SB4 C45: Grudge (2)

45 - Grudge (2)

As Deborah’s sword accelerated impossibly quickly, I closed my eyes and let the pressure of the incomplete Stormbreak rank-up and its associated Law wash over me.

I’d pulled the same trick against Tallas, in my first fight against the God of Thunder’s minions—dropped into a Law-Learning process to buy myself a moment to think. That time, I’d needed a series of moves I could use to even the odds against a superior opponent. This time, I needed a play I could make from Thunderbolt Forms that would save me from Deborah’s one-shot kill move. It was a simpler goal.

And because it was a simpler goal, I found the only solution very quickly. I’d call on Dad.

He—not the Stormkin Avatar, but the real him—had put himself between monsters and me before. This time, I only needed his presence for a second, or maybe two. That’s all it would take to dull Deborah’s blow, and I could let the Avatar fade immediately after. Simple. Effective. And the only move I had.

So, with that settled, I steeled myself and opened my eyes.

Sheets of lightning covered the sky, throwing the world into a strobing, headache-inducing barrage of white light so bright it would have outshone the sun and turned pitch-black darkness into high noon. The night sky was only broken—when it wasn’t being drowned out by the sheet lightning—by streaks of ball lightning crashing down onto the desert below and rocketing across the sand. The air reeked of ozone and molten glass; red-orange streaks faded to yellow in the ball lightnings’ wake.

It could have been intimidating. Should have been, in fact. But it wasn’t. I recognized the mental space for what it was—a reflection of my core, filled with Stormbreak’s wrath and fury.

And, for the first time, I embraced it. Not just that it was a weapon in my toolkit, but that it wasn’t the double-edged sword I’d wielded in that bathroom, or in the trap portal. I smiled—sending a twinge of pain across my still-shattered face—and spat off the mountaintop as I stood from my seated lotus position. The Unbroken Storm was all around me. More than that, it was me.

It wasn’t just a stupid title they’d given me during the Fallen Delvers Tournament.

It was who I was. Unbroken. Unbreakable. I would find a way to win, to keep going, to persevere. I was the Unbroken Storm. And I embraced that fact, for the first time, wholeheartedly.

Law Learned: Third Law of the Unbroken Storm
Stormbreak: Rank C to Rank B

All that you have and more. That is the price of the Stormsteel Path—and that is the price you have paid, Kade Noelstra. Your commitment has been noted, and now, the thunder’s power and lightning’s fury are yours to command. All you must do is reach out and claim it, and your journey down the Path will continue.

Your control over the storm within you increases.

◄▼►

Kade’s eyes flicked closed as Deborah’s sword cut through the very molecules in the air on its way toward his neck, and she gritted her teeth. The impacts were always the worst—the moment the steel bit into flesh and plowed through bone. The results were exactly what she needed, but the impact…the impact never felt familiar. It was always messy and foreign.

Not that she hated killing. Far from it. But she hated that bone-on-blade feeling.

The sword hit something.

Deborah winced. Then her eyes opened wide as a massive, lightning-armored figure erupted from Kade’s body and threw itself on her sword. Her skill activated, and the storm knight faded instantly. So did her skill—without touching the fucking kid.

“How?” she asked.

“How?” Kade answered. His sword flicked toward her face, impossibly quickly, and her helmet took the blow, but molten brass bubbled down the edge. “Simple. My dad would die for me. He did die for me. But you?”

They traded blows, but for every one Deborah landed, three rained down on her. She needed to disengage. She backpedaled toward the burning, smoldering egg, shield up to take lightning sword strikes. One slipped through, cutting at the chain mail covering her underarm and drawing blood. “Fuck!”

He was fast. How was he so fast at A-Rank? She backed up even harder. All she needed was one second—maybe two—and she could get her balance again. Kade had done what Angelo Lawrence hadn’t been able to, and had taken control of the fight from her. How was that possible?

Lightning surged around her, and the paltry few points of Mana she’d managed to assemble drained away. Deborah braced herself; she knew what was coming. She’d been through it before.

Then two flowers of lightning erupted in the massive work-floor, blooming brilliantly enough to blot out the molten brass glowing far below—and the equally-glowing metal covering the floor where Kade had attacked with his stupid, fucking lightning sword.

◄▼►

Stormbreak.

B-Ranked Stormbreak.

