"Okay, so let's try this again. This time, breathe through it, don't just block it out until your thoughts overwhelm you. Address it." Korbin instructed, patting my shoulder. I rubbed my jaw, wondering if permanent bone damage was still possible.
"Alright…one second." I said through a heavy breath, stepping back and bouncing on my tones.
"Take your time." Korbin smiled, his eyes gliding across his invisible screen. It took me 7 incredibly uneventful rounds to figure Korbin had been managing our defenses remotely this entire time. All the while, walking me through getting over a few…habits I left my rogue Escaping Fate hellscape with. My arms and shoulders bounced freely as I tried shaking my nerves, my tongue feeling several cuts in my cheeks.
"…alright you're taking too long. Come on." Korbin said after a few seconds, waving me to step closer. I sighed heavily, then drew in a second big breath hoping to cull my nerves. I stepped forward, fighting every urge to vigorously scratch my back against the walls.
"Okay, okay go fo-" my vision flickered, the impact of Korbin's fist slamming into my jaw jolting my head with a hollow thud. Immediately, I felt every strange design etched into the skin across my back superheat before burrowing deeper.
Pain, you know pain.
Weakness, the liars language.
The colony culls deceivers.
Thoughts strayed across my mind, overlapping one another loud enough to cause my eyes to shake in my skull. I gripped my temples, feeling a welling pressure accompanying their words.
Cold. They steal the warmth, and waste it.
"No." I growled, feeling my knees begin to buckle under me.
"Breathe, Tom." Korbin sternly said, my eyes wincing shut as I focused on my breathing. Flashes of fire invaded my mind, along with the occasional, all too familiar crunch of bones snapping. A tinge of frustration trickled through my conscious mind at how utterly fucked my mind has been. The slow fade in my vision quickly reminded me how futile it was to pout, instead focusing on grounding myself fully.
Take it. The colony shivers.
Feed.
You will die.
The words trickled across my scarred spine, begging for me to arch forward and lunge at Korbin. I looked up, seeing his attention shifting from side to side, staring at air and muttering to himself. I hesitated, taking a moment to recall the invisible defenses display he mentioned. After a brief pause, a wave of gratification washed over me at noticing the stillness in my thoughts. I'd been punched in the jaw, something I'd bite through Korbin's jugular a few rounds ago. Now, I'd officially managed to keep my wits about me, something I'd need to do if I were to continue participating in any battle moving forward.
"…motherfuckers, their pressing through every weak point…here, this should de-" Korbin glared beside him with wild eyes, a cruel smile bending at the edges of his mouth. Then, his smile dropped, replaced by bitter disappointment and a frustrated head shake.
"Hey, what's up with the grumpy muttering?" I asked through a grin, strolling over with pride in every step. Finally, I'm after what felt like…forever, I'm beginning to feel like myself again.
"These guys are fucking slippery, not to mention this one in the back is…wait a minute." Korbin said, leaning forward in his recently upgraded loveseat. Of course, he exchanged the old chair in the process, leaving me only the floor to plop down on.
"The suspense is absolutely killing me. Come on, what is it?" I pressed on, hoping to get confirmation of my first real battle back from that looping Escaping Fate realm. And, I'm itching for a little normalcy. Korbin however, looked less than amused, his face dropping into an unreadable look of disinterest.
"Alright. Let's go, Tom." He said, standing from his chair and walking toward the front of our settlement. Before I could even ask where, our massive golden entrance doors slowly began parting outwardly as Korbin paced forward. Every step was with purpose, clenching his fists until his knuckles went white.
"Woah, wait what are you doing?" I asked, confused at the sudden abandonment of all defenses. He's essentially inviting whoever's left on the attackers side to come meet us. Korbin didn't reply, giving me time to both catch up physically and in spirit. Because who the hell was I to turn down some free training?
*THUMP*
My blades separated at the hilts spotting movement outside the opened settlement doors, a corpse of Korbin's choirmen collapsing in front of us. A massive icicle stuck out of his temple, shattering as the hooded old infernal vocalist fell to the ground.
"Ah! Look fella's, this one's got a brain on him." A voice yelled from somewhere across our grassy, lake covered biome. A flash of white light bolted around to the entrance, revealing the same light rogue that tried to fucking betray me last objective.
"I'd say the same for you, if you hadn't just revealed yourself." Korbin shot back dryly. The light warrior chuckled, placing a hand on his belly.
