Chapter 8: 8: Eldrani

As if to match me, the plant-based mannachoid had taken on a bipedal appearance. Its trunk had become a defined torso, with two legs ending in thick roots instead of feet, and two arms tapering off into tentacle vines. At the top of the torso was what looked to be a flowery growth, it looked like a yellow tulip that was yet to bloom with those bulbous black eyes in the middle. Around the Mannachoid's shoulders were small twigs covered in leaves. This thing looked dangerous.

"An attack like that will not work on me, Human," the plant alien sneered. "I am Akash, and I shall obliterate you from this plane of existence!"

Akash launched one of its arms forward, the vines came faster and stronger than before. One from the left, I span away. One from above, I dropped to my knees, then rose again with a burst of propulsion. The alien was still slower than me, but the gap was no where near as wide as it was before. If this kept up, there was no way that I would be able to dodge them forever.

"Okay, Akash," I said, narrowly sidestepping yet another vine. "I don't know what the Humans you saw did on your world, but I've never even heard of your race before. What good is getting revenge on me going to do?"

Akash didn't respond, but they clearly didn't like what I was saying. Their second arm of tentacle vines entered the fray. As I sidestepped to avoid yet another hit, I ended up walking into one of the spike-ended attacks. There was a moment of resistance and a shower of sparks as the vine collided with my Corona shield and then blinding pain as the appendage slid through my defences and deep into my left shoulder.

I gave out a yell as I was sent careening into the air. I crashed into the trees of the forest, breaking through trunk after trunk until eventually coming to a stop at the foot of what seemed to be a big oak. The tree was on me in an instant, its roots tore themselves up from the ground and wrapped around my arms and legs.

Akash stalked through the forest, tearing up trees as it went. The creature was adding each tree to its own biomass, becoming bigger and bulkier with each one. If I let this continue for too long there was no doubt that it would become as big and as powerful as the Mannachoid I had fought before. But with the way that my hands were tied, there was no way that I would be able to utilise my energy blasts, with each arm pointed out at an awkward angle, far away from Akash.

"All Humans know of the Eldrani," Its voice was laced with rage. "Your kind is no better than the Null Space invaders that threaten us all. I will be doing the Guard a favour by wiping you out."

Akash didn't give me a chance to respond, its tentacle arm vines were heading toward me again, at least quadruple the size that they were before. That was when a spark of inspiration struck me. I had been using my hands as my primary way to launch energy beams because that seemed like the logical thing to do. But there was nothing in the description of the ability that said I had to use any part of my body specifically to generate them, in fact, I was sure I could probably generate them from no body part if I wanted to. It was worth a try.

I focused on the spot just before my face and activated the ability. Just as I had expected an orb of manna formed, just as it did when I launched the attack from my hand. Before Akash could get wise to what I was doing I launched my assault. While Akash was now bigger and bulkier in its suit of plant armour, trees and leaves could never be as powerful as the metal mannachoid I had defeated before. The attack cut straight through its outstretched arm and blasted it to splinters.

This time Akash was the one to be blown back, though I was disappointed to see that all I did was manage to make the alien stagger. Still, that stagger was all I needed. With Akash's focus broken I was able to tug myself free of the roots that had strapped me to the tree. I was over to Akash in a matter of moments. I plunged my hand through the hole I had made in its mannachoid suit, grasped onto the leafy arm within, and yanked the alien free of its construction and onto the ground.

"Go on then human, kill me," Akash spat. "Finish the job that your brethren could not, end the Eldrani once and for all."

"I'm not going to kill you, Akash," I said. "I don't know what those humans back on your homeworld did, but I'm not like them, and I'm not going to end your life now."

I couldn't make out any expressions on Akash's face, I wasn't even sure if it had what I would consider being a 'face' anyway. Its silence betrayed its confusion.

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"You were the one who held the arm of the mannachoid back at the hall, right?" I asked. Akash gave a subtle incline of the top of its trunk. I took that to be a nod. "In that case, you're incredibly strong, and from the fight, you just put up way more skilled than me. We should be working together here, not against one another. Isn't that like the whole point of the guard?"

"Work with a Human?" Akash replied. "I would rather crumble from fungal rots."

A rustle from beyond the trees broke the two of us out of our conversation. Our battle hadn't exactly been quiet, and if Akash was almost as strong as myself then we probably had the two most powerful sources of manna right next to one another. We were being hunted, tracked by vultures looking for an easy elimination.

One by one they emerged from the shadows of the treeline. First one, then five, then at least 20 of them. If Akash still had its plant mannachoid armour, perhaps the two of us would have stood a chance. But as it stood, with Akash one arm down, I wasn't certain that we could take such a large group with just the two of us.

"Yeah well buddy, you might not have a choice here," I said, and offered the plant alien my hand.

It hesitated for a moment, then gave in with a sigh that sounded like the crackle of dry leaves under a boot in autumn.

"I am not and never shall be your buddy, Human," Akash shot back at me.

I didn't respond to that, and instead readied myself into a defensive position, the fight against Akash had been difficult, but I had no idea how hard it would be to fight multiple combatants with only a few skills under my belt.

ABOVE THE BATTLEFIELD, THE OBSERVATION DECK

Lara tapped her foot impatiently as she watched the feed. Five minutes had passed and people weren't so much battling one another as they were teaming up with one another to take out one specific person. Sure, there had been some skirmishes here and there, but the main focus was clearly on taking out the human boy, Jacob Lyre.

Lyre was an odd one. Lara liked to stay up to date with all of the new applicants to the Guard. Not because she really cared about the applicants one way or another, but because she had to be on the lookout for any potential Null Space invaders that were trying to infiltrate the program. It certainly wouldn't be the craziest thing that they had ever tried.

She also liked to think that she was pretty good with mannatech. She would have liked to think that, if she had looked through the registrations as she was doing now after seeing such an untempered display of power, paired up with some of the worst training she had ever seen in years, that there would be an anomaly in the sign up forms. But no. It was all there, all normal.

Jacob Lyre was an anomaly, and she had never much liked anomalies, but as it stood there was nothing that she could do. The proceedings had already begun and Jacob Lyre the human was already on too many radars. He would have been on too many radars anyway, Humans were a disgusting race filled with backstabbers and brigands. Not the sort of person you would want in an intergalactic defense force.

Something about Jacob Lyre was different, and she'd get to the bottom of it if it was the last thing she did.

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