Chapter 101
Lykan
Survival Instincts
Wham! Wham!
“GRRRRAHHH!”
Lykan woke to pounding and screaming.
“Sixteen, fifteen.” A voice called out and as it did Lykan felt his mind become clear. He was dying, or at least he was as good as dead if he stayed. Scanning the room, he saw the door he came in still open. He saw the Titan bleeding its dark corrosive blood on the floor, the longer it remained out of the cocoon the quicker its old wounds began to open and bleed out.
Lykan had to get out, a survival instinct kicked in forcing him to leave. At first, he thought about crawling, but one quick movement with his still broken and limply laying left arm caused him to pause. He had multiple broken bones, and likely could not stand, but he could do one thing. He circulated his core.
Idly he wondered if circulating his core would draw the attention of the rampaging Titan who was desperately trying to revert the changes that Lykan had made. The facility was shutting down and it seemed something as simple as changing the password was enough. Lykan still had no clue what he did to cause so much frustration from the monster, but he knew now was the time to act.
Circulating his core in a vortex pattern his body slowly raised off the ground. During this he barely managed to keep a groan of pain from escaping his lips as his body lifted into the air, causing pressure to his broken or at the very least cracked vertebrae in his back.
“Ten. Nine.”
Bang. Bang.
“Change damn you.”
“You have entered the wrong password.”
Lykan seeing his chance forced his body to hover over the ground and then guided his body out the open door. Just as he left the room, the voice that belonged to the whole facility called out.
“Your account has been locked out. You will need to wait thirty seconds before you can try again.”
“NOOOO!” The Titan roared in high wood elven.
Wham!
A final fist was struck against the black obsidian shelving. A strike so powerful that Lykan half expected the walls to split from such a strike, yet the Titan made structure held firm.
“Five, four, three…”
“You? Where did you go?” The Titan called out, anger, rage, and desperation filling its words as it could be heard stomping around the room clearly looking at the spot where Lykan had crumpled into a heap.
Lykan for his part was already fleeing. Glad he came up with an escape plan before he passed out, he went to the blown-up engine room. There, just like he had imagined in his mind, there was enough room for him to hover silently above and to the right of the wall opening. Being that close to so much ambient Qi caused his skin to tingle slightly, but the sensation helped him focus. So many sensations other than pain caused his mind to focus on other things, allowed him to think clearly.
“System shut down in progress. All emergency escape hatches are opening. Warning animal containment areas are no longer in effect.”
The system went off, distracting the Titan for a second. That second was all he needed. There floating freely above the door, he forced his mind into deep meditation. He forced his body into a meditation pose, where he locked his legs in place so that floating would not cause parts of his body to dangle.
Squish, splash.
The footsteps of the Titan could be heard tromping out of the control room. Every step the Titan took could be felt, as powerful waves of I all but radiated out from the pre-historic monster of legend. Lykan knew the monster was injured, but even still it was more than a match for him. The gods even had a hard time fighting such monsters. What was Lykan compared to such a creature.
Meditation was the key. Lykan forced his mind to calm, for his body to still as he circulated qi quickly enough in the vortex pattern to hover silently above the break in the wall. Lykan closed his eyes, not that such a method helped. By this point Lykan’s ability to sense and experience Qi was so vast that he could feel every step the Titan took as it explored the facility.
With his eyes closed in meditation he missed the moment the ambient energy that had been used to light up the facility slowly shut down. This of course meant nothing to Lykan as everything about this facility all but glowed and radiated energy. From the ambient Qi that fused to the ground, to the streams of Qi that seemed to flow from the open wounds of the Titan, Lykan could identify everything. He could identify everything, but instead focused on his body.
It was all Lykan could do to focus on shutting off the pain receptors in his mind. His body was broken, though he had been through far worse pain. The time when Nayali nearly killed him by burning away his connection to his mana had been far worse, at least that is what he told himself during the moments when the pain was so intense that he almost lost focus on his meditation.
Groan. The open metal wall groaned as the Titan attempted to open the wall wide enough to look inside. Glowing red eyes lit up the room, illuminating everything before them. Fortunately for Lykan he was not in plain sight, but he was inches away. Inches away from a creature powerful enough to rip him to shreds. One who was powerful enough to kill a god, or if not kill a god, then able to get away to safety.
“AHHH!!” The Titan roared, a sick loud ear-piercing scream. Imagine a bird, who was able to pierce an ear drum with the resonance of its cry, that is the sound the Titan made in its rage. Blood poured from Lykan’s ears, but his control over his mind and body were absolute. While others would have collapsed to their deaths, Lykan suffered on in silence. He couldn’t win, not against such a monster, the only thing he could do was wait and hope to find a chance to escape.
So, he waited.
