I hadn’t dipped into my mana at all, merely using up most of my mana generation. I pulled my fists up, setting into a stance. It was amazing how fighting against the weak made you pick up bad habits. While a good experience, the swarm lacked Kessiah’s lethality. A battle rust shone on my form, and I tried polishing it away before the battle did it for me.
Staring at Kessiah, there was a bottomless abyss. I walked right along the cliff’s edge, darting the line when I faced her.
She mouthed while cracking her knuckles,
“You ready?”
The ascendant mana roared in my fists. I found a sea of calm amidst the mana storm,
“Always.”
Chapter Begin
I stomped my foot and charged forward. The ground ripped, cracks spreading across the pavement like fractured webs, but I kept steady using my telekinetic augments. Facing me from her side, Kessiah shot out a simple jab with her left hand once I reached her.
I ducked sideways to her left, stepping away from her midline. If I ducked the other way, she could counter with her right hand and use my dodge against me. This step left her body exposed. Taking full advantage, I stomped my front foot into the ground. My telekinetic augments dug into the pavement like cleats, giving me the traction I needed for maximum force.
I spiraled like wind surrounding the eye of a hurricane. The unstable force almost threw me off balance with how much power I put into my punch. My hand hammered into Kessiah’s side, and my telekinetic constructs shattered. After they snapped, my fist caved inwards. I let out a growl of frustration.
The booming echo radiated through the sound chamber made by Torix. The might of the explosive force sent a rush of air from the center of impact. Kessiah dragged sideways, the pavement beneath her feet crumbling. She laughed at my broken arm, though the expression carried more than snark. The laugh held surprise, respect, and a knowing experience.
“It looks like our fight is going to end earl-”
I grabbed the broken arm and pulled it into place. Arm bracers formed over the limb, and I held my fists back up. Despite my health pool and density, Kessiah’s body carried immense fortitude. Her density dwarfed mine, and hitting her was punching a wall of cinderblocks before the system. I would take my time from here on out.
She raised a brow at me before stepping forward. She shot out a right cross at me, and the speed I had amassed hardly kept up with her. Hell, I could hardly see her strike. However, the levelling perks exposed their power in this fight.
Despite having the same perception as before, I comprehended the blows with eyes opened wide. I leaned backward, her fist reaching the very limits of its range, tapping my helm. Her skin made contact, but no force transferred into my face. It was the lightest graze imaginable.
Her fist pulled back as I stood to her left side. I snapped a vicious, short kick straight into her inner thigh. A high-pitched clang sounded out, and the force of the strike caused Kessiah’s front leg to dig into the ground. My own foot stayed stable because of my telekinetic buffers.
She leaned onto her backfoot, trying to step back again. Her front foot caught in the pavement, slowing her down by a split second. It was long enough for me to step forward and launch another kick at her. This time, I aimed at the right side of her stomach.
Kessiah crouched downward, blocking my kick with her elbow. My armor bent, but it did not break, holding enough to transmit the kick’s force. Kessiah stumbled sideways, her feet punching through the pavement. She couldn’t get a good grip on the ground. It was too soft as it had been against Dahkma.
With my telekinetic augments, I didn’t have to worry about that. I stepped toward her before she lifted her left foot. Pieces of pavement flew toward my face, blinding me. They shouldn’t have. I wore my helm, and it kept my face protected from debris like that. As I wrestled against blindness, Kessiah kept her leg up, pulled it back, then kicked my chest.
My ribs caved, and blood exploded out of my mouth, eyes, and ears. I flew backward and crashed into the underside of the bridge. Concrete dust flew down as Kessiah put her hand on her mouth,
“Oh shit. I hit him way too hard.”
I fell from the cloud of powdered concrete. Landing on my feet, the pavement cracked before I grabbed my chest and tugged. It pulled into place before armor reinforced the shattered ribs. Healing began as mana dimmed in my runes. Kessiah murmured,
“Huh…Just how quickly do you regenerate now?”
I spoke, my voice gurgling on my own blood.
“Fast enough.”
I ran at her, and Kessiah winced as I approached. I ducked down, almost falling to my left. I dragged my right foot behind my fall, counterbalancing with my strike. The blow slammed into the side of Kessiah’s knee, and I pulled back into place.
