Skimming over the off-white sand, the corrugated iron sheet that was serving as his and Tanglebud’s transport should have been unbearably hot. But his subordinate had managed to expand his Comprehension while impaled on the Tree, and so the terrible heat was being drawn off into the man’s body, serving as fuel to repair his wounds.
Gestalt was glad. While his state wasn’t quite as bad as it might appear from the outside, there was no denying that his body would fail him eventually, and it was reassuring to have a more able-bodied companion. I expect I’ll be able to last the day, though. Enough to tidy things up, if the worst happens.
In fact, now would be a good time to tidy one particular end. [Tanglebud.]
[?]
[From today onwards, I cede control of the Brotherhood of Psychokinetics to you. I grant you the title of grandmaster; do with it what you will.]
For a moment the only thing Gestalt could feel was incredulousness flowing through the telepathic bond. The sled continued to plow forward, propelled by his kinetics in relative silence.
[Why, grandmaster? Your wisdom eclipses mine utterly, and I cannot equal even a fraction of your accomplishments.]
In the distance, the large blob in the sky gave birth; the enemy must have spotted their dust trail already, and were making for the ground. [My accomplishments as of late have been… mixed.] Tanglebud attempted to interrupt with some reassurance, but he continued. [Junk Dog was right. I did not accurately weigh the situation.] The speeder – it was close enough to identify now, as long as he bent the light properly – dipped forwards in a dive, as the white-gold-black figures approached with stunning speed. [For so long, all of our triumphs and tribulations have come from inside the clan. The other brotherhoods were our rivals, our enemies and allies, the only foes that existed. But now, that is no longer the case – and yet, I failed to adapt my thinking to reflect that fact. Giving up our secrets would have weakened the Psychokinetics in relation to the other groups… but it would have strengthened the clan as a whole. Instead, I angered a foreign power while gaining nothing for it.]
Tanglebud was silent, processing his words.
[And furthermore…] This one stung more to admit. [It is likely you eclipse me in power, now. My rebirth has caused many complications to my consumption that I did not foresee.] Certainly, he was many times stronger than he had been as a one-year-old in his original body, but it was equally true that he had yet to regain a fraction of his might as the bodiless Grandmaster. And yet, I cannot regret the decisions that have brought me here. That, more than anything, is why I must pass things along; I cannot say that my rationality will improve going forward.
[…Let us discuss this later, grandmaster. Our enemies approach.]
----------------------------------------
Lu let his seniors take the lead – not that he could actually catch up; now that they were in combat the gloves were off, and the less-efficient but more effective spells were coming out. Already Ging had his Hydra Conjuration manifested, And Hu Kuon was gliding forward on a wave of frost.
I’ll allow them to take the first few hits – age before beauty, and all that. Two Ice Blades deposited into his waiting hands, the cold unable to penetrate his gauntlets. But when I do go by… Dancing Blades first, then a mix of illusion and elemental barrages. And although his armour should be able to take an extreme beating, he spent the qi for a fourth realm shield. Just in case.
As Ging reached a reasonable engagement distance a quick Eagle Eye brought the enemy into clear focus. There were two men; one was definitely a psychic, confirmed by the top of his head being a bushel of eyeballs much like the immature flowers of a broccoli plant. Disturbing, but I can’t imagine a more telegraphed weak point. The other was less notable, though he had some prominent stab wounds on his naked torso. They were riding a sheet of metal with no visible means of propulsion, standing straight up like the wind couldn’t touch them. That’s probably the psychic. Hopefully the other one is less troublesome; I’ve dealt with enough mental arts to last me a lifetime.
Ging lashed out with the Conjuration, while Lady No began flinging longer-distance attacks. The sled moved erratically, juking in quick straight-line bursts that were distressingly familiar to proper movement arts.
Then, the disciples broke away, fleeing. Lu’s eyes narrowed in confusion, but a moment later the desert where they had been standing flattened, squashed by an invisible giant.
“[Oi, Boss,]” his Interpreter caught from far away, the tiny illusion on Bo’s shoulder still connecting him to the speeder, “[That seemed really fast. Aren’t kinetics really slow?]”
Dreamfever grunted. “[They are, usually. Must be an enemy Warboss; you guys hang back and let me deal with it.]”
