[UNKNOWN ENTITY DETECTED]
[SCANNING—]
[SCANNING—]
[MOUNTAIN KING]
[Classification: APEX BEAST]
[Ethereal Barrier: ACTIVE — Nullifies 90% of all incoming damage]
[Unique Skills: SEISMIC ROAR — STONE HIDE — GRAVITY CRUSH]
[Threat Level: EXCEEDS CURRENT PORTAL CLASSIFICATION]
Aaron stared at that last line.
*Exceeds current portal classification.*
He looked up from the screen.
The Mountain King was right there.
Dark stone hide covering everything. Four legs. Each one hit the floor and the floor cracked under it. A jaw that was most of its head. Eyes that took in light and gave nothing back.
It saw Aaron.
Aaron saw it.
One second of nothing.
Then it roared.
BOOOOOOM.
It went through the floor. Through Aaron's chest. Through his back teeth and behind his eyes and the walls cracked just from the sound of it and Aaron grabbed the nearest stone and held on and his vision shook and everything went sideways for a second.
*That's the SEISMIC ROAR*, he thought. *Okay. That's what that does.*
It charged.
Aaron ran.
He threw himself behind a broken slab and pressed his back flat against it and breathed and his heart was going so fast he could feel it in his throat.
*Think*, he thought. *Think right now.*
CRASH.
The slab exploded.
The Mountain King had grabbed a rock and thrown it and the slab was just gone and Aaron was already flat on the floor and the debris rained down and the barrier flared and everything bounced off him and he lay there in the dust.
Alive.
He lay there and processed that.
*Barrier works*, he thought. *Okay. That's something.*
He looked at his hands.
The cuts from the Moth fight were closing.
He stared.
Closing. Right now. In real time. His knuckles sealing over. The pain in his right side just leaving. His left arm coming back fully online. The shake in his legs going quiet.
His screen flickered.
[HEALING FACTOR — ACTIVATED]
"Wait," Aaron said out loud. His own voice sounded strange in the portal. "Wait — I can heal? Right now? While this thing is—"
The Mountain King found him.
It grabbed what was left of the slab and threw it and Aaron rolled hard and it hit where he'd just been and the floor cracked under the impact and Aaron came up with the scythe already in his hand.
*Barrier works. Healing works. Figure out the attack.*
He swung the scythe at the nearest leg.
CLANG.
It bounced straight off. The impact went up both arms and his hands went numb and he nearly lost his grip.
*Ninety percent reduction*, he thought. *Can't cut through the hide. Normal hits are useless.*
The leg swung and caught him and Aaron hit the wall hard and dropped and the barrier took most of it and the healing factor took the rest and he got up and his shoulder was already closing and he thought—
*I can keep going. I can actually just keep going.*
Something about that steadied him.
Not confidence. Just — less fear. Slightly less fear than a second ago.
"Okay," he said. Out loud. To himself. "Okay what do I have."
Scythe. Acid. Barrier. Healing. Stealth. Copy skill.
*Acid*, he thought. *Use the acid.*
He focused on the scythe. Pushed at it the way he'd learned to push at things he didn't fully understand yet. The blade darkened. Green-black ran along the edge and a drop hit the floor and the stone smoked where it landed.
*There.*
The Mountain King activated GRAVITY CRUSH.
The world got heavy all at once.
Not gradually. Just — heavy. Everything Aaron was made of suddenly weighed wrong and the scythe pulled toward the floor and his knees buckled and he went down and drove the blade into the stone to stop himself going all the way and his arms shook and his spine bent under it.
The Mountain King walked toward him. Slow. Through its own skill like gravity was just weather to it.
Aaron looked up at it coming and his legs were shaking and his arms were shaking and the weight of everything was pressing him into the floor and he thought—
*No.*
Just that. Just no.
He pushed.
Legs. Arms. Everything. The gravity pushing back and him pushing back against it and he got one foot flat on the floor and then the other and stood up.
The Mountain King stopped.
Just for a second. Like it hadn't expected that.
The gravity released.
Aaron thought, "If I die here… no one will even know I existed."
KABOOM!
Aaron moved immediately. Straight at the jaw. Where the hide had to thin out for the mouth to open. Where the barrier had to be weakest. He drove the acid blade up through the underside of the jaw with both hands and the barrier flared white and the acid went through anyway.
SCREEEEEE.
The sound hit Aaron's skull like something physical and his ears became one long high tone and he held on and drove deeper and the Mountain King reared back and the sound it made this time was different.
Not fury.
Pain.
Real pain.
"YEAH!" Aaron shouted. Not planned. Just out. "YEAH THAT'S IT!"
The creature came back down and a leg caught him sideways and he hit the floor and rolled and the healing factor caught him and he was already up before he stopped sliding.
Back in.
Same spot.
The Mountain King was adapting. Protecting the jaw now. Moving differently. Aaron went for the eye socket instead and the acid hit it and the creature thrashed and the thrash sent Aaron into the wall and the barrier took it and he bounced off and kept moving.
*It's slowing*, he thought. *It's actually slowing down.*
He went for the jaw one more time.
Drove in deep. Both hands. Everything behind it.
The Mountain King activated GRAVITY CRUSH again and this time Aaron didn't fight it. He let it take him. Dropped with it. Hit his knees deliberately and used the force pushing him down and drove the blade up with every bit of it.
The barrier shattered.
The sound was wrong. Between glass and stone and something that had never broken before breaking for the first time. The Mountain King's legs went one by one and it came down and the impact threw Aaron off his feet and he hit the ground and lay there.
Breathing.
Just breathing.
The portal was quiet.
He sat up slowly.
Looked at the Mountain King lying still.
Looked at his hands.
"I did that," he said quietly. "I actually just did that."
A short sound came out of him. Not a laugh. Close to one.
His screen came up.
[MOUNTAIN KING DEFEATED]
[STAGE ENHANCED — 2ND STAGE ADAPTED PLAYER LVL 3]
[New Skill: ETHEREAL BARRIER — Reduces incoming damage. Scales with stage.]
[New Skill: COPY BEAST — Summon a Shadow form of any defeated monster. Duration: 72 hours. Limit: 1 active copy.]
[Item Obtained: GRAVITY STONE — Carries GRAVITY CRUSH. Single use.]
Aaron looked at COPY BEAST.
Looked at the Mountain King.
*I could summon that*, he thought. *An exact copy of that.*
He held the Gravity Stone. Small. Way too heavy for its size. He put it away and picked up the scythe and walked out.
Outside the air was cold and Aaron stood in it and breathed and let it just be cold air for a moment.
Then he heard the crowd.
He walked toward it.
The gathering point was packed. Academy staff. Awakeners. Civilians pressed deep behind the barriers. All of them looking at the same place.
A woman in the middle of it all.
S rank badge. New registration. Aaron could see it from the back. He didn't know her. Nobody knew her. A complete unknown. Two days before the Third Opening.
Someone near him was crying.
"S rank," the person next to him said. Voice shaking. "An actual new S rank. Before the Third Opening. Do you understand what that means for us—"
Aaron watched her and he thought,"S rank huh?"
She said something to the Director's people and they nodded immediately. The kind of nod that came from not wanting to be the one who said no.
The crowd kept growing.
Aaron stood at the back of it. Null on every system. Unknown to everyone. A non-activated person who had just killed an Apex Beast alone in a portal and walked out.
He watched the S ranker for another moment.
Then turned.
And walked home.