Savage Awakening 511. Prime Blood

They floated down on clouds of silver essence.

First, a bunch of Skill tomes, as promised. They were chunk scrolls bound in hide. Rhinos tended toward scrolls instead of books, he’d noticed. Something about them being easier to roll open and shut for Rhinos.

Annihilation Charge [Common (P)]

He checked it out and found it was mostly diagrams. But each diagram was infused with a rich scene. The lines moved as he sank his mind in.

He already knew the Skill, but it was still neat to see it brought to life like this.

Next up was a scroll cased in silver.

Daybreak Horn [Mythic+ (D)]

It had to be the highest grade Skill tome he’d ever seen. He found just six drawings within, each simply done. Rhinos weren’t the most sophisticated painters. But every brushstroke held a trove of knowledge.

It was called Daybreak Horn because the first Rhino to do it smashed the sun out of the sky with it. That was the lore, anyway, and two of the diagrams did a fine job depicting it. A Rhino charging up the clouds, reality rupturing in its wake.

At first, he’d thought it wouldn’t be very useful to him, as a hornless Rhino.

Now, though, he had to admit he was intrigued. That loading-up and unleashing seemed like it’d go well with his Red Giant. He quite liked the effect too—that charge breaking up reality itself as it went, the way a meteor broke up the atmosphere.

The Barbarian Sage did mention heading around the Wilds checking out other beasts’ fighting styles back in the day. Taking what he could use and making it his own…

An Axe was kind of like a horn, if Zane squinted. He could see the vision.

If he wanted to try it, though, he’d have to really study the thing. That meant some time sitting down and meditating. He’d have to save it for after he was out.

The next treasure out was 10-Million-Year Grass, graded Common Divine Profound.

He inspected it. It was quite essence-rich, but he was pretty sure he couldn’t digest the stuff. He could see why most Rhinos were quite happy with it. It just looked like grass to him, though. Maybe he could trade it in for something.

He was more pumped about his next two treasures. One looked like a chewy tendon, burning with life.

Heartstring of the First Rhinos [Common (D)]

The other was a hollowed-out bone full of silver liquid.

Bone Marrow of the First Rhinos [Common (D)]

Nic told him the heartstring would boost his vitality, along with any Skills his heart affected, by a good 20%. Which, with his Titan’s body, was pretty much everything.

The Bone Marrow would make a chunk of him a grade more durable, depending on where he applied it.

In total, he could take in seven Titan Rhino body parts as a Minor God. He’d already taken in a heartstring, two tendons, and two Sacred Bones.

These would round out his physique nicely.

All he had to do was will them in. Two silver flashes, and they were gone.

He felt a burning in his heart and another in his head.

He willed the Bone Marrow to his head. He seemed to take quite a few blows there, so he figured it was good to reinforce it. He’d been slugged so hard lately that even when it didn’t break his jaw or his nose, he got stunned for a few seconds. Against the mecha-dwarf, that’d gotten him dogpiled.

Despite how he fought, he didn’t actually like getting hit in the face. He’d prefer if it didn’t happen more often than it had to, anyway.

He just wanted to walk through anything. He wanted to eat infinisteel gauntlets without flinching. Get thrown through planets, get right back up, and keep on trucking. You had to have a vision of yourself, he felt, especially when it came to your physique. A vision of the man you wanted to build, the man you worked toward.

And every treasure he took in, steel or Rhino, forged him closer.

Then it was done.

Skill evolved!

Asura Titan’s Titan’s Body [Rare (D) -> Legendary (D)]

The last treasure was the one he’d been fighting for all along.

The Rhino Spirit sent down one last silver cloud. On it lay a crystal vial with three bright-silver droplets suspended. Nic nudged it toward him.

Prime Blood of the Titan Rhinoceros [Mythic (D)]

The aura they gave off got his heart going already, made him feel like he was charging at the head of a stampede of Rhinos. Nic seemed a bit in awe.

Zane crossed his legs. Then he tipped the vial and let them fall on his temple.

They felt surprisingly heavy and cold. They worked their way through his system, heating up as they did. They touched his heart.

Thump-Thump.

Thump-THUMP.

Zane groaned.

And heat rampaged through his body.

The reforging began. Every heartbeat rocked him, and his mind was filled with Rhinos at war. He saw a Rhino wrestling down a True Dragon as they barreled through an asteroid field. The dragon got off a vicious bite, gouging its teeth six inches deep, spilling a geyser of blood. But the Rhino just snorted and slammed it off. And Zane saw silver searing the Rhino’s wounds shut. The silver of Prime Blood.

