Inertia: Beneath the Starlit Veil

Cyrus POV

My father and I dropped our belongings and broke into a blistering sprint toward the town. As we entered, the scene was all too familiar—a haunting mirror of what our village had looked like the day we were attacked. Innocent bodies lay dismembered, blood smeared the walls of old, rustic brick buildings, and chimneys crumbled under the weight of astral behemoths leaping from structure to structure, stalking new prey. The town was in chaos, its people engulfed in mass hysteria. Only a handful of Starbound seemed to reside here, and they were desperately holding their ground in the city center, fending off the swarm of astral behemoths while trying to shepherd citizens into a bunker.

"Cyrus, help the Starbound on the ground in the city center. I'll handle the astral behemoths in the air," my father commanded. Before I could respond, he propelled himself into the sky using solar energy in his arms and legs.

"You know, you could've at least given me a weapon!" I shouted after him. There was no time to dwell on it, though. Imbuing cosmic energy into my legs, I bolted toward the Starbound. This was uncharted territory for me—I'd only ever fought humans and other Starbound. Astral behemoths were something else entirely. In the past, I couldn't even hope to face them, but my father seemed confident I was ready now. I needed to prove him right.

In the town's center, I saw four Starbound holding a half-circle formation around the bunker entrance while a fifth darted back and forth, ferrying citizens inside. The Starbound were surrounded by dozens of spear beetles—perhaps more. Before engaging, I used my astral sense to gauge the strength of both the behemoths and the Starbound.

The spear beetles were starspawns—the lowest rank of astral behemoths. As for the Starbound, they were all at the same stage as me, except for one: the tank, who had reached the Adept Stage.

"Okay, this is manageable," I muttered, especially with Dad handling the flying behemoths.

I launched myself at the back of the horde, aiming to catch them off guard. Forcing cosmic energy into my hands, I flattened them like blades and sliced through the beetles' hard exoskeletons, exposing their intestines. Greenish fluid splattered all over me, filling the air with a foul stench. "The old man better give me a weapon soon," I grumbled, "because this is disgusting."

After cutting down several more beetles, some of them finally noticed me. In a moment, it went from none of the creatures paying attention to me to about a third of the horde making me their focus. While the situation sucked, I knew it was necessary—the other Starbound needed breathing room to finish evacuating the citizens.

As I weighed my options, one of the beetles lunged at me, aiming to impale me with its massive horn. I sidestepped the attack and severed the horn with a swift chop. Without hesitation, I focused cosmic energy into my leg and kicked the beetle in its underbelly, puncturing its shell and killing it instantly.

The rest of the horde became enraged, charging all at once. Seeing nearly a dozen spear beetles barreling toward me, my instincts screamed one thing: run. There was no way I could take them all at once. I wanted to use my ability to stop them in their tracks but couldn't risk a civilian accidentally stumbling into my gravity field and being crushed.

I sprinted away from the other Starbound at the bunker, and a third of the beetles followed in relentless pursuit. I made my way back to the outskirts of the town, so that I had enough space to enact my plan. When I glanced up, I saw my father maneuvering through the air with practiced grace, switching seamlessly between solar weapons to cut down the flying behemoths. He was making it look easy.

My attention snapped back as the beetles closed the gap. I readied myself, waiting for the perfect moment to spring my trap. Starspawns were primitive; all they wanted was to hunt. They didn't coordinate their attacks and charged headlong, horns first, in a race to claim the kill. "Perfect," I muttered.

Pouring cosmic energy into my astral tattoo, I activated my ability. A gravitational field instantly anchored the beetles to the ground. I had four seconds to finish this. Reinforcing my body with cosmic energy, I launched my assault, showing no mercy as I tore through the creatures, severing exoskeletons with each strike, loosing myself in the acts of carnage.

For the first time, I felt in control—like I finally had the upper hand. When the last beetle fell, I stood amidst the carnage: a crater filled with the corpses of astral behemoths and the stench of spilled innards. Shaking the green fluid from my hands, I sprinted back toward the bunker.

I had to be careful now. The last maneuver had drained half my reserves, and I couldn't afford to use my ability again without leaving myself defenseless.

When I reached the bunker, the situation had improved. Most citizens were safely inside, and the Starbound had repositioned. Then I noticed something: the trucks we'd seen earlier had pulled up to the entrance. The Starbound encircled them protectively.

"We have to guard the trucks! If we lose them, everything we've fought for will be in vain!" the Adept Stage Starbound shouted.

I understood that the imports that a low-level town like this receives was important, but I didn't think it was important enough to lose your life over. "There has to be somethings else in those trucks," I thought to myself. 

Curious, I watched as the drivers unloaded clear containers holding massive glowing cubes. The cubes radiated an overwhelming amount of cosmic energy, enough to send the remaining astral behemoths into a frenzy.

Understanding the stakes, I launched myself toward the horde. Their movements had grown erratic, making them harder to predict. I couldn't take them down in one fell swoop as before. Instead, I had to dart in and out, attacking and retreating to avoid their horns. Progress was slow, but it was better than nothing. 

I wanted to use my ability and end this whole situation. I decided against it because I wouldn't have enough time to kill all of them since this horde was bigger than the one, I lured away. 

Then I saw it. One of the drivers carrying a container tripped, causing the cube to roll out. Its energy output spiked, sending the horde into a bloodlust starting to launch themselves at the driver like a kamikaze pilot. The Starbound's formation broke as one of them rushed to help the driver, but he was unaware of what was coming his way.

"No one else sees this," I realized. Everyone else was too preoccupied with survival. "Well, here goes nothing," I muttered.

Pouring the last of my cosmic energy into my tattoo, I visualized expanding my gravitational field to encompass the driver and the Starbound. I could feel that my field expanding to around two meters, encapsulating everything with the area. Everything within my sphere of influence crashed to the ground instantly—but I was too late. A few beetles were just out of the range of my field. 

The driver and the Starbound were impaled by the beetles' horns.