'd inflicted was already beginning to heal, tendrils of flesh knitting and coiling within the injury. Her Guardians, though less elongated, shared her terrifying visage, each with three eyes and a slightly less intimidating presence. However, they were still formidable, each as large as King, with four muscular arms and powerful legs all adorned with spikes and large, menacing claws.
Desily spread her hands, and a hail of darts darker than space hurled toward the Hive queen and its guardians, tearing into their flesh, before following up with balls of explosive magic disrupting the monster's ascend, buying Alistair time to fire his own blasts.
Alistair managed to fire off three more blasts, each narrowly missing the Empress's head but still tearing chunks out of her serpentine body and torso. One of the blasts struck with such force that it sent one of her massive arms spiraling down toward the surface. Riseth arrived and seized the moment by teleporting behind one of the Hive Guardians and ramming her bone blades into it just as it turned to assist its Empress. She manipulated the creature to assault one of its brethren instead. King dove into the opening, evading a slash from the Empress's remaining arms, which grew unnaturally long in order to reach him, King unleashing a sonic blast that impacted the last Guardian before they clashed and tumbled out of sight.
Alistair couldn’t afford to be distracted, trusting his allies to handle themselves as he focused on the enraged empress. He deflected her many arms with his poleaxe in one fluid motion, absorbing all the kinetic energy from her attacks, disrupting her flow by robbing her momentum and shifting her mass. The Empress's eyes widened in shock as Alistair, propelled by his telekinesis, dashed into the opening in the blink of an eye. With all the force he had accumulated from her strike, aided by some of his own energy, he delivered a devastating punch, exploding half her torso and sending her reeling.
In the past few months, Alistair had grown immensely, and a mere level or power gap no longer posed a significant challenge. It would take more than just a large powerful, self-healing beast to give him a real fight now. He couldn’t help but wonder if this was how Zathen had felt when fighting him.
Alistair didn't let up. Using his incredible mobility, he positioned himself above the Empress's head. His poleaxe raised high, moving in a perfectly smooth arc, glowing and wreathed in the flames of his Blazing Edge skill, further empowered by his Kinetic, Mass, and Force concepts. He aimed to split her apart, but just as he struck, she teleported. Alistair barely managed to restrain her with his telekinesis, forcing her in place and preventing her from fully escaping. This maneuver saved her from a fatal blow, but she still lost her left arms and a portion of her long lower body, parts of which immediately began to regrow.
As he held her in place, a vortex tear shot from Riseth, who had already finished off the Hive Guardians. The vortex struck the Empress’s head, sucking it into the tear and decapitating her. In one smooth cut, Riseth carved out her large core, exposed by Alistair’s earlier attack, ending the threat once and for all.
Alistair turned to check on King, who had been in a vicious tumble toward the surface last he saw. He spotted the wyvern already on his way back, looking somewhat chewed up but victorious, carrying the partially crushed skull of the Wendaxzal Hive Guardian in his talon.
Desily seemed fine, though a bit flabbergasted by the battle. Alistair couldn’t blame her. Personally, he felt more disappointment than satisfaction—the Empress hadn’t been as intelligent as he had worried. Based on what he had seen with his Conceptual Awareness skill, she might have posed a greater threat if she had used her Growth concept more creatively instead of simply enlarging and empowering herself and elongating her limbs. He suspected she had utilized her affinity more to benefit her hive than for direct combat. Either way, a huge monster core with a growth aspect had many uses, but he would leave it to Nessyra to figure out the best use.
With the Empress's body now limp in his telekinetic grasp, Alistair stored the massive corpse, swiftly catching the falling pieces with his telekinesis and pulling them in until they were close enough to be stored as well. A quick glance into the distance revealed waves of monsters swarming from underground, relentlessly assaulting the Valrus bastions in what seemed like an endless tide of bodies.
"They've got plenty of monsters to fight. If you want to win that bet, you'd better hurry and join them," Alistair remarked casually, glancing at Desily, who seemed to have momentarily forgotten about the wager.
Suddenly remembering, Desily whirled on Riseth, pointing at her. "This still only counts as one," she insisted, breaking her silence.
Alistair and Riseth couldn't help but burst into laughter.