Book 4: Chapter 20: Severed

    Corporal Claws ascended from the clearing like a god made manifest. Electricity burgeoned outward in every direction, and just as she threatened to turn the entire night sky into a giant plasma ball, the tip of each lightning-bolt wavered. Not because they ran out of power, though—because Claws was reigning them in.

    She wasn’t doing it as a collective either. There were thousands of them, and Claws was attempting to control each one individually. It was a colossal undertaking, one that required her to split her will into literally thousands of pieces. Was this her method of having a breakthrough? Focusing on control instead of boosting throughput?

    Being the only person capable of witnessing this ridiculous attempt, I gave it my full attention, appreciating just how ambitious it was.

    Some of the smaller bolts obeyed. They curled around her body to create a moving sphere, and the glimpses I caught of her through the jagged lines of lightning showed a face pinched with concentration. Though under her control, each bolt fought against her, seeking to return to their natural state.

    Claws’s lightning, however, was anything but natural. She could target people at will, which went against everything I knew. It was easy to chalk everything up to fantasy-world bullshit, but now that her chi seemed to exert its own will, I saw an opportunity that I couldn’t let pass.

    I zeroed my awareness in on her essence, focusing on the bolts of lighting, knowing that I would likely fail, yet willing to try regardle—oh... Because of my connection to her, I knew all about it the moment my awareness hit. Her chi was an extension of her nature.

    When Claws imagined striking someone with lightning, it struck. That’s all there was to it. When she didn’t have a target, however... it wanted to fly free, shooting out in a relatively straight line. Or even better, into a core or mass of chi if one was nearby. I tucked that terrifying tidbit of information away for later, just in case her electricity went rogue and tried to slam into other beings.

    The battle that Claws was engaged in came down to what her chi wanted. She was trying to bend it to her will, shaping it without assigning a target to strike.

    Curious about Claws’s mental state, I sent my awareness out toward her. Only a fraction of a second had passed, but already she grew both mentally and physically drained. Bending so much electricity was incredibly taxing. Sensing me, she cracked one eye and spared me a precious sliver of her attention. She sent a complex series of emotions directly to my consciousness, and if translated to English, they could be distilled down into a single sentence.

    Check this shit out.

    Multiple possibilities immediately sprouted in my mind. Had she already devised a method to gain agency over the thousands of bolts? Had she been just pretending to falter, wanting to put on a show before succeeding? Or did she perhaps discover something just now that would facilitate her growth? I could ask her core, but that would ruin the surprise—something Claws would never forgive.

    She didn’t force me to wait long. Claws shifted her will, focusing on the bolts forming a writhing sphere around her body. They immediately fell into place. A small part of each individual streak still railed at being reshaped, but they still... accepted their new role? It was a difficult concept to describe.

    Enthralled as I was, I saw the exact moment it all fell apart.

    With her attention on the chi close to her, Claws lost her hold on everything else. The longer lines of lightning cracked out into the night, some striking the ground and even more dissipating as they travelled skyward. I felt a moment of compassion for my egotistical pal, sad that Claws had failed her attempt in such a public setting.

    I waited for self-recrimination or shame to shatter her concentration and cause the remaining essence to fly out of control. Waited for her vanity to clash with her failure. But then the corners of her lips curled upward, and pride radiated from her in powerful ripples.

    My defenses came not a moment too soon. To call the force that came from Claws a lightning bolt would be to call a planet an asteroid. It ascended toward the heavens like a jagged spear of vengeance, Claws''s entire body glowing with incandescent glory as she propelled it onward. If not for the passage I''d conjured, it might have engulfed the entire sky. That I’d contained her power was great for the wellbeing of our general surroundings, but less so for the man trapped within.

    Ellis was held in place, shackled by the chi I shielded him with. His eyes became dinner plates as he spotted the column of lightning currently thundering toward him. If not for my intervention, it would have been his end, a fact I suspected he knew well.

    Even if I left things as they were, it might be his end anyway. By confining the lightning, I had channeled its power into what was essentially the barrel of a crude gun. Ellis was the bullet. I wasn''t sure if cultivators were able to survive in space, but even if we could, I didn''t think Ellis''s crimes justified such an end.

    Funny as it would be to launch him out of orbit, I made a pulling motion and bent my tunnel of chi just as Claws''s power struck the shackled man. It pierced three layers of my protective chi, then cracked the next half-dozen, the elemental force making a mockery of my defenses.

    Seeing the remaining score of layers intact, I was content letting the rest play out on its own. Ellis shot up the tunnel like an intercontinental missile. The blue and white lightning forced him ever upward, and I craned my neck as he sailed toward the exit. Realizing that Paul''s cultivation meant that he couldn''t track Ellis''s passage, I picked him up by the shoulders and spun him around. The least I could do was help him see the light show.

    When Ellis finally entered open air, he was screaming as loud as he could. Well, I''m pretty sure he was. It was hard to tell over the cacophonous boooom that flew from the tip of my chimney. As expected, the lightning darted out chaotically as it left the confines of my chi barrier, appearing to slow as it created a bouquet of sharp lines.

    Unlike the power that propelled him, Ellis''s speed remained constant. He rocketed out toward the distant horizon, his limbs once more flailing in every direction. Patches of Claws’s essence clung to him, and as he traveled through the upper atmosphere, they reached out. Arcs of electricity shot from him, weaving their way through the surrounding clouds and illuminating them from within. It was... surprisingly beautiful. Stunning, even.

    When Ellis cleared the distant horizon, still traveling at a speed anyone other than a cultivator would miss, the otherworldly effect trailed after him. Like a chemical reaction, it webbed its way in every direction. Where clouds existed, they were lit by an ethereal blue.

    "Frack me..." Paul whispered.

    That comment from Barry’s son should have made me laugh until I cried. Perhaps a little guilt as well. But I barely even heard it. The moment Ellis was out of sight and safe from the lightning, I had withdrawn my shielding. At the same time, I''d lowered the barriers around Tropica and its residents. They’d no longer been necessary.

    With my awareness free to sense to the world once more, it wasn''t possible to ignore the force of nature looming behind me. She felt ambivalent one moment, malevolent the next. Though her intention cycled chaotically, one aspect of her new form remained certain. She was dangerous.

    I reached for the world''s chi and prepared to slam it into place as I whirled to look at her. She was semi-transparent, her entire body appearing constructed of lightning chi. When she noticed me, her lips parted slowly.

    Corporal Claws, self-proclaimed Queen of the forest and cutest of all my animal pals, gave me a humorless grin. When she took a step toward me, it was straight out of a horror movie, her limb flickering even under my enhanced observation. I tried to reach out through our bond, tried to understand her thoughts, but it wasn''t there. Our connection had been severed by her transformation.

    In response, Claws exploded forward.