They were now flying over the ranks of unlaunched plunge ships. A dull grey field of ship’s hulls that Josh was still having a hard time believing how wide it was. He hadn’t been trained in reconnaissance, but the neat rows did allow for a rough estimate using simple multiplication. His science mind gave him the number all too quickly…Gods!?! That’s way too many! There were approximately twenty thousand ships remaining in the assault force against the Brigantine—was at least a factor of five more than the steady trickle that had already been launched. It was just a matter of time before the city ship was overwhelmed and all the Kaizuko onboard were lost...

They finally crossed the last of the intervening missiles full of undead and arrived at the Dreadnought. At their arrival, the static shield to the command bridge’s hangar opened, and Sen guided their ship in. Setting it down near the exit portal for a quick escape if they somehow managed to get out of here.

Josh was bouncing on the balls of his feet as Sen put the ship into standby and nodded for them to go. They turned and charged down the gangplank into—an empty hangar...

No Kyon Shi.

No undead.

No Alysa.

Not even other ships.

After their last run-in, both he and Sen had their Mentation shields tightly wrapped around their minds for protection. Using their mindscape to find Alysa wasn’t an option. They’d have to use their brains instead.

Josh gave Sen a questioning look. ~Well?~

~Well, brother…~ Sen rolled his eyes. ~I know it’s a complicated military strategy, but let’s start by going through the open door at the end of the hangar.~

~Funny. You’re a real riot, Sen.~ Josh grunted in a mental sigh.

They moved quickly toward the door Sen pointed out. It was in fact the only exit to the otherwise completely empty hangar.

Standing next to the portal, Josh raised an eyebrow. ~Alright, ‘Mr. Strategy,’ should we pie the door?~

Sen nodded affirmatively and they sectioned their entry for minimal exposure.

As the top-knotted monk smoothly stepped through the portal first, Kyon Shi’s dry laughter contemptuously rolled over them from far back on the other side.

Sneering, Josh followed Sen into the room beyond. Strangely, his first thought was that, if anything, the ship’s environment was as far from a crypt as you could get. Glossy-white hull plates reflected the lighting from above and their clean, sterile surfaces. There were also several similarly finished structural supports about as wide as columns in a Grecian temple sparsely emplaced throughout the space.

But nothing stood between them and the impishly grinning Kyon Shi. The energy drainer stood at-ease approximately fifty yards before them. A heavy hood cowled his gloating and undead bat-face while his slim form stood calmly with its feet spread under a thick robe that would be at hold on a lich’s shoulders. And his hands were held casually behind his back.Cruel laughter at their antics subtly shook his narrow shoulder as it peeled through the air to them.

With Josh’s enhanced vision, he could see Kyon Shi’s cloudy eyes as they danced in the shadow of his cloak with an evil glee. Apparently happy that the wait was over and his fun could now begin. The vampire’s cackling had increased at their useless precautions with the portal and cloudy gray puffs of decay had begun to fill the air around him. Flakes of his dead lungs belching from his short mummified snout.

Laugh it up while you can, you piece of crap! A part of Josh’s mind couldn’t help but guess that something as ugly as Kyon Shi didn’t have many opportunities to be jolly. Then his eyes narrowed as he saw Alysa being held in a psychic hover off the ground a dozen yards behind Kyon Shi. The evil jawa had clearly positioned himself between them and her, and she was still wearing her EVA. Josh couldn’t see any physical restraints. She was two feet off the ground, upright and completely ridgid. Her facial expression hadn’t changed at their arrival and she wasn’t tracking them with eye movements.

Definitely being held in some form of mental or cultivator paralysis.

Unexpectedly, Kyon Shi was alone. Time to get to work!

~It’s not going to get better than this. Ready?~ Josh sent To Sen.

~Yes. But… be prepared, brother. We are the fly to his spider. I am sure all is not as it seems. Though, we have no meaningful options.~

That was true enough. The energy drainer had been holding them by the short and curlies since their confrontation in Dezain’s mental space. There was nothing about having to confront him on his own Dreadnaught that was going to change that...

But… ~Make a plan. Follow the plan. Stick to the plan!~ Josh psychically yelled

They both flash-charged the small robed figure with their swords out ready for blood. Or whatever a fifty-thousand-year-old energy drainer had in its corpse.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

Their only real plan was to Obi-Wan and Anakin his Count Dooku butt.