When the light faded, it’d healed completely.

He saw a Rhino charging a herd of Empyrean Suneater Lions. It took too many scratches to count, but each time it got scratched, silver seared. Prime Blood got to work. In the end, the Rhino was the only beast left standing, horn held proud. It barely had a scratch on it.

Then he saw a big Rhino charging the sun, fearless, pounding a Daybreak Horn. It burst through the other side. The sun exploded.

It inflicted grievous burns on the Rhino. But those burns burned with silver, and in seconds, the Rhino got to its feet. It shook it off, snorted, and kept on trotting.

For a few minutes Zane’s heart felt on the verge of bursting.

Then his heartbeats slowed, started to calm. His heartbeats grew heavier, steadier. He felt the quality of his physique had gone up a few grades. He got confirmation a few seconds later.

Skill evolved!

Asura Titan’s Titan’s Body [Legendary (D) -> Mythic+ (D)]

If his goal was to forge a physique capable of taking down Empyrean, this was quite a promising step.

But there was something more to his new body, too.

The silver of Prime Blood filled up every muscle and bone.

Skill learned!

Heart of the Prime Rhinoceros (Passive)

Grants a physique worthy of an Alpha Rhino of the First Ones. Boosts the Rhino’s healing factor up to that of a Rhino Alpha. Regeneration +300%.

He did a double-take at that number.

He hastily pulled up his stats.

Stats:

Vitality: 142,193,491

Regeneration: 283,135,552

Strength: 221,892,548

Dexterity: 94,171,822

Speed: 74,564,769

“…”

With that kind of regeneration…

Usually, when Zane fought, he was happy straight-up tanking blows. He could take quite a few shots before he went down. But when his Health was gone, it was gone. That was the price of having a physique like his own. The higher grade a physique was, the higher his regeneration stat had to be just to keep up.

…He had to try this out.

He got out his Axe and rammed it into his belly, hard enough to draw blood. He watched, curious, as that inch-deep cut sealed and closed. It was gone in the space of two blinks. 

5% Health, healed like that. 

He started thinking about just what kind of shots he could take now. Before, he’d been in fights that’d slowly whittled him down. Hordes of hundreds of Monsters slicing him one at a time, forcing him to his knees, bleeding him out…

Now he’d keep fighting until his heart gave out.

With Bosses, too—he’d fought through broken bones before, but they still hampered him. Now they’d need to break a lot more than that. With this kind of healing factor, he might even be able to regrow limbs.

He didn’t want to get ahead of himself. Losing limbs was still a bad idea, if only because it’d mean a serious loss of combat strength while he was healing back up. He wouldn’t run around tanking everything just because he could.

But still.

He did feel a little silly getting excited about just how many big shots he’d be able to eat now. But that really meant he could fight much tougher competition.

He thought about what the Slayer had done to him, breaking him until it’d flattened him. Then stepping over him as it made its way toward Reina—and he hadn’t been able to move a muscle to stop it…

Back then, his body failed before his will. He knew it was a fact of fighting, that there were physical limits to what he could do.

It was just something he’d never been willing to accept.

The version of Zane that stood here, fists clenched, would keep healing so long as his heart kept beating. That meant he’d keep fighting too. 

If they wanted to stop him, they’d have to break his will.

…He wanted to see them try.

*** 

He waved goodbye to Nic, who gave a tail-swish goodbye too. What a nice Rhino. 

Now that the Inheritance was done, Nic was released from his duty. He’d go off to join his fellow Rhinos in the river of souls soon enough. The Rhino just wanted to give his longtime home a final send-off. 

The Barbarian Sage was still back in the tunnel. The old fellow wasn’t holding it all up anymore. Instead Zane felt about a hundred pockets of gravity stuck into the cracks like glue. The Sage licked a thumb, and wedged in another. A chunk of ceiling stopped trembling. 

“Hullo there,” said the Sage. He grinned. “You feel healthy as a dragonhorse! I know that look. You’re feeling good about yourself, eh?” 

Zane told him what’d happened. The Sage almost dropped the ceiling again. 

“Three damned drops of Prime Blood!” 

The Sage laughed. “I’ll bet you’re just itching to see what you can do with ‘em.” 

Zane grinned back. “Something like that, yeah.” 

“Well, you’re in luck. There’s just one more kingdom to go. The human kingdom—grand finale of our time in these ruins. That’s where the Big Bad of the place’s hiding too, I’ll wager. What do you say we pay it a visit?” 

With that, the two of them set off. 

The tunel collapsed behind them.