Book 6: Chapter 13 - Unfriendly Skies (RAW)

“A gentleman who walks in the company of two friends encounters no stranger under Heaven.”

- attributed to Emperor Hantian Erdian the Mad.

Once more, I found myself flung across the dry desert sands, every bone shrieking in protest while the wind whistled in my ears. The sky overhead had become a familiar sight as I was sent crashing into the distance. Blow after blow we traded, and each furious clash left me incrementally tougher, incrementally stronger, but always ended with me being blasted away like a leaf. My attributes crept upward slowly, yet they were still far behind what I needed to defeat this boss creature. 

It was a blessing that Apex remained deliberately restrained, using only a portion of his true power to eke out the length of this duel for his amusement. His whim was to my advantage. But, no matter how I tried, my carefully measured attacks, both physical and arcane, barely seemed to have any effect on him. However, there was one more silver lining; as Greater Drain continued to siphon off his immeasurable vitality, it reached its maximum level.

For the first time since, I hesitated to turn either Identify or Sage’s Sight upon my adversary. A part of me believed that one clear glimpse of his abilities might extinguish the fragile spark of courage that still lived in me. Not to mention, it would squander more of my precious Mana.

I slid Cutting Leaf back into its scabbard, concentrating my power there, the humming with the pressure of gathering Kai. Kai, just a fancy name for Mana and Stamina mixed, I thought acerbically.. There was no need to give it a fancy name. I needed to cage that power and release it only when the moment would carve deepest. 

Somewhere far, far away, Solarin’s voice crackled through the comm a heartbeat before the future unfolded. “He’s coming from your right.”

Threads of possibility rewove themselves around me as I shifted stance. Temporary foresight let me eclipse even superhuman reflexes, yet every moment spent drained my Mana like blood from an open wound. I knew the next few seconds would drink the last of my reserves, regardless of Greater Drain.

The instant arrived. I drew the blade and let Vorpal Slash sing. The slender sword tore free as smoothly as lancing lightning, riding the compressed energies of Kai that exploded from my scabbard. Where Godmetal cut through the air, cut through a thread of reality, I glimpsed a dark line and beyond a myriad of staring eyes.

You have learned Vorpal Slash (lvl.3)

At that precise breath of time, a silver projectile, Solarin’s armor-piercing round, screamed from where she shot from atop an enormous tree half a league away. It flattened against Apex’s cheek. The impact was little more than a raindrop to him, yet it nudged his head the width of a coin into the path of my arc. My blade split skin and strength alike, drawing scarlet. The sight ignited a fierce jolt of triumph in my chest. Blessed with a power greater than mine, he arrested his motion with his power of flight, sparing himself from my fatal line. A line of gold light closed the wound as quickly as it opened, the scar smoothing to flawless flesh.

Cutting Leaf flicked crimson droplets to the sand before I returned it to its home. I entertained a fleeting hope that if I could slip away, defend myself for a little longer, my Mana might replenish enough for another attempt.

That hope perished the moment I met his storm-dark eyes.

“How dare you,” he murmured, his low voice rolling like distant thunder. “How dare a worm presume…”

I stepped back on instinct, fully aware that such a distance meant nothing to a being like this. Doubt seeped into my soul like cold water, forcing me off the Path of the Asura that I had walked with such certainty. The futures that Sage’s Sight once displayed grew cloudy and erratic.

“Get out of there!” Solarin shouted in my ear, her panic slicing through static.

But where could I possibly run? Against Apex, there was no sanctuary, only postponement of the inevitable. Nowhere to hide.

“Keep the girl safe. I do not know, but she is important,” I answered, a strange calm settling over me as I surrendered to what must come. The inevitable end.

Apex floated closer, amused. “That suit is impressive. If more could be produced to enhance baseline humans like you, they might warrant concern. Alas, you are also ground-bound and cannot fly.”

He drifted so near. A tremor of instinct made me grab my dagger and lash out, but lacking the guidance of a boosted foresight, it failed to land. Greater Drain flickered, gifting me a single lonely point of Mana, a feeble ember in a frozen night.

I used Improve Dash to create some distance. Again, he appeared before me.

You have learned Improved Dash (lvl.5)

Apex cut down with a naked chop. Before I could even process the attack, my arm moved, rising to intercept it as the Mimic within surged forth, fortifying the limb with a protective layer.

It made little difference. The blow reduced the Mimic to a single point of Health, and I felt it scream as it recoiled, retreating back into me.

“You were so brave a moment ago,” he mused, voice tinged with curiosity. “Now the scent of fear surrounds you. What changed? What is wrong, little man?” 

He seized the edge of my visor. Lifting it sharply, the alloy groaned. “Ah. Nothing remarkable beneath the helmet,” he concluded, staring into my face as though I were an insect pinned for study. “Oh, so very, very ordinary.”

All fell silent. In that hush, even the endless desert seemed to hold its breath as if waiting. It did not have to wait for long. Another explosion of silver, a masterful shot flying on wings of prediction, impacted against Apex’s eye. This close, even I could feel its anger.

