NOVEL NEXT Book 2 Chapter 19: Moving On
Skimming stones was fun for five minutes, but Jay didn't quite have Marko's enthusiasm for the pastime. After his final throw didn't even bounce once, Jay took it as a sign to stop wasting time and look back on his sparring session instead.
"How is anyone supposed to beat you when you can just teleport away like that?" he asked.
Jay had made some progress on highlighting the suddenness of his attacks. He'd even forced Marko on the defensive during their last few rounds. Yet he still couldn't come up with a counter to Marko's teleportation.
Simply asking the gladiator felt a bit brazen, but Marko's relaxed nature convinced Jay it was at least worth a shot.
"I'm not invincible Jay," he replied. "Teleporting tires me out–especially over long distances–and you've seen how nauseous I get after a blink."
Jay met Marko's wry smile with a sigh. "Tiring you out all well and good, but how do I fight back when you teleport me?"
"The trick is to stop me from teleporting entirely, not to counter the teleport."
"And how am I supposed to do that?"
Marko hurled another stone across the lake. It only bounced eight times—poor by his lofty standards. He looked up to Jay and his frown became a cheeky smile.
"Do you expect me just to tell you that?"
Jay shrugged. "Well…yeah."
"Fair enough. Jack would tell you anyway if you asked him, so it's not exactly hidden knowledge."
Marko walked along the shoreline, eyes darting across the beach in search of a good stone.
"Have you read up on domains and authority? It's pretty basic stuff but if you're not into harmonic theory you might not have heard of it."
Jay explained the preparation for his fight with Davad to Marko. Domains weren't new to him, even if he'd neglected to study them in favour of other techniques over the past month. Authority however, was a new concept to him.
"You've seen it before, you just didn't know it. Most harmonic techniques are a result of understanding an essence and using its power to aid you in some way. Techniques involving authority are more one sided. Your personal essence essentially commands the worldly essence to do as it's told."
"So I just tell the essence of teleportation to stop working and it just stops?"
"No. You don't understand the essence of teleportation, so why would it heed your commands? The command you make must reflect the essences you have proficiency over. Jack might command the essence of chains to keep me locked in place. You could potentially do something similar with the essence of grappling."
"That seems…shockingly easy."
"It isn't. You need great control and knowledge of an essence to exercise your authority over it. I was very surprised when your friend Akira pulled it off during the advancement tournament. Domains are somewhat common in E grade, although rarely as advanced as your old opponent, but commanding authority is quite rare.
"Did you not find it strange when he propelled you into the jungle and knocked three opponents off balance with a single word?
Jay paused to think about his teammate's words as Marko picked up another stone and threw it over the lake.
Fourteen bounces. Not bad.
"Plus, I'm not exactly defenceless," said Marko, "I can use my authority over the essence of teleportation to break past your blockade too."
"But if that happens, who wins?" asked Jay.
"Theoretically, whoever desires their outcome more. However at our level it's largely based on how well you know the essence and how accustomed you are to commanding it."
Jack's familiar voice interrupted Jay's thoughts on authority, cutting them short before he could pepper Marko with more questions. "When you think of authority, remember the second half of Harmony's standard definition."
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Kestrel's captain leaned against a tree behind them, frowning at Jay and Marko.
"Moulding the world in one's image. When you use your authority you're not just altering the world, you're altering its essences too. By denying Marko's essence of teleportation, I'm creating a world where my own essence of chains is more dominant. On the other hand, I could use my authority over the essence of the escape to amplify his teleportation, it all depends on what direction I want to take the world's Harmony in."
Jack kicked off the tree and waved Jay and Marko towards him.
"But that's enough of that. Let's head to the war room—we're on another mission tomorrow. If you get there fast enough, I won't even tell Samira that you two left the treeline."
The glowing Embrite crystals washed Samira's war room in a sickly amber that reminded Jay of a wartime bunker. The tile-laden map of the Whispertide Archipelago did nothing but help the comparison in Jay's mind, but he was happy to see a lone blue tile amongst a stack of reds atop Miranda. Hopefully Samira had found something interesting at the Malaroy docks.
Limitless Ascent's leader stood by the table holding up two blue counters. Beside her, Don Enzo frowned at the tile-strewn war table.
Perhaps it was simply the dim, orange lighting, but the resistance leader appeared more gaunt and wrinkled than when Jay had seen him on the first night of the fight.
