Then it happened. I made a misstep and took my attention off of the crazed attacker for only a moment and I felt a searing pain travel through my arm.
“Hah, you are done child.” T’thrack said as I dropped Sumahon and stared down at the stump where my hand used to be.
In stunned realization I struggled to understand what had happened. I could feel my Sri connection being blocked in that arm. I couldn’t channel to my right hand. I had lost my right hand. No.
As I stared in confused silence a force collapsed on top of me and I was staring at the tip of a blade. T’thrack lay atop me ready to strike.
“Yield and you can still be of some use to me.”
I just stared up and the blade stunned.
“Say something or he will kill us!” Sumahon said into my mind.
I receded into myself and examined my broken Sri connection. I could see it frayed and destroyed and knew there was no repairing it. I followed the lines of power inside myself in a stunned trace and vaguely noted that my other hand was pinned beneath T’thrack’s knee. Then I saw something else. A connection that I had all but forgot about. My mouth.
T’thrack’s blade was position to deliver a blow straight into my gemmed forehead, so I began to condense my Sri the best I could in my stunned state. My tongue tingled and my mouth began to ache as more and more power channeled up and into my throat and mouth. Soon I could almost taste the Sri.
“What are you doing?” T’thrack asked, his voice had once again lost its confident air.
Just as he began to plunge his blade downward, likely sensing the impending attack, I released the power from my jaws.
A thick power beam of Sri shot from my mouth and cut straight through T’thrack’s chest.
T’thrack’s corpse fell heavily atop me and I was bathed in his blood.
Weak, tired, and ready to pass out from my expenditures of Sri power, it took all my effort to push the body aside and make it to my feet.
Barely away of the other lizardmen’s stares I began to walk towards In’ah to claim my reward from victory. Just as I reached her I felt something hard against my back.
“You are dead worm.” A lizardman’s voice, “You think we’d ever let you just leave? You are as dumb as you are strong. But you won’t dodge this bl-“
His words were cut short and I was thrown forward next to In’ah. A loud crunching sound followed, and I turned to see a familiar form standing in what was left of the lizard man. Mesh’el held his giant hammer with ease as he surveyed the crater.
Chapter Twenty-Four
I battled with a mix of emotions. On the one hand he had just saved me from being killed, but on the other, this was the exact person I didn’t want to run into.
“You have battled well, brother,” Mesh’el spoke to me while stepping out of the pile of goo. His eyes stayed locked with mine as he hefted his hammer and closed the distance between us. “But for our people you must die now.”
As I watched my death approaching, I wondered at the rapid hissing of voices all around us and the occasional swoosh of something nearby.
“I just want to save In’ah and we will leave,” I said, but my voice came out hoarse and dry, “You can have this planet for yourself. I don’t even care that you betrayed our people.”
Mesh’el stopped cold and his expression turned dark.
“I have not betrayed our people, brother,” Mesh’el spat each word, his anger clear to see, “I have saved them. It is only right before I end you both that you know why it is we must die, myself included when my work is done.”
“This guy has lost his marbles,” Sumahon said into my mind. I was hard pressed not to agree, but I think voicing that would probably guarantee my swift demise, so I would let Mesh’el monologue all he wanted while I tried to focus enough Sri to do something about it.
“There is a secret that our Elders have kept from us,” Mesh’el dropped coming forward and took a deep breath, “This world is dying because of their arrogance. Our ancestors harvested this land of its life until a thousand years ago we were at the brink of extinction. Until a group of wise Elders said enough was enough and used what little we had left to create a barrier around our world. In their act of hubris, they doomed us ever further towards extinction.”
The whooshing of sounds and murmurs of the lizardmen tapered out and the crater was still.
“We had pockets of life left that we could live and the actions of the Elders, no matter how foolish, had done what they had intended. We were safe from outsiders and began to regress to simpler times without the need to harvest the life from the planet. However, what they didn’t tell us was that the world was already dead.”
“Slowly death and decay spread until only small pockets of life were left, but even those would end with time, so the Elders decided on a path that truly damned us all. There was another source of life that could be found and with less effort.”
