HTG - Chapter 182

Kalon

Chapter One-Hundred-Eighty-Two: Udan Jan - Part One

Planet: Etheria

***

Present Time

***

My hand grasps Kotina’s sticky bundle of web, cutting at the strings that attach it to the ceiling of the cave. I must try to save her, I owe her this much. The last cord of webbing breaks under the blade, forcing me to drop the blade as I grab the sac that contains Kotina. Her weight is much more than I expected, my arm is protesting against the strain in this gravity. What is her suit made of? My shoulder feels like it is tearing as I try to hoist her up, so that I might tie the end around me, letting me climb with both arms.

My stomach drops as the vine begins to pull towards the ground as the roots give way. Sending me into a pile on the ground. I hear Kotina groan, as her body begins to stir. She is alive still, good. My stomach finds an even deeper pit to fall into as I hear the hissing of the Narok creature… its face peeling out of the shadows, its beady eyes all upon me. Sekat.

My hand shakes for a moment as I stare into the many eyes of this demented nightmare of a creature, Narok - Web Maker, does not give it justice. The grotesqueness of its form before my eyes is a true abomination of nature, much like the creature whose head I cleaved before Adonius’s in the Colosseum. Its body vibrates, shaking the stone floors. I draw the air into my lungs, breathing out with purpose until all that remains is the calm. Fear has no place within me.

The Narok hisses as it lunges forward, sending tremors through the stone. My instincts tell me it is a feint, so I do not move, I do not show the beast my hand yet. Letting it be wary of me. As it shifts its weight, I see ooze coming from two of its back legs, and a gash upon the side of its abdomen. An opening perhaps.

The Narok lunges suddenly, I roll backward, not fast enough, its long front legs slam into me, sending me flying across the cave. My eyes bulge, pain erupting from my ribs where it smashed into. There is no time to think, I must move, I press myself up with my other arm, gripping the knife firmly.

There must be a way for me to…

The Narok closes the distance at unnatural speeds, pushing off with all of its legs leaping forward. I roll to the side just in time as it comes crashing down, stumbling for a moment on its wounded legs. I see large bite marks now on them, cracks rolling up towards the joints. My eyes blink fast, this beast is much faster than I expected, its size should…

It lunges again, my thoughts pressing away as the calm forces itself into my movements. I feel a humming from my chest, but I cannot think about it, if I think, I die. My eyes hollow, as it lunges again, I am ready for it, the tempo I have already learned. I press forward, rolling under its belly, striking at the abdomen. The blade does not pierce its flesh, I roll again as the legs pound beneath it. I stab again and again, each time the blade presses in but does not find purchase. Its abdomen is flexible, but still, my blade cannot pierce the flesh.

Vek…

The Narok lets out a hissing noise again and slams itself down, splaying its legs outwards, pressing my body down, the weight of it forcing the air from my lungs. The abdomen smothers me, I feel my chest vibrating more now. Sekat. Sekat. Sekat. I can’t breathe. The beast lifts, and I feel some of my ribs feel bruised. With its spear-like fingers, it stabs me in the shoulder, dragging me up into the air with it. Its hot breath upon my face as it pulls me closer.

“Hekate’s tit…” Kotina groans, stirring in the cocoon of fibers, “I really need to stop drinking.”

The Narok throws me against the wall and turns abruptly towards Kotina. I can barely breathe for a few moments. Blood flows from my shoulder in a slow stream, I feel my hand wants to call for the Cursed Edict, will it answer my call? My mind flashes images of it going into my chest, I look down and see my chest glows a dull crimson.

“Fucking hells,” Kotina says, ripping the threads of her cocoon open with her bare hands, “You’re one ugly…”

The Narok lunges before she can finish her sentence, but Kotina is gone, my eyes blink, she moved so fast I barely saw it. She slams her leg into the Narok’s, snapping it at the joint. Green ooze sprays out onto her.

“Ugly and rude, not a good combo,” Kotina says, kicking again, snapping another leg.

The Narok turns to flee, sensing a disadvantage, this is my chance. I roll into its blind spot trying to stab into the gash on its abdomen, maybe I can open it further. Amon’s voice appears in my mind.

Udan Jan, Stay back

My jaw flexes as I roll backward reluctantly. The truth of his words sting, but my pride does not control me as it used to. In the old tongue, Udan Jan means roughly – holding someone back. It is what you say when someone tries to help but only gets in the way. My eyes follow Kotina’s movements now, hoping to learn from them, it is all I can do.

“Wait a minute, I wasn’t drinking… erm last thing I remember, is that bastard Dargo sending me a message,” Kotina says, leaping on top of the Narok’s back and slamming her fists into the connection point of the abdomen and upper body. There’s a sickening crack as she does it once more, the Narok trying to crawl away as it slumps to the ground.

“Yeah, okay Blade Master Dargo, Elder of fuck all. Slaggin—slaghole—slaggerwart—slagfarts!” She screams, stomping the Narok, its body breaking under her powerful strikes, spilling ooze out around us, splashing her in gore.

