The turtle saw him coming, and wisely hid.

  Its shell grew. New layers of scale came to the fore. The fortress bulged with new walls. New turrets poked out. And the field hammered Zane with a new density of tar, until it felt like the stuff was slowing down his very thoughts.

  But none of it could stop him.

  He went ballistic. His axe crushed down, an arc of vicious gold—

  BOOM!

  A tower blew off the fort. Plumes of Solar Flare spiraled to the heavens; stone avalanched into the sky, flaming to meteors, burning gold streaks deep into space.

  He unloaded another slash—BOOM!—and sliced two cannons clean in two.

  Then they were locked in the thick of it.

  Tar-blasts flooded one way. Axes slashed the other, nuclear eruptions slicking their edges. With each effort, Zane opened another gaping seam over that fort—CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!

  They started shaking the stone to its foundations; found purchase on the walls, and started snaking down. He’d wrecked all the cannons he could touch.

  But there were deeper cannons, fat bruisers hidden in the inner walls—and those were the worst of them. They still rained bomb after bomb.

  He just had to grit his teeth, and take them.

  He felt an arm shatter. A leg bone. He staggered, threw another axe, and ate a cannonball of tar to the dome. His head snapped back, splattering with tar; he spat it out, then spat out a mouthful of blood.

  But still it wasn't close to breaking him.

  There was so much raw energy coursing through him nothing less than death would ground him. He was in the throes of the greatest rush he’d felt—so pumped up you could break every bone in his body, and he’d still keep raging.

  His blood wouldn’t burn hotter. His muscles began to tear under the load, under the strain of the seas of essence crashing through—and gold grew painful, grew piercing…

  A sound tore out of him, more a release valve than anything. The rest of his body was stretched so tight, working so hard, there was no other relief.

  There were times for thinking, times for figuring out the best way to go about things—that time was over now.

  Now he just had to give it his all.

  Zane did.

  Axe after axe rained down. And the outer walls fell. Those thick craggy inner walls burned.

  He was getting to the core of it now—it wasn’t enough. Searing seams tore down his chest, his biceps—running so hot essence leaked out of him, like his muscles might blow; he couldn’t hold this state much longer.

  But he was so damned close. So close he could sense the mind shivering inside, a vast mind. He felt its fear.

  That was all Zane needed.

  Every instinct in him screamed to go for the kill.

  He kept smashing—tearing wider the cracks—not fast enough—

  "More!" he roared, and drew deeper.

  He heard a muscle tear in his left arm.

  But he just couldn’t go higher. He was pushing up against the hard limit. He’d hit 300%.

  He let out a sound of pure frustration even as he felt his leg, broken many times over, starting to give out. He felt his forearm blow. The storm wobbled around him, sagging under its own weight; it let out a keening sound, a great beast badly wounded.

  Even his essence was starting to give.

  Zane was running out of steam.

  He could just make out the turtle’s glassy eyes, peeking from deep in its cover. He could see the mirth in it—the little sneer on that ugly face.

  Then—

  "No," growled Zane.

  He did not accept this.

  He had more in him. He knew it. He’d felt it before—just beyond reach. That latent potential, buried deep—as he threw himself at his limits, beat his head bloody against it, he felt it closer than ever.

  He just needed to seize it.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Zane let out a primal howl. And went for it.

  Limit reached...

  Asura Body: Overclock activated

  Second Form Skill ??? Unlocked

  Warning!

  Sacred Bone needed. Sacred Bone not detected

  It felt like he’d rammed himself against some gate, deep in his soul—a gate that needed a key. A gate that wouldn’t open without it.

  Not fully.

  But with that last battering-ram of will, he’d forced it open a crack. He could feel it, see it in his soul-senses…

  As that gate opened, he heard a cracking. And for a split-second glimpsed ghostly chains constricting his body.

  They shattered, one by one.

  Then it felt like he was staring directly at the sun.

  That power poured through. And his body roared with new life.

  Every cell, every muscle, grew. Evolved. The muscles growing denser, the fibers stronger; the bones mending, thickening—

  Just in time to hold the flood.

  His essence solidified, becoming a greater fuel—each strand packed twice, three times the energy, shining with it, still growing—

  A bloody shroud engulfed him.

  As he stood there, his skin gained a faintly bloody sheen. He gave off that bloody aura the way a sun gave off heat. A pyre of raging blood.

  In that moment he was in the throes of such a rage he didn’t feel like a creature of flesh and blood, a mortal being, the kind of man who could be broken.

  He’d made of himself a force. His heart swelled with an almighty feeling.

  He unloaded it all.

  It took him four blows.