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And waited.
And waited.
Squish, squish. The soggy footsteps of the Titan could be heard running up and down the hallways. Occasionally the steps would go back into the control room, only to be met with angry shouting and snarling.
During that time between life and death. During the moments between the Titan charging past his location and angrily stomping back with soggy feet. Lykan did something he hadn’t done since before his Awakening Ceremony, he prayed. He prayed for guidance, for help, for a miracle. All he got was silence. No epiphany, no grand understanding of the universe. All he got was silence. He knew this would be the case, the gods never directed, at least not anymore. There were legends about how the gods used to direct people with divine requests, or quests for short. How the gods would promise rewards for deeds and actions, but that system was abused. So now the gods only reward once they deem an action to be handled successfully.
While he didn’t have an epiphany from the gods, a lot of things slowly made sense. Forced in this meditative state where his mind plucked at straws to keep himself from going delirious with pain, Lykan thought. He realized the gods guide in subtler ways; they reward the vanquishing of almost all dragons. They even reward the killing of the unprotected young, something Lykan had experienced when he killed not only the dragon Smet, but her clutch of eggs.
Then he thought about the way he was rewarded for removing the dark pillars and dedicating them to the great forest spirit. He had received a Divine Blessing for doing so. Then his mind thought back to the fables of old, how the Gods fought with the Titans and forced the Titans into hiding. Looking at it now and focusing on all his blessings the blessings all came from either killing the Titans, their spawns that they brought to this world, or gaining the ability to wield the power of the Titans, so he could fight against them. Realizing this, so many things about the world made sense.
Only after the moment of clarity was over did he wonder if it was a divine epiphany, or if it was his own pain filled mind trying to make sense of the world around him. At that moment the feelings were so profound, but they seemed to have all been generated inwardly, from his own mind. He contemplated on that, letting that thread of thought lead him to the next thought.
Thud.
A great crashing sound could be heard from the hallway, but Lykan was focused on this moment of clarity. Wondering if it was divinely inspired, or just inspired because he was needing inspiration. Finally, a message filled his mind that caused his mind to pause for a second, before it broke his concentration completely.
Blessing bestowed: Titan Slayer (Actual)
Titan Slayer (Actual): You managed to kill a true bane of the gods, a Titan. While the Titan was already injured from its previous battle with the Gods, your awakening it early from stasis forced its inevitable demise. Reward: Perfect Body Heal. Dual Meridians.
Thud.
Lykan crashed to the ground as his concentration was completely broken after receiving the divine message from the gods. He had survived. Better still, the Titan had died. While apparently he only killed the Titan by forcing it into an awakened state, he had still managed to outlast the monster of legend.
Pain wracked his overtaxed mind, as his body bounced violently against the ground. His back was on fire, along with his broken left arm that was now pinned against his body. The pain was so intense that Lykan only saw a glowing flash of white light, then his mind lost consciousness.
***
Lykan awoke to feel his body breathing peacefully. He paused momentarily afraid that he would jostle or move his broken arm incorrectly but was soon relieved to see that while the arm had been pinned under his body, he no longer felt pain from the limb. In fact, wiggling his fingers he felt the entire limb was alive, if somewhat numb from the awkward way he was lying on the appendage.
Lykan moved to get up. Only after he moved did he realize that his back and spine were healed. While standing up, he felt a slight popping sound, before he stood fully erect. He took in a deep breath and felt good. No, better than good, he felt great. Alive as if for the first time in a while.
He took a deep breath and suddenly realized that no parts of his body hurt. Mentally he focused inward to see that the meridians that had been burnt off were now healed. What was more, there were two sets of meridians that seemed to run in parallel throughout his body.
Badump. Badump.
Lykan’s heart began to beat faster, as he felt fear and relief in equal measure. Relief came from the fact that his meridians were healed, for the first time in over a year the dull throbbing ache within his soul was gone. He instinctively touched the spot on his chest just above his heart where the soul made contact from the spiritual realm to the physical. He felt as flowing mana poured out from his soul for the first time in so long to his body.
Tears.
Tears rolled down his face. It took him a while to regain his composure. For so long he lived and dreamed of this moment, of having his meridians back of being able to circulate mana freely throughout his body. He followed the flow of mana, seeing that a second set of meridians followed in parallel to the ones with mana. Out of fear he realized the second set contained Qi. He had done it, no, the Gods had done it. They had healed him and made it so he could use both Mana and Qi. Then a sense of fear filled his mind as he realized where he was. He remembered what Qi did when it met with Mana, how it would cause an explosion.
