Chapter 139: Chapter 4: Lightning Knife
'You hog.'
Rydel opened his eyes, and he is sat in the town center of a medieval looking town in a fantasy world, as a light gentle guitar is being played in the background. The sun is warm, and yet when he looked up, that sphere of near infinite energy felt fake.
What the hell? Rydel wondered, what system am I on? What is happening.
'You hog.' The voice repeated itself, and it sounded vaguely familiar. However, it was also a voice that he hasn't heard in a long time.
'Hog?' Rydel asked as he rolled his eyes with his right hand. He then rocked forward in his chair and turned to the source of the voice.
It was an elegant looking Aquarian dressed in.....beach clothing. She was as beautiful as any Aquarian can be, and yet that mouth is as foul as it gets. It was Dolon.
'Dolon?' Rydel murmured as his mouth opened and froze in its shape, 'how...how are you here?'
'Don't you think you been hogging the Lightning Rod for too long?' She said, crossing a pair of her arms behind her neck as she nejoyed the sun. Her bare skin was exposed, and there was no sign of any exoskeleton that she is wearing, 'and shaping it into an Aquarian sword, do you even know how to swing that thing?!'
'...No.' Rydel shook his head and smiled a little, 'I don't know, but I am trying my best.'
'Sometimes it's best to let the others share the burden.' Dolon said the tune in her voice subtly shifting as it became slightly regretful, 'I was a hog then, I wanted all the solutions, and I wanted all of the glory. And now, I am nothing but an essence in a vision.'
Or a figment of my very own imagination. Rydel lets out a difficult breath. His mentor and friend is not coming back, and as he gradually realized more and more that this is nothing but a fleeting memory of his past, the surrounding environment began to fade away. However, despite knowing all of this, Rydel is still thankful to see Dolon again at some capacity.
'It's good to see you again...' Rydel said, as his voices cracked a little and emotions began to well up, 'I...'
'Yeah right.' Dolon waved off whatever Rydel's gonna say, 'now go out there and be you.'
Rydel! Wake up!
'RYDEL!!!! WAKE UP!' As Rydel woke up with tears flowing down the side of his face, he saw the face of Alrith and Andere. The tears were both his and Alrith's.
Claws was nowhere to be found, as expected, and he took the pin away from. No, that's not it. Rydel slowly spun his head to the side, and he saw the arm he ripped off. But it's not just the arm, it's also Lightning Rod that's been disconnected from him.
Seeing Rydel's open eyes, Alrith bursted into more tears and buried her head on his chest with Andere looking on solemnly. He did catch a big fish, but while he was away, Claws had betrayed the two humans.
'I don't feel any pain.' Rydel said, and he tried to pat on Alrith's head, but there was nothing. There was a signal, and a drive, but there was no action. His arm is no longer with him. His body is forever changed, and from the look of the arm, it's beyond reattachment.
'Are you okay?' Andere asked, trying his best to sound as compassionate as possible with the typically harsh rocky voice, and Rydel nodded as he tried to sit up. Alrith roughly rubbed away the tears and helped him up against a rock. His right shoulder was bandaged up already, and the bleed is stopped, though a dull ache remained in the background. The massive hole in his central nervous system isn't going away soon, but Rydel should be able to continue onwards.
'Yeah, a bit shaken.' Rydel's surprisingly calm, perhaps he has already accepted the fact that Claws had completely outclassed him. Maybe that's why Dolon was mad. He was taken out way before he could get into his usual rhythm of combat, and that loss is on him. Dolon wouldn't have lost to Claws, Rydel thought, she is just way too skilled, while he is just someone who's barely getting by with one lucky moves by the next.
That won't be enough anymore, and this is a good reminder for him, albeit a pricey reminder at that.
'You are doing great for someone that just experienced that.' Andere said once more, 'I am sorry that I wasn't here to stop him.'
'No.' Rydel shook his head, and Alrith did the same, 'it wasn't anybody's fault. He made a choice, and made a play, and I couldn't match it.'
'So, what are you going to do?' Andere said, leaning over and handing over a piece of cooked fish towards Alrith, 'are you still going to continue?'
'We have to retreat and try to figure out the deals with your arms.' Alrith said as she fed Rydel a mouthful of the flesh. It's slightly overcooked and too salty, but he won't complain.
'Call me crazy,' Rydel said, 'But I kinda want to continue. But we just need to figure out situation with the pins.'
'YOU ARE CRAZY!' Alrith yelled, 'what do you even have left now!'
'I still got one of them left, and it's the left.' Rydel swung his left arm and winked towards Alrith, but she didn't appreciate the joke one bit.
Andere chuckled slightly before reaching into his thick fur. Then, he took out another pin and placed it on Rydel's knee.
