Chapter 25:

                25 Days After Spring’s Beginning

                      287 Days After The Ra’tok Attack Amia Village

                              Rua Desert, Rhia Territory

I wake up quickly, my mind drifting back to my body. My eyes snap open and on pure reflex, I tighten and arc my back, pulling my muscles and flipping to my feet.

“Wow, calm down!” Kamar says, holding up his hands.

I blink, looking around. It takes a second for my hazy mind to bring up the details of what has happened. I stare the Asper in the eyes, questioning.

Kamar is sitting down, right next to where I had been laying.

Taking a step towards him, A wave of vertigo hits me and I fall to my hands and knees. The world seems to be spinning and the boards undulating. That’s not good.

Kamar gently reaches out and moves me back onto the reed mat. I lay down, closing my eyes to stop from looking at the spinning world. I rasp out in a tired voice, “How long have I been out?”

Kamar snorts, “About half an hour, though I had expected you to be out cold till morning.”

Half an hour, that was more time than I was expecting with the seemingly sped up time of my Soul Space. Though, I don’t know how long I was working on Vel.

“So, mind telling me why you suddenly became a lightning rod?” Kamar says, the wood under him groaning as he stands.

I mutter absently, “I tried out one of my powers…”

Scanning my surroundings, I am surprised. We are still on the sandship, only now we are not moving. Where I had been sitting while using my power was a giant slash of scorched wood, and the main mast of the ship is cracked. The mast’s sails are nothing but a few black threads, having been burnt away.

A smoking crater of sand lies of to the right of the ship, a dune melted beyond recognition. Glass shards have hardened and blackened inside the crater, glittering dimly in the moonlight.

Did I do that?

I look at what had been a dune, but clearly now has a large hole in the side. Holding my arm up, the black bandages are still there. They shift a little, and I get the distinct feeling that they are suppressing the pain of my arm being blown up.

I’ll have to figure out a safer way to harness lightning and use it. I think part of the issue is the fact I tried to hold it in.

I ask Kamar, “What happened?”

He snorts again, his simian face twisting with bemusement. “After you threw a bolt of lightning from your hand, and set fire to the sails and deck, you went flying into the mast. From the crack I heard, and the wood having a large dent in it, you gave yourself a concussion.”

A concussion. That explains my sluggish thoughts, the pain in the back of my head, and why I am seeing the sand moving off in the distance. I can count three streams of rising sand, moving in erratic lines towards us.

I squint. No, is that just my head or is that real?

“Hey, Kamar, are those dunes moving?” I point unsteadily at the three quickly approaching streams of sand.

The asper looks over, and squints, trying to make out it out in the moonlight. His eyes widen and he stands up quickly.

He shouts, “Something’s coming!”

I can hear the hissing and chittering of the thri-kreen and the Enchanter steps into my field of view, the other two behind him. He points at the moving sand, chittering.

It looks like they are having an argument.

The red guard mantis warrior motions for them to stand back from the edge. The elder and Enchanter move away from the edge of the sandship, and next to me on the center of the deck.

I want to get up and help, but decide that till the floor stops moving, it would be prudent to sit back and watch. I’m also completely out of katra.

I close my eyes briefly, starting up my cycling technique, pulling vital aura from the air.

Kamar lumbers up next to the thri-kreen, not saying anything. They both look out at the lines of sand, which are now incredibly close.

The asper stands up straight, and smashes his large fists together. I can see his steely katra forming around his hands, solidifying and hardening. In moments, his hands are encased in plated gauntlets of steel katra, looking almost painted onto the world. He mutters in his deep bass, “Ironworks: Steel Fists.”

Red, the red guard thri-kreen, twirls his double bladed spear. It’s ends glow with an orange katra, a few sparks spitting off. He hisses, crouching and holding his polearm out in front of him.

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Is that fire katra? I look more closely at the glowing spear. It looks almost like the katra that is coating both sides in undulating, trying to escape. Like a explosion being contained.

I blink, the three sand streams splitting up. The middle one continues to head straight at us, but the left and right ones veer off to the sides of the sandship.

Red hisses and moves back, crouching low in front of us. He’s protecting us.

Kamar growls with a deep rumble from his throat, standing up to his full height.

Then, in an instant, the sand explodes. A flash of scales and claws glint from within the cloud of dust, a shape flinging itself out.

Kamar brings his arms up, catching the shape in the air before it can pounce on him. He grunts, wrestling with it and smashing it to his left, a crack resounding as it hits the boards.

The creature is something of a mix between a cat and a lizard. It has back legs designed for pouncing, along with a large, snake like tail. Its front claws are a wickedly sharp and black, and its head resembles something like a cheetah, though scaled. Its scales are a sandy yellow, and a ridge of spikes run down its back, its tail tipped with a barb.

A wurm.

The wurm whips its long tail around, aiming the barb at Kamar.