Even that wasn’t enough to shatter Deborah Callahan’s armor and end her. She was an S-Rank delver, encased in the very best armor an S-Rank portal could forge. A single B-Rank attack wasn’t going to be enough to shatter it.

But as the lightning pulsed over and over, I grinned ferally through the battle trance that was settling over my vision. “A different person would have seen the Light of Dawn for who he was!” I shouted over the storm.

“A monster?” Deborah yelled back. Sure enough, she wasn’t down. She was hurt, but not down. Her arm twitched under her armor; it’d take a minute or two for her Stamina and self-healing to recover from that.

“A father!”

“Bullshit!”

I nodded and ducked in. The last thing Deborah needed was a moment to breathe. Thunderblade accelerated my attacks; I didn’t care that her armor and sword caught the blows. All I wanted was pressure. So much pressure that Deborah would do the predictable thing and keep retreating.

The battle trance took over, and I focused until my entire being was targeted on the tip of my sword. Deborah Callahan was nothing. Nothing but another playground bully, picking on a kid who couldn’t defend themselves. But this time…this time, she’d fucked up. This time, she wasn’t fighting Kade Noelstra. She was fighting the storm. The Unbroken Storm.

Electricity rippled across Nimbus Edge’s tip as Lightning Charges appeared, one after another, only to be poured into sustaining the Thunderblade. I danced back and forth, sword slamming into Deborah’s armor and sword even as she struggled to get her shield-arm to cooperate. Thunderbolt Forms was the correct stance for this. Not any other. Not yet. This wasn’t a fight of finesse or trading blows. It wasn’t a waltz.

To win this, it had to be a beat-down.

Deborah’s sword punched into my calf. Pain ripped up my leg as it cracked the Stormsteel armor there and slid into muscle, but I ignored it, save to apply just enough Stamina that I could breathe through the agony. My sword flashed. Brass chain popped like a kid’s bracelet, and a wound opened up under her sword arm. “Good trade,” I said through gritted teeth.

Then I pressed even harder. Rain-Slicked Blade consumed my last Rainfall Charge, and the sword ripped into Deborah’s shield pauldron, then back out. I reactivated Thunderblade again—but this time, I danced to Mistwalk Forms just long enough to parry her sloppy counterattack and Mistform her next instant-kill skill, then right back to Thunderbolt stance.

“I’m going to kill you, you bastard!” Deborah screamed.

“Oh? How?”

She howled in rage and threw herself at me. Instead of defending myself, I stepped back, pulling my head and neck away from her sword. My foot planted on the massive welding torch that hung from the ceiling, and I pushed off it. Rain-Slicked Blade, this time with all my weight and momentum behind it. The sword sank into Deborah’s chest. Her blade sliced a flap of skin loose across my scalp. Blood poured from the two wounds.

I hit the ground behind her, landing awkwardly on my injured leg, but even as she spun to follow up, Stormkin Avatar erupted from my body, and Dad’s sword took the blow.

That was the biggest difference between the two of us, Deborah and me.

She’d been using people her whole life. Carter and his teams. Angelo Lawrence. Everyone she’d met was a tool to her. They were just stepping stones on her way to power.

And they were to me, too. Dad, Ellen, Jeff…they’d all helped me grow. I’d used them to walk the Stormsteel Path. And Eugene…Eugene especially.

But they were all more than that. I’d made promises to them, and unlike Deborah, those promises stayed in my head. Take care of Jessie. Make Dad proud. Be with Ellen for the long haul. Drag my friends and family with me, help them succeed and advance, and get stronger for it. Those promises mattered to me. They didn’t to Deborah.

The Stormkin Avatar slammed into Deborah shoulder-first. The impact rocked even her massive, brass armor back a step, and she barely got her shield up to block his lightning sword. I ducked around behind her, and Nimbus Edge cut in through a still-molten gap in her armor.

She grunted in pain and whirled, sprinting backward to get both the Avatar and me on one side of her. I recognized the tactic; she couldn’t let herself get flanked.

And I was ready for it. Mistwalk Forms. Windwalk. I dashed through the air, pushed off, and landed in front of her. My Mana dropped like a rock, but I forced myself to block her charging attack, then grabbed her shield with my free hand. My muscles strained as I pulled on it, ripping it to the left.

Toward the flaming egg.

And toward the two S-Rankers inside of it.

