Chapter 9 Run Away (II)
Aria
Trees blurred past me as I navigated the dense forest. Even at this speed, my senses weren't overwhelmed.
That lion monster was slowly gaining on me. It was faster. The only reason I hadn't been caught yet was because I had a better turning circle. Speaking of—probably about time to turn again.
I transferred what momentum I could to the wind surrounding me before performing a sharp turn and reigniting my sprint. The lion tried its best to do the same, but ended up sliding and falling over before quickly recovering and resuming its chase.
I could tell it was getting extremely frustrated from this maneuver of mine. This was around the 3rd time I'd done it.
If all I have to do is play a game of cat and mouse with, ironically, a giant monster cat then I have nothing to worry about. There was still one point of anxiety. It hasn't used that flamebreath ability—or any flame ability in fact.
From how fast that attack traveled, it would be able to chase me down. Good luck aiming it at me, though. Even if I wasn't as fast as it, my mobility was a lot more free thanks to my wind-flow based abilities.
Speak of the devil, it's starting to get a little hot. As if it read my mind, the beast had begun to heat up. Now what are you going to do with all that heat? An attack like last time or something else?
The beast stopped in its tracks. Its ferocious maw began to open and I spotted a growing flame in its mouth. The flame grew and compressed more and more until—
Okay. Flamebreath it is.
Fire burst out of the monster's mouth. It began to expand in a cone as it travelled, making its range wider and wider.
I again came to a quick stop, pivoting sharply and flaring my flow as high as I could. I reabsorbed the momentum I had transferred and conjured a blast of wind under my feet to propel me.
With all my tricks and might, I exploded out of the way of the flamebreath.
Now, to resume running away.
But the lion did something I hadn't seen before. Something so simple, yet caught me completely off guard.
It turned its neck.
The giant beam of flame turned with it. I had no hope of dodging, the speed of the flames matched the turn of the beast's neck. In an instant I was engulfed in fire.
It hit like a truck. The agony of burning enveloped my entire body—like pure pain being shot into me. My arms threw themselves over my face in order to protect it. I was blown back by the impact and carried like I was a wisp of flame myself.
My mind went white. The pain was so great that I nearly passed out.
Once the attack fizzled out, I was left lying in a field of ash. Everything around me was a wasteland of black and grey.
That attack should've killed me, yet somehow I only had 2nd degree burns, maybe some 3rd degree ones, and possibly a concussion.
It didn't match up with the rest of my stats. Even with flow, my durability felt more enhanced than anything else.
Maybe I got lucky somehow, or I just didn't know how strong I really was. I didn't have time to figure that out, the monster was already on its way here.
I stumbled to my feet, my burns stung like hell. I'd be crying from the pain, but I think my tears had all evaporated.
I heard the sounds of trees crashing down. Something was bulldozing everything in its way. That something being the monster currently trying to kill me.
It broke through the last layer of trunks before it entered the field of ash it had created. In moments, it closed in on me—its mouth wide open.
Jumping back, I conjured winds to support my movements. The lion lifted one of its front paws and slammed it down on my position.
I jumped left in order to dodge. The ground cracked and caved from the force of its attack. Flames burst outward from where the paw landed and spread out below me.
As I landed the beast turned and lunged at me. Dodging once again, I compressed air into a blade and launched it at the beast. My attack went through its fur before smashing against its skin like a calm breeze.
This time it lifted up both its paws to slam down onto me. As soon as it did, I jumped up to avoid it and delivered my own hammer strike to its forehead. Wind crashed down with my blow briefly obscuring the beast.
Its head had moved only a fraction of an inch.
It let out a beastly roar and flames erupted from all over its body. In a mini explosion I was blown back but landed on my feet. I sensed a familiar charge. The beast's maw was once again open—flames coalescing in its mouth.
My eyes widened in fear. If that attack hits me again it'll definitely leave me unable to fight at best.
Damn!
I had one lousy trick up my sleeve.
I didn't know if this would work. I didn't even know if I could pull it off.
Flow inside my body strengthened me, but when pushed outside it did nothing. That is, unless its nature had changed. Now, when emitted, it could conjure winds like I did when sending a slash at the beast.
