Thursday Morning September 20th, 546 ALW. Fennur's Heart, North-Eastern Glacial Regions. ….
He was even bigger and more animal in motion.
Berkaal, The Hollow-Moon. The Unbeleiver and Brooding Vanguard.
Sure, he wasn't three Berserkers in the wild, but that's because he was his own breed of monster.
Konan saw it in his eye. In the bubbling of his muscles beneath his clothing as he leapt into the air to pounce on him before he could make any moves.
He came down with a tangible weight. A violent mass that was both suffocating and blinding in its twinkling darkness.
Konan panicked and rolled out of the way.
At least that was the plan, to create distance, but as Berkaal came crashing down, he slammed his fists into the stone earth. The ground rippled like ocean waves in the wind.
Konan tripped. At the same time, a column of stone rose up out of the ground ahead of him. He slammed face first into the summoned wall so hard he felt his nose break and a few teeth crack.
Before he could recover, Berkaal kicked him back into the wall from behind so hard that he broke through it.
Konan hit the ground and rolled with the rubble remains of the wall. As he skidded to a stop— bruised and bloody, he could hear the dogs barking and people yelling. It was faded— fading, as a vision slowly came to him.
"No!" He growled and punched the ground. The pain centered him.
As if he needed it.
He was centered by circumstance.
By the word of many.
Who are you?
Why are you here?
We are tired of falling.
I come from dreams.
Fear…. Kin…. Anger ….
Thank you.
He was a hurricane of impulses, questions, worries, memories, love and death. But for once, he was in the eye of the storm.
He had his feet on the ground and his head on straight.
"Cmon, Konan!"
Konan looked up and found Maka standing over him as he bordered the walls with his brothers and sisters. He danced to a distant tune as he spoke. "You're a Lycan. You better show him what to beleive in! Break his ugly face! Make him pretty like Sulekha…. HAHAH!"
Maka held out a hand to Konan.
Konan took his hand.
As soon as they touched, a wave of magnetic heat washed over him. Suffocating and electric. It seeped into his skin and raced against his blood to reach his heart where it churned and radiated.
When Konan came back to his senses, he was standing and emitting an aura of gold, silver and green energies. It sputtered and flowed like sparks before flame.
Maka looked dizzy as he stumbled back against the wall. "Spicy…."
In the distance, Nuwetara hissed. The sound rippled up Konan's spine and had him spinning around to face Berkaal, this time hauling a stone pike at Konan's head from across the cave.
Konan's senses were on fire. He could hear Berkaal's rough hands grinding against the stone as he threw it. His feet twisted the earth and rose up age old dust.
All the sensory phenomena seemed to slow time.
The stone spear whistled through the air.
Konan knew where it would hit. Not as if he could read Berkaal's mind, but as if he could read his body.
His anger caused him to lose some of his martial finesse. He twisted a few degrees too far right and took an unintentional step forward, causing the weapon to be both off center and speed.
Konan charged, cracking the earth with his flexed bare feet.
Suddenly he was thrust into high speed. Luckily, he knew where the spear was as he slipped left, catching the stone weapon before spinning and leveling a roundhouse kick into Berkaal's massive body.
The dust came off of his black sweater as Konan's shin connected with his chest.
Berkaal flew backward, smashing into the wall of the cave behind him.
The dogs erupted in excited barks and howls as they raced through and around the seated and singing watchers.
Konan pressed on.
Berkaal moved left, to get out of his compromised position.
Konan threw the stone spear. As it left his hands, it transformed into metal and pinned Berkaal to the wall by the looseness of his sweater.
He growled and grabbed the spear, ripping it out of the stone to swing at Konan's face.
Konan dropped low and tackled Berkaal, slamming him into the wall again.
Berkaal brought his knee up into Konan's ribs.
Konan caught the brutes knee, holding it to his chest before spinning around and throwing him by the leg back to the center floor.
Berkaal hit the ground snarling in a rage. He scrambled back to his feet and tore off his ripped up sweater, revealing a body covered in burns, scars and tattoos. A thin sheen of body hair spread across his chest and arms. His veins bulged, flowing with blood that burned the same color as Konan's sputtering aura.
"Your esteemed Lycan is malfunctioning…." Berkaal said to everyone while eyeing Konan, "Your Beast-Energy is a light show, nothing more. I bet I'll find wires when I rip you in half."
"Explain the spear then." Mother said.
Berkaal looked down at the spear he held, no longer rock and now metal, iron to be exact. "Transmutation is available to all….. even vampires."
Konan blinked in and out of a vision.
"Come on then, Lycan. I still don't believe." Berkaal said. As he spoke, his teeth sharpened and his gums turned black.
Konan lunged.
Berkaal slid his left foot across the ground.
The earth in front of Konan shifted, causing him to slip to the right.
At the same time, Berkaal continued his spin and smashed a heel kick into Konan's face.
Konan was sent rolling to the left with a bleeding nose.
He continued rolling back onto his feet.
He turned, ready for the offensive press from Berkaal only to find himself in a desert.
The sun was sweltering. He no longer wore his bear skins and tendon wraps and instead wore thin robes and cold jewels.
He was no longer being attacked by an eyeless giant in the dark and instead faced a woman. Covered head to toe in beige and black robes like his own. The only thing exposed were her rose-gold eyes and the dark ebony skin surrounding.
"Taleem Salhadir. Master of the Moon-Dust, it is a day of celebration. We have defeated The Blood-Cobra Coven and liberated the lands south of us. Lycan-kind will flourish for generations—"
"If we stay vigilant, Seffira." Konan spoke from a body and voice that wasn't his own.
"Then we shall stay vigilant. Are you ready?" The woman in robes took up a new stance. She squatted low and spread her arms so they slithered and danced like serpents while her toes sank into the steaming sands.
