Steel
Sabo’s pulse boomed like a war drum, resonating through his body and up through the haft of the maul, God-eater. He didn’t know who—or what—lurked in this monstrous weapon—in him—only that he was going to need its strength. A strength he was quickly beginning to understand.
Give me power, he thought, reaching out to the presence.
A low chuckle echoed through his mind, guttural and sharp as a blade singing across a whetstone. Whatever this presence was, it was pleased with Sabo’s decision. Sabo felt his body instinctively reach out for the power he knew was in the air, ready to be exploited, used. All I need to do is take it!
[Skill: Aura Sense]
Sabo’s senses flared, exploding with clarity as if the world around him had been thrown into sharp relief. He could see faint trails of ambient aether spiraling through the air like silver smoke mixed with golden particles. Even moreso, he could feel the pulsing from the aether sap barrels below deck. He reached out with his mind, pulling the energy in, feeling it wind through his veins, fortifying his muscles, sharpening his focus.
It was like drinking in strength itself. Any fatigue in his body instantly vanished, and the pain was dulled to a barely perceptible inconvenience in the back of his mind. The noise of the ship fell away, and everything came into clearer focus.
The prisoners had fled below deck, escaping the chaotic battlefield of the topdeck. Bodies littered the deck, one of the guards sprawled lifeless, but he didn’t see the warden or the second guard. For a moment, he felt the quietude settle over him. Then, his grip tightened, the God-eater thirsting in his hands, urging him forward.
He charged, his muscles surging with borrowed power, swinging the massive maul toward the first knight. The knight snarled, two jets of fire bursting from their palms as they launched themselves high into the air, flames propelling them out of Sabo’s reach. Sabo’s momentum sent him hurtling forward; he gritted his teeth, every muscle straining as he fought to bring the maul’s weight under control. Despite feeling a lot lighter than a weapon that size realistically should, it was still a bit cumbersome.
That’s when he saw the second knight.
A blade glinted in the air, arcing down with deadly precision. Sabo pivoted at the last moment, narrowly avoiding the projectile. But as he twisted, he felt a strange pull of energy behind him. He whipped around to see the second knight, masked and menacing, surrounded by floating fragments of metal, the thrown blade now in their gloved hand. The metal fragments swarmed through the air, an extension of the knight’s malice. They twisted through the air, razor-edged and whirling, a bladed cloud encircling the knight in a deadly storm.
The first knight was still airborne, but now, Sabo was trapped.
He had a heartbeat to react.
The cloud of blades launched towards him.
His body flared with the aether’s influence as he quickly burned more of the ambient energy, his limbs moving on instinct. He shifted to dodge the descending cloud, but it was impossible to avoid them all. Sharp metal sliced through his skin, leaving searing lines of pain across his arms and chest. Blood welled up in thin rivulets, staining his shirt as he stumbled backward, chest heaving.
Sabo clenched his jaw, feeling the God-eater’s weight throb in his hands like a second pulse. A heart beating in rhythm with his own, like the steady beating of the drum!
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He lunged into the air, every muscle straining as he hefted the God-eater maul over his head. Metal shards whipped around him in a deadly flurry, leaving shallow cuts that stung and throbbed in time with his pulse, but he ignored them, focusing all his strength into this single, crushing blow.
The steel-wielding knight was poised to dodge, agile and certain. But as the maul swung down, something shifted. The weapon’s maw stretched wide, elongating with unnatural speed, and clamped onto the knight’s shoulder with a grotesque snap. The knight’s scream tore through the air, and in a brutal twist, the God-eater ripped the man’s arm clean from his body, gnashing through flesh and bone as though it were little more than a snack.
Sabo staggered with the weapon's recoil, staring as the maul chewed with sickening relish. The knight stumbled back, clutching at their shoulder, blood streaming down his armor as they doubled over in agony.
