Chương 72: The King and the Wolf

Cian raised an arm to block the King's strike, but it flickered in between the arm of a Sidhe and the paw of a giant wolf, which dragged the rest of his arm down. The King struck, a simple punch that sent a wave of air pressure to scatter sand to the sky. Cian slid backwards, but through gritted teeth and feet digging into the ground, he wasn't launched away.

"There you go!" The King crowed.

"I knew you were stronger than you seemed to be down in that cave. Using my Drops to remake yourself stunted your power. Let's see if you can keep it going."

"It… would be… easier… if I wasn't… having to… fight your commands," Cian said through clenched teeth.

"Yes, I bet it would! But, let it never be said I didn't help when my boy asked for it. Maitiú!" The monstrosity that had been the old sailor looked up.

"Kill Cormac Fiadh and Róise Séarlait. I want a closer look at the other two." Maitiú looked exhausted. Tears ran down his face.

"Will you stop the pain if I do?"

"Of course, my lad! In this kingdom, success is always rewarded!" The King grinned and summoned a giant two-handed sword. Lightning crackled along its edge.

"That's supposed to help me?" Cian said through gritted teeth.

"Motivation!" The king spun the blade around as if it were no heavier than a rapier.

"Your friends here have no chance of beating young Maitiú by themselves! So! You'll need to take care of me if you have any hope of helping them!" Maitiú charged towards Cormac as the King struck with his sword. Cormac had been taken off guard the last time he'd faced a charge by Maitiú. This time he and Róise were ready. He tended to use his Luck at roughly the same level of power all the time - before training with Cian he'd never known how to feed it more without the threads breaking.

This time, his fórsa reserves still mostly full, he fed as much as he could into a technique he and Róise had practiced only a little, as it wouldn't help them on the Walk. Cormac crossed his arms, bending his fingers into rigid claws facing outward, and ripped brilliant golden threads out of the air until they were a complex cat's cradle between his fingers. Róise then leaped over his head straight through the tangle, landing lightly in front of him.

Luck Armor was a technique purpose-built for the Saint Adept class - supporting your charge - and he poured as much power as he could into it. The golden threads hummed with so much power that even Róise and Miriam could see them as they wrapped themselves in ornate knots around Róise's body. She smiled back at Cormac. Her eyes blazed with golden light. Then she began Banks of Red Roses. Cormac's Luck couldn't make Róise a better fighter. It couldn't make her stronger, or faster, or more flexible.

All it could do was make sure that of every move Róise took, it was the best possible move she had the ability to make. It made Banks of Red Roses as effective as it could be, as fórsa efficient, as powerful. Today Róise was on top of her game. She didn't have much fórsa left, but she didn't need it. Banks of Red Roses was easy for her - she'd activated it almost without knowing hundreds of times. It changed reality only a little, but that little made a difference.

Róise sliced up Maitiú's inner thigh as he ran towards them, using the power of her technique to break through what should not be breakable - Maitiú's Sixth Ring skin. Even then her slice was shallow - but happened to hit just the right tendon to freeze the leg in its tracks for a moment. Maitiú stumbled, falling to one knee. Cormac poured the entirety of his remaining fórsa into an activation of At What Cost, pulling black threads at that wounded leg and pouring the luck into Miriam.

With Luck Armor, Róise was already as lucky as she could get. Miriam was worried about Cian, but first things first. She Vine Leaped into the air and created a thick spear almost the size of a tree trunk itself. As she descended she needed to switch her nature to Water, but it was so slow! She thought she would have to abandon this attack when at the last moment Water kicked in. Her activation of Waterfall drove the giant stake right into Maitiú's back at point blank range.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Maitiú screamed - no longer the roar of the frenzied beast he had been in the cave, but of a man who's lost the will to endure any more. He made several half-hearted swipes at them, but Róise was unstoppable, slicing and stabbing everywhere he was most vulnerable. This wasn't to say the giant man was rendered harmless.

His Water fórsa blasts were a constant threat and one managed to catch Róise off-guard, luck or no luck. Another bloody rift opened in her shirt and she stumbled back. She didn't want to invoke Róisín Dubh until she had no choice - it took too much fórsa. Besides, she needed the speed of Banks of Red Roses, as she was in just the right position to barely dodge a wild swing from one of Maitiú's front hands.

