Enhanced by his racial ability to manipulate his weight, Zeke crashed into the skullcrab in a vicious shoulder tackle that sent the monster tumbling away. As that demonic monster flew into another, he whirled around, letting his hammer lead the way with a backhanded swing that took yet another creature in the descending pincer. The crab’s thick carapace cracked, and viscous, black blood sprayed in the air. But Zeke had already moved along, leaping high into the air. At the peak of his jump – which was at least forty feet above the sand – he used [Center of Gravity] to yank yet another crab in his direction. The unsuspecting monster let loose with a quivering screech of terror, its multitude of legs scrambling in mid-air, but there was no purchase to be found. It was completely at Zeke’s mercy.

And there was none of that in evidence, either.

Once again enhancing his own weight, Zeke hefted his hammer above his head and brought it down on the airborne crab’s disgusting face. At the same time, he canceled [Center of Gravity], and the thing rocketed back toward the ground, pushed along by a subsequent embrace of [Weight of Two Worlds] that pulled it toward the ground with ridiculous force. When it hit the other crab beneath Zeke, its skull shell shattered, and black blood, sand, and even the bedrock beneath flew into the air.

Pushing his weight to previously unseen proportions, Zeke fell upon the entangled crabs like a meteor, his hammer leading the way. He crashed directly through the now-shell-less crab, drenching himself as well as surroundings in even more black blood. But his momentum was such that he didn’t stop there. Instead, he pummeled his way through the other crab’s already-damaged shell, and liquified the meat beneath.

Both crabs were dead by the time Zeke pushed himself free of the gory mess.

“Oh, bravo!” Eveline yelled, clapping her tiny hands enthusiastically. “A bit messy for my taste, but – oh, there’s another one coming, by the way. You might want to…oh, that had to hurt.”

And it did. Distracted by Eveline’s outburst, Zeke hadn’t even seen the fourth crab – fresh and uninjured – skittering toward him. So, when it clamped its meaty claw around his waist, he didn’t even have a chance to react. The serrated edge of the black chitin bit into his stomach, and Zeke was forced to flare [Metallurgical Repair]. Even augmented by his earth attunement, it barely brought a trickle of healing, but it was enough to keep him from being disemboweled.

More importantly, it cleared the shock from his mind, allowing him to focus on ripping himself free of the demonic crab’s claw.

That hurt, too.

But Zeke was well-versed in ignoring pain, and besides, the damage was only temporary. As powerful of a skill as [Metallurgical Repair] was, even in a weakened state, it was enough to keep him on his feet and moving forward.

Pushing the discomfort of having his midsection turned into shredded meat, Zeke pivoted and aimed an uppercut with his hammer at the pursuing crab. The blow took the huge monster in the face – which was a collection of mandibles, antenna-like eyes, and black chitin – lifting it a few feet off the ground. Zeke followed that up with another use of [Weight of Two Worlds] that sent it slamming back into the sand, its weight increased a hundredfold.

All around him, the other crabs – dozens of them, at least – were affected by the same skill, and their movements grew sluggish. With an effort of Will as well as his racial gift, Zeke excluded himself from the effects, meaning that his advantage in speed and mobility only grew more pronounced.

Of course, Zeke couldn’t keep it up. Already, he could feel his mana draining out of him at an unprecedented rate. At some point soon, he would be completely spent. And when that happened, he would be ripped to shreds.

“Just use your attunement,” she said. “Or better yet, tap into the atmosphere. It will replenish you.”

“Little busy here,” Zeke muttered, dodging a sluggish claw strike from one of the enormous crabs. He countered it with a baseball swing that tore a chunk of the monster’s skull shell from its back, but it would take a hundred such attacks to make much of a difference. Without the excess weight and momentum he’d gained from his skills, tearing through those shells was a fool’s errand.

“Just embrace the atmosphere,” she said. “I know you know how.”

Zeke did. He’d done it before, most notably when he’d broken Eveline’s chains, but doing so had scared him enough that he was reluctant to revisit that well of power. More, he had no interest in losing control, as he had more than once since coming to Mal’canus. If he kept dipping into that well, it would change him.

“Of course it will change you. For the better, I think.”

“You’re not helping,” he grunted, swinging his hammer at yet another crab. It managed to leap backwards just enough to turn it into a glancing blow, and it was back on him in an instant. Even slowed by his skill, the things were powerful and quick enough to give him trouble.

