NOVEL NEXT Chapter 259: Who’s the Prey?
I sat there on the cliff, hugged by Stella, not quite sure what to say to her.
To tell her I was all right would be a blatant lie, and she knew it. What she was waiting for was for me to pour my heart out to her, to vent and share my burden that she was willing to shoulder with me. But the thing was, I was not sure she would understand.
Being overwhelmed by Eleaden was like having a collar around my neck again, and worse, much worse.
“Come on, it’ll be all right,” she held me tighter as I shuddered at the less than two-year-old memory.
“S-sorry, Stella, I . . .”
“I told you, you didn’t have to tell me.”
Lie. She wanted to know what had happened. Nothing wrong with that. Curiosity was a basic human trait. And hers was all the more justified since our return home likely depended on it. I mean, unless we had a change of heart and decided to swallow our pride, me dealing with Eleaden in my head was essential. In fact, if what happened here was going to take place in our present, it was better to learn to deal with it now and not put it off until later.
“The worst part is that I-I kind of remember everything I did, but . . .”
Stella said nothing, giving me as much time as I needed.
“I lost all control of myself . . .”
She stroked my head.
“You know the worst part?”
“No,” she whispered.
“I enjoyed it. Having Eleaden in my head was so . . . so sweet and warm. It was like being in my mother’s arms again, and . . . I was willing to do anything for her - it.”
“You’re not to blame for what you did. Actually, it didn’t even happen, so . . .” Stella tried to calm me down, to tell me that what happened in this cycle didn’t really count. Quite a contradiction to why we decided to go through the battlefield and not hide like a bunch of pussies. We were the ones who remembered and to whom what happened in the cycles mattered.
Anyway, I knew what she was thinking and hinting at.
“I didn’t kill anyone, Stella. Gerran killed me before I could.” Only partly true.
“Oh, he did?”
“Um hmm. I think he noticed I was losing it and . . .” As Eleaden took hold of my mind, as the planet played to the tune of the beasts within me, I struck the surrounding knights with my beast presence. The worst part was that I did a better job than ever, passing over all the beastmen. I might not have killed the knights myself, but if they hesitated for a moment, it was the same as if I had.
Anyway, the next thing I remember was Geran’s horns in my side and him pinning me to the ground. I think for the first time I ignored the pain. When I thought about it, I was sure of it. Despite bleeding profusely, my organs shredded, I felt nothing but the warmth of Eleaden. Under the planet’s urging, I commanded my mane to freeze Geran, and it listened as it had never before. The chill my mane instantly achieved was terrifying.
But that was all the damage I was able to inflict, thankfully.
“. . . Geran s-stomped on my head and put me out of my misery.”
“My tits, that’s - the surest way, huh?”
I shrugged. “I’m not entirely sure; I’ve regenerated a lot of things, even brain damage.” The description of [Beast] said that I could basically regenerate my whole body as long as my brain was intact, so why couldn’t it be the other way around? My entire head must have been the limit. After all, if my body was able to regenerate my head and vice versa, it would be a way to clone myself. A sickening thought.
“T-Traiana?” I stammered, working up the courage to ask my question. “Is it possible that Eleaden is still inside my head? You said that through the cycles we only take what we learn, what is in our minds.”
“That is a difficult question for me to answer,” the dreamer of this nightmare spoke, her voice soothing and hard to associate with Ronnu. “You are the first that I know of to have escaped Eleaden’s grasp. You either fought it off, or you fell to it forever.”
“Or you died,” Stella added - the third option that awaited most of the sentient beings with weak wills. Humans and such have simply strayed too far from the planet that gave them birth. Ironically, not me, an alien to this planet.
“Did I escape Eleaden, though?” I posed the question again.
“I understand what you fear, little guardian. That once there, always there.”
“Yeah . . .”
“I would like to tell you that this is only an echo of the past, and so is its hold on you - thus it has no permanent place in your mind should you return to your time. But Eleaden is true and present throughout the ages. Unfortunately, it is the planet we walk on, you might say, unchanging, at least to our eyes - and minds.”
“So you ARE saying that Eleaden could leave something in Korra’s mind, and she could take it with her to our time?”
“Yes, and no.” Traiana’s answer could not have been more ambiguous. “Don’t give me those looks, little ones. What I believe is that whatever hold Eleaden had over you, any trace of its power in your mind, is gone, as it will be when you return to your own time.”
