Spacer Clans Adventure 2: Naero's Gambit (24 page)

28

As her second year of Mystic training continued, Naero realized more and more each day just how much she owed her parents.

How much the two champion fighters had taught and instilled in her early on.

Had they know
n somehow?

Had they guessed that she would train with the Mystics
herself some day?

Both of them had, and in fact, they pretty much prepared her for that
eventuality without ever telling her.

They and their wisdom spoke to her in her head and heart. As if they were beside her. Urging her
on.

She recalled their many words and their lessons to her all over again. So much she had taken for granted.

She discovered new ways now to use and apply them each day.

As a child she had listened, and practiced, and learned
as a child–out of simple love and trust.

Breathing techniques.

Meditation.

Focus.

Techniques and skill sets drilled into muscle memory. Mental discipline. The ability to take blows and endure pain.

She learned all of these things. Until they and their benefits were instinctive. A true part of her.

Now Naero called upon them all, continually pushing herself to the breaking point.

Her sparring sessions with Hashiko slowly became more and more just that. Them sparring–less and less of her simply getting beaten up.

She still lost. Every day.

But in each defeat she found s
ome small victory. She learned something new. About sparring. About Hashiko. And about herself.

Naero took it all in and made it even more a part of her.

Now, as a growing biomancer, she could regenerate injuries within a few minutes to hours. Wounds that would have crippled her before.

She applied the same patient, relentless wisdom to Master Vane and his brutal lessons.

One day in the future, sooner or later, it was all going to add up.

Each day she got a fraction faster, and slightly stronger.

Wiser. More knowledgeable and experienced.

Vane alternated at first. One day they would go somewhere and he forced her to practice only defensive techniques using Chaos energy.

While he crushed and defeated her defenses, overwhelming her every time.

But each time it took him a little longer to do so.

The next day they’d switch off. He would force her to exhaust herself by practicing only offensive techniques. Against his formidable defensive capabilities.

Yet every day she got closer, lasted a bit longer.

Vane was a sucker for a challenge, as usual. And the one-sided stalemate of their contests drove them both on.

He had long since stopped having her battle the more ferocious denizens of Janosha.

None could stand before her and live.

Vane
and Hashiko were her only opponents now.

They were
the monsters she could not defeat.

After a few months more,
she and Master Vane began open Chaos sparring.

Just like Vane did with Hashiko.

No rules. Anything goes.

All types of locations, terrain, and weather.

The limits were only those in their imaginations.

Deep in an underground series of immense connected caves, Vane sealed himself up in a gelatinous suit of blob-like Chaos energy.

Laughing, shifting, and evading.

Naero blasted him with punches of energy from her fists and kicks.

Even when she hit, her blasts had no effect.

Then she sensed it.

Vane’s gel armor absorbed the energy from her attacks. Of course it did.

Something she could not pull off yet, either actively or passively.

As a High Master, Vane did almost everything without thought or effort. But she studied him closely. Collecting data.

Next, when Vane went on the attack, Naero deflected his precise beams and rays off mirror-like panes of Chaos-force that she flung up.

Against the attacks she couldn’t dodge.

Vane
’s deflected beams bored into and melted holes into the solid rock where they struck.

She flipped off the wall and mixed things up with a screaming sonic attack.

He evaded and countered by trying to smash her into the ceiling with a twisting cylinder of raw power.

Naero barely broke
free and dove down into a deep cave pool to escape.

Vane drilled and clawed at the ceiling, smashing
huge chunks of rock and stone into the pool.

He waited.

Then he levitated over the settling, murky water, looking for any sign of her.

“Come now, Maeris. I couldn
’t have slain you this easily,” he muttered.

He waited even longer.

“If you’re trapped under there…just transport out.”

More seconds ticked by.

“Maeris?”

Vane concentrated, and quickly began pulling chunks of stone up out of the pool.

He sighed. “What a waste of my time.”

Hundreds of tiny red pin-points of light suddenly blazed all around Master Vane.

Scarlet threads, wires, and filaments of piercing red energy transfixed the air from countless directions.

Vane sheathed himself in layers of scarlet spheres at the last instant to avoid being chopped to pieces.

He whirled the spheres around him, humming at high speed and shattering the piercing rods and wires as if they were glass.

Scarlet sparks and electricity charged the spheres.

Naero encased herself in blocky armor as if inside a Mek.