'There is a spare.' Andere said, before he raised up onto his feet, 'if you do hope to continue, I wish you good luck. I shall head off now.'
Rydel and Alrith were stunned as they looked up at the Rocky as he slowly stepped into the shadow, they didn't know what to say, but the Rocky seemed to have enjoyed the silence.
'....I hope we can meet again in the end, Andere.' Finally, Rydel said, 'I want to win, but also...thank you.'
Andere merely waved a hand back and completely disappearaed into the shadows. Despite his size, he moves quickly and quietly.
'So, what the hell do you want to do now.' Alrith said, looking grumpily at Rydel as the medic inside of her is getting madder and madder at the man...no, the boy in front of her. He must have lost his mind to want to continue the game when his right arm was literally just torn off!
'I want you to take it.' Rydel said, gesturing towards the charred piece of fresh that's just now becoming luke warm, 'the Lightning Rod, the artifact. If you are able to possess it, then we have a chance at winning the entire thing.'
'What are you saying...' Alrith looked over towards that silvery piece of metal protruding out of the flesh. With this, Alrith will obtain one of the twenty artifacts, and become the third known user of Lightning Rod. She will be joining with Rydel's and the others, and the one thing that looked to be certain is that her life will forever be changed from now on.
'You will be tested once you have touched it, and if you managed to pass the test,' Rydel explained, as he tried to adjust his body position just by wiggling, 'you will become one of us. You will gain the artifact's power, and everything will be different in your life from now.'
'Different in what sense...' Alrith said, 'you are making it sound like this thing is a curse.'
'Well, we like to think of it as a responsibility.' Rydel said, 'sounds lame, but just don't be a dick with it.'
'Any other benefits?' Alrith want up and squatted near the Lightning Rod as she glances over the beautifully smooth surface and the circuits being imprinted on it.
'Ah...free food and accomodation?' Rydel said, scratching his head, 'and good company?'
Alrith turned and looked at Rydel, then she reached out towards the Lightning Rod and wrapped her fingers around it without any further moment's hesitation.
A ball of lightning engulfed Alrith's body and swallowed her within. The balled bright for a brilliant moment before it was dissipated, just like the strike of lightning in a storm. Alrith dropped onto her knees and hands and breathed heavily as bolts of lightning dived in and out of the surface of her skin. To Rydel, the test was an instant, but to Alrith, she had just been battling for ten straight minutes inside her mind.
'What the hell...' Alrith murmured as her voice was shaking and her body was suddenly sweaty as all of the stress was relief as she rolled onto her side and fainted. Rydel's grin was almost chin to chin as he crawled over towards Alrith and held her in his arm as her body is slowly recovering from the first use of the Lightning Rod.
With the pin in their possession, they have successfully moved on towards the last day of the Life Springer's Game. As the clock ticked past midnight, Rydel and Alrith simply laid there in the dark underneath the stars as he waited for the update on his personal interface. Finally, the instruction of the last day is here, and it was remarkably simple.
'Survive.'
Then survive it is. Rydel clenched his fist as now his chance of leaving is gone. They came here with the full intention of winning the game to save Elmyra, and now is not the time to back down.
'You bastard.' Alrith said, as Rydel looked down at her who's resting her head on his legs. Rydel was about to move his hand to the side and let her sit up, but she instead held it still.
'Congrats, you are the new bearer of Lightning Rod.' Rydel smiled at the red hair girl, 'how are you feeling?'
'I like to call it the Lightning knife.' Alrith said as she rolled her eyes towards Rydel before flicking her wrist once to reveal a tiny silvery surgery knife. She grasped it and gave it a slight pinch with her fingers as a jolt of lightning zapped Rydel right on the chin, causing him to almost bite into his tongue.
'Damn it Alrith!' Rydel spun his head away as Alrith giggles in his nap, 'I already lost an arm, and now you want me to lose my tongue too?'
'Well, if you can't avoid that, how can you evade Claws the next time you see him?' Alrith teased.
'Next time...I will not be evading. We will attaack' Rydel said, turning off his personal interface and returning to the darkness as he felt the warmth of Alrith's body, 'He will survive until the end, and we will face him. However, you will be the one that's delivering the finishing blow.'
'Oh?'
'I will be confronting him front on, and his attention would not be on you. Can I trust you to strike at the right time?'
'Cutting through his throat smoothly?' Alrith swung the Lightning Knife in the air and whirled it in a circle as the tip cuts through the air in a high pitched whoosh, 'all of my past training with the knives has prepared me for this. Plus, this thing is gives a bit more of a sting, doesn't it...'
Rydel nodded and smiled. Then, he leaned back and rested as Alrith looked up at him. He is tired and stressed, but he needed to rest for the big day tomorrow. Both of them do.