"You have two objectives on your mission tomorrow," said Samira. She placed both blue tiles on a small island named 'Hisoka' halfway across the map from the Full Moon Sanctuary. "Like many of the islands here, Hisoka is a Titan bone fragment. Instead of influencing the rocks, like the Titan's power usually does, in Hisoka it emerges via the island's gum trees."
Samira reached below the table for a ruler-sized strip of wood. She bent it in half with ease, tying it into a knot before bouncing it off the table towards Jay.
The uneven knot bounced sideways but Jay jerked out a hand and caught it. Running his fingers along the twisted surface he could tell that it was undeniably wood, yet it also squished when he pressed his finger into it, pushing back into place when he relieved the pressure. Jay almost expected his fingers to stick to the wood's strange surface, but he pulled it off easily.
So it has the properties of rubber, not gum.
Jay tossed the knotted wood over to Corrine, who seemed far more interested in it than the rest of Kestrel.
"I assume the special wood's why the Directorate are interested in Hisoka," said Jay. "What do we need to do once we get there?"
Samira nodded at Jay before directing her orders towards Kestrel's captain, Jack. "You have two objectives. First, you need to assess the path from Gomara Yards, Hisoka's largest lumber mill, to the port town of Navaras.
"The Directorate were previously using an Old Era device called 'the Sawblade' to harvest Hisoka's wood faster. We believe the Smothering Grasp Alliance are commandeering it to be used in the fight. In four days time it will be transported off the island and I want to intercept the convoy and hopefully steal the device.
"When that day comes, you'll be there with another team. Tomorrow, I need you to plan the attack."
At least we're included in the plan this time…
"Which team are we going to be paired with?" asked Marko. Corinne had passed him the knotted wood he was currently twisting it as far as he could, testing the limits of its elasticity.
"That depends on how you plan out the ambush. It'll be one of our assault teams, whichever one is best suited to the attack."
Jay raised his eyebrow. An opportunity to fight alongside one of Limitless Ascent's premier fighters could surely give him some advice on how to fight like electricity. He would definitely learn something from the ambush.
"And what's our second objective?" asked Jay.
"Why? Is the first one too boring?" replied Samira, smirking as she almost looked down on Jay. "You'll like the second one far more."
Samira waved her arm and a wave of light rippled over the war table. Jay saw two humanoid figures superimposed above Whispertide's many islands. The holographic illusions hovered unmoving but rotated clockwise like they stood on a spinning pedestal.
Both figures wore slightly baggy brown suits and had their shaggy blonde hair shaped into messy mohawks that exposed the sagging, pinkish skin around their ears. As the figures spun around, Jay saw that they were both identical, each as ugly as the other. Both figures had leathery pig's snouts covering the majority of their faces while two tusks jutted out of the sides of their puckered lips.
The tusks were in fact the main differentiator between both figures, as one had both completely intact while the second had his right tusk cracked in half.
"These are the Arrandoz twins, Yandiel and Randiel," said Don Enzo, speaking for the first time since the meeting had started. Much like whenever the elderly man talked about the Directorate, he seemed to be balling up phlegm and preparing to spit it at his feet.
"The cruel bastards cause riots on every island they step foot on. They're sick, twisted, and good for nothing but fish bait. Every breath they take in Whispertide is a disgrace to the Titan and everyone he watches over."
Enzo spat out the glob of phlegm before glowering at Samira.
"So you want us to kill the twins?" asked Jack, staring at the grotesque illusions.
"I want you to kill one of them."
Huh…
"It doesn't matter which one. Preferably Yandiel as he's the more measured brother. The aim is to prompt the remaining twin into making rash decisions for the sake of revenge and leverage those decisions to create an advantage over the Smothering Grasp Alliance."
Rash decisions for the sake of revenge eh… where'd you get that idea from?
Jay could've sworn he saw Samira's eyes flicker towards him but he didn't meet them. Instead he watched Don Enzo, who continued to glare at the alliance leader.
He didn't blame him.
At the month's end. Samira and her gladiators would return to the coliseum unharmed, meanwhile she was playing with his people's lives like they were mere statistics, casualties already piled by the wayside on her path to victory.
"Kill one of the twins, then scout out an ambush spot. Got it," said Jack. "We'll leave at dusk."