The impact detonated before releasing a satisfying boom. The armor on my foot caved in, crushing one of the toes in my foot. Kessiah’s leg shifted to her side, causing her to fall onto one knee as she lost her balance. Her leg still caused my foot to bounce back, and the shock of the blow radiated up through my hip and spine.
It was like slamming a sledgehammer into a giant rock. If you didn’t break the rock, the impact bounced back into your hands and arms. That happened with my leg. When my foot landed onto the ground, I widened my telekinetic augments, further dispersing my kinetic energy throughout the limb.
The pavement cracked outwards, caving into a crater under my foot, but I kept steady enough to push off the leg. Flowing like liquid metal, my body carried the force of my landing. I turned my core towards my left side, letting me chain my momentum into another kick. My left foot shot upwards like a cannon, snapping straight into Kessiah’s face.
She grinned, grabbing the limb in one of her hands. Her knees buckled from the force of my blow before she stepped forward. Her other fist reared back, and she swung at my gut. I wrapped the tendrils of my armor around her blocking arm, giving me a grip. Pulling from an alien angle, I curled my leg and hopped.
I pulled myself around her, and she gawked, astonishment robbing her speed. Like a monstrous gymnast, I pulled myself into a back bend from that insane position. My arms grasped her shoulders before I released her blocking arm and pulled my body. Like a pendulum, I slung my legs in a large circle before kneeing Kessiah’s back.
She swung up and off the ground into the air. I hadn’t overpowered her. Instead, I overwhelmed the ground as it couldn’t withstand the force of my impact. And so, Kessiah tumbled backward. Heavy as she was, she dug a trench through the road before rolling back onto her feet. She wiped a bit of blood from her lip,
“Damn. You weren’t kidding when you said you were ready. You’ve even got some new tricks.”
I nodded.
“Surely you do too?”
Kessiah’s expression dimmed, her battle fervor fading as memories crashed over her.
“I…I may.”
She held back despite everything we went through up until now. While she had her reasons, we nearly died from that self repression. Adding salt to the wound, she demonstrated a shadow of her actual abilities, and I still couldn’t match her at all. A bit of frustration built in me, whether fair or not.
I held it down while charging back at her. My stomps crushed into the ground before she sidestepped to my left. I slammed my right foot into the ground, forming a small crater underfoot. She kicked to my side, but I checked her kick by lifting my left knee. The sound of caving metal and tearing skin ebbed as her foot slammed into my leg.
The ground beneath my right foot crushed further along with the pavement under Kessiah’s own feet. It was like we were blending the road into a chunky salsa of pavement and dirt. I flew up and off the ground from the full brunt of her blow. I flopped through the air before Kessiah dashed forward.
Chunks of the road pelted backward, and she threw a punch like throwing a baseball. The weighted strike landed straight across my chin while I was upside down. Sent spiraling once more, I tumbled across the ground with a shattered jaw. I could feel two teeth tumbling in my mouth along with the warmth of fresh blood.
The taste of iron flooded my tongue, and I rolled onto my feet. The pavement crunched before Kessiah charged once more. I wasn’t heavy enough to take her head on. It felt like I never would be. I needed to deflect her shots if I was going to have a chance. From between my armor’s fangs, I spit out my real teeth before they regenerated.
I set my jaw, wriggling the bones in place. The wound stitched itself as I walked at her again. She blinked.
“Wow…For a second, I thought you might even be a bit scary.”
Mana surged from me as my armor grinned.
“And you’re more than a bit terrifying. Did you really have to follow up with that punch while I was midair?”
Kessiah’s eyes narrowed.
“You’re tough. You’ll be fine.”
More frustration mounted, and I dashed at her again. Kessiah kicked at me as if knocking a door open. I caught her right leg under my left side while slamming my right elbow downward. I dented my elbow against her knee. Kessiah grunted in pain before she jumped to me using her other leg. The force of her hop dragged me backward.
I lowered my left knee and lifted her caught leg up, pulling with all my strength. Mana deluged every pore of my body, and I summoned an amount of energy I’d never wielded. It rushed into my runes before becoming power. I roared as Kessiah lifted off the road. I spun her over me and slammed her into the ground.
A shockwave ebbed from the collision. A wave rippled through the pavement, tearing the road apart and forming a crater. I burned over ten thousand mana in a single maneuver. Burning through my resources, I let Kessiah go before lifting my foot and stomping down at her ribs.
