Dueling in the dark

A.K.A Chapter 17

‘Man, that chick was pretty.’ I absentmindedly thought to myself as I rested against the familiar concrete stairwell. There was a small undercurrent of a feeling I couldn’t quite place my finger on, and it was slowly getting stronger as the hours passed.

I was waiting patiently for Quake to wake up. He was still sleeping when I got back so he must have been used to me leaving in the middle of the night. His brown fur was surprisingly soft, I was just glad he wasn’t awake to snap at me for petting him.

‘I wonder if petting a species with fur is considered offensive in the city. I mean, obviously it depends on how well you know the person, but aside from that, would it be like ruffling someone’s hair, or more intimate?’

I looked down at my own hands, gently scratching behind Quakes ears.

‘Please be the former.’

Quake woke up a few seconds later, perhaps due to the set of eyes I just placed on him. My hands rapidly vacated his head and onto my biceps as I crossed my arms. Even after three years, it was still uncomfortable to feel solid, unmoving bone instead of soft, fleshy skin, but I ignored it like usual.

“Morning.”

Quake grumbled out something that could be interpreted as a greeting before getting up and stretching.

“So, what are we doing today?”

“I don’t have anything planned. Maybe look around and see if we can get you some iron.” I said, shrugging my shoulders. Quake’s diet was almost as bad as mine back on Earths, and I didn’t have the mental discipline to eat healthily. I only started losing weight when I literally didn’t have access to food.

“Why, anything you want to do?”

He put a claw to his chin and gave an audible hum. “Can we go to the library? I want to practice reading some more.”

The library?

I nodded enthusiastically. “That sounds like a great idea, but you’re going to have to read to me.”

He looked at me curiously.

“Why can’t you…oh right, your..” He trailed off, waving his hands in front of his eyes.

“Yeah. You know where it is right? Lead the way!” I leaped off the roof.

As we made our way through the city, I couldn’t help but feel that something was off. The city streets were silent.

‘Somethings not right here. I should at least be able to hear cars or something.’

We dropped down beside the grand pillars that framed the front of the library. I held up a hand.

“Hang on a sec, aren’t the streets a little empty today?”

Quake, who had his feet braced against one door, and was pulling fruitlessly at the other locked door handle, stopped what he was doing, looked at me thoughtfully and placed his drill tip to the ground.

“You’re right. Everyone is huddled up inside these big rooms deep underground. There’s a lot of people with guns guarding the entrances to them. There’s a few people above ground, but they’re mostly just walking around.”

What.

Underground bunkers? Armed guards?

Did I miss something last night? Like an emergency alert?

“Looks like the whole city is undergoing some kind of emergency lockdown. But what for?” I questioned, scratching my chin.

“This seems like the kind of thing that most people would be concerned about.” Quake pointed out.

“I am not most people.” I bragged, but truthfully, I was a little on edge. I wasn’t going to let Quake see that though. As the elder, I had to be the one to stay calm and take control of the situation.

Quake rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I can see that more and more each day.”

I shook my head in good humor but underneath there was a small tinge of concern. The weird feeling I’d gotten this morning was growing bigger, and my instincts were beginning to warn me, it was like a dull tapping sound that was progressively getting louder. Worse, I was beginning to identify exactly what feeling it was.

“Someone is looking for me.” I announced.

Quake flounced down the stairs to the library entrance. The tapping grew louder.

“What are you talking about?” He raised a brow.

“I’ve had a weird feeling ever since last night, and I’ve finally managed to identify it.”

The tapping grew louder.

Quake put his drill to the ground. Then whipped his head to the left.

I followed his gaze and realized that the tapping I’d heard wasn’t just in my mind.

Standing across the street from us were two men, one a Kuvotian in a suit with a shaven head, the other was human.

‘What the hell do they feed you!?’

The man in front of them looked like he had to duck just to get around street signs, just topping out at over ten feet tall. He had long black hair in dreadlock ponytail, and was wearing dark athletic shorts, slides, a pair of sun glasses…

‘Where the hell is his shirt?’

…and nothing else.

His torso, I noted, was covered in furrows and grooves.

‘Scars.’ I realized. I could only imagine what his chest looked like in color. ‘And I thought my chest was fucked up.’

The tapping sound, I realized, was the sound of the human tapping his white cane on the ground in front of him.

The Kuvotian put his hand to his lips and took a hit of the joint stuck between his fingertips. Quake wrinkled his nose as the smell slowly spread out around us. He glanced around and froze as his eyes landed on us. He excitedly turned to his companion and pointed at us.