I’d made commitments to my team, too. To Sarah and Nathan, and to the others. We were going to clear this portal and end the threat in Carlsbad for good—even if it killed us. And the egg wasn’t just sitting there. It had stopped burning, and now, it smoldered like dying embers.

Deborah’s sword cut across my Stormsteel vambrace, but the blade’s edge was shockingly dull—the armor had been doing its job. It barely cut the skin. I smiled. “Your every blow weakens you.”

She screamed in rage and threw herself at me. Her shield ripped out of my hand, and I ducked the blow, then lowered my shoulder as the Stormkin Avatar faded. I shoved her toward the flame egg.

It hatched just as we hit.

Sarah’s eyes widened, and her hand reached out. For a moment, I thought she was trying to catch the brass-armored Deborah, but no—her fingers formed a rough spear-point, not an open palm. Her hand slid into the gap in Deborah’s armor.

And, for the first time, Deborah Callahan screamed. Her back arched, and her arms stiffened in agony. Whatever Sarah Cullman was doing to her, it was torture. She curled up on the ground, sword falling from her hand.

I didn’t hesitate. Nimbus Edge punched into her armor, right below her helmet, and blood poured onto the brass floor for a moment before the wound cauterized in a cascade of lightning.  I let go of the grip, leaving the weapon in place, and backed up a few steps. Then, and only then, did the battle trance fade.

And pain roared in to replace it.

My leg was shredded; I’d pushed my cut calf muscle to its limits and beyond, letting Stamina take the strain. I collapsed as the leg gave out from under me, getting a cut and bruised arm up just in time to catch my weight and keep my skull from bouncing off the brass floor. Even so, the impact sent a pulse of dizziness across my whole body, and my vision blurred. I’d taken a beating. No, more than that—I hadn’t realized just how many times Deborah Callahan had hit me during our fight. Dozens of wounds, some deep enough to see bone.

“You’re a maniac, Kade Noelstra,” someone said.

“Ellen?” I asked stupidly. I couldn’t see; the concussion and my injured eye were both flaring up, and my head pounded like a thousand drummers were beating on it.

“No. Sarah. That’s not the first time someone’s called you that, huh?” Her hand—not the one that had been inside Deborah’s ribcage, thank god—rested on my head, and even more pain rippled across my body. I let it happen, trying to grit my teeth through it. “You’re going to be fine, kid. I’ve got you.”

That felt…less than reassuring. “Nathan?”

“He’s fine. His reincarnation’s down until he can rest, though, and he’s out of resources.”

“I’m better than I’ve been in a while, though,” the Phoenix Reborn said, a hint of laughter in his voice. The sound of something kicking something cut through my pounding head. “You got her, alright, Kade. Good work.”

Sarah hesitated for a second. Then the healing kept pouring in. As it did, I pulled up my status.

User: Kade Noelstra
Reforged Core, A-Rank
Stamina: 71/500, Mana: 32/630

Skills: 
1. Stormsteel Core (A-07 to A-09, Unique, Merged, God-Touched)
2. Thunderbolt Forms (A-06 to A-08, Altered, Merged)
3. Mistwalk Forms (A-06 to A-07, Altered, Merged)
4. Cyclone Forms (A-06, Altered, Merged)
5. Stormlight Bond (B-10, Altered, Merged)
6. Shadowstorm Battery (C-10, Altered, Merged, Dual)
7. Stormbreak (C-10 to B-02, Unique)

My whole body hurt, and I could hardly think. But even through all the pain Sarah was forcing me to feel as bones and tendons knit themselves together, a trio of thoughts managed to make themselves known.

First, that Angelo Lawrence, the Light of Dawn and Depth of Midnight, the most powerful delver in Phoenix, was dead. The suit jacket sitting on the floor in tatters, only a few feet from me, was proof of that.

Second, Deborah’s alliance with the monsters in this portal meant only trouble for our attempt to clear it, because she’d also been working for an SS-Plus-Ranked Paragon on the same level as the God of Thunder. There was no way that monster wouldn’t intervene now that she was dead.

And third, Stormsteel Core was dangerously close to the push to S-Rank, and I still had no idea how to make that happen. Worse, my other skills were too far behind. I needed three A-Rank skills to push to S-Rank, and until I had them, what I’d just done was the absolute limit of my power.