Xsias ground her teeth. The languid agony of the Sundai elders she had been adrift in was gone, replaced by the bright and glaring razor of all undesired things... hope. The elders' feelings of elation were so acrid that Xsias had to close her Channels and move physically away from the wide-eyed and cheering Clan.
Xsias had laughed out loud when the two Clan racers had first appeared on the hillock. One had instantly retreated while the other’s ill-conceived charge into the jaws of quick and merciless destruction had been pure folly. Both ridiculous actions had only improved her mood, and Xsias had utter confidence that her victory was mere moments away.
Then the unthinkable happened.
Nagal had been maimed and partially blinded before the dust had even settled from his initial attack. For the last thirty seconds, the Naga had gone off into an ineffectual rage against the top-knotted warrior, who seemed to have a preternatural ability to avoid Nagal’s feckless and brutish barrage. Without a doubt, the Naga was moving at more than fifty percent greater speed than the Clan runner and still the man remained unscathed. To Xsias’s eyes, the confrontation was a farce. The Sundai warrior’s unhurried yet fluid movements were always just out of reach from the faster but unrefined brute.
The blurring of Nagal’s arms and tail left color streaks as they swung at his opponent, but the movements were against a rival that was always one step ahead, somehow landing between, dodging under, and jumping over the Naga’s attacks. The timing and execution of the Sundai warrior’s movements were such that they seemed to occur before Nagal had even decided how and where to attack. The blows that couldn’t be avoided were deflected by an amazingly skillful ability to externalize his Earth Attunement into its shield form. She doubted anyone under the fourth Attunement of Spherical Cultivation would be able to match the instantaneous and partial propagations he had displayed. A chest propagation to absorb a tail stash, single arm propagations to shatter Nagal’s teeth as he attempted to bite his opponent’s arms off. Even a complete shield coverage when Nagal had managed to grab and throw him up into the air and rapidly used his breath attack while the warrior was still falling.
The obviously effective nature of the trap the two Clan members had executed could not be denied. Is Nagal going to fail? Should I activate a contingency?
The internal thought surprised Xsias. She had no current plans in play that accounted for Nagal being beaten by a singly Attuned warrior. The possibility was so remote that she hadn’t even considered it a possibility let alone a low probability outcome that she needed to prepare for.
Her scowl darkened. Xsias’ current ‘contingencies’ were all much less eloquent and required her direct involvement. Something she wanted to avoid given the power difference between her and several of the Sundai Elders. Particularly Gusti Sundai.
Her gaze smoldered over Nagal’s struggling form. No matter the outcome... you will pay for the incompetence that put me in this position! At her core, Xsias wasn’t a gambler. She preferred overwhelming odds in her favor, with outcomes already determined long before she acted.
Closing her eyes and letting a micro-gyra of calm reinforce her thinking. Grinding her teeth, Xsias focused her attention on the statistical probabilities at work. Shoving any vestiges of compromising emotions to the side, she became as objective as possible.
It’s still unlikely that this warrior can continue his flawless evasion indefinitely.
Nagal had twice the warrior’s physical speed and strength, allowing no margin for error.
It’s still much more likely that the Clansman will slip up sooner rather than later.
Nagal might be bloodied, but when the stinging gnat slipped up... Nagal would be more than ready and capable of devouring him in one bite.
With steadied nerves, Xsias relaxed after working through her logical deductions. Her plan would succeed despite this bump in the road—
Finally.
Seeing the sudden change in the fight's momentum, a razor-sharp smile lit up Xsias’s obsidian eyes. It won’t be long now!
* * * * *
A red light flashed rapidly and way too brightly into Josh’s eyes...
Please no... not yet... just a little more sleep...
He struggled to turn from the bright light... but his body wouldn’t respond.
Weird...
Either his body wasn’t under his control... or his arms and legs were missing!
Wha-what’s... going on...
The red light started to flash even more quickly and even more annoyingly. Josh opened his eyes to try and stop it... I don’t have any eyes!
Like watching a massive object far in the distance rapidly accelerate toward you... Josh’s memories of the dual impacts of smashing into Nagal and then—
I’m… in a huge crater like some Looney Toons character, aren’t I? He tried and failed to blink some sense into his thoughts before turning them outward. Sen?
A voice from somewhere inside Josh ordered him sharply, “Sen is doing his job! Heal now, so you can get out there and do yours!”
Well, that… sounds like a good plan… I’ll just… He tried to do a rough check of his condition, but again—he couldn’t move his limbs and trunk. Where to start?
