Charlemagne’s head began to clear as life-giving oxygen flooded into his helmet. His vision also swiftly regained its normal clarity, allowing the Roostonaut to get his first good look at the incoming asteroid. It was not exactly, as he had previously reported, egg-shaped. But there was some sort of spherical shield surrounding the chunk of rock made of very potent mana. Cracking the shell open was going to be more difficult than breaking up the rock it was protecting.
As he examined the shield, his visor, which had been formed from his magical monocle, activated. It overlaid a form of strange squiggles over the rooster’s field of vision, different from the Squiggles that he was used to.
Unfortunately, Charlemagne couldn’t read.
Moments later, these new, unintelligible squiggles gave up and began feeding tactical data straight to Charlemagne’s magical senses, allowing him to get a better feel for the composition of the mana shield and identify minute fluctuations in the shield’s integrity. As he continued to analyze the shield, Charlemagne realized that there was a small “seam” that, if struck with sufficient force, would cause the entire mana construct to collapse. That was the reason that he needed to get up close and personal with the asteroid in the first place: his mana ball attack simply couldn’t concentrate enough force in a small enough area to take advantage of the minute flaws in the shield. But his beak sure could.
The rooster passed beyond the cold near vacuum of the thermosphere and passed into the cold near vacuum of the exosphere. Inside his suit, however, he remained warm, snug, and appropriately compressed. The minor wounds that he had suffered decompression during his unprotected jaunt beyond the Armstrong limit had already healed due to the sheer quantity of mana circulating through his body, and his brain had likewise fully recovered from its bout of hypoxia. In other words, nothing was holding Charlemagne back from creating his most powerful attack yet.
The rooster began creating an enormous wedge of energy just in front of his faceplate, shaping it like an enormous beak. This reduced the amount of power that he was sending downward, slightly altering his trajectory and forcing him to adjust his heading, which he did by ensuring that the asteroid remained fixed in the middle of his suit’s visor. He was still fighting Earth’s gravity as he headed straight out into space, which meant that he needed to maintain constant thrust to not drop out of the sky. But despite lacking a basic understanding of orbital mechanics, Charlemagne was right on target, probably due to the absolutely stupid amount of thrust that he was generating.
However, that thrust abruptly cut off when Charlemagne threw every scrap of power that he could into two things. The first was the blindingly brilliant mana beak that had taken shape directly in front of him. Although it was only a few times larger than his currently enlarged beak, the sheer amount of energy packed into the attack made the mana ball he had fired inside the Lippity Dungeon look like a candle in comparison. And, although he remained blissfully unaware of Newton’s laws of motion, he understood that if he hit something that was very hard with an attack that was very strong, his body was going to suffer from the backlash, which is why his second priority was to reinforce his Durability as much as he could.
The asteroid loomed large in the rooster’s field of view. Having completed his incredible ascent and finalized his preparations, the rooster braced himself for impact. The gap between the two juggernauts closed steadily. Realizing that he had slightly miscalculated the time to impact, Charlemagne allowed himself a brief look behind him. What he found there stunned him.
Although he could not see the entirety of the planet splayed out beneath him, Charlemagne could see enough of the planet’s curvature to realize the truth about the Earth. The entire thing was a gigantic egg, supporting uncountable life forms. From both the green and the blue patches that dotted the surface far below him, the combined mana signature of Earth’s inhabitants wafted up from the Earth like a thin cloud of steam. As he focused on the wisps of power rising upwards, the rooster made a shocking discovery. The signal was weak, much weaker than the intense signal of the approaching asteroid, but it was unmistakable: there were hens and chicks down there. And they were depending on him to save them.
