Fate Shift - Chapter 15

The automaton walked leisurely back towards its original position, perhaps in preparation for the next person to attempt the first trial. A loud “crack” rang out in the hallway, echoing off the walls. The automaton shuddered and stumbled to one knee as an orange spear pierced its armor from behind. Gazeen didn’t stop attacking; he continued thrusting the spear at full strength. His orange spear, infused with Ghastly Sand Qi, penetrated through the automaton’s armor several times. Instead of accepting the punishment, the automaton shifted into action. The sand wraith was forced to leap backwards as the lightly armored left arm rotated seemingly impossibly, swinging its kukri viciously. As the automaton rose to its feet, the lightly armored left arm continued swinging wildly, leaving no clear opportunity for Gazeen to approach.

When the automaton hurled its mace a second time Gazeen was ready. He ducked down as it flew past where his head was a moment ago. The automaton reacted with shocking speed though, casting the return spell as soon as the mace missed. As the weapon hurtled back towards the automaton’s open hand, it clenched the hand into a fist. The mace flipped in midair and rushed towards Gazeen’s back.

The sand wraith didn’t simply remain standing in the same position after dodging the mace though, instead closing in on the automaton. Gazeen wanted to abuse the spear’s superior range while the automaton only had one weapon and launch another offensive. The mace’s almost instant shift in direction forced Gazeen to give up on that plan. He circled right hurriedly, hoping to make the mace hit the automaton instead of him. In response, the automaton simply opened its fist. The mace swiveled and then landed back in the waiting hand of Gazeen’s foe.

Gazeen expected the automaton to pursue him now that it held both weapons again, yet it didn’t. His enemy instead began gathering Qi, accumulating the Qi in its weapons. Sensing the building power, the sand wraith rushed forwards. Then a beam of light bisected Gazeen. His upper half fell down, transforming into a pile of sand and his orange spear clattered to the ground, useless.

All the Qi the automaton had gathered in the kukri was spent in launching that beam of light. Qi was still being gathered in the mace as Gazeen reassembled his body though. Recovering from damage like that required far too much Qi for a novice sand wraith; he needed to end this fight soon!

Gazeen backed off once he was whole again. He imitated his opponent, gathering Qi in the orange spear. Analyze suggested, based off the automaton’s Qi emissions, that the ‘head’ was most likely its weak point. That was where the automaton stored its Qi at the very least. So Gazeen planned around that. He planned to trade blows, taking the automaton’s next attack in exchange for a chance to counter with a fatal blow.

Seconds later the automaton finished accumulating Qi in its mace. It ran towards the sand wraith, jumped, and raised its mace high. Gazeen aimed carefully; he judged the arc the automaton would take. Then he launched the spear at his enemy’s ‘head,’ creating a flash of orange light.

An empty hand flickered with unbelievable speed and smacked the spear off course. The automaton swung its mace down and hit the ground explosively, releasing a wave of Qi in all directions. A shockwave blasted through the room, shattering the pillars and scattering grains of sand every which way.

Those countless specks of sand suddenly trembled; they began converging into a tiny bead of stone within the space of a second. That small stone released powerful waves of Qi as it condensed. The automaton stood and faced the stone just in time to be destroyed by it as it shot through the automaton’s body like a bullet.

Rock became sand, sand became flesh, and Gazeen was intact once more. He found he’d been teleported back to the room with the light barrier while recovering. The sand wraith sat down and began replenishing his lost Qi. As he used his Breath to fill his Dantian back up, Gazeen contemplated the battle he’d just fought.

Had he not possessed the unique skill of the Sand Wraith Tribe, he would be dead. It was a fightening thing to consider. That was only the first trial too! Gazeen sighed and shook his head. He wasn’t going to give up so easily but he’d also need to be even more careful.

Gazeen wasn’t the first person to attempt the first trial. That honor had gone to Larzicheck of the Dark Earth Tribe, who was killed by the automaton’s first attack. He wasn’t the only one who died to the mace throw either; several perished that way. Even though the automaton’s approach was nearly impossible to miss, many of the people attempting the trial simply failed to react fast enough to the initial attack.

