Borak's birth

A crisp, cool breeze flows, but even then, the sun overlooks all from the sky. A few clouds floating here and there, and yet, no rain would foreseeably fall today nor tomorrow. Not too warm, not too cold, not too dry, not too wet. All in all, a wonderful day for spending time out in the wilderness.

In this nice weather, a young couple could be found taking a leisurely trot down a beautiful mountain, surrounded by greenery, half racing, half laughing.

Much to any observers dismay, there were a few particularly disconcerting peculiarities in this otherwise cheerful scene. For once, they were being pursued at a distance by a group of bandits. Or at least they appeared to be, armed with swords and spears, bellowing with undisclosed animosity their murderous intentions.

Secondly, the woman, was pregnant. You might try and say she was just a bit on the chubby side, but the abdominal protrusion was distinctly caused by a child soon to be born. It is indeed very hard to find a pregnant woman fleeing as a part of a cheerful scene.

But for some extraneous reason, the man and the woman seemed unfazed by their perilous situation. Calmly, they broke their run and came to a halt near the base of the mountain, as if disregarding the danger that their pursuers posed.

"igirus advenem irith", chanted the presumable father.

From the large feline skull that hung from his neck, golden feathers started growing. Even if their attire seemed somewhat primitive, consisting of animal pelts and bone armor covering part of their limbs, the now golden feathered skull accentuated their appearance.

"We're going to fight them now?" asked the soon to be mother, her eyes glittered with curiosity and surprise.

"They have been getting closer, they probably won't run this time around...", he stated, breaking the cord of the feathered skull, which had still growing feathers, "and we don't want to fight too close to Arath's tribe"

"Yeah, they're getting co...wait, why are you...", she looked at him, with confusion in her eyes, "why are you giving me your incarnation?", the still growing feathers covered her from the head down to her waist.

"You're still asking?", he asked, as he looked down at her belly. "and moreover, I'm fighting them alone."

"NO!, I want to fight too!", she reproached, her hand tightly gripping her spear, her gestures closely resembling a child's tantrum.

"Stop it now, bumface", he coldly answered, describing her recently begotten characteristics, "I need to act the fatherly part now, no need for any risk taking.", he finished, turning his face towards his enemies, as a warm red sheen took a hold of his cheeks.

"BUT...!", she pouted, forgetting about the unwelcome comment regarding her motherly countenance.

"No buts now, if we both set out to fight they'll flee again.", he sighed. If the situation was any different, he wouldn't have the last word in any discussion. 'Hopefully, she will understand this time', he thought.

He looked up at the mountain, the pursuers had now stopped a dozen meters or so from where they stood. Looking into the eyes of their pursuers, he stood his spear on the ground. Although he had a relaxed pose, the pursuers' eyes focused on the tall spear that stood a good half meter taller than the wielder, they breathed cold air with a feeling akin to fear.

"Last chance to flee you maggots", he grinned, "otherwise, you'll end up feeding the vultures".

Silence was their answer to the beckoning.

No, what the group felt wasn't fear. This situation was carefully crafted by the mastermind in their group, and for thanks to their patient efforts in this seemingly endless pursuit, their plans were finally close to fruition. What they felt was wariness, and perhaps, expectation. This fight would be last one against this opponent, and only one side would be able claim victory while the other one would meet their demise. The first condition for overcoming the duo was already half-met, the woman might join the fight too, but at least they would have an opportunity to overwhelm the man with their numbers. Furthermore, he had not donned his incarnation, he was vulnerable.

The bandits looked at each other, amongst themselves, a silent agreement to fight was made.

"Sigh...", the man expressed his dissatisfaction. Seeing the pursuers taking out their weapons and preparing to fight, he took a step in front of the woman, who had managed to keep her feelings reigned in. Extending his left foot forward and taking his spear with his right hand, he took his fighting stance.

"Very well then... COME!", he shouted, as red lines started to extend from below his eyes.

"We take Boro down first!", the leader of the presumed bandits said to his subordinates.

Two spearmen rushed Boro, a red haired from his front, and a black haired from his right. Two swordsmen behind followed in short order.

Boro took hold of his spear with both hands, stepped forward with his right foot, towards the opponent in his front, apparently ignoring the one in his right. Extending the reach of his spear with his right hand, he stabbed.

No blood was spilled, as the redhead managed to block using his spear.

"Tch", breathed Boro unhappily. But a golden glow quickly covered Boro, as he twisted his body to the right, pushing the redhead towards the blackhead. The redhead soon lost his footing, and falling towards his teammate, both promptly tumbled to the ground. Boro stepped forward once again, ignoring the fallen spearmen. With one hand he stabbed his spear towards the closest swordsman, with all his weight behind the spear. The swordsman tried to parry, but Boro's spear still managed to find its way to his heart.