“But?” There was definitely a big but.
“You weren’t wrong, little guardian. You will remember. You know and will likely forever know what it’s like to be in its hold. However, as with everything, it’s up to you whether it becomes your weakness or whether you turn it into your strength.
To say that immense solace washed over me was an understatement. Words simply could not describe how truly relieved I felt. Yes, I was aware that Traiana herself was not entirely sure, that this was new to her. Yet knowing that - as far as we understood time and space to work - there was no trace of Eleaden in my mind was liberating. No remnants of her mana, no imprint, no enchantment, no hidden rune circle.
So freeing.
When Eleaden invaded my mind, I may have loved its warm embrace, but deep down, it was no different to me than the [Slave] skills. They, too, made me cherish my master and happily follow his orders and whims.
Never again! I vowed.
Yet here I was, wagging my tail gleefully under my new master’s hand.
I was pissed at myself, at how weak I was and how much I fell apart. I thought I was stronger than that.
This just wasn’t who I wanted to be - always the prey.
No!
I was a predator!
With that, something inside me broke.
It was as if Eleaden’s unseen hold crumbled, and I was finally able to take a deep breath. A roar ripped from my throat.
“Shit! A little warning,” Stella cursed, but was quick to smile. “Feeling better?”
“Much.”
Sure, the memories were still there, as were those of my days in slavery. There was nothing I could do about them except, as Traiana had said, to turn them into my own strength.
***
Our ancient guide pointed out that it might be better to rest for one cycle again.
Stella called me stupid for wanting to jump back into the battle.
But I couldn’t just sit on my ass.
My mind needed to be occupied, not given time to mull things over. That only led to doubts, which in turn gnawed at my resolve.
And so here we were, on the battlefield for the tenth time.
Somehow, though, it seemed different. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. After the experience with the beastman, everything seemed - I don’t know, less threatening, less important, that all the beasts we had to fight our way through were just there for the sheer numbers, to wear us down. The real battle began when the beastmen entered the battlefield.
The closer the moment drew, the more I dreaded it.
All the preparations I had made in the few days before the battle . . .
seemed woefully inadequate.
‘Stupid, stupid, Korra! How did I ever think I could stand up to Eleaden?’ Last time, it rolled over my [Indomitable Will] defenses like a tsunami. ‘What did I think would be different this time?’
The little training with the captured beasts in the Cages couldn’t have helped.
Like I said, give my brain a chance and doubts would arise. And that was on good days, when I didn’t have a good reason to worry. Not the case now. The prospect of facing Eleaden was a good enough reason to shit my pants, but . . .
It wasn’t all that bad. I did not find the whispering of the beasts at night any more enticing than before; on the contrary, I found it more sickening. All it did was make me want to fight the whispers even harder.
‘To turn those terrible experiences into my strength.’ In that spirit, I approached the rest of what I went through at Eleaden’s hands. Nothing easy. However, the planet, or should I say the beast that brought it pushed to the forefront of my actions, left me with some good pointers. I got a taste of what it was like to ignore the pain and how crudely I handled my mane.
To be honest, the best pointers I ever got. No matter how revolting I found it, even the greatest explanation couldn’t beat the direct demonstration. And so, when the octopuses tried to latch on to me, they found my mane a few dozen degrees cooler, while the arrows in my back felt less painful.
Up until now, I just pumped mana into my mane without thinking too much about it. My Eleaden-driven beasts showed me a much gentler way, one I would liken to brushing my hair. Using force, you could accomplish what you wanted - minus the pulled hair - or be patient and be rewarded with a shiny, full mane. Of course, I had a long way to go before I could call this trait of mine mastered.
Even further away, I was to call my pain reduction ability so.
I honestly wasn’t sure if I was on the right track. All I felt, if anything, was a slight reduction in pain. It might as well have been my imagination, my wishful thinking.
Blaine suggested that with [Indomitable Will], I should be able to perceive the pain as an attack on my mind and thus resist it. And maybe I could, but Rayden’s lieutenant didn’t know what I did about the system. If there was a skill out there, I should be able to learn it with enough dedication, regardless of whether I had it in my skill set.
So what did I do differently? Unlike the gentle method to my mane, this one required a brutal approach - still delicate, but brutal. I burned the nerve endings in the wound with mana. I had to admit that it was not the best solution, considering my mana-boosted regeneration. However, it was worth learning, if only to improve my mana control.