Mesh’el tapped the gem on his forehead and continued.
“Our kind infused with the power of creation used to be as numerous as those without the gift. The Elders began harvesting all Erusha that hadn’t been gifted with a Seinkah or those that refused to be bent into service. It was a secret the Elders shared with only one other, Aetex. So I am going to save our people, first I invited the lizardmen to come strip the remaining life from this planet, in return they have agreed to ferry our people to a new world where they can find new life. But we, the Erusha, cannot be a part of that new life. Even now after thousands of years our presence strikes fear into the hearts of the others that share this galaxy with us. So, I’ve agreed to the terms of our peoples freedom, and that includes our doom.”
I was awestruck, his explanation made no sense.
“Wait,” I said as I stood, “You sold our people into slavery and signed away the lives of all Erusha, the only ones that could protect our people, in exchange for a ride to someplace else? Why can’t we be allowed to live here if you are sending the rest of our kind away? You are insane.”
“I couldn’t have said it better myself,” Sumahon said, “Although maybe we should not criticize the guy with the huge hammer while our Sri levels are so low? Keep him talking and we might have a chance.”
“You are too young to understand, but I am willing to still give you a warrior’s death,” Mesh’el said, “Stand and we will do battle.”
I was already standing, but I straightened and began channeling what little Sri I had into my hands. I had grown stronger than anything else I’d faced from recent events and there had to be a chance that I could take out Mesh’el. No idea what I’d do after that, as I was still surrounded by lizardmen, but I had to hold out hope.
I would win.
The thought was still half finished in my mind when Mesh’el rushed forward. For someone his size he moved with incredible speed, but I was expecting as much and managed to dive to the side just in time.
My hand lashed out filled with Sri and slammed into his side with all the strength I could muster, all the while the stump where my right hand had been stung in protest to being moved.
My hand bounced off an invisible layer of shielding. Damn.
Mesh’el quickly regained his footing and turned to face me, hammer ready.
“I am glad you have fight left in you. Even some of our seasoned brothers went down with my first blow. You have speed and a fair amount of strength left in you even after such a devastating injury.”
“You won’t win!” I spat the words at Mesh’el. I needed to get him talking, I could feel my body struggle to replenish my low supply of Sri. I might still have a chance.
“I will and I am truly sorry it must be this way.”
Mesh’el raised his hammer and jumped forward in a swift and precise movement. He came up short and would have missed even if I hadn’t jumped back and I realized too late what he was
doing.
My feet made contact with the ground just as his hammer came down and the ground beneath me crumbled. His hammer had turned the hard ground into loose dirt and my foot was several feet deep now. He would be on me before I could get loose.
Just as Mesh’el approached and readied his hammer for the death blow I shot upward. Using all my remaining Sri I forced myself free from the earth and shot upward at an incredible speed and I would have gotten away, if Mesh’el was a moment slower.
The world jerked around me as I went from speeding upward to held in place by a grip of iron. Mesh’el had plucked me from the sky before I was able to get much further than a dozen feet from the ground.
In what felt like slow motion I was dragged downward and smashed into the earth, but he didn’t release his grip and continued to smash me into the ground on either side of him. My body flung about wildly and pain became my only sense.
Finally, he tossed me aside and I lay groaning waiting for the end.
I could feel it, I was dying. What little strength I had left was being used to keep my eyes open. I turned my head towards In’ah and felt blood stinging my eyes as I watched her. A lizardman was pulling her towards a ship and I couldn’t stop him.
“What do you think you are doing!” It was Mesh’el speaking, but he wasn’t talking to me. I watched him take a step towards the lizardman. “It is my right and only mine to end the Erusha.”
“Kill them both,” I barely heard the lizardman’s hissing voice before dozens upon dozens of light beams struck down at Mesh’el.
At the edge of death I watched almost proudly as Mesh’el repelled a number of the beams and even threw his hammer crushing a lizardman from the sky, but there were too many.
With screams of pain and rage I watched Mesh’el drop feet from me. His eyes locked with mine and I could almost see an apology in them. He had been doing what he thought was the only way to save our people.