Bo made a disappointed sound while Lu’s heart dropped into his stomach. Ah, that’s, that shouldn’t be a problem, right? One Warboss is- actually, I don’t really know where a Warboss stands, compared to a Raidboss like Ded or a grandmaster like Lady Stinger-Tail. Surely a disciple in the core realms-
At that point Lu took note that Tai Sho seemed to have entirely disappeared. That- that cowardly-! The other three had made their own strafing runs while he had been eavesdropping, striking out with their own spells and sliding away from any reprisals. Some of the attacks hit – but were turned away by a flickering bubble of force that faded away the next moment. Visibility was already going down with all the thrown-up sand, though the fight had been happening for less than ten seconds.
My turn. Alright, so they have a shield in addition to movement-art-like mobility and an invisible attack that I don’t want to get hit with. Obviously, standard attacks wouldn’t cut it. Let’s see how the locals like a taste of their own medicine!
A somewhat niche fact about Dancing Blades: it could affect any object, so long as it sat within a certain threshold of mass and volume. A threshold that his primitive rifles definitely sat within.
Space Ripper tore the weapons directly from his spacial purse, where his spell animated them and compelled them to float around his person like a swarm of very deadly birds. With how fast I’m going, and how fast they're going, the place I should aim at is…
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Another fact about Dancing Blades, this one widespread: it doesn’t rely on the caster being a decent swordsman to use properly. As long as you directed it properly, the spell could operate with dexterity and precision greater than the user could control his own body.
Which meant that unlike when he held the rifles with his own hands, they pointed exactly where he wanted them to. Fire!
The hammer mechanism on each firearm slammed forward as tension was released, impacting the pill-house that sat between the barrel and the handle. Six bullets shot out with an incredible BANG as they fired in perfect synchronisation – well, Lu assumed the noise was incredible; after two incidents back-to-back he had decided to keep his noise protection on, and was hearing things solely through an audible illusion cast on himself. Good to know that works out here; I was afraid the ki might shred more fragile spells, but they seem to be fine.
All six bullets hit the mark, spread across the bubble that sprang up to protect the two men. It didn’t ripple even slightly – but at the same time, the metal sled tipped forward. The front of it hit the sand, throwing a spray up onto the shield, before the ‘vehicle’ jerked back up and resumed skimming over the ground.
“Ah, it seems they have trouble with multiple attacks! Brothers, let’s-“ A strange premonition settled on Lu’s shoulders, sending a shiver down his spine. The counter Lu, dodge the counter! Talk later!
Space Ripper sent him to the side just as the giant’s foot descended, but the feeling was still there. Ripples in the ambient ki buffeted him, and he dodged a second wave of force. “It seems I’ve caught their attention! Senior brothers, if you would..!”
Ging and No went back in, followed by the others, and the fight resolved itself into a sort of cycle. It seemed the pair of Junk Dogs couldn’t do more than two things at once; if they were moving and defending, they couldn’t attack, so the disciples struck continuously. The Dogs needed to drop their speed to retaliate, but such an obvious tell couldn’t be ignored. After twenty seconds and innumerable attacks, the bubble shield had gone from barely visible to an angry, strobing purple orb that crackled with bursts of lightning of the same colour. Gradually the sheet of metal ground to a halt, and then even the telekinetic attacks grew sparser.
Lady Scarlet cast a particularly stunning Violent Firestorm, before opening her mouth. “If I were them right now, I’d be getting desperate. We should prepare for retaliation any second now.”
But her words failed to predict reality. The bubble continued to destabilise as they sent attacks at it, long enough for the warriors to arrive and attack themselves. Streams of water and putrid gas joined the myriad stream, and the shield wobbled like jelly before cracks started to appear, and the thing began growing brightly.
Lu braced for the seeming helplessness to have been a trap, for the shield to burst out in an explosion or some sort of terrible attack to suddenly lash out, but there was nothing. The various effects of their attacks dissipated to reveal only a charred crater carved deep into the ground, scraps of metal scattered about the edges.
Ah. That’s somewhat anticlimactic.
Then something pushed him up into the air, a horrible force pulling not on his suit, but seemingly directly on his internal organs. “GAH! What the-?!” I actually remembered to cast a proper shield, and it turns out to be useless!
[Lu! What a surprise; I didn’t think we’d ever meet again!]