‘He’d better be careful with that finger before he loses it.’

‘Easy there. We don’t know if they’re enemies yet.’ Ghost cautioned from the depths of my psyche.

The pink-skinned one waved a hand at us.

“Hey, you, little guy! You’re Quake, aren’t you?”

Who the hell was this dude and what did he want with Quake? I stepped protectively in front of Quake, who was gnashing his teeth at being called little, and glared at him.

“What if he is?”

Sensing my hostility, the Kuvotian put up his hands placatingly.

“Woah easy there, tiger, We watched him fight at the arena and just want to ask a few questions, honest.”

The big black guy leaned down.

“Is that the guy?”

Wow. That was the worst attempt at whispering I’d ever heard in life.

“That’s what I’m askin. Jeez, gimme a minute.” He hissed back.

“Some of my boys down at the arena last night told me that you were seen leaving the building with one of the other fighters, guy called Jeck. You wouldn’t happen to be him, would you?”

They were searching for me? Called it.

“And if I am?” I asked cautiously.

The big guy answered me.

“If you are, then you and I are gonna have a little chat.”

I snorted. Chat, huh? Yeah right. I’ve had a few ‘little chats’ before too. I think we both knew where this was going.

“Let’s not beat around the bush. You’ve got a bone to pick with me, so spit it out so I can kick your ass already.”

The big guy chuckled and pulled off his glasses and threw them to man in the suit. His dark brown eyes had a milky glaze over them.

“He’s blind.” Muttered Captain Obvious to my right.

“Nyahaha, Now you’re talking my kinda language! Alright. My boy Dulla heard that you’re blind, but you use some kind of sensory power to fight, that true?”

“Your boy is kind of a cunt.”

“Answer the question.”

Hah! He didn’t deny it.

“Yeah, I do, got a problem with that?”

He walked across the street, his strides were huge, eating up the distance in only three steps. He leaned down to closer to me.

“ ‘S a matter a fact, I do. Y’see, that whole ‘fighting blind’ thing? That’s my schtick!” He spat the last word out with venom.

I glanced at the Human, who was standing about three feet to my left and currently glowering at a trash, then gave a flat look to the Kuvotian, who was facepalming so hard I think his grandchildren could feel it.

“Julius?” The Kuvotian called out.

Julius didn’t stop glaring. “Yeah?”

“A little to the left.”

He froze on the spot, lips forming a silent ‘Oh’

Little flecks of energy coated his cheeks. A sure indicator that his face was going red, although whether that was the embarrassed red, or the angry red was a mystery to me.

Sometimes being blind sucked.

Still, the fumble seemed to take some of the wind out of his sails, and he turned to look in the general direction of my head.

“Well, that was…look, let’s just pretend that didn’t happen, ‘kay?” He asked, surprisingly earnestly.

“….Sure.”

His energy came back a second later.

“Anyway, cowards like you ruin being blind for the rest of us blind fighters.”

I raised an eyebrow in confusion as I tried to parse through what exactly he meant by that. How did I ruin being blind. Why am I a coward?

He elaborated. “People like you want all the glory of fighting blind but none of the drawbacks. It’s gotten so bad in recent years that some people think that I’m one of you. I can’t have that, it’s not good for my image. Not good at all.” He said shaking his head sadly.

He paused.

“And honestly, I think you’re a lil’ pussy bitch for using them, so here’s the deal. I wanna punch you in the face. Repeatedly. So, we’re going to have ourselves a little spar right here, right now.”

“If I refuse?” I queried with small smile on my face that was growing wider. We both knew that refusing wasn’t an option.

He, likewise, had a mad grin on his face.

“It wasn’t a question.” He stated. The excitement in his slightly raspy voice was almost tangible. This man, like myself, was something of an adrenaline junkie. Someone who knew the thrill of a good scrap.

“I don’t have to worry about your friend jumping in?” I rolled my normal arm a few times in its socket, then did the other one just to match.

Julius craned his neck to one side until he heard a pop, then to the other side, until it popped too. A giant thumb was jerked over his shoulder.

“Kurok? Nah, he’s just my manager.”

Kurok nodded in confirmation and took a puff of his joint. “Julius, there’s a lamppost about five feet to your right..”

Me and Quake watched as Kurok rattled off everything of note about our location in detail. From the pillars that lined the entrance to the library behind us to the garbage cans that marked each street corner. Even the manholes didn’t go unmentioned.

Julius stood there with his eyes closed, just nodding his head every time a distance or new object was mentioned. Finally, Kurok stopped yapping and Julius gave him a thumbs up over his shoulder.

