Humans liked to call Talents by many names, though several shared similar underlying fundamentals. The Common Tier Leap, Blink, Empower, and High Jump, all used the same basic principle of supersaturating one’s muscles with prana, combined with intent.
Prana Blade and Blade Projection both relied on priming prana within the body before shooting it out, so it made sense that Blade Launch would be an extension of Blade Projection.
Grasping his katar, Vir gave it a shot. Kamna had pulled Earth Affinity prana from the ground out of necessity, but Vir saw no good reason to do that when airborne Ash prana was so abundant. It’d allow him to avoid moving prana through his whole body like he was normally forced to.
In his mind, the main difference between Launch and its lesser variants was the amount of prana it consumed. The amount in Vir’s body wasn’t nearly sufficient to power it. He’d suspected that was the reason he’d never obtained it in the Human Realm. A theory that would now be put to the test.
Vir grasped his katar and allowed his supersaturated layer of prana against his skin to lapse around his arms. Airborne Ash prana rushed in, but Vir was ready for it. He sent it spiraling, shooting out of his arm, wreathing his blade.
The first stage—Prana Blade. Except now, it used ambient prana.
He upped the flow, pouring more prana into the Talent.
The prana grew so dense, it became visible to regular vision, like a razor-thin film of death that wrapped the seric edge.
It destabilized when the prana became too great for it, and at that point, Vir willed the blade to extend. Prana short forth, doubling, then tripling the length of his katar. Blade Projection. While not as dense, it was still far deadlier than his Prana Blade in the Human Realm.
The question was what to do now. Extending it any farther would just make the prana dissipate harmlessly.
Vir closed his eyes, picturing Kamna’s motions. She’d swung… and the prana had left her blade, ripping across the ground like a Wind Blade with Earth prana.
Vir mimicked the motion, swinging his blade, but the prana clung doggedly on.
It’s the intent. I need the right intent here.
Talents always relied on his will to direct the energy. Instead of a blade, Vir thought of a vertical line ripping through the air.
Same result.
Over the next minutes, Vir went through several images and intents.
In hindsight, he’d overthought it. It was right there in the name. Blade Launch.
Launch, Vir thought, swinging his superpowered katar. He thought he’d been ready for what happened next, but the inrush of prana stunned him. The ability wasn’t satisfied yet. It thirsted for more. The blood in his arm reached capacity, then surpassed it. Just as he worried that his blood might rupture, it stopped, and a deadly blade of physicalized prana tore through the air, searing the ground over which it passed. It continued relentlessly on, as if bent on ripping a hole in reality itself, until it finally dissipated in the distance, some twenty paces away.
Sweat dribbled down Vir’s brow, and his breaths came heavy.
What in Vera’s name was that?
The prana consumption was unlike anything he’d predicted. Neither Prana Blade nor Blade Projection consumed anywhere near as much.
With fresh blood cycling through his arm, Vir tried again, bracing himself for the torrent of prana that was to come.
It was hardly any easier. Prana flooded into his arm and out his hand, surging out of the katar’s blade and leaving his blood stretched and strained.
Vir hardly cared. His prana capacity could always be increased. In fact, he’d always planned exactly that.
Goosebumps flared all around his body. The power! It was in another league entirely, easily making it the most powerful attack Vir had ever learned.
Not only that…
If I can get it to launch from my blade, what about…
Vir’s eyes landed on the disks that lay on the ground beside him. Sheathing his katar, he kept his expectations low as he picked up the throwing disks.
It won’t work. It has every reason to fail. This is foolish, he thought. But what if…
There was a chance. It might work.
Gripping the disk, Vir closed his eyes and fueled it with prana. When he’d first attempted to wreathe the disks with Prana Blade, his control over prana had been far less refined. Since then, he’d learned to modulate how tightly prana spun as it exited his arm. This time, he barely spun the prana at all, letting it arc lazily across the edge of the disc.
It’s still the wrong shape, he realized. Instead of envisioning the prana spearing out in a line, he willed it to become more fluid and dynamic. Like flowing water, bending to the curvature of the circular blade.
Vir knew he’d succeeded before he’d even opened his eyes. Energy surged around the disk, and unlike with his sword, didn’t dissipate once it reached the end—it was a circle. There was no end. Prana spun around endlessly, growing denser as Vir fueled the disks with his power.
He threw the chakram, wondering if it might not even need the benefit of Blade Launch.
As it turned out, it did.
The moment the disk left his hand, the prana dissipated harmlessly, so he grabbed another and tried again. This time, he did activate Blade Launch.
The same deluge of prana tore through his arms, powering the disk. This was the tricky part. If he threw it too early, before the ability fully formed, it’d do nothing. If he was too late…
Grak it!
Pure prana surged out ahead of the steel one. With his sword, Launch had taken the shape of a vertical blade, ripping through the landscape.
With the chakram, it took the form of a disk. A disk of prana the exact size of his chakram. Far more compact. Denser. Deadlier.
It didn’t travel far, though. The prana dissipated after only thirty paces, while the actual chakram sailed fifty, overtaking it.
Vir tried again, and this time, he did time it right. Blade Launch activated the exact moment he threw the chakram.
They sailed together, as one—prana overlapping steel. For a long while, they were indistinguishable, but the actual weapon had weight. Prana did not.
The chakram fell to the ground, and the prana version simply dissipated.
Vir went to retrieve his disks. He found the first lying fifty paces away, but even after an extensive search, he couldn’t locate the other.
Did I lose it? he thought in panic. It was the fatal flaw of these disks. Using them meant the possibility of losing them forever. And here in the Ash, there were no blacksmiths who could forge another.
Vir expanded his search area, and after another ten minutes of frantic searching, finally found it lodged in the ground… nearly double the distance the first one had flown.
A hundred paces. And I didn’t even Empower my throw.
Blade Launch had somehow lengthened his throw.
Vir’s mind ran through the possibilities. There was so much to test. Where just an hour before, he had no long-range options, now he had not just one or two, but three. Which was superior? Was his chakram’s Blade Launch just as powerful regardless of whether he threw the actual weapon? If so, he’d just solved their biggest weakness—having to recover them.