“Oh, come on, dude!” Heath groaned as he let himself sink into the couch. “Are you kidding me right now?”

  “It’s the reasonable thing to do. It’s the smart thing to do, Heath,” Eik insisted, arms crossed over his chest like a stern father.

  Heath rolled his eyes so deep into his skull that his irises completely disappeared. “Since when have you behaved in an even remotely reasonable way?”

  Michael who was sitting next to Heath snorted at that but quickly got himself under control when his X-ranked friend’s glare of certain death touched him.

  “You do realize that this is not just some silly little thing I’m warning you against here, don’t you?” Eik exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air. “Heathy, for fuck’s sake, I’m a god damned genuine X-ranker now, man! I am not kidding when I tell you that I could quite literally flick my finger and blow your head into a red spray while we’re sitting on two different sides of the room!”

  “Well, I obviously wouldn’t be standing in front you, you absolute wack job! I’d be behind you so I can see it all. I’ve heard all about the time you and Chop the Blade went out together to get off on each other’s powers! The least you can do is include me this time!”

  “Bro…”

  “I am not backing down from this one, man! Tell him, Mikey! Tell him how we’re not backing down from this for even a second!” Heath said and leaned forward in agitation, involving a Michael who immediately raised his hands placatingly.

  “Woah, hey! I was never backed up in the first place! I’ve already seen what this famously reckless guy can do, and that was when he was still an S-ranker. When he blows up a continent just to see if he’s able to, I would much prefer to be home under my covers and shivering in fear like a normal person!”

  “Tch!” Heath clicked his tongue in annoyance before suddenly lunging forward at Eik, nearly getting off the couch. “Ey yo, don’t hold me back, Mikey! I’m going to beat this fucker! Don't hold me back!”

  “I’m not touching you, bro,” Michael said with a sigh.

  “I said let go of me! Let me at him!”

  “You’ve come so far in your apprenticeship, Heath,” Eik tried. “Do you seriously want to die and let it all go to waste just to see a little spectacle?”

  The smith narrowed his eyes, resisting the urge to spit on the living room floor in a defiant display of displeasure. “Yap yap, yappidy-yap!” he rasped and gave Eik a dose of blah-blah hands. “All I’m hearing is that you’re scared, mate!”

  Eik raised an eyebrow and sent Heath a look. “Heath, I’ve only been afraid once in my entire life.”

  “No, no, Mikey, don’t ask him about i—”

  “When?” Michael asked before Heath’s words registered.

  “The first time I got an erection,” the X-ranker told him. “I was afraid it was going to hit me in the forehead.”

  For a few seconds, the healer simply stared at his friend in silence until he eventually got up and went for the door. “I have to go back to the clinic anyway. See you guys for dinner tonight.”

  Heath groaned. “Oh, god… See how you made our innocent little friend leave? Words can hurt, you know, Eik. Words can hurt. And so can excluding another innocent friend—me—from your cool power test. Don’t you see? You’re causing harm to me!” Heath said with a hand on his chest.

  “Dude…”

  The large smith grinned. “Come one, man. I’ll stand at whatever distance you want me to. Just let me watch. Andihar will protect me!”

  “You know what?” Eik began but hesitated as he mulled it over once more. “All right, fine! Have it your way!”

  ***

  “Isn’t this the same place as the one we went to before?” Chop asked as they came through the tree line and out onto the plains.

  They were on the edge of an enormous valley flanked on all sides by mountains so tall that they pierced the clouds. Eik looked back over his shoulder. Tons of people were coming out after them.

  “How come there are so many people here?” he wondered out loud. “It’s like, at least, what, two thousand people, if I had to guess. So ten times more than last time.”

  “Rumors of your X-rank ascension have spread like absolute wildfire,” Robert said, walking besides Eik. “I’d be willing to bet that at least a good eighty percent of them have come just to see if those rumors are bullshit.”

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “That’s fine by me,” Eik said.

  “You’re done keep things on the down low, then, I take it?” Robert asked.

  Eik just shrugged. “What would really be the point anymore? I’m stronger than anyone now, so unlike before, with a demonstration like this, being open about my true power will probably be a better deterrent for trouble than any quiet threat I could make.”

  “Yeah, good point,” his assistant acknowledged with a nod but stopped cold then, his jaw falling open as he finally took in what was before him. “Just what… happened here? The ground is— The mountains!” His eyes bulged out like a bug’s as he stared.

  “Chop and I kind of did that the last time we were here,” Eik admitted with a smile. “Mine’s the one without a peak over there—not the one that’s smooth like glass. Pretty cool, right?”

  “Pretty frightening, more like! Remind me why I came here again?”

  “Because Heath talked you into it?”

  “That’s right,” Heath said. “And speaking of—why were you so vehemently against me coming here when there are so many people here already?”

  “Because, believe it or not, I’m not the one who invited them. Not to mention how I, you know, care about you.”