The mechanics of this, however, left me with a lot of room for speculation. The intensity of the attack was proportional to the flow I released. That flow could then move inside the conjured wind—allowing me some level of control of whatever I had conjured.
If I kept my flow close, the air would stay as a tight beam. If I spread my flow out, then the wind would follow. I could also release the control flow has over the attack and let physics handle it however it would. This process was simple and intuitive, but made me ask one thing. What other ways could my flow affect my conjured wind?
I powered up my analese taking any assistance I could get. I gathered flow into my hands charging up my own attack. As soon as the beast launched its breath of fire I shot a powerful ray of concentrated wind to intercept it. Both attacks fanned out in a cone as they got ready to collide.
Then—right as they impacted—I changed my "wind". My flow, out of my body, but still in my attack, listened to my command. With it, oxygen was completely stripped along the area of influence my flow controlled.
Where its flames met my vacuum, they ceased to exist in an instant. I didn't need a deep understanding of molecules to pull this off, I just needed to know they existed. I simply willed them to disappear, and like a genie, flow granted my desire.
But this change wasn't natural. Maintaining this "unnatural state" of wind used up more of my flow than conjuring its natural state.
My body strained at the sheer amount I was outputting. Luckily, the beast's attack had subsided. I finally let go of my attack having successfully neutralized the flames.
Again the lion's body lit up in flames. Unwilling to let it have its way, I pushed out my flow to create a vacuum around it. Immediately the flames surrounding it vanished.
The farther away my target was the more flow it took to exert any influence in that area. This trick was neat, but it couldn't be sustained. It didn't weaken the beast's body at all either, and I still had no way of outrunning it. It also beats me in a war of attrition.
The lion charged me. Its paw was coated in flames as it lifted it up to swipe at me.
Shit! If I pushed flow outside of my body to put out the flame, I'd be left too weak to dodge.
I stepped back out of the paw's range. The flames surrounding it exploded off the attack and fanned out. I couldn't avoid them and was swept away in their embrace.
Seeing an opportunity, the beast lunged once more to bite my head off. I regained my balance using wind flow and dodged. Immediately after the beast swiped at me with a fire-laced paw again.
I couldn't dodge it. The paw made contact. I was sent flying.
The world around me spun. Even with my enhanced senses I felt disoriented. I flew out of the ashen arena in an instant and hurdled through countless trees. By the time I had stopped, I couldn't gauge how far I had been sent.
I looked at my body. The arm that took the attack was broken. The rest of my body wasn't far off. Every twitch stung and I found it hard to move. I had no time to rest though, my hunter was already sprinting this way.
What do I do?
Facing death, adrenaline poured through my body like never before. In reaction to this, my flow followed suit. I got off my feet, power like I've never felt before flowing through my body. My flow coursed through my broken arm, shifting and healing it just enough for it to function.
Everything hurt like hell. The strain flaring up this much flow was immense. And yet, even with this power, I still had no chance at beating this thing.
As soon as it reached me—it pounced. I went under, choosing to slide beneath it. I shot up just as fast, reciprocating that slide maneuver one of the roaches used on me before.
With its back turned, I punched at its behind with all the power I could muster. Finally, I felt it buckle.
It swiftly turned to swipe at me midair. What should've hit me was instead dodged thanks to the odd applications of momentum I could use.
Just like I had done at the beginning, I poured all my strength into my feet and shouted. I flew up and let a devastating uppercut fly into the monster's jaw. Its whole body was lifted off the ground before falling back down. The lion shook its head in surprise at my strength.
I hurt it! I finally hurt it!
The victory didn't last long though as the beast released a flurry of attacks. With my analese at full throttle I could easily read each attack. My body was a different story however. Just barely, I was managing to dodge all of its attacks, but still unable to back away from them completely.
Dodging one of its blows, I launched a counterpunch at its nose that temporarily stunned it. I unleashed my own flurry of blows pushing it back slightly.
Yet again—no damage. No damage no damage no damage. Even though I had managed to keep up with this thing, even though I had outsmarted and outmaneuvered it, I could barely hurt it.
Frustration burned in my chest. I was about to die yet I could only feel angry at how I couldn't even hurt this thing. I was angry at how hopeless this fight was from the start. Why the hell did this thing have to appear? Why the hell do I have to die to it?
