This prospect seemed to perk her up from her somber mood.
“Yes,” I said, holding back a chuckle as she bounced up and down on the balls of her feet, “Quite a bit stronger, actually.”
“Yes,” She said, padding her chest in an exaggerated motion, “Well, let’s go be champions then! Maybe together, we can teach that Mesh’el a lesson.”
And just like that, it seemed like her original vigor had returned. She didn’t question the miracle or give insight on how she truly felt, just jumped back into things ready to go.
I smiled and for the first time in a while, felt like things might actually be okay. In’ah had that effect on me. Even Sumahon seemed hopeful; although he didn’t say anything, I could feel his emotions much better than ever.
We left the peculiar ship behind and traveled out into the waste of the blighted lands together. Everything seemed less glum with In’ah in tow happily humming along as she bounced in her strange way as we walked.
“We should probably come up with a plan,” I said as we followed the road. My eyes darted from side to side, expecting that we’d be ambushed at any point now. As at ease In’ah made me with her easy going attitude, the humming began to worry me. If anyone was hiding, they’d hear us approach for sure.
“I have a plan,” In’ah said confidently, “I am going to find some of your invaders and then introduce them to Jhad and Fhad.”
“Jhad and Fhad?” I asked, perplexed.
“Oh yeah, I decided to name my Seinkah like you! It makes them stronger, I’m sure. We’ve even come up with an agreement that if I treat them nicely, eventually, they will stop being such large, heavy things.”
I laughed but noticed something had changed. She was no longer dragging them behind her but had each of the swords resting on her left shoulder as she walked. I guess, in her own way, she was treating her Seinkah better.
“Tell her that I like her even more now!” Sumahon said, he appeared to agree with her actions as well.
“Perhaps I could introduce another plan,” I said carefully. It was easy to get off topic with In’ah. If I wasn’t careful, she’d get me talking about the variety of birds I’d witnessed so far, with my original intent completely forgotten.
“I’m willing to hear you out,” In’ah said shooting a grin in my direction and flipping her wild curls out of her face.
“I told you how effective those orange spheres are at destroying their ships. What if one of us were able to draw them away from the ships and the other could move several of the orange containers close to their ship and blow it up. If all goes right, I could be long gone before they can get back, and you could use the cliffs to escape. None of them seem to be able to fly so far so that gives us the advantage as well.”
“So, I’m the bait?” In’ah said an eyebrow raised in my direction.
“Well, I’m the only projector we have,” I responded trying my best to look meek.
“It’s better than my plan, I guess.” She said, drawing out the word ‘guess.’ “But if another one of those giant sky birds tries to eat me, I’m coming for you!”
I laughed nervously at her comment, but she continued to stare at me with no trace of amusement showing through.
It took us nearly another hour to find a group of lizardmen close enough to the cliffs to enact our plan.
“They are so strange looking,” In’ah said. She had been fascinated by them ever since her first glimpse. “Why are they even here? I mean, it looks like Mesh’el is helping them from what you said, but why? We all know that other species live in the stars above us, but our planet has nothing to offer; it’s barely alive. Why do they want to blast holes into the ground? What are they looking for?”
Her chain of questions continued, but I had no answers for her, and she knew it, so I sat quietly by until we discussed the last parts of our plan.
“So our fall back will be that large boulder I pointed out to you, okay?” In’ah asked, “If I don’t show after an hour then move back to the cave and we will regroup there. If I don’t show by nightfall, then I’m probably dead and it will fall to you alone to avenge our people.”
I shook my head as she spoke and didn’t interrupt her. I knew well enough that when she spoke without jest, it was best to listen and not interrupt her. She was, after all, older than me by several months.
“Don’t die,” I said as she stood. Her black cloak and fire red curls blew around her from a sudden gust of wind, and I watched her face set in determination.
“I won’t.”
She turned and began making her way around, she would do a wide circle around the camp we had decided to attack. We knew from the investigation that this ship was empty and they seemed primarily worried about blasting holes into the ground and not rounding up civilians.
It wouldn’t be long now.
Chapter Eighteen
Sure enough, the cries of alarm sounded not long after I lost sight of In’ah. I sprung into action and ran towards the ship. Just as we had hoped, all four had left after her and the orange containers were left unattended. They were further from the ship than the last ship I had attacked, perhaps word had gotten around that there was an accident.
The crunch of the dry ground was all I heard as I approached the crater made from the high velocity impact the ship made during its landing. The clouds ahead were still blocking most of the direct sunlight, and I felt a chill even as I ran.
The lip of the crater came up just above my waist, but I was able to clear it in a onehand assisted leap. The steep incline on the other side was less friendly towards me. My stealth and grace failed me and I tumbled more than landed down the small incline.
I hissed silently at the dirt that ran up my, mostly clean clothing, before refocusing myself on my task.
“You should grab at least four of the containers for guaranteed destruction of the ship,” Sumahon whispered into my mind. He’d been quieter than I was used to in the last few hours, but I knew that meant he was either delving deeper into ancient memories or deciding how best to annoy me with changes to the layout display that covered my vision like a faint colored haze.
