First Spear of Rao: Rann'Tha
Rao rolled onto his back and looked up stunned, he really had to remember the fact that his IBM put him at morbidly obese. Which was completely fair as he had just nearly died from breaking a big ass tree branch once more. If shit kept up like this he'd have someone write rest in pies on his gravestone. There was no way he had nearly died twice now from this. Propping his arms next to his head with a sharp huff the boy flipped onto his feet.
"Eat your heart out spiderman, I'm coming for your job." Rubbing his nose with pride he looked at his surroundings. The bottom of the forest was filled with blue-black flexible-looking grass. Trees stood creepily in the distance under the red light of the sun. looking like wicker effigies swaying with the sigh of the wind. Yellow sap stained the trees erupting stutteringly like pus out of an infected wound. Small pebbles littered the forest from the cliff nearby. Orange puddles seemed to appear intermittently as he looked on and they almost seemed to … bubble?
"No fucking shot, is it carbonated?!"
With light steps, Rao whistled across the grass to one of the puddles. Sticking his finger in with an excited expression, only to regret his actions immensely immediately.
"Urgghhh, HooolllYyyy RAAaaO FUcking tHe STAaRs." He yelped looking at his fingers it was as if they had been worn away through consistent shaving. The muscles on the tip of his finger were clear and the nerves were also exposed to the air bringing in fresh and clear waves of pain every second. His finger pulsed as he brought it against his chest cradling it as he staggered away from the puddle of what he had thought was natural Fanta only for it to have been acid.
'In, hindsight that was a bit obvious' With a sigh he brought some of the twine he had brought with him to create a weapon.
"Hooo, Hooo" Rao blew gently on his finger as he wrapped up the acid-worn extremity in the twine. It was likely better to leave it exposed for it to heal faster considering more sunlight meant faster recovery. But he couldn't afford that sort of pain while attempting to hunt in this world filled with God's aborted hanger babies. As he tied off his wound his white hair swayed obscuring his vision in the dun light of the red sun. It was a bit annoying. As he finished his third go around of his finger tying it tightly with pressure to help stake off the pain he took some more twine and held up his hair into a high ponytail, dividing his hair into two strands which he began to tie a knot with them. Gently moving the keratin construct he tucked the loose strands under the knot. And he secured the bun with twine and poked a small stick he had filed with his fangs through it to keep it stable. Only a few strands hung about his face clearing his vision. And he looked rather dashing if he didn't say so himself. Well if he could see himself.
"I truly am the light Rao gifted upon this world." The boy preened and strutted around like a peacock forgetting he was dirty as shit, covered in alien slime, and had a finger that looked like he had put it through a pencil sharpener. But the cloaked Kryptonian had to comfort himself in some way about his currently subpar appearance.
"I look like a better Sokka. Just need to get that low taper fade and I'll be good." With a haughty grin he said "I'll indeed master the art of backbending just like you" he bowed to nothing solemnly as if thanking his master. It's needless to say that he got no play back on Earth. None, zero, goose eggs, nada. Women would part like the seas before Moses when he came around. This was the reason. But finally, he began to get to work. Grass crunched loudly under his footfalls as he hummed an old Kryptonian nursery rhyme. His vision danced across the surroundings looking for a suitable tip. For what you ask? To the very first weapon of both humanity and Krypton. To a weapon needed by weaker lifeforms when confronting the strong. Range. He was making a spear, the creatures of this planet had so far in proven themselves to have extreme levels of durability and physical strength. Either that or being so big he simply lacked the ability to fight against them, at least while he was tired and injured. A small- no a large part of him didn't want to admit that he lacked the ability to deal with that ugly mutated sperm cell resultant jellyfish with his body alone. A strange sense of pride welled up inside him that was quickly looked over. Finally, his eyes alighted. A stand-out piece of stone-like material that was more of a rusted orange and black compared to the grayer pebbles in his surroundings. It stood out not only for its color but because of the reflective nearly glass-like sharp edge. He could