The hangar housing the hatch had been partially destroyed. Only a few corpses lay nearby. No one saw any part of the hangar tremble. The collapsed roof began to move before slowly lifting. Seconds later, it tilted to one side, releasing a dark well. A head popped out, soon followed by the rest of the body. Looking left and right, a young man surveyed his surroundings before jumping out of the hole.
A luminous flake fell to his right and disappeared into the ground. Blinking, Priam raised his head to contemplate an unknown teorological phenonon.
Hundreds of thousands of snowflakes were falling all around him. Yet there were no clouds at all, but rather strange aurora borealis. Priam reached out to grab one of the little lights but decided against it. His instincts told him this was a bad idea.
Suddenly, he felt a wave of heat. Priam turned toward the forest, and his eyes widened. Only a few hundred ters away, the Earl was confronting a flaming titan. Their battle was terrifying. The lion moved gracefully and swiftly, while the fire monster was slower but developed colossal power behind each of his attacks. The Earl often dodged, seeming to dance around his enemy.
Priam hadn't sensed their fight until a wave of heat - a titans attack - reached him. The choreography of the two giants took place in absolute silence. The cause was apparent. The Earl had banished the air around them in an effort to stop the titan's flas. It worked partly, as the monstrosity's flas found no hold on the lion.
"We have to help him."
Priam turned and smiled. For once, he had sensed the animal's arrival but chosen to ignore it. His high perception and the presence of mist were beginning to pay off. Detecting his surroundings through the fog had beco an automatism for Priam.
The eagle was one of the Viscounts in the lion's court. Yet he hadn't co to the Earl's aid during the early stages of the fight. The coward had waited for Priam's arrival before daring to show his face. I'm sure he'll want to go first...
Priam didn't waste a second thinking. Sphinx and Blueberry were waiting for him, and he had no intention of wasting ti confronting a Viscount.
"Of course. I've just improved my spear and think I can seriously wound the titan. But I need a good angle of attack. Could you drop above him?" asked Priam.
The eagle looked at him for a mont, and Priam gave him his most innocent smile.
"Human heads are weird. Your beak is deford. It's so ugly..." comnted the eagle. Priam blinked. Did I really just get insulted by a bird?
The ground shook again, and the eagle gazed toward the titanic battle before nodding.
"I don't want you to ride , but I'm willing to take you in my claws," he said.
Priam nodded. It slightly altered his plan, but it was a concession he was willing to make to appease the raptor.
The eagle took off, and Priam jumped. With his left hand, he grabbed one of the eagle's talons. The bird gave a mighty flap, and Priam almost let go of his grip because of the acceleration. Within seconds, the two Viscounts were several hundred ters high.
Priam looked around him, smiling like a child. The new moon looked magnificent from the sky. The eagle had first chosen to move away from the battle so as not to collide with the wisps. Above them, the sky, half hidden by the eagle's body, was subli. The atmosphere was thin, and the black sky allowed the stars to shine brightly. In the background, the earth stood out against the sidereal void.
Priam looked at his ho planet, smiling fondly. He would return there one day. Despite this thought, he knew he might not recognize anything. The earth was constantly changing. No doubt thanks to the System, nature was reclaiming its rights at a surprising speed. Priam's Perception enabled him to see as if through binoculars. He could make out continents, oceans, forest fires, titanic storms, abandoned cities and even what appeared to be a plane...
The plane looked at him. Priam's eyes widened. A creature with a wingspan of a hundred ters was crossing the sky, flying over the Atlantic Ocean. A dragon? That seed unlikely. If the Phoenix was such a rare animal, a dragon couldn't already be present on Earth. But the reptile certainly had draconic blood. The next Reunion was shaping up to be an eventful one...
Suddenly, Priam felt a tug. The eagle was changing direction, about to fly over the aurora borealis, the source of the wisps.
"Get ready," said the eagle in a voice weary from his aether consumption. At their altitude, the atmosphere was not thick enough to support conventional flight. The bird was expending a great deal of energy to soar higher and higher. They must have been almost eight kiloters high, and the moon's atmosphere must have stopped at around ten kiloters. I wonder if there's a Title for the first human to reach it... Priam smiled. Knowing the System, such a Title surely existed.
The northern lights were approaching, and Priam prepared himself. He would only have one chance.
