Chapter 122

Lykan

The Blackout

Everything hurt. Lykan awoke to find bones broken, his bones. He shook his head trying to somehow shake out the grogginess he was feeling, only to have the world spin on him as his chest and body burned with pains.

“Lykan, are you okay?” Brenna asked, her voice an anchor in a sea of rolling lights and pain.

“What happened?” Lykan asked.

“You killed a titan.” A gruff male voice called out from the distance.

Lykan suddenly felt wary, not that he expected sudden violence, but rather he could not perceive that other people were with him. If he focused, he could make out a number of energy sources around him. Normally getting the specifics of which would be easy for his advanced mind, but he was having trouble thinking at the moment.

Then there was something about the comment that caused Lykan to question his sanity. People knew about Titans? If so, then how?

“How are you feeling?” Brenna asked, fear evident in her voice.

That was a good question, how am I feeling? He had broken bones, multiple in his chest and ribs. If he had to guess he was struck by a long thin staff of some kind. Something told him the damage was his own weapon, but he couldn’t tell for certain. He also had an aching pain in the back of his skull, likely where his head hit something. The story his body was telling was something, and his mind was able to put together likely scenarios but for the life of him he couldn’t tell what happened. He did remember Brenna, but anyone else in the room with them was beyond his knowledge.

“I’ve been better.” Lykan answered honestly, then changed the subject. “Were they always here?”

With that Lykan pointed a s shaky finger in the direction he thought most energy sources were coming from. His finger was well off as he was actually pointing at open air, but Brenna having been with him for so long knew what he was talking about.

“No, when you passed out I went to get help. You’ve been…” Brenna trailed off as she didn’t quite know how to say what happened next.

“You are lucky to be alive. By all rights you should have died. If it wasn’t for the Gods blessing you, you likely would have died.” A second voice spoke up, though Lykan couldn’t quite tell if the voice came from a male or female.

Lykan hearing the truth in the words could only nod, only to find a pain burning in his head and chest where his bones were still knitting themselves together.

“Now this might hurt.” The voice said from next to him. Before Lykan had a chance to think powerful hands began moving and snapping bones back into place.

“You are a strong warrior, strong bones. That is both a blessing and a curse. See strong bones mean that you are tougher to break. It also means that when you do get broken, your wounds are harder to set properly. The body will try to fix many breaks, but some are beyond the body.”

Snap! Crack! Pop!

Bones moved and shifted back into place as strong tiny fingers maneuvered Lykan’s broken bones and ribs back into place. The pain was unbearable and Lykan nearly blacked out again from the pain. Finally the torture session was over, and he could think again.

Then before he could move he was lifted up by strong, yet tiny hands that moved his body and began to massage the back of his head. A few quick gestures were made, but ultimately nothing happened.

“You had some cracking of the cranial cavity, but nothing too dangerous. You will need rest and plenty of liquids.” The examiner who was clearly a doctor of some kind said. While healing magics, like all magics, were denied to the dwarfs, they still needed to have expert physicians on staff.

The fact that Lykan’s mind could make this rationalization was a clear sign that the pain he was in was abating, if slightly. Slowly after a few more minutes, and the physician leaving, Lykan moved first to a sitting position. From there he was able to take in the room.

The room was the same as all other control rooms he had been in to this point. Wall mounted cocoons on the left where the Titans who survived stayed. The control panels were on the center of the room and to the right. Then finally the emergency hatch overhead, closed. And the main entry and exit door where a number of highly skilled dwarven warriors stood. At least the metals of their weapons and craftsmanship of their armor spoke to them being some of the elite warriors.

Lykan figured that such warriors would not be uncommon, especially if they were the ones sent to check up on him at the control room.

A look at the cocoons showed a dead Titan with a long wooden staff sticking out of its head. Oddly enough there was nothing else that spoke of how Lykan sustained his injuries. A quick look behind him showed the blood trail of where the back of his head connected with the wall high overhead, and how he fell to a crumpled mass on the floor, where he apparently still stayed.

