Amazon Apocalypse 7: Chapter 20

I realized I was rapidly transforming into a dragon.

The seal I'd been working on the past few months was falling apart, and scales were starting to show through on the backs of my hands like a thin layer of paint were being worn away.

Perhaps if I'd focused on myself entirely I'd have been able to seal the effects of my Chaos Dragon title, but I'd been splitting my focus between myself and Adrian.

It wasn't a disaster yet. I still had a spare Potion of Absolution thanks to slaying the Pale Moonlight Scholar, and Ted was right next to me. I could get out of this.

A short instant had passed since the trio of hostile A-Grades had come to confront us. A fight was brewing, but I sensed Ted's presence on me for just a moment. He must have seen my distraction because he kept our enemies talking. I only needed a moment to work.

I'd finished the System's quest somehow, though how exactly I'd done so I wasn't sure. I must have set the pieces in motion somehow, though I didn't remember doing so.

The important thing was that I was being suddenly promoted to A-Grade just in time for an A-Grade battle.

Congratulations on completing the quest Master of Prophecy!

You have proven your knowledge of fate by seeing an ancient prophecy through to realization. You have been awarded the fate shrouded ability.

Congratulations, you have now reached A-Grade. Due to your partial draconification, you will receive some racial stat points as a dragon.

Due to your equipped Chaos Dragon title, you will receive some additional Chaos God bonuses.

Your additional levels held in abeyance are now available. Your level is now 521. 121,000 stat points have been automatically allocated based on your current race. You have 121,000 stat points left to manually distribute.

In an instant, my raw stats tripled. This was why A-Grades wielded immeasurable power compared to those beneath them. A single A-Grade level was worth more stats than every level from F-Grade to C-Grade. A single A-Grade level was worth 2000 stat points, a five-fold increase from B-Grade.

The sudden rush of additional stat points slowed the crawl of the dragon scales up my arm. Leveling up expanded the soul, so perhaps there was more of me for it to claim now. I sensed I could halt the spread if I could sit down and focus on Jade's teachings. Doing what she taught me should be exponentially easier now that I was A-Grade. But with enemies bearing down on us I couldn't experiment.

"We must have the star child," the Pale Moon sect enforcer said.

"You'll get your child, cultivator. Just don't expect much more. This whole bargain has inflated way beyond scope," said the Chaos Serpent.

The last time I heard this voice, he'd been possessing the Torch Dragon. Now here he was in the flesh. Maybe I was biased, but I thought he was more intimidating as a dragon.

Both of their voices came to me with an odd tinny echo, and it took me a moment to realize they were speaking on waves of mana instead of air. Without that, we wouldn't have been able to hear one another at all.

These energy waves were faint when I was just a B-Grade, but with a few levels in A-Grade my senses had expanded greatly, and what once would have been a barely perceptible whisper now seemed completely natural. This must be how A-Grades communicated in the void. To the B-Grades behind us we probably looked like we were merely staring one another down silently.

Eventually, my eyes flickered up to the Chaos Wolf, who stared at me hungrily. I was currently stuffing down one of Bridget's battle biscuits, but I was pretty sure he was more interested in eating me than my lunch.

"I'll take that one. After I devour him, I'll help the two of you with the wizard," the Chaos Wolf said. Apparently he'd scanned me when he first arrived. Normally that'd be good enough. How could he expect me to suddenly triple in power in the blink of an eye?

"I'll deal with the enforcer after I take out the wolf. All you need to worry about is the snake," I said to Ted.

"My people will fight too. They've trained for this," Ted said. He sounded far more serious than usual. The comfortable plush wizardly bathrobe he'd been wearing had vanished between glances, and suddenly he was wearing his battle robes.

He was already focused on the huge serpent across from him, and I could sense a gargantuan quantity of mana pouring through him.

Behind us, the ship was retreating, but the teams of highly-ranked B-Grade wizards hadn't left. Quite a large portion of Glacia's imperial military had been on board with us, including Bridget.

The better target for them would be the Chaos Wolf, since it was only at the start of A-Grade. Power growth in A-Grade was more rapid than any grade before it, so they would have a much easier time overcoming the raw advantage in stats with him. But it was clear the Chaos Wolf only had eyes for me.

I figured I could use that to my advantage. Their plan was probably to tie Ted up fighting the Chaos Snake, tie me up fighting the Chaos Wolf, then give the Pale Moon enforcer the chance to slaughter Bridget and the Glacian Imperial Army officers.

