Chapter 6 Flowing Wind (I)
Aria
Andre's gawking stare at the bug shifted toward me. He looked even more shocked than when he first saw the bug in front of us.
I gave him a cheeky, wide grin.
I don't know why I chose now of all times to make a joke about Andre. I guess it's become almost an instinct at this point. I just had to.
If faces could talk, his would be saying "Did you really just say that?"
Well, faces could talk, but we didn't have time to exchange dialogue. His flabbergasted look said enough.
Whoosh
Wind cut through the humorous tone I had set for myself. My adrenaline spiked as anxiety grew in my stomach.
Wind was coiling around the bug, braiding around its body. Small twisters forming around its—leg?—arm?—whatever that limb is.
I didn't know what to make of this—how to react. How could air act this way?
No. No time for questions, anything could come my way now.
Time slowed to a halt. I could hear my heartbeat in my ears. Sounds dulled as my focus dilated. Adrenaline flowed through my body.
I saw its eyes…
They were locked onto me.
And then. An explosion of wind occurred where the bug was standing.
I didn't know what happened—my body reacted anyway.
In the next instant I was 40 meters up, the highest I'd ever jumped. Instinctively, I had used all my strength to jump into the air. Even from this distance I could hear the sound of a crash, and the blowback of wind.
That thing. It controlled the wind. Used it to charge at me with supersonic speeds.
My feet reached the ground. A loud crash followed my landing. My companions spared me a glance but just as quickly went back on guard.
Almost three trees lay toppled on the ground. Ahead of them, the beast—already recovering.
It could control the wind. How? Could I also? I knew the answer lay with this beast.
I sensed something odd with it. Its flow was originally suppressed; extremely well, I might add. Then it flared up and exploded, but what's more—the very nature of it felt different.
I couldn't explain how. I was still unfamiliar with this new aspect of this world. My only hope was probing this thing while I fought it.
But it was dangerous, hostile, and volatile. Even with my physical enhancement, I wasn't cocky enough to toy around with a super powered insect who weaponized the damn wind. I didn't know what it was fully capable of.
I needed to be quick and efficient to dispatch it quickly, but also gain enough information on its flow while we fought.
I had a way that could do both.
My brain tingled as my cognition deepened. No piece of information went unignored. No detail went unnoticed.
My analese was activated at full throttle.
Flow and analese. Nothing could escape my senses now.
I stared at the beast. Every micro-movement was watched and analyzed. I could tell how much damage it had sustained, where its weak spots were, and even some of its biological systems.
I tuned most of that out.
The analese did have a limit: your brain. I didn't want to overclock myself by focusing on too much. Enhancing my kinetic vision would suffice.
I only needed to see every micro-movement, not analyze it to the last detail. I could do that myself.
What I wanted to focus on analyzing was that sixth sense I had developed—the one that read flow. I didn't know what information would be relevant or not, so I needed to take it all in, to study later.
My analese enhanced sixth sense could sense every slight movement of the flow within this beast. I saw it change in nature again, bits of it being released from its body.
Wind wrapped around the beast; I observed its flow. It was being released. The flow followed the trajectory of the wind, like it was the wind itself. Was it manipulating the wind, or maybe creating it?
Apart from that it worked exactly how I knew. But when I release flow nothing happens. What's the difference between us?
The twisters didn't form around it this time. That technique must have been more explosive. This technique was probably meant to be sustained.
Its arms worked like blades; good for stabbing and slicing, but hardly sturdy.
Its upper arms could barely reach above its head. A weakness—it can't cope with attacks from above it.
"Guys, let me fight it alone. If you have any arguments, say it after I've killed this thing. Don't worry I'll be fine. You all spread out and warn me if anything else comes."
I didn't wait for a response. Flaring my flow to its maximum at my back foot, I exploded off of it.
In less than a tenth of a second I had reached the roach. I extended my arms as if to attack it.
