Chapter 23: CHAPTER XI – Uphill Battles

It was water. It was just water, but it wasn’t just any water. It was water in a solid state, moreover it was, quite literally, freezing cold! Cekell had never met ice before, but if he had, they would not have been friends. With nothing short of bitter animosity, he lobbed the fragment of ice with such force that it exploded when it crashed into the barrier.

As if to add insult to injury, he screeched out in anger as bits of ice sprayed back at him. His body trembled and his hands clenched into fists. To say that Cekell did not like the cold would have been a gross understatement, for in his mind, anything cold was a mortal enemy. Unsatisfied, he continued his onslaught by stomping the larger bits of ice into the ground until he could find no more. 

He shivered and brushed off his anger with another screech meant to demean his foe. Aggravated, he again passed through the barrier and started heading back. All he wanted was something warm, and now that he was moving with a purpose, he realized how exhausted he was; but more than that, he was getting colder and colder.

Cekell had just started to realize how much energy he used to create ice. It was clearly a very inefficient and taxing skill, nothing at all like beckoning the natural energy of the sky to his side which had come so easy to him. Without lightening, his bite was toothless. What good was a blunted blade? Concerns weighing heavily on him, he pressed on in haste.

Heading back was a completely different experience for Cekell compared to when he headed out, where every step he took, his curiosity was tempted by the unfamiliar. Now he was oblivious to everything but returning to his comfortable place, as well as his buildup of fatigue. He never even considered whether or not he was being followed. 

It wasn’t his own safety that he was preoccupied with. How much longer would he have a warm place to return to if he couldn’t protect it? Would barriers alone be enough? How much could he rely on the Umbral Point? His thought process was interrupted by a familiar, dull hum.

Digging his heels into the ground, he came to an abrupt stop. Turning his focus upwards, he was presented with the perfect opportunity to test his barrier capabilities. Erecting dozens upon dozens of small barriers, he attempted to catch each droplet of water in his immediate vicinity.

For an improvised test that presented itself at a moment's notice, he was largely successful at keeping the ground around him from getting wet. The few droplets that weaved their way between his calculation and application landed like rocks, and while they didn’t hurt him, they did wound his confidence.

Disappointed with his performance, he clenched his teeth and meant to continue charging onwards, but his exhaustion caught up with him. The world started to spin, and losing his balance, Cekell fell to a knee before his momentum threw him over sideways. Was this his limit? They were small barriers, but there was a large quantity of them. They weren’t out long, and while they weren’t meant to block more than a drop of water, he didn’t thin them down.

His barriers had done next to nothing defending against his brother’s attacks. It was his energy manipulation that proved to be the deciding factor. Still enervated, he wouldn’t contemplate these issues for long, as a hungry presence made itself known. He had trouble counting the number of the pack that surrounded him with the world still spinning. Cold permeated his body. 

Cekell had picked up a shadow garm tail before he had even made his way to the edge of the barrier. They assembled and stalked him as he returned to a hammock that seemed almost to be getting further and further away. Seeing their prey take a tumble, they couldn’t help themselves as they moved in with the intention of making a meal out of him.

Climbing to his unsteady feet, Cekell prepared himself. Jungle law had him on trial and, there were no appeals in the Court of the Lion. Caught guilty of a moment’s weakness, he would either take the stand or have a special seat at the dinner table. Might doesn’t necessarily make right, but when it's kill or be killed, weakness is a crime. There was no judge, jury or executioner; only those that would walk away, and those that wouldn’t.

One of the garms in front of him howled, but he couldn’t make out which. Cekell answered with a dry hiss. The pack encircled him, weaving in and out between each other, occasionally snapping or snarling at each other if they got to close. It was the ones behind him that made the first move, but Cekell saw it coming with his tendril vision.

Still not steady on his feet, Cekell opted to erect a barrier as opposed to evasion. He didn’t know how long he would be able to hold out, but maybe if he limited the number of projections, at least at once, he could muddle on. There was a yelp as the first garm was repelled. Mere repulsion would not see him out of this.

With a confident and piercing cry, he let them know he wouldn’t be an easy meal. The pack didn’t seem to mind, it’s not as if he would feed all of them anyway. Wherever he was facing, his back was towards part of the pack, and they didn’t know he could see from his tendril. Sticking with their tried and true pack tactics, another garm launched itself at Cekell’s back.

This time Cekell charged his attacker with the barrier. There was an audible crack as this garm slammed face first into Cekell’s projected buckler, then slumped to the ground with a broken neck. He wasn’t helpless, but he was a far cry from being able to protect anyone else, had he not been alone in this situation... Another garm threw itself at him, and in the same manner, Cekell countered with his buckler, another garm that wouldn’t get back up. 

