Level Up!

by RisuUmbra

Chapter 30: Revolution Part 4

Chapter 30 Revolution: Part 4
Markus PoV:

I have been woken up in many different ways in my life, falling off my bed, getting water poured on me, having a pie smashed into my face, by an ex-girlfriend breaking in. Many many different ways, but getting struck by lightning… that beats everything. Waking up to the feeling of my skin being deep fried was an experience that I would happily repress deep down in my psyche, my torment was quickly ended thankfully by the familiar sensation of cold healing magic draping itself over me. Now that the pain was gone I wanted to just fall asleep and not wake up until next week… until I remembered what was happening. Flicking my eyes open and ignoring the migraine pulsing through my head I tried to push myself to my hooves… only to find I was missing a few of the required tools. I am not ashamed to say that when I looked down at what should have been my normal blue hooves and saw a familiar set of crimson red wings… I screamed… or at least I tried. A couple of purple hooves covered my mouth before any sound escaped.

My panic filled eyes trailed up the hooves to see the familiar muzzle of Morgana. My breaths were coming out in short rapid puffs… I think I'm having a panic attack. Huh, I haven’t had one of these since I was a kid, I could see Morgana’s mouth moving but there was no sound coming out and all I could hear was my rapidly beating heart and a loud high pitched whining sound. Something in my mind started to stir, a presence that instantly brought up a fond feeling in me much to my confusion. My eyes flicked back down to my wings and their very familiar color.

‘Calcifer? Are you in there?’ My thoughts rang out in my head and after a moment an extremely tired but happy mind revealed itself resting within me. A mind that felt great relief that I was okay… to an extent at least. The feeling of having Calcifer connected to me again was way more comforting than I was expecting, the bulk of my panic over my new… features was thrown away in the face of the feeling.

My now much calmer eyes refocused on Morgana and upon seeing I wasn’t going to scream removed her hooves. Now that I was paying attention to my surroundings I could see that Morgana had me lying on a couch in someponies home, every once in a while I could feel a rumble through the floor. Where’s David and what happened to me?

“David and another pegasus named Mix-Up are distracting that… monster. After you… changed and that lightning hit you that monster started going berserk. I dragged you in here to heal you” Morgana must have seen my confused look, I tried to pull myself up to sit normally but… my wings aren’t exactly easy to control. My wings quickly began to shake with effort from my weight and before I was even half way up my wings gave out, a small cloud of dust was launched into the air by my head hitting the couch cushions.

“Achoo! You said it went berserk? That’s not… “ The ritual would have ended this if it activated properly, did I mess up somehow? My mind flicked back to the ritual's creation and I went over every step. I used the correct sigils, I carved them straight enough to be legible, I made sure there weren’t any magical objects or interferences. What could I be missing, I felt myself growing more frantic. Upon the successful activation of the ritual Ozzy’s soul should have been sucked into that ruby and… sacrificed. I felt my heart nearly stop as I realized where I went wrong. I only extracted his soul, I didn’t sacrifice it afterwards! Now it makes sense why Ozymandias’ body is going crazy, it isn’t far fetched to believe that his soul still has some measure of control over his body even while separate. I bet it’s even similar to how he was controlling the guards… any other time I would be so curious as to how he does that but right now… We need to finish this.

“Morgana, can you help me up?” I raised a wind towards Morgana who hesitated for a moment before gingerly wrapping her hooves around my wing. As if she was handling glass Morgana slowly pulled me up to my haunches and I appreciated her gentleness. It only just now occurs to me that I might have hollow bones now, hollow bones plus super strength doesn’t end well. I felt Calcifer pass along the want to stretch our wings which really pushed forward the realization that I Can Fly Now! That would be something especially magical that I'll have to experience later, I can’t work on a ritual like this.

I took a deep breath and focused, by now I thought I would be used to delving into the planted knowledge in my mind, but the feeling of automagically knowing how to separate from Calcifer just because of a picture on my rump is still very unsettling. The few lit candles around us began to die off but instead of sending the room into darkness, the room only grew brighter as a surprisingly soft white light started to emulate from… us? I was expecting an odd sensation, maybe some tingling or a bright flash to signify our separation… but no. The two of us let out a surprised squeak/squawk when both Calcifer and I were thrown to the ground all of a sudden. Bringing my limbs up to my eyes I was glad to see my regular blue hooves, I asked if Calcifer was alright and got a crowning caw in return. I let the obviously exhausted Calcifer to rest and rose to my hooves to talk to Morgana.

