Bent World: Chapter 27 Golden Portals.

Chapter 27

Golden Portals

Ozone.

The first impression I had of the new rift that was being created right before us was the smell caused by the quick release of compressed gases. Even the power of the nearby monolith seemed to flicker for a moment, as if the monolith itself was taking a moment to empower the rift being created. Which, I now knew to be correct, for the flow of ambient golden energy snaking underground like unseen veins could be seen and felt coursing through the ground and erupting upward to strengthen the rift creator’s progress.

Just seeing the rift creator in action, it was clear that they were not nearly as skilled as Auntie was, but that was to be expected as this woman, this rift creator, was much younger than Auntie. Not that Auntie visibly looked old, unless you measured her by the amount of ambient energy she was able to hold within herself, something that I’ve only recently become more aware of as time has gone one. I don’t know if it has anything to do with my second contact and interaction with a monolith, or if this is just due to my practice but it is clear to me that Auntie is one of the most powerful warriors here.

Knowing she is behind us, along with all the other matriarchs of the great houses and their guardians is something that I am immeasurably grateful for. With them behind me, it allows me to realize that I can go all out and not worry about what happens. If we miss anything, Auntie will be the first to both protect the spectators who were gathered but also chastise us and offer ways to improve.

While I wasn’t certain about being able to complete this portal the first time through, I was certain that we could come together and solve this type of rift at least once. There was only one niggling concern that I had, and that related to the reserves of ambient energy that I would be exposed to, but that didn’t seem to be an issue anymore. Honestly, I don’t know what changed.

I’m assuming whatever changes occurred happened when I first devoured the cascading rift we closed on the day I officially became a Pathfinder. Since that day, I haven’t been affected by ambient energy, despite having been exposed a few times to partial rift outbreaks in and around the manor. While this didn’t mean that I was completely safe, and immune to ambient energy poisoning, like most females inherently seem to be, it did mean that I now felt more comfortable when exposed to ambient energy.

Even now, I could feel the surge of golden energy that my body inherently knew was related to Lightning, but I didn’t feel the deep throbbing ache that I would normally have begun to feel after even a mild exposure.

Right now, being at what constituted ground zero of the attack, I was prepared.

Feeling a slight smile come to my lips, I could almost feel the wave of monsters forcing their way through the rift. A rift that was enhancing their size, power, and capabilities. Worse, or what should have been worse, the monolith seemed to be further infusing power into the monsters, giving them all a layer of lightning protection around them as they began to emerge from the portal.

Telekinetic snap.

Of course, I was no fool, rather than letting an oversized rift monster appear and swarm us, I cheated a little, by snapping the neck of the monster closest to the portals edge. What this did was, it created a bottleneck, one that slowed down the force of surging monsters, and forced monsters to flow around the giant lumbering carcass of what appeared to be a lightning infused giant snapping turtle. A snapping turtle that had both razor sharp teeth and massive claws, at least that is what the other smaller snapping turtles had.

Seeing the eruption of monsters, and realizing that they could collapse inward on themselves, for protection, I decided to act quickly.

Pulling out a few throwing knives, I struck.

Fwoop, fwoop, slink.

Fwoop, fwiboosh, slink.

Two knives flew from my fingers in what was a mostly ridiculous gesture. Had it not been for four quick applications of Telekinesis, the attacks would have likely been avoided by the quick reflexes of the already retreating turtle beasts. Yet, two invisible hands grabbed the exposed heads and kept them out, while two others guided the throwing knives with expert precision and speed to the overly soft patches of skin that should be the first part protected by a quick retreat.

What happened next was even more chaos, at least as far as the monsters trying to exit the overly large rift were concerned, as this created two more large bodies that the other monsters had to crawl over and around. The movements were so tight, with so many monsters trying to get over and through the rift, that a few got momentarily wedged in on the sides, while others crawled and clattered over the shells.

