STORMWEAVER Chapter 18 WIP I have to toss, so I thought you guys would like to see it 😅

I got a like 2k words into this chapter before I remembered that Temporal Step is a charged Ability (which means I also have to modify the training session earlier).

On the plus side, hopefully this helps some of you hopeful writers realize that not even the pros keep track of everything well hahaha.

Also it was going to be such a fun exchange, so I want Patrons at least to enjoy it.

Maybe we know what Temporal Step II or III does now 😉

*******

Chapter 18

The world warped around Rei. In a blink of time nonexistent he saw again the faces of his hole visions, the myriad a youthful men and women alike, of all races, sizes, and settings. He focused, focused like he’d be working so, so hard on for weeks now, willing himself to stay present, to stay aware of the solid feel of matter beneath his back foot and promise of knowing it again on his front. In an instant he saw everything. Saw the woods and the rain and sodden grass. Saw the path of destruction he and Laurent had ripped through the trees, and the distant ring of the horizon the field projected all around them. He even caught the briefest flash of the fight still raging between Jetway and the others. Aria was in midair with teeth bared, shield first and spear drawn back to strike. Logan had been laid out, Honoris’ axe in the middle of spinning away. Catcher and Chancery were still on their feet, closing in on the S-Rank—whose green-brown armor and white vysetrium Rei glimpsed for the first time in truth—as Wainwright crouched in a ready stance in their midst, her spear a vibrant bolt of lightning in held in both hands.

And then it all pulled into that bottomless point in front of Rei, leaving the world empty and nothing for less time than he thought one’s mind should register before time and light returned to his surroundings with an expanding blast of color.

And not even Kalus Laurent—S-Ranked Pawn-Class that he was—could be totally prepared for his simultaneous vanishing and reappearance into the solid nature of reality.

To be fair, the Atypical had whipped around to face where Rei had been. The Ability’s vocal command had warned him that something was happening, and he’d made himself as prepared as he could, but there was no degree of Speed that could completely set one for the instant nature of Temporal Step’s jump. His Cognition should have compensated, allowing him to correct, but either Laurent hadn’t engaged the spec fully so as to make the assessment a bit more leveled, or the combination of the lack of information, confusion, and his opponent’s sudden disappearance was enough to momentarily overpower even the S-Rank’s processing. Likely the former, Rei just had time to decide, having seen more than one of his new trainer’s recent professional matches.

Whatever the case, however, the critical factor was something that no User, no matter their specs, could have anticipated: the fact that Rei hadn’t ‘Stepped’ into the space before Laurent, into the area the Atypical had whirled around to face the vocal command had been spoken.

Instead, Rei had jumped right passed the man, having focused on the ground he’d pretended he could see between the man’s feet through the rain, ending up back to back with him and fully ready to take advantage of the trick.

Nausea roiled up inside Rei’s gut as he whirled, shield swing around. It was hardly the violent degree of illness it had once been, though, and he clamped hold of it with hardly a thought even as he spun. To his great thrill he found Laurent still facing away from him, the man’s attention not have strayed from the place Rei had been rather than anywhere else. In that instant, Rei knew he would land his hit. Long as it was, Triumverant’s staff didn’t have the room to maneuver to block. He was inside Laurent’s guard. Even if the shield bounced harmlessly off the Pawn-Class’ impenetrable reactive shield, even if he was sent flying when the retaliatory blow came, he would land his hit.

Then came the barest blink of shifting metal, and Rei struck narrow, red-and-black steel with the sound of a gong.

BOOONG!

Intent as he’d been on just getting the strike, he hadn’t set his feet to brace himself, so the impact sent Rei staggering back as the shield rebounded. He only found his footing after several stumbling strides, momentarily confused as to what had happened.

For once, his Cognition wasn’t ahead of his own knowledge, and Rei cursed even as his pulse started to race again, taking in the sight before him that he realized he should have expected.