Obbun Nofistello was the first person to survive the automaton’s opening move. The black-haired angel jumped over the mace and took to the air. Despite the pillars and somewhat cramped space, he used his exceptional flying skill and great flexibility to harry the automaton with his chosen weapon, the very same orange spear Gazeen selected.

The automaton tried and failed to assault Obbun with its mace. Even using its spell to actively control the mace, Obbun abused the pillars in the area, making it nearly impossible for the automaton to threaten the angel with its mace. As a result it changed tactics, and summoned the mace back to its hand.

Much like in Gazeen’s fight, the automaton began gathering Qi in its weapons. Unlike the sand wraith who’d dared to approach the automaton as it gathered Qi, Obbun stayed back. He shifted Qi into his azure wings and launched a hail of feathers at his now-stationary target. His foe unleashed a blast of Qi from the mace, one notably weaker than the one Gazeen was hit by. The attack destroyed the incoming projectiles but didn’t come close to harming Obbun.

The angel observed the mass of Qi gathered in the automaton’s kukri and decided to remain cautious. He landed and took cover behind one of the pillars in the room. Obbun launched more feathers towards the automaton while keeping all but his wings behind cover and even retracted his wings once he’d launched his latest barrage.

A beam of light burst through the pillar, vaporizing Obbun’s head even as a storm of feathers drilled through the automaton’s body. It seemed as though both combatants had lost, right until a totally unharmed Obbun appeared in the waiting room.

Obbun wasn’t the only angel of the Nofistello clan to survive the first trial; they all did. In comparison, the Dark Earth Tribe suffered greatly. Less than half of the Dark Earth demons who attempted the first trial survived. Although their attacks dealt heavy damage to the automaton, often destroying it in only a couple hits, the automaton also tended to end the fight with one or two swings. The Dark Earth demons had bodies of stone and didn’t need to fear the automaton’s kukri at all. The mace, on the other hand, was a serious issue. Most of those battles ended in less than thirty seconds.

The sand wraiths fared much better. When they did die, it was almost always due to a lack of Qi or an inability to mount a successful offense. So long as they still had Qi to spare, none of the automaton’s attacks posed a serious threat. As a result, the timid sand wraiths, those who were too passive, tended to die whereas the more aggressive members of the tribe tended to survive.

As for the Slayer candidates, they breezed through the first trial. Gauffrir simply traded blows with the automaton till it couldn’t fight anymore; no matter how severe the injury inflicted the demon simply regenerated.

Kahkahkin spent a long time trying and failing to find a scythe among the weapons in the armory. Then he spent a long time complaining about bad luck. After that he eventually broke down and picked a halberd. When he entered the first trial, Kahkahkin didn’t so much fight the automaton as vent his frustration. Despite his anger, he fought with the same cool precision he used to slaughter his fellow candidates earlier. The middle-aged man still wasn’t totally calm when he returned to the waiting room.

Radsidan had little trouble defeating the automaton. He summoned a massive boulder in the air above the automaton and let gravity do the rest. The only thought he put into the trial was the prediction of where the automaton would be when the boulder dropped, a fairly easy task for the summoner, as it started the trial by charging straight towards the Slayer candidate.

Radsidan may have used the least effort to win but Dregg had the most dominant performance. When the automaton opened with its mace throw, the eyeless demon simply caught and crushed the weapon using a single hand. Then Dregg defeated the automaton using the same move. The only real differences in his attack were that Dregg tossed an ultragreatsword thick enough to be a tombstone and that the ultragreatsword he threw flew far faster than the mace had.

I’m planning on publishing one or two more chapters today. I may release more, it’s up in the air. I have no idea if I can hit my original goal for this month still but I’ll certainly try. In other words, expect frequent and irregular releases for the rest of the month. I’ll probably return to my 4k words a day schedule next month regardless of how much I get done in this one.