The opening I had wished for happened. Entropic Strike thrummed its energies along the edge of my Vessel Weapon, the slow death of the universe and the certain death of gods. Spite filled me as the blade sought an end to the creature before me. 

It had to die, even it meant costing humanity one of its greatest defenders.

Truth. The blade struck true. From its impact blossomed the dark flowers of the end.

But Apex did not die immediately—for gods are long in the dying. They fall like empires, slowly, with the weight of centuries, and their wrath as they defy their end always demands a price.

The caped demi-god, now consumed by a rage that dwarfed even my own, seized me. In that instant, I understood: he had truly been holding back. I felt it in the way my body was crushed against my own armor, in the brutal force that spun me round and round like a ragdoll caught in a cyclone.

Then came the scream. It was a sound so raw, so primal, it shattered my eardrums. Pain filled my being, but at this point, it had become a sort of unwelcome friend.

You have gained 1 Constitution.

And with it, Apex hurled me with all of his might.

I became a missile, rocketing through the air, limbs flailing uselessly as the wind shrieked around me. The sheer speed of my passage scorched the air, and I felt my armor begin to heat, friction turning it hot against my skin. Tumbling end over end, I became flying metal, condemned to the sky. My view spun from azure blue to the fractured wasteland below, and each revolution was no less disorienting than the last. 

A distant flicker caught my eye. Against all sense, for sense had no play when rage ruled, Apex looked intent on not letting gravity enjoy its prize alone; the speck of purple and red surged upward, arrowing along the very path my broken arc had carved. He was coming to reclaim his throw, a hunter eager to inspect the flight of his own javelin.

Despite the sheer absurdity of my situation—no, because of it—I started to laugh. Great peals of laughter that stitched across the sky.

The clouds split. A new theatre unfolded beyond them: abrupt flashes, thunderheads blooming with orange fire, metallic shrieks that out-screamed the wind. Flying lizards wheeled in murder-mad circles, their wings black against the arsenic glare of exploding shells. I sailed straight through their storm, a charred petal in a hurricane of scale and exploding steel. Shrapnel rang against my cuirass, scoring sparks that fled like fireflies.

One wyrm, the colour of dried blood banked too close. Its serated tail whipped by, missing me by the breadth of a heartbeat. I glimpsed its belly and flanks, the ragged hole where something artillery-sized had turned its left eye cavity into a smoking crater.

You have gained 1 Luck.

Even in freefall, and flying as I was, I respected its agony. In that, we were as brothers.

Then the world constricted to a single, massive pupil. Ahead loomed an eye, swollen and moon-wide, a glossy citrine disc floating within a mountain of night. A vertical slit as high as fortress gates. The eye of an ancient Dragon.

I could not dodge. My momentum wrote the rest.

Impact.

The membrane ruptured like overripe fruit. A tide of vitreous humour—silvery, crimson, and shock-warm—all of it engulfed me. I felt layers of something tear as I made my progress. The sound was less a splash and more a cathedral of wet glass collapsing as I was bathed in the blood of a Dragon.

You have gained 1 Luck.

You have learned Monster Taming (lvl.5)

Monster Taming? 

Unknown bits clattered off my armor as I punched through. Something fibrillar wrapped my arm, then snapped, recoiling like a severed cable. I flailed about, trying to slow myself down, Zariyah in my hand drawing deadly furrows. Another impact, as I, the chosen missile, pierced something. I emerged on the far side, wreathed in shreds of optic nerve, a macabre comet’s tail streaming behind me.

You have slain Unknown. 26,784 experience gained.

You have gained 1 Strength.

You have reached level 26.

You have reached level 27.

You have 6 unassigned attribute points.

You have 2 unassigned skill points. 

Warning chimes sang within my mind. These next moments were important. I chose the only things that could save me now, and perhaps in the long term, too—Constitution and Luck. 

“G… l. We… safe… trans… Gra… Tha…” was all I heard in my ear. Solarin’s voice was weak and crackling with static.

Gil, we are safe. Transport is here with Gran. Thank you, were the words that Sol wished to convey to me, the last dregs of Sage’s Sight filling me with insight.

And still I fell, deeper into a sky that had forgotten which way was up. And still, I saw Apex rushing towards me. I realized that, though this was not my realm, it was Zariyah’s. 

All I needed to do was to let go, a seductive voice whispered, that was not one of the voices. No, Zariyah was mine! I growled back even as the caped man drew ever closer. 

I readied myself for a pointless last struggle, but the sky began to crack like mirrored glass. There was a sense of shifting, of dislocation, as the world all shattered like a mirror. 

You have completed a Divine Ordeal.

You have completed The Birth of Justice.

5000 experience gained.

You have gained 1 Luck.

You have reached level 28.

You have 6 unassigned attribute points.

You have 2 unassigned skill points. 

I had won. As I always would. The hero always won.