176: Shredder Shredder (Patreon)

NOTE: No chapter on Monday in observance of Labor Day. See you all on Tuesday. Have a safe, enjoyable weekend!

Vir sailed toward the Shredder with Haste already active. He knew from experience that this wasn’t an enemy he could hope to match without his full arsenal of magic. The world slowed around him as both body and mind accelerated. The swaying of the short grass stilled, and the pitch of all sounds lowered.

While an odd sensation, it was quickly growing familiar. Though not familiar enough, apparently—the Shredder matched his speed, and exceeded it.

I’m still slower than that thing? Vir thought in panic. Haste had sped up his movements and thoughts to twice their normal capacity, yet the Shredder matched him with pure physique alone. Of course, prana being several-fold denser within its domain didn’t hurt, and were it not for the barrier Vir erected near his skin, his blood would have burst from the pressure.

It quickly became clear that there was a world of difference between a newly gained Talent and one that had been honed for a lifetime; the Shredder had been born with its innate speed, having years—perhaps even decades—to grow used to it. Vir had had a single day.

Claw slashes and vicious bites threatened Vir continuously, forcing him to evade. The ones he couldn’t dodge, he blocked, his seric katar clanging with each strike. Unlike their first battle, however, Vir evaded at least some of its blows. He considered that progress.

Still, the fight was only slightly less one-sided than before, with Vir now leveraging Prana Vision to give him details of the beast’s weak points—its head and its belly. The former was more predictable, but its thick skull and heavy prana armor made it a poor target. The latter was surprising.

Vir had expected a heart within its chest, but instead found the organ deep within its belly, where both its armor and prana armor were thickest at the center, tapering off to its flanks, which were protected by its clawed limbs.

Feinting his katar, Vir forced the Shredder to block with its claws, which gave him an opening. Squatting low, Vir Blinked, ripping upward with a devastatingly fast uppercut. Fast and powerful. Bringing the full brunt of his momentum to bear against the Shredder’s prana armor, he hoped to penetrate its thick armor—both the prana armor and its regular hide. The blade cut deep into the layer of black prana that coated the beast’s body, but it slowed, and finally stopped, having barely broken through.

The strike put Vir in a disadvantageous position, making him vulnerable to the Shredder’s counterattack. He dodged the maw and parried both claws, but the tail blade swooped in like a scythe, forcing him to block with his bracer.

Clang!

The sound of metal on metal grated was followed by a gouge that marred his precious seric armor, forcing him to remember a certain warrior’s words—weapons and armor were meant to be used, not collected like fine jewelry. Even so, the damage stung.

I need more speed if I don’t want worse, Vir thought, narrowly avoiding a bladed claw.

Luckily, he had something that could give him exactly that. While he’d never attempted to use Haste and Blink together, there was no reason the combination shouldn’t work.

Vir pulled prana from his legs—finding, to his surprise—that his blood responded the same as it always had. It was only then that he realized Haste had accelerated his blood flow and heart rate to match his speed. It had to, to provide enough blood to his muscles that worked overtime. Vir wondered if there were any side effects to this state, and for how long he could it keep up before his body shut down.

Shelving those thoughts aside, Vir allowed the supersaturated Prana Dam lining his skin to lapse, flooding his legs with prana and power. Willing himself to move at speeds that defied the imagination, he Blinked.

The Shredder, which had been lobbing attacks at Vir with total confidence, froze, confused.

Vir’s seric katar smashed into the beast’s torso. Empower and Prana Blade augmented the strike, which contained the full force of Vir’s offensive power.

The blade drove through the Shredder’s prana armor, splitting it… and came to a stop without penetrating the Shredder’s actual armor.

Vir’s instincts blared, and he charged Blink again.

Come on. Come on…

A tail blade whipped around for an opportunistic counter strike, and Vir knew he wouldn’t make it. He aborted the Talent, surging the accumulated prana into his legs to activate Leap instead.

The tail blade blurred by, barely an inch from Vir’s nose.

Blink’s sheer speed would have allowed him to escape with time to spare, but it took somewhat longer to charge; its activation was more of a two-stage process.

Something to keep in mind from now on, Vir thought, wondering how he’d beat this beast without it. He’d hoped improving his speed would’ve been enough to send the abomination to its grave, but clearly, he’d underestimated it.

He had to be smarter about how he fought, and unfortunately, his greatest advantage was currently too risky to use—there was only one shadow in range large enough to slip through—his own.