Kalus Laurent hadn’t moved from where he’d seemed to be trying to find Rei through the storm. He hadn’t turned around, nor even lifted from the ready crouch he’d slipped into the moment he’d obviously realized something was off. For the first time now that he had a good look at the sergeant major’s back, Rei saw the narrow lines of green staggered along Triumverant’s plated spine, gleaming off the wet metal of the shorter, 1-inch spikes that adorned each intricate section. Larger plates moved and flexed in a protective imitation of shoulder blades, and the Styron particles rippled like individual strands of hair in the glowing vysetrium tail of his helmet.

Rei barely registered any of it, too busy was he glaring at the staff the man still held  in both hands.

Or what had been, a staff, at least…

Triumverant had changed. Quick as thought, the weapon no longer formed the solid, slim shape of the capped shaft Laurent had been using to beat him silly for the past quarter hour. Instead, the twin rings of vysetrium had split and formed two trailing, flexible lines connecting the three equally-sized partitions of cylindrical steel that had original formed the length of the weapon. The center of this trio was still in front of Kalus, pulled up tight against his chest

The other two, however, where behind him, one held in each hand over one shoulder and up at an angle from around lower back, forming the defensive X of crossed metal that Shido had bounced off of so solidly the shield might as well have been made of rubber.

“Dammit,” Rei grumbled once as Laurent finally started to stand straight and turn. With a practiced whip and twist of one wrist, Triumverant whirled, the sansetsukon—the three-part staff the weapon had become—folding over itself to snap into the waiting grasp of the man’s right hand. 

With his left, the sergeant major pointed a finger at Rei.

“Okay, Ward…” Laurent sounded somewhere between shocked and amazing. “I’ll bite… What the hell was that??”

Rei had opened his mouth to answer, but a voice interrupted him before he could get the words out.

“Something I would like to know myself,” the call came from above, calm and steady, but thunderous even over the endless thrum of the downpour. It wasn’t Dent this time, though. “I’m more of a ‘show, don’t tell’ enthusiast myself, however. Cadet Ward, continue, if you will.”

This time, Rei didn’t hesitate.

“Temporal Step.”

The world flashed away and back, and Rei blink to Laurent’s left side, opposite the three-part staff. The man’s other arm was still held up to point, and Rei slashed at it. The man was gone in a flash, of course, retreating into the storm, but Rei simply gave the command again.

“Temporal Step.”

“What the hell?!” he thought he heard the sergeant major grunt through his faceplate as Rei matched the—albeit reduce—Speed of a S-Rank, Stepping into being behind the man again. Once more he slashed, and once more Laurent he caught nothing but air. He whirled, looking for the Atypical, and when no red appeared on his HUD he knew where his opponent had gone this time. Instead of defending this time, he triggered the Ability yet again—working hard now to control the nausea—and flicked away into the trees.

There was a wet WHAM!, and Rei knew he’d made the right judgement when he turned to find Laurent with a knee buried 6 inches into the mud exactly where he’d been standing an instant before.

“A Speed boost?” He heard the man ask, almost to himself, but loud enough to be made out. “No… Too quick. And useful for offense and escape…”

He saw the green slash of the sergeant major’s helm turn in his direction as Laurent got to his feet, pulling the armored knee out of the ground with an ugly squelch.

“Instantaneous?” he continued to speak half to himself, half apparently for the benefit of Rei and the observers. “No way… And it’s gotta have drawbacks…” His attention seemed suddenly to home in, to narrow. “Wait… One way to find out.”

And then the man was on top of Rei, free hand suddenly engulfing his faceplate in an iron grip. Rei heard the armor around his temples creak ominously, and he almost yelped in surprise.

Then, though, he was tangling in midair, Laurent having lifted him by the head like he and the hundreds of pounds of steel that made up his Phalanx armor and shield weighed nothing at all.

“Can you get out of this, I won—?”

“Temporal Step!”