“You said David and someone else is keeping Ozymandias busy right? Do you think they can hang on a little longer?”

---

David’s Pov:

It’s really starting to occur to me that I'm not as good at flying as I think I am, sure I'm pretty fast in a straight line but in combat? Not so much, I made another wobbly corkscrew around another flailing tentacle and tried not to fall out of the sky. This is really a horrible time to find out I get dizzy easily, dropping into a dive to avoid the jaws of the nightmare inducing monster and quickly lopping off a few thinner grasping claws that were following me. Another ear rending shriek echoed through the air and I'm proud to say I didn’t freeze again, another spark of anger surfaced as the fear effect tried to latch onto my mind again. A deep tell all purple glow started to grow from behind me and I quickly banked left before another beam ripped through the air, the air around me was briefly superheated enough that I was actually thrown upwards by the sudden thermal and sent tumbling through the air.

My wings felt like they were almost ripped from their sockets, I clenched my jaw as I tried to push down my rising nausea and tried to right myself in the air before- CRACK! My train of thought was quickly cut off by a bolt of pure lightning shooting past me and nailing the monster right in its open mouth, making it flail from the pain. Gaining control of myself I turned to see where the shot came from and I was so happy to see Mix-Up of all ponies flying up to me holding a large mason jar with a… is there a live storm in that jar!?

Mix-Up quickly reached my altitude and did the last thing I expected… he started to shake the bottled storm. Almost like shaking a can of soda the storm jar started shaking slightly as more and more tiny lightning bolts started building up. Just when I was afraid the jar was going to explode, Mix-Up pointed the lid of the jar at the still writhing nightmare serpent and flipped it open. The familiar crack of hair raising lightning didn’t startle me as much this time as the large bolt shot out of the jar and crashed into its jaw. With a metal click the jar was sealed again and was once again being shaken. I was… well… shocked! Clouds I make aren’t able to be used repeatedly like that, but I do remember Mix-Up asking for some extra ‘Cloud Seed’ before the battle started. Was this what he was working on this whole time, an enraged roar broke me out of my stupor. Whatever stunning effect the lightning had on the giant serpent had dissipated and had enraged it all the more. I watched the monster start to slither at us while trampling over houses and deceased ponies alike and to add insult to injury I could see most of the limbs I had cut off had regenerated at some point.

Another wave of exhaustion hit me as the enormity of this uphill battle really hit me. I really hope Markus is able to get up and finish this soon. I don’t think we’re gonna last long, seeing the serpent quickly curl up Mix-Up and I dived out of the air as the kaiju lunged through the air and landed with a crash onto the main road. I kept a death grip on the handle of my sword as I looked at the devastation around me, homes and businesses in rubble, ponies still trying to evacuate, and other ponies still affected by the fear wave running around in blind panic. There were still a few ponies I could see making a token effort to help, trying to direct the panicking ponies out of the way, disposing of any leftover husk guards still standing and… Wait, I see Morgana and Markus! The two were sprinting back towards the ruins of the manor, A massive amount of relief surged from me to see Markus back up and running. A much more strained screech from the serpent clued me in on the fact that I wasn’t the only one to notice my friends racing to the manor.

“ Don’t let that thing reach the manor!” My eyes flicked to my bars, a little over half for both… I could work with that. I swung low to the slithering body of the serpent and started hacking and slashing. Tentacles and claw, and malformed hooves alike fell like branches and with a final long cleave into the body I swooped back up into the air and not even seconds after Mix-Up followed up with a lightning bolt right into the open wound, Black blood quickly cauterized as the thousands of volt were delivered right into the bloodstream of the monster sending it into convulsions again. With a hard flap of my wings I sped ahead to try and catch up with my friends, the sound of wings flapping and the crackling of lightning told me Mix-Up was right behind me shaking up another shot.

I was expecting more time, last time we stunned the serpent it lasted quite a while. Wind whipped past my head as an impossibly long speared hoof shot past followed by another and another, until countless black blood covered tentacles were hurling towards my friends. There wasn’t enough time or space, I needed momentum to cut these things. My heart hammered in me chest, my urgency began to drown out how tired I was, the burning sensation in my wings disappeared, the acute pain in my chest faded away, and much to my surprise my panic disappeared as well.

