Savage Awakening 472. Summit of the Ages (V)

Zane's duel was a startling upset, and it would start to attract attention in the coming days, mostly by word of mouth. Most of the lower boxes were still empty. Only those in his bracket were there—and even then, only to scout Shen.

The bulk of Cloud City’s attention that day was on another of the grand arenas.

There, the top-billed duel of the day was taking place. Every box was sold out, the stands packed to the brim; folk were straining in crowds outside the arena, just to get an earful of the coming battle.

They were all there for one man.

There were talents. And then there was Salazar.

At the age of 11, he was already beating top talent a generation older. At 14 he’d out-duelled the Sword Saint and taken that title for his own.

At 22, he was the #1-ranked Ascendant on the continent, and he’d just barely Ascended then.

No one came close to that title ever since.

“We have never seen his like!” roared the announcer—an identical twin to the one in Zane’s arena, incidentally. “We shall never see his like again. It’s Salazar, the Sword Saint!”

His opponent was Jiran, nicknamed the Whitewater Sage. The #1 power in all the vast Western Oceans, across archipelagos and islands of billions. Betting odds had him reaching as far as the semifinals.

That was before the brackets were revealed.

Jiran thrust out his fists. An ocean rushed out, building to a mighty swell—a tsunami came crashing over Salazar’s head.

Salazar made a casual slash.

There was a crisp sound, like a clear bell struck in the Astral Plane, and the seas split.

Jiran dropped like a stone.

“Again—just a single blow!” cried the announcer. “These are top fighters of his generation we’re talking about, and he’s running through them like it’s nothing! Can anyone stand up to that man?!”

Salazar gave a mock bow and strode away.

***

There was one more grand arena hosting fights.

And there, Beast Tamer Cho floated in the sky, writhing. Speared through by long streams of blood, streams holding him aloft.

His Flood Dragon was a withered husk on the ground.

A man chanted on the other side. A single pale, thickly veined hand exposed from under a shadowed cloak, chanting in an unknown tongue.

Cho twitched, spasmed, screaming—still the streams held him there. They seemed to be pulling him apart. Pulling something more than just blood out of him.

“We forfeit!” cried Cho’s coach, Sage Lionheart. “Stop him, damn you!”

For a second it seemed the cloaked man might not comply. Then he lowered his hand, and Cho fell.

“What’s wrong with you, man?!” said the announcer. “Hells… um—the winner, through to the top sixteen—it’s the Blood Demon Sage!”

The cloaked man was already moving away. Shuffling and twitching as he went.

The crowd was silent.

It was widely agreed there was just something off about that guy.

***

Later that day, as Zane fed cookie crumbs to a family of stray cats, he felt an aura.

Ten minutes and a short hike later, he found himself at a clearing in the woods. And sure enough—there lay another giant rune. The ink had hardly dried.

…Alright. Time to get to the bottom of this.

***

Ryu and Kira were both knocked out that round, not long after Zane’s match.

“You guys should be proud,” said Jun earnestly.

“I’m pretty satisfied,” Ryu said mildly.

“Hmph,” said Kira.

“Really!” said Jun. “…I thought you were incredible out there…”

“It’s not that,” said Kira. “I’m proud of how I did.” She shot Jun a glare.

“She asked Jun to dinner,” Ryu explained to Zane. “Jun thought it’d be great to invite us along too, last-minute.”

“…”

Zane remembered how he was around Reina at first. He could admit he wasn’t the smoothest. But still—this was some next-level stuff.

…Actually, now that he thought about it, it was probably around the same level.

In any case.

“I’m just glad there’s still one of us out there,” said Kira. She took another swig of spirit wine, wiped her mouth, and stifled a burp. “Here’s to the weirdos!”

Before they left, Jun pulled Zane aside.

“Jack?” he said, looking nervous. “Could I get your thoughts on something?”

“On what?”

“It’s just… I really like Kira,” said Jun, reddening. “I was hoping to ask her out.”

Zane was revising his opinion. This was definitely next level.

“Why ask me?”

Jun blinked. “I just thought you’d have a lot of experience with this kind of thing.”

That was an interesting assumption.

“…Sure. Go ahead.”

“I thought maybe I wasn’t ready… I just saw Young Master Tiger Claw with Chu—that’s my ex-girlfriend,” said Jun quickly. “But I don’t want to get caught up in regret. I… I think I should be brave.”

“Makes sense.”

“It’s just—I don’t want to make things awkward with Kira… what if she doesn’t like me?”

“She definitely likes you,” Zane informed him.

Jun blinked. “Really?”

“Trust me,” said Zane with a straight face. “I’m very experienced, remember? I am a knower of women.”

Jun looked relieved. “I’ll try to work up the guts these next few days… thanks, Jack. You’re a real friend.”

“No worries.”

They headed out of the restaurant and made for the skywalk. There was a route out there where they’d get to see all the lakes at once, stitched together like a quilt of glass, shimmering with the night sky stars.

Just as they left the plaza, a certain crew made their way in…

***

“Can we spar?” said Jin. “Please? Just a few rounds!”

“First day out of the healers’ ward, and he wants to spar,” sighed Salazar. “You just got your legs broken, you damned brat.”

“…But they’re healed now, right?”

