The Adept Archives: Volumes 1-3

by Darren Hultberg Jr

  “N-no...” the many-eyed man uttered, clutching at the weapon now protruding from his flesh. For the unparalleled strength he had displayed with his spirit aura, the mystic was rather fragile when it came to physical attacks.

  Leila was back on him nearly a breath later, gripping the spear and both hands and she used it to hoist the man up like a gruesome trophy.

  Showcasing the brutal nature of her transformation, the wind adept reached up and placed both hands on the man’s head. She seemed unaffected by his screams as she began to twist and tear, shredding the man’s skin until a final tear removed his head from his shoulders.

  And just like that, Kazuka Kaito was no more.

  Remley rose to a knee, watching as the wind adept paced around Kazuka’s mangled body. Her inky shell rippled as she drank in the man’s massive cloud of soul essence, absorbing the reward she so rightly deserved. Still, she’d defeated her opponent and that creeping darkness still lingered around her, holding her soul hostage.

  “Leila?” Remley said, feeling unease as he called out the woman’s name. Her head immediately snapped to the right, eyes wild as they locked on his form.

  “It’s me,” he continued, raising his hands in defense. Leila responded by dashing over to his location, slamming a claw into his chest and hoisting him up into the air.

  “Please...” Remley pleaded as he felt her claws begin to sink into his flesh. He didn’t know how much of his companion was in there beneath the layers of shadow and hate. By the gods, he didn’t even know if he could reach her... but she’d given everything to save him. He had to try.

  Leila let out an otherworldly growl before throwing the man into the ground, knocking the wind out of his lungs. She then leapt onto his chest, pinning him beneath the weight of her corrupted soul.

  “Leila, focus!” he urged, struggling as her claws found their way around his throat. “Remember who you are... Remember... remember the Sky Wolves!”

  Suddenly the wind adept paused, easing her grip around Remley’s throat as the inky black shell around her began to shift. Slowly, the blackness around her face began to retract, revealing a face twisted in pain.

  “I-I’m sorry, Rem! I can’t control it!” she gasped, clearly struggling to restrain herself from tearing out his throat. Despite that he embraced her, placing his hands over hers.

  “You can fight this, Leila! You can!” he urged, trying to draw her back to the light.

  Leila paused, meeting Remley’s gaze for a second that seemed to last an eternity. Her expression softened and had muscles relaxed. She was doing it. She was returning to herself...

  Or so Remley thought.

  The inky black substance snapped back across Leila’s face, reassuming control of her formidable physique. In a single breath, she thrust her arms forward, sending Remley careening through the dirt before slamming his body into a pile of debris. Then she turned her head, giving the flame adept a final glance before leaping off into the shadow.

  Chapter 24

  Brothers in Arms

  The Pit, the city of Shadowreach

  Roy watched in disbelief as Kai made his way across the arena, firing his spirit shotgun from the hip as he took aim at their indomitable foe.

  Dakkon immediately shifted his focus to the approaching adept, digging his heels in as the waves of energy burned at his skin. He growled in protest as each squeeze of the trigger released a burst of powerful spirit energy, chipping away at his defenses that seemed all but unbreakable.

  “You’re going to need more than that, you puny bastard!” Dakkon growled, shrugging off the blows and making a leap at Kai. The former officer displayed a nimbleness of his own, using a burst of spirit energy to roll to his right and avoid the oncoming blow.

  “You ready to put this guy down, officer Skyworth?” Kai asked as he spun away from another attack, narrowly dodging an empowered fist.

  Roy looked over at Kimoura, her body broken and beat. He looked at his cryofox, it’s body now shattered into a dozen crystalline shards. Then he turned his gaze back to Dakkon, the one responsible for all this pain.

  “You’re damn right I am.”

  Roy’s body illuminated with black-violet light as his spirit exploded with energy, feeding off the strength of his unchecked rage. He’d done well to keep his anger in check during his time in Shadowreach, but that was over now. Dakkon has pushed him to his limit... it was time to break it.

