Savage Awakening 587. Boot Camp (VIII)

One more heartbeat of silence. Then—

THUNK. THUNK. THUNK—

The surface of the core shivered a little more with each giant step.

And he knew the Kaijuu was coming.

He felt more curious than anything, though he was pretty hopeful too.

“You stand your ground now, lad!” roared the Sage, somewhere far above. “Don’t you let it bully you!”

He saw a single mountain-sized claw break through to the surface.

And another, ripping through that event horizon, making reality slosh and shatter around it…

Then a big, bulky ram of a head—a colossal thing thick with that glossy dark anti-grav armor plate. Scales of the same stuff plated its entire being.

And the Kaijuu broke into this world.

Category I Kaijuu: Hammerhead

Essence Level 724

It came through on all fours, easily the size of several moons stacked together, every step leaving bright Destruction cracks through reality, like cracks in glass.

It clambered all the way out, tail and all, and it was almost hard to imagine its movements as that of a Monster. As it moved, its limbs felt more like continents shifting around. He was pretty sure that thing could wrap some planets if it wanted to.

He’d expected nothing less of the Kaijuu, but still, seeing it in person was quite something. It was just stuffed with Pure Size in the Astral Plane. Not actively flaring, like in the Crusher; it wasn’t projecting its presence much. But with all that sheer bulk, it didn’t need to… he felt its size was what gave its steps that neat reality-cracking effect.

It groaned as it lumbered about, stomping new cracks into reality, craning its head and headbutting through little knots of heavy Gravity as it did, squinting with those rheumy eyes—Zane got the sense it was kind of nearsighted. Gravity waves crashed all over it, but it was unaffected.

He finished inspecting it and nodded to himself.

He could see how the Sage had taken one look at this thing and come up with the hardcore challenge.

Some Monsters were just quite punchable, especially the giant ones. It was a hard quality to define, exactly. You just knew it when you saw it.

He was pretty sure it was somewhere between the Boss Astrolith and the King in terms of overall strength. It was hard to tell exactly how strong it was. Judging by the look of those steps, he was certain it had at least half a plate of Destruction.

Though he couldn’t really compare what he was about to try to any Astrolith fight, what with the challenge rules and all… he was also quite aware that when he got down there, there was no way he could move through those deep Gravity sea currents the way the Kaijuu was doing right now.

As he considered things, the Kaijuu lumbered closer and closer, letting out a low growl. It spread its soul out for hundreds of miles. It seemed to be trying to find whoever had poked it with that bomb, though Zane was still a ways away.

Zane also decided he quite liked the way it moved. Like everything was done in slow motion; everything it did felt deliberate. There was much to admire about this beast besides its Pure Size.

Its body gave him the same feeling as solid Divine Profound steel. Not as high-grade as his own, but it had a lot more mass to it too. The more he looked at it, the more he found to like. The thing was simply a well-built chunker, and he had to respect that.

He clenched his fist. Hells, he felt pumped right now…

As it headed farther and farther up, its senses sweeping closer and closer to him, he thought about how best to tackle it.

He honestly wasn’t quite sure where to start with this thing—he was feeling the same way he’d had earlier, staring down that Wrecking Bag. This thing was just so big that his feelings and instincts, which were typically his go-to guide in a fight, were kind of baffled. 

His usual instinct against a bigger foe was a hammer smash. Or maybe since it was a single boss, he’d even try a Chainstorm Cage. But with the challenge in place, those were out straightaway.

If he wanted to charge it head-on… just eyeing the distance, he’d have to make it quite some way just to get in punching range. Right up against the Monster, pretty much. All while fighting heavy gravity in terrain he’d never tested, and he’d be fighting it in its own territory to boot. 

His other choice was to let it come to him a bit, just take it in shallower waters. Though that didn’t sit right with him either.  

The Sage hadn’t given him any pointers on the fight either, which was on purpose. The Sage thought it’d be more fun if Zane figured things out himself.

“It’ll be a bit awkward at first,” the Sage had acknowledged. “‘Specially since you won’t have any Pure Size loaded in yet… either way—should do nicely as a learning experience.”

In the end, the Kaijuu made the decision for him.

Its soul swept closer and closer, squinting as it did. Zane just let it crash over him. He wasn’t about to run from this thing, after all. 

He felt it lock onto him.

Then it craned its head at him and screeched.

A screech that echoed down the Gravity Sea, laden with force. He saw vast waves of it crashing down the Astral Plane. It blasted him right down the front. It didn’t hurt him much; it mostly just blasted his hairs back. He was pretty sure it wasn’t meant as an attack.

But it did make the Kaijuu’s feelings quite clear.

It had noticed him. And it was letting him know that it was coming straight for him.

Which... was actually kind of inspiring for Zane.

The Kaijuu didn’t need to come up with any strategies or schemes. It was big, so it would just come at him directly. It followed the spirit of Pure Size down to a T.

He felt he could learn a thing or two from that mentality.

He was getting far too caught up in the little things. It wasn’t like him at all to overthink things like this.