Still the monsters came, a relentless charge of monsters that were about as tall as a full-fledged horse. A turtle-horse that moved with the speed and grace of a charging mustang, and wielding the armor of a tank, while being coated with a faint golden glow of electricity. Given our young ages, even with our recent growth from powering up, made it so we were only half a head taller than the beasts.

This was the making of a terrible battle, especially if the rift creators were allowed to continue to grow the rift, fortunately there were rules and regulations as to what we could be exposed to.

Without even commenting, the three girls moved into a pincer attack, opting for longer spears to be used. Spears that they also coated in electrical energy. Seeing their actions, I couldn’t help but mentally shake my head in jealousy. Here it was clear to see the effect that being exposed to this monolith had directly on them. Rather than being a battle of unawakened beings, getting run over and devastated by infused magical beings, here the girls got to show off their own prowess.

Moving as a single unit, they focused on the first beast that managed to crawl over the line of corpses, Lady Oteranski made the first strike, hitting the front right leg, while Lady Jaupry struck at the left leg. While both damages had been minimal, barely able to pierce the thick muscle and hide of the beast, it did prevent the creature from being able to retract its legs and hide them.

“Arrarrah!” The creature cried out in clear pain as it began biting at the spears, only to find that they were metal and more durable than the ones being offered by the carnival operators.

The one monster getting through also slowed down the advance of the others that were also trying to get through as well. Seeing the others still trying to slink their way out, I pulled out two more throwing knives and flung them. Once again the throws were exaggerated, but effective.

Fwoop, squish.

Fwoop, squish.

These two were thrown overhand and managed to perfectly pierce the eyes of the beasts before sliding through and piercing the brain. Their force somehow unstopped even by the massive skull that offered minimal resistance to the blades. What couldn’t be seen was the way the blades bounced upward, once in the skull, piercing more of the monster’s brains.

Thud.

Almost instantly, the two monsters that had emerged from the side dropped to the ground, either dead, or their bodies no longer able to move about due to damage generated by my blades. Either way it meant that our fatal funnel had been further narrowed.

With the risk of monsters flanking us taken care of, I began moving forward, taking my blade to slash at the monsters that appeared. Aiming for debilitating blows, so that other members of the team could claim kills. Mentally I was already calculating five kills, four of which were undisputable.

From there, it was slow and steady.

Zzap.

Once or twice, I could feel the intense increase of electricity around me, but mostly my protective gear kept me safe. That and anything that seemed extremely deadly was just intercepted by one of my teammates. Meanwhile, I plugged the holes that were created when larger monsters began pushing out the corpses of their fallen brethren from the rift funnel itself. The newer bodies providing even larger obstacles to work around.

After the eigth such throw, I felt on my stomach for more, only to find out that my second bandoleer of knives was empty.

Lady Amherst seeing this was the first to act as she all but shrugged off half her uniform to give me her bandoleer. Grabbing the blades, it was clear that the team wanted me to continue taking down the monsters on the sides. She even gestured for me to step back, and basically provide cover for the group, a gesture that was soon mirrored by the other two, who rather than throwing their blades at me, threw the weapons further back as if saying let us protect you.

Realizing this was going to be far easier, than trying to dart between lightning infused strikes and body parts, I moved back and found myself cheating more and more with my hidden Telekinesis power, which really just looked like I had an amazing accuracy with throwing weapons.

Just when I thought it would be easy, I felt it.

Thump, thump.

The unmistakable tremor of something impossibly large moving.

”GRAAHHHGAA!” The cry of an impossibly large monster rang out, a beast so large that we were first alerted to the fact that it was close by the way the bodies of the other dead turtles that had served as buffers to this point were slowly being pushed out.

Plop, plop, clop.

Dead turtle shell after dead turtle shell were pushed out and clattered across each other as they rattled to the ground. I was down to the last bandoleer of blades at this point, but even still I didn’t think they would matter, these blades while more than enough to take on the mid and even large sized electric snapping turtles were nothing compared to the sheer size of the beast coming.

