PreCursive

  Hmm

  Number Seventy-Six didn’t think he had been pushed this long and this far in quite some time. He grunted, desperately using the katana’s held in his left arms to parry a blow from Prime before. The beast eagerly pressed its attack, hungry for revenge against the Hivekin that had sin it twiow.

  Seventy-Six had faced a number of Primes in his years, but never ohat was simply regeed from its core whe was sin. The first time the human Warden had revived the beast, Seventy-Six had been more shocked than he had been in years, even if the soft-skins hadn’t realized it. They didn’t have the proper pheromoors to parse his emotional queues.

  He hadn’t even realized a monster could be revived from its core, in the way Leonard had done.

  Truly, he experienced odd things uhe service of his Sworn.

  While said Sworn was locked in a duel with the Wardey-Six had mao sy the Prime again with the help of the woode had been a hard-fought battle, but he had mao push through his exhaustion to nd what had hopefully beeual final blow. He had kept in mind what the Warden had done earlier, and hadn’t paused to celebrate after the beast had died again. He had simply dived through the resulting Miasma cloud for the waiting Core with bdes barred, i on shattering the jewel before the process could be repeated.

  As, he had been too slow. He should have known that someone so far along the path like the Warden would be able to react faster than someone like Seventy-Six. He had only broken through the fifth breakpoint, after all.

  Without even taking his attention away from the Grey-Sworn, the Warden had simply gestured in his dire with a release of Mana. Seventy-Six had o frantically turn his strike against the Core into a block, as the renewed Prime had erupted out of it, talons poised to rip his ioid head from his upper shoulders.

  Which brought Seventy-Six to now. Frantically, he pulsed his physical enha skill, Dread Hands a, to its maximum strength for what was likely the st time he would be able to in this battle. The Skill was feelially worn out and ragged from overuse. He ducked back briefly in order to avoid a swipe from the aurian Prime before readying himself. Seventy-Six fiercely trated, activating another skill for a ter-attack.

  Diamond Glints in Snow.

  His four katanas gleamed in the low light of the prison hall, glowing a soft white and beginning to emit a cold aura. Seventy-Six surged forward with a four-pronged ssh of his bdes, sg a dire the beast before him. The sshes that he delivered on its scales instantly began to creep over with frost, c the chest of the Prime and slowing its movements. The beast screeched a pained whinny before it tried to desperately sh out at the Antium that had hurt it. Seventy-Six ducked the talons but was caught off guard as the aurian spun in pd smashed him away with its massive fish-like tail.

  Seventy-Six cursed as he went flying. Such a zy attack would normally never e close to him. Midair, he mao reorient in order to nd on his feet, skidding backwards from the force of the blow. He tried to rise to his feet ohe force of the Prime’s blow had been bled away, only to stumble and fall to one knee. Seventy-Six amended his earlier thought. He had never actually been pushed this far before. First had been the ambush from the other Prime earlier, and then the brief exge with it before his Sworn had ehe araid. Then, the three separate battles against this partieptaurian Prime. The first time had been bad enough when it had been at full strength. There, he had mostly taken attention away from the Grey-Sworn so he could end the beast. The sed time, the Prime had been more oy-Six’s level of strength and had been a worthy oppo in which to hone himself against. On this third battle, he could tell that the monster was weaker than he was. On any normal day, he was fident in his ces of sying a creature like this on his own.

  The problem was, Seventy-Six was exhausted. The Prime was bridging the gap in strength through sheer staying power. Every time it was revived, the monster might be weaker in sheer power, but it was renewed in its stamina. Seventy-Six chided himself as he k oone, ashamed of his own weakness. He had thought he had overe his people's carefully hidden fw.

  The Antium as a whole cked endurahese soft skins didn’t know how easy they had it, with their vely perspiring skin.

  His master wouldn’t have been pushed this hard.

  Trembling, Seventy-Six pushed himself to his feet using one of the bdes clutched in his lower arms. He was just in time to watch as the Sculpted, Woodrick, was knocked away from the Prime in an explosion of shattered bark. The wooden-one rapidly flew away to impact the far stone wall of the entry hall, where he slumped against it.

  He looked to be out-cold.

  Seventy-Six took a deep breath.

  Very well, then.

  He couldn’t allow the beast to join its master against his Sworn.

  Was this it then? Had his time e?

  Seventy-Six felt resolve roll over his soul.

  Perhaps it had…

  He o himself, reag for a skill he had never used. He might be able to survive using it if he kept its use to a minimum.

  He activated it.

  Rage Against the Night.

  Seventy-Six nearly cried out in agony as he felt the very core of his bei into brilliantly burning soul fire. However, he felt rerength flow through his limbs as he began to burn his own spirit as fuel.

  No…

  This was more than rerength. This ower on a level he couldn’t match, even at his peak.

  It would have to drimly, Seventy-Six straightened up into the first stance his master had ever taught him. Ethereal smoke began to pour from the joints of his chitinous exoskeleton. The aurian caught sight of him and began to charge in his dire with a triumphant whinny.

  Seventy-Six, known as Venix to the soft-skins, took a deep breath and trated. He closed his eyes ever so briefly and then opehem, standing perfectly still.