grind down wood with his fangs but stones were a no-go. He had suffered the effects of poor dental health on Earth and there was no evil tool-wielding dentist to fix his mouth on random alien planet 101. Shaking his head he grabbed the small stone from the ground running the fingers of his left hand none of which were damaged over the edge. The rock tore a bit into his epidermis leaving a bead of blood welled up on his left pointer finger. A broad grin covered his face as he looked at the stone. Grabbing his twine and a particularly long and straight stick he had filed down like a determined beaver previously he continued humming as he got to building his first weapon in this world. The high notes of the rhyme about the high god of krypton rung out among the chattering of insects as Rao ground an even sharper edge with the help of the softer gray stones. He did his best to make small groves on the rock where he could tie twine. Using his fingers he created a small notch roughly the size of the rock on the top of the stick. After completing his grooves in the stone he proceeded to tie the stone to the pitch-black stick. Looking at his finished spear the shit-eating grin widened even more across his face. 'I'll have to give it a name, the first weapon of mine can't be nameless. After all, I'll become an emperor and a legend one day. Every single part of my story needs to be filled with greatness so I can awe the fools in the future. To fill myself up as well to create my past.' his smile faded before appearing once again.
"Well, I'll think about it later." With a stretch reaching his arms into the sky and a slight yawn rao continued ever deeper into the forest.
"Shhhrrhhr, shrrhhrhh" The bushes rustled intensely as a small group of creatures appeared visibly among the forest. Rao, quickly made his move diving behind a nearby cluster of trees and peeking through a small gap to observe their form. They had two heads each and their flesh looked desiccated as if they had all the water sucked out of them at birth. They resembled Canids but they boasted six legs rather than two resembling the Hackerns of ancient Krypton. As they opened their mouth to growl into the surroundings Rao was able to see 3 rows of razor-sharp teeth and a strange hump at the top of their mouth. They had two toes for each foot and rather than claws it looked as if they had stingers instead. Their tails were long and seemingly easily maneuverable. Covered in bone spurs in a fashion similar to a thagomizer the creatures were true predators. On the bright side, however, they weren't exceedingly large only around the size of a large dog each.
The five creatures prowled about the area sniffing the ground as they came nearer to the cluster of trees Rao hid behind. But Rao was not unwise, using the technique he had against the bullyfish he suppressed his breath, and his signs of life and presence became as innocuous as a mountain or river or tree. As if he was a part of nature rather than a living, moving thing. But before they according to his previous luck found him and a battle ensued the Hackerns(he'd call them that from now on) took two looks at his tree before running off into the distance as if they were afraid of something. Rao's eyes imperceptibly widened at the sight, but thinking that perhaps there was a larger predator around he remained nigh catatonic for another hour before releasing his technique. Jumping from behind the cluster of trees Rao like the immature brat he was stuck out his tongue and started to curse
"Fucking rip-off Walmart hackerns you that afraid of a deadman. Bitch ass planet, bitch ass predators. At least you have eyes and can see Mount Tai. I, your grandfather would have killed all of you within a moment." Needless be it to say the creatures hadn't seen him at all. After his second daily spout of arrogance, he searched around looking for the real reason the creatures had ran out so suddenly even after supposedly picking up on his scent. Turning around he faced the front of the cluster of trees finding that on the black bark was a liquid. But it wasn't the yellow sap of the trees no. Rather it was black and thick. A more deep black than that of the bark of the trees resembling the sea in the distance. However, it was too viscous. From what he had seen when he first looked at the sea it seemed to aside from its color be normal water at least in viscosity as he saw how it rushed off the whale in waves. And it's not like it was the boiling sea of krypton. But this gunk on the trees was like slime in its consistency. After his experience with the Fanta acid puddles, he had no desire to touch the strange substance. But if it could keep away hackerns it was valuable.
