Unfortunately, his barren domain offered few targets to test his newfound skills. He needed something sturdier. Something that could take any attack he dished out.
Vir looked over at the bladed Domain Lord.
“He’ll do.”
25ANNIHILATION
Vir approached the edge of his domain—and stopped. He fully understood what he was getting into—yet another fight for his life. He’d struggle, he’d risk it all, and hopefully, he’d prevail. For there were no easy fights in this realm.
To cross the boundary was to challenge the vicious bladed beast, which he’d learned from Cirayus was called a Blader. Considering how the beast was covered in lethal metal, it was a fitting monicker.
How does an animal even grow metal? Vir wondered, staring at the beast, currently resting some thirty paces away.
The Domain Lord was well within range of his new long-range weapons. The ones so far had been exceedingly reluctant to leave their domain, which meant that, for the first time in a very long time, Vir could attack with impunity at range.
What to test first?
Katar Blade Launch only traveled around twenty paces, so there wasn’t any way of testing that without stepping into enemy territory. Although he could test both Chakram Launch variants.
When Vir stumbled upon the attack by mistiming Launch’s activation, he’d learned he could hurl a prana chakram out in front of him without actually throwing the chakram itself, and Chakram Launch traveled farther than its katar counterpart. But did it do as much damage?
Vir slid two chakrams off his neck, grasping one in each hand. It was time to find out.
“Here goes nothing.”
Two disks of pure energy ripped forth from Vir’s arms, sailing at the Blader. The beast remained motionless, oblivious to the attack… until the last moment.
So it can detect prana, to a degree, Vir observed.
The beast jerked away just before impact, but it wasn’t enough to avoid the attack.
There was no thud or clang, or any sound at all. The prana simply dissipated the moment it touched the Blader’s armor.
At first glance, it appeared to have done nothing.
Then Vir saw it.
“No way,” he whispered.
The Blader’s sword-limb was chipped. Like someone had taken a steel sword and sliced it into an iron one.
The chip wasn’t large, but it was certainly there.
Vir stared at his chakrams.
“No way!”
The Blader roared in confusion, looking this way and that for the enemy who’d harmed it.
“That… can’t be possible, can it?”
It wasn’t that the strikes were especially powerful. But they had penetrated its Prana Armor. If that was all, the ability would have been nice, but nothing amazing. If Vir could only lob one or two, its utility would be limited.
Vir wasn’t limited to one or two. In fact… he wasn’t limited at all.
An unending barrage of prana disks surged from Vir’s chakrams. His body became a prana conduit, sucking greedily from the earth, from the air, and even from elsewhere within his own body. The source didn’t matter. He just needed more fuel.
The Ashen Realm was happy to oblige.
The Blader whipped around—it couldn’t see his disks of pure prana, but it did see him. Putting two and two together, it ran right for him…
And impaled itself on a barrage of invisible chakrams.
Chips of its bladed limbs and armor flew off, blasted away.
This is insane, Vir thought, unaware of the tears that welled up in his eyes. After spending so long being weaker than his opponents, finally, finally, he now had an edge.
He was battering the most formidable foe he’d fought in the realm… And he was just standing there. Not even moving, aside from the motion of his arms. Not even in danger.
The chakrams continued to sail, a barrage of death that disintegrated flesh and steel. There was no escape—the monster ran around trying to evade, but its erratic motions only delayed the inevitable.
The inevitable, however, never came.
Vir aborted the ability, roaring in pain. His arms burned, as though set alight. He fell to his knees, cradling his arms.
Too much prana. It burns! Is this what prana saturation feels like?
The Blader gave him a wary glance, then limped away to lick its wounds, returning to the farthest edge of its domain—out of range.
That suited Vir just fine. He had his own wounds to treat. Blood moved fast, but the amount of prana he’d channeled was immense. In those few seconds alone, he might have consumed more prana than he had in an entire month in the Human Realm. It was just a guess, but it certainly felt that way.
There was a difference from a mejai’s prana saturation. When they saturated, it meant they could no longer suck prana from their limbs to form a suction effect. Likely because their body had reached its maximum prana carrying capacity—Vir couldn’t say for certain.
In addition, lesser mejai—the Mejai Sorcars and the Mejai of Ash—didn’t know how to power spells with the prana from their own body, which meant they relied on equilibrium forces to eventually purge the excess prana.
Not so with Vir. With a thought, Vir activated Reverse Channeling, purging his body of prana. It helped, and as he’d suspected, it wasn’t the root cause. His body was just frazzled from moving too much prana.
Wonder if humans have a name for this. Wonder if they’re even aware. Only Earth Affinity prana might’ve been abundant enough for such a phenomenon to manifest in the Human Realm. Even then, Vir doubted many fights involved using Talents in such rapid succession that it caused burnout.
Burnout. That’s a good name for it.
Vir took another look at the monster. Injured, but alive.
“Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be back later,” he said. I need to find Cirayus.
It was fully four days later that he was able to try again. Cirayus’ orbs hadn’t had any effect—the orbs weren’t designed for this form of damage. Vir doubted any Life orb was. At Cirayus’ instruction, he confined himself to a regimen of meditation and sleep.
The pain subsided after the first night, though attempting to use any pranic abilities still sent Vir doubling over, screaming in agony.
Even now, on the fourth day, using prana was an uncomfortable experience. Ordinarily, he’d rest until he’d recovered fully, but half a month had passed in the Human Realm on account of his mistake. He couldn’t waste any longer.
“Just be careful, lad. Don’t overdo it this time.”
Though he never admitted it, the giant had been eager to see Vir’s new abilities. He’d still tried to force Vir to remain in bed, but Vir wasn’t having any of it, and the giant didn’t push back too hard.
“Don’t plan to,” Vir replied. Bet he’s as excited as I am.
The two stood at the edge of Vir’s domain, facing the Blader. The Domain Lord eyed them with suspicion—and fear. Though its wounds had partially healed, its metal skin still had several chunks missing.
Chakram Barrage was a luxury Vir couldn’t use this time. He couldn’t afford to waste shots anymore, not when his body protested so much. Vir was no stranger to pain, but even he wasn’t immune to its debilitating effects. And, as Cirayus warned, overdoing it now would only lengthen his eventual recovery.