The flashing red light’s frequency increased...
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
What are the chances this red flashing is a happy taillight on the bird of paradise taking me to a nirvana of joyful bliss, and not a DEFCON 1 beacon indicating I’m currently on the edge of complete destruction? Josh studied its harsh, intermittent glare. If anything, the intensity of the light increased, impressing on him a sense of even greater desperation. Yeah, I figured the chance of the former was slim to none… Josh drunkenly thought. But it can’t really be that bad, right? I mean if I was—
A jolt of fear lanced through Josh’s mind as some part of him recognized the incoherent nature of his thoughts. Another, admittedly larger part of his mind continued to ruminate in a space of misplaced optimism while the steely core of Josh’s psyche turned its attention toward his current condition.
Josh immediately started circulating Essence to his Meridians... He then realized his Meridians didn’t end in organs... or limbs... almost as if his entire body had been torn apart, ruptured or… exploded.
It was with a mixed emotional bag of confirmation, horror, and a chagrined acceptance that he took in his current state through what few supernatural senses remained to him, apparently the natural ones that relied on the use of his body were currently… unavailable.
Everything was gone except a tiny ribbon of channels between his Core and the central portion of his hind, mid, and forebrain.
Classic coup-contrecoup injury...
The somehow still functional science lab part of Josh’s mind informed him about the concept of two brain injuries resulting from one traumatic impact. The initial injury from the first hit and the second injury when the brain slammed into the other side of the skull from the momentum it gained.
But… to my whole body!
In his case, massive injuries had occurred to Josh everywhere and all at once, as a result of Nagal’s… It wasn’t quite a shoulder-check. The Naga had been far too tall for that. An ab or chest-slam maybe…–
Focus Josh! The disembodied voice steered Josh back to action.
Somehow, he had continued and was still channeling the earth shield, which was good.
It’s likely the only thing that kept what was left of me from spilling onto the sand and rocks like a chunky, blood-slushy!
After three seconds of circulation, the red light, which was somehow communicating with what was left of his brain, stopped speeding up and slowed. After ten seconds, it stopped. Josh’s nerves, including the damaged portions of his brain, had grown back enough to feel the first wave of searing, crushing, white-light-blinding pain...
And my eyes haven’t even regrown yet!
Fighting to maintain control of the healing process, despite feeling worse as he got better, Josh had the guts to check his status.
Physical Health Status:
510/5000
Spherical Cultivation units
Free Essence:
3000/4050
Spherical Cultivation units
Fifteen seconds later, his organs had regrown and his bones had reformed with muscles and ligaments attached. He finally cut Essence to his shield and accelerated Healing to his ears and dominant right eye. He chose both hearing organs mainly because of his coming need for balance. Without both he’d be wobbling like a drunken sailor on a dry dock. He focused on those areas for two seconds.
Skin and my left eye are going to have to wait...
Josh pushed his way out of the loose gravel and rocks that had fallen over him and staggered in the direction that he felt his Bond with Sen. His sword was gone... God knew where... but his Aspect Facet was still somehow present under his left shoulder.
Josh reached inside and pulled out his titan short sword. He flipped it upside down, holding the blade in his hand and brandished the heavy pommel like a club. As he crested the rim of his impact crater, he saw Sen repeatedly bouncing like a giant-sword-swinging, anime-vampire-ninja just inside and out of Nagal’s reach.
Seeing everything was under control, Josh took two more seconds to fill his free Essence and gold-orange streamers of energy began to surround him.
Sensing his brother’s rise, Sen turned his head and smiled in the middle of a backflip away from Nagal’s never-ending cascade of attacks. Distracted, he landed one-footed on a section of ground already incinerated and turned to glass. Josh didn’t know if it was blood, sweat, or the blowing sand from Sen and Nagal’s passage that had caused the slip, but the result was the same.
Sen slid and careened back for a split second before he regained control. His one-footed slide sent him into the already waiting grasp and jaws of Nagal.
Sen had already fully propagated his earth shield to protect his body from Nagal’s slashing claws and fangs and looked like nothing so much as an orange chew toy in a pit bull’s thrashing head. Sen would only last seconds being held off the ground like he was!
Ackkk!
~Sorry, Sen! I’m coming – Duck!~
~... ~
Josh channeled Essence to his legs and activated his shield as he charged Nagal and the struggling Sen from the Naga’s right side. Pulling the pommel of the short sword back like a tennis racquet, Josh streaked across the 300 meters at full speed and swung for the fences at Nagal’s head.
