TWO INDIVIDUALS STAND BEFORE US.

One of them is a giant of a man: I am now certain that he is a man. He hefts his spiked club over his shoulder, even as the golden sparks shower over his back. He wears thick armor, like a metal shell around his hunched back, and his oversized jaw twists into a grin.

The second individual is smaller. Far smaller. It does not stand, but floats. Green tendrils of varying sizes peeked out from beneath its black robe. Its body… is its head. It looks like a severely disfigured and plump fish. Even its eyes do not blink. And its pupils are not round. Rather, they bend as they slice horizontally across its golden sclera.

“Who are you?” I ask, readying for anything they may do.

I glance over at Kalmat and Nindran, both of whom are fully prepared for a fight; I am too, knowing that they are likely void pirates, here for Idu. Still, I continue.

“Why have you come to this world?”

The giant blue man leans forward. “We…” His words are soft yet guttural. Unpronounced. But wait— he does not have a universal translator. He is speaking the language of this world all on his own. “...kill.” He charges forward, and I take a fighting stance.

Nindran is the first to react. The Lifeblood around her coalesces into a small tsunami. It washes over the crater straight at the pair. It knocks the giant back, but the tentacled creature zips up into the air. Its tendrils sharpen as they are aimed our way.

Kalmat steps forward, raising his sword. “Sword of Esh!” The glowing blade joins together with his Aspect, searing the sky with a single swing. The attack severes the oncoming tendrils, eliciting a high-pitched shriek from the creature.

I leap into the air as I call forth my Qi. It pools together into flames that spread out like a wing behind me. The wisping red turns into an iridescent color, forming a phoenix that clouds the sky.

“Liufan Sacred Technique: The Wrath of the Heavens!”

It crashes down at the creature, dragging it down towards the stumbling giant. The flames explode up into a pillar of brilliant light. I hover in the air, my Aspect forming my own wings, as I carefully watch the scene of the blast.

“Are they dead?” Kalmat calls out, his weapon still raised.

“They are not.” I narrow my eyes. I can see them moving within the smoke and dust, while the blanket settles. “They are far more durable than mere Esh.”

“Of course they are,” Nindran groans. “Pishtim bleed on me— what else did you think, Kalmat? That it’d be over that easily?”

“Focus,” he snaps, gathering more of his Aura. His Aspect grows more massive, morphing into a giant blade made of black and gold. “By the Grovetender, we can’t let them leave this site.”

“Leave?” The giant smiles. “We… no… leave.”

The creature hovers above him, making a scuttling clicking noise with its mandibles.

“Uru says… we….” I raise a brow as the giant continues speaking. It seems Uru is the name of the creature. The giant himself does not give a name; he simply continues. “...own… world.”

“Did Idu send you?” I cross my arms, descending slightly to meet the level of Uru. “If he did, tell him that he can take Galgom back and leave this world.”

“Gal… gom?” The giant blinks. He is confused. He does not know who that is.

I narrow my eyes. “How—”

And he throws his club. It crackles with energy as it rips through the air. I dive out of the way, only to watch his figure blur. He is pulled towards his club, grabbing it and appearing next to me. With a heavy swing, he knocks me down.

“Tian!” Nindran screams.

She unleashes a Ray of Esh at the giant. The blast knocks him further into the sky like a ball being thrown by a child. Uru lashes out with its dozen tendrils, barely grazing Nindran as she leaps out of the way.

Kalmat slashes at the tendrils, severing half a dozen of them with a single swing. Both he and Nindran engage Uru as I glance back up at the giant.

He hurls his club again, and I dodge it, readying for him to be pulled to it. When he is, I spin and strike him across the face with a kick. He grunts before I follow up with an open palm strike at his chest.

His armor clangs, a loud noise resounding as the metal reverberates to his shell. I frown as the energy seems to redirect up his back and into the club. The head of the club glows, and he swings it down, releasing a blast wave.

I flicker out of existence.

Void Walk.

The giant blinks, confused, when I appear behind him. I land on his back while he falls from the sky. He tries to reach for me, saying something in his own native language.

“Get off me—”

With a deep breath, I gather the Qi to my arms and use that force to rip off the back of his armor. Electricity sparkles from where there is a tear on his armor. He growls and spins around. His massive club strikes me with pinpoint accuracy.

Except— I shatter into shards of rainbow-colored glass. It is an illusion, from the School of Phantasm. He crashes back into the earth, alone and by himself.

“Where are you?” he bellows.

And I stab him through the back.

My Aura coalesces into a different Aspect. Not wings. But rather, a blade, similar to Kalmat’s. Compared to his bladed Aspect, mine is a shoddy knife. But it does the job. It pierces through the giant’s skin. He struggles, reaching over his shoulder for the blade.

But I plunge it even deeper.

He makes a noise. “You—” He tries to speak in Utana’s language. Then he collapses.

I glance over to the side as Nindran and Kalmat finish off Uru. The azure-haired woman leaps into the air, conjuring a pillar of flames. It crashes into the creature, and Kalmat cuts his way through the roiling fire. He strikes straight at the body of it— not its tendrils that seem to regrow every time they are cut.

