Stormblade 4 C56: The Storm Breaks

56 - The Storm Breaks

The world felt different.

No. My understanding of the world had shifted. It was subtle. But it was there.

I’d experienced this only once before, and I’d only realized it after the fact. The world had clarified in that bathroom, just before I’d used Stormbreak. I’d been a scared kid then, with a newly-awakened system, and that clarity had seemed like both a miracle and a sudden burst of nightmarish perception.

This time was different. The wind in the Black Tower. The hair standing up on the back of my neck. Little sensations wrought large. It would have been overwhelming, except for one crucial thing.

My mind had sped up to match the barrage of information. It processed it near perfectly. S-Rank had shaped my reactions, my perception, and my body. I stretched, and the motion felt like nothing. My fist clenched, and I threw a punch at the air. Wind erupted around it; if I slammed my knuckles into the wall, it would probably break. No, not probably. The bricks would crumble, the mortar would give, and I’d blow a hole through the wall without even trying.

And it wasn’t just my mind and body. I’d grown stronger, yes, but more importantly, my understanding of my weaknesses had shifted. I couldn’t take a hit like Jeff. My magic lagged behind Ellen’s. But none of that mattered. My weaknesses weren’t important anymore, because my strength would force all but the most powerful monsters to fight me on my own terms.

I was better at those strengths, too. A lot better.

The best. I was the best spellblade, the best magical duelist, on Earth.

“That can’t be true,” I said to myself, but even as I said it, I knew it was. I was one of the strongest on Earth. “Is this what Angelo felt every day? No wonder the S-Rankers protected this power so jealously.”

I’d have the opportunity to test my strength soon. But right now, I needed to understand just what had changed. The message I’d just read had said something about my skills evolving at S-Rank. I needed to know more about that.

I pulled up my status.

User: Kade Noelstra
Reforged Core, S-Rank
Stamina: 600/600 (+100, Mana: 830/830 (+200)

Skills: 
1. Stormblade Core (A-10 to S-01, Unique, Merged, Path)
2. Thunderlord (A-10 to S-01, Path)
3. Torrentborne (A-10 to S-01, Path)
4. Cyclone Forms (A-10, Altered, Merged)
5. Stormlight Bond (B-10, Altered, Merged)
6. Shadowstorm Battery (C-10, Altered, Merged, Dual)
7. Stormbreak (B-04 to B-08, Unique)

Path: Path of the Stormblade
Aura: Stormkin Avatar

The first thing that hit me was just how much Stamina and Mana I’d gained. I could fight forever with those extra resources. That had been the largest gulf between the S-Rankers and me, but that gap was already rapidly closing, and the caps on my Mana and Stamina would only let me close it even faster.

Then I read my first three skills. Stormblade Core, Thunderlord, and Torrentborne. All three had been merged and altered, and Stormsteel Core had also been a Unique skill. And all three had changed. Now, they simply said ‘Path.’

Path Skill: Stormblade Core

The storm inside you has been honed to a razor’s edge, Kade Noelstra. It yearns to be free even now—its very nature longs to make war on the world around it. But you have mastered it and harnessed its strength. The weapons and armor you manifest flash like lightning as you blaze the Path of the Stormblade.

Path Effects:
1. Create lightning-based Bindings and wind-based Scripts.
2. Summon and manifest S-Rank Stormsteel weapons and armor at will.

At first glance, Stormblade Core wasn’t any different from Stormsteel Core had been. It seemed underwhelming; all I’d done was remove the cost from my summoned armor.

Then I actually summoned it.

Gray-white clouds arced between gunmetal gray portal metal bands, swirling as dozens of tiny maelstroms whipped them into a frenzy. The entire armor seemed to move around me, miniaturized hurricanes flowing from one piece of plate to the next. And, on the outside, lightning crackled across every smooth, sleek surface.

I moved my arm, and the armor moved with me, stretching like a second skin instead of restricting my motions at all. It felt almost like nothing at all.

Never mind. The armor wasn’t underwhelming, and the Storm’s Blade that I summoned into my hand was anything but disappointing. If I hadn’t been S-Rank, the blade would have been too much for me; it wanted to cut. Every sword’s purpose was to cut and stab, parry and riposte, but this one…this one had been made for it in a way no other weapon I’d carried had been.

Next was Thunderlord.

Path Skill: Thunderlord

The Stormblade Core has altered this skill from Thunderbolt Forms

Your blade is lightning. Your strikes are thunder. Masters like Grassi and Thibault never mastered their weapons as you have, and your sword’s edge cuts with all the strength and power of the thunderstorm. Using this advanced, offensive-minded form’s abilities builds Lightning Charges.