My heel bent against her chest three times before Kessiah lifted her fist into the air. Her hand blurred as she slammed it into the ground. Another shockwave blistered out from the hit. Dust, dirt, and mud flew into my eye slit. Unlike chunks of pavement, dust flew into my helm just fine.
With a surge of exertion, I commanded my eyelids not to close. Seeing little, Kessiah grabbed my leg. I blinked out tears as she pulled me off my feet like a sack of potatoes. She hurled me over her head, and I rushed to the ground. Wielding telekinesis, I created a panel underneath my hands.
I flopped into the panel, and my will wavered. I hardly held the panel together, but it transferred force into my foot. It jerked out of Kessiah’s hand, and my leg broke. I let out a growl as I flung through the air. She dashed to me, but I shoved at the ground, hitting myself again using telekinesis.
I flopped to the bridge above. Kessiah jumped, and I created spines in my palms and feet. Like a three legged spider, I walked sideways as Kessiah crashed into the bridge. Concrete dust erupted from her attack, and the entire bridge quaked. Hiding in the dust cloud, I fixed my leg using my armor. Seconds passed like minutes as she hunted me.
Her face appeared over me in the dust.
“Found you.”
She struck at me once more. I jumped off the underside of the bridge, dodging by a hair’s breadth. She followed, landing before I did. She raised a hand, ready to grab me. I kicked down, a telekinetic pad forming under my foot. The telekinetic pad hit her face, and I jumped off the rebounding force while flipping in the air.
I spiralled several times and lost all awareness of where I was. Landing on the ground, I peered around. She kicked me from behind. My shin cracked. I lifted my other arm across my face while removing my helm. The earlier dirt fell out of my helmet before Kessiah kicked at my other leg.
My foot swiped out from under me. I fell backwards and pulled my helmet back on. The armor slid back into place as the back of my head crushed into the pavement. Kessiah jumped on top of me, wrestling with my arms before mounting my chest. She pinned me before raising her fist above her head.
Terror flooded over me in a palpable wave. She slammed her hand down. I bent my neck sideways like a contortionist. When her strike landed beside my face, that eardrum rang before she whalloped her other hand at me. I bent my neck towards the right before her strike deafened my other eardrum.
She lifted her right hand up and slammed her palm to my face. My neck bent again, but she kept her hand there. I couldn’t move my face as she lifted her left hand and smiled. It was a vicious expression. There was no mercy in it either, and for a moment, I worried she’d pound my face to a pulp.
Pulling from the rush of battle, I came up with a plan and acted off instinct. I lifted my left knee, linking the movement with a wave of telekinetic force to deflect her strike. At the same time, I reformed the armor on my face into a sharpened horn. I angled the spike, making the sharpened end land dead center between two of her knuckles.
The blade pierced her skin as she slammed her fist down. My spine dug three inches deep into her hand before she howled. Her head whipped back, so I lifted my right leg. The heel of the foot barely caught around her throat, but it gave enough grip to pull her back.
This caused her to arc backward while I grabbed her legs with my hands, holding her in place. I placed my left heel into the ground, and my left knee formed a triangle with my other leg. From that joint, I grew another sharpened horn. The back of Kessiah’s neck stabbed into the spine, piercing the skin slightly.
At that moment, I activated oppression. She grimaced, blood dripping down her hand and the back of her neck. Into the open wound, I sent spines of my armor. The needles sucked at her life force, devouring the enormous energy nesting in her blood. She struggled for a moment, but she mustered little strength or leverage from her position.
At the same time, I wielded all of my mana at once. It roared out in rage, and my face purpled from struggling against her as she writhed. My health regenerated slowly only because I sapped hers. My hearing returned alongside the sounds of battle. Ascendant mana roared around me.
The vapor poured from my runes like a sizzling fire just underneath the surface. My strength returned as her strength waned. My death grip tightened, like a boa constrictor choking its prey to death. In all honesty, she took little damage, but a frustration mounted in her just as it had me.
Some punk from a backwater world held her down in less than a year of being systemized. While she wouldn’t die here, I shouldn’t be posing any threat to her at all. She held all the advantages, and yet, I restrained her using all the tools at my disposal. I murmured,
“I give everything when I fight. Why won’t you?”
She scoffed.
“I don’t have to.”
Something about that spiked my anger. I coiled portions of my armor around her, the restraints growing into something more sinister. Mana oozed out of me, and it soaked into her skin. She blinked, crimson lines growing over her. I snarled.