"Hmmmm"
Hopping onto a branch on the tree parallel to the one with the gunk on it he tore out some of the lush leaves of the tree and took out his handy needle and twine. Luckily the leaves were large likely adapted to catch as much of the faint red sunlight as possible. He tore the leaves apart and threaded the pieces together to create a simple leaf bag. The overlapping leaf vein patterns seemed to glitter in the light after he was through. Taking a stick lying on the wayside he scraped the gunk into his puch making sure that none of it got on him just in case. After finishing he tied his bag and hung it around a loop on his skirt.
" What should I even hunt, I likely can't take five hackers at once. And if they're pack animals they might have an alpha. Back on Earth and Krypton the alphas are usually the parents of the pack and are thus significantly larger. I'm not about to throw hands with an elephant-sized predator on a fucking red sun planet."
He continued talking to himself wondering if he was doomed to either starve to death or get eaten on this world. And to date, he had yet to see a single fruit of any kind. Above the sky, he saw the floating plants which were filled with some sort of gas being surrounded by lifeforms eating something off of it. That was probably the closest this planet had to fruit but he currently lacked the ability to get that high into the air. But he didn't want to complain too much after being rather lucky with the gunk scaring off the Hackerns. Otherwise next thing he knew he'd be accidentally hung from a vine while jumping from a tree. Shaking his head with mirth he continued looking for a meal. But his luck seemed to be a tad bit too good today. From the tree ahead of him a creature seemed to drop from among the purple leaves flipping in the air and landing on it's singular foot. Yet one foot similar to the Bi Fang from chinese mythology, it was a small thing its body shape eerily similar to that of a kiwi bird. But rather than two wings it had four and they were vertical to its body rather than horizontal. Its beak was also strange seemingly opening in four ways rather than one. Similar to that monster off stranger things but with keratin rather than flesh. It had one singular eye that was distinctly large and black apart from the clear whites of its eyes. With a shake in the boughs of the tree, two other of these strange creatures dropped from the tree flipping and landing on their feet. They had awkward necks and seemingly no natural weapons. Such creatures were definitely incapable of flight with the way their wings were shaped. A snicker sounded from his mouth as he looked at the admittedly cute evolutionary fuckups. He wandered out with his spear at the ready, prepared to finally catch some food for the first time. But the birds looked at him with no fear.
"Cooo, Coooo"
They bounded towards him on their little feet bounding around his legs. Purple dust the same color as their fur rose from their bodies and seemed to give the surroundings a mystical veneer. At this moment to Rao, the little birds looked like Fae more than anything else. Rao let his spear down hiding it in his cloak. The little birds seemed to coo even harder as they hopped off into the distance regularly turning their heads as if they wanted him to follow.
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He did.
His eyes softened as he looked at the creatures. It had taken its toll on him, loneliness that was. It had only been a few days but the memories of people and the constant life-and-death situations he had been forced to go through echoed through his psyche making his desire for companionship of some sort ever stronger. It was why he had gotten into the habit of talking to himself and preening as if joking with some imaginary audience. Stroking his empty pride in a pointless attempt at avoiding thinking about his situation. But the little fae were cute and the dog people on both Earth and Krypton always claimed they were better than people. Maybe he could be a bird person?
He followed them until they reached a… flap in the ground. It seemed as if some sort of fungus or plant or strange membrane had grown over a part of the earth. The three birds hopped around it happily as it bulged nastily. He was prepared to leave if things got nasty. But the dust remained in the surroundings and the Fae looked especially cute at the moment. Suddenly the bulging stopped and the membrane popped but no lifeform emerged from the ground. But rather it was a gust of yellow-gray gas. The little creatures spread their seemingly flightless wings and hopped into the upward gust. Their four wings allowing them to completely control their movement in the four horizontal directions while keeping their bodies vertical to the ground.
"My bad I wasn't familiar with your game." Maybe he was the evolutionary fuck up for thinking a creature had adapted for no reason at all. Sickly purple lights emanated from the sky as the birds went to poke and attack the plants that hovered in the sky. He thought it was a bit sad that they were leaving like this but they had given him ideas. Actually… with a start, he lifted his head after the caws of the birds reached his ears once they had finished their meal. They wanted him to follow. Looking at the gust of wind which slowly seemed to be weakening he shrugged his shoulders with a smile.
