Chapter 4: Chapter 1: Yafu’s Revenge (Version 1.1) Part 4

Yafu stood on the outer edge of the border of the rotating energy which had begun to plume into a hemispherical shape He was now in between this mass of pooled energy and the Fang who surrounded it. He was literally right under their noses. He just had to blend in with the energy dissipating from the mass. Holding his nerves back, Yafu silently counted to five in his head. Nothing. Taia had leapt to another balcony and was methodically combing over it. They clearly still thought he was moving from balcony to balcony. Yafu did not have the ability to maneuver like that and maintain camouflage, but thankfully the Fang had no idea what his limitations were. 

Despite this small victory, Yafu had still just prolonged his survival. He still had to overcome the daunting obstacle of the hunched man to guarantee it. This was a brutal problem to have because of its simplicity. Yafu had always felt he had an advantage in more complex situations. Complex problems bred creative solutions, allowing him to overcome opponents with more obvious advantages over him. This was not one of those problems. The hunched man stood right in front of the narrow exit. Yafu could only go through him.

Yafu's mind raced for another solution. He mentally threw everything at this, allowing his mind to fly to asinine solutions if only to get lucky and stumble on to one that had a chance of working by accident. While he thought, he shimmied very slowly around the edge of the energy pool, circumnavigating clockwise as to avoid being in the crossfire of the five who were still discharging energy to the right of him. Even a closer look at the blocked exit did not offer any reprieve. The hunched man’s back was inches away from the closed door. There was no way to open it without physical detection, much less energy detection.

Yafu kept racking his brain, his eyes darting around the room looking for any way he could get the man to move from the door. His gaze went from member to member of the Fang. Each one had an energy signal of an apex predator. There was likely no way to disrupt these people enough to escape.

Yafu’s eyes finally fell on Cirko. Even seeing just the mask put a sense of dread into Yafu. He had the most gruesome energy of them all. There was an insatiable fury to how his energy flowed. Yafu felt a sense of hopelessness looking at this man. He was lucky to have made it this far. There was no way he was going to get away from him. Even the way Cirko entered the room this evening. He had the entire Fang on their toes. They didn't even realize…

There it was! The one detail Yafu was looking for. Cirko had come into the room from the balcony but Yafu never saw or sensed him enter through the door. Two scenarios remained. He either was at the complex before Yafu, which made little sense since Yafu would have been killed when he had walked in, or there was another way in. A way in is a way out.

Yafu had a plan now. He would wait until the ritual hit a crescendo and then leap toward Cirko’s balcony and pray the exit would be something obvious such as a window, so he could escape before the Fang reacted. That meant he had to watch the ritual very carefully and guess correctly when he had an opportunity. He would not get a second chance. The opportunity would almost certainly be the disaster he had initially anticipated on the balcony. The difference now was that he was hugging the energy pool for cover, making him the least protected from catastrophe unless he jumped right before it occurred.

Yafu stood still on the brink of the ticking time bomb for what seemed like an eternity. It was likely only a few minutes. He was keen to not make the same mistake he made earlier by being too jumpy and blowing his cover. The energy pool had continued the froth occasionally emitting small sudden light flashes. Yafu did not budge.

Shen stopped his hand motions and signaled to the discharging members. They cut the energy flow off. Now only Cirko was interacting with the pool. The pool itself began to constrict and slowly collapse inward. This was likely Yafu’s moment.

He readied himself to jump. His odds were low but they were not zero. That’s all he would ever ask for. As he anticipated his jump Yafu did a final scan of the room. Cirko was now locked in deep concentration as he tried to guide the pool to a desired state. That was a huge win already as the most dangerous piece was seemingly off the board for his dash to freedom. Taia was still up in the balcony searching for him and the hunchback was glued to the door. Both had thankfully not evolved past the first stage of Yafu’s game. Almost every other member of the Fang had backed away from Yafu’s position making them less immediate threats. The only one still in a threatening location to react quickly enough was Shen.

Shen! Looking at him made Yafu’s blood boil. He instinctively reacted to cool off his anger so he could keep focus. But the rage came back almost instantly and he made no such self-regulating effort the second time. Yafu’s decision making shifted. He had spent so much time letting his survival instinct drive him in the last few minutes. He had almost retreated from his destiny. He forgot he was prepared to die tonight. Yafu did not need to escape. That was a failure for him. He had his chance right now to succeed. He could ensure this foolish endeavor would be Shen’s last. He stood still as the energy pool continued to constrict. The pressure was building to incredibly high levels. It was quite impressive to Yafu that Cirko was holding it back.

Sensing the pressure had built to lethal amounts within the pool, Yafu made his move. With a ferocity only reserved for a suicide charge, Yafu dived at Shen. Shen sensed the charge before it reached him and instinctively dug in and leaned forward as to not be knocked backward. There were few people alive who would be able to knock Shen  backwards and Yafu was not among them. Yafu knew that but knocking Shen backwards was not his intent, anyways. He had a different plan. Yafu stopped right in Shen’s face and used his catlike athleticism to shift his momentum on the spot. Shen briefly saw this intruder, a messy, dirtly, vagabond, who was barely old enough to be a man. Shen did not know who this person was and was stunned that someone looking like this had been the one evading the Poison Fang si effectively. He was so shocked by the turn of events that he did not react in time to prevent this attacker from locking his arms underneath Shen’s shoulders and lifting Shen and himself up into the air. Shen’s posture and stance was defensive to a forward charge but was vulnerable enough to a backwards grab.

Yafu used every bit of energy he had to propel Shen and him up and backwards into the air. He heard a brief amount of gasps but nothing that indicated someone would react quickly enough to save them. He was right. They crashed into the pool of energy with a great force. Yafu closed his eyes expecting a quick and fiery death. A few seconds passed and he felt nothing until he took a hard knee to his gut, shattering at least one of his ribs. The pain caused his eyes to fly open. Yafu immediately saw Shen floating in front of him. The knee had been so forceful it broke their embrace. Shen gave him a look of fury and contempt as they began to drift away from each other. Yafu tried to get in close to Shen to prevent his escape but found that he had no real control over his momentum. He seemed to be drifting in an empty, frictionless void that was preventing anything other than his own inertia from controlling him. Shen and Yafu continued to drift apart in this void for a split second longer, before the blinding flash of blue light knocked Yafu unconscious.

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