‘Qi Pulse’

Within the blackness permeating his surroundings, Jack once again felt the tempo of the world intermeshing with the tempo of his surroundings and of the lifeforms that occupied space in the physical realm. His senses superseded his body’s natural capabilities, no longer bound by its constraints.

Faster.

He had prepared for this moment. The spatial coordinates of all the combatants were memorized in his mind’s eye seconds after he had ascertained which strategy he would be employing.

There was no room for error.

At that moment, Jack understood. The meaning of this trial. Risk… the tangible threat of death casting its long shadow upon his person, threatening to smother his brilliance and consume his sense of being….

There could be no greater teacher.

Jack directed his Qi threads with pinpoint accuracy, tracing the paths his mind’s eye had memorized.

Almost instantly, venous structures began to reveal themselves. Andrew and Sarah were the first one’s he detected, their Dantian glowing with a notably greater radiance when contrasted with their past selves. The Silvercrest Wolves on the other hand, were of significantly greater interest to Jack.

Their Beast Core was one and a half times the size of the Twilight Boars— he saw no visible discrepancy between the male and the female Silvercrest Wolves’ Cores, even though the latter had a smaller venous network spread. What caught his attention though, was the runic symbols suspended in stasis and the numerous azure veins supplying them with qi. That was the inconsistency that had been prickling at the back of his mind— the distribution and the shape of the venous network was too concentrated near the skull.

So this is the real way Qi Pulse is supposed to be used.

The skull was the Silvercrest Wolf’s weakness. Or rather, a strike on the crest would damage a large segment of the venous network as the rune—which served as both the outlet and the limiter— would begin to leak Qi rapidly if his intuition was correct.

That would be useful.

Though it was not quite what Jack was looking for.

The twitch of motion. The movement of a venous cluster that comprised a limb. Jack’s flailing, seemingly panicked movements had yielded the result he was chasing. The moment of truth had arrived.

If both the wolves charged towards him, he was done for.

It was a gamble, one he’d taken with his life.

He had stepped out of the formation. His movements were unrefined, panicked. His positioning cut him off from the rest of the group.

The pressure had clearly gotten to him. He had broken. Lost the will to fight.

Jack had no intention of fooling a wolf’s keen senses, no. But there was little other interpretation they could draw in the current scenario.

There was no need for two wolves to finish off a broken human. One would suffice. The purpose of the encirclement would also be defeated if both the wolves broke formation at the same time and it would also be contrary to their hunting style— there was no need to fully commit to the offense when they could slowly whittle away their psyche and wait for the other two to break.

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The Male charged alone.

Even with Qi Pulse enhancing his senses, the male Silvercrest Wolf was absurdly fast— not to the point where his senses couldn’t keep up, but his physical body…. It would be a struggle to react. That, however, was not where Jack was focused upon.

To disregard the oncoming enemy and focus on its compatriot….

I am afraid.

I will catalyze my fear.

I will win.

This was the brief moment in time where the female Silvercrest Wolf’s guard was at its weakest— he could feel it in its relaxed movements and confident gait; the damn predator had already written him off, assured of his death. Assured that this was going to be an easy victory.

That was true, after all. Two versus two, Sarah and Andrew could not win.

A sly grin spread across Jack’s face.

James.

He hadn’t taken the shot yet. Perhaps ‘contingency plan’ was too grand a term for the simple instruction he had given him. But Jack had a good grasp over the former barista’s personality— James responded well to external stimuli. Not every man was suited to become a leader, and that was fine. When granted complete autonomy, James seemed to lose himself in a vacuum of self-doubt— whether it was a fear of killing, the thought that his arrow, which was now pointed at beasts would one day perhaps be pointed at humans or the very thought of staining his hands with blood that consumed him, he did not know. But again, Jack did not see James as any lesser for it.

A soldier was told where to go. Who to fight. Who to kill. That was a way of externalizing the fear— the self-doubt— the morality; a weight that was shared. If James needed someone to share the burden, he was willing to bear the weight of his morality.

The conversation they had shared was a short one, just outside the earshot of both Andrew and Sarah.

“James,” he had asked, “Do you trust me?”

He remembered how James had flinched at that question, his eyes flashing with a brief moment of discomfiture. As if he feared that Jack would ask something of him that he could not give.

“Of the three teammates I have, I trust you the most,” James had replied diplomatically.

Jack remembered nodding to those words.

“Very well. I have a simple request for you,” Jack’s voice had quietened even further, his tone thoughtful.

“Okay,” James had replied, his tone sounding unsure.

“If you can’t line up a clear shot, wait for my signal,” Jack had stated, quite anti-climatically.

“Huh?” James had blinked. “That’s all?”

A small smile had sprung up on his visage.

“That’s all.”

No plan survives first contact with the enemy. But simple tactics and contingencies remained as effective as the person’s ability to execute them. James hadn’t shot yet— but his talent as an archer was unmistakable; he had witnessed it with his own eyes.

All he needed was….

Jack’s left hand shot outward, startling the Silvercrest Wolf for a long second. His thumb raised towards the skies and his extended index finger coming to a stop before the female Silvercrest Wolf, pointing towards her. But there was nothing in his hand that could harm the beast, causing its eyes to glimmer with an odd light.

A crazed gleam flashed in Jack’s eyes as he jerked his index finger backwards….

“Bang,” he mouthed the word, before he canceled Qi Pulse, his eyes shooting open.

The sound of a whistling arrow screamed in the background, whilst Jack was confronted with a beast seconds away from ripping his throat out.

A mournful wail sounded out behind him.

The perfect ambush was complete.