"No time like the present I suppose."
Taking off his tightly woven cloak he jumped into the wind and found himself stable. The air was thick almost like water, it was the type of gas you expected to find on Jupiter or something of that sort. Looking up he noticed the gas seemed to have formed a small cloud that slowly drifted downwards which made sense as this gas was definitely heavier than air. His cloak and the gust carried him up towards the cloud where they floated in perpetual excitement for his arrival. Expelling even more of the purple dust from their feathers in response. With a soft smile, he indulged in their cuteness as the cloud floated down to a place he had completely no idea about. But it didn't matter much the fae wouldn't lead him anywhere bad.
The cloud drifted downwards into a small valley it had been led across certain airstreams by the birds as if they were used to the act. It was interesting seeing them navigate the skies, he wondered if he could replicate it. He noticed that upon the forming of airstreams, the light was warped by the thick gas in a specific direction. He had a few in his memory already. Once he got to a safe place after finding some goddam food he could start a map of the airstreams and find more of those gas membranes on the ground. It was an effective way to travel. But his thoughts came to an end as a sea of green moss-covered rocks entered his vision. They landed right on the outside of the valley as they hopped down the slope to go deeper. He naturally followed, lowering his body near the ground he extended his right leg and bent his left knee sliding down a more mud-laden path as strands of his hair whipped across his face. The smell of the moss was rather sour, he wrinkled his nose in minor disgust as he reached the bottom of the valley. There was nothing but a cave and what looked like oddly smooth rock steles jutting up from the ground in the valley. He looked at the birds who went over to a corner to pick at the bones of some creatures he noticed after looking a bit more closely that the bones seemed to still have flesh attached to them.
"Is this what you brought me here for? A home and is this a place where creatures frequent. A good hunting spot?"
He looked around in confusion before hearing a great rumble behind him. The shock seemed to clear his system.
"Ah…"
He felt like Lex Luthor in that one meme back on earth. Rao realized that he had followed three random birds from his home base god knows how far to a random valley. That he had planned on killing them just before they had started emitting that purple dust from their feathers. The creatures were badly adapted to hunt and while they could target floating plants via the gusts the species couldn't have evolved solely to eat that way or they wouldn't have survived competition. So what was another way for them to get food without hunting? That's right a symbiotic relationship. Preferably with a powerful predator. They used their fucking pixie dust to lead him into a trap. That was the natural weapon he had made fun of them for lacking beforehand. They seemed to eat the leftovers of the creature in question. While all this was going through his mind the rumbling and shaking grew louder and louder and Rao dived to the right moving his body so fluidly it seemed as if he had slithered across the floor to take cover behind a stone outcropping. Right behind him, a creature blurred crashing into the valley wall and the pile of bones scattering them and making the Fae hop away hurriedly with fear their caws echoing ceaselessly off the enclosed walls of the valley.
Peeking from behind the stele he looked at the creature in question and his eyes widened in shock and self ridicule.
"Of course, I'm going to have to fight a fucking elephant-sized predator on a red sun world. Alone, like who the fuck do you think I am, Vandal savage!"
Indeed it was a lifeform around as tall as an African bull elephant at the shoulder but it was undoubtedly longer. It had the body of an apex predator even under its shaggy fur colored the same shade of mossy green as the rocks in the valley he could tell it had a bulging vivacious musculature. Spines like that of a hedgehog lined its body in random spots. It likely rubbed itself against the stone outcroppings which was why they were so smooth he gandered. It had a short and stout neck without much range of motion and four small beady eyes. Its jaws seemed to make up most of its head and he was confident that this thing's brain was smaller than that of a T-rex on Earth. It opened its mouth and let out a mind-shatteringly loud roar.