“Does that surprise you? They’re half-again your level,” she said. “And believe me – level fifty is a big one.”

Zeke tuned the demon-in-spirit-form out, instead focusing on the battle. But it soon became clear that he was destined to lose. Even as his mana levels continued to plumet, he fought even harder, sacrificing his own body to land a solid blow. He could heal himself via [Metallurgical Repair], so the damage didn’t last, even if the pain did.

He ignored it, sinking into a battle trance. Often, he’d done the same when fighting against overwhelming numbers. In life-or-death situations, holding himself on a knife’s edge of focus for more than a few minutes was almost impossible. So, he sank within himself and let his body act on instinct.

The moment he shifted his mindset, he realized he’d made a mistake. But by then, it was too late.

On the other side of the portal, Zeke could afford to act according to his instincts, but in Mal’canus? Every fiber of his being screamed for him to drink from the well of power surrounding him. And the second he let his focus slip, that’s precisely what he did. Demonic energy flooded his body, searing his soul even as it empowered him. Zeke lost his grip, and plunged headfirst into what felt like a berserker rage.

Anger welled up inside him, encircling his mind and battering down any sense of reason or self-preservation. Instead, he only knew one thing: attack.

And that’s what he did. With a roar, he threw himself at the closest crab. With the demonic energy flowing through him, his store of mana skyrocketed, and in his near-mindless state, he used it without restraint. Flooding his skill with mana, Zeke pushed [Weight of Two Worlds] to new heights, shifting it to its other purpose.

Before, he’d simply increased the gravity, but now, the skill split the gravity in two, yanking the crabs in two different directions. Even as Zeke battered the crab with his hammer, one force pulled against its shell toward the sky while the force’s reflection pressed its body to the ground. In only a second, a disgusting squelch erupted into the air as the crab’s skull shell was ripped from its body.

Bits and pieces of the crab’s upper half tore free, and black blood misted the area as the creature’s agonized screeches pierced Zeke’s ears. He didn’t hear it. Instead, he leaped upon the monster’s back and pummeled his way through what was left of its chitinous skin and into the important bits. In seconds, he’d pulverized the monster’s innards, killing it.

Even as he worked on one, the other crabs were subjected to [Weight of Two Worlds] as well, and the sound of their shells ripping free, followed by their terrified and pained screeches was like music to Zeke’s ears.

“A bit gruesome for my taste,” muttered Eveline, and though Zeke heard it, he was in no state to pay her comment any mind. Instead, he’d already leaped from his position atop the crab and onto another’s back, where he tore into it with ferocious vigor.

Like that, Zeke continued. In his battle-crazed state, he eschewed any complex plans or fighting technique. Instead, he bowled through the horde of crabs with reckless abandon. There was no finesse to his fighting style, resulting in the crabs doing almost as much damage to him as he inflicted upon them. But with [Metallurgical Repair] drawing power from the area’s weak earth energy as well as the mana provided from the influx of mana drawn from the demonic atmosphere, he healed almost as quickly as his injuries – which were copious – accumulated.

And all the while, Zeke reveled in the death and destruction.

For hours, he kept going. The crabs were numerous as well as durable, and more than once, he was forced to repeat the feat that had ended with the skullcrabs’ shells being ripped away, but he persisted. Hours passed into an entire day, and Zeke killed hundreds of the monsters. But he was still unsatisfied.

At times, it felt as if there would never be enough blood to slake his thirst.

Zeke was so enmeshed in the slaughter that he didn’t even realize when the numbers of his enemies petered out into nothing. Covered from head to toe in black blood, and with his wounds visibly healing by the second, Zeke whipped around, searching for more enemies. But there were none left.

All the crabs were dead.

His breath heaving, Zeke continued to pull the demonic energy into him. Second by second, it built and built until fiery agony raged through his body and smoke erupted from his every pore. Still, Zeke continued to drag the energy – the raw power – from the atmosphere.

And then, something within him broke.

That’s when Zeke realized that Eveline was screaming at him. As he tumbled to the ground, he couldn’t make out her words. Even the shouts in his mind had dimmed to an inaudible mumble.

He fell, his palms finding purchase in the black sand, and suddenly, he knew that he was screaming. When had that started? And why couldn’t he stop?

