FREE USE in Primitive World

BANG!

The physical impact blew the remaining air out of Sol’s lungs.

The force tore Sol out of Bruga’s grip, sending him flying backward through the air like a broken projectile. He crashed through two stone spires before slamming violently into the solid limestone wall sixty yards away!

THUD-CRASH!

A huge cloud of white chalk and shattered rock buried Sol’s position.

”SOL!” Commander Thauren yelled in horror.

”AHAHAHA!” Bruga laughed, taking thunderous steps toward the dust cloud, the ground shaking beneath his boots. ”Where is your speed now, flea?! Where are your dark tricks?! Is this all your sorcery can do?”

Inside the dust cloud, Sol lay embedded upside down two feet deep into the rock wall. his breathing ragged, and his vision swam with spots of dark crimson.

But he didn’t care about pain or injuries, instead he calmly analyzed the situation and thought about counterattacks.

First of all, I can’t use Golden Dominion, Sol thought, as his chest hollow was running low on free use power. The Free Use energy required for a domain release is completely depleted. And my physical attacks aren’t deep enough to stop his momentum before he crushes my frame...Seems like I need to go old fashioned way.

CRUMBLE.

Sol pushed himself out of the stone wall, falling to his knees before forcing himself up to a stand. He wiped the thick blood from his eyes, his neon-crimson eyes flaring with an unhinged, dangerous light.

”I’m still... standing... you oversized ape,” Sol rasped, his voice echoing from the dust.

Bruga reached him in two colossal strides, pulling his club back for a wide, horizontal strike designed to bisect the entire sector. ”THEN DIE PROPERLY!”

WHOOSH!

The heavy club swept through the air. But instead of dodging away, Sol used the last bit of his Dreadwing Wings’ high-frequency reaction speed to duck under the sweep, stepping directly into the giant’s shadow... into the danger zone!

Bruga expected Sol to strike at his legs and prepared himself.

Instead, Sol did something completely unhinged.

He.... loosened his hand and dropped the Dreadwing blade onto the ground.

With both hands free, before Bruga could undertsnad what was happening, Sol launched himself straight up Bruga’s massive chest, using his bare hands to dig directly into the squirming, unhealed scar tissue from his earlier cleave strike!

”WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Bruga roared in confusion, trying to swat Sol off like an insect.

Sol ignored the giant’s rising hand. He focused every remaining drop of his volatile Free Use power.... not to create a grand domain, but to compress it into a razor-sharp, concentrated needle of pure mental interference!

BZZZZZZT!

Sol slammed his open palm directly into the center of Bruga’s squirming chest wound, bypassing his physical skin entirely, and fired the mental strike straight into the giant’s neural pathways!

”FREE USE: MIND PIERCE!” Sol screamed!

A violent, invisible shockwave exploded directly inside Bruga’s brain stem.

Despite being a Layer 4 warlord with immense physical fortitude, Bruga was a Marauder... his mind lacked mental barriers. And unlike humans, since he didn’t had spirit-manifestation to shield his consciousness, his mind was his only unarmored point.

The forced Bloodline Overdraft had already made his mind wild, unstable, and boiling with rage. When Sol’s concentrated mental needle invaded his consciousness, it was like throwing a burning torch into a vat of oil!

”AARGH! MY HEAD!!” Bruga suddenly shrieked, dropping his seven-foot bone club.

The giant’s massive hands clutched his own head, his eyes rolling back as hallucinatory agony and violent disorientation paralyzed his nervous system! The environmental essence around him fluctuated wildly, his terrifying aura flickering like a dying candle.

”It works...” Sol growled, his teeth dripping with blood. ”Now... for the final strike!”

While Bruga was trapped in a state of severe mental paralysis, Sol didn’t retreat. He dug both of his hiss deep into the giant’s open, squirming chest wound... ripping the newly stitched muscle fibers apart with his bare hands!

SQUELCH-TEAR!

”AAAAAGHH!” Bruga howled, snapping out of the mental shock as fresh, boiling blood erupted from his chest! ”GET IT OUT!”

The giant raised both massive hands to crush Sol off his chest, but Sol like a leech and ignored all his attacks.

”GRAAAAAAH!” Bruga continued to howl, a mixture of mental agony and visceral physical pain tearing through his lungs.