“Count us down.”

Kurok looked at us. “You ready?”

I nodded.

He raised his hand up.

“Three!”

I motioned for Quake to move out of the way. He bent down and leapt across the street, landing deftly next to Kurok, who side-eyed him but didn’t stop counting.

“Two!”

I got into my stance. Knees bent, orthodox style, with my hands loosely held at chest height.

Julius bent his knees, facing forward with both feet almost equal, right foot slightly forward. His massive arms were held out on either side reaching forward. Giant fingers flexed in a way I’d seen Quake hold his when he was about to scratch the shit out of my arm.

“One!”

We grinned at each other.

JULIUS LEOPOLD VS JECK

“BEGIN!”

I quickly raised two fingers and grinned. I’d coil wood around him like chains and break his nose. Nothing happened. I frowned in confusion and-

‘Holy shit this dude’s fast.’

I managed to dodge his right-hand swing, crouch under the left hand but got caught by the backhand.

It felt like I’d been hit by a train.

The behemoth laughed. “Nyahaha!”

I flew sideways down the street into a stop sign. It didn’t break like you would expect, considering that if he hit me upwards, I’d have probably become the world’s first projectile to reach orbit under human power. It bent, swung back and hit me in the face again, ringing my head like a gong.

Blood spurted from my nose and I clutched my head trying to get the ringing to stop.

Unbidden, knowledge of his power floated to the surface of my brain, only stopped by what I now recognized as subroutines. I’d gleaned his power the moment I laid eyes on him, but honestly, I hated using it. It was just too easy sometimes.

So I set up subroutines that took the knowledge as it came in and stored it somewhere out of the way in my mind, only becoming known to me when I called upon it.

Quake and Kurok watched on from the sidelines. That was one thing I’d noticed here in Dello-Whorl. All fighting was slowed down. Some form of funky time manipulation that even the playing field speed-wise. I could tell what it was, but I couldn’t copy it like everything else I’d seen. The only person I couldn’t do that too was Caomhnaigh, and cities were outside of her jurisdiction. Which could only mean one other person.

Sábháilte. The urban equivalent to Caomhnaighs nature. I’d only ever caught a glimpse of him once. He was made out of a smooth wooden material, although like his counterpart, I’d imagine that was subject to change depending on location. His head was human enough, with a sort of crown of three spikes that arched out of the front and sides. Almost like a bishops hat, only with short and more points. His limbs were little more than fluid, coiled spring, ending in sharp, clawed fingers and toes. His eyes were yellow glowing furnaces behind paned glass.

Civilization given form.

You didn’t forget something like that easily, but back to the matter at hand.

Quake looked enraptured but he didn’t move a muscle.

Good. I didn’t want him interrupting my fight out of concern. Or maybe he was just itching to get in on the action.

Knowing Quake, it was probably the latter.

I wraithed through his follow up blow, which would have been a devastating boot to the head, popping back into our dimension behind him without a sound. Julius looked around warily, tilting his head to hear better.

‘He’s taking advantage of the fact that we’re slow as balls right now. That wouldn’t work outside the city.’

“Where’d you run off to, pussy? Scared of a little pain?” Julius taunted, hoping to goad me into attacking.

‘Unfortunately for you, I don’t make any noises.’

I dashed forward, keeping my body low to the ground and stomped on the back of his knee. He grunted as he landed on one knee. He wasn’t as phased as I’d hoped he would be, and raised an arm to block my follow-up blow. Then he surprised me again by grabbing a hold of the offending limb before I could retract it, with the same limb he used to block it.

I tugged my limb but there was no give. Flicking open my mouth, I tried to laser him the same way Avanos did to me, which didn’t work either. The energy I needed gathered like usual, it just wouldn’t go anywhere. He pulled me forward right as he launched punch directly into my stomach, driving all the wind out of my lungs.

‘Really good thing I don’t need to breath.’ Was the only coherent thought I had through the haze of pain clouding them. Despite it, my lips curled upwards. I really lived for this kind of thing.

I got up and threw a lightning quick jab against his guard, then skipped out of reach of his grab.

“C’mon big guy, ya gotta be quicker than that.”

We continued this pattern, him swiping and grabbing at me, with me dodging and subtly wraithing through the outstretched fingertips that actually would have grabbed me.

Julius was getting visibly frustrated now, though his grin never fell.

“Slippery little bastard!”

I leapt backwards into the alley, something that didn’t surprise him in the slightest, judging by the way he squeezed his arms past the entrance just before he demolished it.