“Got it,” I shot back to Sumahon. My feet padded against the softer dirt of the impact and I nearly lost my footing a few times, before finally reaching the containers. They were bigger than I had expected. It was difficult to guess their scale from a distance.
With considerable effort, I grabbed ahold of one and slowly walked the heavy thing towards the ship. It was made of some metallic material and contained writings all over it that I couldn’t begin to understand.
“It is their language. It seems I am able to translate their speech without any issue, but their written language isn’t the same as what they speak. I have no records of it, not even small ones, that I could use to begin to piece this together.”
I hadn’t requested that Sumahon do anything, but the connection in our mind seemed to relay pertinent thoughts to him without my telling them to.
“That’s fine,” I said in mental speak, “I know all I need to know about these things. I shoot them and they go boom. And I get stronger!”
“Yes, that is an oddity within itself that I am doing my best to understand.”
I finally reached the ship and placed it as close as the pile had been on the previous ship. This was taking too long, I realized. In’ah would be to the cliffs already and there was no guarantee that they’d chase her the entire way. I sprinted back to the pile, and as fast as I could, moved three more orange containers.
The distant sound of chattering caught my ears as I placed the final one. Time to go! I made it to the edge of the crater just as the lizardmen began to walk down towards their ship.
Luck was finally with me!
It took only seconds for me to get to the distance agreed upon to fire. I had a good view of the orange containers and
the lizardmen.
That is when I saw In’ah.
I focused my eyes on her and thought I saw her shaking her head slightly as if to say no. I shook my head back in a defiant no of my own. I couldn’t leave her and I couldn’t finish our mission. She began to mouth the words now, ‘No, run!’.
A crushing weight seemed to grab ahold of my stomach, and I felt like I’d lose my lunch. No, no, no, how had we failed so badly? I didn’t know what to do next, but I stood upright and out of my hiding spot.
The lizardmen saw me almost immediately and, with In’ah tucked under one of their arms like an almost forgotten piece of baggage, they came. Just as they crested the edge of the crater, I rose my finger to my shoulder and across my vest, readying my attack.
“FINGER CANNON!” I screamed aloud. The lizardmen halted, either from confusion from my announced attack or from fear, I would never know. My beam shot past them and impacted the orange container. I didn’t see the explosion as I raised my forearm to cover my eyes the moment after my attack, knowing what to expect.
I unveiled my eyes moments later to see four forms lying prone on the ground. Only one remained still, a lizardman who had a jagged edge protruding from his chest, a piece of the ship no doubt, red blood poured out around him.
The remaining three lizardmen slowly moved to their feet. Clearly, the blast had dazed them, but what was wrong with In’ah. She was moving, but she wasn’t getting up.
“Get up, In’ah! I can’t take all three by myself!” I screamed as loud as I could, but beyond stirring a little, she didn’t even raise her head. Something was very wrong with her.
The largest of the three lizardmen squared off in front of me. I recognized him, a large scar going down across his face. The one Mesh’el had knocked out, he hadn’t been killed after all.
My mind snapped into clear focus, and I squatted down both hands drawing from my Sri.
“Continuous Sri Blast!” I screamed at the lizard. His face didn’t change from an almost smug growl, with partial teeth showing as he walked towards me.
The first orb of energy reached him, and to my dismay, he swatted it aside as I would an annoying insect. Not ready to give up yet, I pumped as much power as I could into the continuous blasts, and soon, the lizard was lost in a spray of dust as explosion after explosion smashed into his frame. He was unable to keep up with the number of blasts I sent his way. Several missed their mark and shot past him. An ever larger billowing dust wall was beginning to form.
I cut off the attack as I realized where my blast nearly landed. In’ah’s prone body still struggled to rise, barely visible in the thick cloud of dust.
Like a specter of death, a tall silhouette emerged from the clouds of dust less than ten feet from me. His weapon missing and his clothing in tatters he stood over me. His face was snarled in outright rage and he lifted a clawed hand towards me and spoke.
“Fight me worm!” He shouted, “Not with your trickery and not with my weapons. Fight me hand to hand!”
“That hardly seems fair.”
I tried to ignore Sumahon’s words, but he had a point. The sheer size of this lizardman mixed with what little I knew of hand to hand combat meant only one likely outcome from a confrontation between us.
I needed to run. But I couldn’t leave In’ah could I? But I had to live.
My feet seemed to make the decision for me. I turned and ran.
“Coward!” I heard the scream of the lizardman behind me, followed by the guttering sound like I understood to be their laughter.
He didn’t chase me and soon, I had distanced myself from him completely. Alone again, but the beginnings of a plan were forming.
“You said that our people were once fierce conquerors?” I asked Sumahon.
“In a sense, yes.”
“Well, I’m going back to that ship and we are going to find a weapon that will destroy these invaders and I am going to rescue In’ah!” I said the words for my own benefit just as much as a way to tell Sumahon my plan. I need to know that I wasn’t just a coward.
