Codename: Freedom - Book 5 - Chapter 37

The remaining six rank D users didn’t dare to scale the manticore or go around it. The exception was Brendon Black who jumped up to the monster’s side. With a shield in his left hand and Warhammer in his right, he stood lazily as he smirked up at me.

“Are you going to keep running?” the man challenged.

“Why would I leave when there’s a perfectly good point offering itself up to me?” I asked.

Grinning widely, the man showed his teeth. “So you want me to have my men stand down so we can have a fair fight?”

I slowed my forward movement as I idly pushed myself back and forth between the gap a good twenty yards above them. Then I replied. “Why would I want that?”

Brendon chuckled before releasing a mighty psionic push that threw himself toward the wall. The moment he reached it, he sprung right at me.

His special attack was charged. His war hammer was ready to go. Like a lion in full leap, his attack blurred as he reached me.

I full body wind walked in an angle he couldn’t follow, then kicked out, giving his feet a psionic push with my own. Suddenly, he was spinning end over end as he sped toward the far well.

He was too athletic for it to be his end. Just barely getting his feet underneath him, he caught himself before returning to the ground.

“Nice trick,” Brendon said with a snort. “Enough games.” He’d returned his war hammer to his back. Throwing out his hand, he unleashed a psionic bolt. Five others flew in my direction.

Rank D psionic bolts didn’t fly as fast as rail-rounds, and they were much easier to see because their size, but the slowest flew at least twice as fast as even the most powerful man could throw. The fastest were several times that. And they could be far more accurate. The range of skill was that vast. These men were not weak.

I was nowhere as close as Mel had been, but I was also midair. This was the same dilemma I’d faced when trying to take to the air to dodge Krato’s dive bombing attacks. His skill and ability were beyond me. It had forced me to think beyond everything I knew. To lose the ballistic suit and look for every advantage I could gain while in the air.

One of my greatest shifts in the way I thought made today possible. I no longer used psionic push just out of my hands and feet. It hadn’t been natural at first. Krato had been right. But something happens when you leave the ground.

It wasn’t my eyes I could depend upon in that moment. Energy thrust out of my side from head to foot, sending me on a collision course for the wall.

The six psionic bolts sizzled past.

It was a deadly game I was playing. I didn’t have the defensive ability of Mel or Kline. But I believed I could win. It wasn’t a game I just played daily. I unceasingly bared through having an alien predator kill me as soon as my resistance faltered. I floated amongst a world of endless cuteness as a semi-sentient AI did her darndest to tag me with bubbles and reward me for my failures as much as my victories.

It wasn’t just my death and entertainment. The wife I’d taken in secret had challenged gravity and danced with the wind from childhood until now. As she teased and flirted, chasing after her became synonymous with my intimate refuge and relief. But most of all, the limits of what my mind believe possible shattered at an unknown time during the process.

As if balancing on the edge of a knife, I slipped past flesh-rupturing energy bolts as I flew back and forth. By the time they reached their third bolt each, they were growing wise to my evasion pattern and acted accordingly.

They didn’t just throw bolts at me but anticipated where I would be.

I wasn’t relying on a pattern or what I thought they might do. It wouldn’t have mattered what they were throwing at me. Destiny had made sure of that. Even without extending my psionic energy into my surroundings, I was sensitive to the world’s fluctuations. Psionic bolts were the easiest. They had a glaring presence. It made it that much easier to feel them coming.

A push to the side. A turn of the shoulder.

When the last bolt came, one I couldn’t avoid, I didn’t resign myself to the end. Turning sideways, I greeted the bolt’s arrival. I pushed. Not only did I fly backward, but the bolt blew off course, burning into the nearby wall.

Brendon Black squawked as if it actually hit me. “Lucky,” he called out. “But what’s the point if you can’t hurt us? Go on. Fly back up to the place that you came from and fly at us again. I dare you.”

His insistence could only mean he had something in mind to counter Falling Spear. It was only a matter of time before someone figured something out.

The next wall I rebounded off of sent me flying over their head in a large arc. Once I reached the side opposite them, I didn’t remain airborne but landed and faced them.

I hadn’t put myself in a better position. It was far worse than where I’d been just moments before.

***

“What’s he doing?” Mia asked frantically. “He just barely parried that last attack.”

“He’s about to give them a point,” Bolt complained.

LeLisa muttered, “I mean, he has been one to sacrifice himself to make a point in the past. But this doesn’t make sense. Even if they figure out a way to stop his diving attack, it will have more meaning if he keeps fighting.”

A screen appeared in the bottom corner where they found Colonel Victoria Golshan removing her headset. To one side of the room filled with their small intelligence team, a wall panel from floor to ceiling lit up with Lucius facing off with Brendon Black and his men.

“Did her headset break?” Bolt wondered aloud.

“No, she’s obviously making a statement, “LeLisa said.

They watched as she walked over to stand before the panel, folded her hands behind her back, and watched intently.

“Is she trying to make the point that if he loses, it wasn’t her that made the call to put his point in danger?” Mr. Rachet asked.