"SHHRREEEEOOONNKKKKKKKKK"
"Oh hell no!" That pissed him off, that was Godzilla's roar this bum-ass random alien creature didn't get to imitate him! But his thoughts were pointless. The creature heard his exclamation and snapped its head towards him. With the clack of claws against stone the creature's legs bulged as it set off to devour the young Kryptonian. Rao's eyes sharpened as he dashed to the left of the stele putting it between him and the creature.
It wasn't enough.
The tail he had failed to observe before whistled around the other side of the stele crushing his chest and knocking him backward, his back impacting against another stele with a sharp pain that woke his hazy mind up. With a wheeze, he looked upwards, and almost as if it was waiting for him it was right before his eyes. Its claw raised with the intent to crush him into the earth.
But he would not be crushed, pushing off the balls of his feet Rao rolled beneath the paw avoiding being crushed at the last moment. Whipping out his spear with his left hand he thrust towards its soft underbelly. The flesh gave way to the spear but it was stopped by layers of contracting muscle. A whistle sounded in his ear as he quickly yanked out the spear and flattened himself against the earth to avoid being clubbed again. Blood dripped from his chin as he wheezed but he had no time to rest. The beast had begun to move backward attempting to trample him to death underneath it.
'Is that…' Rao clawed along the ground silently as possible to the large cave. The creature turned upon feeling nothing underneath it caught him crawling along the ground. However, at this point, Rao immediately rolled into a tumble and right up onto his feet. Weaving around the steles getting ever closer to the cave with his fastest speed as the creature collided clumsily into the stone. In the cave, there were two stone steles that were too narrow for the beast to get through wholly. He dived into the cave and the dumbass creature still followed but suddenly it lifted its foot with a vengeance as if it was aware of his mockery and slapped the stone hard. Stone folded and cracked beneath its might and Rao tripped scraping his knees on hard stone. The creature began to accelerate slobbering menacingly as it took the opportunity to catch up. But opportunities were not for it alone. The cracks lined the cave walls exposing a small pool of bubbling orange material to the right of the cave. The beast rushed forth with a rumble but Rao was prepared, with a bound he rolled away from its first bite and erupted with a strength he didn't know he had. He leaped up to the left cave wall and angled himself upon that wall within a fraction of a second before jumping off of it to the left side of the creature. He thrust his spear into its neck with quickness and force like never seen before.
It didn't pierce through completely, but that was not his goal. With a mournful cry the creature was shoved by 300+ pounds of 6-year-old Kryptonian to the right. It staggered, its paw sliding into the orange pool of acid resultant of its own attacks. At this moment Rao's golden eyes were shaded by madness. Grabbing his spear he stabbed again and again without pause as the creature flinched from the acid burning through its paw. One stab crushed the upper left eye of the creature. But he didn't stop stabbing despite having done sufficient damage. His face could only be called predatory at that moment. It wasn't enough for him. Not yet.
But changes are sudden and a quill from the creature shot forth piercing through his shoulder sending him flying 30 meters farther into the cave.
"I SHALL SHATTER YOU!"
"SHHHREEOOONNKK"
The creature responded to his insane yell with a roar of its own. Veins bulged upon its form as it rushed forth with a ferocity it lacked before. And despite that, its gait was off. Its right paw having been injured had weakened it even if just a bit. However Rao had a giant quill in his shoulder he was no better. And yet at this moment when faced with death, he seemed to feel nothing at all. The steles were right behind him he had to hold it off once more.
"AHHHHHHH"
He cried with not fear but rage as he thrust his spear towards its left side which he had injured before to throw it off. But he was not lucky this time. Hardship had found Rao once more, and the twine on his spear snapped. The full bulk of the creature slammed into him and blood erupted from his mouth due to the impact. It viscously coated his chest and chin with a curtain of crimson. Its jaws widened and in a decrepit mockery of a smile it slammed forward right between the steles, its shoulders managing to get through as its paw slammed the near-catatonic Kryptonian into the wall. Three deep claw marks were carved into his left arm from that very same attack. But his plan half worked and its waist got stuck in-between the stones.