"It doesn't matter, we still got through your obsessively intricate defenses. I assume you pride yourself on this, based on the bitterness smeared all over your face." The rogue scoffed, laughing even harder after his verbal jab.
"Progress requires iterations. I don't really care for your bullshit right now, where's th-" Korbin paused, as two figures strolled beside the light rogue.
"You." He growled, pointing at a stringy young man, who looked to be in his early 20's. The man grinned, reaching his own hand out and summoning a long icicle while pointing it at Korbin.
"You looked fun, hothead. I owe you one." He sneered, the voice bringing back exactly where I knew him from.
"You killed Cassi." I said, mostly to myself as the image of Cassi escaping with some ghostly pendant before getting stabbed in the skull on her way out. The same guy who acted like an absolute coward while Cassi fought the boss defending that pendant. I glanced over at Korbin, whose eyes remained trained on the frosty bastard, when the light rogue spoke up again.
"My-my, is that a grudge I smell? How disappointing, you even want to dictate your allies deaths. And you call him controlling." The rogue said, in a feigned remorseful tone. Korbin's head snapped toward the light rogue, his fists subtly shaking at his sides.
"Well, I guess I'll just have to dictate yours, not like I haven't already. Tell me, did your wanting to win the last objective we met come with a little disappointment packaged in with your ass-whooping?" Korbin snarled back, taking a step outside of our settlement toward our opponents. He had a point, there's no doubt this unit was excited to see an opportunity at revenge, hence the constant goading. And, to call mourning futile is to assume closure doesn't exist, nor matter. Which, I'm not sure if I should spitefully reject or feel sorry for the guy's mindstate to reach that conclusion.
"Wants hardly matter when faced with fate-" the rogue said, flashing around us in a blur of white light before halting right back into a casual stroll.
"-much like your hopes of winning the moment we stepped foot onto your little oasis. Tell me, with three of us and only two of you have feet, why bother fighting?" The light rogue persisted, circling around Korbin and I. The other two spread out around us, forming a triangle.
"The f-…maybe I enjoy it, maybe because it's right. Maybe because I chose to. Can you honestly expect any of those reasons to matter any less to me than your bullshit ramblings?" Korbin replied, glaring at the light rogue with fire in his eyes. I chuckled internally, knowing Korbin elected to insult over reason with that lame-ass argument. For one, a numbers disadvantage was nothing new to us. Well, to me, anyway.
Secondly, neither of us are a believer in 'fate'. Mainly because it assumes there's truly no freedom, when the only certainty is death. That doesn't mean whining about the futility of the things you can affect, like a piss-baby with magic powers. Besides, nobody performs the action of fighting for nothing. Even this smug light-prick had a point to his bullshit, making him public-hypocrite number one in the field today. The light warrior laughed one smug, breathy exhale with his head to the sky before replying.
"Are you searching for a purpose, a cure, or a job? Tell you what, I'll hire you first." The light rogue sneered through a wicked grin. A burst of white light flashed from his palm, immediately forcing me to look away. Tucking my face under my arm, a glimmer of light danced at the edge of my vision. My body torqued away from the foreign object, Ripple Striding toward the short, compact man wielding two short swords that accompanied the light warrior and Cassi's cowardice killer. The sword wielder had been twirling his blades awaiting my arrival, which only took roughly a second. As lightning mana surged through my shoulder, a rush of nostalgic bliss at the sensation slipped through my focus. As my blade slid through the swordsman's guard, his figure dispersed in a puff of orange flames.
My head wrapped around to locate the ice wielding asshole, instead greeted with two short swords slashing towards my face and chest. Pulling my chains taut vertically, sliding around the short warrior and wrapping my blade handles around his swords. Raising my elbow toward the man's chin, his eyes shot up from the swords in a panic. Then, a jet stream of flames fired from his eyes, forcing me to disengage entirely. Stumbling back, I noticed the lanky ice rogue circling Korbin as he deflected away the light rogues flashing palm strikes and strobing spin kicks. A familiar urge to protect Korbin at all costs overtook my feet, Ripple Striding across the thin, tall grass straight for Korbin's stalker.
Realizing my blades were in my hands again, mana welled from deep within my belly, surging through my shoulders and releasing a jagged streak of lightning. The bolt danced through the sky like a snake with perfect symmetry, the crackle earning the ice rogues attention enough to slide away. The bolt still ripped through his shoulder however, sending him twirling to the ground as the dual swordsman's heavy footsteps neared from behind. Not willing to take part in this flanking back and forth, I dashed toward Korbin and spun around to face my attackers.