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"One down", said Boro, "Four to go."

It was all over in a minute.

Immediately following the first swordsman's death, the second swordsman pursued with an overhead swing down towards Boro. It was close, but Boro still managed to raise his spear in time to protect against the sword strike, and retaliated with a powerful kick to the swordsman stomach. He might have finished the swordsman, but he was soon interrupted by a spear stab by the redhead.

Boro quickly duck, but nevertheless the spear's blade manage to reach him. A big gash opened in his back. But he turned while dropping his spear, bearing the pain, and took a hold of redhead's spear with his right hand. The redhead quickly tried to regain control of his weapon, but Boro unfastened his own sword with his free hand and with a single practiced movement slashed the spearman's stomach. The deep injury causing blood and guts to flow. The light in the spearman's eyes had not faded yet when the remaining spearman's outraged cry came followed by his spear stab.

Parrying with the redhead's body, he took step back and dislodged the sword from his body, while looking at his two remaining opponents. The body slumped to the ground, lifeless, and the bloodied sword gleamed brightly. Once again he took a fighting stance his right arm had lost its strength at his side. This time he would fight not with a spear, but with a sword.

Both swordsman and spearman rushed once again. Boro received the spear stab with his sword, and stepped forward while sliding his sword down the spear, clipping four of the spearman's fingers. At the same time, the swordsman had not been idle, Boro had received a deep sword stab in his left side.

Flinching in pain, the spearman and his remaining fingers stepped back, unintentionally avoiding Boro's horizontal sword swipe. Unluckily for the swordman, he had closed in on Boro for his stab and did not manage to step back in time, receiving Boro's sword in his neck. He shortly fell to his knees bleeding to death.

The bandit leader was taken aback by the situation. He had not joined the fight as insurance, to prevent the woman from fleeing. If the woman decided to run, he would chase her, and take her life the moment she gave birth. But, the situation had taken a turn for the worse before he had the chance to take action.

Just as he was about to take action, the last of his group fell at Boro's sword.

Fingerless in one of his hands, he was unable to wield his spear, so he dropped his spear and went for his sword. But to his bad fortune, he hesitated for a second, seeing that his remaining hand was not the one he favored. In that one moment, Boro had closed in, and before he knew he had a sword impaling his heart. He shed a tear of resignation before going on his way to the yellow springs of the underworld.

The bandit leader considered, even if Boro was heavily wounded, he might not be able to take his life quickly enough. And now that his fighting force was reduced to one, the woman would not hesitate to join the fight.

He took the only sensible choice he had, and turned to flee. Just as he was about to start making his way away from the fight, he heard an unexpected shout. Was it to prevent him from running?

"DON'T!", screamed Boro, at top of his long.

But the bandit leader, turned to look, and saw an golden light closing up on himself.

"Women...", he said, as he smiled mockingly.

Did she really think that a spear throw at that distance would be able to harm him? The qi starts dissipating as soon as it leaves the body, would she make that type mistake? Was it a last gambit to prevent him from fleeing? Why was Boro against the simple attack?

He stretched his hand to grab for the incoming projectile. But his smile quickly turned to a dark, grim expression. The spear didn't stop, it didn't even slow down. It pushed him down to the ground, piercing his chest. Yet, the spear didn't stop. It continued, piercing the ground, pinning him down.

'It pained me surviving, when all of you died..., but it didn't pain me enough to die here a meaningless death', he thought grudgingly as his consciousness faded.

Boro had a weird feeling, as he saw the woman channeling the qi in his incarnation to her weapon. Why would she do that? They were no longer in danger, the bandit leader didn't pose a threat. Fighting, well, nobody knew for sure, but it couldn't be good for the baby, right? She should stop.

"DON'T!", screamed Boro, at top of his long. Not really worried, yet.

The feline skull was but a white skull already, all the golden feathers gone, but instead of stopping, the woman channeled the rest of her qi in addition to the already meaningful amount of qi taken from the incarnation. A golden spear. In a moment the spear had already taken flight.

Not worrying about the target of the spear, Boro went towards the stumbling woman, who devoid of energy, was unable to keep her footing. Exhaustion being the norm after expending ones qi, he relaxed as he lent her a shoulder.

'Shouldn't she be lending me a shoulder?' he thought.

But soon enough everything went awry. A small light started glow in her belly. Apparently, the massive qi expenditure had kick-started the baby's dantian formation.

"I fucked up...", she said, aware of the thin ice they were threading now.

With no time for nobody to react, her body disappeared in a flash of blinding light. The baby's dantian had greedily sucked all the qi available in its surroundings, and that included the woman's qi that remained in her body.

The light dimmed, revealing a baby.

Of the mother, nothing remained.