Mentally taking note of what part of the green area the signal was coming from, Charlemagne turned his attention back to the asteroid. Throwing caution to the wind, he pulled power from his Ember Core, power that was meant to keep his body intact during the inevitable collision, and rocketed forward once more. He didn’t have time to question the decision as the sudden change in velocity threw off his careful aim, threatening to move the point of impact away from the almost invisible seam. He corrected his course and braced for impact once again. The blue mana in his beak flared into a rich purple as the spare heat from his Ember Core filled it. The light it emitted became so blinding that Charlemagne’s visor darkened to an opacity surpassing that of most welding lenses, allowing less than .00005 percent of visible light to pass through. And still, Charlemagne’s eyes watered from the sheer intensity of his own attack’s incandescence.
Mere moments later, the Roostonaut slammed into the mana shield surrounding the asteroid, striking the exact spot he had aimed for. The clash of the two mana fields triggered a flash similar to the nuclear explosion that had robbed Ndiogou Gueye of his eyesight. Charlemagne’s helmet went fully black, but it was too late to prevent a barrage of high-energy photons from frying the rooster’s retinas. But Charlemagne was too focused on other things to worry about the sudden darkness. The force of the impact combined with the vastly disparate masses between the rooster and the asteroid had practically turned the rooster’s body into mush. The only thing that had escaped relatively intact was Charlemagne’s brain, which had only suffered from multiple concussions, hemorrhaging, and a bit of axonal tearing.
Charlemagne barely managed to cling to consciousness as Zenrage activated. But since the Skill had recently increased from level 5 all the way to level 8 before being further enhanced by his Class Evolution, it offered an incredible boost to the rooster’s ability to reinforce his body with mana. The Skill also reduced the amount of pain he felt by 40 percent, lessening the shock to his nervous system. Yet, even with all of these benefits, it was a close thing. Charlemagne’s body had suffered truly massive damage. Most of his organs needed to be rebuilt, the consistency of his skeletal structure was closer to paper mache than solid bone, and his muscles had been torn to shreds. If it hadn’t been for one of his newest Skills, Dense Bones, his skull would also have been pulverized.
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To add insult to injury, the asteroid had responded to the impact in a manner similar to how a pre-Integration eighteen wheeler would have handled a bug impacting its windshield. That is to say, the asteroid continued along its merry way unabated, sweeping Charlemagne along for the ride. The rooster’s enormous “beak” was still lodged into the enormous rock’s shield, but despite striking in the exact right spot, the rooster’s concentrated mana still did not possess enough oomph to shatter the asteroid’s protective coating.
The rooster, stunned and disoriented by the impact, flailed around aimlessly for a few moments as his body started to pull itself back together. As he healed, another of the rooster’s new Skills, Veins of Lava, activated. Superheated blood flowed through his body, helping to regenerate lost tissue while strengthening what remained. The reconstruction process took a lot of energy out of Charlemagne’s system, and, while the Meditation Skill somewhat mitigated the cost, the rooster was running on fumes. By sheer luck, his Ember Core cast about for a new source of energy to absorb, and the asteroid’s shield just happened to be made of compatible energy.
It shouldn’t have worked, but it did. Great gouts of mana began to slough off of the mana shield protecting the enormous rock and flooded Charlemagne’s Ember Core. He braced himself with both legs pressing against the shield, and then slammed his beak-shaped attack over and over into the crack. The first few hits caused the tiny imperfection to spread, the next few deepened the cracks, and the eighth strike broke the shield entirely. The rooster raised his head to crow in triumph, but his celebration was premature.
The mana shield, no longer intact, exploded.
“How long do you think it will take for him to reach the asteroid?” Bridget wondered out loud for the third time.
Ndiogou Gueye sighed, wishing for the third time in as many minutes that Brett had never granted him the ability to converse with all living creatures. The human stood looking up into the air, one hand blocking out the sun. It was rather unnecessary for the Blind Hunter to perform these actions, but old habits die hard.
“He’ll get there when he gets there,” growled Sirius. “Now leave off so I can concentrate.”
“If you wanna talk to your pack, go somewhere else,” retorted the mosquito. “You’re not even part of the Party!”
“Then use the Party chat to ask your inane questions,” snarled the canine.
