B2 Chapter 148: Testing Gains Pt. 1

Kaius stood in his saddle, absorbing the shock of Porkchop’s bounding leaps by crouching slightly with every impact.

His eyes were trained firmly on the irontusk, watching and waiting for the moment it would notice them with its dulled senses. Explosive anticipation thrummed within him, every single one of his muscles held in delicious tension. He could taste it. The blood that would soon be in the air.

Porkchop charged silently, though Kaius could feel he yearned to release his bloodlust with a cracking roar and a snarl of gnashing teeth.

After having decided on their course of action, they had set off for their target. It was painful at first, the irontusk too far for them to race into an immediate charge, and Ianmus too slow for them to even jog.

Instead he’d watched it lumber across the grasslands, lowering its head to tear through foliage as it ate its fill. After so many stories of their strength and fortitude, he was eager to test his blade against them. Sure, in the grand scheme of things, they were little but gnats against the true powers of the world, but the irontusks were one of the greatest ‘threats’ on the plains.

Stout of frame, even meagre levels were enough to give them crushing power, and it wasn’t like the average traveller of the frontier was a high levelled delver.

After descending the hill, Kaius had dismounted for a moment, his brother aiding him with charging his vambraces. While the energy would bleed quickly, he hoped that by the time they were thrust into glorious battle it would only take a single block, or maybe two, for him to tap into the artifact’s stored devastation.

That had been a fun one to explain to their half-elven solar mage, though the man understood as soon as they had. They’d left him a little behind. Close enough the battle would still be in range of his spells, but more than far enough that he would be well clear of any wayward blows.

Ahead of him, the irontusk tensed, its massive head twitching as its small eyes locked on their rapidly approaching forms. Gods, it was big, easily as massive as the Siege Ogre had been, though far less tall. A stout neck as thick as Porkchop’s waist held up its head just fine, even with the impressive weight of its curved metal tusks weighing it down.

Kaius focused, bringing up its status once more.

Irontusk Vagrant – Level 49:

Beast, Brawler

Singing joy harmonised with the resonance in his blood and mana, filling him with fervent energy as a wicked twinkle alighted in his eyes. Below him, a deep rumble started in Porkchop’s belly, the start of a rattling growl.

The irontusk shook itself, bucking its head in a challenge as it worked up its fury with a pair of stomps that shuddered the very ground. It bellowed, a deep bassy call that shook the plains and sent birds flying to the sky in fright.

Kaius howled, his voice tearing at his throat as he relished in the sight of a challenge. A true foe that would test his mettle once more. It had been too long, too many days without the sweet succour of pouring sweat and leaden limbs. Too long since he had felt bones break and blood spill. His own, or his enemies, it mattered not. Only that he was tested. Only that he could prove himself the victor, champion by right of arms.

Primal aggression and the simple heated fury of challenged supremacy flooded his bond, his brother’s own Song alighting in unison with his own. Porkchop’s roar was a thing of beauty, drowning his surroundings in a ringing crack that one felt in the heart.

**Ding! Brotherhood of Ichor and Animus has reached level 38!**.

The irontusk charged, thick muscle rippling beneath its shaggy brown coat as it lowered its head. It reached speed quickly, no matter its size and weight, simple power overcame all restrictions.

Feeling his pulse spike, Kaius leaned in as his brother kept his course. No challenge so simple, so direct, would sway their path. He had faith.

In their might. In Porkchop’s armour. In their stalwart fearlessness.

Then the vigour and warmth of the sun sunk into them, suffusing them both with unrivalled potency. Infusing them with an energy that only heightened his need to tear into the titan that dared stand in their path.

**Ding! You have been Enhanced – Sundrenched Strength!**

He unsheathed his sword.

The irontusk drew close.

Kaius launched himself from the saddle, kicking off his brother’s back to launch a full ten strides into the air. Porkchop raced forward unhindered, teeth bared as he tapped into his amulet.

Time seemed to hang. A beam of light snapped out from behind him, searing its way through one of the irontusk’s eyes in a bubble of fluid with needle tip precision.

Ianmus, the cheeky dog. He’d stolen first blood.

The irontusk howled, lowering its head further, even as Porkchop blurred, racing towards the mighty beast with total lack of concern.

Kaius tapped into one of the wells of power that was bound resolutely in the maleficent glyph that adorned his hand. It fizzed, boiling with eagerness as they waited for his command. Baleful light showered from his hand in a burst of embers, a bolt of the Stormlord’s finest crackling with hateful vigour as it snatched up its barely contained power.

Thunder boomed as Kaius whipped his lash towards the irontusk, the searing might of his spell tearing across the air to wrap the beast in arcing lightning. Its coat vaporised in the path of his spell, potent electrical energy scorching the beast from the inside out. Reverberation followed, blood bursting from the burns he had left in its flesh.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

**Ding! Latent Glyph of Drakthar has reached level 16!**.

An enraged cry escaped its throat as the irontusk stumbled. It was too big, too powerful, for his spell to have immobilised it. Yet, at the pace they moved, a stumble was enough. It righted itself, but its charge was broken, and the correction came too little too late.

Porkchop leapt, his heavily armoured form crashing into the irontusk’s shoulder like a falling oak. Its bones cracked under his brother’s enhanced momentum, the thick slabs of jade that covered Porkchop lending him the inescapable might of a landslide.

Kaius touched the ground, racing in.

Tearing into the beast with crystalline claws, Porkchop ravaged the beast’s shoulder and chest, his green armour quickly slicked with bright carmine. No longer were they weak. No longer were they hampered by the barriers that all unclassed suffered from. No, his brother’s strength was a glorious thing as he shredded flesh and scored bone. Hide rumoured to be as hard as mundane chainmail was nothing before sacred jade.

The irontusk shook itself out of its haze with a cry of fury, only for another Sunbeam to scour its way across the plains to burn its way through the delicate flesh of its nose. It flinched, whipping its head to the side as its glinting grey tusks smashed into Porkchop’s side with a clang.