Significantly, Sen had made sure to have Josh promise that he wouldn’t charge in first. And his top-knotted karmic brother had even seen the ‘historical recreation series of Star Wars five times,’ He agreed that the planned ‘two-on-one’ tactic was the best chance they had to overcome Kyon Shi.

Simple and true. Josh was ready as ready as he could be, charging two paces behind Sen at the unmoving and seemingly unconcerned villain who was barely shifting his spread feet in the bald face of their aggression.

Plain as day to Aural sight, Kyon Shi had four types of Essence swirling in his Core—yellow, indigo, green, and violet. The only one Josh recognized for sure was the violet of mind Essence. Though, Ritoru Dezain, the brigantine’s former commander, had also had yellow and indigo Essence. He had used a lot of speed and space manipulation and telekinetic abilities. On top of this, Kyon Shi also seemed to have a secondary Core fueled by some kind of grey-black muck that ran parallel with his Meridians.

Josh suspected this was most likely his grey core. The undead cultivatory component Sen had told him about that the spiritually risen held their undead fire in. The undead equivalent of Essence for healing purposes. Used for recovery from injuries but also to dominate living spiritual beings. Aside from being ugly, there were cons and limitations to being undead. The finite amount of ‘undead fire’ was apparently one of them. This grey-black sludge was somehow formed from Essence absorbed from living and the dead alike. Just like how he absorbed Aura and core Essence from spirit beings. But, as Sen had told him, it took a lot longer for the spiritually risen to refine undead fire than it took living cultivators to purify Essence from iterational aura. On top of this, when an undead’s gray Core was empty, they could no longer heal. Not unless they had dominated undead minions already formed from and controlled by their undead fire within the spiritually risen’s dominance range that they could recall like a defaulted bank loan. Once ‘recalled,’ the undead fire from the minions could be used as an instant ‘refill of the tank’ for them so to speak. Really good for the master. But not so much for the minion. The recall of the master’s undead fire sent the harvested minion to their second and final death.

Kyon Shi recalling his undead fire from his minions needed to be avoided. Striking fast and hard was the biggest part of their plan. Unless they took Kyon Shi down in short order, there would likely be some surprises. A steep learning curve from his unknown attunements was something Josh really wanted to avoid. Having just been on the other side of an Attunement difference in fighting Ritoru Dezain’s singly attuned Kaizuko guards, Josh was sure Kyon Shi was sitting back and buffing his nails waiting for their pathetic charge to reach him…And that was scary the bejeezus out of him. On the other hand, Sen had pointed out that, compared to other Cultivators, their Clone-given Boons had definitely amplified their power gains during the Earth and Mind Attunements beyond what average advancing cultivators could expect. They had a significant difference in the strength, speed, Essence volume, etc…, compared with what other Cultivators received during advancements.

Could their boons be enough to even the playing field?

Unknown.

Reality was, that until one second ago, they hadn’t even known how many Attunements the vampire had.

Still, it would be two-on-one with a former Immortal combat specialist and one pissed-off lawyer from the South Side with more than excellent earth shield control versus Kyon Shi’s old and moldy.

Maybe our optimized physiology and spirituality can narrow the difference between us and this quad-attuned scum bag…hopefully.

Despite being life-long friends with Murphy’s law… Josh thought they had a chance. Maybe he could rope-a-dope the energy drainer with his earth shield, and Sen could move in for the kill like they had with Nagal. Maybe?

It’s really not that bad a strategy for the three minutes of planning we had during our transport flight from the Brigantine. Not bad at all. He was almost out right optimistic in the final second as they closed in on Kyon Shi.

Sadly, Josh and Sen’s date with density ordered the lobster...

Three quarters of the way to the energy drainer, an indigo Essence-portal opened, and a six-legged skeletal salamander shot out like a missile and crashed into Sen. All six of its limbs wrapped around and took the monk down like a roided out pro linebacker on a highschool freshman. Locked tight, the two tumble-rolled over the decking out of Josh’s peripheral vision.

~Sen!?~

No response.

This was a problem…a BIG problem. Sure, Josh’s long hours of training with Sen and the Sundai Clan had drastically improved his fighting skills and combat mindset. But there was no plan to fight Kyon Shi where he was anything but second fiddle!