He looked to see Brenna still by his side, worry evident in her face.

“What happened?” Lykan asked.

“You did your charge attack. The new one you said you had been practicing.” She said, that did jog a memory of Lykan’s new power. The one he had expected to be of some use, though it was only for immobile targets. Seeing as most Titan’s Lykan came across would likely still be either slumbering or recovering from their wounds in their cocoons, this was a perfect attack. Though the charging time to get his body and mind into the right rhythm for the attack was tough.

[Phase Shift] Cause your body to fall out of alignment with the natural properties of the world. Can be used to travel through walls. Warning: Any part of you or items you carry that are still stuck inside solid objects when you realign with the world will be irreparably destroyed.

It was that last warning that Lykan figured was meant specifically for him. Phase Shift was of course one of the two powers he received when he finally mastered his Qi Sensing Ability.

(4)Qi Sensing: Sage -> (Maximum) (5) Phase Shift: Novice (5) Telekinesis: Novice

Those two powers were far different than anything Lykan had experienced so far to this point. From his times at the Sidherthan Academy, he had learned that such powers were considered to be covered under Psychic Phenomena, and were unable to be properly replicated by most practitioners. The subject was so rare it was often written off as a hoax, or misunderstanding of elemental forces. Fortunately Lykan had read a few of the texts as part of his course work, to at least see the basics of where current magical theory stood and ways researchers got to their current understanding of magical practices.

Only once he remembered this part of his past, likely thanks to his Perfect Recall Skill finally clicking in, did a few things make sense. First he had Brenna on over watch, since he wanted a companion and someone who could at least understand his mission, he had her watch. Second since this was his first time using this new ability as an attack, basically he used the warning as the whole purpose for having such an odd and potentially self-harming power. On its surface, going through walls was not something Lykan himself cared about. However, the ability to attack through walls was something Lykan very much wanted.

With his Ability he forced his mind, body, and staff to all phase out of alignment with the world around him. This was a taxing process and one that required extreme focus. In the beginning phase it took him well over two minutes to enter the mental trance like state needed to enact the ability. Then once it was engaged, he had the time of one breath to move. This meant that he had to be quick and accurate with his movements. Lykan assumed that should he improve the his mastery of the ability, then both the time needed to enter the trance like state and the duration he could stay out of phase from the world would increase, but that would need to be tested later.

As of the moment, his mind was finally connecting to the memories of his mind before he was knocked unconscious. He remembered phasing, of running forward with his staff sticking out before him. Then he remembered the ease with which the tip of his staff first penetrated the dark black layer of the cocoon. Then how it went into and through the skull of the Titan. Only once the staff was fully in its head did the beast awaken.

Bright red eyes lit up, startling Lykan so much that he involuntarily drew in a deep breath and ended his meditative state. But this was fine as a number of things happened all at once. The first thing that happened was the staff that had been out of phase with reality suddenly snapped back into reality and right within the cranium of the Titan. Simultaneously the Titan began to move and shake as its danger sense began to activate. Instincts kicked in and it thrashed about wildly, before the staff that was merged with its brain had time to kick in and override its actions. The result was dangerous, at least for Lykan, as the staff that was now firmly anchored into the wildly moving Titan thrashed about and slammed into Lykan with enough force to break his bones and send him hurtling into the wall upon impact.

Breathing heavily Lykan slowly understood where he was and how he got here. His mind also began filling in the next few moments. Brenna seeing Lykan in such a state first moved him to a safe position, then left to get help. Thus, the elite members of the Crystal Legion being here now.

Lykan made a quick scan and saw the dead titan’s head fully visible in the broken cocoon. Black shards littered the ground, as the giant monster sat motionless in its pod. A shiver ran down Lykan’s spine, as he realized just how close he had come to death by dealing with these monsters. Two times he had encountered the monsters that terrorized the planet, and both times he had nearly been killed by their unfathomable power.