Letting out a hiss, he brandished his buckler, flailing it around wildly in an attempt to get them to back off. When one side of the pack backed off, the other pressed Cekell, this time going for his feet as opposed to lunging at him. Cekell batted them away, but didn’t inflict any decisive blows. Who would wear down first? Should he retreat? As he considered the option, he could almost feel Sphaere’s heart in his hands as it writhed in pain. His own chest tensed up. Could he face her again if he ran away? There would be no retreat. He would stand his ground as though more than just his own life depended on it. If he couldn’t defend himself, then who could he protect?

Dropping his barrier, he let out something of a howl before charging into the pack. The nearest garm dove at him, but Cekell was prepared for it. He shoved his arm down the beast's throat and erected a barrier from within it’s innards that expanded and tore it apart. Now it was Cekell that was throwing himself at the garms.

Adapting their tactics, the pack swarmed him from all sides. The ones behind him went low, the ones in front of him went for his face, the ones at his sides went for his arms. Cekell protected his front with a barrier the used to send a garm flying, while simultaneously stomping on the face of the garm that went low. The garms at his sides latched onto his arms. 

Crying out in pain from the first beast that latched onto his arm, Cekell made a barrier form in it’s mouth and expand; there was a sickening snap as it’s jaw was dislocated, followed by a muffled yelp as his victim hurried to retreat. The garm at his other side managed to pull him off balance and drag him down to the ground. With quick reflexes, Cekell erected a barrier in that garm’s mouth as well; but was assailed by several others that dove in on top of him. Again Cekell cried out in pain as they tore into his back.

This signaled for the rest of the pack to dog pile in as a mass of toothed hunger swarmed him. Even overwhelmed, Cekell would not relent. The pack wasn’t so much trying to pin him down, no they were competing to literally tear him apart. Whichever got a bigger piece had a better chance at a full belly. Having trouble focusing on anything but the pain, he noticed the heat in their bite. In an act of desperation, Cekell focused on that heat.

It was a gluttonous frenzy. Cekell was rather small, and numerous garms were snapping at each other just trying to get a chance at a bite of him. He started siphoning off their body warmth in a race to see who would eat who first. Each garm that tore at Cekell, Cekell took a bite out of their warmth.

With their mouths right in front of their brains, they were poorly protected and made for easy targets. At first, he couldn’t draw much heat from them, enough to make them go numb and back away at first, but as his proficiency grew, he could almost freeze them just by coming into contact. Whether he numbed them or knocked them out right, they didn’t make a sound; and with nothing to alert the rest of the pack of this new threat, they just kept coming - garm after garm, maw after maw, bite after bite.

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It was an uphill battle, not only were the garms larger than he was, but they vastly outnumbered him. Being as he couldn’t retaliate until after a hungry garm had latched on to him, he could only mount a defensive stand. Where numerous garms could bite him at once, conversely, he could only knock them cold one at a time. The garms didn’t stop at simply biting him, either; they tried to rip him limb from limb, tear him to shreds, and devour him in pieces. There was no walking away from this unscathed.

Sure, Cekell could conveniently piece himself back together, but that was assuming there would be any pieces of him left. He had to get faster, or there wouldn’t be. He needed to get back to Sphaere and Rhystea, so he didn’t have time for this. Wounded, and with frustration transformed into contention, he fought like his life was on the line. It’s hard to say what would or wouldn’t end him, but he had no intention of finding out.

Having regained some warmth, his mind cleared a little. Blocking out the pain, he prepared to go on the offensive. He erected a spherical barrier, and expanded it until it encompassed his body, simultaneously repelling the voracious pack of garm. What came next was beyond his intention, beyond even his control. 

Cekell’s body was covered in wounds, each of which was pouring liquid mana. Because of the struggle, the area was sprayed with and doused in mana. Cekell was covered in it, the garms were splattered by it as well as wolfing it down, even the ground was drenched in mana. Unprepared for the volatility of the situation, Cekell lit a spark.

Getting a mouth full of barrier and not liking it, the pack recoiled, and prepared to renew it’s assault. In that moment, Cekell dropped his barrier and imploded. He didn’t just draw in energy, he collapsed it with such force, even the barrier far above him fluctuated. The only sound to accompany the literal consciousness being torn from the bodies of the garms was when they slumped to the ground, but even that could not escape the resulting singularity. 

Even Cekell was caught off guard as the energy, which had been forced into as small of a space as Cekell could manage, rebounded. This resulted in an explosion that sent Cekell flying. If there were any garms left, they didn’t go after him. Their appetite, for conflict if nothing else, had been sated. 

Cekell lay on the ground where he landed, enjoying a moment of not being chewed on; even if he was as cold as he had ever been, not to mention exhausted. The realization that he still needed to get back set in and began gnawing on him. Climbing to his feet, or what was left of them, he hobbled his way back to the center of the massacre. 