Quickly he followed the meridians to see that they both flowed throughout his body, then at the five main release points, the head, the hands, and the feet both sets of meridians had closed seals applied. They were thick and powerful seals, but he felt if he tried hard enough, he could remove them. Like a thick scab that could be worn away with time to reveal a bleeding patch of skin beneath, that was what he felt with these seals that were placed on his meridians.
For a moment he wondered how. How could such a thing be possible, then he remembered the message he received, the last message he got from before passing out. He killed a Titan, not directly, but through action. Then rather than being rewarded with attribute increases as was the norm, he received two different blessings. Perfect Body Heal and Dual Meridians.
He thought he already understood what the second one was, the Dual Meridians clearly meant he was given the two sets of meridians. Better still the damaged and frayed edges of his meridians from before had been healed and formed into perfect loops. Now he could exist with both Qi and Mana in his body. Also, he felt the seals over the different exit points were for his own protection.
Then Lykan was left with trying to understand what the first one meant, though again it was straight forward as well. Perfect Body Heal, his broken arm and spine had been healed. He also looked down to see that many of the small cuts and abrasions that he had suffered throughout the years were now gone. Even the cut he gained when he was eight was now completely healed. His body was by all accounts at the peak of perfection. He even though he grew an inch, though that might have just been his standing fully erect without experiencing the phantom pain of broken meridians.
Taking a deep breath, he felt alive. No better than alive, he felt whole. A quick glance told him he was still considered a null, though that might not be as bad if he could at least circulate mana in his body to simulate flight. There were other things he wanted to use his core for and remaining invisible was one of them. While he was not currently able to use either Qi or Mana to their fullest extent, he did know that he could use both for different purposes. Or at least that is what he hoped.
A second of circulating Mana throughout his body and an incredibly fast rate proved his thoughts that he could still fly with mana, despite his meridians being sealed. This was enough, a baby step, but enough to give him hope. Then with a few quick applications of psychic tethers to his cores, he managed to oscillate the cores enough to cause his body, mana infused meridians as well, to go invisible. For a moment he thought about practicing but decided against such an act. Instead, he moved out to try to leave.
As he left his hiding spot he noticed the body of the desiccated Titan on the floor, surrounded by a pool of its own slime filled blood. Looking at the creature, it was clear that it was close to death from the very start. The wounds it suffered were beyond repair, Lykan idly wondered what it was thinking by going into the cocoon, but then thought better of it. It was trying to survive any way possible. He then realized that had the facility succeeded, had it managed to fully terraform the planet a call would be sent out to summon fleets of Titans to the planet. In such a case, those that came would have not only healed the deceased Titan, but likely applauded their bravery.
Realizing this, Lykan wondered if this was another epiphany from the Gods, or his own mind trying to add purpose and meaning to the situation. In the end it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that the Titan was dead, he had been healed and now he could leave.
He was about to leave, but then took a deep look at the intricate weaving of Qi infused lines of power that filled every fiber of the Titan’s being. Every muscle was enhanced with thin cords of Qi that were overlapped in such a way to cause the muscles to be far more powerful and durable. Looking at the muscles Lykan couldn’t help but feel a phantom pain in his left arm as he looked down almost remembering the painful grip the creature had used before throwing him away violently. Lykan looked at the pitiful creature.
Then nodding to himself he jabbed his hand into the open wounds and into the stomach of the creature, or at least he tried to. The bands of Qi that surrounded even the thin layers of muscles were like granite; harsh, unyielding, and immovable.
Badump.
Pain filled his hand from the strike, as his mortal fingers were nothing compared to the expertly woven Qi within the Titan. Looking at the creature, it was clear that he was powerless against such a creature. He knew he needed to get stronger, especially if he was going to stop the Titan’s.
That was another thing, while the Gods had stopped the Titan’s initial onslaught, they only managed to delay the inevitable. It was at this moment that his purpose for this life, why he had been put through so much all became clear. He needed to stop the Titans, to stop their inevitable shifting of the world, this Terraforming.
Realizing he needed to get stronger, he took out the strongest of the flying cores and put it in his mouth. Liquid fire burned, as he began absorbing the energy.
Without even thinking about it, he assumed the meditation pose and began to refine the newest and most powerful core he had experienced to this point. Not only was it the most powerful, but it was still fresh, the Qi had not yet solidified as he had just killed the creature not but a few hours ago.
Meditating with the aid of seeing the way the Titan’s managed to weave Qi strands throughout their muscles and bones was an inspiration. This time rather than taking the Qi directly into his cores, he began trying to weave strands throughout his bones and muscles. His first point of focus was on his spine. He began to form the Qi into thin threads that began at the base of his spine and his heck, then he began weaving five strands of Qi together in an intricate pattern down his spine.
At least that is what he attempted to do, before he heard the deep churning sounds of metal groaning from tension, followed by an ominous breathing sound coming from deep down the hallway.