Ashborn Primordial-Chapter Ashborn 400: Stress Relief

A ring of corpses surrounded Vir, piling high, forming a small hall. Thousands upon thousands of the most vicious beasts in all the realms eyed him, salivating for his flesh and prana.

None got their chance. None even got a taste of victory, for Vir ended them like the god of destruction himself.

A pack of Ash Wolves broke away from the horde, surging through the sky to pounce on Vir from behind.

They were smart, these wolves. The smartest of the foes Vir fought, and while not even close to the strongest, their intelligence made them among the most dangerous.

Dangerous, that was, for a mere mortal. Against a demigod, they may as well have been insects.

Vir extended the perpetual Balancer field he’d laid down since the start of the battle—the one that smashed any living being unfortunate enough to cross it.

The wolves thought they’d found a way to avoid the field of death. They thought that, by jumping, they were safe.

If only they knew Vir could extend the field upward as well. And why not? Ash Prana was everywhere, after all. In the ground and in the very air itself.

Vir multiplied their weight twenty-fold, overpowering their forward momentum, slamming them against the soot.

Clouds of ash surged sky-high, but the wolves remained firmly planted—plastered against the ground, unable to move an inch.

“Not bad, lad, but can you do this?” Cirayus boasted, wrenching one of Vir’s flattened wolves from his grasp with an application of his own Balancer of Scales. Except, instead of laying down a vast field of heavy gravity, Cirayus lightened the wolf’s weight to nothing.

The creature began drifting up to the sky, paws scrabbling uselessly in the air.

Cirayus put a pair of hands on his hips and gloated. “You’ve a long way to go, if you can’t do something like this, yet.”

Vir smirked right back. “Maybe… Maybe not.”

Cirayus’ smug expression gave to surprise as a black blur ripped the wolf from his grasp.

Shan, it seemed, wasn’t content to let the others steal the limelight. The wolf’s fangs glowed red-hot, and his prey sizzled in his maw.

By the time the Ashfire wolf landed, its victim was already dead.

“Helps to have reliable partners,” Vir said with a grin, patting his friend.

“Aye. That it does. Very well. I shall play your game. First to a thousand kills wins.”

“You sure you want to take that bet?” Vir asked. “I’m already over halfway there.”

The horde of Ash Beasts watched on as the two chatted, giving them a wide berth. Not out of courtesy, but primal fear. Their hunger warred with their desire to flee, and every few seconds, a beast brave enough would enter Cirayus and Vir’s Balancer fields, only to be pinned and crushed.

“This is no fun, though, is it?” Cirayus said. “So let us create some rules. No Balancer of Scales.”

“Fine by me, but how about we do one better?” Vir asked. “Chakra attacks are fair game, but only Life attacks.”

Cirayus shrugged. “Suit yourself. We drop our fields on the count of three. One, two… Three!”

The instant they canceled Balancer of Scales, the buffer they’d maintained until now disappeared, and like a flood, the beasts cam surging in.

Vir was quickly inundated, relying on Blink, Dance of the Shadow Demon, and his extensive combat experience to fend off the wall of monsters. Rather than attacking with any form of strategy, the creatures simply piled on him, attempting to tackle him and bring him to the ground.

They did this both out of hunger and for a lack of choice. With so many beasts, all vying to get the first bite, there was hardly any room for tactics or strategy.

One of the major differences between fighting Ash Beasts and demons, Vir thought worriedly. It was why, despite his army’s truly awesome prana levels and their experience against beast hordes, they still had a glaring weakness when compared to Chitran’s forces. Ash Beasts didn’t use tactics, only sometimes wielded offensive magic, and occasionally fired off Chakra-based attacks.

Only time would tell if Vir’s army would hold up to the Chits’ battlefield organization and their augmenting arts.

Yet those thoughts were distant from Vir’s mind as he ducked a Shredder’s wide open, razor-filled maw, driving a lance of pure prana through its heart.

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By the time its body hit the floor, three of its brethren were dead.

Vir moved from one strike to the next, each hit taking a life. Sometimes many. His mind was blank as his body took over, bending and twisting like a river, the movements known—baked into some deep part of his mind.

Fighting came as easily as breathing to Vir these days. Most would find the experience traumatic. Even the most veteran soldiers would find their heart pumping.

Vir felt none of those things. His mind was as placid as Lake Garga as he ripped and reaved, dancing to the tune of death. It was, strangely, as healing as any meditative session he’d ever had.

And while his progress along opening the Warrior Chakra might have been slow—mostly due to the precious little time he’d spent on it—his other Chakras were more than enough for these beasts.

Firing wave after wave of Life Chakra, he crippled his foes—none of whom seemed to possess Foundation Chakra defenses. Ash Beasts opened their chakras in a different order from demons… which both made them vulnerable and unpredictable. One could never know when a Warrior Chakra attack would come hurtling, sent by some innocuous-looking creature.

Right now, however, Vir might as well have been a god as he ripped into one beast after the next. Yet the more he killed, the more he was reminded of the death that would soon consume the demon realm.

Deaths caused by him, and if he failed… If he tripped up, it could become a massacre. One he would never live down for the rest of his days.

“We need to talk,” Vir said at last.

“Well?” Cirayus said, taking a heavy swing with Sikandar. “I’m here.”

