Chapter 44 – A Window of Opportunity

Standing in front of the door to the house fu, Adam focused on his hearing. From the sound of the garbled screeches and the footsteps—which became louder and louder—he could tell that Roots were running towards the door. And its hinges would open to the inside.

Perfect.

Adam held his knife in a backhanded grip with whitened knuckles and waited. His heart thumped strongly enough that Adam could feel and hear each beat in his throat.

When the footsteps sounded like they came from right behind the door, Adam bolted forward. The Root in front uttered a surprised gasp, which was quickly cut off when the door slammed in its face. Adam cut its throat and pushed the body towards the two other Roots that came close behind. Caught off guard, they barely kept standing.

Adam jumped up and hit the left Root’s temple with a sideways kick. He landed and punched the right Root’s sternum with all his momentum behind the blow. The Root stumbled and fell back, clenching its chest.

Adam got a brief impression of the spacious, richly decorated chamber. It was filled with ivory statues, showcases of jewels, and long woven banners covered in symbols. A rasping noise sounded from the right side of the room, in the direction of the pyramid. A Shepherd sat there on a wooden throne, surrounded by fresh Roots. It cocked its oversized head—which curved backwards into the shape of an ammonite—to the side and began to write in the air. All of the purplish-brown, thorned vines in the Room snaked towards the Shepherd. Several Roots grabbed javelins or blowpipes.

Two screeching Roots ran straight towards Adam, swinging the gnarled scythes at the ends of their arms.

“Adam!” Oliver screamed. By the tone of his voice and the shrill sound of Shrike being prepared, Adam knew what was coming. Just like old times.

Adam ducked right before a two-handed blast of Shrike surged over him and hit the charging Roots dead on.

Without thinking, Adam jumped to the left and crouched behind a wide, opal statue of Caine. Javelins and blowpipe darts bounced off its ludicrously expensive surface. Although the javelins would do more direct damage than the small darts, Adam was more cautious of the latter. Many civilizations dipped their darts in venom and Adam was fairly sure his Corpiogenesis couldn’t cope with that.

One Root ran around the statue, raising its blowpipe. However, Adam hurled a chic porcelain vase, which would match perfectly with Catherine’s luxurious taste, at its face.

As soon as Oliver entered, the symbols changed on the woven banners on the wall. Immediately, most of the Roots directed their assault at Oliver. Using Ironglass chains to move around the room, dodging javelins, he threw boomerangs of Marrow to fell Roots from a distance. Adam dashed behind statues and other obstacles, taking down Roots with fists, knees, and his knife. Screeching Roots stormed out of a stairway, followed by a spear-swinging Emily, forming a perfect addition to the mayhem.

The Shepherd did something strange. A book and a scroll on its bizarre war banner opened and their hieroglyphic symbols glowed in green. In what was clearly an Invocation of the memory powers, the glowing symbols floated away from the pieces of paper. Together, the markings formed the shapes of a great ape and a blade in front of the Shepherd.

A screaming Root ran towards Adam from the back, who hurled it over his shoulder. He stomped down onto the Root’s mask with a crunch. Eager to find out more about memory powers, he briefly glanced at the Shepherd in the short moments he could spare in between the fierce melee.

The Shepherd lifted an ammonite and ran its thumb over it. Starting from the brightly glowing gem in the middle, its brittle thumb followed the ammonite’s spiral. The ammonite dissolved and turned into a large sprite.

The hairs on Adam’s neck rose; a vague whistling sound neared him. He moved his head to the side to dodge a javelin, which left a nasty cut over his cheek. Adam hissed in frustration and pounced the Root. Piss off! I need to know how this works!

When he was done restructuring the Root’s head with a hideously old-fashioned porcelain plate, he looked up again. The shape of an ape in front of the Shepherd, previously made of floating symbols, was now filled with purplish-brown thorny vines. Soon, a gigantopithecus, a giant relative of great apes, was formed out of the vegetation. It stood in its full size of at least nine feet.

Fascinating… The Shepherds can turn the ammonites back into sprites. And they can use the sprites to form creatures like this ape, based on the information in the book!

The shape of a blade had manifested into a curved sword of greenish metal. Strangely, the blade’s flat surface seemed to act like a moving window into a far-away place. A thick jungle of exotic trees, coloured fruits, and lianas could be seen through it.

With a hint of confusion in its beady black eyes, the ape picked up the sword. It ran towards Oliver—who fired Invocations of Shrike and Marrow—but the ape dodged them with a series of jumps and cartwheels. Screeching its primal battle cry, the ape heaved its sword.

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Adam bolted towards the beast and elbowed its arm to the side, just in time. The blade hacked a hole into the floor beside Oliver, who took his chance to swing away with an Ironglass chain.

Adam jumped back to dodge a low, sweeping kick from the ape. “You two focus on the Roots and the Shepherd, I’ll take this—”

Quick as lightning, the ape’s hand came at Adam from the side. Adam raised his arms to defend, yet the impact hit him like a charging bull, lifting him off his feet and sending him flying across the room.

Adam landed on his feet. He shook out his arms, numbed by pain. Maybe I should stop getting distracted, someday. The ape roared, baring its dagger-like fangs and thumping its chest in bestial rage. Its long limbs and that strange blade beat my range. And it can maul me from up close; an ape’s bite force is definitely no joke. Adam grinned savagely at the prospect of a worthy opponent. Heat ran through his veins like wildfire.