The beast tried to angle itself to get to the injured Kryptonian. Its mouth opened to snap up his leg. But Rao kicked up his foot impacting its nose making it rear back. Taking the wooden part of the spear he crawled and shoved it into the creature's gums hard. Forcing its mouth open and with a scream-
______
At that moment Rao covered in blood seemed to see another world. It was a wide platform about 300 meters across. It was made up of not stone but rather a smooth dull blue crystal that glittered under the light of the sun. It was surrounded by water which undulated gently with the faint zephyr. Pillars were spaced around the platform every 10 meters. Around one was a baby Drang one of the dragons of Krypton standing out for its serpentine shape compared to that of other dragons. In the center of the platform were two things. One was another pillar with a strange symbol carved atop it. A crest it seemed like with an S in its center. He knew many of the crests of krypton and yet he could not remember this one. The other was not truly a thing but a person. The same person as last time, the big shot. And just like that time, he could not truly see this person's face, the big shot wore a training gi and slowly rose to their feet and they spoke.
" Torquasm Vo and Rao are large schools. Rao is generalized as physical combat and Vo as mental combat. But that's not completely true, Vo helps us get in touch with the energy that emits from every one of our cells. We draw out this energy and use it to enhance us in Rao. These schools of thought and combat are interconnected as all things are." The man turned towards him with a warm smile.
"All things are alive in a way. Especially for us who live and breathe. We are whole beings made up of a multitude of other living beings. Made up of organelles passed from our ancestors in the distant past. We are the result of billions of years in the crucible of war and death and most importantly love. Our cells hold the memory of all of our progenitors. They hold the secret of life itself. An energy that bubbled up from the forge that was evolution. Qi so it is called."
Nothing changed in his form but then he said Qi it was as if he seemed to gain an unbearable presence, as if his life level had fundamentally changed. He was elevated, he was mighty.
"Our house has specific techniques, they are the techniques of the house of El. I will teach you this today. The name and history of the technique are as important as the technique itself. When one understands why a move came into existence only then can they master it and only then can they advance it."
He breathed out slowly and powerfully like a Drang.
"In our culture, we worship the high god Rao. In the beginning of the universe, Rao was the first light who stood against the darkness. The first star and the progenitor of all stars. He faced down the darkness that veiled creation with hatred. And he took his spear and pierced the endless void. This strike slaughtered darkness and let lights aside from Rao himself come into existence."
He lowered his body his right leg pivoted outwards and his body became transparent in Raos' vision. Qi arose from his gut and flowed into his legs. He could see the muscles of his legs bulge as the ki traveled downwards. After hitting the soles of his feet it rebounded clashing with downward flowing qi but this did not destroy the muscle in fact with masterful control this qi became even stronger some remaining strengthening his legs. It flowed back through his core to his extended arm. The muscle fibers on his arm became as hard as steel as they were filled with clashing and violent qi. His palm was open and his fingers were tightly clamped together as the qi reached a crescendo of violence in his arm. And suddenly like teleportation, he reappeared 10 feet to the right his arm having pierced through stone like soft tofu.
"This is the first spear of Rao this is—"
_______
Rao imitating all the actions the man in his mind did screamed out.
"RANN'THA"
With a speed so fast it could be compared to teleportation the boy burst forth, he could feel the muscles in his legs tear but he cared not. His arm shattered tooth and skull the cadaverous roof of its mouth broke before his might. The stomach-flipping stench of rotting flesh from its mouth hit him in the face and he remained unwavering. The squelch of disgustingly warm flesh enveloped his arm. But his will stood as a monolith, for he had known the hardships of the world. If someone was there to observe this moment they would not think he looked like a boy but rather as a living incarnation of the weapon of a deity. Blood splattered in the dank cave. And before the light left his eyes Rao spoke.
"I said I would shatter you…"
And then the darkness came.