Her eyes are filled with anger, but within a few more kicks, her body grows still, her eyes close and she breathes deeply, much like we Kuwathi do to calm ourselves.

“Anyway, what do you remember?” she asks, pushing the gore from her face into her matted blue hair.

“Dargo?” I ask her, confused.

“Bald slaghole, always has a bunch of swords, prone to talk in metaphorical slagsense,” Kotina says, flicking gore off her boots.

“I know him, obviously, but I don’t remember him being with us.”

 I feel the vibrations in my chest again. Now pulling what’s left of my shirt over my chest, I do not know her intentions, but she seems as confused as I am.

“Fuck,” she curses, pulling a long steaming piece of flesh off her torso, now turning to look at me “Whatever happened it had to have been him. That fucking dickhead.”

“I don’t know what happened,” I admit.

“Have you figured out where the nearest outpost is?” she asks, checking her armor. Trying to use her holopad, but it appears to be broken, with a hand-shaped indent in it, like someone intentionally crushed it.

“Outpost?”

“Ravena’s taint… sorry Goddess,” Kotina says, putting her hands together for a second, like she is half praying, half apologizing.

“Have you seen Arrum?” I ask, looking around at the sacs of web. She shakes her head.

“Okay so…” she pauses, crossing her arms and placing her hand on her chin, like she is thinking pensively, “Given that that’s a Ethaki, we must be somewhere on the outer rim of the galaxy. Only place you can really find them this developed that aren’t part of the…”

“Ethaki?” I interrupt.

She sighs, looking back at me “You’re serious?”

“I understand the translation, Ether Demon… are you saying this is what happens when something gets Etherium sickness?”

She nods, “Though it’s rather weak, and given the density of mana in the air… probably in the upper region of Etheria. We were traveling to Etheria… right?”

She must have struck her head quite hard, I nod.

“Good… I think. The gravity feels right for Etheria. I didn’t explore it much, Arkon told me not to venture past the Outposts, he said it’s dangerous.”

If he said it’s dangerous… I need to find Arrum.

“Right, how versed are you in…” Kotina pauses, looking at me as she moves swiftly to check the sacs with me, “Probably not versed in much are you?”

“I am a quick study.”

She chuckles, shaking her head, swearing under her breath.

“Well, lesson one. Identify your surroundings, make a grid from your point of origin…” she looks at me again, stopping as she turns and pulls me by the shirt towards her. “You going to stop the bleeding or are you trying to die?” she asks me, pointing to the wound on my shoulder.

I had forgotten, the Narok must have some kind of numbing factor in their finger spears, it had stopped hurting a minute after. I reach for my tattered shirt, trying to rip a piece off.

“You’re going to shove that nasty thing in there?” she asks, looking at me sideways.

“I don’t have anything else.”

“Frag. Just frag. Come on, take off your shirt,” Kotina says, waiving her arm up and down, an annoyed expression on her face. “You will be truly useless if dead.”

My jaw tenses slightly as I pull the grimy shirt off. The outer and inner weave armor she had given me is barely held together still.

“Looks like you had one hells of a fight,” she says with a smirk, putting her finger through one of the holes.

She looks me over, turning me around, doing a once over.

“Strange, looks like the effects of the Cursed Edict have subsided again,” Kotina says pensively, squinting at my skin, “A few minutes ago, you were glowing. Anyway, we should be able to fix most of it. Provided we find an outpost.”

“How will the outpost help us?”

She doesn’t reply to the question. “This is going to hurt,” Kotina says, now straightening her fingers, the glove of her armor retracts back into the arm, folding into the patterns, much like her helmet did in the ice cave.

She places her bare hand over the seeping wound, closing her eyes and breathing out slowly.

“Feel the rise, push the flow, concentrate it,” she mutters under her breath, her brow furrowed. Her hand begins to grow warmer.

Lines of light flow up her hand into her palm, concentrating in the center of it, illuminating her skin, the heat from her palm begins to rise until steam flows off it. My eyes take it in, and I feel a burning sensation radiating from the wound. It is hot, like the barrel of a plasma rifle after discharging many shots.

Her eyes open now and the heat dissipates from her hand, she lets out a full breath and then draws in the air.

“Right, let’s move,” she says, turning about and walking towards the light of the cave’s entrance, “Arrum isn’t here, and in this gravity he probably won’t last very long, even with the regimen of enhancers he was on.”

Kotina sighs, flexing her fingers back and forth three times, her armor rolling back over her hand. As we walk, more memories begin to fill the gaps that are blurred.

***

Five Hours Ago

***

My stomach feels like it has been turned inside out.

“That’s weird…” Kotina starts, looking at something on the holo display, “There’s a ship within a short range jump.”

“There are many ships in the galaxy, why is it strange?” I ask.

“This system is uninhabited, and it’s the last one before we…” her brow furrows as the comms panel sputter static.