It was art. And like any finished product, Vir had no clue how it was made. How did Parai learn this art? What was the first step down this road?
The patterns were far too complex and many for Vir to memorize. There must have been dozens, if not hundreds of patterns. Some small, others large. It wasn’t like he could experiment blindly, either. That was a sure path to accidental death.
What can I do? What can I take away?
Vir wracked his mind. At this rate, he’d learn nothing of consequence. Only that Prana Armor was possible, and that cycling blood produced incredible results if done right.
Attempting to absorb it all was futile. So instead, Vir needed to focus on one single pattern.
But which one?
The patterns at Parai’s arms and legs likely enhanced those parts. Though what Vir really needed was a means to heal himself. Something to boost his vitality against the acid that was eating its way into his body.
While time must function differently in this memory fragment, Vir knew his time wasn’t unlimited. He’d be forced to return, and if he didn’t have a means to stop the acid, he’d surely die.
Vir searched through the many patterns, looking for anything that might help solve his problem. No doubt the answer was there, buried in the myriad of flows, but which was right?
Unfortunately, his wound constrained him. Vir wasn’t about to experiment or modify Parai’s patterns, and right now, he needed something for his back. That limited where he searched. But even on the man’s back, there were several.
One pattern looped in a very convoluted, complex figure eight, while another resembled an oval, circling around Parai’s entire backside. Another was so complex, Vir didn’t even know how to describe it.
Lacking a reference, Vir picked the oval. Not only did the blood in that pattern move the fastest, but it was also the simplest, and the least likely for Vir to mess up. For all he knew, they might all boost his vitality, or perhaps none of them would.
Vir focused inwardly and attempted to replicate Parai’s pattern. Though he braced for the pain, it still made him reel. And because he’d attempted to move so much blood, he nearly blacked out.
Luckily, it seemed like blacking out was impossible in this space. In fact, he doubted whether he could die here.
Vir grinned. “If that’s the case…”
Then all he had to deal with was the pain. And Vir was no stranger to pain. If it meant he could experiment in a safe environment, he’d grin and bear it. Such an opportunity would likely never come again.
And so, he practiced. He mimicked Parai’s cycling pathways, only to find discrepancies. Issues that should have killed him, rupturing blood vessels in his body. Except nothing of the sort happened. Vir felt pain, yes, but nothing he couldn’t handle.
Vir pressed on, unrelenting. Rather than be demoralized by the pain, he thrived in it. Where most would shy away and fear the pain, he used it as a guide to correct his errors. A brutal instructor that pointed the right way.
And slowly, he made progress. His cycling pattern mirrored Parai’s closer and closer, and details he never even knew to look for initially were now mimicked near-perfectly.
An agonizing hour later, his time was up.
If only I had more time…
There were so many more patterns to learn. So much power to obtain here.
Yet whatever rules the memory fragment operated under had determined that he must leave. The fragment dimmed, and the man seated across from him grew hazy and incorporeal.
“I don’t know if you can hear me, Parai. But thank you. I owe you one.”
31RETRIBUTION
Vir’s return to the world of the conscious was not nearly as pleasant an experience as his arrival into the dream world.
His entire body blazed with debilitating pain, and it was all he could do to not black out. Gritting his teeth, he forced his blood to cycle in the pattern he’d practiced.
Praying to Janak that it wasn’t all some weird delusion, he willed the prana to move through his back.
The pain grew even more intense, making Vir question whether he’d messed up. But no, there was no error. Vir pushed through it, and finally, the pain began to subside. He could feel the acid’s destruction wane. Whether or not this technique could fully neutralize it was anyone’s guess, but at least it allowed Vir to move.
Once again, his past incarnations had saved him. Until now, he’d operated under the assumption that they’d simply turned their backs on him for not fulfilling his end of the bargain. But what if it was something else? What if they couldn’t intervene? Or worse, what if it cost them something to?
“Apramor!” someone shouted.
Vir opened his eyes to see the ebbing light of dusk, and the silhouette of a giant bladed leg poised to swipe down. Without even thinking, Vir sunk into his shadow, narrowly avoiding the limb that would surely have ended him.
There was a time when such mortal danger would’ve fazed Vir. Not a year ago, he’d have frozen stiff, unable to move, stricken with panic.
But now? Vir barely even registered it. His mind had moved on to the more pressing matter—how to end the Matron.
From the shadow realm, he saw Vason, frozen in time, having just tried and failed to Leap onto the Matron’s back, while Haymi prepared another Lightning spell, though she knew full well it would do nothing.
Tia looked like she was trying to sneak around the Matron from behind.
Pointless. Only Vason’s tactic held any chance. Magic was futile, and what good was sneaking up on an enemy you couldn’t even hurt? They might annoy it, though that was all. Vir couldn’t help but think it was so like Tia to boldly do something so reckless, completely confident it would work.
At least gouging through its thick back armor was a sound strategy, but Vason wasn’t capable of pulling it off. On his own. Together, though? They might just stand a chance now that the Matron’s hunters were gone.
It was a small window of opportunity. No doubt, the Matron had other hunter-gatherers in the area. If the Matron was still alive by the time they arrived… well, Spear’s Edge’s chances of victory would plummet.
Not only that, with the ebbing light, the party would be at a severe disadvantage. Vir didn’t know how well the Matron could see in the dark, but her large antennae likely meant she’d be fine, while Vir’s companions would be essentially blind. The fall of night meant failure and death for the party. Vir wasn’t about to let it come to that.
He surfaced from the shadow realm, a handful of paces away from the Matron. Thanks to the long shadows of dusk, the entire forest was his playground now.
The pain returned in full force. Even a moment’s distraction could mean the difference between life and death. And so, he tried not to dwell on the fact that the only thing keeping him alive right now was Parai’s cycling technique.
A single Leap put him atop the Matron’s back. Vir pulled Ash prana through the Matron into his legs, channeling it through his body to his arm to Empower his chakram.
Simultaneously, he released his own body’s prana through his palm. It wasn’t quite Prana Blade, as he’d never been able to get the prana to wrap all the way around the chakram’s ringed edge. Instead, it arced, covering part of the disk before shooting off. It couldn’t be thrown like this, but it was enough to make it deadly when wielded as a melee weapon. Deadly enough to gouge the Matron’s carapace.