I felt frustrated at my own helplessness. My head felt like it was about to burst. I deserved a chance, I needed power. I wanted to survive, I wanted to make it back to my friends.
I wanted so much damn more—so, so much. I wanted to live. I wanted to find a way.
My flow flared up even higher. I pushed my body to its limits and then further. It didn't matter right? I was about to die if I didn't anyway. I wanted to hurt this thing. I wanted to kill it. Even in a magical land a jungle was still a jungle. Don't cower; channel your survival instincts, your fear, your strength, and throw everything at the opponent in front of you. Channel your anger, frustration, and passion for living. Burn up your own body if it means you might survive
Its power. Its flames. I analyzed the nature of its flow. It was different, even from my own wind nature. I knew that obviously, fire would be another nature it could take on. For some reason though, I was drawn to it. I wanted to watch it.
Rather—not me, but my—flow.
I felt another transformation occurring. A different sensation flowed through me, this time, as if flames were coursing through my body. Heat began to rise near me as a red hue lightly surrounded my body. Tongues of flame cracked and whipped along my skin.
My senses dialed back down. I felt slower than before, but so much stronger. My body pulsed with raw energy that hadn't belonged to it before. Energy that would follow and empower every movement.
I coated my hands in flame and exploded off the ground. I felt heavier, but my step was stronger. Still, I was much slower than with wind flow, but this lumbering beast could hardly dodge anyway.
My punch slammed into its cheek. On contact, that mysterious energy slammed into it with me. The force of my blow was magnified—far stronger than it normally would be.
This flow coursing through my body made everything I did more forceful. No, it was power itself flowing through my veins. Pure energy, exploding out of me at my will.
The beast's body lifted off the ground and was sent flying through a couple trees. There was a red mark where I had hit symbolizing a slight bruise.
I charged in again. Its swipes were much harder to dodge now, but my counterattacks had an effect this time.
Slowly but surely, I began to rack up damage on the lion, pushing it back with every blow. Until—
My analese allowed me to see its paw come down, but my body was frozen amidst the forces acting on it. I couldn't transfer any of it into the wind.
The paw came down. I put my arms up to block. The ground beneath me caved as I was slammed into it. My arms felt like they would break. The rest of my body thought it was being crushed. Blood began to leak from my mouth.
The lion lifted its foot off of me. I lay there like a squashed bug. This flame flow made me slightly more sturdy than its wind variant. That, and all the flow I was outputting had strengthened my body a great deal compared to before. Its paws didn't damage as badly as it did before.
But even then, all the damage I had already accumulated was far too great. For a moment, I was paralyzed. I slowly regained feeling in my body as a deep ache shot all around me. Even with feeling my body felt a million times heavier. I saw the beast getting ready to finish me.
So even that power-up wasn't enough. Figures—I had reached new heights of strength during this battle but was still nowhere close to this creature. But I also learned I was far trickier.
It got ready to eat me. I flashed it a manic grin before switching back to wind flow, and exuding sharp gusts of wind from all over my body.
Momentarily catching the beast off guard, I hopped up and onto its head. From there I switched back to fire, and jumped up with all the might I could muster.
The second I made lift-off I went back to wind. Immediately, my body felt lighter and the air made way for my travel. I was unable to combine both types of flows at the same time, but I was still able to take advantage of both their effects like this.
Once I reached the top of my jump, I poured enormous amounts of flow to propel me higher with air. I saw the whole forest from here. I even saw where it ended. I could glide out of here right now, but I knew this beast would follow me wherever I went.
There was no running.
I began my descent, quickly gaining speed. Air resistance tried to slow me down but I commanded the wind to get out of my way. The lion noticed me coming down and shot devastating fireballs at me. They were like meteors flying upwards.
I maneuvered out of the way of them like I could fly. Whichever ones I couldn't dodge I cancelled with a vacuum. As I got lower I forced the muscles in my body to make me spin. I wanted to gather as much momentum as I could.
Then I reached the beast. I transferred as much momentum to the wind surrounding me as I could. Stabilized for a moment, I aimed a downward punch at the monster—commanding the wind to return my energy to me right after.