The wind had aided the roach in attempting to dodge. By the time I reached it, the creature was already above me.
Stopping myself dead in front of the roach instead of following through, I used my outstretched arms to grab its legs and slam it down like a hammer.
With a loud crash, a small crater formed where I had slammed it.
It wasn't dead yet.
Holding on to its stubby legs, I lifted its body and spun it around. Its body crashed through the trunk of a tree before I let it go flying out of my grip.
It lay there, twitching, but still not dead.
I saw it begin to awkwardly get up. By the time it got on its feet I was already making my move.
A flying jump kick headed straight for the beast's head. I was sure this would kill it but then it performed a maneuver unbecoming of its body.
It slid underneath me. Almost as if it melted into goop and then oozed its way beneath me.
My foot slammed through the tree behind it, and I spun midair before landing so I could have the beast in my sights. Only—
The beast wasn't there.
I didn't sense an additional jump. Even when in my blind spots, my other senses were sharp enough to alert me to its moves.
No—the beast had used the momentum of its slide to somehow go up. Like it was a child on one of those playground slides that curved upwards.
It stabbed at me with two of its arms. Wind stabbed at me with them.
I used both of my arms to catch them mid-thrust.
Two more arms came for me. I lifted both knees to my chest while still holding the beast's arms. I released a kick with both of my legs and sent it flying upwards.
Its movement.
It was the wind that allowed it to happen. Not through an application of sheer wind force though. Somehow, it was controlling its own momentum. Like it was transferred to the wind and then back to it.
That's what allowed even a lumbering creature like this to dance.
Wind followed its every movement as it hurtled through the air. When it reached the peak of its height, it simply stopped.
It was floating there; almost motionless. The wind swirling around it like crazy—like it was taking the energy meant to make the creature fall.
Its flow spiked once more. Wind began gathering more violently than before. Tight cyclones formed around its limbs. Another around its lower body.
That same attack. Except. Stronger.
It didn't matter. I wasn't off-guard this time.
I stared at it as it charged up its attack. My analese-charged brain took in every bit of its flow.
Then it began its charge toward me. It was fast, but my enhanced senses weren't shaken. I could see everything coming clear as day.
I side-stepped slightly. A crash resounded from where the beast had landed next to me.
Bracing myself, a wall of wind crashed over me. I remained unmoved.
Truth is, even if that attack had hit me, it wouldn't have done much damage. Its potency was exaggerated by the flare of its wind control. It looked far stronger than it was.
I let it rise. I took in the flow of this beast one last time.
It stabbed at me with one of its left arms. I side-stepped to the left—toward the outside of the attack.
This thing wasn't built for combat. It was only dangerous if you remained right in front of it. If you stepped around it, the roach had to turn as well before it could attack.
I grabbed its attacking arm.
Its center of gravity was messed up. If put off balance, it had a hard time recovering. If you had the strength to toss it around, you could treat it like your personal ragdoll.
Its arm almost gave out from my grip.
Like a counter-clockwise clock, my arm moved in a semicircle—lifting the roach and slamming it down again.
In the brief second it was stunned, I moved to end it.
Picking up my foot, I positioned it over its head before slamming it down with deadly force.
The soft cartilage that held the sad brain of this beast exploded in a spray of blood and flesh.
I took a moment and breathed.
We got the worst case. What was goading us was a creature that had nothing to do with the voice in our heads, and one that wanted us dead.
At least it was weak.
I began to walk back to my friends. There was a lot I needed to tell them about what I learned—
Shit!
More of them were here.
I began sprinting back. I could sense their flow.
Ten more of them
By the time I reached my friends, all ten of those bastards had made themselves known.
From their flow, I could tell their individual strengths varied from each other. The one I just fought would be relatively strong in this group; about the 3rd strongest.
Whoosh
Half of them had started charging up their blitz attack. There wasn't much time to talk before all their attacks converged on us.
Just like their strengths varied, so did ours. I was definitely the strongest, with the best control over flow and the highest ceiling in terms of flaring it up.