Kamar brings up his armored fist, protecting his face. The barb clashes against the Steel katra construct, sparks flying and the sound of metal being scratched filling the air.

He twists his hand, his massive fist clamping down around the tail. With a roar, he crushes it with his palm, pressing the wurm’s head into the wooden boards and ripping the barb off.

The lizard squeals in pain, twisting and thrashing itself out of his grip.

Kamar backs up, bringing his fists to bear and launching a punch that the wurm barely dodges.

My gaze in drawn away from Kamar’s fight as the two other wurms explode from the sand, landing on the deck and scratching deep furrows into the wood.

Red spins his double bladed spear, moving a little back to keep both of them in his line of sight.

The two wurms stalker closer, cautiously approaching. They hiss and growl, there eyes flashing silver in the moonlight.

Red hisses back, his mandibles clattering together.

I don’t think he can fight two.

I try to sit up, but a bout of dizziness sends me back down. I groan at the pain in the back of my head, knowing that I have to get up. Come on, stand!

I start crawling to my feet shakily.

That is when Red makes his move. He hisses and chitters in his strange language, forming his three fingered hand into a claw. A swirl of sparks start to form, condensing.

Then he twists and swings, launching the ball of sparks at the right wurm.

The ball strikes the wurm right below the neck, a flash of orange light illuminating the night as it explodes. A burst of flame licks at the scales of the wurm, and it squeals out in pain, shuffling back.

Explosive katra?

I’ve never seen anything like it before, and I have to imagine it to be incredibly volatile to use.

Red spins his spear and launches himself to the right, bringing the orange glowing blade down on the wurm’s head.

There is another flash of light and a slew of sparks, the wurm screech's and flails backwards.

Red pushes the attack, spinning his spear around and setting off the other explosive katra coated blade. It explodes on the wurm’s shoulder, scorching it’s scales and cutting deep.

I frantically start speeding up my cycling technique, trying to gather enough katra to do what, I am not sure. But I can’t sit back and do nothing.

My sight is drawn back to Kamar as he picks up his now badly beaten opponent, it growls, claws and bites, but is unable to get out of the asper’s hold.

The asper roars, spinning once to gather momentum, and then launching the wurm through the air. It collides with the right wurm, which has just recovered from Red’s attack, with a brutal crunch and a mass of withering tails, scales and claws.

Red whips around his spear, slashing at his wurm’s eyes. The reptile ducks under the blow, leaping at the thri-kreen with mouth open and claws bared. They collide, and the beast pins Red under it with its weight.

Red’s wurm brings it’s barbed tail up, striking swiftly downwards at the mantis warrior’s head.

The thri-kreen is able two wrench his arm out from under the wurm, twisting his neck to the side and deflecting the barb off his wrist guard. The spike plunks deep into the wood a little to the side and above his head.

Kamar roars, and he tenses up, crouching. With an explosive amount of force, he leaps at the now disentangled wurms, the sandship rocking with his weight.

He brings his armored fists above his head and smashes down on top of the wurms, the boards shattering and splinters flying everywhere along with scales and blood as the wurms are pulverized.

I wince at the sound of bones snapping and the agonized shrieking of the wurms.

He’s strong.

I can’t help but remember my fight with him when we first met. The raw strength behind everyone of his punches was intimidating. He was holding back then.

With a growl, he smashes his armored fist into the head of the wurm that is screeching, gripping it in his hand. He smashes it down into the broken wooden planks, crunch resounding through the air, and he brings the head back up, smashing it down again and again.

His face is twisted in rage, his teeth bared in a grimace and his nose wrinkled up in a snarl.

Brutal.

I can tell from his eyes that the old, semi-arrogant, scholarly asper I knew was gone, and in his place was a berserk and rage filled warrior. Like some kind of berserker.

I look over to Red’s fight.

He has gotten himself out from under the wurm and his now twirling and dodging the lizard’s attacks. It’s scaled hide is littered in deep gashes, charred flesh and cuts.

The wurm hisses, backing off.

Red pursues, spinning his dual spear and forcing the beast further back.

The wurm snaps its jaws and screech's, before diving off the edge of the sandship, its whipping tail the last glimpse of it before it burrows into the sand.

Red stands at the edge of the deck, keeping his spear at the ready, it’s blades glowing and sparking orange.

I watch as the mound of sand rushes off into the night, escaping from it’s failed attack.

I let out a breath I hadn’t even known I was holding, relaxing back into the reed mat.

Kamar is heaving, not from exhaustion, but anger. His breathing slowly calms, returning to normal.

The asper lumbers over to the edge of the sandship, next to Red. They stand there for a few moments, not saying anything.

I look over to the elder and Enchanter thri-kreen, who are chittering quietly.

Kamar turns around and hunches back onto all fours, the wood creaking under his weight. He rumbles, “Time to go, it’s not safe here anymore.”