The middle of a pitched battle—against beasts capable of wreaking havoc on even the best army—was hardly the time or place for a strategy meeting, but Vir allowed it. He was having too much fun to stop.

“It’s Raoul. I need your advice on what to do with him,” Vir said, stabbing three wolves in quick succession.

Vir explained Tara’s findings, but the naga had apparently been delivering updates to Cirayus in Vir’s absence, so there wasn’t much more to be said.

“Can’t say I’m especially surprised at this development. Never did like that one. For what it’s worth, I think you have the right of it, lad,” Cirayus said. “Feeding him misinformation hedges our bets. It’s the smart move.”

“And the riskiest,” Vir said.

“No competent leader flees from risk, lad.”

“Sure, but I’m worried this might be too much. I worry it might end up exploding in our faces.”

“Or it could be exactly what you need. If you believe Greesha’s prophecy, you will need every advantage you can get your hands on.”

“Right,” Vir said bitterly, stabbing a Shredder far harder than he needed to. “The prophecy.”

“Aye, the prophecy you ought to ignore. Do you know what they say?” Cirayus shouted. “The demons of your army?”

“And what do they say, Cirayus?” Vir shouted back, skewering an Ash Biter’s large snout from bottom to top, fusing it in place. “What do they say?”

“They say they cannot possibly lose. Not with two deities on their side. You should see how they kneel before Ashani. You should see the zeal in their eyes—the absolute confidence in their victory.”

“Confidence that will get them killed,” Vir hissed, beheading a Shredder.

“Or, perhaps, the very thing they need to wrest victory against the Chits’ overwhelming might! Wars have been won and lost by morale, lad. Do not underestimate the sharpness of that blade, for it can slice through even the thickest of armor, as if it were never even there.”

“A double-edged sword, then,” Vir said. “As likely to run rampant and kill me as if it is to help.”

“Ensuring it does is your duty, lad,” Cirayus said as he smashed two different monsters at the same time, sending them tumbling away. “As the supreme commander, it is your responsibility to wield your tools to their utmost. Still, I recommend placing Raoul somewhere he can be easily watched. Somewhere he will find it impossible to defect.”

“Next to one of us, you mean…” Vir said, thinking it over.

“Aye,” Cirayus said. “Where he will be forced to put on his best show. Where performing at any level below his best would be immediately noticed and felt.”

“Smart,” Vir said.

Cirayus shrugged. “The idea was yours, lad. I only embellished a little. As it should be. As the ultimate leader, it is your duty to guide by example.”

“I’m just one demon, Cirayus,” Vir said, casually deflecting a tail whip attack that would have eviscerated most demons. He sent a Life Chakra attack at the Phantomblade Alpha, causing it to freeze up. Vir didn’t know what sort of hallucination it was trapped in, though he was sure it was nothing good.

Luckily, the Phantomblade’s misery was short-lived. Vir Blinked, slicing the heavily armored beast in half before using the momentum of his move to impale another.

“Yes, I can kill a hundred chits. Maybe even more. But that will not win the city. The real work will be done by the soldiers.”

“And those soldiers look to you, lad. For support. For courage. For good decision making. It is not the duty of a commander to plunge headfirst into battle, unless doing do accomplishes some tactical objective. No, the commander is the ultimate decision maker. The sorts of decisions that determine whether an army lives or dies. Make no mistake, lad. A commander can win an impossible war… Or turn an assured victory into catastrophic defeat.”

“Which is why you ought to be in that position,” Vir grumbled. “Who am I to make such decisions? I freeze up at an old woman’s words. I wallow in indecision about trusting my own people.”

“And you are right to,” Cirayus said. “Yes, I could command your army. I could lead our rebellion to victory. And yet, I would commit a grave crime by doing so.”

“Crime?” Vir asked, turning to his godfather. “What crime?”

“The crime of depriving you of that experience, lad,” Cirayus said, beheading no less than six Ash Biters with a single sweep of Sikandar. The old fossil was going to beat him at this rate, but Vir didn’t care. Competing with Sikandar was always going to be a losing proposition.

“I’ve led armies in the past,” Cirayus said, redeploying a Balancer field around them. “I’ve nothing to learn by leading yours. You, however, have everything to gain. The experience and knowledge, yes, but also the credibility. You need to be the one everyone attributes to the success of your rebellion. Not me. Not if you want any hope of earning the respect of the realm. Is this not why you’ve shielded the Goddess from the public eye?”

Vir slumped. It was exactly why he hadn’t relied on Ashani’s reputation. “I know all that, of course,” he said tiredly. “I’m just… not sure I’m ready for that sort of responsibility.”

Cirayus snorted. “No one ever is, lad. And you never will be. Not until you take that first step and shoulder the burden. Besides, you’re lucky.”

“How’s that?”

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The giant drove Sikandar into the ground. “You’ve a goddess on your side. And you have me,” he said, pointing all four of his thumbs at his chest. “I’m here to catch you if you make any truly stupid mistakes.”

Vir grinned. “Thanks. I’ll try to avoid those if I can.”

“Good. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve at least another hundred or so kills left in me.”

“What, a hundred? You’re getting soft,” Vir said with a smirk. “I’m aiming for a thousand.”