(TLO) Chapter 77: Quick Strike (Patreon)

Seth’s body didn’t obey him as quickly as he hoped but it obeyed nonetheless. He snatched up his dropped sword and charged the snake.

His body responded slower and he sheathed both swords as he ran. He only had one shot at this. One chance to take the snake’s attention from his brother. The snake was already crowding Timi with strikes, all of which the boy parried with his broadsword. But as much as he seemed to stand his ground, it was clear he was on the back foot. Seth feared to think of what would happen if his brother lost his sword.

He closed the distance with each step, drawing closer to the hulking figure that was a cut up, bruised, and battered snake violently thrashing against his brother’s tight defense.

You sure we can pull it off? A mind asked as he drew closer, one hand on the hilt of his sword.

“I have to strike quickly,” he answered between breaths. A clear ringing sound echoed as the snake struck at Timi with its mouth open only to have a fang parried by the boy’s sword.

Seth’s frown deepened at the sound and he hurried, willed his legs to quicken. “This is my quickest attack.”

And if it doesn’t work?

“I just need its attention.” He slid to a stop just before the snake in clear stance for the draw. “That’s all.”

He found himself standing before a large part of the snake. Its once beautiful scale of green and brown was scarred and bloody. Flesh hung loose in different places. Gouges and broken skin littered its body. Together they had done more damage on it than they had thought, and it was still kicking. What would one more be?

Seth gritted his teeth against the resistance of his body, its odd sluggishness. His grip on his sword tightened, his hold to keep it in place firmed. One strike, that was all he had. He had to make it count.

A warmth settled in the depths of his stomach. It warmed him and for a moment he felt alive, light, weightless. It spurred him on. His grip turned slightly, spotting a vicious gash in its side.

As if finally sensing him, the snake turned its gaze from Timi and fixed it on him. He thought he saw panic register in its eyes but couldn’t be sure. One thing was certain, though, it saw him as a threat in this moment and sought to stop him. But it mattered little now.

Its head struck at him, its body moving to escape his reach. But it was too late.

Seth’s sword came free. It sang free with the familiar hiss of metal leaving its sheath and tore into an already existing wound and the sword returned to the scabbard in the blink of an eye, faster than it ever had.

The beast reacted with a vicious howl that shook the air.

The ground trembled as the snake thrashed in the snow in front of him. He took hurried steps away from it as it did, avoiding a careless swipe. Timi turned behind a tree then ducked into another. The ground trembled and quaked and the beast curled and uncurled about itself, howling in pain and rage. Hissing like a petulant child at the receiving end of a leather belt.

Before Seth a new notification popped up.

You Have Unlocked New Trait [Reia Channels.]

[Reia Channels.]

The path of an Observer lives on the path of Soul Magic. Soul Magic is the life blood of all Soul Mages and Reia is its life blood. A Soul Mage that cannot use Reia is no Soul Mage at all. To use Reia appropriately, an Observer must first unlock his Reia Channels.

Effect: Reia Control.

[Reia Control.]

Reia is the basis of Soul Magic. Every Mage has the ability to control reia, even if it’s the basest and smallest pittance of the reia within their own core. Activate the Reia in your core.

You Have Attained a New Skill: [Quick Strike.]

[Quick Strike.]

You have trained your body and honed your skill. Speed and precision is where you excel in a world of power and dominance. However, it does not mean you stand below others. A precise enough strike can achieve greater things than most know. In the hands of an Observer it is deadlier than any can imagine.

Effect: Chance to deal a Fatal blow.

Effect: Chance to deal a Critical blow.

Seth continued to back away slowly, even as he read the notifications once more.

Sounds interesting, a mind noted as the ground shook beneath them and Seth kept a casual footing.

“Interesting enough,” he agreed, then dodged a flying block of snow. What held his interest was not the skill itself. It was well and good knowing he stood a chance to deal a deadly blow with the skill, but he’d always hoped to gain something more… magical.

All this did was the same thing he’d always done. There was no significance to it. Every time a person attacks another, they stand a chance to deal a fatal blow. And if one was skilled enough, a fatal blow was often intentional.

What he’d wanted was something like what Jonathan and Derek had. They could control the elements. Draw ice or fire from thin air. He’d once watched Derek encase himself in an armor of ice once. Yes, it had crumbled from a single attack from their older brother, but it had been amazing to see. To watch someone gather the power of frost to himself from nothing. That was magic.

This was… this was bullshit.

Snake’s getting back up, a mind pulled him from his thoughts.

We think it’s mad, another added.

Seth’s hand went back to his sword and Timi came around a tree. He’d been making his way to him since the attack and was finally here.

“How’d you do that?” he asked with vague curiosity.

Seth shrugged. “I saw a wound in its side and attacked it.”

Timi took a moment to think about it. It was about the span of a heartbeat before he shrugged as well. “Didn’t know you could do that.”

The screaming of the beast was dying down but it remained loud enough that they had to shout to hear each other over it.

Seth turned to him, nonplussed. “I do it all the time.”

“But not like that.”

“You know what? We’ll talk about it when we’re done with this.”

Timi lifted his sword and held it above his head once more. He grunted in agreement and turned his entire attention on the beast once more.

It was done with its thrashing. Its painful howl subsiding to a trembling hiss. They’d hacked away at it for so long, yet it refused to die. It was battered and bruised, curled up for a strike in a sea of snow and steam and blood. Its eyes seemed to droop with the callous fatigue of the weakened and its tongue darted out slower and weaker.

Even its hiss was weak. Yet it would not die.

Careful now, a mind thought, cautious. We’re being watched.

The warning stopped Seth, not that he was doing anything. “Any idea if it’s the seminary?” he asked.

None.

“Any sign of danger?”

Not really. But we guess it’s all good since we’ve already won.

“What do you mean we’ve won?”

Timi lowered his sword in a contemplative manner, as if partly uncertain of his decision. He held it point down and stared at the snake. It continued to watch them with anger in its weakened eyes but Timi wasn’t meeting its gaze, he was staring at all of it. Then his hold on his sword relaxed.

“You’re right,” he said without inflection. “We’ve won.”

“We’ve still got to kill it, though,” Seth said, still uncertain as to why his minds and his brother would agree with each other.

“Ok.” Timi dashed forward abruptly, sword suddenly held high again, and the snake darted to the side in quick response.

The sound of something ripping tore through the air and the beast dropped like a rag. A wound in its side had opened to heavily and it near severed the snake in two.

Timi stuck the point of his sword in the snow and turned to Seth. “Should I take its head?” he asked in genuine curiosity.

Seth shook his head. He released his hold on his sword and stepped forward. He walked past Timi and the boy followed, a hulking figure behind his short frame.

Seth knew what his minds had meant as he drew closer to the beast. Down its length, at a point where its skin had once hung loose from its body, a cut had widened enormously from its final move, ripping like a torn cloth. Blood spilled from it in liters and he watched it bathe the ground, steam rising from the wound.

The snake watched them all through as they closed the distance. Seth’s fear was still present, a villain lurking in the dark, but was waning now. There was enough evidence to know the snake had no strength or will power left to attack. It was in the way it watched them. The slowly dying defiance against its position. The acceptance in its eyes. It was a creature of the wild, and instinct had taught it to know defeat when it felt it. The tiny animals it had fought for so long were the victors.

Perhaps it would take its defeat with grace.

It did.

Perhaps Seth would take his victory with equal grace.

He did not.