Charlemagne rocketed back up through the stratosphere, fueled by mana and unyielding rage. While his suit was still rent in several places, his body had quickly recovered from the extensive damage he had suffered during reentry. The majority of his injuries had been caused by the mana shield’s explosion and the ridiculous g-forces he had encountered after slamming into Earth’s atmosphere at supersonic speed. In comparison, slamming into the ground at terminal velocity was a walk in the park.
Since the rooster had been in combat since the moment he slammed into the asteroid’s protective shield, the temporary bonuses granted by Charlemagne’s Class continued to mount. Although his body had returned to its normal size, the sheer amount of power surging through the rooster’s body had reached new heights. His Ember Core and Lava Veins Skills had absorbed incredible amounts of heat from his brief sojourn back through the atmosphere, allowing his body to survive the trials of reentry without burning to cinders. Much of the heat had been converted into mana within the rooster’s body before mixing with the remaining thermal energy to form a sort of mana plasma that was incredibly potent.
The Squiggles clamored for Charlemagne’s attention as he continued his ascent. He could only stare angrily at the asteroid for so long, and eventually his rage abated just enough that he noticed them.
The rooster was doubly confused. How and when had Bridget died? And what was going on with his new vest? Having ascended past the point where air resistance mattered, Charlemagne lowered his beak and examined his silver suit, which still clung to his body like a second set of feathers. The color hadn’t changed, but to the rooster’s mana sense, the entire outfit seemed a bit sturdier, as if the vestments had received some sort of reinforcement and would now serve as a first line of defense against injury. He wondered where the material had come from. Perhaps it had been a small piece of the asteroid that had broken away from the main portion. But this was not the time for such idle reflection, the rooster decided after a moment. The asteroid was getting closer, its immense bulk unprotected but still formidable as it careened at stupendous speed toward the Earth’s surface. It was time.
Charlemagne pulled out all the stops, completely cutting off the flow of mana through his feet. Gravity began to slow his upward trajectory as he devoted all his energy to a single attack. The amount of mana circulating through his body plummeted as it began to coalesce into an enormous ball of blue-violet energy in front of his open mouth, forming a sphere. The ball started out the size of the rooster’s head before growing to the size of his body, and then even larger. He was forced to move the focal point further away from his head as the ball continued to grow just to keep the energy from accidentally encompassing him. Soon the sphere dwarfed the rooster, and yet it was equally dwarfed by the incoming asteroid, which loomed larger by the moment. As the rock approached, a strange sense of dread took root within Charlemagne’s consciousness, growing just as quickly as the crackling ball of blistering-hot energy. With his magical senses, Charlemagne could sense just how enormous the asteroid was, how quickly it was approaching, and how much mana was infused in the rock. For the first time, the rooster began to wonder if he had enough strength to win.
Despair, an emotion that did not come naturally to him, threatened to extinguish the young rooster’s fire. The rage that had sustained him until now began to burn out in the face of adversity. He was just one lonely rooster, standing alone against an impossibly strong opponent. Maybe he should just turn off his brain and let his chicken instincts take him to safety. With minimal effort, he could just reabsorb all that energy and fly to another planet, where he would surely find hens waiting for him. The encroaching darkness felt safe and comfortable. Surely, his Party would understand that…
A dim light slowly brightened within the rooster’s addled mind, pushing back against the powerful compulsion to give in. His consciousness seized upon the chance, pushing toward the light with all his considerable mental strength. Something intangible shattered, and then he was free from the compulsion. The rooster stretched his wings wide and crowed his defiance at the enormous rock that filled almost his entire field of vision, feeling stronger than he ever had before.
“BUCK-KAWK!!!!!” he screamed as he unleashed his attack.
Across the planet, stretching from the eastern half of what used to be the country of Brazil to the far west of China, shadows brightened as a flash of light rivaling the sun flared to life high above the Earth. For many, it was just another reminder of how crazy life had become under the System, but, for those few creatures with the potential, it was a momentous occasion. For across the planet, even in places where it was night, certain sensitive beings unlocked the “Mana Sense” Skill.
Those who happened to look into the sky in the first moments following the blast reported that they had seen the shadow of an enormous bird, its wings spread wide, silhouetted in the explosion. Speculation raged as to what the blast was, what the bird was, whether or not there was even a bird at all, if the events meant anything, what was Mana Sense and what did it do, and whether or not the blast had actually occurred. Only one person, a young stoat named Trixie, correctly identified the silhouette as belonging to a rooster. She was promptly branded an idiot and ignored by her peers.
Charlemagne knew none of this. The force of his own attack had once again sent him flying back down toward the planet. This time, however, he retained enough consciousness to notice that, as he plummeted through the stratosphere, he was not falling alone. Both Phatagin and Sirius had somehow followed him, and it wouldn’t be long until they burned up upon reentry. Determined not to lose another Party member, the rooster slowed his descent and drew upon Ember Core once again, ignoring the sharp pains that shot through his chest like shards of glass.
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A few minutes beforehand:
Phatagin, having sensed Charlemagne plummeting to the Earth before anyone else, had largely escaped the blast radius caused by his abrupt landing. After the shockwave rolled past him, he began to decelerate, intent on returning to join the rest of his Party to wait for death.