‘Mapping out an area based solely on someone else’s instructions is pretty impressive.’

Standing in the murky, claustrophobic alley seemed to exaggerate the height difference between us. Without the rest of the city to compare him to, he seemed to fill up my entire field of view. Not that the height difference wasn’t big enough. I only came up to his hip after all.

‘Which is why he won’t see this coming.’ I dashed forward, [Stealth] completely negating any noise I made. Planting my left foot on the wall, I pushed off and slammed my right foot as hard as I could into his temple. He was disoriented by the blow, clearly, but like an automatic reflex, his hand reached out to grab and crush my foot.

One thing to note was that, due to the Guardian of civilizations interference. Plains Walkers in the city weren’t as fast as those that wandered the Plains. Those that walked the planet’s surface were fast. Absurdly fast. They had to be in order to get anywhere in a decent amount of time, simply because the planet was that damn big. Sábháilte removed this necessity for those in the city. His power reduced everyone to an even playing field, (with the exception of mechanical weapons such as guns.) and letting them move as fast as their muscles would allow. This was stop people without Layers causing catastrophic levels of damage to the city, without the physics ignoring properties of the Layers. This meant that although they could keep with me in speed and strength in the city, I could run rings around them outside of it.

Julius was not one of those people. Which is why it was important that this next blow landed.

Using the power I’d copied of one of my arena opponents, the green one, (Which was rapidly becoming one of my favorites) I briefly amped my speed by thousands of times. The effect was characterized by little bolts of lightning racing up and down my limbs, and it lasted for less than nanosecond. I twisted in the air to let my left foot follow the path of the right, just barely making it past the looming, clawed hand, and delivering a second, devastating blow to the same temple.

He staggered against the wall of the alley to brace himself, which was the opening I needed to leap from my landing spot, rear my fist back, and punch him as hard as could in the face.

‘Payback!’ I thought to myself victoriously as blood erupted from his nose.

He flew out of the alleys mouth and crashed into the wall the library pillars rested on.

My momentum carried my out into the street just in time to watch the blunt fall out of Kuroks mouth. Guess it wasn’t often Julius got his ass handed to him.

Quake… I did a double take and my jaw dropped.

‘Unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like that before.’

Even Ghost was shocked.

I knew Quake was talented, ridiculously so. No doubting that when his power skyrocketed after fighting Gillian. She didn’t feel that strong back at the Outpost, but I thought she had some sort of trick that pushed Quake to his limits. He wasn’t even a tenth as strong as I was that morning, and he was as strong as me by that night.

‘But if they didn’t have a trick, if they really were as weak as I thought then..’

It wasn’t hard to put the pieces together, especially when it was happening in front of me. The mongoose gave me an odd look as I kept staring. Before my eyes, power was being generated like lightning inside of Quakes body.

Quake wasn’t pushed to his limits at all. He was getting tougher, faster and stronger just by being in proximity to my fights.

‘That’s insane. I have the essence and collective potential of an entire species and he still has more than me.’

I was dumbfounded, but also concerned.

‘I don’t know if he knows it yet, but I need to make sure that no one finds out about this. He’s at an age where he can be influenced by others.’

‘And you won’t take advantage of him?’ Ghost asked, hoping for a specific answer.

I was a little offended at the question, that he thought I was willing to do something like manipulate a child for my own gain, but I understood that he was just playing devil’s advocate to keep me on my toes.

‘Quake is just a kid. He doesn’t need people trying to kiss his ass or manipulate him for their own ends. I just want him to be happy.’

I felt Ghost nod approvingly at my answer. It was an easy one to give. I didn’t need or want to rely on anyone’s power but my own.

‘Besides, I’ve got my own brand of bullshit.’

I must have thrown Julius for a loop because he was only beginning to stir. I strode across the street to where he lay. As I walked, I flexed my palm and revealed my weapon of choice.

I kept a lot of the weapons I had taken from enemies, in the hopes of selling them or trading when I came across different villages. That never really panned out, seeing as I had came across a grand total of one village on my travels. I had built up quite the selection of knives, swords, maces and other exotic weapons that I kept squirreled away in the void.

My own personal weapons were nothing more than thin, circular black rods that slid out of center of my palms, one end melding with my palm. They weren’t particularly special, a creation of a Ghost who’s name and life escaped me, but they cut and stabbed if I swung them hard enough, and they appealed to me, which was important.

I also thought they looked cool, which was arguably as important.

‘No, it isn’t.’