Path Effects:
1. Laminar Blade: Consume Rain Charges to add armor-shredding layers to your weapon.
2. Slipstream: Consume Wind Charges to attack each enemy within range instantly.
3. Stormfall: Consume two Lightning Charges to add a shockwave to your accelerated attacks.

This was more like it.

Laminar Blade did exactly what Rain-Slicked Blade had done, but if I was right, it wouldn’t stop doing it until the layers of water had been peeled away—probably by attacking or defending with the Storm’s Blade. Armor had been a problem for me, especially against enemies like the Steam Hulk, which had been too tough to break. This changed that math in my favor.

Then there was Stormfall. It acted like the skill it had replaced, but now, it hit hard and fast enough to cause a shockwave. That would be devastating against unarmored targets, and might even shred ones in armor through it.

But Slipstream was the most interesting of the bunch. On the surface, it did the same job as its predecessor, too. But that wasn’t true. Instead of a wind-and-lightning blade striking my enemies, I’d use the Storm Blade on everything.

Not a different weapon. The Storm Blade. The one that carried, potentially, both Stormfall and Laminar Blade.

It was a one-skill combo. If I had the Charges, I could turn into an armor-shredding, army-annihilating force. This was what S-Rank looked like. This was the power Angelo Lawrence had been able to tap into—or at least a fraction of it.

And it only got better.

Path Skill: Torrentborne

The water may be unconquerable, but you have done so nevertheless. The rainstorm bows to your will, the flood and fog working together with the wind and storm to offer mobility and defense beyond measure. Using this advanced, defensive-minded form’s abilities builds Rainfall Charges.

Path Effects:
1. Lightning Dance: Consume Lightning Charges to instantly reposition several times in a row.
2. Stormrunner: Consume Wind Charges to temporarily fly and increase movement speed.
3. Mist Trance: Consume two Rainfall Charges to become immaterial.

I spent more time in my defensive stance than either of the others, as a general rule, and all three of the Torrentborne skills looked like massive upgrades.

The most fun-looking one was Stormrunner. Flight was ridiculously strong, and it was a logical upgrade from Windwalk. The thing about flight was that it changed the battlefield. Enemies often couldn’t do anything about an airborne enemy—a fact I’d learned from fighting Andrew in the Fallen Delver’s Tournament.

The other thing about flight was that it was straightforward. I could fly. I could fly fast. It was powerful, but the other two skills were much more interesting.

Lightning Dance was a direct upgrade. Multiple jumps meant that instead of using it defensively, I could dance multiple times to avoid attacks and position myself for big attacks with my Thunderlord skills. Mobility was incredibly powerful, especially when everyone was throwing thousand-pound explosives with every attack.

And Mist Trance. That one word change—from incorporeal to immaterial—was something I wanted to explore. I wouldn’t be able to see the difference until I tried it out, but I was looking forward to the first time I did.

And speaking of trying new things out…

I spent a handful of minutes revamping my spell list before I couldn’t justify waiting any longer. The Carlsbad Portal was waiting. The Craftsman was waiting.

And so were Quellat and the Placid King.

◄▼►

As I sprinted down the stairs, moving faster and more sure-footedly than I ever had in my life, I forced my mind to focus on my battle plan.

My heart wanted to go straight for the Placid King. It screamed for me to go after the largest threat, fight it again and again until it yielded, and break one more bully beneath my fist. But my head prevailed. The Placid King was an SS-Plus-Ranked Paragon. I could almost certainly hurt it. I’d most likely take an eye-covered tentacle or two with me. But even with all the new power in the world, I didn’t know if I could kill it.

That left the Craftsman.

I could definitely help kill the Craftsman. I was, after all, an S-Ranker now—and I’d done it without stunting myself using Paragon cores. It was possible that I was on the same level as the S-Rankers I’d entered the Carlsbad Portal with. Maybe even…could I be stronger? No. I was fresh to S-Rank, and they had experience on their side. The raw power of my Path skills would narrow that gap, but I couldn’t imagine it being enough to bridge it completely.

But I was definitely more than ready to help.

So, the battle plan.

Erupt from the Solo Portal into the Carlsbad one. Kill anything that stood between me and my path upward, carve a road through brass, silk, and deep-sea abberations, and reach the top of the portal world. Meet with the S-Rankers there. Kill the Craftsman, collect his core, and wait for the portal’s timer to kick us all out into the Bottomless Pit deep in the caverns.

Then go home and regroup with Ellen, Jeff, and Jessie, and start preparing for the next fight.

It was going to be a big one.