  “High-low, Skyworth!” Kai yelled as he launched himself forward. He immediately fell into a baseball slide, slipping between Dakkon’s legs before firing a round off into the Kaito brother’s knee.

  //////////

  Gunslinger Skill: Aura Burst Shot

  //////////

  Roy let loose a simultaneous barrage, charging Dakkon’s flank and slamming a dark spiral directly into the back of his head. The combined force wasn’t enough to deal heavy damage to the adept, but it did manage to disrupt his center of balance and force the towering brute to a knee.

  Kai used the opportunity to shift his gun barrel upwards, resting it on Dakkon Kaito’s chin. With a quick pull of the trigger, he released another round of spirit energy, blasting the man like an explosive punch to the face!

  Roy expected the massive adept to recoil but the man merely ate the blow, a pained grin forming on his now smoking face. Once again, the giant man displayed his unorthodox speed, snapping his arms forward and latching on to the barrel of Kai’s gun.

  The beast adept tried to shake his spirit shotgun free, but Dakkon merely used it to hoist him into the air, swinging him like a rag doll before slamming him directly into Roy. He then followed it up with a kick to the gut, propelling both of the outrealmers across the arena’s sandy floor.

  The pair were slow to rise to their feet, feeling the effects of Dakkon’s brutish strength. Even worse, Kai had lost a grip on his weapon, which now lied several paces away in the sand.

  “Got any ideas?” Roy whispered as they squared up against their approaching foe, unsure of the mountainous man’s next move.

  Kai’s gaze flickered to the right, briefly settling on the golden axe that remained lodged in a broken spire of ice. “He’s thick-skinned... I’ll give him that. But look over there... that’s a relic. Maybe if we can get ahold of it, we can carve him up.”

  Roy inspected the item out of the corner of his eye, pulling up a translucent screen of data.

  //////////

  Dawnbreaker

  Relic of the 2nd Age

  History: This weapon once belonged to Shazara, goddess of light and keeper of the worldstar. In the hands of the righteous, it is said to have the power to cut through shadow and carve a path to dawn.

  Divine power: If extracted, the weapon contains the power unyielding dawn.

  //////////

  “He’s never gonna let us get to it,” Roy said, preparing for Dakkon’s charge.

  “You go,” Kai ordered. “I’ll hold him off.”

  “Without your gun?”

  “Don’t worry,” Kai replied. “I got a few other weapons under my belt.”

  Suddenly, the beast adept began channeling his aura, allowing golden light to wash over his form. His muscles expanded, growing in size as brown and gold hair began to sprout from his limbs. His fingertips sprouted razor-sharp claws and his face stretched into a feline maw and his hair took the form of a wild mane. By all accounts, the man looked like a damned lion!

  //////////

  Beast skill: Beast form (Lion’s Pride)

  //////////

  “Go!” Kai roared before charging in, meeting Dakkon head-on as his body surged with bestial fury. His refined fighting style was all but gone in this form, replaced by something more fierce... something primal.

  Claws thrashed at Dakkon’s skin and ivory fangs bit into flesh as Kai threw everything he had at the man, taking his own punishment in return. Roy could see a clear boost in Kai’s strength, but there was still no way he’d hold up for long against the Kaito brothe
r. He had to make this count. He had to get that damned axe.

  Channeling spirit aura into his legs, Roy dashed across the arena, eyes locked on Dawnbreaker as it sat idly in the ice. Dakkon quickly caught on to what the man was doing and moved to intercept, tossing Kai away with a quick show of his might. Fortunately for Roy, Kai was far more resilient than Dakkon had anticipated.

  Clawed hands began to glow as Kai leapt onto the Kaito brother’s back, digging into gray flesh and slowing the man’s charge.

  //////////

  Beast Skill: Shining Claw

  //////////

  Roy seized the opportunity, using an empowered leap to bound over the broken ice and land directly in front of the relic. He drew in a deep breath as he extended his hands forward, hovering just inches away from the axe’s haft. Then he grit his teeth and latched on to the weapon.