"I am."
"YOU'RE FAKE!"
Konan blinked and suddenly he was back in the cold-dark of the cave.
Berkaal lunged at him with the spear aimed for his stomach.
Konan sidestepped and caught the pike with one hand before breaking it with the other. With a dagger of sorts now in hand, he slashed at Berkaal, opening a line of red across his chest.
The hollow-moon was unfazed as he kept up the pressure, swinging the split spear like it was a short-staff.
He came fast and much quicker than his body seemed capable of. Each strike cut up the wind and was followed up with a slash of his clawed hands.
He switched between left and right in an uneven tempo that cut up Konan more than twice.
But slowly, it melded and morphed.
With every other step and cut— every jab and kick, Konan was elsewhere.
Back in the desert. In a body other than his own. With more knowledge and experience. Facing someone with more skill and finesse.
Her name was Seffuri. She slithered across the sands like a serpent— and rose when the winds blew like fire left to feed on wild winds.
She wielded two tonfa-blades, descending on Konan— as Taleem, like a fanged serpent.
Konan spun out of the way.
"Don't play passive with me, Taleem!" Seffuri hissed, "Vakhira demands attack at all times. Even in defense!"
Seffuri landed and rose in a spin, causing the sands to twist in a smoldering whirlwind.
She charged through the burning sand waves, "Again! This time, draw blood even in evasion! Mirror me like the sands under fire!" She hissed.
Konan felt her words hit him with an importance he couldn't ignore.
And with Taleem's body, it felt more than possible. It felt like second nature to execute moves that echoed through his bones like ancient disconnected memories.
He blinked. The sand grains cutting his skin in the hot wind became snowflakes melting into water droplets as he stood in the cave. The endless sanded dunes and sweltering sun rays became dense shadows and dancing dogs.
Taleem became Konan. Expert adversary into fearful Awakener.
Seffuri became Berkaal. Passionate Professor into scorned aggressor.
The message echoed as Berkaal swung his metal baton at Konan's face.
Konan did as Seffuri said, mirroring— not Berkaal's strike, but his position and movement.
Berkaal swung high in his lunge.
Konan charged, diving low and spinning so Berkaal's baton whizzed across his midsection. At the same time, he let the iron spear-tip he held as a dagger, glide across the enemy's midsection.
The exchange was quick.
Berkaal stumbled forward after the missed attack.
Konan left the exchange in a back handspring.
He sat crouched on the stone grounds. The air around him distorted from the heat. The blood that should've dropped from his dagger bubbled and burned in red rivulets of steam. His sparking aura popped and sizzled with tufts of flame.
Konan continued to follow the visionary guide as she led by example— and spoken word, and dropped into her fighting stance.
In his peripheral vision, he saw Mother stand and mumble, "Fire spirits…. This far north? During a new moon?"
Berkaal snarled.
But all Konan heard was Seffuri. The experiences blended.
"You're not attacking! Why?! You opened my stomach, strike the body then. Red these sands!"
Konan listened and slithered across the stone grounds like it was sand. He came with an overhand stab aimed at his head.
Berkaal blocked high.
Konan dropped low as soon as the massive man fell for the feint.
From below, he twisted in a partial handspring and kicked Berkaal square in the stomach.
Blood spurted.
He roared.
Another voice emanated.
"Powerful. But you won't land there again. I suggest elsewhere—"
Before Seffuri could finish, Konan dashed around behind Berkaal as he stumbled backward and slashed a line of red across his back.
In tandem with his strike, hot winds blew in a massive gust and sent blood splattering against the far wall as he rolled off to the left.
He lay on the ground steaming. Portions of his thread pants sparked and sizzled with burning embers.
Konan looked at his aura. It was almost entirely gone. Almost all pops and sizzles of flame and violent spinning winds.
In the flames he heard whispers. Where it graced his skin, he transformed in flashes.
"What is this?"
He didn't need the answer.
Mother already gave it.
The dogs howling did the same.
Haurik stood then and walked over to Berkaal. Casually, he tapped him with his foot.
"Want me to hit him with a rock?" Maka called out— cutting the shocked silence.
"Quiet." Haurik said. "Sulekha."
The red haired girl stood between her parents wiping away tears.
"Come."
She did.
"Tend to him."
"Is this punishment, alpha?" Sulekha asked.
"We are all leaders here. I don't task you with this as punishment. I task you with this because you are the best healer we have... and Berkaal just had nearly all the moisture burned out of his body. Quickly now."
Sulekha and her parents dragged him away.
Haurik held up a hand, "This challenge is over. Our winner and retainer of his spot in the Alphas Circle is Konan."
The people cheered.
Konan listened in on the whispers of the fire and spinning winds. They faded, but he could hear.
A single tuft of flame burned atop a portion of stone at his foot.
He crouched down to it— listening to the whispers. Gazing into the heat.
In a flash, he could suddenly see fast moving bodies and spinning sticks of flame. Red storms turning a desert into a steaming hurricane of stone and glass. Bodies burning. Mothers screaming in grief and rage—
The fire sputtered out of existence.
Konan was left shaken in its wake.
He growled then, dropping the dagger he held as it reached bright orange levels of heat.
Despite the new experience, elements of it were familiar.
"Like before…." He said, thinking back to the spirits in the ruins.
"Golden-child."
Konan turned around, only recently being made aware of all the commotion and eyes on him.
Mother stood in front of him as he turned.
Her skin glistened with sweat. Just like everyone else's.
"HAHA! It's like summer in here! Way to go Konan!" Maka danced around with a handful of dogs chasing him as he dragged along his twin brother.
"Come with me." Mother said.
Konan was fine with going anywhere as long as it was away from the spirits and eyes of others.
So, he followed.