"This is a waste of your energy. Whether you like it or not, this place will burn eventually. Why exhaust yourself over something as insignificant as a game?" The light rogue sneered, dashing forward with an axe kick as bright as the sun itself. Korbin lifted the polearm of his axe, the light rogue platforming off the metal bar and somersaulting over Korbin entirely. My feet shuffled to the side, parrying away the fiery-eyed swordsman's vertical double-slash. Korbin remained barking at the light rogue behind me, my balance slipping as my ankle rolled over his axe laying in the grass.
"You think all I care about is winning? No no, but this however, is just for you." Korbin said, a flash of heat gusting across my back. Turning around, he'd fully activated his boosting skill, goading the light rogue with his hands to come closer with beckoning gestures.
"Huh, does the system count his intelligence stat as yours or, how does th-" the light rogue kicked off the grass, leaving a glowing double of himself as he leapt up and over Korbin's leaping kick.
To say this place will fall eventually is kind of like saying all fruit decays. Doesn't mean you shouldn't plant the seeds, and nurture the roots all the same. Some of us just want to eat, dickhead.
The thoughts shot across my mind as invasively as I'd eavesdropped on their argument, leaving just enough focus to channel a Flow Strike into a front kick through the flanking ice rogue's chest, rocketing him several feet away. The swordsman's skill far outweighed that sneaky rogue's, and the threat of being fire-sighted persistently hums through my mind with every close engagement. Still, he's slow, his defenses thus far relying purely on some strange fire-mirror ability. Every parry and counter-slash, his form duplicates leaving behind a double filled with dormant flames that flair out on contact. Not once had his fiery attacks done any damage, and I intend on keeping it that way.
"You hide your childish possessiveness behind idealistic bullshit-" the light rogue hissed, several thumps of bare fists to an armored forearm clanking behind me. I wanted to turn and help, but the swordsman slid between us using his doubling skill, then let loose a short range blast of fire from his glowing dark-yellow eyes.
"-every boldfaced lie is just another leash. Which one of you decides the length for him?" The light rogue continued, feigning a kick and slipping a jab through Korbin's guard, creating a flash of white light at his jaw. Korbin didn't even stagger, instead grasping at the man's wrists before the rogue springboarded off his thigh to create distance. I laughed to myself internally at the sheer audacity, calling the freedom we pursue as anything other than the space between suffering I didn't fight thousands of days to feel again.
"Shut the FUCK UP!" Korbin bellowed, his guttural screech echoing over the otherwise peaceful lakeside. Flames ravaged his body, spitting from his mouth mid-bellows. I flinched, having never heard Korbin sound so…unhinged. Realizing how quiet they got after his outburst, I snapped the ice rogue's long icicle he used like a dagger in half between my chains, blasting the bottom of my hilt into his nose. The ice rogue staggered back, just in range for a front kick to his ribcage before deflecting the swordsman's flurry of flashes. Once again, I slipped around his combo-ender poised to pierce my blade through his gut. Instead, flames consumed my vision, forcing me to stumble straight back to avoid the burn.
"Korbin, behi-" I yelled, hoping to notify my friend I was getting knocked out of position to defend him. I stopped however, spotting his orange glow in the distance chasing after a flashing white light that bounced from trees to the ground. I sighed, turning back around in time to roll away from the swordsman's leaping two-handed stab. For once, tactically speaking, I couldn't believe how foolish he was being while leaving me with these shitheads, alone.
Damnit, what the hell, Korbin?
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"Tell ME…" Korbin screamed, snagging the light wielding rogue by the back of his cowl. "Does this…" slamming his head into the tree at full speed. "FEEL LIKE IT MATTERS?!", I grinned, marveling at how accurate my calculations truly were given my little wildcards' unpredictable nature.
"Oh my." Her soft, steady voice muttered beside me. I leaned up from over the balcony, dismissing infernal energies keeping its structure. Her eyes never left the portal view of the battlefield, while I scanned the void space to ensure no uninvited guests arrived. Well…okay, a rather invited but intentionally ignored business partner, to be clear. Seeing an opportunity in the silence, I smirked, turning toward Anutir who remained fixated on the battle below.
"Told you. The boy burns himself too hot if he lets loose too much." I said, tilting my head toward my most…enthusiastic chosen. At least, the one I can actually have a stimulating conversation with.
"That rage isn't necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes, it's the foundation that holds up true mercy." She replied in her usual cool, even tone.
