Chapter 87: Emergent Firepower
Zoey and Viridi kept making their way up through the tunnels until they reached the surface again. Zoey saw on her map that they had moved several kilometers away from the original location they had been when they first came into this area. The area they were in now was closer to Sand Pit and less damaged by the Heavy Stone Lizards habit of tunneling through the ground.
Both of them were happy to once again breathe the fresh cool air on the surface. Above them the night sky twinkled with millions of stars. Zoey found herself wonderstruck by the beautiful sight she stared into the twinkling expanse that seemed to reach out to infinity. She remembered that not so long ago she had been staring up at a dark sky that had not a single star left in it. Seeing this sight again was like water for her thirsty soul.
Zoey was soon shaken out of her memories when the ground shook beneath her feet. She looked back at the tunnel that they had emerged from. Something was coming, something big. Barely a moment later, a massive creature emerged from the ground behind them like a whale breaching through the surface of the sea. It was another Heavy Stone Lizard, but this one was huge! It was almost three times larger in size then Viridi was!
The large beast fixed its angry eyes on them then roared angrily and charged directly at them. Zoey had no idea what had provoked this beast, but it did not look like it wanted to talk about it. As the creature charged, Zoey and Viridi dodged to either side, splitting up and flanking the creature. Its initial charge missed both of them and slammed into the ground, throwing up huge chunks of rock and earth into the air.
Zoey did not stay idle after she dodged, spinning around and sending a Shadow Blade at the beast with her Crystal Claw. On the other side Viridi did the same thing, and the creature howled as the blades cut into its skin. However, Zoey could see that the damage was just superficial. They would have to do better than that.
The big Heavy Stone Lizard was now angrier than ever after it had gotten stung by their attacks, and Zoey suddenly realized that all the dirt and rocks that it had thrown up into the air had never fallen down!
Suddenly, Zoey and Viridi were assaulted by hundreds of Stone Spears raining down on them from above! Instead of using its gravity ability on them, the creature had instead used it on the rocks and earth that it had thrown into the air. After forming them into deadly Stone Spears, it used its gravity ability to hurtle them down at its targets with incredible speed and force.
Zoey barely managed to dodge the first Stone Spear that came at her, but the impact alone sent her tumbling away. The gravitized Stone Spear had made a small crater where it had landed, almost as if a grenade have gone off.
After she was sent rolling, Zoey had to deflect the next spear with her Crystal Claw to avoid being skewered. As the Stone Spear impacted the magical weapon with a crash, her arm nearly went numb from the impact! Seeing another one coming directly at her chest. Zoey rapidly formed an Ice Armor plate on her left arm and attempted to deflect the projectile.
There was a heavy crash of rock against ice as Zoey's Ice Armor met the Stone Spear. It took every ounce of strength she had, but she managed to deflect it away from her and avoid the danger. She managed to recover quickly after the impact, and activated her Dark Star Vision to dodge the rest of the projectiles as they came raining down.
In the meantime, Viridi had started to ruthlessly attack the creature with her Shadow Blades in an effort to draw it's attention. Her tactic worked out, and the Heavy Stone Lizard bellowed angrily and slammed its tail into the ground, throwing up more rocks. It quickly formed the debris into Stone Spears and sent them flying at Viridi in a barrage that rivaled an artillery strike.
As big as she was, Viridi had her incredible feline fluidity and grace, so she managed to easily dodge most of the spears. Those that she could not dodge were harmlessly swatted down with her powerful tail. Before the creature could attack again Viridi seized the opportunity and lept onto its back, digging her powerful claws and teeth deep into the creature's skin.
The Heavy Stone Lizard bellowed in anger, struggling to throw Viridi off its back. The howls grew even more frantic as a Viridi stabbed her powerful spear-like tail into the creature's side. In its desperation, it even tried to activate its gravity ability on itself, but Viridi easily counteracted the force with her own Gravity rune.
While this was taking place Zoey was not staying idle. She quickly moved to a position where she had a good view of the creature's head, then reached into her inventory and pulled out her latest creation. As she pulled it from her inventory, her hand abruptly felt the weight of the most powerful ballistic weapon she had ever held.
Over twenty centimeters long, it had twin, side-by-side barrels that each carried a breech loaded, 20 millimeter magical slug. The barrels were each augmented by a rail on the side that was engraved with a Gravity Rune Array designed to accelerate the slugs to well over 1000 meters a second when fired.
Zoey steadied the glowing sight of her weapon on the Heavy Stone Lizard's head and sent Viridi a signal. Viridi quickly pushed the beast to the ground with a powerful strike from her tail before leaping off of its back and out of the line of fire. As the huge Heavy Stone Lizard climbed to its feet and readied itself to attack again, Zoey pulled the trigger.
A thunderous BOOM shook the area. The two magical slugs left the twin barrels at a supersonic speed, leaving behind a blue vapor trail of magic essence as they traveled to their target. Upon impact, the 3.5 ounce slugs imparted every ounce of their considerable kinetic energy as a devastating gift that punched the big lizard's head through its body and out the other side in a gristly spray of blood and mangled flesh.
As the echo of Zoey's shot faded away into the night, the body of the Heavy Stone Lizard finally caught up with reality, and collapsed heavily on the ground.
It would not be getting back up.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Enraged_Bear
Enraged_Bear KaBOOM! Zoey got her upgrade! More on that in the next chapter!
Thanks for reading!
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone