Taking a deep breath, he grasped the blood in his foot, pulling it up higher into his leg. He left enough blood behind to conduct the ground Ash prana that rushed into his leg. Losing no time, he guided the supersaturated blood up his leg, then through his enlarged blood passages that connected to another artery, shortcutting the path.
Almost there!
The supersaturated blood traveled up his gut, then to his chest…
But by the time it reached his arm, it was barely more saturated than the rest of his body’s blood.
Grak it!
His path optimization wasn’t enough. Another failure.
Vir shook it off. While he’d hoped optimizing prana flow would suffice, he had another trick up his sleeve. Just that, unlike his first solution, he’d never attempted this one before. And Vir had a track record for blacking out whenever he did something new.
Clearing his mind, he refocused on the problem. The issue he faced was twofold. First was the long path, which he’d already shortened as much as he could. The other problem was the leakage. That was the root cause of his troubles. If he could stop prana from leaking to the rest of his body, then the path length didn’t matter. A longer route would hinder the Talent’s charging speed, but only slightly.
The key lay in how prana traveled into his body. Namely, it required blood. If Vir evacuated all the blood from his foot—not only would it be painful—the ground prana would have nothing to conduct it. Blood could only hold a certain amount of prana. To conduct more, more blood was needed.
In which case, a complete absence of blood would have the opposite effect—it wouldn’t conduct prana at all.
Rather, it wouldn’t leak any prana.
Vir tried again. He created a bubble devoid of blood around the supersaturated blood as it traveled up his body.
Easier said than done. It took far more concentration to keep the blood surrounding the pathway away. There was just so much more to manage.
But it worked. The supersaturated prana’s dissipation rate plummeted. Earlier, eighty-five percent of the prana had dissipated, but now, less than twenty-five percent was lost.
Not ideal, but…
“Hiyah!” Vir roared, swiping an Empowered katar into the air.
It wasn’t perfect, but it was good enough.
All he had to do now was reduce the mental burden required to perform the ability, and to speed it up as much as he could.
Vir looked up at the sky to find the sun was still low. More than half a day remained until the operation.
Half a day to train.
With a grin, Vir activated the ability again. Come nightfall, he’d be ready.
88
PRINCESS ASSASSIN (PART ONE)
Dusk gave way to darkness, and when night arrived, Vir was ready.
After spending all day working on Empower, moving around to several districts to avoid depleting Ash prana, he’d finally mastered the timing. Empowering his arms still took longer than it did for his legs, but he could work around that limitation. With good prana reserves, it took four seconds to charge. Four seconds was a long time in the middle of battle, but he was confident he could bring that number down with more practice.
The hardest part was routing the prana through his body while focusing on other tasks—like combat.
He’d shadow boxed as much as he could, and even wrestled with Neel to give him more distraction. Four seconds was his in-combat timing. If he spent every ounce of his mental power solely on activating the ability, he could do it in two.
Satisfied with his progress, he’d returned Neel to the Brotherhood Sanctum and even checked up on Bumpy. If things went south and he needed a quick escape, Bumpy had to be ready to go. The Ash’va was more than ready for some exercise. Even with the regular trots he’d been getting, Vir could tell he was raring to stretch his legs.
Vir then turned his attention to his disguise before the sun set, robbing him of light. The mask Riyan had given him was an odd thing. Made of a rubbery material, it looked horrific when missing its adornments. In fact, it hardly even looked human. It took well to makeup, and the best part was, Vir could apply the makeup perfectly without the use of a mirror. After spending an hour on it, he now looked like an average Dahan. Tanned skin with gaunt features. The inside of the mask was sticky, so after applying it to his face, it even mimicked his facial gestures—though he had to exaggerate every expression to make it visible through the thick material.
The worth of the mask wasn’t in mere disguise, however. Vir already had makeup on his face. What it give him a second disguise. With only a moment’s notice, Vir could rip off the mask, change his outfit, adjust his voice and body language, and he’d be another person.
It was like a freebie in that regard. A priceless boon for someone about to infiltrate the royal castle.
Vir idled on a rooftop until the dead of the night to make his move. San said the priest slept early, but he wanted to give enough time for Mina’s sedative to take hold.
Four hours after the sun set, he began.
Vir slunk into the alley containing Mina’s secret hatch in the Upper West Side Commons district. Cleverly placed next to several crates and bins, it blended in with the ground almost perfectly. Despite knowing where to look, Vir only found it by the Magic Lock orb discreetly embedded into it.
This was his first hurdle. It was locked from the outside, and there was no physical keyhole. The lock might be mechanical, but the key was magical. Which meant Vir’s lockpicks were useless.
Dance of the Shadow Demon would allow him passage, but he loathed to use his trump card this early on. While the Ash prana in the area had recovered, it was still barely enough for a single Dance activation. It was his last resort.
Using Prana Vision, Vir analyzed the hatch’s hinges, probing for any weak spots. There weren’t any. He did note how the wood itself wasn’t especially thick. A High Jump might have delivered enough force to break the door, but Vir had better options now.
Activating Empower, he relied on his katar’s superior thrusting force, and struck right where the wood met its hinge.
His newly sharpened weapon pierced straight through, breaking the hinge.
The door fell when its other hinge broke with his next strike, falling loudly into the stairway below.
Vir froze, scanning the alley for anyone who might have heard the sound, but there was no one around.
The secret passage was now completely exposed, rendering it a secret no longer. Vir stepped down the stairs and entered the long, dark tunnel.
Letting Prana Vision guide him, he ascended the spiral staircase that seemed to never end. He’d felt it was long on the way down, but the way up was far worse.
Vir was forced to take it slow, for fear of sweating and ruining his makeup under his stuffy mask.
After what felt like an eternity, he reached the exit. The wardrobe that served as the secret door obstructed Prana Vision, but Vir could tell there was someone lying on a bed in the room beyond.
He took an entire minute to swing the door open, praying it wouldn’t creak. If San’s sedative was as strong as the prince claimed, it’d make no difference, but Vir didn’t want to risk the chance.
Its well-oiled hinges allowed it to open without a sound, and Vir edged closer to the sleeping princess.