Only Ted could hold off the Chaos Snake, so it was up to me to force the right confrontations. Played wrong, Bridget and Ted's people would be slaughtered leaving me and him to fight off three A-Grades.

I was scared for them, but a touch eager for myself. I rapidly conjured several spells in quick succession, starting with Mage Armor. Raw mana formed around me with Mana Arsenal, ready to be used for Mana Bolts or other more potent spells as soon as I had the spare mental energy to finish them.

Our enemies realized Ted's officers were organizing, so they sprang into action. The Chaos Wolf lunged for me with teeth bared and sinister crimson light forming talons in place of paws.

Meanwhile, I ignored him and targeted the Pale Moonlight enforcer to keep our B-Grades alive. Our clash was violent and sudden, though given my recent massive boost in stats the fight seemed to be happening in slow motion to me.

I moved well below my potential speed. My opponents still thought I was only a peak B-Grade. I'd only get one chance to make that surprise count.

I waved my hand to send much of the Mana Arsenal spells I'd conjured to intercept the Pale Moonlight enforcer. She waved her hand and conjured a barrier of pale light like a cloudy window pane. It was similar to the attacks the Pale Moonlight Scholar I'd fought before used, though she hadn't had the knack for this kind of defense.

But busting barriers was something of a specialty of mine, and I activated Void Cannon to blast a hole in it. I cheated a bit and charged the spell faster than any B-Grade ought to be capable of, but the barrier meant I was out of line of sight.

The sudden attack caught the Pale Moonlight Scholar by surprise. She was summoning voidlings to slaughter our B-Grades when her barrier fell to pieces and she was struck by a thousand mana bolts in quick succession.

The spells themselves were crude things hardly any better than my original Mana Barrage, but the afflictions they spread were another story. Destined Death and Corrupting Marks worked on just about anyone, but here Hemorrhage was most potent. The two eyeless gashes in the woman's head were already dripping blood. My spell's passive effect turned that gentle drip into a constant stream.

One of her hands went to her face and she turned in my direction as she realized she couldn't afford to ignore me. If she focused on chasing down B-Grades, I could hit her with enough barrages like that to put her in dire straits, especially if the other B-Grades proved tough to kill.

Naturally, she chose to deal with me first, which was exactly what I was counting on. The Chaos Wolf was rushing in from the other side.

I just needed to keep them on me for a little longer. I could see Ted's troops setting up some sort of group ward barrier, which was likely meant to help them contend against an A-Grade as a group.

Those that weren't busy with the enchantments were scarfing down biscuits very similar to the one I'd just eaten. The passive bonuses Bridget's food provided were an impressive bonus, and I rarely left home without at least some passive effects from the last thing she cooked.

"This one is mine!" the Chaos Wolf growled at the Pale Moonlight sect enforcer. He'd rushed right by me when I'd turned to intercept the Pale Moonlight sect enforcer.

The Chaos Wolf opened his mouth and energy gathered between his teeth. Two could play at that game. I conjured fire, then focused it to something more potent. One of the abilities I'd sacrificed to create my Incarnation of the Apocalypse Dragon Signature Skill was called Starlight Beam, and it could conjure a laser-like energy beam.

The two beams of energy met, and mine overpowered the Chaos Wolf's. Eventually, my beam struck him right in the mouth and sent him tumbling backward. If the Chaos Wolf stopped to think, that alone might be enough to give away the secret of my new level.

Thankfully he was too busy howling and panting at his burned mouth to examine me again, and I turned my full attention to the Pale Moonlight sect enforcer. This would be my best chance to finish her off.

In the few seconds before the Chaos Wolf got back in the fight, I went all-out. If Sharky were here, I'd have sent him to keep the Chaos Wolf busy. Unfortunately he had such a lengthy summoning time I wouldn't be able to bring him into this fight unless the enemy decided to give me a minute to summon him.

Instead, I used Mania straight to the fourth level, Unholy Revelation. I felt the strange detachment grow in my mind and the rings on my fingers lit up as otherworldly powers tried to use this sudden rush of energy to invade my mind.

One of those otherworldly powers was behind me, the Chaos Wolf. But it would take greater than him to break my mental defenses these days, even without the help of my rings.

I cast Voidling's Embrace and Unspeakable Word at once, but to my surprise neither of the abilities seemed to restrain the Pale Moonlight Sect enforcer in the least. The void powers washed over her like water over the ocean.

I cursed inwardly as I guessed what happened. She was a void aspect cultivator, so she was incredibly resistant to attacks of her own aspect. Unspeakable Word washed over her like she hadn't even heard it. Voidling's Embrace at least materialized a void monster appendage, though it was unable to restrain her.