  The world felt as if it had slowed to a crawl. Seventy-Six waited until the Prime had reached striking distance, and then flooded his bdes with every ounce of Ki that his burning soul could muster. They erupted into flickering crimson light, sheathed in radiahat grew beyond the bounds of their physical form. Seventy-Six was aware of his bdes crag ever so slightly from the amount of power that was being eled through them, but that didn’t matter for this. He o end the beast in one blow, not only physically, but enough to erase its Core as well.

  He knew what to use for that. It had worked oher Prime, after all.

  The Bde’s Lament.

  Seventy-Six struck out with his katana’s, all four of them crossed together in X positions. The light that had coated his bdes erupted in a double cross instantly, crashing into the charging form of the aurian Prime. The beast didn’t even have time to realize what had happeo it before it was instantly vaporized. However…

  Venix felt despair fill his heart when he saw the monster’s Core, suspended in midair in a freeze frame. He had only mao crack the Prime’s Core. He hadn’t mao destroy it.

  His sacrifice would be in vain.

  Salvation came from an ued source.

  As if she had been trailing in his shadow, the pirate woman, Isabel, instantly sprang from the veritable Aether. Her cutss was drawn and sheathed in a crag, roiling storm of wind and lightning, lunging straight at the Core with a mad snarl etched on her sharp features.

  Out of the er of his eye, Seventy-Six saw the Warden dueling his Sworn realize what was about to happen. His teeth drew back from his lips in a snarl uncharacteristic of him, and fought to free one hand to rescue his thrall from utter destru. However, Leonard was locked in a power struggle with the Grey-Sworn, fighting to keep the Headmaster’s bde away from his neck. At the speed and strength the two of them were fighting at, Seventy-Six thought he might just mao save the Core before the weaker woman could strike it.

  That couldn’t happen.

  With the dregs of his soul p through his chitiy-Six drew back his right uppermost katana and threw it as hard as he could at the human. The air cracked from the force of his throw, but most importantly, so did the barrier separating the duel from the rest of the hall. The Warden was forced to block the blisteringly fast spinning form of his sword instead of saving his pet.

  Isabel’s cutss pierced the stone of the Prime’s Core while he was distracted.

  It exploded, sending shards of hardened Aether ricocheting across the hall.

  As he felt his soul begin to boil away, Seventy-Six saw one more thing before he impacted the stone of the floor below.

  The pirate womaing out a primal scream of triumph into the chaos of the battlefield.

  The world went bck.

  ……………………………………..

  Seventy-Six found himself in a familiar se. Ohat pyed out in his memories, night after night. As if through a fog, he saw the younger form of himself lying slumped against the wall of a shady alleyway in Hinaga.

  Ah…

  This was right after his exile.

  His younger self looked truly pathetic. This was before he even uood the idea of soft-skin clothing, and so was mostly nude, only wearing a modesty-preserviher loincloth. He had been on Vereden for mere weeks at this point, and was sidering simply letting the p rain wash him away after his fruitless jouro the isnd City-State. Surely, he had thought, to die as detritus drowned in an alien river propriate fate for one such as him.

  His younger self was knocked out of his self-pity by a shadow falling over his form. Looking up, the smaller form of Seventy-Six saw the man who would save him.

  His master.

  His face was obscured by an umbrel, blue with white flower petals decorating its surface. The man was tall though, dwarfing even the fully grown currey-Six, much less the much younger ohe human’s massive frame was draped in a familiar kimono, white with pink es dotting its surface.

  A katana y on each side of the man’s hips.

  “Hmm,” A sidering noise escaped the man, in a deep rumble that almost physically shook the alleyway. Despite the man’s face being obscured by his umbrel, the pitiful youth against the wall was still able to see the man’s head tilt in thought. Slowly, the human o himself before speaking again.

  “Rain whispers sorrow,

  Youth’s burdened shoulders, a weight,

  A silence.”

  The younger form of Seventy-Six simply blinked his pound eyes at the man, pletely befuddled. The massive figure let an amused sound escape him before he strode down the alleyway toward the young Antium. He crouched before him. His face was still shadowed in the dim light, but Seventy-Six could see somethie it.

  The human’s emerald green eyes, pierg through him.

  The man spoke.

  “I don’t know what your story is, boy,” The man said calmly. “And I don’t care. But I like the look of you, and I find myself in need of a student. Do you want to die in this alley, or make something of yourself?” The man stood up and theended a hand down at the Antium teen.

  Youy-Six stared at hand bnkly for a moment. Even now, the future Seventy-Six wasn’t sure what had been running through his mind at the time. He didn’t know what had caused him to slowly raise one of his hands and y it in the much rger one.

  Still, he was gd he did. At least he had done something right in the past.

  The massive man effortlessly raised the young Antium stumbling to his feet and then o him. “Good choice. After all,” He said, patting the boy’s back. Something happehen that Seventy-Six didn’t remember.

  His master’s head turned slightly. It was as if he was looking at both the spectral form of the elder Seventy-Six and the younger, and speaking to them at the same time.

  “It’s never over while will remains,” The past form of his master said, with an amused lilt to his voice.

  As if from far away, Seventy-Six heard the sound of a young e bark echh his dreamscape. A wave of cooling, blue-greeher washed over the se and his form both.

  The fire burning away his soul winked out.

  Seventy-Six sank into blissful darkness.