Then he twists his blade and slashes down. There is a screech. Uru writhes in pain as Kalmat cuts into it with his Aspect while Nindran burns it. It tries to grab them with its tendrils, but I clap my hands together and needles shoot out, formed from the broken metal armor.

It strikes the tendrils mid-air, before it can reach my friends. Unable to do anything, the creature finally dies from the accumulated damage.

I land next to Nindran and Kalmat. The man drags himself back from Uru’s corpse. He is covered in green blood and goo.

Nindran steps back. “Ew. That’s gross.”

He frowns and begins wiping himself off. But some of it splashes onto her.

“Don’t get it on me too!”

I roll my eyes. “Let’s investigate this… ship.”

For defeating void pirates, you are awarded a level in your Class!

- Soulborne Level 6 advances to Soulborne Level 7

Tian

Race: Ren

Class: Soulborne Level 7

Feats:

- Void Walk

- Ray of Esh

- Dual Core

- The Guardian’s Blessing

- Soul Cycle

- Lifeblood’s Call

- Aura Pull

So, they were void pirates after all...

***

“There isn’t much here,” Kalmat comments as we rummage through the crashed disc-like structure. “It’s nothing like Galgom’s Hive. It’s just… a room.”

“Thanks for stating the obvious.” Nindran glances around, standing in the center of the inclined floor. The entire ship is halfway dug into the earth, tilted on its side, so it is not possible to stand on flat ground here. “Let’s just leave— this place is literally empty.”

“There has to be something more,” I say, pulling open the white floor. There is nothing under the tiles. “They cannot possibly have just come here with nothing on them.”

“Well, they probably did.” She shrugs. “And if we missed anything, we could always come back later. C’mon, Keshiy, Seiled, and the others are probs worried about us.”

“Very well.” Kalmat nods.

I concede as well, forming my wings and carrying them back to Thornthistle. The trip back does not take long. I spot the city in the distance, and it is just as we left it before we left. There are crowds gathered on the streets, with familiar figures standing on the crenellations and walls girdling the tall towers.

A bell rings just as we land on the battlements. Seiled, Keshiy, and Beihal are there alongside many others of the Keepers of the Grove.

“You’re back!” Keshiy hugs Kalmat. He smiles at her as they let go of each other.

“So, what was it?” Seiled looks up at me expectantly.

“Ships. Just as Galgom said.” My words are not unexpected. And yet, grave looks cross through their faces. “Ones that can travel through the void between worlds. And it brought them here to kill us.”

“You defeated them though, right?” The boy purses his lips.

“Of course we did.” Nindran scoffs. “Did ya think we’d be back here if we didn’t win?”

He breathes a sigh of relief, but Kalmat shakes his head. “Nevertheless, they are strong. They are very much a threat to this world.”

“How strong are they?” Beihal places a hand on his chin.

“They are strong. Very strong.” I nod at the bulky man “They were able to survive one of my greatest techniques. That is something even many Florescence in my world cannot do. And despite there only being two of them, the three of us struggled to win.”

That causes a worry amongst those listening; not everyone is gathered here, only those who are aware of what is happening. Nelrel is not here either, but she is ensuring Galgom does not escape.

“How will we break this news to the city?” Keshiy rubs her temples, and Seiled snorts.

“We’ll just tell them it’s another Galgom. And that we’ll beat them again!” He pumps a fist into the air.

“Each of them are equal to an individual Galgom— maybe even stronger.” I cast my gaze back towards the violet sky. “And we do not know how many more of them there are.”

“But you took on hundreds of Galgoms! Surely a few of these guys won’t be a problem, right?” the boy protests.

I sigh, not enthused to admit my own shortcomings. “I did not defeat more than a few dozen Galgoms. Even then, I struggled greatly. We would have lost if not for his own foolishness. This—” I meet Seiled’s eyes. “I fear that this may be even greater of a threat than Galgom himself.”

He opens his mouth, but Kalmat speaks up.

“Tian is right. Right now, there are three other ships out there with individuals as strong as those we fought.” His face twists as he rubs a wound on his neck. “I’m not prepared to face them just yet. I’ll have to recover before we can protect the other cities.”

“Ugh, we have to fight even more of those people?” Nindran scowls.

I close my eyes, feeling my reserves of Qi. It is slowly restoring itself, depleting my reserves of Aura. But it is enough. “You two should rest. I will head to the other crash sites. Stop them from attacking the other cities.”

“Wait, you can’t go on your own!” Seiled sputters. “Take us with you!”

“You need to protect Thornthistle if they come here. Especially while Nindran and Kalmat are injured.”

“They’ll be fine by tomorrow!”

“For once, I’ll have to agree with Tian.” Beihal steps in front of the boy, holding him back. “If these people are truly like Galgom— by the Grovetender, they’ll be able to wrought a lot of death and destruction in a single day.”

The boy hesitates, but he does not argue any further.

“Are you sure, Tian?” The azure-haired woman gives me a worried look.

I smile, placing a hand on her shoulder. “I will be fine. Do not worry and just focus on recovering.”

She nods, then she hugs me. “Stay safe.”

“I will.” My wings materialize behind me, and I fly off, in search for the other void pirates on my own.