“Do . . . do you think you have more room in your . . . stomach?” Sabo whispered, feeling a rush of savage exhilaration mingling with his horror. Both feelings seemed to be stoked by his rage, and he had to admit, it felt good to see the Morduin knight torn apart. It felt better knowing it was his doing. He could feel the maul’s bloodlust pulsing through his grip, a driving need as sharp as his own.
< Flesh is what lesser beings feast on. I feast on power. > The presence in his mind rumbled, as though it were thinking before speaking. < There is enough power here for me to draw from. >
The maw reared up, ravenous, and bit down on the knight’s armor, latching onto them. The knight, having been doubled over, was swallowed head first, both their shoulders now in the mouth of the God-eater. With a guttural yell, Sabo lifted the maul high, pulling the knight off their feet. His muscles strained against the weight, but the God-eater granted him newfound strength, and with a final heave, he swung the maul upwards. At the top of the motion, the maul’s mouth relinquished the knight, hurling them into the air, chunks of flesh still clinging to the weapon’s dripping teeth.
As the knight soared, another fireball roared past Sabo’s right side, just missing him and singing the air beside his face. He ducked, scrambling across the blood-slick deck, panting with exertion. He pushed himself upright, and a series of flashing notifications burst in front of his vision, bringing with them a strange clarity.
[New Ability: Steel Sense]
Sabo blinked as more, neat silver text flashed into his vision. At the same time, a haptic tingling in the back of his brain brought a flash of understanding, as if the information being conveyed by the text had been there all along.
[Skill: Steel Sense, Level C-8]
[Description: User has the ability to sense the presence of steel using their Aura Sense.]
[Uses Remaining: 10 of 10]
It was as though the steel in the air around him had come alive. He could feel it, a web of pulsing metal points, each distinct—including the metal encasing the airborne knight, who was falling back to the deck floor, their stump of an arm dripping blood mid-air.
The fire-conjuring knight prepared another attack below, but Sabo didn’t care.
He tapped into his [Aura Sense], thinking of how it had felt when he had sensed the harvested aether sap below deck. In that single moment, he felt threads of aether in the air, threads linking him to pieces of steel throughout the deck, including the armor worn by the one-armed knight. He felt the steel threads vibrate under his will, a hidden current begging to be set loose.
With a clenched jaw, he pushed his will outward, focusing on the knight’s armor.
Another notification flashed in the corner of his vision. Again, his mind was flooded with instant understanding.
[Spell: Push/Pull Steel]
[Description: User can push or pull steel in a direction towards or away from them. Can only target a single piece of steel. User can also apply this Spell to iron, but to a severely weakened effect (at same mana cost).]
[Current Mana Cost: 10%]
[Uses Remaining: 5 of 5]
Sabo could sense the knight’s armor, constructed from multiple separate pieces of sharpened steel, likely for the purpose of separating from the whole and using in their own magic. Sabo grinned. He would use the knight’s own tools against them.
He used [Steel Sense] to latch onto each piece of the armor. Then, he triggered [Push/Pull Steel] and willed each piece at the knight’s back to fly towards him, and each piece on the knight frontside to fly away from him.
The steel exploded outward in a violent flurry, tearing the knight to shreds in an instant. Shrapnel filled the air like an iron storm, each shard a blade of its own. Blood misted, a fine spray of red drifting down in a slow, terrible rain. Pieces of flesh, bone and carnage splattered against the wooden deck.
For one breathless second, Sabo felt the thrill of triumph. And then he looked up.
Above, the skyfin pulling the airship arched its body in agony, its underbelly shredded from the steel’s brutal explosion. Blood and viscera poured down from the massive creature, and with a heart-stopping lurch, the ship began to dip, tilting dangerously as the skyfin’s wings faltered.
“No, no, no,” Sabo muttered. He used his free hand to grip the railing as the deck tipped, sending loose objects and bodies tumbling. The airship shuddered, and with every passing second, the descent grew steeper.
Sabo cursed under his breath, panic flaring. Without the skyfin keeping it afloat, the ship was falling. The ship was falling fast.