Adam dashed towards a corner of the room, between rows of showcases and ivory statues showing scenes of Caine’s graduating ceremony in Ziecherhein’s Starwing Grove. Swinging its blade, the ape followed Adam, but the narrow space hindered the large beast’s movement. It was forced to move its blade beside or around the obstacles in an attempt to hit Adam.

Screeching in frustration, it slashed its blade in a wide sideways movement through a glass sculpture, sending shards flying. Capitalising on the opportunity, Adam jumped up and kneed the ape in its gnarled face. He ducked underneath a swinging arm and roared as he kicked at the beast’s left knee from the side. The great joint buckled, but the beast remained standing and bowed down to bite Adam. Nimble as a cat, Adam slid between its legs, grasped the ape’s sword arm and pressed it against its back. The ape went berserk. It screeched, swivelled, and kicked to shake Adam off.

However, the armlock Adam’s brother Joshua had once taught him was tight as a vice. Especially after Adam’s years of experience in street brawls, wrestling matches, and battlefields.

When the right moment came, Adam opened his left hand to grab his dagger and jabbed it right into the vines that made up the ape’s lower arm. But the ape’s grip on the sword didn’t falter. Miniscule specks of green light seeped from the sword into the ape’s arm. Adam frowned.

Suddenly, the ape jumped backwards, slamming Adam into a cabinet of vases. Pain erupted in Adam’s back and head as both wood and porcelain broke into splinters. Forced to let go and lose his dagger, Adam fell between the ruined remains.

He groaned in pain as he lay between splintered wood and broken porcelain. In his blurry vision, he saw how the ape looked down on him with murder in its beady black eyes. The ape pointed its blade straight towards Adam's chest. As fear took over, his face paled and sweat broke out of his back. Fear, which Adam hastily embraced.

“Osaehin,” Adam’s heart whispered, its voice hissing like water on red-hot metal.

A part of Adam’s heat turned into a yellow glow that covered his body, making him feel light as a feather. He could hear, almost sense, how the long, cold mass of metal neared his skin. At the last moment, he rolled aside. By the sound of a paw rushing through the air, Adam guessed the ape’s next attack. He got to his feet and jumped away before the enormous hand could grab his neck.

Adam landed in front of a wooden wall, all his instincts tuned to finding a way out, but there was no way to go. The ape turned towards him and slowly heaved its blade.

Adam’s knees shook. The unnatural, ridiculously enlarged fear that surged through him made the urge to hide away almost overwhelming. Come on, snap out of it! Oliver and Emily are counting on me! The ape charged, swinging its sword in wild abandon. Adam’s body screamed at him to flee.

Adam exhaled again. Wait, it has moved like this before… As he stared at the charging beast, something happened within him. A single deep beat from his heart drowned out all other noises. The yellowish glow disappeared, and in the place of overwhelming fear came silence. Time seemed to slow. Adam saw every contraction and relaxation in the ape’s muscle-like vines, which moved its limbs forward. Clear as day, as if all movements were written in a script, Adam could predict every step and swing. He knew when the ape would open its mouth to growl, he knew when it’d crouch to lunge at Adam.

Calm as the depths of the ocean, Adam’s head was free from thoughts. All that existed was his opponent, its movements, and his one choice of how to counter them.

A decision that was easy to make.

The ape soared towards him. It raised its sword arm high in the air for a downward slash and stretched out a grasping hand. Heat surged through Adam’s limbs as he dashed forward. Every limb moved exactly as it was meant to.

Relaxed as a leaf dancing in the wind, Adam moved his head aside to dodge the ape’s grasping hand. He ducked beneath its sword arm, grabbed the mighty limb, and pressed his back against the ape’s body. Roaring in effort, Adam pulled the ape’s arm down, using the beast’s momentum to hurl it over his shoulder. Barely having time to screech in surprise, the ape crashed head-first into the wooden wall. Planks splintered, beams broke, and the ape rolled into the adjacent room, bowling over several standards covered in hieroglyphs.

When his strange Invocation ended, a deep fatigue washed over Adam. His mind was sluggish and confused, having trouble processing all the sensations around him. Like the wild fight of Oliver and Emily against the Roots. Adam shook his head to clear out the fog.

Behind the hole in the wall, the ape slowly started moving again.

How do I kill a creature made of vines with my bare hands, strangulation? Some kind of blunt impact?

A shimmer of green caught his eye; the ape’s mysterious blade lay on the ground. Staring into the sword’s flat surface, Adam saw a waterfall and proud jungle trees. A group of apes used their long arms to swing from branch to branch. That green energy flowed from the blade into the ape, it could be dangerous to—

Grunting in pain, the ape placed its hands on the ground and got to its feet. There’s no time! I’ve got to take a risk... Adam lifted the heavy blade with both hands, ignoring the prickling sensation of the strange energy that moved up his arm like light jolts of electricity. His body slow and clumsy like a drunkard, he made a raspy excuse of a roar and jumped into the other room.

The ape bared its fangs, but it still seemed sluggish from Adam’s last attack. Grunting in effort, Adam used both hands to swing the heavy blade in an upwards diagonal cut, cleaving his target. The ape shivered. Its black eyes went hazy when all life seemed to disappear from its body. After a few wobbling steps, it fell to the side like a toppled mountain. The grey, dead masses of vines crumbled into a pile of dirt, bugs, and dry twigs.

Adam had won.