Nightsea Outlaw

Alex led the possessed man, whom he assumed was Captain Hawkins, on a chase. The man looked like a bruiser but didn't seem to have the speed. If Alex had to guess, based on his build, he would have learned the Path of Might first. The real question was which path he had taken to gain the captain's rank. All captains knew two paths because that was required to gain the rank. Given that Captain Hawkins couldn't keep up with Alex, that left three options.

The Path of Grit made the user resilient. Like fighting a stone wall or a steel hull, the Path of Grit made the user much harder to hurt. Strength and technique could break through the durability, but normal people couldn't scratch that kind of defense.

The Path of Breath gave the user nearly endless stamina. The Path of Breath allowed the user to fight without tiring and let the user utilize techniques so efficiently that they could use step and might without tiring.

The Path of Will was the hardest to gain and the hardest to quantify. The Path of Will allowed the user to see and react to the world around them faster than a normal person could imagine. It allowed the user to intimidate and convince through their will alone and, to some extent, acted as a damper on the ambient aether around the user.

All three paths were passive, with the Path of Might and the Path of Step being the more active techniques until they were mastered. If all five were mastered, it created a monster that couldn't be stopped. Lucien was the only one Alex ever heard of who had mastered all five paths.

Considering his fight on Glory Plateau, he was happy only to be dealing with someone who knew two. That put him on equal ground with Alex. Alex knew the Path of Might and the Path of Step. The two active ones were easier to gain, but most soldiers in the Military Police didn't go for both.

Alex didn't have a choice in the matter.

"PRO—" a meaty fist struck at Alex, and Alex jumped back again.

"Yeah, I get it," Alex said, feeling around himself with his curse to get an idea if he was far enough away. "You want a promotion."

"Might!"

A second punch Alex hadn't been ready for came for him, and his back hit against a wall to stop him from moving back. Alex had to give it to Captain Hawkins. Even in his controlled state, he had managed to catch Alex off guard.

Boom. Crack.

The wall beside him exploded in a shower of rock and stone. A crack erupted up the wall and down to the ground, parting it like a fault line. Alex rolled to the side, covering his head and coming to his feet in a run until he had a decent distance again. Captain Hawkins stood with his fist buried in the wall for a moment before he extricated his fist in a shower of dust and turned to Alex again.

"Okay, that's confirmed," Alex whispered.

The only questions remaining were his second path and if he had a curse, though Alex doubted it. Despite his experiences in the last few weeks, curses were exceedingly rare. He had just been very unlucky on the last few islands.

"Step."

Alex disappeared in a blur of movement and was within the captain's reach when he reappeared. He punched up with one fist, aiming for the captain's jaw. As he flexed his legs, he also called in the necessary aether to do a much harder move.

"Might," he and Captain Hawkins said at the same time.

Alex's fist connected with the captain's jaw, and pain shot through his ribs as a meaty fist hit him in his side. Alex clenched his teeth hard to stop the scream that escaped his lips as he flew out into the air over the water.

Splash.

Cold water cut across his skin like tiny daggers as he was wrapped in the icy cold water. Alex lay in the water for a moment, floating away from the moon's dim light above. He was stunned, but he wasn't out. His mind was already racing as he guessed the captain's second technique.

The Path of Breath.

It made the most sense. If Alex had been smart, that would have been his second choice to master. That was if he had a choice or the knowledge at the time. Instead, the old man in the cell next to him on August had taught him how to use 'might' and 'step' first.

If he hadn't died on August, Alex would have killed him.

He took that realization as inspiration. He pushed himself out of his stunned mind and began to swim toward the surface. When his head broke the water, he saw Captain Hawkins waiting for him on the docks, except there was a large stone in the captain's hands.

"Come on," Alex groaned, ducking back beneath the water and swimming toward the shore in a rush of movement.

Sploosh.

The stone fell where he had been, and Alex thanked all the luck he had ever gained that the captain was being controlled right now. He hadn't thought he could go toe-to-toe with a captain before this, and he was sure of it now. If the captain were acting on his own with his two paths, Alex wouldn't stand a chance.

The second his foot touched the sand, he muttered through a hail of bubbles as more rocks fell over the water around him.

"Step."

It wouldn't sound like that to someone else near him underwater, but that didn't matter for the purpose of a technique. All that mattered was that it was said to direct the flow of aether through his body and do what he wanted it to do.

He disappeared from underwater, dragging the water around him with him. In a fraction of a second, he stood on solid ground, dropping the accumulated water around him and onto the cobblestones below. The captain stood down the road from him, and Alex watched him turn slowly away from the water.

"You're really some work," Alex spat out some of the water that had gotten caught up in his lungs in the trip out of the water.