I arrived at the exit to the Solo Portal. The timer had stopped ticking down and disappeared, and as I stepped through, I was surprised to see that the Carlsbad Portal had stopped flooding. Or at least, that this portion of it had. The portal disappeared behind me, and the key landed in my free hand, the Storm’s Blade in a ready stance as I peered into the hallway and got my bearings in the knee-deep water.

There was nothing here to kill.

At least, not yet, there wasn’t. That’d change soon, though. I’d have plenty to fight. I broke into a sprint, feet pounding the brass floor under the water, and started to climb. The Storm’s Blade vanished, and I focused on running.

The team needed me, and—

Storm’s Blade flashed into my hand as I spun, meeting a watery rapier inches from my face. I grinned savagely. “I thought I heard you back there, Quellat.”

The thin, scaly-covered man whipped his sword back, stepping away to get distance, and I followed, unwilling to let him.

Our power differential had shifted, and the hunter had become the hunted.

◄▼►

Ellen knew.

The moment Kade attempted his S-Rank push, she’d known it was happening. It had started as a static in her core, and she’d lowered the barbell onto the squat rack with a single, loud clank. It was happening.

And she wasn’t there to help with it.

It did mean that he was still alive. He’d survived this insane day, and that was something. Even more, he’d triumphed over something. Otherwise, how would he have reached S-Rank? But even though Ellen knew she should be happy for him, a small, dark corner of her felt abandoned. This was her third workout session of the day. Her muscles were little more than jelly, and the weight on her bar was less than half of what she’d had when the assault started. She was strong, and she knew it—but all of that strength meant nothing.

The static feeling in Ellen’s core grew harsher and harsher. She staggered away as Jeff said something. He’d been spotting her, but she waved him off without even understanding his words.

She needed to think. No. Not to think. Thinking wouldn’t help.

Her core ached. It was agony, but even as it happened, she knew that it was nothing. Her core wouldn’t break. It couldn’t break. Not here. She’d done everything in her power to avoid that fate. She’d babied her core, pampered it ever since the end of the Siege of Phoenix. It couldn’t break. It couldn’t.

But the pressure from Kade’s core was overwhelming.

She staggered into the Desert Wind’s locker room, stripped her sweat-soaked clothes off, and wrapped a towel around herself. The sauna. She couldn’t think, and if she couldn’t think, Ellen Traynor needed to just be. To focus on existing, and on being one.

Humidity and heat warred over Ellen as she lay down on the small sauna’s bench. Her core vibrated within her. Darkness poured out of it until she couldn’t tell if her eyes were open or shut. Her will clamped down on it. She squeezed with all her focus, not even hearing the door when it opened, and Jeff peeked in, then pulled back and let it clack shut. None of that mattered.

All that mattered was her core.

And, slowly, it stabilized. The static and the wave of pressure settled into a light tingle that danced around the cracks in her dark core and a comfortable blanket that pressed down on both her core and her body. Ellen breathed shakily for a minute. Her eyes opened to the wooden ceiling and billowing steam. Her joints ached, and her muscles refused to work, even to push herself to a seated position. At some point, her towel had slid off, but she lacked the strength to even reach for it.

“We’ve got you,” a voice said.

“Kade?” she whispered.

“No, stupid. I hope I don’t sound that much like him.” Ellen let her head rock to the side, eyes widening. Jessie sat on the bench nearby. So did Yasmin. Both of them were fully clothed, and as she tried to push herself up, she realized that, no, the towel wasn’t on the floor. One of them had covered her up with it. “You were in here for over an hour when Jeff found you. We’ve been watching ever since. Are you ready to go?”

“I…I can’t.”

“Sure, you can,” Jessie said. She pointed, and Ellen let her eyes drift in that direction. “You’re in no shape to walk, but that’s okay. I’ve got my cane, and it’s not a bad day for me. When you’re ready, Yazzie can help you into my chair, and we’ll get you up to Kade’s room. He’ll be home tonight.”

“How do you know?” Ellen asked. Yes, he’d just hit S-Rank. Yes, he was a maniac, and he’d survived much, much worse than whatever he was attempting. And yeah, the other S-Rankers should help keep him alive. But even so…Ellen was still worried. He was more than willing to die trying to keep his promises to her, and to Jessie.

Jessie just shrugged. “He’s S-Rank now, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then everything else in that portal had better watch out.”

Ellen stared at Jessie incredulously. Then she laughed until she couldn’t anymore. She was still laughing when Yasmin helped her into Jessie’s wheelchair and pushed her to the elevator, with Jessie following along with her cane.

Jessie was right. Kade was going to be just fine. And so was she.