“We nearly died because you chose to hold back against Dahkma. And guess what? You still are.”
She grimaced.
“I have my reasons.”
I couldn’t tell if the mana made me angrier or if this had been building for a while. My thoughts spilled out.
“My hometown is being churned into ground meat, and you have the power to stop it.”
Heat rose in my voice as I remembered Althea shaking from her torment in Yawm’s research facility.
“I wish I had what you had so badly. I wish I could stop Yawm from tearing people apart. You can, but you won’t. Why?”
I seethed my last words. Torix’s eyes flared bright in the distance. He stood from his chair and walked over. Kessiah snapped her words,
“You have no right to interrogate me.”
I growled, my armor and form growing more monstrous.
“I watched my friends die. I pass the corpses of my people everyday. I fight for my life against some alien monster in the distance. What would give me the right to know? When can I ask for an answer from you?”
Torix began jogging. Kessiah’s voice sharpened to a blade.
“You sure you want to know? You sure you can handle it?”
I snarled.
“Why else would I ask? When else will you answer?”
Torix formed a dark cloud before stepping onto it. Something in the air changed. A cold, sinister aura formed over Kessiah before she lifted her bleeding hand above her arched chest. The blood from her hands pooled upward from her neck and her hand. The air around us vibrated, and it could hardly contain the welling of some unknown power.
Pieces of stone floated upward, and our surroundings blurred. Dread filled my limbs and mind. Across the violet skin on her neck, crimson veins flourished and expanded. Pooling above her, the blood poured into a marking on her shoulder. It sucked the light out from around her.
The brightness around us dimmed, bending the light to the blood. My senses dimmed, not from my own weakness or lack of sight. Kessiah called forth a strange magic, and it drained everything that could be sensed. What could be heard, seen, even felt, the force drained it all.
And she gorged upon it.
Kessiah lifted her head from my knees. My armor snapped like ashen wood. Her head arched upward before she stared at me, her eyes piercing. A chill ran up my pine as she grinned,
“You wanna play with the big boys? Then let’s play.”
The needles of my armor flowed out from under her skin before she grabbed my neck. She crushed down, snapping the bone and severing my nervous system in an instant. She lifted herself upward with a single arm into a one armed handstand, handling her immense mass without struggle.
The weight pushing down on my neck cracked the ground further. With her eyes still facing me, she fell into a back bend. With a near comical level of force, she pulled on my neck. All went black. The ground appeared. The electrifying might of the collision caved my body under a tangible exhaustion.
I peered up. When my wits returned, I faced the ground. Control of my arms returned along with my sense of hearing. Torix argued with Kessiah.
“Do you want to kill him? This was a spar, not a deathmatch,” Torix snapped.
“His mana. When we grappled, some of it got under my skin. I couldn’t think when it did. I…I should’ve have done this. I’m sorry.”
“A simple sorry will not bring back the dead.”
Kessiah took a ragged breath. Her eyes watered.
“You think I don’t know that? You think I haven’t paid for this mistake before? It always happens like this.”
Torix squeezed a hand and let out a pained sigh. I shook my head. They stopped arguing as bits of rock fell from my hair. They both gawked at me, each of them stunned into silence. I tried lifting my leg, but it refused my commands. I glanced backwards, and I could see why. My legs bent out of shape as if I were a dead spider.
I sighed, lifting one of my now fixed arms. I pushed with my hand, leveraging the force via telekinesis. The redirected energy snapped a bone back into place in my leg. I winced. A few more pushes later, and my legs began healing again. About halfway through fixing my neck, a surge of nausea hit me. I vomited up a pool of blood before breathing in.
Kessiah broke my neck and crushed my armor until it choked me. I pushed myself up, stepping onto a leg. It felt new and familiar at the same time, like riding a bike after a seven-year hiatus. Once you knew how, you could always ride a bike. That didn’t mean I wanted to. I shook off the sensation before setting back into my stance.
When I tried surging my runes, they didn't answer me. Kessiah’s attack shredded my armor so completely that I would need to redo them. Shutting oppression off, I let out a tsk while letting my hands flop to my sides,
“Dammit. I never stood a chance. Sorry Kessiah. We’ll have to fight again some other day.”
Torix and Kessiah gawked at me. I frowned, peeling my helmet back to unveil my own confusion,
“Uh...What’s wrong with you two? Did a follower arrive or something?”