That didn't mean the others were slouches.
If we hadn't practiced and experimented before coming here, I'd be worried. Without learning to flare up our flow, we would be too weak to survive these attacks and too slow to dodge them.
I decided to leave my companions with some quick words before the fight began in earnest.
"Don't be scared, we're a lot tougher than you think,"
Despite me shouting out words of encouragement, their flow was stable and battle ready. They didn't need them.
I decided not to waste any more words.
"Fight in pairs, stay on their outside, and try to attack from above them. Their movements can be slippery, but we're both stronger and faster. One of you should focus on halting the roach's movements while the other kills it. That's the best strategy."
With a breath, I left one final message for my friends.
"Don't die."
Sound barriers broke—explosions ringed out from all around us. Wind obscured almost everything in sight.
Just before I was hit I leapt out of the way. The others had too. Jessie stuck close to Sunny, while Havi backed Andre. They were listening to my advice.
Upon landing, I was greeted with four roaches all for myself.
Guess I'm the one who's going to do most of the work. And I don't even have a partner. Well, I was the strongest out of everyone here, and…
A change occurred within me. My eyes took in everything without missing a detail. My brain tingled and my mind expanded.
I have the analese.
Wind layered their bodies. Not willing to give them any time, I lunged for the roach furthest off to the side.
The worst case scenario when fighting multiple opponents: letting them surround you.
I grabbed two of its arms and quickly threw it as far as I could before it could react. Utilizing my greater speed, I began to chase after it while the other roaches trailed behind.
I had successfully singled one out.
The creature recovered quickly, and attempted to jump over my head to rejoin its friends.
With wind still lacing it, its trajectory was awkward and could change mid-jump.
I leapt up to tackle it midair. Utilizing my analese, I paid attention to its finer movements, and got an idea of when it was going to dodge.
Its body had already moved out the way but I had raised my hands to catch its arms. Now with it firmly into my grasp I slammed it into the ground while landing. Quickly, I smashed its head like I did its predecessor.
Three left.
The second one closed in on me. Its arms were outstretched like it wanted to hug me. Twisters coiled around its arm like before.
This was an explosive attack like before, but this time it was trying to crush me instead of tackle me.
Okay. I smirked. I accept your embrace.
I lifted up my arms and let it wrap its arms around me.
It was a crushing hug. My body began to cave in and strain against the crushing force. Even the muscles in my face were forced to flex in order to handle this attack.
Still, my smile persisted. My flow was flaring, and my body didn't give in. Using my still free arms, I grabbed its face with my hands and—
Blood sprayed everywhere. The body of a creature lay fallen dead. Its head—gone, reduced to pulp.
My mind was buzzing and reactive. Like the thought of fighting and killing monsters was natural to me. Like I had lived my whole life this way. Like I was born for it.
The other two creatures were no longer before me. While I was dealing with the second roach the other two had run away; back to where my companions were.
I sprinted after them.
As I ran, thoughts began to swallow me.
Would a normal person be able to take all this in like I was? But I wasn't just taking it all in. No, I was liking this.
Was I really so cruel and deranged that I enjoyed being abducted, and forced to kill monsters to survive? Was fulfilling my escapist fantasies really worth all this to me?
Trees blurred past me as I closed in on ground zero of this fight.
I didn't have time to ask these questions right now, and yet, my body felt light and tingly every time I thought about them. Like it was telling me not to ignore them; that I should answer them right now.
It wasn't the monsters or the survival that had me feeling this way. It was this flow. I found it freeing, it felt like a part of me that I was missing for my whole life. I never dreamed of awakening powers like this and yet—
From the very start, this flow felt freeing—welcoming. It made me feel good.
The sensation in my body began to swell up like something was about to happen to me. The flow inside me was reacting, goading me to continue this line of questioning.
To… continue chasing this feeling.
To understand it.
To accept it.
What's going on with me?