  “Aw, that’s nice,” Heath sang with his cheek resting on the back on his hand. “Is that why the kids aren’t here to see it?”

  “Well, in part, yeah, but I also just don’t really think this kind of thing is something they particularly need to see. It’s… violent, you know.”

  “Goo would literally be beside himself with happiness if you let him see a big explosion. That kid is either eating dirt while drawing little pictures or bathing in the blood of his enemies. There’s no in between,” Heath laughed.

  “You’re not wrong, but I don’t think he needs anymore stimulation in that department. I really don’t want him to try to imitate whatever I do the next time Ihasu takes him to the market or wherever else,” Eik said, wincing at the thought of it.

  “Makes sense.”

  They stopped and Eik pulled out a snack as the hundreds and hundreds of spectators pushed and shoved at each other in order to be close enough to see everything but not quite close enough that they felt like Eik Magnasen might take offense to their presence. After all, with an X-ranker, who could really know what was going through his head?

  He stared, the chatter dying down gradually as more and more people began to notice his gaze. “Do any of you want to die here today?” he asked the crowd.

  Throats swallowed and nervous glances were exchanged. Uuh, what? Why had their deaths become the topic of conversation all of a sudden? All of the spectators who had pushed and shoved to get all the way to the front of the group for the best view of the spectacle found themselves suddenly less than inclined to be that close to the action and backed away through the throng, and they weren’t shy about using their elbows either.

  “All right, all right, take it easy already, will ya?” Eik shouted over the chaos that erupted at the perceived threat. “Thor’s greasy beard, man, why did the lot of you flock here like ducklings if every little thing that comes out of my mouth sets you off like that?”

  “It did sound a little dangerous,” Michael admitted.

  “Well, it was said out of consideration for your lives,” Eik clarified, even louder than before. “For what I’m about to do, you’re all standing awfully close to me. I promise, I won’t reveal my full power here, though.”

  Groans of disappointment and a few boos rose up from the crowd, eliciting a grimace from Eik. “Oh, make up your minds already, you damned idiots! Anyway, let’s get to it!” he said and clapped his hands. The skin on skin impact pulse of force out in all directions, buffeting the hair and clothes of everyone close to him. “Ah, oops. Sorry about that. I’m figuring out what’s what with this kind of power,” he chuckled sheepishly.

  That revelation sped up the retreat.

  “What’s your plan anyway?” Heath asked, trusting Eik completely and staying right by his side until everything was ready.

  “You know I haven’t really made up my mind on that quite yet but I’ve got some thoughts. Any ideas?”

  Heath tilted his head from side to side, lips pursed. “Big explosion?”

  Eik snapped his fingers, this time carefully. “I was just about to say that! Now, you go over there and make sure not to die.”

  “You got it, brother!” Heath said and went in for a fist bump which Eik happily returned.

  He followed Andihar, Gul, Robert, Michael, and the others to a distance which Chop the Blade himself had deemed what he referred to as ‘safe enough, I guess’. Nobody—not even Eik himself—could really predict how this little demonstration of power was going to turn out.

  Only Chop had ever witnessed an X-ranker go all out, and that X-ranker was himself. So what the difference between that and an X-ranked Worldbreaker—or in fact if there even was a difference—the old man couldn’t rightly predict. Eik had been exceptionally careful at home, afraid that even the smallest slip of his control could cause harm to his family.

  He had quite literally existed as if everything around him was made of thousand year old dried paper with how careful he had been.

  But now was the time to let out a little bit of the excitement that had steadily built up in his chest.

  If nothing else, he could feel the depth of power in his spirit now was absolutely incomparable to his days as an S-ranker. If his power then had been a lake, what he could now unleash was an ocean. The ocean above Toxin.

  Fuck, he really did have to be careful. Hold back, Eik. Hold back.

  Facing the mountain range in the distance, he picked out one of the mountains that hadn’t been felled by Chop yet.

  It would be a good idea to start slow, right? Right. Definitely a good idea! Save the big stuff for last.

  A simple javelin of crystal thrown by hand should do perfectly.

  The weapon snapped into existence in his hand with no conjuration time at all as he threw a glance back at the enormous crowd watching him with bated breath. Some snickered among themselves, expecting the rumors of his evolution to be inflated lies and hoping to see him embarrass himself.

  How much power should he put into it? Twenty percent? That sounded like a good number. Yeah, twenty percent! Good! He could probably carve out a good hole in the center with that.

  Without further ado, he wound up for the throw and hurled the projectile.

  Strangely enough, it kind of just… disappeared from his hand. In that same instant, the mountain wasn’t just pierced. The top three quarters of it was annihilated outright. Debris fell like rain in a radius of a couple of kilometers around the crater.

  Aside from the distant thwumps of falling boulders, all was silent as Eik stared dumbfounded.

  Snot ran from his nose and his jaw hung limply in its socket as he turned to look at the others. They looked back at him with equally stupid expressions.

  “Uuh…” he mumbled, looking for any words to say. “On to the next one?”

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