Lu dragged his head down as he ceased ascending, held in place by the enemy’s grip on his lungs and heart. Directly beneath him was a hole in the ground, end emerging from it was an arm and head – it was the less interesting Junk Dog clansman. I guess he was a psychic as well. Much less mutated than I would – ARGH! – have expected. “Pardon, sir, I don’t think we’ve met.” Spellforms spooled out in his head as he spoke. “You must be mistaking me for someone else.”
The man’s head tilted. [Ah, you don’t-? Right, my body. Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter – I would have enjoyed speaking with you, but circumstances have arranged themselves to make us enemies. May you find peace in the innumerable deadworlds, or wherever it is your people rest after death.]
The pain in his upper chest built, and Lu fired two Lightning Palms straight at the psychic’s head. His pitch-black eyes widened- and the pressure on Lu’s internals lessened a small fraction as the tines of electricity bent away to ground themselves in the desert sand. Then it returned tenfold, and his lungs began turning to pulp.
Space Ripper! Space- why isn’t my technique working? Somehow, the psychic was locking down space. Out the corner of his eye, Lu distractedly noticed that a forest seemed to have appeared out of the desert, strange barkless trees attempting to entangle the other disciples. No help from them, not soon enough to matter. His heart burst, and his dantian started to creak ominously. Space Ripper! Wind Scythe! Light Ray! F-fireball! Fireballfireballfireball! SPACIAL FREEZE! “ARGH! Who are you?!”
All of his spells were deflected, or failed to go off at all. Some strange mix of ki and qi was surrounding his armour, tearing into everything he threw out. [You would know me as the Grandmaster. I’m glad you made use of my knowledge – truly, this is nothing personal.] His face held no expression at all. [Know that our meeting has changed the fate of both our worlds. In the end, you were one of the most important people to ever exist – I hope that brings you some solace.]
The crystal in Lu’s chest cracked, a horrible sensation that was terribly familiar. He screamed, unable to hear his own voice, and fired spell after spell desperately-
And then, miraculously, the pressure abated. Lu dropped to the ground limply, barely conscious. Did that last Lightning Palm..? No, doesn’t matter. He dragged the forms for Golden Benevolence together and his heart began beating again. Another, and his lungs reconstituted. One more, and the pain was finally manageable enough for him to care about why he wasn’t dead.
He looked up, and saw that the man’s head had been pierced through – no, that was insufficient; nine-tenths of his head was gone, vaporised by the spell still issuing from Tai Sho’s extended palm. Grey flames ate into the neck-stump, then the shoulder, and continued to sublimate the corpse as Lu watched.
His mouth moved, and Lu thought to cancel his vibration-deadening art. “-logies, Sir Lu. Something was blocking my spells; I had to resort to a ninth realm attack to break through.”
…Oh, he must have been invisible this whole time. Damn, why wasn’t I invisible? That’s a much better defense than a shield spell! “Th… thank you, senior brother. I thought that was the end.” I really don’t like owing my life to this man, but it beats being killed by a wide margin.
The smokeless grey flame dipped below his vision, eating into the psychic’s body underground. Behind him he could hear the sounds of battle as his peers engaged the anomalous forest, but it was impossible to turn his head away. I really thought I had improved my combat abilities, but in the end I needed to be saved. Am I really this inept..?
…No, no. Thinking about it, there was really not any particular flaw in my strategies. He simply had a direct counter for my spacial techniques, spells, and super-durable armour. Ah, when I think about it like that, that man was actually more like a core disciple or an Elder, even. Though much less physically impressive. He shook his head. Right, there was nothing I could do about such a vast difference in raw strength – so I should focus on the remaining enemy. They won’t have sent two Elder-level fighters, that would be too much! And we’d be dead already!
He turned, and constructed yet another Fireball. “Thank you again. I believe I’ll go join the fight against-“
But then a voice rang in Lu’s head. It started as the voice of the psychic, but with each word it changed, any emotion or tone bleeding out – while projected emotion bled in, thousands of impressions entering for a fraction of a second before dissipating like vapour.
[The body- The body- The body-!]
[the body is]
[the body is]
[the body is a shell]
[the self is a pattern]
A thousand concepts entered and exited Lu’s head between one breath and the next, and some of what he’d heard while being squeezed to death filtered back in. Oh dear. I think I’ve figured out who you are, now.
[too late]