The whole point of the challenge was to pit himself against the Kaijuu, man-to-Monster. To just get down there, get his hands dirty, and try his best to beat the stuffing out of it. Let his body do the talking. That was his interpretation of it, anyway.

He cracked his knuckles and mentally thanked the Kaijuu. It’d reminded him just what he was here for; he felt grateful to it.

The runes on his physique began burning bloody.

“There you go!” The Sage seemed to notice what he was feeling—he probably had a guess at what Zane wanted to do. “Just trust yourself, lad. You go and get it done!”

He gave the Sage a firm nod.

Then he gave one last Red Giant Step and dropped.

The Gravity Sea was one giant mass of force, constantly shifting, and quite foreign; it was enough to give even Zane a little pause at first. But even that hesitation felt against the spirit of the challenge.

He made himself change his mindset.

It felt natural, when facing a giant Monster in an unknown home turf, to start thinking a bit defensively… but that wasn’t a mentality that resonated with what Zane felt Pure Size meant. It didn’t even really resonate with him.

Zane went straight into attack mode. He stopped thinking too hard and just rolled with it.

And right now that meant letting all those Gravity forces tear him straight out of his perch—even stomping hard twice so he rocketed down faster. 

Making a line for that Kaijuu head as he cocked a fist all the way back, eyes watering a bit as he blasted through wave after wave of Gravity— 

The Kaijuu screeched again and attacked. Just head-butted reality itself, and a wall of sheer force blasted up at him. This force-continent in the Astral Plane coming at him at ridiculous speeds.

Zane gritted his teeth and stomped hard left, barreling through a host of heavy Gravity currents, and saw that giant chunk sail right past him.

The Kaijuu head-butted again, and then again, but by now Zane was moving so fast just a quick stomp was enough to rocket him out of the way. Two more force walls blasted by.

The Kaijuu was just loading up another when the Zane meteor made contact. Landed his fist right in the middle of that bulwark head.

And he saw canyon-sized CRACK! dozens of miles down, material as dense as Divine Profound steel—followed by an immensely satisfying CRUNCH! as a crater caved in.

The Kaijuu shrieked, reeling.

But the blow came at a cost. There was a smaller CRACK! as Zane’s hand just exploded.

So did the bones in his forearms. He didn’t even feel it at first, he was so pumped up. He didn’t realize how bad it was until he saw how badly mangled his fingers were.

…He definitely needed to get those Origin grade body levels as soon as possible.

That was just a fleeting thought; the bulk of his attention was still on the reeling Kaijuu.

He was quite satisfied with the size of the fissure he’d made on its head, and he could feel just how badly he’d wounded it—but though he could see how much damage he’d done to the plates, the Kaijuu only staggered a bit. Its head barely snapped back.

With how much force Zane had put through it there, he was pretty surprised… he felt a Concept hard at work at the moment of impact, keeping the beast upright.

Maybe it was a bit arrogant of him, but if that Kaijuu didn’t have so much Pure Size woven into it, Zane had no doubt that thing would be on its side right now. Even with how big it was.

He knew instantly what it was—it felt like yet another puzzle piece just clicked into place. 

Inertia. It was an aspect of Pure Size he hadn’t really felt earlier. The ability to simply not be moved when something hit you, even if you were damaged by it. Simply because you were big.

The moment he felt it, he wanted it for himself too, and bad.

All of these thoughts were competing for his attention after impact. Then they all fell away.

Because he felt the Kaijuu’s fury spike beneath him. Heard it give another screech, as much a screech of pain as it was of fury—

Then its tail came up to greet him. An absolute mountain range of a limb.

Some Skill lit up the muscles there and it came on far faster than anything that size should’ve been able to.

Zane roared, stomped, fighting hard as hells against all the Gravity this deep in—he made it up a solid hundred miles. Which was pretty far, especially considering the forces he was fighting… but it was still half the distance he needed to move to get out of the way.

WHAM!

He went rocketing straight back the way he’d come.

He’d managed to block the blow, at least. He took most of it on his arms, though he heard something else crunch around his midsection. It also whacked the air straight out of him. But he’d taken far worse; he still wasn’t down past 75% Health.

He wasn’t really even thinking about the blow itself. 

The biggest impression he got as he blasted away, besides a smarting pain down his whole front side, was actually of Pure Size. 

He’d been thinking about it the moment he realized it. He felt it right in the moment of the slam too—it had to be the other side of inertia at work.

If you hit something, you’d simply send it flying far farther than you had any right to, even as a several-moons-sized Kaijuu.

...Now he really wanted that thing.

By the time he managed to steady himself, setting down four Red Giant steps to halt his momentum, he was all the way out of the black hole, breathing heavily.

He remembered the good old days, when he was going through Minor Laws like candy. One solid blow like this, feeling a Law close-up in pitched battle, would’ve been enough to snag one of those. He was still pretty far from Pure Size; it was just his first day, after all. 

But every little bit mattered. 

He starting to really appreciate this whole Kaijuu-punching setup. The Sage was quite wise. 

Then he realized just where he was. 

That thing had hit him for over 1500 miles. He blinked down at the Barbarian Sage.

“The hells are you doing up there?” laughed the Sage. “You get back on in there!”

Zane was happy to.