But that put her on the back foot and when he followed up with another fist, she couldn't move fast enough to get out of the way. Cormac screamed for her to move. She couldn't, stumbling down to the sand. A double-bladed axe thudded into Maitiú's elbow, arresting his swing and nearly severing it. He recoiled back, wrenching the weapon loose and throwing it down to the beach. The one-eyed rabbit stepped up to help Róise to her feet.

"Why didn't you leave?" she asked. The rabbit looked out at the water. Then he looked at the Life material fórsa in his hand and brought it to his chest. Then he shook his head.

"You can't absorb it," she realized. The creatures here were locked in. They had no real fórsa meshes of their own. The rabbit's only choices were to fight or to die crossing the threshold into the real world.

"Together then?" Róise asked. The rabbit nodded. He fetched his axe from the water's edge. He and Róise began a dance to the tune of Banks of Red Roses. Maitiú couldn't match the combined power of a Fifth, two Fourths and an overpowered Second. The rabbit chopped the big man down like a tree while Róise went in for precision strikes. Miriam looked for her moments to push Maitiú off track with Raging Current and Cormac even engaged with his knuckle dusters, getting off some nice shots while Maitiú was distracted.

Then Róise came to the last verse of Banks of Red Roses. She hesitated, looking at the remnants of the man she'd tried to call friend. He had blamed Cormac, but they were in Cianán's Walk because of Róise. Because of her need to better contribute to the rebellion in Shirren. She was to blame for what this man had become. She started the last verse.

And if ever I get married'Twill be in the month of May, When the leaves they are green And the meadows they are gay; And I and my true love Can sit and sport and play On the lovely sweet Banks of Red Roses. Cormac smiled at her. She had chosen the less deadly ending to the technique. Miriam saw this too and followed Róise's lead. She activated Entangle and vines wrapped around Maitiú, especially on the leg that Cormac had cursed. The vines locked him tight to the ground.

No matter how Maitiú struggled, he happened to pull at just the wrong angle, or just at the wrong time, to actually snap many of the vines. They could all see the will to fight draining from him as he wallowed in pain, half-buried in the sand. Eventually he stopped struggling and let the vines take him to the ground.

"I just want to go home!" he sobbed. ✧✧✧ Cian wasn't quite holding his own. The King wielded the two-hander effortlessly and the smash he was able to bring against Cian's guards was incredible. It hurt a little to know that King Cianán wasn't really even trying. In a projection from the center of the world no less. Cian was used to being the unquestionably strongest thing anyone had ever met. Having that status challenged was… humbling. If he could just shed the compulsions he was continually having to fight!

It was like trying to fight a shark with a cannonball tied to your foot. Unlike Sol he had never been aware before that there were any instructions buried in his construction - he thought he had been simply discarded power, left without care. However it seemed that King Cianán didn't even litter carelessly. As Cian fought with the Eternal King, he turned his mind out to the still smoking island.

In the ruins of Láthair Maol a boy in white clothes appeared, looking around at the place his people had called home for so many years. Every home was burned to the ground. Nothing remained to be salvaged. Cian tried not to wallow in sorrow. He could regret later. He had built the altar in Scior because the bald spots were important. They were fundamental parts of his being so real that the splintering web of the jungle could have no effect here.

He knew the depths of Domhain - the Wisps with their funny gadgets and banditry. What he might find beneath Láthair Maol he could not tell. With a thought, he phased through the stone. Down, into depths of himself he had not known. He knew that he didn't go on forever - beneath him somewhere was real stone and earth. But this far he had frankly just never bothered to go. But there it was. A gem. Tucked into the cracks of stone beneath Láthair Maol. Cian had studied Sol's gem, even more than Sol had guessed.

This was not like that. Sol gem was Sol - destroy that and the man would cease to exist. This was somehow… an addition. Had it always been there? When he inspected the stone around the gem it felt… bent somehow. This was something King Cianán had added at some point, but he couldn't tell when. Reaching out with one incorporeal hand Cian crushed the gem to pieces. And was reunited with his self on the beach.

The king had cut him badly, each wound also bearing dark scorches of lightning strikes, but Cian still persevered. Then as he felt the gem break, it was as if he were taking the first full lung-full of breath in years. The compulsion to obey was gone. In a burst of flame Cian was the wolf again, sending King Cianán sprawling back. This time though the wolf wasn't something he loathed - a form foisted on him by his cruel father. It was a choice - his full power, now fully unbound and unleashed.

Cian roared and a ball of fire rocketed towards the Eternal King.