“Now, now, let’s not dispute among ourselves. It would impugn the honor of our fearless leader, who is even now risking his life for us,” Phatagin pressed. “Bridget, I know that the Party chat is down, so why don’t we move over this way a bit?”
“I’m not moving! She can move her mangy tail!” Bridget demanded.
The canine seemed about to bark a reply when an enormous flash of light outshone the sun, causing all shadows to momentarily disappear. Ndiogou cried out and fell to his knees while clutching his forehead. He heard Bridget yelp in pain and take to the skies, her wings buzzing with their urgency to escape from the intense illumination.
“Has he succeeded?” Phatagin asked Ndiogou as he pulled himself to his feet. Ignoring the searing pain behind his eyes, the human swept his Extra Sensory Perception Skill upwards, hoping to find that the asteroid had been destroyed. Since the Skill was still recovering from overload, it took a minute for the human to locate the incoming asteroid again, which meant that Charlemagne had not succeeded.
“The asteroid is still intact,” Ndiogou reported, sounding calmer than he felt. “We need a plan B.”
“Dog will take care of it, I am sure,” Sirius announced, sounding like she was trying to convince herself just as much as the others.
“That scared me!” Bridget yelled, still buzzing around. “Can anyone sense the boss?”
As Ndiogou strained his senses to their limits, trying to suss out if the blazing radiance surrounding the asteroid held one mana signature or two, there was a second flash of light. This one caused Ndiogou to lose consciousness entirely, and he collapsed to the ground.
A snuffling sound and the feeling of something hot and wet against his cheek revived Ndiogou, and he slowly pushed himself to his feet, fighting back waves of nausea that caused bile to rise in the man’s throat. His head pounded as if he had chugged half of a bottle of the local palm liquor, known as sodabi.
“Are you all right?” Sirius asked, her tone surprisingly gentle.
“I’m…I’m okay,” the man replied. “How long was I out for?”
“Just a few minutes. As best we can tell, the asteroid is still intact,” the canine responded.
“And what about Charlemagne? Any news?” Ndiogou inquired, looking once more into the sky but too afraid to activate his Skill.
“Well, there’s no notice from the System that he died, so he’s still alive and kicking. Somehow.”
“Something is closing in on our position at an extreme velocity,” Phatagin broke into the conversation. “Make haste!” he added as he curled into a ball and began to shoot away.
Canius wasted no time in darting off as well, having experienced too many battles to waste time arguing.
Ndiogou tried to follow, but his abilities were not suited for extreme speed. He had only taken a few steps when a huge explosion erupted behind him, sending dirt flying high into the air and almost deafening him.
Ndiogou read the System notice with disbelief. Something had fallen from the sky and had targeted their Party directly, killing Bridget. If they wanted to fire a second projectile, he was next. The knowledge that escape was impossible whetted the human’s curiosity as to what had slammed into the ground. His head spinning, Ndiogou crawled toward the crater, letting his Extra Sensory Perception activate despite the ensuing spike of pain. He realized almost immediately that, whatever it was, it had impacted deep enough into the ground that he would have to dig it out.
A sudden rumble immediately caused him to reassess his analysis. Then the earth beneath him split and rose, throwing him back as the object came to life and freed itself. Ndiogou’s jaw dropped as the figure came into view.
Charlemagne stood at the bottom of the crater, the tiny corpse of Bridget stuck to the back of a strange but powerful-looking silver outfit that covered the rooster like a spacesuit. The rooster himself didn’t look much better: the suit had been torn open in numerous places, and blood flowed freely from wounds underneath. The rooster’s expression was that of sheer rage as he stared up at the onrushing asteroid.
Before Ndiogou could say anything, there was another burst of sound, this time caused by Charlemagne breaking the sound barrier as he launched himself back toward the asteroid.
“And I thought I was going crazy,” he quipped as he collapsed back down to the ground, hoping round two would end with a victory for the rooster.
