They’re going to kill me.

The thought filled Dan with equal parts fear and anger. He didn’t deserve to die and yet, it seemed to him, he was constantly needing to avoid death’s attempts upon him. Objectively, he would say that at least part of the problem lay with himself but only part. He was sure that Xiaomei was not finding herself in the situations that Dan did while he wasn’t paying attention.

Due to his current acuity, something he assumed was being aided by Kumiho, Dan was able to let his mind wander while the lethal assault continued. Bloom’s reptilian physique had come into full view over the fight, his robe thrown aside showing a muscular form covering in leather shorts and a vest. A bandolier of knives wrapped his torso. His skin underneath was not scaled but marbled with veins of sickly yellow as though to accentuate his toxicity.

Dan’s face was still burning, a constant flow of mana coursing there to ebb the pain and hold back the venom. Bloom’s use of his saliva was too common, too practised and too potent for it to just be a vile way to attack. That had been proven by the intensifying pain, like a thousand tiny soldiers tearing at his cheek.

His face hurt the most but only by a little. Two spots on Dan’s left leg and a graze against his stomach all sizzled, kept at bay by a quickly dwindling supply of mana. It had been all Dan could do to dodge where he had. Void’s attacks had made the difference. By combining their timing, the majaal siblings could force Dan to be hit by one or both of their attacks.

At the same time, keeping him at range was their strategy. It was working for now and Dan had very few ways to solve the issue. He continued casting a searching net of mana where he could but everything he had spare was going towards maintaining Calliope’s technique. The extra movement it allowed and the fact that it let him shrug off the bruising and aching that was building up made it integral. If he let the ability slip for a second, it was over. The translucent, very light purple hairs on Dan’s arms fluttered as the mana fluctuated.

Seeing their opportunity, a moment they had waited for since the last time it had happened, both the majaal pounced as one. Two heavy fists of spectral blue energy drove forward, their angles differing to make dodging difficult. At the same time, Bloom not only spat his gathered saliva but also threw two daggers from his chest holsters. Five lightning fast attacks, all at once.

Dan dodged all but one.

It took everything he had but he did it, taking only a glancing blow to his mouth from one of Void’s attacks. More painful than debilitating, Dan shrugged it off as best he could but the attack continued. Dan absorbed every molecule of ambient mana that he could grab and put it towards defence. His arms were quickly covered in mana dense gauntlets, Hyun Soon’s technique coming across in full.

It drained his already flagging reserves. Dan guessed that he might survive another twenty seconds at best. His perceptive mana, left in the air between him and the two majaal, was all he had beyond his own senses. The world shrunk into this one hallway, this one situation.

Life or death. Which do you get to claim, Guan Ah Dan?

Whether it was a cutting question from Kumiho or his own mind racing before he died, Dan didn’t know. What he did know was that his choice would be life, each and every time. He felt it in his very soul that he had something important waiting on the horizon and that if he didn’t see it… he saw his nightmares laid out bare.

He had one opportunity. The final reserve of power available to Dan spent, he dropped to a knee. Dan looked at his arms frantically as the mana gauntlets dissipated, a slip up that Bloom could not pass up.

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“Wait!” Void shouted a warning but it was far too late. The green skinned Bloom had thought Dan powerless but that was just what Dan had wanted him to see. Void began to throw an attack but it was too late. Bloom was not listening, as Dan had expected. If he were honest, it would have been better to grab onto Void but he couldn’t be picky.

Dan’s palm connected with Bloom. Faking tiredness, Dan flared Calliope’s technique one more time. The burst of movement was enough to slip the stabbing dagger in Bloom’s hand and allowed Dan to plant his hand on the chest of the majaal. Instead of pulsing mana inwards, Dan pulled with his own empty vacuum and drew from Bloom as much energy as he could.

The mana felt… caustic. It ran through Dan’s open channels and he felt them close in response. The mana that he gathered pooled in places, sequestered instinctively away from focal points. Despite the dangerous feeling of it, Dan felt replenished. His palm strike had sent the majaal flying back, his strength heightened by the feral strength technique he had learned from Calliope.