I'd been planning to follow up the restraining attacks with Eldritch Blight, but I now knew that would be pointless, so I focused inward and used Eldritch Augmentation instead and drew my dragonbone rapier.

I had hoped that like the Pale Moonlight Scholar, this woman would be armed with nothing more than a quill and paper. Unfortunately this one was an enforcer not a scholar, so she drew a slender bone dagger from her sleeve and met me blade to blade.

If this were before I'd gotten a bunch of new levels, I would have been pushed back in an instant. But now I was the one doing the pushing back.

With my physical stats boosted thanks to Eldritch Augmentation, I gave the Pale Moonlight enforcer a shove with my sword and opened her guard. I followed that up with a point-blank Sunlight Spear and a lungful of dragon fire.

She tried to defend herself, but if she ignored my sword I'd slice her in half. She could only block my attacks with her off hand and another barrier of pale light. But I was ready for that with another Void Cannon, and her barrier burst in an explosive backlash.

Blood gushed from the Pale Moonlight enforcer, and she was thrown backward, only to be struck from all sides with another wave of Mana Arsenal spells I'd been conjuring while we fought.

The sudden three part attack was me unleashing everything I could in as short a time as possible, and doing so left me vulnerable to an attack from behind by the Chaos Wolf. He lunged at me from behind and bit my shoulder. I shrugged off the pain to take one last look at the Pale Moonlight sect enforcer.

I'd hoped to kill her like that, but an A-Grade wasn't so easily put down. Thankfully, she was heavily wounded, and Ted's B-Grades sensed her moment of weakness and pounced. Though their abilities were weak, they were enough to force the Pale Moonlight enforcer on the defensive and keep her from easily healing herself. I should have at least a few seconds before she was battle-worthy again, which would be enough time to deal with the pesky wolf.

The Chaos Wolf dug teeth into my shoulder but was looking increasingly surprised to discover he couldn't rip a piece of flesh off. He probably expected to come away with my whole arm. He might have had a chance under normal circumstances, but I was still using Eldritch Augmentation at the moment, and my level was higher than his to start with.

I turned, and my eyes rolled to meet his. His eyes widened. I turned to slash his belly open with my dragonbone rapier. He twisted trying to move me, and without any footing for either of us in space we just rotated around one another.

He let go and tried to fling himself wide at me, but I turned and twisted in hot pursuit. He opened his mouth while flying backward and shot another beam of crimson energy at me from between his teeth. I twisted to avoid it and when I finished dodging I dropped Eldritch Augmentation in favor of a Sunlight Spear which went screaming through the void and struck the Chaos Wolf in the side unprepared.

"What did you do? How did you increase your level so fast?!" The Chaos Wolf demanded.

It seemed he'd finally noticed how outmatched he was.

I didn't bother responding. He could die wondering how I'd surpassed him in level so suddenly.

My Sunlight Spear cut a hole in his side. I followed it up with Blood Sacrifice, trading half my hit points for half of his. He howled in agony. I grit my teeth as blood leaked from my mouth, but between the biscuit I'd eaten earlier and the health I was regaining through lifesteal I thought I'd be alright. I'd hoped to use that move to kill the Pale Moonlight enforcer, but killing the Chaos Wolf would do.

But before I could exalt in my victory, I heard a warning from Ted blasted through the void like a shout.

"Look out!" He yelled.

The warning came just in time. I barely reacted in time to cast Aegis of the Void and deflect a lance of peak A-Grade power coming from the mouth of the Chaos Serpent. He must have broken away from his fight with Ted somehow.

When my defensive spell faded and I realized how and why, my heart sank. Reinforcements had entered the battle, and now Ted was battling two peak A-Grades. The Chaos Serpent had been enough of a foe for him, but now a huge black bird was skirting through the void nearby.

Chaos Raven (Level 799)

<Note>

I guess I need one more chapter after all. Hopefully I reach the planned stopping point on Monday, then a break for book 6 edits / the building pile of other stuff I need to tackle.

These arc conclusion chapters are always a bit tough to write, but I don't want to be writing it around Thanksgiving when I'll be even busier, so it'll be good to get through it now. That way I can pick back up at the start of a new arc where writing goes much faster and smoother. Hopefully I can finally get back to dropping bonus chapters. I still owe you guys one for that one time my power went out and I missed a chapter back in July.

I may combine this chapter and the next one in the final. I just don't have anything else to release today.