“Cut it off!” came a sudden yell, both audible as well as mental. “Please – you have to stop! You’re going to explode!”

Arduously and with glacial slowness, Zeke made sense of her words. Stop? Why would he stop? There was so much power, and he could take more. If he could just keep pulling it into him, he could…

What?

What could he do?

There were no enemies left. His store of mana was at its peak. And the fiery corruption was tearing him apart, bit by bit. The only reason he hadn’t already succumbed was because he’d been tearing every last bit of earth energy from the ground as well, and those opposing forces, with [Metallurgical Repair] as a medium, had counteracted one another to some extent. It was enough to keep him going – at least from a physical perspective – but not nearly enough to keep him from being enmeshed in mindless slaughter.

But now that there was no threat, Zeke found the anger beginning to slip away. One second after another passed, and slowly, Eveline’s words started to make sense. It felt like slowly dragging himself awake, one breath at a time. And with each passing moment, he realized the danger of his situation.

His mind was still muddled, but one thing screamed at him above all else: he was about to die.

His body couldn’t handle the influx of energy. He just didn’t have anywhere to put it, and so, it raced through him, leaving devastation in its wake. Already, [Metallurgical Repair] had been overwhelmed, and the damage had begun to outpace his healing. And it wasn’t stopping. In fact, the damage was accelerating.

He screamed as a level of pain he’d never experienced lanced through his body, blanketing his consciousness beneath a thick layer of agony. He couldn’t think. He couldn’t move.

But somehow, Eveline’s voice tore through one dense layer of pain after another, and she screamed, “You must close yourself off! Please!”

By that point, Zeke was almost completely insensate. He couldn’t feel the black sand beneath his palms or the steaming blood leaking from his eyes as thick, black tendrils of corruption spread across his skin.

But he could hear her voice, and somehow, that cut through everything. With an effort of monumental willpower, Zeke grasped hold of his mind, shoving everything aside so he could focus the entirety of his being on one, simple act: he had to close himself off from the demonic power.

With a roar of mingled agony and anger, Zeke grabbed ahold of his very being and wrestled it into submission. It fought back, and with the unmatched fury of a cornered animal. Zeke flexed his willpower and, with yet another scream, cut himself off from the flow of demonic energy.

Or that was his intention.

All but a trickle of the power ceased, and he collapsed to the sandy and blood-covered ground, where he lay panting. Earth energy continued to flow into him, fueling [Metallurgical Repair], and it worked as a balm to soothe his ragged soul as well as his body.

“Well, that didn’t go as expected,” Eveline remarked, her voice close to his ear. Facedown on the ground, Zeke could only groan. “I guess that one’s on me. Bad advice. But in my defense, I had no idea…wait…what is that? You feel…different.”

At that, a notification appeared before Zeke’s closed eyes.

Congratulations! You have attained an attunement to demonic mana. +1 Tier All Stats while surrounded by demonic mana. Greater efficiency for any skills fueled by demonic mana.

“Two attunements? That’s not…that’s not possible,” Eveline said.

But it was. Zeke only had to look at his status to confirm that he did, indeed, possess two attunements. One for earthen energy, and the other for demonic mana. But he didn’t have a chance to explore further before a rumble interrupted his investigation. The ground shook as if under the influence of an earthquake, but Zeke could tell from his connection to the surrounding earth mana that it was nothing of the sort.

“Uh…Ezekiel…”

“Yeah, yeah,” he muttered, pushing himself up. It took an enormous amount of effort to climb to his feet, and by the time he managed it, he could see that a giant fissure had torn its way through the ground. “Any ideas?”

“I don’t…I don’t know…”

Just as she spoke, a skull peaked out from the fissure. If the previous skullcrabs were housed in skulls the size of minivans, then this one was at least as big as a double-decker bus.

“I think it’s another skullcrab,” Eveline said, completely unnecessarily.

“You think?” he grumbled, reaching down to pick up his hammer. Like his body, it was slick with black blood. Even as he spoke, a crab of unprecedented size tore its way free of the sandy earth and let out an outraged screech. “Guess it didn’t like us picking on the little ones, huh? Think it’ll listen to reason? They attacked us first, after all.”

With a thrusting claw the size of a boulder, the monster answered the question before Eveline could utter a word. Zeke narrowly managed to dive aside, and as he rolled back to his feet, he said, “Guess not.”

And then, the next battle was joined.