Too wounded and weary to stand, he let himself fall. Recalling his mana from the ground, the foliage and the bellies of the beasts that had intended to make a meal out of him; he slowly put himself back together, piece by piece. Having spent its energy, each piece was freezing cold, and putting himself back together was every bit as excruciating as having been torn apart. If he learned anything, it was that he preferred a warm bite to a cold one. 

Having pulled himself back together, Cekell turned and trudged on towards his destination; worn and weary, cold and alone. He wouldn’t make it very far before stumbling across a giant insect. They both froze as they noticed each other. The insect was probably going to check the cause of the commotion he had just left behind him.

Cekell groaned. He didn’t even know he could make that sound, but it adequately expressed his discontent with the situation. The insect hissed and charged, throwing it’s scythed claws high, bringing it’s full weight to bear down on Cekell; it cleaved right through his barrier, narrowly missing his body, and prompted him to put some distance between them.

He would have to get in close to put an end to this, and even being in a hurry, he erred on the side of caution. Cekell shrank the barrier that enveloped him, decreasing its surface area to increase its durability. The insect charged and took a swipe, tearing into but not all the way through his barrier. Again Cekell deftly hopped backwards and reformed his barrier, this time folding it in on itself. 

Again the insect screeched and charged mindlessly, but this time when it slashed at him, it’s claw impaled Cekell’s barrier, but got stuck in the process. Unable to dislodge its claw, the insect started screeching and frantically attempted to free itself. It didn’t take long for it to pry itself loose, but in the few moments it had been immobilized, Cekell leapt at the trapped claw and launched an attack of his own.

Pressing his hand against the claw, then shoving backwards to propel himself away from the insect, he attempted to syphon off it’s heat, but did not succeed. Maybe there wasn’t enough heat for him to draw on, or possibly the fact that he wasn’t drawing the heat directly from the insect's head. Maybe he just botched his attempt, it even could have been the lack of mana in the area from him not having been wounded. Whatever the case, trying again yielded the same results and availed him naught. 

The insect had learned a thing or two, and started slashing with both claws, using them as a pair of shears to swath right through his folded barrier. Pressing Cekell with a relentless assault, the insect drove him back, but couldn’t land a decisive blow.

Concentrating and folding his barrier down to about the size of his hand, he decided he would have to stop the insect and not just slow it down, in order to get anywhere. Forming a second for his other hand, Cekell was going to gamble on being able to stop the insect. He didn’t need long, just a moment - and a moment was all he got as the insect screeched and slammed its claws into his barriers.

The insect’s claws rang out, and the force of the blow reverberated through his arms. The barriers cracked and buckled, but held. The insect was locked in surprise and wide open, and where Cekell had intended to launch his own assault, he instead fell to a knee as exhaustion caught back up with him. 

Having been surprised, it was the insect’s turn to put some distance between them. The oversize bug was taken by surprise yet again when Cekell slumped over on his side and lay motionless. The insect hesitated, screeched out a victory cry, and again charged with raised claws.

It wasn’t much of a moment to recuperate, but it was enough. Cekell rolled at the last second, narrowly dodging the claw that pierced the ground he had been occupying. Quickly erecting a barrier around it to pin it in place, he threw himself forward into a somersault and rolled right underneath the insect, which struggled desperately to free itself, but paused when Cekell let out a piercing cry from directly behind it. Solidifying it’s foundation, the giant bug let out another screech before ripping it’s claw free from Cekell’s barrier. In that moment, Cekell erected a barrier from inside the insect, and tore it in half. 

The insect let out a pained shriek, and even in pieces, continued it’s assault. With its final act, the dying insect lunged once more at Cekell, who erected a barrier that slammed down on the frenzied insect, silencing it for good. 

Cekell cried out in victory as the tension drained out of his body. Spent, he fell backwards and lay where he landed, relieved that it was over. The relief was fleeting, as he leapt to his feet when he heard something approaching. Several somethings, in fact. Two more insects slowly entered the area, cautious after hearing the death throes of their comrade, wary of Cekell, who had laid it low. With nothing else to throw at them, Cekell cried out in defiant challenge.

After a moment’s hesitation and without turning their backs to him, the insects slowly retreated. Cekell could hardly believe it, he repelled them with merely his voice. Catching a second wind, he let out another resounding victory cry before throwing himself into full sprint as he headed back. He could afford no more stops, fully aware that he escaped the two insects, and not the other way around. Pushing himself, he raced back unimpeded. 

Devose waited a bit before jumping out of the tree that served as his perch to watch the fight. Covered in his dark armor, he landed hard, but unphased. Making his way over to the fallen insect, he noted, “With nothing more than his barrier…”

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