The moment Vir disappeared into the shadows, he’d lose his only exit. The Shredder’s shadow  wasn’t quite enough to allow his whole body to pass through, and there wasn’t anything even remotely large enough nearby. While he hadn’t personally confirmed what happened when the Shadow Realm eventually kicked him out, Cirayus had. Apparently, it happened to more Iksana Ghael than the clan cared to admit, and the results were always gruesome. Amputated limbs or bisected torsos usually spelled instant death for those unfortunate demons.

Needing time to devise a new plan, Vir backed away. The Shredder followed, but only to the edge of its domain, and not one step farther. Perhaps out of fear of the other domain lords—the name Vir had given the rulers of these lairs—who eyed the battle with a wary eye, but whatever the reason, Vir took it.

Taking a moment to catch his breath, Vir deactivated Haste, allowing the world around him to speed back up to normal.

Vir turned his thoughts to how Cirayus would approach this battle. The demon wielded godly power, true, but he also fought with his mind.

What would that guy do? Vir thought, eyeing the four-armed giant who stood with arms crossed some forty paces away. He’d have his enemies fight amongst themselves.

Vir’s eyes lingered on the other domain lords, but quickly gave up on that idea. They wouldn’t leave their territory without good reason, and Vir had none.

Shifting his thought process, Vir considered his own strengths and weaknesses. He was neither as fast nor as strong as the Shredder, but then, he’d never preferred fighting opponents head-on. Sometimes, there was little choice, but whenever there was, he liked to strike from the shadows, leveraging the element of surprise, only partially because his abilities were optimized for such attacks. It was just a smarter, safer way to fight.

It wasn’t like the Shredder had no weaknesses. Its flanks had comparatively little in the way of armor, both of prana and hide. Just that getting to it was difficult.

If only I could use Dance of the Shadow Demon, this would be so easy, Vir thought frustratedly.

Over-reliance on a single ability was dangerous, but Vir didn’t have the luxury of diversifying right now. He needed to progress as fast as he could, and that meant using his most powerful weapon to its fullest.

He just needed a shadow. Something big enough to…

Wait. That’s it! It just has to cast a large enough shadow!

Vir sprinted to the nearby forest, where he broke down a limb and used his katar to whittle one end of the post into a point.

After roaming a few moments, he found the plant he was looking for. A type of fern whose fronts ended in a sharp point. A bane when traveling near them, but it was just what he needed.

Vir bit down on the very end of the fern and pulled, careful not to bite all the way through. The pointy tip came loose and pulled a length of sinewy fiber behind it, which Vir fashioned into a cord.

Back at his post, Vir lashed some leafy branches to the limb with his new cord, then layered on more and more. Soon, he had a post with a thick mat of interleaved foliage connected at the top, extending out at an angle halfway between horizontal and vertical. The post was light enough to carry, and more importantly, would cast a long shadow.

Running back to the Shredder with his new contraption, Vir considered how he might adapt this idea in the future. If he could carry around portable items that could give him large-enough shadows, he’d significantly reduce Dance’s weakness. There wasn’t much he could do about cloudy days, but at least he’d never want for shadows on sunnier ones.

Vir found the beast lounging at the very center of its domain, licking its superficial wounds, which suited him perfectly.

Placing his post at the periphery of the lair, Vir reactivated Haste, before Blinked back to the beast, re-engaging it in battle.

The fight went largely the same as before, but this time, Vir allowed the beast to gain ground, pushing him back to the edge of its domain. Toward the post.

The Shredder grew more and more aggressive, sure of its victory. Vir allowed it.

Just a little closer. There!

At ten paces away from the post, Vir sunk into the shadows, extending an arm from his post’s shadow to let time to crawl by.

While Haste’s effects nullified within the Shadow Realm, he didn’t need it. Time flowed at a fraction of its pace, allowing Vir to plan the exact moment for his strike.

He waited untilThe Shredder turned its oversized lizard head from side to side, no doubt confused at Vir’s disappearing act.

It soon gave up and turned.

Now!

This was the moment Vir had waited for. Launching out of the pole’s shadow, Haste reasserted itself. Vir Leaped, eager not to lose his moment of opportunity.

His Prana Blade crashed into the Shredder’s flank, shattering its armor where it was weakest, proceeding through its hide as if it wasn’t even there.

Right as the weapon lost speed, Vir flared Prana Blade, evolving it into a Blade Projection that speared right through the bipedal beast—right through its heart.

The Shredder jolted once, then seized. It slowly turned its head to glare at Vir. Then it keeled over, dead.

Vir roared in victory, thrusting his katar at the sky. He whirled, eager to show off his kill to Cirayus.

“Did you see that?” he shouted.

The giant had indeed witnessed his fight, as well as Vir’s decisive victory.

And yet, Cirayus’ response wasn’t what he’d expected. Instead of satisfied pride, there was only one emotion painted on the giant’s face—that of worried concern.