"Pro—," the captain muttered in a quieter voice than before.

"Well," Alex took a stance and focused on the area around him again.

He was really regretting losing his staff back on Glory Plateau right now, so he would need to improvise. He could use coins, but they had already proven too ineffective. They were too small to carry enough kinetic force with his magnetism.

"The good news is, you're right next to warehouses," Alex whispered as he charged toward the nearest building and kicked through the double doors with one solid kick.

Crack. Snap.

Whatever held the doors closed snapped under Alex's strength, and he ran into the darkness inside. Behind him, he could hear the echoing footsteps of the captain following after him, but it was already too late. In his senses, Alex's end game was revealed.

Solid pipes made of metal lined the entire area. Alex assumed they were used for some form of plumbing for the island, and he didn't know what kind of metal they were made of, but they practically glowed in his vision as he entered the warehouse. A treasure trove of weapons for someone like him was open. He just needed to reach out and use them.

They had the weight he needed and the strength of their magnetic polarity. He reached out with a hand and tugged on the field of one of the pipes. It flew through an arc in the air and he caught it in his hands as Captain Hawkins ducked inside the warehouse.

"Alright, let's try this now," Alex said, taking a stance with the pipe as he had with his staff, when he still had it.

"PRO—" The captain charged forward at Alex, lit from behind by the moon's dim light.

Alex charged forward and planted the staff like a vaulting pole into the ground. He flew over the captain and landed on the other side as the captain's fist slammed hard into the ground where Alex had been. Alex swung the pipe as they spoke the word together.

"Might!"

Boom. Crack.

Thump.

The ground shattered underneath the captain's strike, and Alex slammed the pipe hard down the captain's back. The shock of the hit shot up Alex's arms, and he felt his entire body shake after the hit. His attack was solid, but the captain's body, using might, had thrown the blow back. Alex had to admit that he had forgotten about that even as a 'might' user.

The Path of Might allowed the user to amplify their strength, and the captain certainly had a leg up on Alex in that department already. While using it, the person's body was also temporarily swelled and stronger. That was why, when Alex pulled the pipe away, the pipe was bent in half.

"Well, imagine that," Alex said as a meaty fist swung forward and caught him in the jaw.

Clash. Clatter.

Alex hit the pipes stacked against the wall hard. As he hit the wall, Red flashed across his eyes, and pipes fell around him. He had about a second before the next blow came, and Alex only barely avoided it by pushing hard on a pipe that was against the wall.

"Might."

Clatter. Boom. Crack.

Alex flew like a rag doll into more pipes but avoided the strike aimed at his head. Again, the captain's meaty fist cracked through a wall, this time letting more moonlight into the warehouse. Alex rolled to his feet and tried to collect himself as he gained some distance.

He was more certain now than ever that Captain Hawkins knew the Path of Breath. He had used 'might' too many times in such a short period. Part of him was thankful it wasn't a Path of Might and Path of Grit combo. Alex wasn't sure if he could handle that.

"Iron Scythe," Alex whispered, reaching out with his curse and taking hold of another pipe as the captain turned to face him again.

He accelerated the pipe as it whirled in a wide arc. He hadn't thrown it, so he hadn't been able to give it nearly the acceleration he wanted to, but he focused on making it spin faster and faster as the captain advanced on him. Once it had arced behind the captain, Alex brought it back toward himself with a yank, bringing it down low as the captain brought his legs close together.

Thunk. Flop.

Even if he couldn't impart a lot of force into it, and even if Captain Hawkins was a massive refrigerator-sized jarhead, no one could keep their balance if you tripped them while they had a narrow stance. The captain was thrown backward and fell to the ground, and Alex charged forward, calling more pipes to himself, seven in total.

"Time to try an oldie, but a goodie," he said to himself as he ran to the captain's prone form, calling the first pipe into his hand. "Might."

He bent the pipe and slammed it hard into the ground around the captain's wrist and proceeded to quickly do the same with each of his limbs and his neck with three total uses of 'might.' When he was done, Alex fell back on his butt away from the captain and laughed. He was giddy from using 'might' so quickly one after another, but he was also sure it would work.

He closed his gate and fell hard on the ground. He needed to take a break. He needed to sleep. Surely, the others could handle the rest. As he closed his eyes, the ground shook around him. Alex peeked one eye open and saw the captain struggling against his binds.

"Come on," Alex whispered. "That isn't fair."

"Full Iron!"

The captain yelled, pulling against all his bonds as once as his muscles surged. It wasn't a technique from one of the paths but one of his own personal creations. Alex's jaw dropped as the captain broke through the pipes and sent them into two broken pieces on either side of him.

The fight wasn't over yet, and Alex wasn't sure he could win anymore.