The lights were blinding, and the amount of aether present was terrifying. His peach fuzz bristled on his forearms and Priam swallowed. Suddenly, a hole in the phenonon appeared.
"Now," cried the eagle.
Priam let go of the claw and turned in the air. The two Viscounts were less than ten ters apart. Priam cocked his arm and prepared a tenth of his accumulated kinetic energy. He concentrated on Prosse, their connection and [Spear Throw]. His muscles snapped, and Prosse left his arm. Towards the eagle.
The eagle's eyes widened as he saw the attack coming and he tried to dodge. Unfortunately, the weapon was too fast, and he had no ti to maneuver. Like a cot, the spear of fire streaked across the sky before striking the eagle.
The Viscount must have specialized in agility and perception. His constitution didn't allow him to tank the attack, and Prosse passed through him, piercing his heart. Priam ntally recalled his spear.
Update: Predator - Viscount
The peasant fears the Baron but the Baron fears the Earl.
Do you fear the Earl?
Prove your worth and your ambition. Overco the Earl's guards, the Viscounts.
Alphalia, the Lion's Wings, is dead.
Reward: Potential 50.
Participation: 100%.
You have eliminated a Moon Viscount without help. An outstanding performance.
Bonus: Potential 20. Skill [Friction Resistance].
You have gained the skill: [Friction Resistance - Common].
[Friction Resistance] - Friction is an interaction that opposes the relative movent of two bodies in contact. The aetheric composition of your skin changes slightly to reduce the electromagnetic interactions it exchanges with its environnt. As a result, the conversion of your kinetic energy into thermal energy is lower.
Youll run and swim faster. Soon you'll be flying faster too.
Are you really planning to make an atmospheric entry without a parachute?
AGI 1
Priam squinted as he read his notifications. Killing a Viscount-rank Abomination under the Revenants Cathedral did not validate this quest. Was it because it was polluted by the Depths? Because it was artificial? Or because the quest specifically ntioned the Earl's guards? In any case, Priam had a new objective. If the quest for the Viscounts was similar to the one for the Barons, he still had two Viscounts to farm... I'll deal with that later!
Priam focused on his fall. By the ti he had read the notification, he had accelerated, falling at terminal velocity toward the ground. Calculating such a speed in an alien atmosphere was complicated. Before the Tutorial, Felix Baumgartner had jumped from the stratosphere to a height of almost thirty-nine kiloters. During this jump, which lasted four minutes and nineteen seconds, he reached a speed of three hundred and seventy-three ters per second, thus exceeding the speed of sound.
Indeed, at a certain height, atmospheric pressure was too low to really limit the speed of a man's fall. To give an order of magnitude, Priam recalled that the maximum speed of a man in free fall after jumping from an airplane was seventy ters per second.
Currently heading for a hole in the destructive northern lights, Priam was laughing. Without knowing his exact speed, he knew he was falling at over four hundred ters per second. Passing through the hole in the auroras borealis, he entered the domain of Tribulation. Now he had to watch out for the wisps. The wind was ruffling his hair, creeping up his body and beginning to slow him down.
Far below him, the Earl was battling a titanic Abomination. Thousands of animals were uselessly helping their leader. Regularly, so would burst into flas, but they remained united.
Priam contemplated the forest, which stretched for dozens of kiloters. In the distance, imnse dos stood out against the horizon. The Do, Viracocha, and the others... His father was certainly waiting for him in one of them.
A wisp lay beneath him, and Priam dodged it using a small kinetic charge.
For now, he was determined to survive. To have fun. A few monts ago, Priam could almost have touched the boundary between the Moon and outer space. One day, he would leave the atmosphere and explore other worlds. For now, he was skydiving from ten kiloters up, looking down at his target. Not the Earl or another Viscount. Priam was looking at the Jubokko, eight kiloters below him, and ten kiloters to his right.
Lvl Up: [Friction Resistance] lvl 2
AGI 1
Priam had accumulated a lot of kinetic energy and decided to use so of it to redirect his fall. The aim was to fall diagonally - for every ter closer to the ground, he had to move one ter to his right.