Congratulations!

Skill Evolved

Fledgling Discipline -> Hurricane Style

Forged through strife and desperation, this fighting style shows it’s full potential when the user is faced with insurmountable odds

Decreases Stamina use over time

Attack speed and strength rises when faced with an overpowering force

Fight with the strength and speed of a hurricane

Lightning and wind fight by your side

Passive/Active Skill

Active Skill: Fly Into The Storm!

Effect:???

Skill Level 2: 25.04%

Sp Cost: Unavailable

I moved before I knew what I was doing, a free hoof reached over and snatched the storm jar out of Mix-Up’s hooves and with deft throw, launched it further in front of me… then I moved. Twisting at an angle I didn’t think was physically possible I corkscrewed through the air and cleanly cut through the glass jar, something inside me made me sure that it wouldn’t explode. The incredibly volatile lightning swirled serenely around my sword as I continued spinning through the air, the clouds started to curve around my body and almost push me to go even faster. For a moment… for just a fleeting moment I wasn’t just a pegasus… I was nature’s wrath incarnate. Every claw, every tentacle, every piece of flesh that I came in contact with was first shredded by my winds then vaporized by the electricity flowing around me. With a final flip and flourish I severed the final tentacle that threatened my friends and landed with a burning skid on the rubble littered tiled floor landing alongside Markus who was furiously carving shapes into the ground around a ruby.

Turning around I could see the impact from my attack, the serpent was almost bisected by a gray sparking gash that wasn’t regenerating. Despite it’s debilitating wounds the nightmarish serpent still gave off a enraged roar and continued it’s suicidal charge. I shakily raised my heavily heat warped sword and tried to get ready for a final stand, I was empty on everything. I felt a prickling sensation behind me as I watched the monster rear up and launch itself at us, I closed my eyes and braced myself for impact… an impact that never came. Cracking an eye open I flinched back at the sight of the serpent being not even an inch away from my nose… frozen in the air

“Talk about cutting it close hehe” The relieved voice of Markus brought my attention from our frozen foe to behind me where above the previously inert gemstone floating in the air was a… I can’t even describe it. It was both a hole and also a plate and also a… trash can? Markus lifted the now purple glowing gemstone with his hoof and with almost a dismissive gesture tossed it in the… hole. There was almost a shift in the world as I whipped around to watch the massive monster quickly begin to distort and change into a swirl of colors and fluids that funneled over our heads and into the hole. I would have even called the sight beautiful if the colors weren’t all varying shades of black, red, and brown.

Then just like that it was over, no fanfare, no warning, it was gone. The hole disappeared and the only thing left over was a blank golden mask that spun in place on the tiled floor for a few moments before falling over and going still. The three of us sat there in various states of exhaustion and waited for… something. I was waiting for something else to go wrong or try and attack us… then I almost had a heart attack.

Level Up!

Level Up!

Level Up!

Level Up!

Level 10 Reached!

Professions Available!

Then Markus started giggling… Then Morgana… a smile grew on my face before I could help it. Soon the three of us were laughing our flanks off in the ruins of a dilapidated mansion. I'm pretty sure a few ponies nearby peeked inside to see the three of us laughing and took that as a sign that we had won. The sounds of cheers and celebrations soon joined our laughter, I was starting to get a cramp. Taking deep breaths to calm myself down, I just looked at my friends. Morgana looked like she was having the time of her life and Markus looked so much lighter than usual. I absolutely love traveling with these two and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Skill Unlocked!

Loyalty: “Even after all the fighting and strife, I’ll still be there right by your side”

You stand by your friends through thick and thin and are stronger for it

Author's Note:

Now that was awesome

Comments

[Mix-up]

Nice action chapter looked the side character's assistance in the fight and managing to hold his own in a fight. I wonder if the colors of the destruction have any significance?

[Alyarin9000]

Unlocked an element? Interesting. Very interesting...

Great chapter as usual! So, the ritual was incomplete. Who'da thunk it!
This is definitely one way for our heroes to start making a serious name for themselves in the region. I forgot the details of this world, but I wonder if Celestia is around...

[Sweetblue]

The antagonists are kicking the puppy a bit too much for my liking but is not a bad story.