“I told you that I have very little knowledge reg-”
“We will find a way to make it work.”
I neared the location of the ship’s hangar, as Sumahon informed me it was called and immediately knew something was amiss. The large door that allowed us entrance was fine, but to the left, there was a gaping hole in the side of the mountainside and I could see the ship. Someone had blasted through the rock and opened that room to the world.
From where I crouched, I caught sight of the one who had done it. A single lizardman moved through the rubble towards the ship.
I moved around the edge of the city facing the cave entrance and approached the hole in the building from the side. I could hear the lizardman moving inside.
My back pressed against the cold stone just beside the broken hole. I did my best to steady my breath and calm myself. I was focused on my task that I almost didn’t feel the first few drops of rain splash against my skin.
Soon a torrent of rain fell in sheets all around me and the sounds from inside the cavern became indistinguishable from the rain. My cloak hung against me, filled to the brim with rainwater and mud splattering from the increasingly hard downfall.
But still, I waited and gathered my Sri as close as I could stand into my palms. Each of my hands hurt from the raw energy pressed so tightly into them, but still, I waited. A slight glow began to be seen from my hands, and it was time.
I stepped out from my hiding spot. The wind ripped my cloak around wildly and I held my hands out with their deadly glow filling the room with a soft light.
The lizardman had been running his large clawed hand against the outer edge of the ship when I revealed myself, but the light caught his attention and he turned.
I watched as his sharp eyes went from anger to wide-eyed fear in a matter of moments. I stepped forward just as a crack of lightning smashed behind me and lit the sky with white light.
“Why!?” I screamed at the invader. My voice was filled with hate, pain, and confusion.
The sound of my voice put the lizardman at ease and he appeared to lose his fear. I watched as he stood tall and reached for his weapon. But he had waited too long and I was upon him.
Instead of shooting off a blast, I ran to the lizardman and plunged my fist while ducking under a wild swing from his arm.
One of my fists made contact and with a large chunk of Sri shot free. Red blood flashed out behind the lizard man along with a chunk of his torso. My punch had blasted a large hole through the lizardman’s stomach.
I didn’t stop when the giant creature screamed and tried to back away, all the while swinging his clawed hands. Several of the enemies blows landed, but just as many of mine tore through him. Each strike did less damage than the last until I was beating against a pock filled corpse.
“It’s done, stop.”
Sumahon’s voice cut through my rage and snapped me back to reality.
Red blood mixed with sapphire was covering my arms and I felt a deep sense of emptiness fill me. I glanced at my status screen, a small notification was blinking..
You’ve learned a new skill, Sri Fists. You are able to channel your Sri into explosive bursts from your fists, dealing devastating damage at a close range.
-Sri Exhaustion: You’ve gone beyond normal exhaustion and completely emptied yourself of Sri. You are lucky to be alive, but by doing so, you’ve learned your true limit and will gain an increase in Sri effectiveness.-
I was too tired to even attempt to understand what that prompt could mean. I glanced at my level bar just as my vision began to blink with blackness and the world quieted.
-Neak’o, Sri Projector, Level 10-
Chapter Nineteen
I woke up in the dark and the air smelled funny. I quickly moved to get to my feet and a rush of pain rev
erberated from my head down to my feet. With effort, I stood, and my eyes focused. The darkness felt absolute, so I focused my vision on the ever-present overlay.
I noted several smaller specks being marked as life signs scattered throughout the darkened cavern but nothing large enough to concern myself with.
“You’ve finally awoken!” Sumahon said, I could sense a level of relief coming from him, “What you did was very foolish, but if you do it again, I am calling it Exploding Fists of Fury!”
“What happened to the lights?” I asked. Perhaps Sumahon could give some insight into what new danger lurked around the corner for me.
“My sense of the outside world is almost entirely tied into yours, I am just getting all the information now. From what I can tell, there doesn’t seem to be any airflow reaching us anymore. Perhaps a cave-in has buried us?”
The way he said that last part so nonchalantly brought a smile to my lips.
“Perhaps,” I said mimicking his voice, “We are dead and just don’t know it yet.”
“I believe the lack of fresh air is going to your head. I would know if we were dead. I think. Yes, yes, I would.”
There was one way to find out. I drew on my Sri and concentrated it on the edge of my skin as if I were going to attack and a subtle glow filled the room. The light didn’t let me see past several feet, but I saw the ruined corpse of the lizardman and the ship all within arms reach. So reaching out I pressed my hand against the ship, to my surprise it buzzed off into a low hum and a greater white light filled the entire room as the door lowered down into a set of steps.
“We are in trouble,” I said, my eyes darting to the massive hole that no longer led to the outside. I followed the line of the wall with my eyes, looking for the narrow hallway that led to the other exit and found the roof had caved in blocking that section as well.
“After all that,” Sumahon said, “We will die from oxygen deprivation.”
“What’s oxygen?” I asked, “Never mind that. Let’s get into the ship and see what we can find to help us.”
Reincarnation Page 14
