The fist hits my cheekbone, and I let it sink in part of my face. I don't see the uppercut that follows. My rattling teeth get no rest, and her third punch loosens a few of my upper front teeth and an incisor. Then follows a rather sexily executed kick, and I feel several of my teeth pop free. I intercept the other foot going for my groin, as I do have my bottom limit, after all. And the limit is my bottom - both front and back.
I make sure to rember which teeth are mine when a sweeping kick cracks my jaw. Two of my molars land near a few of Rhea's chompers, so I make sure to keep track of where they land. I let the kick that follows crack a rib and block another fist going for a strike beneath the belt.
No dick punching, that's just no coo- Interrupted by a haymaker snapping my jaw shut, I barely prevent myself from biting off my tongue. I flop onto the ice bonelessly, the impact with the unyielding cold ground-rattling my bones.
An entire month, I hear a low whisper. You left in there for an entire month?
Now, see. I was under the impression that you- The kick that sends spinning skywards again also breaks my nose. Im sure that I must make a rather pretty sight right about now. A bloody and bleeding figure of a man, spinning rapidly while my nose produces a gorgeous spiral of red. That this was all under your own volitio-
My downwards descend is halted by a rather well-placed knee in my stomach. Gasping for breath, I'm dropped to the ground. I keep my core clear, no matter how much I want to call upon certain aspects of strength and resilience. I stand up slowly, twisting my nose in the correct position with a sickening popping sounds that hurts both ntally and physically.
I spent decades in that shithole, you know. My piece of shit cultivation base decided it knew better, so it went and did all of this useless shit. Huffing with anger, Rhea is staring in the face. She is looking as pretty as ever, probably even more so now that her cheek is slowly turning blue and swelling, along with the streaks of blood running from her mouth. I ignore those unbidden thoughts for now.
Right. So, the next ti you stroke my cheek lancholy with a tendril of your cultivation base, it ans that I should assu you lost control to your own enlightennt, and you power-base has gone rogue? By the way, should we do sothing about that? I point upwards, to the flickering and mutating tree of light that still has many, many tendrils of glowing fibre connected to the dragons around us. I managed to erase the trunk of the ethereal three by inhaling the massive amount of qi present, but the upper network of branches has eluded so far. Also, my cultivation is having trouble with the enormous amount of alien qi, so I'm feeling pretty shit.
Drew Liam..." I wince as she uses my full na. Not a good sign at all. "That was all I could do to prevent you from being assimilated in the network. It took imnse amounts of effort to prevent that tendril from taking over your brain.
Well, you broke the promise, I reply petulantly. And so what? Its not like thatd have been the first ti Id be mind-controlled. I got free every ti so far.
What promise? And no, you wouldnt have been able to escape. I contro It controlled the Flight through genetic handles.
The promise to stay in real-ti. Ive got withdrawal symptoms up the ass, you know. And you havent got my genetic information. Also, I made damn sure to erase any form of ancestral control or backdoor exploits from my own genetic code, thank you very much.
You didnt break that one? Rhea falters as she brings a slender hand to her bloody mouth. So even when you That was all real-ti? Just now, also?
Of course. Breaking promises can be done, but you better be damn sure to have a good reason for it. Advancing while you are burdened and held back by regrets and bad karma like that is nigh impossible.
No, no, Drew. You are changing the subject again.
You are the one who brought up the geneti-
Well, YOU LEFT IN HERE FOR AN ENTIRE MONTH, YOU COCKSTAINED ASSWIPE!
And here she cos again. I keep my eyes open, prepare myself, and try to counter her moves. Ive got loads of experience in hand to hand combat, have practised all kinds of fighting techniques, and sohow or another, my disappeared heartcore still gives a very decent combat instinct, but I cant see through her moves. Each action she takes seems rather mundane and slow, but despite the fact that she is barely enhancing her body, all her attacks slip through my defence.
I try slapping away the straight punch coming at , but she manages to plant her foot in my stomach before I can register how she got through my defences. The deceptively straight punch then reaches my nose, setting the painful piece of cartilage crooked again. Are you crawling right now? I ask accusingly.
No, is the only answer I receive before my feet are swept from under . I manage to block a swift chop to my private parts before she roundhouses to the other side of the ring.
This is bullshit. If you want to play rough, so will I. Glaring at the ungrateful woman, I bring up my sword in my braincore. I deny its materialization. Instead, I call upon the brute cutting power and its ability to move swiftly despite its unwieldy size. Red flas envelop my right arm at the sa ti as blue crystals cover my left. I assu a low posture, allowing to jump into any direction at a mont's notice.
Just accept your punishnt.
No way. You accept your punishnt. You enslaved an entire species, you psychopath.
Rhea winces, and I use that opening to advance. I imagine the sword swinging around fiercely, applying its imaginary montum the mont it swings perfectly forward on an upward swing. The ice turns to mist under my feet as I reel back my flaming fist. I slap her defensive kick to the side with an ice-covered left jab and smash into her gut with my glowing right hook.
I have but a fraction of a second to admire the precision with which she avoids my flaming attack before her other foot slams my head into the ice. I imdiately pull myself free from the hole in the packed snow. Fuck! How are you this strong. Are you sure youre not crawling?
I said Im not!
Okay then. By the way, are you sure we shouldn't do anything about that? I once again try to divert her rage to the true culprit here. We are still surrounded by a rather impressive amount of dragons, all of whom are still sporting a fashionable thread of light thats sticking out of their necks. The horrific mass of bright energy that used to be the tree of Rheas cultivation base is hanging there conspicuously still.