I stuck the end of it against Julius throat as he roused himself from his momentary unconsciousness. He froze at the cold metal on his skin for instant so small I thought I missed it, but relaxed. He pressed a finger to his nose, tilted his head and blew out a wad of blood.

I’m not sure how, but he met my gaze and we both started laughing, small chuckles at first, then full on belly laughing.

He stuck out a hand and I grabbed it and pulled him up.

***

Kurok watched in confusion as they patted each other on the back and began chatting about the fight.

The Kuvotian leaned down.

“Did they just become best friends?”

Quake leaned up.

“I think so.”

Kurok muttered something that sounded like “Damn battle junkies.” under his breath.

Jeck and Julius strolled over still chuckling.

“Julius says he knows this great hot-springs, super relaxing. You want to go?”

Had Quake known what exactly hot-springs were, he probably would have declined, but experiencing everything this world had to offer was one of his goals, so he nodded vigorously.

Kurok took a puff of his joint and handed back the glasses. “The one on the outskirts of the city?”

Julius nodded. “The Soothing Soul, the one with the three-armed masseuse, remember?”

The pink skinned man had a lecherous smirk. “Oh, I do. You hoping for another happy ending?”

Before Julius could reply affirmatively, Jeck sensing an opportunity to be a shithead, faux-gasped loudly and clamped his hands over Quakes ears, who began flailing his arms to get out of his grip.

“Dude, there are children here-“

All four of them whipped around to stare directly at the Spel’s observatory deck.

Dello-Whorl was silent, as the threat that the precognitives and simulations predicted earlier that month stepped up to the railing. The reason why almost all the city was hiding deep below the earth in bunkers that, in case of dire emergencies, would shift to alternate dimensions for safety.

The threat cleared his throat, all eight of them, in a ring around his throat, and took a deep breath. His chest expanded like a bullfrog’s, the green skin swelling as massive amounts of air was sucked in.

The other members of Kaz’buls crew watched with gleeful anticipation for slaughter as Screamer prepared himself.

Dello-Whorl was silent.

Until suddenly, it wasn’t.

There was no build-up or warning signs. The still afternoon exploded with a high-pitch frequency, vibrating the air itself causing it to shimmer like a mirage in the desert.

The group of four down in the street below let out a yell of pain as blood started leaking out their eardrums.

Quake looked around in confusion.

Every piece of glass all over the city shattered.

This lasted for another ten seconds before finally falling silent.

“My turn!” Whirly shouted enthusiastically.

Down on the streets, Kurok moaned as he clutched his head.

“It’s too fucking early for this bullshit.”

Jeck was glaring at the Spel

Quake looked around. “Guys?” He warned, pointing at the shards of glass that were now rising steadily off the ground?

“Hmm?” Jeck turned around and looked at the floating shards, which were now being accompanied by other small objects.

“Well, that’s not good.” He stated rather redundantly.

“What isn’t?” Julius questioned?

“There’s a bunch of floating glass surrounding us.” Slowly, it started moving, spreading out with gaps too small for a person to fit though. “It’s coming towards us now.”

Julius waved a hand dismissively.

“Stay close. It won’t get near us.”

They all shuffled closer together and watched as the glass slowly pressed up against and slide around what seemed like a barrier, invisible to Jecks senses.

“His Aspect.” Kurok explained, noticing their confusion.

“[Close-range] stops any form of attack that isn’t melee.”

“I was wondering why none of my ranged attacks were hitting you.”

Quake lifted his drill off the ground, tail back in his Cat O Nine Tails mode.

“Looks like we’ve got company.” He noted, hunching down on all fours.

Jeck and Kurok looked up at observatory deck and squinted. Multiple aliens were running and jumping off the tower, and making their way towards them. Jeck experimentally took a step outside of the bubble.

“I guess whoever’s controlling that glass can sense our little safety bubble.” Quake’s tail spun in anticipation, grinding into the asphalt.

Jecks instinct warned him of incoming danger and his ‘sight’ spread out over the city, including the sniper taking aim at him, he tilted his head to the left, narrowly dodging a bullet that lodged itself in the ground behind him.

He flipped the sniper the bird.

Up on the deck, Longshot grimaced as Screamer giggled.

“Hah! You missed, dumbass.”

“Keep talking that shit and the next one won’t.” He growled, slowly shifting his gun towards his cackling companion.

“For god’s sake, just shut up already.” Kaz’bul ground out through grit teeth.

They immediately snapped into positions.

If the interplanetary plundering didn’t do him in, then the headache he got from listening to these idiots would.

Honestly, he was kind of hoping this Jeck guy put up a fight. He really wanted to punch someone right now.