  Suddenly, Roy was standing in the middle of a barren field, surrounded by nothing but the ominous approaching vale. The growls of darkbeasts echoed around him as the vile creatures began to appear out of the fog, baring their teeth and thrashing their tails as they closed in on him.

  His instincts told him to run, but Roy forced himself to hold his ground. In the back of his mind, he knew that this was just some sort of vision… an astral projection embedded in the relic’s divine energy.

  As the darkbeasts grew closer, Roy noticed another figure join his side. A woman, tall and slender with pale skin and hair the color of sunlight rose to meet the darkness, dawnbreaker held firmly in her grasp. Thin pieces of metal interlocked over her torso, flowing behind her in what appeared to be a dress made of bronze. She was beautiful… beautiful and deadly.

  Moving with grace, the woman lifted dawnbreaker into the air and swung, releasing a wave of golden light into the approaching shadow. The darkbeasts screeched as the light tore through the vale, vanquishing the darkness and the creatures hidden within it and creating a path for the rays of the worldstar to shine through.

  Slowly the woman turned and took measure of Roy, her viridian eyes glimmering in the light of her supernatural glow. Carefully she extended her mighty weapon out to the man, offering him the golden axe. Though to his surprise, she paused as his hands wrapped around its haft.

  “The power of my axe burns for the righteous!’ she said, her tone echoing with otherworldly power. Then darkness rushed in and everything was consumed in a wave of black…

  Roy opened his eyes, finding himself back in the arena, dawnbreaker still held firmly in his grasp. Behind him, Kai was continuing to struggle against the behemoth, clawing at the man’s forearms as Dakkon slammed him into the ground by his mane.

  Channeling his anger, Roy centered himself and tried to lift the axe off the ground just as the goddess Shazara had done. Unfortunately, this relic acted nothing like Cipherion’s Tooth, and he found it nearly impossible to dislodge it from the ice.

  “Roy, now!” Kai growled, digging his claws into Dakkon as he tried to break the man’s iron grip. Roy grimaced, once again trying to heave the weapon into the air but only managing to lift it a mere foot off the ground.

  “Fools!” Dakkon howled, letting out a mocking laugh as he slammed Kai’s body into the dirt. Before the beast adept could escape, he stomped down on his chest, pressing the man into the sand and creating a shallow crater in the arena’s floor. “The power in that thing is sealed and you’ll never be able to crack it! I just keep it around because it’s great for crackin skulls!”

  Before Roy could flee, the Kaito brother bounded in his direction, landing a mere pace away from where he stood.

  “And it hits like a damned leviathan,” Dakkon continued, snapping his hand forward and latching on to the back of Roy’s neck. “Now let’s see some more of that blood,” he said, slamming the void adept’s head into the axe haft with each word spoken.

  Roy tried to break away, but his resources were waning, and the pain was making his mind spin. His divine energy was all but dried up and his void energy was beginning to deplete, especially since he’d been channeling it to his muscles nearly the entire fight. There was still the void blade, but a bludgeoning weapon would likely have no effect on a foe like this…

  With blood streaming down his face, Roy reached for his belt and snatched up the only trick he had left, one that had helped him in a tough situation with Headmaster Zion. Gritting his teeth, Roy pressed the item into Dakkon’s side and activated the arc launcher.

  Waves of lightning energy coursed through Dakkon’s body, electrifying his dull, gray skin and forcing his muscles to rapidly contract. He held the weapon there for several breaths, dumping whatever energy it had in it into giant brute as he tried to burn him from the inside.

  Silence overtook the arena as Dakkon fell very still, lines of lightning energy still dancing through the air around him. Slowly, Roy moved his free hand up to try and pry Dakkon’s massive palm off his neck. Had he done it? Had he actually-

  THWACK!

  Before Roy could finish his thoughts, Dakkon reached down and grabbed ahold of the arc launcher before smashing it into Roy’s face. The void adept’s body crumbled under the weight of the blow, rolling over several times in the sand before coming to a rest in a battered, bleeding heap.