The light in his fiery red eyes dimmed and he was dead. I struggled to hold onto life, but the corners of my vision began to swim and I knew I’d be dead soon as well.
“You know,” Sumahon’s voice cut into my ever-dimming mind, “This really sucks.”
Then I died. The last thing I saw was In’ah being dragged into a ship and a look of horror on her face.
Name: Neak’o ( Dead )
Current Path: Sri Projector
Level 20, 201,854/2,000,000 Exp, Energy: 0/550, Spirit: 250, Phys: 110
23 AP
Abilities:
Lesser Sturdy ( Racial Passive )
Sri Projecting
Sri Vibrations
Brink of Death
Skills:
Sri Blast Level 15 -> Continuous Sri Blasts Level 12
Sri Kata Level 8 -> Improved Dodge Level 10
Finger Cannon Level 16
Soft Steps Level 7
Inspect Level 5 -> Analize Level 5
Sri Fists Level 7
Spec Tree:
Improved Sri Regeneration [5/5]
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Well that didn’t go according to my plans at all,” A voice said from somewhere above me. It was familiar in a way that I couldn’t place. Then all at once my memories began to rush back to me. I’d been a cat, and died, I was a warrior of my people, and died, so now where was I.
I tried to open my eyes but realized that I didn’t have eyes but in a strange way could see all along. Not far from where I floated as a mass of white light, was a familiar face. Hakarus, the god of Knowledge.
I tried to speak, but found I had no voice.
“Aw here let me fix that,” I sensed more than saw Hakarus wave his hand and then the tingling began.
I was quickly overwhelmed with an intense pressure that grew until I wanted to scream. Then with a small popping noise my senses blossomed.
I opened my eyes for the first time in the strange white room of nothingness.
“Actually, we are in a pocket dimension between the world of the living and the world of the dead.”
I jumped and looked down towards the voice. Sumahon, my book, was pressed tightly in my hand, but I had heard his words aloud and not in my mind.
“Sumahon?” I asked. How had he gotten here? Better yet what even was he. Now that my memories of my life as a cat returned I very much did not understand how a talking book worked in my version of normal.
“The one and the same!” He said proudly. His cover was a polished brown, cleaner than I remember it being, with wavy strange words, that I recognized as Ki’darthian script, across the front. “I guess death isn’t the end. You could have shared that little bit of information with me you know.”
“It wasn’t like I remembered or that if I had remembered that you wouldn’t have somehow already known. You are like an annoying version of the internet, NSA, and a puppy all wrapped into one.”
Someone cleared their voice nearby and my attention was pulled back to Hakarus.
“Sorry forgot you were there,” I said stretching my arms and enjoying the feeling of being truly alive again. I reached for my Sri and was surprised to find I still had access to it. Then with a quick thought I tried to access my digital overlay. It flickered to life and I saw for half a fraction of a second a display over Hakarus.
-Deity Level 1, Dishonored-
Then just as fast as my display appeared it flickered away. I noted an annoyed look on Hakarus’s face and concluded he must have interfered with it somehow.
“I need to get back to Ki’darth,” I said suddenly remembering In’ah and the lizardmen, “Send me back!”
“Aw well it isn’t that easy. Besides I am the one in charge here. You were my champion and you aren’t nearly as strong as I need. Perhaps if I send you to th-“
I began channeling Sri into my finger tips.
“I need to go back,” I said with more force. Hakarus looked up and my Sri faded away. I pulled as hard I could to funnel it into my fingers, but something held me just far enough away from the power. I was powerless.
“Listen here,” Hakarus said, “I might just have a way for you to get back and a way for you to get stronger. That way both our ends are met. It won’t be easy but-“
“I’ll do it,” I interrupted, “I don’t care. I can do it.”
“All right then,” Hakarus said sighing, “Then let me tell you how to enter the Tournament of the Damned.”
End of Book One
Thank you for reading and I hope you check out book two as Neak’o and Sumahon try to get their mortality fully restored and participate in the gladiatorial tournament of the damned.
From the Author
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Reincarnation Page 18