“GRAGGHAHHAA!!” The beat cried out as its beak like face shot out from the portal, its massive shell comically stuck against the confines of the rift.

“That is not a regulation test for children!” Enraged voices cried out behind us, to my delight it wasn’t Auntie or anyone I was familiar with, meaning it was the actual patrons who were watching and waiting for their chance to come next. If this was the case, then maybe this would be the last monster we would have to face.

Even still, I knew these blades would do nothing. Regardless, I took the blades and flung them violently, though my Telekinetic grip was severely tested, this time it took three just to hold the beast in place, two to hold its massive head to the side, while a third, lifted its eye lit just enough for a sideways spinning blade to slice in and imbed itself into the massive golden and green eye.

“HIISSSSS!”

The creature cried out in pain but was still stuck. For a moment it looked like it wanted to retreat, but instead just tried to push itself forward. As it pushed, visible fissures around the edge of the rift could be seen as the massive monster continued trying to force its way through the rift.

I paused, waiting with the next blade in hand, then as Lady Jaupry came in from the right, attacking the beast on its vulnerable left side. Still, it snapped out violently somehow sensing her approach.

ZZAAPPP!

“AHH!”

Its enlarged sized seemed to increase its affinity with Lightning, for it was powerful enough to overwhelm Lady Jaupry’s defenses and cause her to cry out in intense pain from the jolt that sent her flying from the double impact of force and lightning.

This was fine as it gave me a wide-open strike at its pristine right eye, which I again cheated and struck at, using three points of Telekinesis to pin the beast’s head in place, while a third held up the eyelid, while another sideways throw made its way towards the beast with perfect accuracy, despite being thrown from my left hand this time.

Fwoop, fwoop, swish!

Again, the blade struck true, but I was not done. As I threw the remaining blades, at the exposed parts of the beast’s neck. Even aided by Telekinesis, the blades barely managed to break through the outer protective layer of its thick leathery skin. But there was one thing that happened.

Shatter.

With the addition of a third blade to the neck that only caused a minor stirring of blood to appear, something amazing happened, the golden coat of electricity that had been protecting the great beast broke into millions of golden particles that fell to the ground and seemed to be immediately absorbed by the ground. Still, the message was clear, the electrical shielding that had been protecting the beast was gone.

I didn’t know if this was a matter of the attacks I had delivered, or if it was also aided by the burst of electricity that overwhelmed Lady Jaupry’s own protective coating, but the message was clear. We all charged forward, well the three of us that were still standing.

Lady Oteranski and Lady Amherst were the first to arrive, with their closer position and longer reach of their spears they easily impaled the still exposed neck of the beast and then pinned the hafts of the spears into the ground, letting their own bodyweights help to pin the massive monster in place. Normally this wouldn’t do much if anything with a monster this size and the relative lack of weight owned by both girls, but again we were cheating as not one, but all four massive arms of Telekinesis were used to keep the spears steady, and to help pin the beast’s neck in place. This gave me the moment I needed to act.

Blur.

The world blurred around me, as my entire consciousness went into moving faster, each step I could feel being empowered by the ambient energy of slain monsters around me. I could feel fresh breaths of ozone infused oxygen filling my lungs with energy that fueled me to move faster, to react quicker.

That’s what I struck.

Slink.

Focusing on my blade, I quickly transitioned two of the Telekinetic hands from holding the beast in place, and instead used it to direct my blade to slide down in violent judgement.

Slice.

I landed before my body had a chance to even register what had happened. Pausing for a moment, I focused on my hands, wondering if they would tell me that I had messed up, if I let the blade somehow rattle within my grip, but nothing. I even wondered if I had somehow missed, or worse struck true but had not managed to do any damage to the beast.

Pausing for a moment, I looked up, and that’s when I realized I made my first mistake.

SPLASH!