  “That was cute,” Dakkon said, casually cracking his neck and releasing a line of lightning energy that lingered on his skin. “In fact, I think I’m almost gonna be sad to see you go. You guys put up a hell of a fight.... like punching bags that keep coming back for more.”

  Slowly, the man made his way towards Roy, cracking his knuckles as he prepared for a final beatdown. Roy tried to rise, tried to force himself to his feet, but his body wouldn’t listen. He’d never suffered a beating like this in either of his lives… He was broken.

  Dakkon’s footsteps echoed in Roy’s head like thunder as the man made his approach, each step bringing him closer to his destruction. Rather than look at the man, he averted his gaze Kimoura whose body was strewn out mere paces away.

  Barely conscious, the woman tilted her head and met Roy’s gaze, a profound sadness in her eyes. Using every bit of strength, she had left, Kimoura reached her hand out towards him, fingers outstretched as if she were trying to grasp at his soul.

  “Roy,” she said, her voice barely a whisper. “Roy, I lo-“

  Kimoura’s words were cut short as Dakkon stepped in between them, his massive hands reaching down to scoop Kimoura off the ground.

  “How sweet,” he said, placing a hand on either side of her skull. “Ya know, I think it’d be awful touching if you two died together. What do you say, divine adept?”

  Suddenly, Dakkon began to squeeze, just as he did when he was torturing Roy. The void adept knew that she only had seconds, especially in her weakened state. And yet… she didn’t show a shred of weakness. Instead, her gaze remained stoic, eyes firmly locked on Roy and hand outstretched in his direction.

  “NO!” Roy cried out, fighting off a wave of dizziness as he rose to a knee. He could feel the last reserves of his void energy desperately swelling in his muscles, though he knew it wouldn’t be enough. At that moment, he would’ve given anything to save her. He couldn’t just watch her perish. He couldn’t!

  //////////

  Spirit Energy source detected

  //////////

  As if reacting to the desire within the depths of his soul, his spirit scan came to life. Translucent waves of energy were displayed in his enhanced vision, trailing from Kimoura’s palm and swirling around his form. A notification followed a breath later, appearing in the corner of his eye.

  //////////

  Kindred Spirit Identified…

  Compiling data…

  Compiling…

  New Spirit mode unlocked!

  //////////

  Unsure of what to expect and desperate to free Kimoura from Dakkon’s clutches, Roy did the only thing that he could.

  “Activate, dammit!”

  //////////

  Spirit Overrdrive activated!
/>
  Spirit mode: Kindred

  //////////

  The last remnants of Kimoura’s light energy fled her body, causing her to go limp as the aura slammed into Roy’s chest. Healing light swirled with his own dark violet energy, enveloping him like a cloak and granting him a sudden burst of strength greater than he’d ever felt.

  Dakkon seemed almost surprised by the transformation, tossing Kimoura’s motionless body aside and raising his fists in a fighting stance.

  “I’ll make you pay!” Roy roared as the sudden burst of power consumed him. He could feel it coursing through his body, swirling around his form like a raging inferno. He felt unstoppable. Still, he knew that flames went out eventually...

  He had to act fast.

  Roy threw himself at Dakkon, setting aside all inhibitions as he lost himself in his martial technique. He threw a series of punches and a front kick to the stomach, then followed it with another hook and a flying knee.

  The Kaito brother absorbed most of the blows in stride, though he continued to backpedal as Roy continued his assault. He launched another combination, slipping through Dakkon’s defenses before blasting him with a wheel kick to the face, this time actually staggering his monstrous foe.

  Roy’s eyes scanned over Dakkon as the Kaito brother tried to right his stance. Despite the man’s rock-solid defenses, his body was showing some serious wear. Cuts and claw marks were visible across his thick, gray skin, as well as a number of burn marks from the aura blasts and shotgun rounds he’d absorbed. Even a small line of bluish blood began to trickle down his nose, smearing across his cheek as a result of a recent strike to the face. It wasn’t a killing blow, but it was proof... proof enough that he was beatable.