Savage Awakening 586. Boot Camp (VII)

If just loading Pure Size in would take ten to twenty years… Zane thought about it.

He and Reina had budgeted somewhere around twenty-five years, start to finish, for this Concept.

That’d be ideal—it’d give him enough time to break through to True God, take in some shards, and then test-drive his new powers before the War properly went down.

Say he spent ten to fifteen years loading it in. He wasn’t sure he’d have any advantage in that respect over most folk; maybe he’d finish that off faster. But ten to fifteen felt like a safe assumption.

Then he’d ideally also finish this Pure Size Law in ten to fifteen years' time, too. So with all that added up, he’d still be on timeline.

That did still seem like a big ask…

He’d finished off Starfire over a similar time frame. He knew he was capable of learning Concepts of this grade fast—but he hadn’t had to undergo the kind of physical training and Law loading he’d be doing now. It was a pretty hefty workload.

Still… this was Pure Size.

If there was one Tier 6 Concept Zane could get done fast, it had to be this one.

He felt pretty good about his chances.

***

It didn’t take too long for his bones to mend—at least for his body to feel back to fighting shape. Some Z-Platinum and Spirit Spring water helped speed things along. He was also carrying a bit of fatigue now, muscle- and soul-wise, even if nothing had broken there.

His muscles felt fresh again after about an hour and a half, which was quite a long recovery by his standards these days. It wasn’t the health points that needed regeneration but rather some deeper-down weariness… it had to be due to the nature of the crush. He hadn’t fully felt it in the moment, but the soreness only grew after he’d stopped lifting. It spiked about an hour in but faded pretty fast after.

He very rarely got struck with extended bouts of heavy soreness these days, so it was fascinating to feel.

Then he and the Sage headed off once more.

They made a long route back to the black hole, just going over a few quick-hitters. Some useful stations they wouldn’t be making any stops at this tour but which the Sage still thought deserved a mention. There were other gleaming silver machines clustered around the Crusher, machines rated for loads higher than nearly anything you’d find even in the Conclave, except for some Grand Elders’ private home gyms. There was a gravity sled track and a space track too.

There was a station full of dumbbells made out of the same super shiny steel as the crusher. That steel seemed to be able to mass-conduct high-tier Laws—in this case, Gravity Laws, which granted it most of its weight.

One station was just a moon carved into a giant ice bath, this sinkhole piled thick with ice treasures. Halberds, swords, and beast cores, all streaming with some kind of extreme-cold Tier 7 Laws. Just a mountain of very cold, sharp, top-end gear.

“Don’t you mind that,” said the Sage. “That one’s for me.”

“Is it meant to be for rehab or something?”

“Yep! That’s a sub-zero moon right there. Great for the body, that. You get temperatures cold enough and you can kill off a lot of scarred-up muscles. Lets you rebuild ‘em back even stronger. I’ve been at it a few decades now… the plan’s to finish that up in the next few years. Then we’ll see if I can join you in the heavy lifting. Should be a good time.”

There was also a giant slab beside it riddled with stab marks. Just this giant flat block of some kind of Origin-grade marble. The Sage called it the ‘Pristine Slab;’ apparently, it used to be his old spear trainer. Gouging out scars across its surface had been great practice, he told Zane.

Zane could still see Law fragments swirling around some of the deeper gouges, even after all this time… there were a few Tier 7 Law fragments in there.

Some of those scars were so rich with Laws and insights, they almost had their own character. He could sense the feeling in the Sage’s heart when he’d made those scars all those years ago. It was carved there too, as much a part of the scar as the damage itself—this sense of brashness, of pure defiance… he wasn’t sure how the Sage had achieved that. But he could almost see the fierceness in the Sage’s grin back then. 

If Zane had been more into the spear—a weapon he actually did find pretty cool, though he had no real way to use it right now—this slab could really be of use. 

“Made those scars ages ago. Didn’t know anything back then,” said the Sage. He also glanced quite fondly at the scars. “Back then, I thought I could take on the whole damned Galaxy. Now, just about a millennia after that Malzareth first took me down, I convinced myself it’d all been a giant mistake. That I’d just been young and dumb—bit off more than I could chew going up against that big snake.”

Zane blinked at him, quite surprised. If there was one man he thought would always have an unbreakable mental game, it was the Barbarian Sage.

To start doubting himself that deeply, even regretting his own passion… Zane just couldn’t imagine the Sage he knew doing that.

“But then I figured—ah, to hells with that. What kind of man thinks like that and calls himself a man? Now I’ve got a few more years under my belt—let me tell you, not knowing anything’s one hell of a gift… the moment you start letting the world tell you what you can and can’t do, that’s when you’re well and truly finished.”

The Sage gave him a grin. 

“Don’t you let anyone tell you anything, lad. Don’t you ever let anyone tell you a damned thing. If the world’s not to your liking, change the godsdamned world. If Fate says it can’t be, then you go tell that bastard to shove it up its ass! You’ve only got one life—don’t you waste it being reasonable.”

Zane nodded. Sometimes he got the spirit of what the Sage was saying, even if he wasn’t sure if he necessarily agreed with the specifics. This was one of those times.

The last thing the Sage pointed out was where they’d be resting for the night and every night in Boot Camp. This giant horned Monster Skull, its jaws wide open, showing more stacks of Z-platinum inside and crates full of Spirit Spring water. There was also what looked to be a digital giant clock over the top of it, the kind you might use to time workouts.

“Alright, onto the final stop!” The Sage cracked his knuckles. “It’s time for some good ol’ fashioned Kaijuu punching.”