The walking staff that Lykan had used for so long was beyond repair at this time. First a good portion was in the large cranium of the beast. Second the part that had been embedded within the black glass like material of the cocoon was broken and jagged. Third, and probably most damaging, the part that had come into contact with his chest was broken and snapped apart. In all the weapon was a stern reminder of why he was likely given so many weapons as a specialty. Lykan could only imagine having to punch such a monster.

Another quick scan of the room set Lykan’s mind realizing that something was wrong, but he couldn’t figure out exactly what. Wondering if it had something to do with his abilities, he looked inwardly at his status and saw only one of his abilities had improved from the fight.

Phase Shift: Novice -> Beginner

While that was a surprise of sorts, he had expected something to the same. Thus he still felt at a loss.

“What is it?” Brenna asked, seeing the look on Lykan’s face.

“I keep feeling like I am forgetting something, but I can’t remember what.” Lykan began.

“Well you did say that you wanted to shut down this place. Though I think you might have been side tracked with the whole living Titan.” Brenna suggested.

Hearing that Lykan’s eyes grew wide as he once again scanned the room, this time his eyes hit upon the secret latch that was still sealed and his mind lit up with recognition. “Of course.”

Moving to his feet, he felt the world tremble before his eyes. A soft set of hands rested against his side, helping him to maintain balance. Lykan looked down to see Brenna there standing with him, giving him a helping hand. Smiling at the gesture, Lykan nodded slightly before moving to the wall panel.

A few of the Crystal Legion soldiers watched as Lykan made his way over to the side terminal and watched in amazement as the black obsidian screens suddenly came to life at Lykan’s touch. What they didn’t know, was the fact that Lykan was channeling some of his qi from within his body, out his hands and into the terminal to get it to awaken. This was nothing new to Lykan, as he had done this many times.

On one of his trips he received a mysterious blessing, one that at the time seemed to mean nothing at first. But it had since proven to be an invaluable blessing from the Gods.

Blessing Bestowed: Psychometry Psychometry: By focusing your mind on a particular area you can recall any moment that happened at any point in the past, at that exact spot.

The blessing was nonsensical, and one that at the time Lykan thought was given as a simple way of letting him know they still cared, but were now unable to give out true beneficial blessings due to his perfect body. However, this blessing was one that Lykan now understood the true intent of. Or at least a reason for why he would have received this blessing for killing off an entire Titan supported biome.

By sitting down at the terminal, he focused his mind to look at the login screen before him. He could see the prompt needed to enter a password. Then using Psychometry, he focused back, back, back in time. Until finally he saw a moment when a tentacle faced Titan sat in the same exact seat he was now, looking at the same exact login screen that he was now. Then he watched as the monster began typing away at its password.

As if being merged with the titan, he found his body merging with the Titan’s as his body began to perfectly mirror the body of the titan. Strike for strike their fingers moved, touching the same buttons at the exact same time. Then finally he hit the “enter” key and the whole system spun to life.

Every dwarf awed in amazement, as the voice of the labyrinth came to life and began chirping for Lykan. It was a weird musical language that the dwarfs who were present had never heard but listened to with rapt attention.

Lykan never caring for the others around him, focused on his one burning mission. Instead he asked a question “What is the current qi saturation level for the planet?” Then after hearing that message, he sighed before gaining the resolve to execute the kill command. The true reason he had come.

Only a quick shuffle by Brenna who had moved up by his side, caused him to pause for a moment. Then rather than following through with a complete kill, he focused on an alternate plan. He remembered how the people of this settlement required the monster and food of the biome to survive. With that, he modified his plans slightly.

“Divert all remaining power to sustaining the desert biome for as long as possible. Kill all other operations.” Lykan demanded.

There was a bit of a pause as the machine took in the command, but finally the commands were accepted. The long countdown began, where they all had thirty minutes to reconsider the facility shut down. The emergency hatches of course opened up, and the members of the Crystal Legion were able to look straight up at the city and residents of Mezrathurin above them.

“What did you do?” The Commander of the Crystal Legion demanded as he readied his weapon at Lykan.

Lykan seeing the weapon just sighed, this was a long painful day.