  One split that shell wide open. The second blew it to a thousand tiny flaming smithereens. Then the turtle’s slack face lay exposed. It had sunk all the way in, so deep its neck was bunched up against its head. Its mouth was wide open.

  It let out a croak.

  An axe carved its face in. A fourth exploded it.

  And there Zane stood in the end—still raging; he stood there and roared, as though daring the heavens, and a bloody pillar streaked deep into the skies.

  He looked at a reflection in a puddle of melted steel.

  Even his eyes had gone bloody-red. In that moment he looked every bit a god of war.

  ***

  Zane fell to his knees, smoking.

  Level up!

  Level up!

  Essence Level 486 -> 488

  Skill up!

  Asura Titan’s Body, First Form: Overclock Level I -> II

  Skill up!

  Heavenly Solar Storm III -> IV

  The rush faded. And there he was, heaving in deep breaths, head spinning.

  For a minute there he nearly blacked out.

  He blinked.

  He wasn’t quite sure what that was at the end there.

  It was like he’d gotten a taste of the next power level. The changes in his body, in his soul… those felt like powers beyond Ascendant.

  In that moment, all that bounded him physically fell away.

  He hadn’t broken through. He looked at his body—he was still an Ascendant.

  Yet… somehow, he’d gone beyond.

  He considered all of this.

  Then he stood, and grinned.

  Whatever it was, he quite enjoyed it.

  He’d only gotten a taste of it, though. He remembered what the Notification said—he’d need a Sacred Bone to see its full potential.

  Already he wanted to give it another go.

  He patted himself off. The fight was done now—he almost wished there was a fourth fellow to fight. He was still kind of feeling it.

  He looked around, locked eyes with a giant sabertooth on the other side of the wrecked lake.

  It gave a squeak, and ran.

  Oh well.

  The turtle had dropped a shell—quite a nice shape, a perfect octagon, if a bit burnt. He collected it. He figured he could give it to Reina.

  Then he headed off back to the herd.

  He had a feeling he’d come across that strange skill again very soon.

  He was due for a Sacred Bone.

  ***

  It was the most enthusiastic he’d ever seen the Rhinos. The herd got him on their backs and carried him around for a bit. A few even bellowed. For them, it was a state of high excitement.

  Zane didn’t often get caught up in these. But somehow with the Rhinos it was different. He couldn’t help but smile.

  He felt like he’d done right by his people. He’d only really felt like this about Earth before.

  Even old Nog got up.

  “Lad—in all my years of living, I never saw a fight like that!” he roared. Zane was right in front of him; Nog’s bellow blasted his hair.

  Having said his piece, Nog plopped back down.

  “The Rhinos won’t need to watch their flank any longer,” rumbled Ronk.

  The big warrior dipped his horn. “Today you set a new standard, Zane Walker. When we tell our younglings what it means to have the heart of a Rhino, we will tell them of Zane.”

  Mook hopped.

  “It was no trouble,” said Zane. He was happy to do it.

  The Barbarian Sage bounded over right after—“What in the devil’s bloody balls was that?!”

  He slapped him on the back. “You didn’t break through mid-fight, did you?”

  He shook his head. “It was a Skill.”

  “Huh,” said the Sage. Then he smiled, radiating pride, and ruffled Zane’s head. “And here I was, thinking you were done surprising me! Bodes well, eh?”

  He nodded over to Guri, who was coming over with some cloth in her mouth. She dropped it before him, and out floated the Forgotten Bone.

  It was just as grand as Zane remembered. Austere, unblemished. A bit craggy, as all nature’s things were; not a sculpture. It had a savage beauty.

  Its silver aura blasted over him, and in it Zane sensed the weight of history, the weight of its souls—the stampede of great Rhinos who’d wielded this bone.

  It’d been a long time since this Bone saw a Master.

  He sensed in it a pride, a stubbornness, a strength. The Titan Rhinos at their best.

  He reached out, and grasped it.

  Every hair on his body stood up. His locks began to float. His eyes widened.

  Silver rippled through the Plains.

  Rippled through the whole of the Wilderness, and carried with it the bellows of the Titan Rhinoceros. And in that moment every being there knew something remarkable had taken place.

  The Bone vanished.

  And that gate in Zane’s soul gained a key.

  It cracked wide open.

  Skill evolved!

  Asura Titan’s Body, First Form, Overclocked -> Asura Titan’s Body, Second Form [Rare (P)]

  Signature Skill evolved!

  Wish Upon a Star -> Limit Breaker [Unique]

  While peaking, the wielder breaks through all earthly limits, simulating a breakthrough on the spot. Stacks on top of the Asura State.