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[Skill-Eater] Chapter 25: Storm
🕑 Added 2024-07-15 17:10:00 +0000 UTCThe clouds’ rapid advance and unnatural radiance let Edge know what he was dealing with. It was a type of natural disaster that he’d studied before coming to Ord, but never thought he would experience firsthand.
He started running as fast as he could, sprinting toward the fingers for everything he was worth. Adrenaline flooded his veins like a damn bursting. His heart hammered in his chest and his breath came fast and shallow.
He wouldn’t have been so afraid if an ordinary storm was headed his way, although they could be dangerous for the unprepared. But a living storm was something else entirely.
Living storms, also known as seeker storms, were a magical phenomenon that traveled at incredible speeds. They were infamous for catching people by surprise, ending their lives before they even realized that they were in danger. Although they seldom dropped much rain, seeker storms created gusts of winds powerful enough to send grown men flying.
While that was reason enough for alarm, it wasn’t the true threat posed by the storm.
The reason that the sight of the storm on the horizon sent Edge running for his life was the wrath of the lightning they contained. Living storms were choked full of concentrated mana, in a form that was naturally drawn to cored creatures.
The storm’s golden lightning didn’t strike at random. It aggressively sought out people, monsters, and beasts, actively changing its path whenever it sensed them.
Once it overtook its prey, the bolts would fall like rain, blasting time and time again until its target was blown to smoldering bits. Living storms were impossible to outrun by conventional means. The few people that survived being caught in one invariably boasted powerful skills, none of which Edge had.
Seeker storms were incredibly rare on the Ivory Plains, though they were common along the frontier. Either the planet’s weather had shifted since the disaster, or Edge was just unlucky. Not that the reason mattered. All that mattered was that he was going to die if he didn’t have something solid over his head before the storm overtook him.
By now, the wind was howling across the plains, sending violent waves rolling along the endless grass. That’s not good. If Edge could feel the gale already, there wasn’t a second to spare.
There were only two reasons that he had a chance of surviving the storm’s fury. The first was that he was less than five miles away from the fingers, while the stormfront was further out. The second was that living lightning behaved a bit differently from its mundane cousin.
Once a seeker storm found a target, it linked with the mana welling up from the ground. The connection made the area where lightning was going to strike glow for a few seconds before the bolt discharged. You could get out of the way, if you saw it coming and moved fast.
It didn’t do much good when bolts were falling hundreds of times every minute. But on the periphery of the storm, where the magic was less intense, you had a chance of avoiding a strike.
All this passed through Edge’s mind within a matter of minutes as he made a mad dash for his life. The next time he looked over his shoulder, the storm covered half the sky; a battalion of angry blue clouds erasing the world of light from horizon to horizon. It would be overhead within five minutes at most, unleashing electric oblivion upon him.
By now, the spars of green stone were looming large. Edge was less than two miles away from the Guide’s Fingers. Before he could take another step, twilight rose to envelop him, as the storm crossed in front of the sun. Within another handful of heartbeats, it would find him, and the lightning would begin to fall.
He had done well to make it this far. He’d crossed the plains in a flash, thanks to his powerful new body and what felt like a gallon of cortisol coursing through his bloodstream. He’d pushed himself hard, but it was clear by now that his best wasn’t going to be good enough.
I’m not going to make it in time. The storm is already changing course and speeding up. It’s got me in its sights. Sure enough, less than a minute later, the world around him began to glow gold.
Oh shit. Oh fuck. His heartbeat kicked up another gear as Edge pushed his body into a greater burst of speed, knowing deep in his bones that his life was on the line. The auric radiance intensified as the smell of ozone filled the air, the very breeze crackling with electricity.
The first bolt would land in another second or two tops. If he was anywhere near the point of impact, it would fry him to a crisp. It was hard to tell where the light was centered since it was so bright, and more than one bolt was forming at once.
But Edge had no choice other than to take his best guess. He darted to one side and then sprinted away as fast as his feet would carry him.
He took another four steps before the world behind him exploded. A flash so intense that it seared his retinas ensued, followed by a boom so powerful it rattled his teeth.
The pulse of energy sent him flying. He was bewildered and battered, shaken and shocked. But Edge didn’t have time to regain his bearings. He rolled back onto his feet and kept right on running.
He was covered in bruises and burns. Regeneration was hard at work, erasing the damage before it could slow him down. It still hurt like hell, but Edge knew that he’d been lucky. If that strike had been any closer, it would have turned his body into a conduit between the mana suffusing the ground and that comprising the storm, reducing him to cinders beyond any hope of healing.
His train of thought was interrupted as another patch of earth began to glow, then a second a bit further to one side. Edge charted a path between them, praying that there was enough room to pass through. He had to risk it, running around or backtracking would get him killed him for sure.
Both bolts landed half a heartbeat apart as he sprinted past, casting him face first into the grass once more.
He picked himself up and was running before his feet hit the ground. The world was already shining gold again, gilding the grass beneath his boots. He darted and weaved like a creature possessed, dodging another three strikes as he went.
At last, he arrived at the base of the fingers. Relief flooded through every cell of his body as he took in the expanse of solid stone stretching out before his gaze. But his ordeal wasn’t over yet. Salvation was close, but not close enough.
Edge wouldn’t be safe until he found a cave and ducked inside. While such caverns were everywhere along the base of the fingers, the heart of the storm was only seconds away from crossing over his head. When it reached him, he wouldn’t be dodging scattered strikes, but dozens at a time. He wouldn’t survive ten seconds past that point.
He ran, heart pounding in time with the thunder exploding all around him, dodging stray bolts as he made his way along the perimeter of the massive spars of stone.
The wind hit him like a fist, threatening to carry him away. But Edge gritted his teeth, lowered his profile, and kept on struggling with everything that he had.
Just when he thought that he was done for despite his best efforts, he spotted an opening in the rock. A vision of deliverance just a hundred feet ahead.
At that same moment, his entire world disappeared in a horde of golden lights, like the air had been replaced by neon honey. At least twenty bolts were landing within the next five seconds, clustered around his position.
Edge pushed his body into a final burst of speed, knowing that this was going to be a split-second finish. He shut out his fear. His pain. His doubts. Poured every ounce of his will, every scrap of his strength, into making it in time.
The world grew brighter by the footfall. A buzzing rose to fill his ears. A cataclysmic strike was coming down, and it was coming now.
Mouthing a prayer, Edge flung himself forward and leapt for all he was worth.
Comments
Bryan Dickerson
Awesome. Thank you so much!
Robert McCarter
Fantastic. Very well written. 😀