”You’re burning your potential for fuel?” Sol whispered, his raspy voice echoing right inside the giant’s ears. ”Thanks for doing the heavy lifting. I’ll take the rest!”

Sol opened his hollow chest wide, unleashing the Soul-Siphon authority of his chest hollow, at point-blank range directly against the giant’s exposed, bleeding heart muscle!

BOOM!

Because Sol was striking directly into an open, unhealed wound and tapping straight into the giant’s internal meridians, Bruga’s Layer 4 physical hide offered zero protection. Dozens of thick, glowing tendrils erupted from Sol’s chest hollow, driving like parasitic roots directly into the giant’s heart, lungs, and deep into Bruga’s internal essence channels!

”AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHH!”

Grand Chieftain Bruga let out a scream that shook the very foundation of the battlefield! It was not a roar of pain... it was an absolute, soul-shredding shriek of existential terror as his living essence was violently hijacked!

But Sol didn’t care and diligently continued.

Unlike absorbing energy from a dead body, this was a live, violent extraction of a Layer 4 giant’s living life-force, core stamina, and bloodline energy straight out of his heart and pumping it directly into Sol’s own broken body!

The forced Overdraft that Bruga had burned his future to create was now being forcibly hijacked and siphoned straight into Sol’s chest hollow!

SQUELCH. FLUID. RUMBLE.

Invisible streams of dense, slate-grey and dark-red essence swirled through the air, flowing out of Bruga’s chest and pumping directly into Sol’s armor.

”MY... MY POWER! HE’S EATING MY POWER!” Bruga whimpered, his mental paralysis fading just in time for him to realize his vitality was draining at light-speed.

Inside Sol, the effect was god like. The hyper-dense Layer 4 life force felt like liquid fire pouring through his veins.

The broken ribs in his chest instantly welded back together with loud CLACKS. His bruised internal organs healed in seconds, his dry stamina reservoirs overflowed, his depleted Free Use reservoir WAS BEING refilled to the brim with stolen power!

Even his dual spirits.... the Great Badger and the Dreadwing... roared in drunk, ravenous satisfaction as they devoured the titan’s essence.

”STOP... STOP IT... MY LIFE...” Bruga whimpered, his voice dropping into a feeble, terrified wheeze

Bruga’s massive twenty-five-foot frame began to shrink rapidly, his thick obsidian hide turning a sickly, sallow grey, his muscles deflating like punctured leather bags as his vitality was drained at light-speed!

His massive arms fell limp, his seven-foot bone club slipping from his hand and crashing uselessly into the dirt below, his legs trembling before buckling under his own weight.

Sol stood mid-air, his boot resting against the shrinking titan’s chest, his eyes burning with absolute, dark authority.

With a final, ruthless surge of power, Sol pulled his hands out of the giant’s chest, leaving Bruga kneeling powerlessly in the dirt, a withered shell of his former self.

Sol reached down, picking up the sapphire Dreadwing blade from the limestone floor with one hand. His black armor hummed with dense, stolen Layer 4 aura, his eyes glowing with an absolute, terrifying light.

He stepped up onto the kneeling titan’s shoulder, resting the heavy sapphire blade against the side of Bruga’s withered neck.

”You said a flea can’t harm a bear,” Sol whispered, his raspy voice carrying over the dead-silent battlefield. ”You were wrong, Bruga. You were never the bear... And I was never a Flea.”

RIP-CLEAVE!

With a ruthless, fluid sweep of his arm, Sol dragged the Dreadwing blade horizontally across Bruga’s neck!

The sapphire steel sheared cleanly through the withered neck bone, severing the titan’s spine, airway, and main arteries in a massive, sky-ward explosion of dark, dying blood!

DECAPITATION!

The massive, ugly head of Grand Chieftain Bruga detached from his shoulders, tumbling through the air like a boulder before crashing into the white limestone floor, rolling across the ground errily.

The headless, withered torso tottered for a second before collapsing backward with an earth-shattering THUD, completely lifeless, its soul completely consumed.

Sol landed lightly on his boots atop the giant’s fallen chest, resting his blood-drenched blade over his shoulder. He slowly raised his head, his neon-crimson eyes locking onto the terrified, horror-stuck faces of Chief Vane, Elder Thorne, and the trembling Coalition warriors.

The entire valley was dead silent.

Sol let out a cold, satisfied chuckle that echoed over the ballfield. ”Now...what were you shouting so enthusiastically about?”