Rising Shards

For all the time I had spent fighting void monsters before, I hadn’t faced anything in the void that could speak. Or fight as good as the giant I shakily stared down as he readied his giant scissor blades down to me.

“You should know the mighty Lophor Hothon hates thieves!” he bellowed as he swung at me.

The bloodsaber I picked up swung beautifully, which was good because in addition to his big stupid blades, he also had big stupid maces on chains attached to his back that I frantically swatted away as he spun around as he followed through his attacks. As I felt it brush against treasure behind me, I remembered I’d have to keep my tail in mind as I fought. While I somehow managed to block those, I missed that Lophor had picked up a massive shield that he bashed me with. I expected to violently explode and die right there but I was still breathing after I hit the ground. It would take at least a few seconds for me to get up from it though, and that was ample time for the beast called Lophor Hothon.

Lophor chuckled as he stalked over me. He put his left foot down on my torso. His boot alone was big enough to pretty much cover like two thirds of my whole body. The pain increased as Lophor stepped down. The titan readied his scissor blade and pointed them at my head. If this was a regular void test, I’d be hoping Dr. Diast or Caya or whatever teacher was ready to pull me back home or turn my adaptive gear into a mega shield.

“Judging by the cloth armor you wear; it doesn’t appear that you’re one the Order has put a call out to find.” Lophor said. “As finding a true organic is so rare here, I will have so much fun taking you apart and seeing what makes you tick…”

Even though I was beyond terrified, I didn’t want to give the beast the satisfaction of my fear. I also wasn’t entirely sure I could as he started to squish me.

“Defiant thief,” Lophor said. “I’ll make this slow, then—”

Something clanged against Lophor’s head. The boy! He was awake, starting to rise, and had thrown a metal part at Lophor. The titan stepped off of me.

I remembered something Caya had told me in class about weak points in monsters in the void. I tried to study anywhere on Lophor that might be one of those. As I looked up at the giant, I saw a charred or singed spot on the robotics in the joint of his left knee. In the moment of distraction, I charged up my bloodsaber with more lightning than I’d ever been able to concentrate into it before and slashed it directly through Lophor’s leg.

“AAGH!” the monster wailed as sparks flew from his wound. He toppled backwards with a mighty thud.

“Oh holy crap I didn’t think that would work oh my god!” I babbled.

“Come on!” The boy yelled, already moving to the stairs. He was clearly dazed and limping, so I rushed over to him and tried to keep him steady.

As Lophor continued to scream, we ran, evading the crabs pursuing us. The boy pushed me away when we reached the stone stairwell and started climbing on his own. I darted up behind him. I still tried to keep him steady, as even though he was up he almost lost his balance at a few points when he slipped on gold coins, nearly falling into the abyss of treasure. Once we were back on track, we sprinted until we saw sunlight. Fortunately, none of those lava robots were waiting for us. We reached a clearing that looked like a safe enough spot, and sat down.

“Thanks for all that back there.” I said.

The boy nodded, giving a lazy wave. It was clear he was still very out of it. For the first time since running into him there, I got an actual good look at him. He had stringy hair, and looked maybe a bit older than me.

“Wait…it’s you!” I said. “I met you at the uh…that bloodsaber fixing room! You’re Arctus!”

After I had the big fight and blow up with Kalei and Oka, I met Arctus in the bloodsaber fixing room back at Rising Shards. I remembered him giving some good advice that helped me work up the nerve to patch things up with my friends. He was a bit banged up and had some dirt on his face, but it was definitely him. It didn’t look like he remembered me, though. Arctus blinked.

“Sorry,” Arctus said. “It’s just…the poison…”

He slumped over, seemingly knocked out again. I caught him before he could fall face first and managed to get him on his back.

“Wait, that’s really bad,” I said. “Don’t be dying please…did you just die?”

Arctus didn’t move. He was still breathing at least. Then I remembered someone knocked out was supposed to be on their side.

“Oh my god, you’re heavy,” I said after rolling him over. “There was probably an easier way to do that.”

I tried to remember any other first aid I knew. I hadn’t gotten any training on poison, and I didn’t even know what kind of poisoning he had. He didn’t look pale, which I couldn’t decide was a good or bad thing.

“Please wake up soon…” I said. “I just had to fight a big freaking monster robot guy…I don’t want to watch you die right after, that would really suck, Arctus!”