Using the enhanced cognition of the analese, I switched my flow to fire as my command went into effect. Energy enveloped my fist as I got ready to strike. Then—the momentum returned to me.
The bonus energy given from fire flow increases proportionally to the amount of energy I already put in. This was the ultimate way to maximise this effect.
Flames enveloped my fist as it crashed down into the lion.
The ground gave way. Fire fanned out in a circle from my fist. A shockwave burst out and ripped through everything in its path.
I felt the beast's back bend and its legs give out. I landed back on the ground, my attack finished. My wrist was broken from the impact. My body tingled like it was going numb from overclocking my flow. I would collapse soon, I knew that.
I soaked in the calm of the night sky. The silence of the forest felt peaceful.
I had killed it—
The beast began to rise. Its legs shook and blood dripped from its mouth. It was shaking, buckling, but still rising. I stared in complete disbelief.
How did it survive that?
It had an angry, purposeful glare in its eyes. The beast had fully stood up and its heat was rising rapidly. The flow emanating from this thing was overwhelming. Steam rose off its skin as its body began to glow red. Fires were breaking out all around me. Was I in hell?
Then—it roared. Flames erupted from the beast creating a pillar that lit up the night. Trees shook, toppled, and burned. The heat radiating from its display was searing my skin.
This level of power—I couldn't fathom it. I couldn't beat this thing no matter how hard I tried. Hopelessness consumed me. Fear was overtaking my mind.
I had only one thought.
Run away!
I began a mad dash away from the beast. Soon after, it stopped its performance and began to run after me.
The chase began anew. I was much faster than last time, but so was it. The beast had gotten stronger. Was it holding back? Did this happen because I damaged it too much?
It was the exact same situation as last time, except—I was at my limit. I could die from sheer exhaustion and overexertion.
Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! What should I do? I need to think of something.
My eyes widened in surprise. Just then—I felt it. A pull. I immediately changed my course and followed that pull, the lion following.
It was like a comet trailing against the ground; burning and destroying everything in its way.
In seconds I had closed in on the source—a roach stood with its arms outstretched.
One wasn't good enough.
I tore through it instantly. I sensed more and ran to them, this time a pack. I ripped through two who tried to get in my way and past the rest. I looked back hoping to see the beast switching prey.
It ignored them as well and went straight for me.
Damn! Do I need more?
I could feel an entire hive of them somewhere. This was my last chance for survival.
I zoomed into a rocky opening; hordes of roaches in front of me. A few attacked me and I easily dispatched them. There was a cave carved inside a hill. More of them were there. I gathered strength and leapt on top of the hill before staring down.
The lion crashed into the roaches soon after me. Alarmed, the roaches all began running into the cave. To my relief, the lion kept eyeing them instead of looking for me.
Then—it charged inside.
Relief washed over, but I quickly suppressed it. I couldn't afford to relax here. If I did, I'd collapse and die anyway. I had to find safety.
With the last of my strength, I dashed into the woods once more.
How long had I been walking?
I couldn't flare up any more flow. My body had reached its limit in that department. If I tried, a sharp pain would flare up instead. I almost went unconscious from it.
The rest of my body was at its limit, too. I clung to trees as I dragged my feet forward. My mind was cloudy from using the analese. My senses were still intact yet, I could only make out the next step in front of me.
Everything ached, stung, and hurt. My vision blurred and I lost moments of time.
This was it, I was going to collapse.
Why did I keep dragging my body forward? What was I hoping to achieve with one more measly step? I guess hope was still burning in me. I had fought too hard to survive—how could I stop fighting now? Maybe, just maybe, if I kept going, I'd find a way to live.
I tripped on a branch. Using a tree, I caught myself before I fell. I couldn't bring myself back up. My body refused to budge an inch. This was it, I was going to faint.
I looked up and saw another small rocky clearing. There was a smaller hill and a cave. A waterfall created a small pond next to the cave. But what really caught my attention—people!
There were other people. People that I recognized. I forced another step forward, then another, and another. I walked until I was out of the woods and into the clearing. Heads turned in my direction—their expressions bewildered.
I smiled and mustered a name.
"Jing!"
The world faded as everything went black.