Vane nailed her to the far wall with a blazing red lightning bolt.

She spot transported right behind him and tried the direct approach, shattering the spheres with fiery punches and kicks that drove Vane toward the ground.

She had him. Hammering, pummeling Vane. Shattering his defenses
faster that he could raise them.

D
riving him straight into the solid rock of the cave floor.

Vane exploded.

There was no other explanation for it.

He detonated right in front of her.

The intense blast shredded her mek.

It threatened to destroy her.

She flung up the last of her reserves in a defensive wave.

It collapsed too.

Naero transported away to another spot.

Vane had never blown himself up before.

It was kinda terrifying.

Then the entire cave section gave way.

Naero barely transported back up to the surface on Janosha’s southern hemisphere continent. Choking and breathing hard. Her body still scorched and smoking from Vane’s blast.

She collapsed on the grass in a tranquil wooded meadow in mid-autumn.

Vane lounged in the Shade of a large tree losing its leaves.

He yawned. “You
’re tricky, Maeris. I like that about you. Perhaps the only thing about you I enjoy and respect.”

Naero rolled onto her back, still coughing. “You didn
’t sound too busted up when you thought I might be dead.”

“What? You didn
’t catch the relief in my voice? I was planning on digging your body out at least. Perhaps I should have just gone home for the day.”

“You
are such a dick.”

He grinned and stretched. “Always with the flattery. Shall we go again, or is that all you can take today?”

Naero glared at him.

“Give me a sec. That
’s a neat trick. Blowing yourself up like that.”

“Imbecile
. If I did that I’d be the one who was dead. I merely caused a low-level explosion and transported away at the last instant. You may be able to do something similar someday…but I somehow doubt it. You’re just not that skilled.”

Low level
; that was low level? Damn. She’d hate to see him set off a high-yield Chaos explosion.

Not up close in person at least.

29

They returned home to the Tua caves late in the afternoon on another day.

Vane grinning and still quipping his usual stream of insults.

Naero staggering. Both looking and feeling beat, burned, and torn up from another fun day of Chaos practice.

Honestly, she didn
’t know who enjoyed giving her hell more.

Hashiko, or Master Vane.

They seemed to be having a contest.

Then
Hashiko appeared. Arms folded in front of her. Face impassive, if a little annoyed.

She bowed her gaze with grudging respect.

Ignoring Naero completely.

Hundreds of the Tua appeared, sluna-ing to either side.

Naero could sense their palpable fear and concern.

They were very worried about something.

Something important enough for them to approach Master Vane for help.

“What
’s with the vermin, Hashi?”

Hashiko rolled her eyes. “I told them not to bother us, but they keep insisting. One of them is sick or something. I could care less.”

Vane fumed.

“I agree.”

Bahan and Iika crept forward, submissive, eyes cast down. They knelt before Master Vane.

“Please
, Great One,” Bahan began.

“Yes, yes. I see the crisis clearly in your weak little minds. A young female is having trouble in labor, pumping out more squealing, stinking
, shitting rats. I’ve told you before. I’m far too busy to be concerned with such matters. It merely happens now and again, after every so many hundreds and thousands of births. What of it?”

“Please,” Iika said. “Lenna and her young will not survive the night. You
’re powers are so great. We know you can easily save–

Get the hell away from me!

To Naero’s shame and horror, Vane strode forward and booted Iika twenty meters away into the hide-curing and tanning racks.

He turned on Bahan, screaming.

I’m not in the business of saving anyone!

He back-handed Bahan another twenty meters away into the young galu tree saplings, taking out several
of them.

The Tua shrieked in abject terror and fell over one another to get away.

The next sniveling rat who dares to bother me with such nonsense…I will boil them inside their own skin, in their own fluids for all to see! Do I make myself clear?

As dragged out as she was, Naero simply couldn
’t take it any more.

It
nearly killed her to choke down her pride and still manage to speak to him with respect. After what she had just witnessed.

She knelt before him.

“High Master Vane. Please, with respect. Why can’t we help them? The Tua revere us. They do so much and ask for so little; it would take no time at all.”

All of his eyes focused on her intently.

“Maeris, so help me…If you implore me waste my precious time helping the rats, and do it for your sake. I’m going to…I’m going to enjoy ripping your head off with my bare hands and using it as a toilet! They don’t matter. Don’t you get it? They will never matter.