"You're beginning to sound like your uncle." I shot back, Anutir's slow breaths pausing for just a millisecond. Just long enough to chuckle at the success of my razzing the multiversal pinnacle of 'calm'.
"Exactly how hot can this flame of yours burn?" She asks, still glaring down at the battlefield. Elation filled my infernal bones from head to toe, as finally, someone asked.
"OH. I'm glad you asked-" I said, stepping into the center of the balcony and snapping my fingers. Immediately, the fight below froze in time, as the balcony burned away leaving my office in its wake. With a second snap, my glowing arcane thought-board appeared behind me. With a single thought, the runes etching the board hummed to life, illuminating the in-depth and high value research I've been conducting the past month.
"-okay, so check this out." I began, Anutir staring back at me with her signature look of indifference she wore so well. I rolled my sleeves up, summoning a red lecture pointer and raising it toward the first slide's contents.
"This is 'Korbin's Anger: A Lifecycle In Full.' Allow me to introduce you to Phase One: 'The Snarl'. High logic, low chaos, incredibly efficient." I said, smacking the pointer against the man's construct of my research. I grinned, realizing the journey my dear friend was in for in this analysis before summoning the slide.
"Phase two: The Righteous Bark. You'll notice here that logic rapidly begins to decline, yet tactical cohesion remains. Very moody. Very deadly."
…
"Phase three: The Ferocious Spiral. Now we begin to see the slips in his psyche, and emotional justification takes precedence. His fists and spells hit harder, but his mind swings wider, without regard. Efficiencies dwindle. Danger compounds."
…
"And finally, my personal favorite, Phase Four: The Conscious Cataclysm." I said, flipping to the fourth infernal slide. Immediately, my projection bursted into flames behind me with a loud POP. I smiled wide at finally reaching the section I've devoted the most time to studying due to how small my sample size was.
"Rage devours logic outright. Violence ensues unfettered. He becomes a predator, snapping its own jaw for leverage." I quickly explained, feeling the surge of pride for my chosen I always had at reviewing this study.
"The capacity for destruction he holds, only for him to truly contain it is s-" I stopped my giddy explanation as I spun around, noticing Anutir's face hadn't twitched since our short 2-hour seminar began. Staring at me with the ocean in her gaze, she sighed through her nose, a soft exhale one might construe as just another breath if you hadn't known to dig for her limits, or more importantly how.
"Let's get back to the fight, shall we?" Anutir proposed, tilting her head toward where the balcony once was.
"…you're no fun." I murmured through a tight grin, reluctantly summoning us to the viewing balcony once more. Before I could ask her opinion of my findings, she snapped her blue, swirling fingers resuming time and the fight below. Immediately, Korbin's infernally charged fists smashed into the light rogue's jaw, crushing his skull into the bark behind him. Another punch landed to the rogue's chest, pressing his body into the bark as Korbin unloaded a barrage of haymakers into the man's body.
"H-hate won't ch-change your f-" The light rogue muttered between blows, until an elbow smashed into his jaw before he could finish.
"DOES THIS MATTER? HOW 'BOUT NOW, DID CHEWING YOUR FOOD MATTER TO YOU?!" He screamed in the man's face, spittle frothing from his mouth before stomping the man's knee. There was no reaction, because the light warrior was already dead, his body soon to be teleported out of the objective area.
"Kids got…a lot of restraint, don't he?" I asked, narrowing my gaze at my youngest chosen.
"Indeed, he's handling himself well."
"I mean, 'well' is a strong word."
"Maybe. But his style though…" Anutir said, leaning over the railings and, for the first time, showing a tinge of genuine curiosity. I looked down, realizing by the trajectory of her face that she had been watching Tom, not Korbin.
"…what do you have on this one?" Anutir asked, her eyes still trained on Tom, who slid across the fields in flashes of short water mana bursts, and bright strobing lightning. I let out a long sigh, snapping my fingers to once more freeze time below. Anutir tilted her head, finally turning to face me as my blackboard returned. This time, my research on this…thing manifested. A constellation of shifting glyphs and 'legally' attained scry-images danced across the crystalline mana sources I implemented to support the sheer quantity of records preserved inside. In it, a collection of Tom's most 'anomalous' moments. Each spiraling around one another, streaking across the mini constellation leaving behind blue streaks of lightning. Finally, the web of data halted, leaving the glowing outline of that same strange little human. Above it was his full name, 'Thomas Murphy'.
