Etherborn: The Way of Etherforging: Book 2 by RJ Shoke

Author:RJ Shoke [Shoke, RJ]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2022-07-11T00:00:00+00:00

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Chapter 18

How Cyborgs Cheat

Exos Benren gritted his teeth as his Malkin root-beard bristled with the strain of holding his hands above his head, palms outstretched, defending against his opponent’s Onslaught of unadulterated void and thunder. He was surrounded by his Bulwark of the Gibbous Glutton and while normally he wouldn’t need to make physical gestures to protect himself, it helped when battling against someone on the same stage as him.

His Fabrications of the Ravenous Crescent were harrying the female cyborg, slashing and stabbing with their silvery blades. All the while, his enemy’s long, metallic hair-cables moved on their own as if they were living snakes, swiping and swatting attacks away as she directed her Onslaught at him. By directing an echo through her etherpulse, his opponent teased, “I commend you for trying so hard…Commander? I imagine you’re a commander of some kind for little Antarea. I’ve heard she’s even become a Beta! My, how the eons have passed! Unfortunately, my young friend, you’re a millennia too young to stand against me.”

Benren sensed a brief surge of ether from the cyborg and suddenly, there were three of her — obviously a Fabrication of her own. Her clones differed from her slightly though, their bodies mostly made of crackling, purple lightning with joints and hair of inky blackness. The clones swiftly used their own cable-thick strands of hair to block the attacks of his Fabrications, which left her main body to fire another blast of her Onslaught.

A wave of violet ebony crashed into Benren’s Bulwark and he was forced to double down, threading his will and ether into his Sphere circuit to withstand the intensified pressure. His Bulwark tree thickened as layer after layer manifested to protect him further.

With the amount of power the cyborg was pushing out, one of the advantages of his Sphere circuit had been effectively mitigated. There was no safe way for his Bulwark of the Gibbous Glutton to absorb that amount of energy directly. He had to conjure tiny mouths at the ends of his branches to steal more manageable bits of ether.

Benren growled and split his focus in several partitions, channeling his Onslaught of Swallowing Night to erupt from the silver blades of a select few of his Fabrications. Immediately, the chosen ones were covered in gobs of darkness, protruding multiple hands of Swallowing Night with their ever-hungry mouths. If his Fabrications were lithe and deadly before, now they were monstrous nightmares.

In a handful of moments, his enemy’s clones were overrun, grappled by his monstrosities and pierced through by his other Fabrications, their blades rapidly feeding on her clones until they dispersed into nothing but motes of black and purple.

The cyborg pulsed her surprised, “Oh ho! No wonder they promoted you, ‘commander.” There was no respect in her tone, only mockery and disdain. She laughed then. A high pitched cackle. Shrill and utterly insane.

Benren had heard sounds like that before. They were the laughs of maniacs. Of madmen.

Those that spurned order and embraced chaos.

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