Josh couldn’t cut through the scales of the Naga like Sen had somehow, but just like Josh had been turned, if very briefly, into sapient goo after he hit the ground with his shield blazing, Josh bet he could clock the frakker just fine with the heavy end of his sword at maximum acceleration. Josh’s goal was to do to Nagal’s brain what the nagal’s ab-slam and subsequent cratering had done to him—making it slosh around and around while smashing back and forth into the walls of his own skull a few dozen times. Josh wasn’t sure if it would work but he was determined to find out!
Sen shifted his head and neck to the side as Josh blurred in. Nagal, with blood in his one remaining eye, may have heard Josh approaching or not, but it was clear he only currently cared about biting through Sen’s shield and tearing his head off now that he finally had the troublesome warrior-monk in his grasp...
Josh closed in and activated his weapon enhancement skill. It snapped up the blade and covered the pommel in the familiar orange and gold glow of Earthen enhancement as he reached out to Sen through their Bond. ~Trust me... it’s physics... and she can be a real bitch!~
The gold-glowing, thick metal pommel and all of Josh’s strength and acceleration slammed into the Naga’s relatively stationary head. F=MA, and Josh had a boatload of A, baby! Upon contact, Nagal’s skull was instantly battered three feet to the left, slamming into and mercilessly crushing his free-floating brain. The blow’s force dragged the rest of Nagal’s stunned body behind the impact, causing it to bend like an upside-down U and crash into the ground.
A not-inconsiderable cloud of dust rose from the impact as the Naga’s brain slammed into the far wall of its cranium… and then the near wall… and repeated the cycle again. Several times, until all of the physical momentum was absorbed...
And no penetration of the naga’s scales was required. Josh deviously pointed out to himself.
The pommel of Josh’s makeshift titan short club shattered. The pieces of the mundane weapon scattered across the battlefield behind the Naga, leaving Josh holding a more than slightly bent blade.
Nagal, after having his brain splattered on the inside of his skull like a bug on a windshield, was momentarily less than battle-ready. Stunned with multiple concussions, his hands unconsciously dropped Sen’s body.
With his earth shield still active, Sen flipped out of reach and landed next to the out-of-breath, skinless, and generally still mangled Josh. His facial bones hadn’t healed, and his one restored eye threatened to pop out of his unaligned orbit.
Sen did a double take at Josh’s appearance but held his comments to himself while Nagal rose like a drunkard, initially facing the wrong way and before quickly pivoting toward the brothers who were, once again, standing side by side and waiting for him even if they were slightly worse for wear.
Slurring his words over broken teeth and a shredded tongue, “Goohhd, you’re sstthill alllive... I cann kihllll you agaihhn!”
Rattled or not, the incandescence glow of his chest scales grew as he prepared to release his flame attack.
Josh raised a finger and smiled through his gruesome visage. His one eye wavered as it lifted to look Nagal in the naga’s matching singular remaining eye. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Nagal... at least, not until I introduce you to the rest of the Clan’s runners and our... guests...”
At Josh’s words, Tono, Li’l Jorn, Meni, and the rest of the Clan’s runners rapidly filled in to stand around Josh and Sen. With them were fourteen of the Gandun Union competitors holding twelve of the Savoy Corp.’s runners, all neatly restrained and mostly subdued with slowly healing wounds. The few still conscious put up a token resistance at being publicly shown off as the trophy they were, but their efforts were feeble and quickly put down by the Clan’s racers.
Several of the Clan were also wounded. But they were assisted by companions not busy with escort duty and were rapidly on the mend.
“...I’m betting your boss, whoever they are, wouldn’t want you to cook their runners along with us... would they?” Josh’s expression took on a severe look, and the grip on the naked blade in his hand tightened as he stared past the Naga to the waiting area... and the person who really mattered, whoever was holding this monster’s leash. “But if I’m wrong... cook away!”
The rage building in Nagal’s chest exploded over his face as he screamed in defiance and the light shining through his thorax became blinding. “I walk the path of the Dragon! No one contr—”
The Naga didn’t get anything else out before he was frozen rigid in place by Xsias’s unseen clenched fist.
Reading the crowd, Josh nodded to Sen and the rest of the Clan racers as they sped toward the entrance of the Blessed One’s race. They dropped their ‘guests’ at the gate, and the forty-nine clan members flashed through.
Through clenched teeth, the tall, pale vampiress couldn’t help but make her voice heard by all as she activated a Techno Lord portal sigil. Speaking just before she disappeared in a flash of blue, “Well played... I’m sure we will meet again...”