***

As they made their way to the leftmost black hole, making these short jumps between stations—couldn’t really do long-distance teleports with these reality-tearing knives—the Sage reminded Zane of the rules of the challenge, which the Sage called ‘Kaijuu Slayer Hardcore.’ The ‘Hardcore’ bit being the challenge, which Zane quite liked.

The rules were pretty simple. No offensive Skills, bare hands only. 

“You want to get up close, lad, so you can get a real feel for Pure Size,” the Sage explained. “Those things’re godsdamned heavy bags full of Pure Size—you can think of ‘em like that, anyway. It’s a great finisher to have a go at ‘em after a heavy Law session. Really helps with solidifying all those Law gains, feeling it put to use like that.”

“Got it,” said Zane. The Sage’s sandbag training analogy had stuck with him. It made a lot of sense to him.

They touched down on the deadlifting platform and gazed down at the black hole—that forbidding perfect black sphere of an event horizon, 3,000 miles in the distance… and between them, an ocean of raw shifting force. More immense, in terms of pure power, than any ocean Zane had ever laid eyes on.

It was like an ocean flowing straight down. Maybe a waterfall was more accurate, though he’d never seen a waterfall anywhere near this vast… he could see the currents quite clearly in the Astral Plane—this sea of Gravity Law, all flowing downward, thicker and thicker as you got near the event horizon. There were a few knots in places, whirlpools and currents cutting across that stretch. These depressions in space. In the same way a fast-flowing river might crash around some rocks.

But the general direction was definitely down. Faster and faster…then blurring as it neared that absolute blackness. 

“Powerful stuff, eh?” said the Sage. 

“It is,” Zane agreed. 

“Just feels different, fighting bare-fisted like this. It’s raw, is what it is. Pure and simple.” 

The Sage gave him a look. “Now, don’t get me wrong—I like weapons as much as the next man. But folks lose something when they get too fancy with all these Skills and weapons and whatnot. You do it like this, put just your damned body to the test, and it’ll show, lad. I’ll guarantee you that… Alright, enough of that! One more thing you ought to know. Those Kaijuu, they’re not doing the same challenge we’re doing. They’re mostly physical bastards, but they’ve got some destructive-as-hells Skills, all big as hells, and they won’t hesitate to wield ‘em on you. So stay sharp. And you see that gravity sea down there?”

Zane nodded. It was pretty hard to miss, to be fair.

“Now, the challenge is no offensive Skills, just your physique. Movement Skills don’t count there. Can’t really move without ‘em down there—so you can blast around down there with those Red Giant Steps to your heart’s content! Might be some gray areas between movement and offensive Skills at times, granted. You just use your discretion there. Best stay true to the spirit of the challenge.”

“I’ll just use Red Giant Steps and my body.” 

“That’ll do it. Let’s see…right, that’s just about all I had to say. Any questions?”

He thought about it—just considered the setting and the black hole at the bottom. “Will I be chained into anything?” 

“Nothing like that, no.” 

“If I get thrown into the core, do I just… fight my way back out?” 

He assumed there were a whole herd of other Kaijuu waiting down there for him, some T1. That felt a bit tricky to get out of. 

“You mean past the event horizon? Don’t you worry about that, lad,” the Sage said. “If you ever get thrown down there, we’ll just count it as a loss and I’ll step in.”

“That’s all I’ve got too, then.”

“Great.”

Just looking down at that forbidding stretch of Gravity Law, and the no-man’s-land beyond—thinking about what he’d have to face down with just his own two fists…

The Sage seemed to notice how he was feeling.

“You just did a 700-mile dead haul and got crushed half to death by that big ol’ piston—and you’re still this damned pumped!” The Sage gave Zane an affectionate slap on the back. “Let’s get this fight going. You go give ‘em hell!”

***

Zane stood at the 500-mile marker, eyes fixed on that black sphere. 

He had to slam Red Giant step after Red Giant step just to stay in the same place. Otherwise, he’d just keep falling, and falling, and falling… straight through to the home of the Kaijuus if he got thrown hard enough. The Sage did say he’d step in if it came to that.

He set himself a goal to make sure that never happened.

Judging by the eye test, the Gravity Laws got pretty severe around 2500 miles in. It’d be a grueling effort just to force his way back from there. 

He told himself he’d try to keep the fight between miles 500 and 2000.

As he stood there, treading water—treading gravity?—it didn’t feel like he was continually doing 500-mile deadlifts. He was a tiny fraction of the weight of the anchor, after all. But he was still already having to work. 

With the Kaijuu’s anti-gravity scales, it wouldn’t have to work at all down here. It was just another challenge to contend with. 

Zane cracked his neck, feeling his heart beating faster. Stomping over and over like this, he almost felt like a boxer pendulum-stepping. It was doing a pretty good job warming him up. 

The Sage hollered something at him, just asked if he was ready, and Zane gave him the signal. 

It felt like ages since he’d done a pure physical sparring bout like this. It reminded him of those days he’d spent on the Sage’s home planet, back when he was training in his first Titan form—wrestling giant snow bears and such.

Then the Sage cranked a lever, and there was a groan of heavy steel.

Zane watched a car-sized warhead drop. Slower than he’d expected at first, but it sped up massively as it hit higher sections of gravity, getting sucked into that great sea… he saw a fist painted on it as it blurred past.

Then it grew smaller and smaller, twisting and turning in the gravity currents—in just seconds it was a dot, sinking past the event horizon.

There was a heartbeat’s worth of silence.

And then…

BOOM!

The surface of that great black sphere trembled with the impact.

There was a screech like glass shattering, making ripples all the way up the gravity sea.

And the fight was on.