Chapter 78: Total Discharge

Jet’s Vorpal Blade struck two Coils in succession, cutting through the first before the second wrapped around the weapon arm. He used an Asura hand to tear himself free, but Frey had already captured part of the impact.

Another exchange carried them toward the far edge of the clearing. Frey launched himself forward with Calamity Mana and attacked with both swords. Jet slipped between the blades, caught Frey’s right wrist with his natural left hand and drove a manifested fist into the Vritra Coil that appeared over Frey’s chest.

The collision cracked the ground beneath them.

[Calamity Reservoir: 91%]

Frey’s grin changed.

Jet saw it through the narrow eyes of the Asura Mask and immediately knew he wasn’t going to like what came next.

Frey stopped spending energy.

From that moment, every Coil was used to preserve or increase the Reservoir. Jet recognized the intention and tried to avoid feeding it, but the Mask had turned their exchange too violent for perfect control.

Frey deliberately placed himself behind Vritra and forced Jet to either abandon attacks or break through the serpents protecting him.

Jet chose to break through one. The Vorpal Blade struck a Coil.An Asura fist hit another from the oppositeside. Both spectral bodies compressed under the simultaneous force before bursting apart.

The final notification appeared before Frey’s eyes.

[Calamity Reservoir: 100%]

Vritra changed.

The spectral serpent expanded behind Frey as everything stored inside it surged toward saturation. Turbulent energy rolled beneath its scales in flashes of compressed motion, heat, Mana and impact gathered throughout the entire spar.

Frey’s breathing was ragged, blood marked his lip and sweat soaked through his clothes, yet the expression on his face had become dangerously pleased.

Jet immediately created distance.

Frey raised one curved sword with both hands as Calamity Mana poured into the weapon.

The pressure made Jet’s skin prickle beneath the Mask.

"This is the full Reservoir," Frey warned as his arms began trembling under the amount of energy entering the sword. He kept the blade angled away from Jet rather than pretending this was still an ordinary attack. "If this starts going where I don’t want it to, get out of the way instead of trying to prove you can block it."

Jet didn’t need convincing. He shiftedaway from the line extending between Frey’s sword and the densest part of the forest, positioning himself so that any attack directed toward him could be forced toward the already damaged section of the clearing instead.

Frey released the restraint.

[CALAMITY RELEASE: TOTAL DISCHARGE]

The sword came down.

Jet moved before the attack fully formed.

A torrent of destructive energy erupted from Frey’s blade and tore across the clearing. Jet crossed out of its direct path with the Mask driving his acceleration, while one Asura Arm struck the side of Frey’s sword during the release and forced the angle farther away from him.

The discharge hit the empty forest.

The world seemed to erupt.

BOOOOOOOM!

The ground peeled apart along the attack’s path. Soil, stone and shredded vegetation exploded upward as a trench ripped from the clearing into the forest.

The first trees didn’t merely fall; their lower trunks shattered beneath the blast, sending splintered wood spinning through the air. Trees farther back snapped or were torn from the ground as the discharge continued, carving a broad path through the vegetation before finally dispersing in a distant explosion that sent a column of dust and leaves rising above the canopy.

The shockwave reached them a moment later.

Jet drove the Vorpal Blade into the ground and braced with both Asura Arms while Frey dropped to one knee. Wind screamed throughthe clearing, carrying dirt, broken branches and leaves past them until the remaining trees absorbed the worst of it.

Then the noise faded.For several seconds, neither man moved.

The forest ahead of them had been opened into a long scar.

Frey’s Reservoir read zero. He remained on one knee with one sword supporting his weight, shoulders rising and falling as he dragged air into his lungs. His hands trembled from the discharge, and Vritra’s manifestations had disappeared completely.

Jet wasn’t in much better condition. Pain had spread through his thighs, shoulders and back, while the pressure behind his eyes had become a steady throb.

He released Asura Mask immediately.

The crimson-black coveringbroke apart across his face and retreated down his neck before disappearing, and the sudden return of his body’s normal restraints made the exhaustion underneath impossible to ignore.He dismissed Asura Arms next.

The clearing became strangely ordinary without crimson fists and spectral serpents filling it.

Frey eventually forced himself upright and stared at the devastation stretching into the forest. Jet pulled the Vorpal Blade from the ground and stood beside him, both of them breathing too heavily to pretend the spar hadn’t pushed them.

Neither looked particularly triumphant.

The destruction in front of them made that difficult.

They were 1-Star Awakeners.

Frey had only recently awakened Calamity Reservoir and Calamity Release. Jet had barely begun learning to coordinate Asura Arms and had used Asura Mask for the first time minutes ago. These weren’t abilities they had refinedover years, nor were their Divine Runes anywhere near their ultimate development.

Yet the forest ahead of them looked as though something enormous had torn through it.

Frey finally glanced toward Jet, still breathing heavily as he rested one curved sword across his shoulder. "I think we found out what forty-six percent looks like, and then we made the questionable decision to keep going until one hundred. Next time we test something called Total Discharge, I’m voting for somewhere with fewer trees."

Jet looked across the shattered path and couldn’t disagree. "Next time, we’re also establishing the direction you’re firing before the Reservoir reaches one hundred percent. I’d rather not discover halfway through theattack that your aim and your acceleration have stopped agreeing with each other."

Frey gave a tired laugh, but Jet’s attention returned to the destruction.

An A-Rank Divine Rune had done this.

Vritra was powerful, unquestionably so, and Frey had only begun discovering what it could become. The thought didn’t diminish what Jet had just witnessed. It placed something else into perspective.

The Eight-Armed Asura was SSS-Rank.

Its Rune Stage had only just reached Awakened.

And Asura wasn’t alone.

Beneath Jet’s chest, the mark of Ilios remained silent, sealed behind three conditions that he had yet to satisfy.Another SSS-Rank Divine Rune was waiting.

Jet stared at the ruined forest for several seconds longer before turning back toward the clearing.

They had a long way to go.