This was the exact scenario he’d been hoping to avoid, and Riyan had pushed him here within moments.
Then an idea struck him. Maybe… maybe this is okay?
Vir fought desperately, just barely defending each attack. Every time his katar clanged against Riyan’s blade, he slowed slightly, his breaths growing heavy.
Riyan finally let up, and Vir fell to his knees in exhaustion.
“You have grown, but not nearly enough! Is this truly all the strength you can muster, boy? Show me your resolve! Come at me!” Riyan roared.
Vir struggled to his feet, took a deep breath, and went on the offensive. His attacks carried no energy, and soon, Riyan stopped moving altogether, lazily deflecting his attacks with a single hand. Disappointment oozed off the man like a dark cloud.
“I see,” Riyan said, continuing to take Vir’s attacks, lecturing him in the middle of combat. “I see now that I have been too lenient with you. With Talents, I had thought you would become a force to be reckoned with. I’m afraid I was wrong, boy. You fail—!”
Vir had waited patiently for this moment. For the moment when Riyan’s guard fell, convinced that Vir had expended himself. He now had something no amount of coin in this world could buy—the element of surprise.
He channeled prana into his legs and quadrupled his speed. Every trace of his prior ‘fatigue’ was gone.
Vir didn’t need Leap. He didn’t even need half of it. He consumed only a quarter of the prana needed for the full Talent—just enough to accelerate his body with supernatural speed, augmenting each strike. A Micro Leap. And because it consumed only a fourth of the prana, it took a fourth as long to charge, ready in less than a second.
Vir became a whirlwind of slashes and thrusts. For the first time in his life, he inflicted damage upon the Ghost of Godshollow.
Countless cuts opened up on the shocked man’s arms and legs. Riyan hesitated, trying to comprehend what just happened. But only for a moment. Then he burst into uproarious laughter, meeting Vir’s next blow with his talwar, stopping it cold.
“Well played, Vir! Well played!”
Vir didn’t bother wrestling with the man in strength—that was a losing battle if he’d ever seen one.
He broke off his attack and jumped away, throwing both chakrams and chakris. The smaller chakris didn’t have the range of their larger brethren, but at this distance, both were effective.
Riyan defended against the deadly disks, but the man only had a single weapon. He couldn’t possibly defend against them all.
A chakri bit into his bicep, forcing him to Leap away.
Having expected that, Vir followed suit. Now he was the one pressing Riyan. Vir’s accelerated footwork continued, rendering him all but impervious to the bigger man’s attacks.
Ghost of Godshollow though he may be, he couldn’t match Vir’s movements as he ducked, bobbed, and weaved around the bigger man like water, ripping his robe and drawing blood with each attack.
“Well, well, now this is a surprise,” Riyan said calmly. Far calmer than someone with his injuries ought to be. While none of Vir’s attacks had caused any mortal wounds, the man bled from a dozen cuts. Surely he should have felt something?
“I suppose it is time I took this seriously, then.”
Vir didn’t like the sound of that. Nor the evil glint in the man’s eyes.
His intuition was correct. Riyan blurred out of existence and popped up behind Vir, grabbing him by his collar and throwing him into the sand. Riyan hurled his sword at Vir, right at his chest.
Too late to dodge, Vir launched a chakri at the incoming blade. The two weapons clanged, causing Riyan’s blade to veer off course, sinking into the sand just a hand’s span away from Vir’s head.
He had no time to relax. Just as Vir had found his feet again, Riyan delivered a devastating punch to his abdomen.
Except this was no mere punch. Riyan’s fist glowed with Earth Affinity prana, and his blow came at several times the speed of what any mortal should be capable of.
The next thing Vir knew, he’d expelled the contents of his stomach and was sailing through the air. He hadn’t even felt the impact, and strangely, neither did his body hurt.
What’s going on? Where am I? he thought in a daze.
He crashed into the sand, coming to a stop in a heap.
Oh… I must’ve blacked out? That’s happening a lot these days…
To his horror, Riyan stood above him the moment he’d come to a rest. Then he went flying… again. Vir hadn’t even seen the attack coming.
What he did hear was a sickening crack from his chest.
This time, he felt the pain. He’d never experienced such agony in his entire life. Worse… he could no longer breathe. Vir asphyxiated as he soared, landing in a tangled mess.
He had no thoughts now. No plan, no tactics. His mind was consumed with forcing air into his lungs, which had seemingly ceased functioning. No matter how much he gagged, no air came in.
In an addled act of desperation, Vir seized the prana in his body and willed it to work. A foolish decision that only made the pain worse.
But it did allow him to breathe again. He sucked in a mouthful of breath, thankful for the hot, dry air.
In the distance, he heard desperate shouting. It felt so far away, though. He paid it no mind. He was probably hallucinating it, anyway. Thinking was hard for Vir right now.
A great shadow loomed over him. Looking up, he found a predator. His instructor, gloating over him.
No… not gloating. Daring. Riyan’s expression seemed to say ‘Well? Is that it?’
Vir spit out a wad of blood.
Was that it?
No Badrakking way.
Vir glared up at the massive man who towered over him. He shakily found his feet and rose to his full height, standing tall in defiance of his mangled chest and broken ribs.
He glared as he threw a weak punch at the man’s chest.
And he glared right until his eyes rolled up into their sockets.
Though Vir fell unconscious, his body remained standing, his fist pressed against Riyan’s chest. Like a statue that refused to yield, no matter the odds.
The last thing he heard was Riyan’s deafening laughter.
55SHIFTING WINDS
“Vir? Have you seen my hair tie?” Maiya said, furiously searching every nook and cranny in the bedroom. “I think I left it somewh—Challing Ash! Vir!”
Maiya jumped, bonking Vir on his head. “Don’t scare me like that!”
Blond-haired, blue-eyed Vir looked the spitting image of a nobleman’s son. His hair fell all the way to his shoulders, and his skin was like white sand.
“I seriously can’t even recognize you,” Maiya said, looking him up and down.
“Good,” Vir replied. “That’s kinda the point. Wasn’t sure how it’d work out, but I guess all those hours in front of the mirror paid off…”
“I’ll say!” Maiya said, narrowing her eyes. “Hmm, you’re still not as good as me, though. Sorry, Vir.”
Vir smirked and shook his head. “Sure. Just needs to be good enough to fool anyone who knows us. And your reaction tells me we ought to be fine… probably. You about ready?”
“Gimme like… an hour?” Maiya said, in the middle of doing her own makeup. “I’ll be ready soon.”
“Got it. I’ll be outside.”
Vir left Maiya to do her thing and crossed his legs on a sofa in the living room. Training would make him sweat, which wasn’t great for the makeup. That left meditation.