The widening smile on Kyon Shi’s desiccated lips testified that a mano a mano with Josh had been his plan all along.

Josh could almost hear the energy drainer’s raspy voice commanding his second with gloating confidence and then barking a Dr. Evil laugh that could make even Mike Myers jealous,

‘Separate them. So that I can deal with the weaker combatant first. Then we can finish the stronger at our leisure.

And Josh had to admit it was a darn good plan. One he should have realized was in the words from the get go. Sen had definitely seen its possibility, but wisely kept it close to his vest to stop Josh from freaking out.

In the ironically slowed mental time the universe gave him before what was sure to be his destruction, Josh had to admit Sen had made the right choice. Given a second to think about it, Josh would have balked at a suicidal-head-on solo rush against Kyon Shi. Still Josh knew with certainty that his obligation to stall the energy drainer so could finish with him was unchanged. True! That time was now longer so that Sen could deal with the bone daddy that had just ambushed him and get back to their main event. Nothing had changed about that fact that only together did they have any kind of chance against Kyon Shi!

Shivers ran up and down Josh’s spine at the sight of the leering menace looming in front of him. A split microsecond of thought told Josh that the smart play was to slow down, back off with his sword raised, and try to find a way to stall until Sen was back…

And Josh almost did that… But for the dead, absolute certainty that this was exactly what Kyon Shi was expecting him to do.

Without question, the undead’s plan centered around Josh making that conservative and absolutely wise choice…But, since their first encounter they had always been on the back foot making the smart moves. They had been doing nothing but tactically responding to their enemy’s well laid out strategies and falling farther and farther behind him. What they hadn’t been doing was proactively making their own plans to put him away. As a result, the Spiritually Risen vampire had been all too easily leading them down the path to slaughter.

This is no way to run a railroad Joshy…Or kill an undead energy drainer. I can’t take the easy way out, can I?

Nope. Josh answered the rhetorical question echoing between his ears.

Instead, likely accelerating to a painful end, Josh continued his full speed charge at Kyon Shi without stopping.

Even if I only get less than an instant of surprise from the mummified monster before I get squashed like a bug, it's better than being forced into following the smarmy bastard’s plan.

With what could only be called unsound reasoning for a battle strategy, Josh arrived at Kyon Shi. A spiritually risen undead lich, obviously less than impressed with the Chicago lawyer’s decision.

The energy drainer was standing in a flat-footed stance, rolling his calcified eyes as an emaciated hand shot up to grab Josh’s blade out of the air. Instantly the reed thin arms yanked it from his hands with strength that no earthly logic said they should possess. His single hand easily then bent Josh’s bastard sword bent into a T-square with the simple flexion of a closed fist. Sighing a stinking cloud in Josh’s face, Kyon Shi tossed the ruined blade over his shoulder as a bony fist punched a hole through Josh’s earth shield and grabbed his throat in a cold, hard vice. The rest of Josh’s shield shattered into evaporating golden-orange motes of Essence as he was slammed down onto the deck plates with a simple shifting of the smaller figure’s weight.

Crouching over the befuddled human in a one knee raised position, the other on crushing down on his creaking ribs, Kyon Shi sighed with his calcified eyes wide and staring. “Really? Running out like a stabbing fool was your plan?!” The undeads free hand gestured in the air generously to the side, “... I understand you would have a need to attempt violence before the eventuality of my superiority was realized…but if this is really all you have to back the attempt up…I’m a beginning to be disappointed in your abilities and sanity–,”

With no hope to succeed and nothing to lose, Josh reached up with both hands and grabbed the vampire’s mummified head on either side. Breathing heavily from the incredible strength of the undead choking his throat and crushing his ribs, Josh puffed out. “Oh, I don’t know about that... coming out like a stabby man has gotten me here, didn't it?”

Josh acted.

Kyon Shi only had time for a shocked expression to cross his cold face as the human activated a cultivator skill that exceeded his understanding.

Josh had some very shallow suspicions about what his Tetrahedral Hybrid skill did and what I might do in a circumstance like this. But being a split second from what was likely his death…or worse… The human thought of it as his very last chance.

If Josh had had a second to think about it, he would have been as surprised as Kyon Shi was when their physical bodies froze and both their minds were hurled down a deep and seemingly unending hole.