Acrid arterial spray washed over me, as I quickly turned my head to the side, but it was already too late. Raising my left hand to shield my face and eyes from more, I clawed at my face, but then stopped myself when my fingers met metal mesh coating. I knew the only way to clear my eyes properly would be to take the mask off, which would be worse than death given my situation. That was why all I could do was pray and hope that this would be enough, as I was still blinking away the blood and viscera from my eyes. Mentally I doubled down on the Telekinetic hold, just letting all four arms stay in position while I waited to be able to see.

I was about to back up, barely aware that I still had my sword in my right hand. That’s when the world suddenly began to change.

FWOOSH!

Without even realizing what was happening, I felt an electrical jolt and surge of energy filling my left hand. The energy began swelling up within me, and I suddenly felt invigorated. Even through the drops of blood and alien body parts, I felt my eyes forcefully open, as I blinked and witnessed the sight before me.

A second ago, there was resistance, as if the giant turtle was fighting to come out, then the next I knew, the creature began doubling down its impossible need to escape.

Thwack.

Despite everything, the two spears that were wedged in the ground, despite my four arms of Telekinesis holding the beast’s head in place, it was all not enough as I felt my body getting thrown to my left.

The force of the impact was so fierce that I felt my chest buckle under the impact. Yet, the energy continued to pour into my hand. In that moment, I realized my body had somehow begun the process of sealing the rift. Even as I stole the power of the opposing rift world, I could feel that stolen energy coming into me and being used to heal my body from the damage I just sustained almost instantly.

Crack, crumble.

Bones shifted back into place, and then I could feel them getting hardened as additional healing energies seemed to wrap themselves around areas that my body apparently felt were weak.

Gasp.

After a few seconds, I felt my lungs expand as I forcefully drew a breath. Only now did I realize that the wind had been forcefully expelled from my chest. This breath like the others was filled with ozone, energy, and health.

I managed to work my way into a sitting position, in time to see the moment the energy to the portal ceased.  There before us was the massive bleeding head of the dying turtle.

CRRACKLE, GROANNN, CRUNCH!

Then I watched as the rift itself, the space between worlds slowly closed in on the dead and dying turtle who looked somehow equal parts desperate and helpless to avoid the fate it knew was coming. That’s when I witnessed something akin to the largest pair of lobster crackers, crack into, through and then slice in half the giant snapping turtle, cracking through its shell, body and all before sealing up completely and leaving only a line of dead turtles, and the head and front portion of a shell of the largest snapping turtle I’d ever seen in any lifetime.

Silence.

There was an eerie silence that filled the arena. For a moment I wondered if I had somehow gone deaf, even as I made my way up to my feet.

Auntie was the first out to me, but a quick surge of her energy into me seemed to tell her what I already knew, that my body had somehow used the energy I absorbed from the rift and gotten stronger. Not even caring about propriety, she pulled me close for a hug, then as if realizing where we where she tensed up and then pushed me back.

“The Pathfinder!” Auntie yelled out to the crowd, before immediately going to check on the others who were all in similar states of being battered and working their way back to life.

“YEAHHHH!” The crowd erupted violently, at the proclamation.

Next thing I knew, Sarina was next to me, grabbing me and gently guiding me out of the arena, before directing me to a spigot of water that she ran over my mask, spraying my face, and helping to clear off a bit of the blood and viscera that had gotten onto and into my mask. A thorough cleaning would be required later, but it was enough to let me see without too much pain.

By the time Sarina was done cleaning off my mask, I was taken back out to the arena where the rest of my team were back up and standing. We were all a bit woozy, as the other Ladies of my team all had their mothers, or personal attendants nearby to help hold them up, while appearing like they were moving on their own.

Finally, after a moment, Auntie stared down the carnival announcer, a note of challenge in her gaze as she all but dared the announcer to deny what they had just seen.

For a moment, I could almost see the soul of that announcer break as they let out a sigh and nodded, before saying a two-word phrase that made this whole thing finally seem real.

“A Winner!”

Jubilation!

And like that, we had won, the first of but many steps.