No need. Drew, answer truly, why didnt you get out of that thing earlier?
Because I thought you were training your path or so bullshit like that. I only ever read about a cultivation base going rogue once, and that was a text so ancient, it took years to decipher the script. How co you are this strong?
I dont know. I just know how to beat you with minimal effort. Why are your arms burning and freezing?
This is just one way in which Im employing aspects of my sword. Why did you wake more ancestral dragons?
I didnt. That thing did. Here she points upwards. I dont dare take my eyes off of her, though. Where is Lola.
Shes fine. Didnt want to co, I think. What is the exact premise with which you started that process? I point upwards, but she doesnt take her eyes off of either.
The deaths I saw were useless and unneeded. The Flight could win easily, they just needed to be more efficient. Why an entire month, though?
I wince as I see the true pain in her eyes. I I didnt know. You had stuff to take care off, I thought. I had stuff to take care off. And then I was sick of being alone again. I avoid eye contact. And I didnt I stare at the small pile of dead dragons, one of them her uncle. I
The conversation between us halts there. Looking at the frozen dragon, I fear that all my worst suspicions will co to pass. His entire belly is ripped open, the majority of his guts that should be inside nowhere to be seen. The back of his scaly head is also a ss of blood, brain, and bone. Putting that back together will be like reassembling a shattered hard disk drive. Sure, there will be so parts of the data intact, but in order to puzzle out all the damaged bits and bytes that used to occupy the broken areas, the entire file format needs to be understood first.
There is no way that just putting juice in a dead battery will work, right? Stuff needs to be fixed, and without a clear pattern or complete understanding, the end result will be an unholy patchwork.
Im shaken from my dark mood as I feel soone fumbling around inside my mouth. With a rather painful twist, I feel Rhea shoving my front teeth back into my jaw. You got those backwards. Here, I tell her. I pull the two teeth free, turn them around, and shove them back in. Flicking my wrist, I pull Rheas teeth to my hand with simple applications of Will. I pry open her pursed mouth and put them back in their place, keeping the roots inside her bleeding gums until they hold.
Just swirl so qi through that, and I focus on healing my own teeth for a bit, activating my healing process, and other non-critical quality of life processes once more. I feel my shirt slowly repairing and cleaning itself as I work on healing my teeth and my fractured facial bones. you should be fine.
I look her in the eyes. I imdiately lose it. Her white hair is matted with blood, her eyes are darkly ringed, and her face is still swelling. I must have done more damage than I thought. The sheer fact that it isnt healed yet is proof that I actually hit her really hard. I needed to get her out of that tree, though. Digging through the ice and taking all those hyper dense items into Tree took a lot out of . Im still feeling like shit, to be honest. All of that foreign matter inside my core makes feel physically ill.
What was the deciding factor, I wonder, Rhea whispers softly. Did you run out of stupid hobbies to ss around with, did Lola put you up to this, or was it this? I fight to keep control over my body as she grasps a certain private place.
That could very well be seen as sexual harr-
Shut the fuck up and fuck .
Yes, maam. I start pulling the foreign items from my core at the sa ti as I start stripping our clothes. I try to make a wall around us, but the amount of stuff I had to pull inside only amounts to a hobble a few ters high. I managed to squeeze myself through the ice the majority of the ti, only needed to loosen and steal the most obstinate of objects. I start pulling on my qi, forming the beginnings of a dual circulation pattern just as Rhea finishes pulling off her underwear.
Fuck , I whisper.
I did, is her reply.
And so she did. You are one thirsty dragon, though. Have you ever heard of the term shotgun orgasm?
No, enlighten .
You did just now. Multiple tis. Also, why was your body so empty of qi? There was barely enough to keep you going in here. Stroking her curves, I admire her leanness. Not a single milligram of useless fat or stagnant qi inside her body.
That shitty tentacle tree had trapped in a high-speed qi washer for a month. All useless and needless matter and energy did not survive.
So the constant stream of qi running through your body stripped away all the useless stuff?
Sothing like that, I guess.
I mull this over a bit. There used to be all kinds of physical tempering thods. From caves where iron sandblasted you in the face constantly to qi concentration towers that put your cultivation base under pressure the higher you climbed. There is not a single case of ntion I can recall concerning being subrged in a constant stream of power running through your body, though.
It wasnt all bad, though. I spent a couple of decades reliving every death I saw happening. And those were the very first deaths of people I cared about in my entire life so that was rather traumatic. Also, I could do nothing as sothing I inadvertently created stripped my very own family and friends from their will, using them as chanical and robotic slaves. Also, I had to stare at my dead uncle all the ti. And I couldnt move a single hair on my body, no matter how much my nose itched.
The silence hangs thick as we lay there on the ice, naked and covered in all kinds of fluids. Not all bad?
I learned a lot. That's about it.
What did you learn?
Aha, wouldnt you like to know? And Rhea closes her eyes, resting her head on my chest.
Yeah, I hate to interrupt your smug snoozing session, but what are we going to do about the fact that your kin are still enslaved, and are all staring at us. They have been staring at us the entire ti, you know.
I'm so glad you asked, is her reply. Oh shit, Rhea is back. Why did I want her back so badly again? I can handle a bit of physical pain, sure, and that beating was one I deserved in hindsight. There were other ways to get her outside of that pillar of light, I now realise. But the fact that all those dragons had suddenly beco involuntary contortionist bricks in that wall had slightly panicking. I needed to prevent those guys from breaking their necks en-masse, and kicking Rhea out of that glowing tree trunk seed the most expedient option. So the beating, I can handle. The way she is sadistically looking at currently, though? That promises a whole different type of pain.
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