Free Web NovelChapter 18: Shadow on the sea
"So do I"
K leaned forward, knees bent as he touched his plasma pistol.
"We don’t know what it is, it’s best not to agitate it! Don’t throw the first blow K!"
"I know"
The hooded figure standing upon the ocean remained motionless, both staffs planted into the glowing water beneath its feet.
For a brief moment neither moved.
The sea stretched endlessly around them, waves gently rolling against the shoreline while Horizon’s engines cooled behind him.
"K?" Kagu’s voice crackled through his comm.
Before he could answer, the creature vanished.
The world erupted.
A deafening boom shattered the air.
K threw himself sideways on pure instinct.
A long black staff crashed into the ground where he had just been standing.
The impact obliterated everything.
Earth, stone and sand disappeared beneath a wave of destruction. The resulting shockwave hit him like a physical wall and sent him tumbling across the shoreline and into the dense forestry.
"What the fuck!"
The creature was already moving again.
Moving wasn’t the right word.
It simply appeared.
One second it stood near the ocean.
The next it was directly in front of him.
The shorter staff lashed out.
K raised his arms.
The blow landed.
Pain exploded through his body.
A sickening crack echoed through the air as his forearm shattered.
The impact launched him backwards.
He smashed through a cluster of trees before crashing into the forest floor.
For several seconds he couldn’t breathe.
His lungs refused to cooperate.
His vision blurred.
The creature slowly approached through the wreckage.
...
RESTORING DAMAGED TISSUES
...
K forced himself upright. His broken arm dangling uselessly at his side. Blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.
The creature tilted its head.
Then it struck again.
K barely reacted in time.The long staff swept through the air horizontally aimed at him.
He ducked.
The weapon carved through six massive trees behind him like they were grass.
The upper halves slid off before crashing into the forest.
K’s eyes widened.
That single hit would’ve cut him in half.
His pulse thundered in his ears.
"Fuck, I don’t have time for this!" He spat, blood splashing into his helmet’s visor.
...
[SKILL ACTIVATED]
BLOODLUST Lv.3
PHYSICAL OUTPUT INCREASED
...
K lunged forward, dodging the staffs as they retreated back to their weilder.
His fist slammed into the creature’s chest.The impact cracked the air.
But nothing happened.
The creature didn’t move.
Didn’t even stumble or acknowledge being punched.
The creature hissed and grabbed him by the throat.
The ground vanished beneath his feet.
His body slammed into the earth hard enough to create a crater.
Something ruptured inside him.
Blood sprayed from his mouth.
The creature raised him again.
Then smashed him back down.
Another crater.
More blood.
His vision darkened but the creature didn’t stop. His helmet cracked and popped off his neck with a hiss.
"K-k! C...hear...K!"
Kagu’s voice crackled through his comms but you couldn’t respond. Not with blood pooling at the back of his throat or with his vision darkening.
"The other kind?"
The slamming stopped, "it’s the other kind!"
A voice gasped and hurriedly propped his head up.
K’s vision slightly returned, the hooded figure frantically picked him up and settled him next a half cut tree,
"Hey!"
K sat against a mutilated piece of what used to be a tree, breathing hard.
Every inhale burned.
His ribs felt broken.
His left arm swollen and throbbing.
Blood dripped from a cut above his eyebrow and ran down the side of his face.
...
RESTORING DAMAGED TISSUES
...
Then the creature reached up and pulled back the hood covering its head.
K blinked through blood and sweat.
Dark skin gleamed beneath Nythera’s pale sunlight, smooth as polished obsidian. Thick curls spilled free from beneath the cloak and tumbled down her shoulders in bouncy waves.
The cloak shifted as she lowered it completely.
K nearly choked on his own saliva-blood mix.
The garment underneath seemed designed by someone who had never experienced an iota shame in their entire life.
Gold ornaments wrapped around dark fabric that left far more exposed than hidden. Powerful thighs. Defined stomach. A neckline low enough that K abruptly became interested in a random tree behind her.
The women he had been coming across these days...
"You’re injured, I’m so sorry! I’ve never seen your kind of ship before so I attacked thinking we were being invaded"
She rambled as she pulled out a small case from between her breasts,
"I didn’t know you were the other kind, mother is going to kill me!"
"K-Kagu" he spluttered but no response came back from his comms. His armor was severely damaged,
"What? How do I help?"
"Ship...gasp...take me...the ship"
He spluttered through blood.
...
RESTORING DAMAGED TISSUES
...
She crouched and lifted him off the ground, dashing towards the ship.
"K!"
Kagu screamed through the viewport, the woman hissed and stopped abruptly.
"Who else is on your ship?
"She’s with me"
The woman hissed and leapt onto the viewport, the ship creaking beneath her weight.
"You speak English! Good! I’ll let down the hatch, you bring him inside"
She nodded and slid back down watching alertedly as the ship’s hatch hissed open, her staffs clinking softly by her side.
"Bring him here."
"Kagu"
"I’m here, place on that stretcher"
Immediately Kagu began running vital checks on him.
...
RESTORING DAMAGED TISSUES
...
"I’m fine, I have to go out there"
"I need to administer heal patches and run a full body diagnostics!"
"I have to find her body"
"Body?"
The woman sat up and scooted closer to where K lay. "What body?"
"Shira’s body, it’s in your planet and I have to find it."
"The sacrilege of the great oracle?"
K shot up ignoring the sharp pain that spread throughout his body,
"How do you know of that?"
"The prophecy from the falling star."