And who knows, maybe it could save my life one day.
Or in a few minutes.
The octopuses were long gone, and the beasts that replaced them were dead. What was to come was what I feared most, the beastmen. Actually, no, I wasn’t afraid of them. I was afraid of what was behind their madness-stained eyes.
“Beastmen!” came the warning across the battlefield under the thumb of the Rosicrucian Order. It wasn’t just the Seventh that was doing well, the entire Order was giving the beasts a hard time. And so Eleaden sent the best it had to this part of the front.
Of course, the thought of whether we would be better off in another order crossed my mind. The answer was up for debate. On the one hand, in a different order, we wouldn’t have so much of Eleaden’s focus on our backs; on the other hand, we wouldn’t have received as much support from the Order. Not to mention, we’d be further away from Ronnu and a way home.
“. . . orra! Damn it, Korra! Listen!” Stella snapped into my ear so hard that I jerked and whimpered. “Oh, you’re back. I thought I’d lost you.”
“No, still here.”
“Good. Look, we talked about it, but . . .”
“I know. Best not to let that bastard grab me.”
“Yeah, or sink his teeth into me,” she rubbed her neck. “I don’t know why, but I keep forgetting to ask for a proper neck guard.”
Forgetfulness had nothing to do with it. She told me herself that she didn’t like them, that they restricted her movement. I guess something akin to my relationship with boots. There were situations, like wading through guts and blood on the battlefield, where I would have loved to have them. However, in general, I found it irritating to have them on my feet.
“Damn it, Korra! Focus!” she smacked my ass with her sword.
“Sorry . . .” There wasn’t much to say. Too much pause, too much nervousness, too much room for my brain to think.
“We’ll make it quick.”
A nod.
“He’s fast, but so are we.”
Another nod.
“Let’s not get caught off guard like last time.”
Damn, Stella must have been really worried about me. She was rarely this talkative on the battlefield. But before I could say a word, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. Out there among the carcasses of the beasts littering the battlefield, the bastard was stalking us.
To him, we were prey.
Okay, I’ll admit that “stalking us” was a bit of a stretch. As he slipped past the senior knights, he simply charged at us with a grace, caution, and arrogance I could only dream of. A growl ripped from my throat - a dare. Most likely, it was Eleaden who awoke the best in him, as it did in me. Those weren’t skills he had mastered on his own, not really.
My way of justifying his proves and getting my shit together.
He wasn’t the predator; I was!
The dash the beastman showed in the last meters was unbelievable. He was just a blur to my eyes. Luckily, not to my senses. When he appeared at my side, provoked by me, I was already moving away from his paws.
The beastman was unlike any terran I’d ever met. He walked on two legs, had two hands and a face, but that was all. That was where the human resemblance ended, except for the dangling parts in his crotch, and the beast began.
His crotch - a potential weak spot. Not one I wanted to bite into, though.
Dodging, I added another dare, as agreed, trying to keep the bastard on me.
No touching, of course.
Stella moved in sync with me, her two swords dancing with her. Blood spurted. Too little for my taste, though. The blades left nothing more than what you might call scratches on the bastard’s side.
Another snarl, a mockery.
His hideous mug twisted in rage. A furious pounce followed. He managed to graze my wing and rip out a few feathers. Nothing too serious. I was not a flyer, anyway. Another pounce. This time, he clawed at my leg, drawing blood. The mana I sent to the wound did two things: it burned the nerve connections there, while boosting my regeneration.
The beastman roared, furious at his failure.
There were no words - something I had noticed before and now only confirmed - no sense in his roar, nothing for me to understand beyond raw emotion.
Stella attacked from behind, unbelievably silent and graceful. Only her blades played a tune as they sliced through the air to cut the beastman’s flesh. The bastard groaned in pain and lunged for Stella.
She was no longer there, moving swiftly behind my back.
So far, so good.
A smirk of open mockery and I had his attention back on me. In a way, the fight was proving easier than I thought. The bastard was driven by his instincts, overstrained by Eleaden. A flaw. To fully utilize this individual, the planet would have to be in full control. Something it rarely did, according to Traianan. It was far easier to give commands to everyone through urges and simple prompts.
Go there.
That’s the enemy; kill him.
My own experience.
Not that the flaw made them any less dangerous; if anything, the opposite. They didn’t care about getting wounded. Same with this bastard. Instead of being more cautious of Stella, he came at me again with full fury.