Rydel didn't realize how much he has slept until he commanded himself to wake up in the middle of a dream amidst a sudden surge of fear and anxiety. There has been a strange background sound of the water and ocean in his dreams, and when he opened his eyes, that's what he saw. The island suddenly shrunk away from the ocean, as the level of the sea is now nearly at the bottom of the hill they are resting on.
Alrith, who's supposed to be on guard was dead asleep, but thankfully no harm has come to this. Both of them needed the rest, and it was quite lucky that they didn't pay the price for the extra snooze. Rydel shook her up and as she yawned and opened her eyes, she also heard the sound of the waves.
She immediately sat up and looked around.
'No...' Alrith said, shaking her head in disbelief, 'the tide isn't supposed to be here yet...This is too soon...'
'Perhaps this isn't the tide then.' Rydel said, looking onward towards the edge of the island towards the west, 'this could just be the foreplay, that thing on the horizon...that can be the one.'
Alrith followed his gaze, and saw the same thing. It was a blue horizon, but it felt strange. It looked like it's moving and flipping.
That ain't no horizon.
It's a wave the size of the mountains.
'We need to move, now.' Rydel said as he rose to his feet and stretched the tight limbs. According to the map, there are only a handful of places left with enough of a high ground left for them to go, and one of the is the absolute highest point on the island, the hill that's far out in the distance.
As they set out for the journey, they also see some other participants heading towards the bottom of the mountain, however, the amount isn't as many as they expected. Perhaps those that has watched the Games before already knew? No...they must have already knew, as the game always ended with the waters washing away everything on the island. That's why many will seek to finish as close to the top of the mountain as they can at the end of the second day, so all they have to do will be to set up camp and ambush whoever else wants to get on on the last day.
'Damn, I didn't think we needed to move this early.' Alrith knocked the side of her head in frustration, 'if we are just going there, we will be facing those that have been preparing for us. What do you want to do?'
'So the options are to charge into the defenses, or...'
'Or.....' Alrith said, biting into her nails as she thought about all of the potential strategies they could use, 'Rydel, do you think the water level will continue to rise until the wave gets here, or will the wave be a sudden peak?'
Looking at the environment all around him, and then he scanned the landmarks and rock and soil formation on the island. If there is frequent 'flash flooding' going on, that will result in the local environment being eroded in that specific way. However, the patterns appeared smooth and tight, rather than messy and rough. So there is a good chance that the waves are more progressive than sudden. Thanks to his education back at the Galactic IST, Rydel was able to be somewhat certain of his judgement.
'I think the water level will continue to rise slowly.'
'Good. Then we can use that.' Alrith said, pointing towards a crate that's been washed up from the outer edge of the island. It's floating on the surface of the water, 'if the level rise is gradual enough, then we can simply ride the wave up. Regardless of how good the defenses are, they will have to retreat once the level gets high enough...'
'And we will be able to go to the top just like that.....' Rydel nodded, 'that's good thinking. But that also leaves us with an extremely small window of attack at the end.'
'But isn't what we needed just that? A small window to win it all?' Alrith asked, and Rydel turned and stared at her. She is right.
'Plus, we can sleep for a little longer like this.' She added as she yawned.
The crates can fit one person extremely nicely, and Alrith was even able to use the Lightning Knife to cut some small holes of each of the sides to look through. The water level isn't very deep, but the crates still easily remained above water despite the humans it is carrying. Alrith did a simply welding job with the Lightning Knife and attached two crates together into a survival canoe before they jumped in and simply waited.
Already, Alrith is using the many surprising utility of the Lightning Rod that Rydel didn't even think of before. When Dolon obtained the Lightning Rod, it was nothing but a tool to keep her heart in check, as well as using it as a weapon to aid in her already matured style of combat. When Rydel obtained it, he was using in conjunction with the Glove, as well as using the seeming indestructibility of the materials artifacts are made of to his advantage as a melee weapon. The further he has gone with the blade was to launch it using the Glove. It was an effective maneuver at the time, but it only worked great because his opponent was the shield.
And now Alrith may be the one to fully utilize the near unlimited potential of the Lightning Rod, which she named the Lightning Knife from now on.
It's truly amazing how the universe wants things to play out, but it sure is nice to not have to bear the load of having two artifacts at the same time. Rydel's speed of recovery and stamina has greatly improved since he started carrying two artifacts, but that was only to match the demands placed on his body. Now, he can pour all of the extra energy into using his very own glove.
Someone can explain away a blade that can shoot out lightning, but warping things in and out of space will certain raise an eyebrow, especially at the finale of the game. However, if he had to use it, he will not hesitate one second.
Claws is simply way too strong.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone