58. Graduation

Even as they sensed broadcast intent behind the attack, half of the group didn’t believe it. Fortunately Thaseus recognized it for what it was and pulled the air around them into a shield, pushing back the Rising Star just long enough for the others to dodge. The pressure of the concentrated plasma cut through his shield and sliced off his right arm, cauterizing the wound immediately.

The others recoiled as they realized that for the first time, I wasn’t joking when I said I would hold nothing back. I pulled forth the air and formed a technique that would cause an overpressure wave, and once more Thaseus met it head on despite his injury. He shielded the others long enough for their shock to dissipate, and they reached out to one another to form the North Star Guiding Formation.

One by one they slipped into the gestalt even as Thaseus stood at their vanguard. He was the last to enter the collective, and I sensed once he had, as suddenly he went from barely holding back the overpressure to overpowering me.

I grinned, splitting into four avatars. One continued to hold Thaseus down with an overpressure, another began firing lightning at the others, and the other two began forming a complex technique that would draw blood into their lungs.

Hien Ro spat blood, but it was Lahri who saved them from drowning in their own fluids as she spread forth the technique to counter my technique through the collective and the others quickly copied it.

Arjun, Lukal Lukal, and Hien Ro countered the lightning.

The others hesitated for just another second, and then they launched attacks of their own.

Bolstered by the power of the gestalt, Yara called forth the fury of a blizzard.

Polkluk launched lightning, while Xol vanished from sight. A second later one of my avatars had its throat ripped open by feline fangs. It puffed into mist, and two more formed to take its place.

Taimei launched her ultraviolet laser at another avatar and sliced it in two. It puffed into smoke.

And formed into two more avatars.

Farun chanted for a moment, and then the blizzard was filled with not just fire, but droplets of liquid fire that burned everything that they touched. Only those who shared his Qi signature were safe, meaning those of the collective. I was not in the collective.

I burned. The real me caught flame.

I waved a hand and took control of the flame even as I duplicated two more avatars ans sent them to deal with Farun to disrupt his technique.

I would heal the burn later. I didn’t have time now. I called forth another overpressure explosion and--

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Lukal Lukal charged me and--

Thaseus picked up his hand and--

Xol bit my shoulder and--

Explosions, light, pain and blood.

It all mixed together in an endless stream of violence. The disciples fought their master in their graduation ceremony. Wounds were taken. No quarter was given.

Xol whimpered as his eye was shot out.

Farun lost his right leg.

Arjun his left ear.

The violence continued for days, with neither side letting up.

I fought beside my avatars against them, putting the weight of my past lives against the passion of their friendships and youth.

It was kill or be killed, though they did not understand that until the first of them died.

It was Hien Ro, my first companion.

Outraged at having felt his death through their link, they tried to turn their remaining power on me.

But the North Star Guiding Formation fell apart.

Everything stopped for a second. The disciples continued to try to fight, to reestablish the gestalt, to avenge their fellow student by slaying their teacher. They tried to--

I activated the formation that I had been holding in reserve.

We were pulled back in time.

I stood before them, the destruction that we had wraught on the mountains, on each other, on the world, it was somewhere else. Some when else. It had never happened.

“You fail,” I told them.

They trembled.

Hien Ro, who remembered his own death, looked down at his hands. “Master,” He said. “What was that? How did you—”

“That is not a secret for you to know,” I told him. “Go and rest and reflect on the battle. We shall try again in one week. I expect you all to do much better the second time around.”

They retreated to the compound.

I stayed on the mountaintop, watching the sunset.

In another timeline, I mourned my best friend, who I had slain with my own hands, even as that timeline fell apart, having never happened.

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