"This one's drawn quite the elite crowd of curious spectators. He placed highly in the tournament as I'm sure you know well enough, ranking 8th for his planet. Yet, he claimed quite the title becoming the chosen of that loving husband of yours. He's brash, arrogant, and undisciplined." I said, the many projections of Tom twisting together, forming a larger display of him leaping head-first off his massive snake into a crowd of soldiers.
Shortly after, his comrades had to ride in and scoop up his battered body before he was executed then and there. Then, the image fluttered even further back, showing him abandoning his skittish, unprepared partner during their first pylon defense. Not long after, nearly every member of their first group were slaughtered, while Tom fought the wave boss.
"Yet, he's displayed grand gestures filled with cunning, compassion, wisdom, and…even patience." I continued, rubbing the bridge of my nose having to go through this absolute statistical nightmare with lungs' file again. Moments in which Tom's willingness to throw himself into danger saved more than it harmed surfaces to the forefront of the display, his frail human body consumed by lightning mana as he fended off the massive Hippopotamuses threatening a settlement he never even intended to live in. Then switching to the depths of another objective, the shattered simulation of Phanthu's planet. Tom lay with his chest pressed to jagged stone, slowly dislocating his shoulder holding Derrick's massive body over the edge of an endless fissure by his grappling hook. And, of course, his victory over Phanthu's simulation, something everyone noticed in real time.
"Simply by winning, surviving, just existing when he shouldn't, he's attained the watchful eye of more than a few higher gods, even a few aboriginals if my sources are accurate." I explained with an annoyed exasperation. Anutir analyzed Tom's glowing outline for a few moments before I dismissed the projection. Her eyes remained still, as did every fluid muscle on her face.
"…so, I take it then I'll have to seek new knowledge on Thomas elsewhere.." Anutir calmly said, earning a knowing grin I couldn't help but flash her way.
"Oh, do you really think I'd be so secretive, my old friend? I'm offended you'd think me to hold such pertinent information all to myself." I exclaimed, shrugging and waving her off. Her deep, swirling blue eyes' narrow glare remained trained on the empty board, her silence screaming her demands plenty loud enough. She wasn't leaving until I spilled it.
"…alright, fine." I sighed, snapping my fingers and reactivating Tom's projection of collected research.
"The real reason he's gained such a silent buzz is not just because of his mortal defiance, it's because he truly should not exist." I began, flicking my wrist to summon an entirely new arrangement of glowing constellations. Except this time, they were the records and scry-images of a god long dead, but not gone.
"I don't understand, what does he have to do wi-" Anutir began, her eyes flicking slightly wider as she paused, indicating something had caught her eye. Turning around, I noticed the memory of battles between both respective subjects' lives. Tom, and Galenthelos. A tinge of confidence in my studies began rising seeing the glint of recognition in her expression.
"Ah, you see it, don't you? Look-" I said, quickly spinning back toward the board, now split by two mini-galaxies for Tom and Galenthelos' data each.
"The more you focus on one, the less you find similarities in the other. At least, most of the time. Yet, when you put their combat styles together.." I said, lifting both palms and taking hold of both construct's mana. With a clap, each set of crystalline projections spun together, layering countless fight footage over one another before sinking into a single distant star. After several seconds of hundreds of near identical strikes, abilities, footwork, even the meditation skill finished flashing and shrinking toward the center of the two galaxies, both Tom and Galenthelos' glowing outlines finally slid together, fitting so well it was as if their silhouettes were just two shadows of the same object.
"-the more it becomes clear."
"He's on his path." Anutir muttered, taking a few paces toward the board staring intently, with more wonder than I'd seen from her since we were children. She paused, her eyes finding the floor as her mind clearly began to race wildly, if only a moment.
"But, this is not uncommon. The system hates waste, and often recycles fallen gods' records and abilities to preserve its potential." Anutir said, her voice steadied and smooth as silk once more.
"Yes, but that's only after the path's progenitors died and dispersed, physically and spiritually. We both know only one of those is true." I corrected through narrowed eyes and a tight smirk. Anutir's cheek bones flinched in recognition, her eyes slowly gliding back toward the viewing balcony.
"Hm. How very, very curious. You realize what this means?" Anutir asked, her tone dropping ever so subtly into her version of remorse. My smile faded, though a tinge of giddiness remained tickling the back of my mind.
"I know…it's only a matter of time now. Which is exactly why I wanted you here, to see it with your own eyes. We really need to talk."
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