When the System message arrived, he had fully expected it to announce the rooster’s demise.
He had to read it four times before he believed it. Bridget, not Charlemagne, had been killed. Putting two and two together, the pangolin realized that the rooster had somehow managed to land right on top of the mosquito as he crashed to the ground. The odds were…well he wasn’t quite sure how to calculate them, since he had never been to school, much less studied advanced statistics, but the odds seemed crazy low.
All of this flashed through Phatagin’s mind as he reversed direction and headed back toward the small crater. Visibility was poor as the entire area had been filled with smoke, but he could sense the rooster’s presence through his Momentum Core. As the pangolin approached, he began to slow down, intending to come in for a landing between Ndiogou and Sirius, who were near the crater. Suddenly, his Momentum Core felt a strange disturbance in the area. It was as if someone had taken a hold of Earth’s gravity and punched it a few times before daring it to say something. Phatagin’s attention was momentarily pulled away as he looked around in panic, wondering if something was about to attack the Party. When he looked back toward Charlemagne, he found that the rooster had somehow vanished.
Checking out his other two Party members, the pangolin followed their gazes high into the air. A black dot was ascending quickly as it expelled superheated mana like a rocket. Charlemagne had once again taken to the skies, but Phatagin couldn’t help but notice that the rooster had returned to his original size. That wasn’t a good sign. He stared at the spot where Charlemagne had taken off from until his gaze was drawn to movement just to the side of the crater. Ndiogou had fallen to the ground.
Trying and failing to use the Party chat because it had been turned off by Charlemagne, the pangolin landed next to the human and examined him briefly. He seemed more stunned than injured, which made sense given what they all had just experienced. It wasn’t every day that your Party leader falls from orbit and crushes one of your allies. The thought of Bridget reminded him of something.
“Where…where is Bridget’s body?” he asked his comrades.
Sirius, looked down at Ndiogou and answered shortly, “Stuck to the rooster.”
Then she added, “help me with him, would you? I’m going to need both of you for this.”
“What are you talking about,” Ndiogou mumbled as he pushed himself up, looking far more alert than he had seemed a few moments ago. “What can I help you with?”
“I need to get up there to him,” Sirius replied, “I have a Skill that can help him!”
Phatagin looked up at the tiny dot, now almost invisible as it continued to rise.
“How?” he asked simply.
“Well, you can manipulate gravity, right? Or something like that? If Ndiogou helps, I think you can carry me up there.”
“That’s…that’s a long way up to go,” the pangolin said, not knowing enough about the Earth’s upper atmosphere to fully appreciate how insane the conditions in the upper atmosphere were. “But maybe I can reach him.”
“We don’t have the time to argue. Let’s go!” Sirius urged. “Ndiogou, you’ll pick me up and throw me as high as you can. Phatagin, you use your powers to get us higher.”
The pangolin sighed. “That’s not going to…wait! I think it just might work. But I need to hold you instead. Ndiogou, pick me up!”
The human obliged.
“Ok, now lower me so I can grab her…perfect,” the pangolin was now half curled up, holding Sirius by the scruff of her neck with his front claws.
“Now, I’m going to anchor myself. Use all your strength to push me in any direction!”
Ndiogou’s arm muscles corded as he exerted his full strength, straining to push the pair of animals forward. Phatagin’s Momentum Core flared inside him as it drank deeply of the force being exerted on the pangolin’s body. It took twenty seconds for the Core to fully charge. When it was ready, the pangolin called out one more time.
“Now push us straight up!”
Ndiogou obliged, and Phatagin used the vector as a medium to discharge the potential energy stored in his body. With a crack, the pair blasted into the air as if shot from a cannon, protected from death only by the sheer physics-defying nature of the pangolin’s Momentum Core. Ndiogou, however, was not so lucky. His right shoulder was completely dislocated by the kickback, sending him spinning back down into the ground with a pained cry.
Phatagin pushed his body to the limits, pumping out adrenaline freely until his endocrine system practically collapsed. The speed that he achieved was incredible, and in no time at all, the intrepid duo had surpassed the height of Mount Everest, broken through into the stratosphere, and were hot on the heels of Charlemagne. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t have the same protective gear, healing factor, or skill in manipulating mana that the rooster had.
As they approached Charlemagne, who had stopped and was charging up a truly incredible amount of mana, Sirius noticed that Phatagin wasn’t going to last much longer. The pangolin was already becoming lethargic from the cold and the lack of oxygen.
“Throw me up and go back! You’ll die up here!” the canine yelled.
Phatagin nodded, his head already dizzy from the lack of oxygen. He rotated the pair until he was underneath Sirius and then used the dregs of his Momentum Core’s stored energy to blast himself down while pushing the canine upwards. Then he absorbed some of his own downward velocity allowing gravity to recharge his reserves so that he could push Sirius along for just a bit longer. The canine reached the rooster and activated a Skill or Special Ability, causing both of them to glow white. New life seemed to flow into the rooster, who finished preparing his attack and then spread his wings wide, as if challenging the asteroid to come at him.
Then he unleashed the enormous blue and purple ball of energy, which streaked through the darkness of space like a comet before slamming into the asteroid. The pangolin’s vision went completely white as he lost consciousness.