“
Let them all hemorrhage and die a bloody, screaming death spawning their filthy brats. Good riddance. Janosha would be better off without these wretched scum.”

“You
’re wrong,” Naero said flatly. “As you are always wrong, about so much. How can anyone know so much and so little at the same time? Worthless? Haisha! The least of the Tua are worth more than you as a person. You may be a great master, who knows all the ways of Chaos, but as a human being–you suck flaming turds in the lowest hell.”

Hashiko
’s eyes widened. Her mouth fell open. She blinked.

Then she narrowed her eyes and prepared to go on the attack at Naero
’s grave disrespect.

Then to everyone
’s surprise, Vane burst out laughing and held her back. He laughed so hard he could barely remain standing.

“No, don
’t bother striking her, Hashi. It’s all just a waste of time any way. Maeris is who and what she is, and she’s never going to change. I’ll be forced to kill her some day, to save the rest of us from her insanity, but until that day comes, no amount of beatings or drudgings are going to do any good. She’s far too stupid, block-headed, and stubborn to ever comprehend why we do what we do. Or why we don’t do things at times.”

Has
hiko’s nostrils still flared with barely suppressed anger. Then she thought for an instant.

“Agreed, Great Master. That is why she may practice with us. But she will never be one of us. It is not in her to embrace the wisdom of our ways.”

Naero stood her ground as they turned and walked away from her. She called out after them.

“No, I shall never be one of you. And thank the powers for that! I
’m glad that I will never be like either of you. What? To never help others? To stand by and let them suffer and perish for no reason? To attack and abuse those who ask for help, that you could so easily give?”

Hashiko snapped at her. “You
’re an ignorant fool, Maeris. You must always do something so that you can then try to make yourself feel good about it. You can never just let things be as they are. To let them turn out on their own as they will. No matter the outcome. To let things be!”

“Then I am a fool. I will never stand by and just let things happen w
hen there is a chance that I can help. What, the sum total of Chaos Wisdom is to be an indifferent, selfish asshole? To never care about anything or anyone else but myself? Then no, I suppose I shall never be a Chaos Master. And quite frankly, I have no desire to be.”

Ma
ster Vane called over his shoulder.

“Very well, Maeris. You
’ve had your customary little self-righteous rant. Run along now and help the rats if you so desire. Let them come running to you constantly and waste your time. Just don’t let them bother us any further. Or I promise you–there will be a few less of them to do so.”

As tired as she was, Naero saw to her friends after Vane and Hashiko left them.

Tua remained tough overall. Bahan and Iika were battered and bruised, but showed no permanent injuries.

They brought her to Lenna, just as the young mother started bleeding very badly. Weak fear and sorrow in her pleading eyes.

“Naero…please…my kits–”

“Shhh…” Naero told her, doing her best to be re-assuring.
“Just rest and stay strong. We’re going to do everything we can to save you all.”

Naero worked with Lenna and Iika and the other midwives and women.
Naero studied Lenna’s swollen abdomen with her healing sight.

Ugh.
One of the three kits was jammed up transverse in the birth canal, with the other two packed in behind.

Even the Tua midwives were helpless against this. The baby could not be turned.

A tragic recipe for death in child birth if there ever was one.

Just the il-luck of the draw for Lenna and her young.

Not if Naero had anything to say about it.

Despite the fact that she was
close to passing out herself.

Yet o
nly she with her sight and her fumbling, halting biomancing could keep the bleeding in check.

Using
telekinetics to do what needed to be done, without harming either the mother or her three infants.

After an hour of very tough
, exacting work, Naero finally managed to unplug the strained birth canal. And re-position the young.

A
ll three infants delivered naturally.

The only other choice would have been an emergency C-section
. But Naero wasn’t a skilled surgeon like Zhen. She didn’t have a medbed or any equipment either.

She wasn
’t a doctor in any way shape or form, and any such attempt most likely would have ended very badly.

As it was, Lenna passed out
in the end. Weak but still alive, with her three kits nursing and sleeping at her teats.

Naero could n
o longer stand up herself. The Tua females needed to carry her out, and give the news to the waiting men and others of the tribe.

Immediately, the Tua rejoiced, and burst out singing their song of birth
and rejoicing.

Naero smiled and
listened, but faded off to unconsciousness with the sound ringing in her ears.

Too tired to sing along.

Sha dii ah kahnii, ahluu-nii-vah, kahnii, kahnii, kahnii, jah loh ah-kahnii!