Dan had no interest in learning Bloom’s technique but the majaal’s mana did its work regardless. He felt his mouth fill with more saliva than normal. There was an acrid sense to it, a bubbling effervescence that tasted like bile and salt. Just to get it out of his mouth, Dan spat the increasingly violent tasting spit away, deigning to aim it at Void. Bloom might have been a better target, but Dan suspected he would be more resistant to his own attack than his brother would.

It appeared Dan was right. Void yelped rather humorously as he scrambled out of the way. Dan was hardly a master at the technique and it sizzled harmlessly past this time but it also signalled a change in the momentum.

As though she had planned it, Fa Lian appeared from a hallway near the two majaal, her staff swinging to catch Void mid-dodge. Dan barely had time to register the relief of seeing her before he was right back into combat. At the appearance of a new, unknown combatant, Bloom had tried to avoid her. His only path to do so led him straight to Dan.

Waiting with another strike, this time Dan pool the mana into his fist, reinforcing the blow to come with the densest mana he could manage. Piling all of the mana he had stolen from Bloom into the gauntlet technique from Hyun Soon, the mana that formed took on a green tint. Before Bloom could sense his mistake, Dan struck hard into his back. The majaal let out a hiss as the punch knocked air out of him.

Void had recovered and gathered some distance from Fa Lian, who could not now close the gap because Bloom was between her and Dan. The moment slowed into an awkward armistice as Fa Lian took a step back into her hall, hiding her from Dan’s view, while Bloom paced backwards towards his brother. When he passed, Fa Lian emerged once more, placing her back to Dan and moving his direction. As with Calliope, Dan knew what to do.

He didn’t have much energy to spare but he gave her everything he could. The infusion was quick and practised. Dan’s mana happily leapt to fill the gaps that it could find in Fa Lian. Where it did, her cuts and bruises disappeared. She rolled her shoulders comfortably and even groaned with a little enjoyment. Not for the first time, Dan wished he could heal himself, if nothing else than to feel the relief it seemed to give.

He’d give anything not to ache right now.

Instead of complaining though, Dan fell into step beside Fa Lian. They were not practised in fighting together, not in the way the brothers seem to be. When they drove forward, it was not their skill but their vitality that kept their victory in hand. When an attack came forth, Fa Lian simply took the blow. She expected Dan to heal her and he did, though with each new wound Dan energy flagged more and more.

True victory seemed well within their grasp, both Bloom and Void being pushed back. Fa Lian’s growth had been explosive and Dan was not too far behind. As he worked with her, their dominance over the situation only increased.

Until the scales tipped one final time. Like a bolt of yellow lightning, a strike came that ended the fight. With resounding force and devastating precision, Mania’s blade found Dan’s ankle. With a twist, the muscles were severed and Dan fell to the floor with a scream. No amount of mana could keep his weight from tumbling him to the ground now.

Dan flinched as he prepared for the deathblow that was sure to come. When it didn’t and there was a quiet calm, punctuated only by footsteps, Dan opened his eyes. The pain blurred his vision but he saw Fa Lian standing over him, her staff now a sword and shield.

As Dan began to lose consciousness, the light faded. All that was left were sounds. Some which sounded like terse orders, others which sounded like arguments. A quick snapping sound, like a leather belt hitting meat, and the arguments were quieted. On the cusp of unconsciousness, Dan made out only one thing.

“The soul relic is on the move.”

Without being able to react to the severity and with not an ounce of energy left to fight any more, Dan faded into the darkness unwillingly.

His nightmares came quickly and held him in their grasp unrelentingly. In them, shadows of different colours chased him through a grey wasteland. The world had been destroyed by these shadows and the darkness that loomed over them threatened to swallow Dan up unless he escaped. Each time he felt he had slunk away to safety, the shadows returned. Eventually, his feet fell off from all the running and he was forced to crawl. He did, fear and desperation driving him on. Clawing with bloody finger stumps, Dan dragged himself all over the planet until he was rubbed dry by the dry earth below.

Only when his skeleton lost all shape did his will disappear.

Only then did Dan awake.