“That’s not the look of an enraged superior officer,” Mia rebutted. “And you guys saw what she did at the end of his fight the first time he fought a Manticore King. They might disagree and not get along, but that doesn’t mean there’s no respect. If anything, I’d say she’s eager to see what he does next.”

***

The Forefathers noticed how bad of a position I was in and slowly took up a more advantageous formation as we spoke.

Brendon chuckled. “You said you were after the point for beating me. Going back on your word already?”

“Win or lose, I’ve already won,” I said. “Look around you.”

Inclining his head, the man looked down his nose at me.

“You’re struggling to kill a rank E user who just barely reached high level before the event. It might be a year before I reach rank D. This isn’t a fight, Brendon. It’s a call to action. I’ve unlocked every basic psionic ability, but you’re more talented than I am. I don’t have any unique psionic talent like you do, or Mel, or the Real Major.”

Scowling, he licked the fronts of his teeth before countering, “Your movement techniques.”

“Are not unique. That’s the point. There’s nothing special about what I’ve developed. Anyone that has unlocked psionic push at the same rank has the potential. But it’s not your fault. Not really. You’ve been trained to fight the way you do. And I’ll give you credit. You’ve dared to join me in the air when no one else has. Even if you only lasted one exchange.”

Clenching his jaw, the enemy leader took an aggressive stance. “Thank you for the point.”

Firing off a psionic bolt, Brendon’s men followed suit.

Dodging from such a close distance while grounded should’ve been my end and even would’ve been a month before. But there was something Victoria inspired, and Destiny helped me take to its full conclusion.

I didn’t launch myself upward or bound to the side. Pushing out of the back of my head and the front of my feet, I flipped where I stood as a push from my back tossed me face first to the ground. Their bolts flew over my head where I’d just been standing.

With my stomach hovering just an inch off the ground, I was seemingly in the worst position possible.

The closest guy was ten yards away. It wasn’t a shot anyone should miss, let alone a career soldier at the highest rank.

This ground material was not psionic friendly, but by using the surface area of my entire body, I flashed upward, dodging their next attack only to stop and hover there six feet off the ground.

A few of them laughed uncomfortably. I looked absurd.

At first, this position had bothered me. To them, I was a head and shoulders, looking up at them even though they were the ones firmly on their feet. There was something unnatural about it. A creepiness to having only a head as a target that darted around in every which direction as it willed.

When I’d thrown out my innate desire to keep my feet under me, something incredible happened. I could make myself as small a target as possible to any enemy I faced. Therefore, floating on a bed of psionic downforce, I lay there comfortably on my belly while watching the enemy gawk at me.

Aeneus Raptis’s ability to quite literally fly in the right environment had fascinated me to no end. It had equally disappointed me when I realized it was impossible for me to do what he did. But it wasn’t impossible. My limitations were simply greater than his.

They tried again.

I launched myself to the side, staying parallel to the ground. Like a rubber ball, I bounded from the wall, but I didn’t obey the trajectory physics required. As I flew over their heads, I was what I’d once considered upside down.

A few tried following me with their eyes, but I stayed lower just overhead. Most of them turned to face where they thought I’d end up. In their hands, they had bolts ready. What they didn’t have were their psionic shields active.

Reaching down, I touched one on the top of the head. Out sprang a simple rank E bolt at point blank range. What his rank was didn’t matter. Without his shielding or internally walls active, the man’s brain ruptured.

Where I ended up, they couldn’t have guessed. I didn’t move like an airborne ball or even the birds they’d watched all their lives. A full body push sent me back to the same wall I’d bounded off of.

Those who had tried to follow me in the air had lost me. The rest were facing the opposite direction. This time I did use my feet and push as I rocketed at one man’s back.

He sensed me and spun.

A psionic push from my palm caught his wrist, sending his bolt flying upward. Dragonslayer pierced into his chest as I struck out before he could get his shield around to block it.

Psionically pushing myself back, I blasted him into his nearest ally. Then I was darting around their parameter while remaining low to the ground.

“Bloody ghost,” a man cursed.

With two of them down, I returned to where I’d been standing. Except this time, I was hovering about four feet above the ground on my back while gazing up at them.

It was Destiny that reminded me that if my movements looked creepy to me, it most definitely would to them as well. I didn’t feel as confident as I must have come off, but I was all for messing with their heads.

There was no guarantee I could beat them. If the first man would’ve used his psionic shielding when he lost track of me, then he would’ve barely felt it. The second man died because his shield arm lagged as he spun. It was a foolish mistake Achilles had drilled out of me long ago.

However, this is exactly what Krato meant when he spoke of variables. There were countless paths to failure and death, but also many to victory. Finally, my eyes were open.

Seeing that I had my opponents’ attention, I spun to return to my feet and faced them. Four men remained.

Brendon must have issued a command through their headsets. They formed up in a tight diamond with their pshields ready and psionic energy covering them. He unhooked his war hammer from his back again and his men unsheathed their weapons.

Despite their bravado from earlier, they knew I’d have to get close to them. They’d seen my fist technique during the Gathering of the Guilds.

I sighed. For me, this was the worst-case scenario. They’d successfully limited the variables.