Unfortunately, he couldn't use the kinetic energy of the wind caressing his skin. In the Moon's fra of reference, Priam was moving, but the air molecules were immobile. The sensation of wind against him was, therefore, artificial. If Priam had tried to absorb their kinetic energy - in his fra of reference - the wind molecules would have stopped moving. Priam would have hurtled at over four hundred ters per second into a wall of air. An excellent way to commit suicide. Priam jotted it down in the back of his mind. It could earn a lot of levels...
It was always good to have a few ideas for committing suicide when you were immortal.
Rembering his own mortality, Priam began to use his energy to slowly shift to his right. The operation went smoothly and Priam smiled as he turned his head slightly. Behind him, Prosse was beginning to catch up, linked to him by his Talent.
Priam refocused on his maneuver. He was gradually increasing his horizontal speed, but his vertical speed was decreasing due to the air. Indeed, atmospheric pressure increased as he fell, and Priam's eyes widened as he realized what was about to happen. At five kiloters altitude, when he was almost halfway down, the concentration of air molecules reached a critical threshold.
Lvl Up: [Friction Resistance] lvl 3
AGI 1
Priam felt resistance building up in front of his face. He quickly closed his eyes. A second later, he thought he was plunging into the water. The storm noise that had deafened his ears until then had disappeared. Suddenly, the world was silent. Or close enough, as Priam could still hear the rapid beat of his heart and the blood rushing through his brain.
Title won!
A notification sounded, but Priam ignored it. He had just broken the sound barrier!
With a huge grin on his face - barely distorted by the colossal air currents holding him back - Priam laughed. He realized he couldn't hear himself laugh, and giggled harder as he felt the tremors in his ribcage caused by his laughter.
Four kiloters below, almost the entire surviving army looked up. Thunder echoed across the desolate plain. In the sky, the Earl briefly made out the silhouette of a man against the sidereal blackness. Behind him, a sort of cone stretched out. The Abomination attacked, and the Earl refocused.
For Priam, the attraction only lasted a few monts longer. Air friction beca more pronounced, and Priam lost speed. A mont later, the sound returned to reality.
Lvl Up: [Friction Resistance] lvl 4
AGI 1
The Jubokko was getting closer, and Priam prepared to slow down. Two kiloters from the tree, Priam had an idea. Leaning headfirst towards his target, he began to slowly absorb the kinetic energy of the air molecules beneath him. A surfer could glide on water because friction was greater between the board and the liquid than between the athlete and the air. In the sa way, Priam artificially increased friction with the molecules beneath him to slide naturally toward the Jubokko. He was now falling diagonally.
You have gained the skill: [Glide - Common].
[Glide] - A skill common to many animals. Rarely found in humans. Modifies your positioning to ensure the best aerodynamics. One day, you'll fly. Maybe.
Bravo, you're on the sa level as a dodo.
AGI 1
Priam altered the application of [Kinetic Control] and his positioning slightly to better glide toward his target. Five hundred ters from the tree, Priam began to make out certain things under the canopy. Sphinx and Blueberry were having what appeared to be a heated discussion with two Viscounts. They were guarding Spring and preventing Blueberry from approaching.
Priam knew they'd have to kill them. Blueberry was undoubtedly waiting for Priam to do just that. Indeed, the bear seed to think one of the Viscounts could temporarily control the Jubokko. If so, they'd have to kill them without giving them ti to retaliate. Priam had no desire to confront an Earl-tree hundreds of ters tall and possessing a Domain.
Priam looked back one last ti and had an idea. There might be a way to defeat both Viscounts simultaneously. The plan was perilous and would seriously injure him, but the Spring would heal him if he succeeded. Now was the ti to take risks!
Two hundred ters from the canopy, Priam positioned his left arm in front of his face. He had slowed down, but his speed was still phenonal. At almost a hundred ters per second, Priam slamd into the canopy. Leaves scratched his arm and the rest of his body, tearing his clothes. Two small branches lacerated his belly and tore off part of his scalp. Priam grunted in pain and reopened his eyes a quarter of a second later. He had broken through the branches and was looking down at the two Viscounts below him.
With a final burst of [Kinetic Control], Priam corrected his trajectory. His target - a sort of gorilla - looked up at him. Priam smiled at him and readied his knees. The key was to land well.
At one hundred ters per second - three hundred and sixty kiloters per hour - Priam manages to execute a flying knee kick to the center of the gorilla's face.
Dunk!
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