Salazar laughed. “Settle down, kid.”

Jin flushed. “I just… never thought I’d make it this far…”

“Weren’t you saying you’d win the whole thing?”

“Well, yeah! But… it’s different, now I’m here… it’s the top 32!”

He clenched his fist. “I don’t even care where I end up—I’m gonna fight to the very end!”

Salazar looked bemused. “Don’t you ever get tired?”

“What do you mean?”

“Of trying so hard, all the time.”

“I—” Jin shook his head. “All the senior apprentice-sisters think I’m dumb.”

“The senior apprentice-brothers too,” added Salazar. “And the junior ones.”

Jin scowled. “I guess they think it’s cool not to try. But they just want to look effortless. They’re just trying to be you, senior Salazar.”

“And what do you think?”

“I think… they can say I’m a dummy if they want.” Jin grinned. “I’m okay with that. But they’ll never say I’m a quitter!”

“This kid.” Salazar smirked and sighed. “Well. I could never.”

“…I don’t believe you.”

Salazar raised a brow.

“You can keep saying you don’t care, senior,” said Jin. “I don’t believe you!”

Salazar laughed.

“Salazar?”

It was the Lotus Princess—the most sought-after hand in all the divine realm. She’d turned away enough top Chosen suitors to fill a Summit of their own—and she always did it coolly, without batting an eye.

“It’s dusk already?” said Salazar. His brow furrowed. “I’m sorry. I’ve kept you waiting.”

He sounded quite apologetic as he strode up.

Jin had seen her out and about a few times at the big Sect functions. She’d never been this flustered. “N-no,” she said. “It’s alright—”

Salazar gave Jin a wink. They headed off.

“…Senior Salazar’s just too cool,” sighed Jin.

Though it was a different girl the night before... Sometimes he felt there was something a bit melancholy about his senior apprentice-brother.

***

Level up!

Essence Level 557 -> 558

After they finished up, Reina took him to her home study. She’d been making good progress on her end.

“I think I’m halfway through the translations,” she said absently, rifling through a binder stuffed to the brim. “It’s slow work, but it’s really satisfying unlocking each little chunk… here we are.”

She brought out a massive sheet.

She’d transcribed every rune Zane had found, arranging them in one big shape.

Then she gave him the run-down. It was pretty much what he figured. But it was good to confirm. Get the exact details.

“So there really are 9 of them?” said Zane.

“Mhm.”

He’d found seven so far. He’d yet to visit the eighth island. 

“I’ll take care of it,” he assured her.

Reina nodded.

“Even if it worked…” he shrugged. “I think I can take it.”

He’d taken in that Ten Million Year Bone—it’d made his body and his chains so dense, most True God attacks couldn’t leave so much as a scratch.

But he hadn’t really tested his new body. Hadn’t put it through real punishment.

She gave him a look. It was the kind of look she’d give him when he suggested charging two Monster Kings solo, just to see if he could.

Not the brightest idea, he was happy to admit. Sometimes a guy just wanted to charge Monster Kings solo.

That time Reina ended up obliging him with an ‘oh-Zane’ look. But now she had on her serious face.

“Zane, this could be dangerous,” she warned. “Even for you. Just because you’ve got your body—”

“It won’t come to that,” he assured her. “I really will take care of it.”

“...Okay.” She brightened and started pulling out more notes. “I found more on Cloud City, by the way. Did you know it was one of the earliest recorded cities? It was legendary in its time—the city was planned by the architect Nuvens.”

Reina was a big Nuvens fan. She lit up as she went on.

“It’s an ingenious design,” she continued. “It’s said to be built on an essence leyline that runs straight to the heart of the Galaxy…”

***

Later that week, he also got another postcard update from Evan.

“We made it into the tower!” said Evan, beaming. Chomper barked.

This time the postcard was of a field of sunflowers. Above lay the bluest skies Zane had ever seen.

“This is the first floor, the Sunflower Kingdom.” Evan pointed helpfully at a sunflower. “The Sunflower King was really nice to us at first—he gave us beds and everything… But then it turned out he was secretly really cruel! He was in cahoots with the Monsters the whole time.”

The King then tried to take them out while they were sleeping. It sounded like a big mess. Evan described many jail breaks and much sneaking around.

Eventually, they romped across the kingdom, fighting evil flying turtles and carnivorous sunflowers.

They ended up seizing the Sunflower King’s castle.

“We were just about to trap him. But then he hurt Orin really bad… He sent a vine swarm to finish him off, and I had to go help! But then the Sunflower King escaped. He’s on the second floor now, teaming up with the Whale King…”

Evan looked a bit troubled. “Orin said he might’ve been fine… He thought I should’ve gone after the Sunflower King instead. Then maybe he wouldn’t have gotten away?”

Evan was quiet. He shook his head.

“I’m gonna make it right,” he said, looking determined. “It’s like you said, I’ve just got to make the best decision I can, and own the consequences!”

Evan said it like he wasn’t totally sure what that meant. But he seemed determined to figure it out.

He waved and was gone.

Zane wasn’t sure when he’d said that—though he was in the habit of dropping nuggets of wisdom on Evan now and again. That did sound like something he’d say.

Avery also gave an update.

She was still on a beach chilling. She had installed an umbrella. That was her entire update.