Accessory Wars

Chapter 68-Ki

            I know I made it sound like I was unconscious for the whole thing but I really only blacked out for a minute or two. I also woke to the extraordinary sensation of Ken, not Zackary, slapping me across the face. Wonderful. My muscles ached when they tried to move. The barbs dug into all sorts of places, not just my arms. My sides, my legs, my neck. One even dug in above my ear.

It took a few moments for the sound to start working in my ears again. Some more slaps as well. Due to the barb by my ear dripping blood into it, it muffled everything on my left side. Thus why it took me so long to comprehend Ken's shouting. He couldn't read my cards. He grabbed my chin and pointed my head towards them. The cards were blank, which was something I'd never seen before.

"Show me," Ken seethed.

"No," I shot back. He growled, yes actually growled, at me. The chains grew as hot as glue guns pressing into my skin and I thrashed in attempt to break free.

"Show me!" he barked. I looked at the cards again. Text formed on them and the familiar shapes brought me comfort. Ken hit me. "I said show me!"

The pain was going to make me pass out again. Tears leaked out of my eyes. Ken let out a strangled yell and vanished. The pain stopped a moment later. Or at least lessened. Everything hurt so it was hard to tell anymore. I looked over my cards, reading the Songi text written there. That was one thing Ken didn't know about me: my deep love of my heritage. In my mind, I thanked my mother, my father and my gran for all the care, love and wholesomeness they shared with me. For teaching me the culture of my family. Ken couldn't read my cards because he didn't know that. He couldn't understand it because we had no synergy.

And that was where it was going to stay.

Now that the pain wasn't making my mind go blank, I could pick up a familiar energy circulating through me. The power of an S-class. My attunement hummed, happy to be free again, and picked up details around me. That strange feeling I had in Bailey and Liliael? It was my attunement trying to resurface. I felt the earth. I felt the pull and push of the plates beneath the crust. It was soothing, like listening to ocean waves on a white noise machine. The earth was my element. The ground, the rocks, the soil. How fitting with how much I loved rock climbing.

The warm thrum of my attunement purred, sending tingles through my inner nerves. I recalled that primal want I felt in Bailey. This was what I wanted. The connection. The aura. The sheer strength of my inner powers. I wondered how I ever lived without it. I wondered how dangerous my life would be now that I tasted it. Would I go back? Could I go back? I didn't know and there were more important things to think about at the moment.

I blinked, sinking my sight into Ken's once again. The view of the theater returned. Okay, Ki, how do I prevent my friends from being killed? I wasn't able to do anything against Pyre but I wasn't five anymore. I had to be able to do something. Right? Maybe?

Donna shoved Jay back and told him to go hide. Yes! Please hide! Get your gorgeous ass out of here before I murder it. Thankfully, he wasn't a complete idiot and he slipped through the torn screen. I felt like a dog owner as I repeated 'stay' in my mind. Knowing him, he wouldn't but I called upon the spirits of luck to try and hold him back.

Two Elicits shot forward from somewhere out of my view and clashed with Felisa and Donna. At least they were A-class, which was as comforting as facing a small bear rather than a large one. With how worn down they looked, the girls were going to lose fast.

Ken shifted forward as he prepared to jump into the fight. My first priority was to make it as difficult as possible for Ken to use me. I began to experiment with what I had access to and what I didn't. Turns out, not much but who's surprised? I could barely wiggle. I was able to see my cards and bits of my console. Again, not helpful. I tried to pull on his energy and the chains dug into my flesh further. If I wanted to stop Ken, I was going to have to make some sacrifices.

As Ken leapt off the balcony, I gritted my teeth and pulled on his energy as hard as I could. It was like trying to pull a tarp out from under a truck. It didn't help the chains began to burn like curling irons. I managed to shift his footing so he fell onto his face when he landed. Ha! My victory was short lived as a chain snapped around my neck, cutting off part of my air intake. I let out a strangled gargle. Fuck! Something hot trailed down my neck over my chest. I was going to bleed to death at this rate!

Hearing Donna and Felisa fighting for me kept me going. I had to help them. Again, somehow. My energy squirmed as Ken activated one of my moves at random. My eyes flicked to the glowing card. Shit-shit-shit! I tugged hard at his energy, forcing him to hit the weapon sideways against the floor and glance off. Had the scythe made contact, it would have made the ground either collapse or slide apart. I remember Weston using the move on Mount Heidi. Massive chunks of earth fell away from the mountain to crush the cities below. We weren't in the remote mountains anymore. We were in a city with millions of people. If Ken figured out how to use me, Liliael was going to look like it went through the apocalypse.

Ken's frustrations with me were obvious by all the negative energy stifling the void. I chose to ignore them. If he wanted to make me submit so badly, he was going to have to work for it. I tried to move his arm but the spikes in my left arm grew longer and bit down to my bone. Oh boy, did I scream. Instead of traditional blood, white goo leak out of me. Think of it as spiritual blood. Even though I was tucked away in the void, Ken could still kill me. When I let go of Ken's energy, the spikes receded. My arm throbbed, making blood leak out in time with the contractions. I was going to look like a sponge if I managed to survive.

The loss of blood started to make me dizzy so I took a moment to recollect myself and observe. Ken leapt at Donna as she knocked out her A-class opponent. Thank the stars she was fast. She leapt away with ease, although I could see she was struggling. Moving made her either wince or gasp for air. Ken activated another move and I felt a massive drain of energy. It's like he sucked out part of my soul. I braced myself for the incoming disaster as Ken smashed the hammer end of my weapon it into the ground. Talk about lucky. The ability he chose needed to use the scythe. It wouldn't take him long to figure that out. Or any of my other moves. Had my hands been free, I would have chewed all my fingernails off.

The chains yanked on me, trying to pull me back down onto the floor. I pulled back, ignoring the bite in my skin. Stay on your feet, Ki. Well, knees. There was no way I'd be able to stand. Knees were good. Although, having immense pressure on two joints was starting to take a toll on my leg integrity. My tangle with the chains distracted me and I looked up to see Donna get smashed into the gut. She went flying into the chandelier, armor cracking. Then he nearly decapitated Felisa. I was going to have a heart attack with how much stress was coursing through me.

Ken swung at Felisa again, far too close for her to dodge, so I pulled on his energy as hard as I could. Screw the spikes! I gurgled swear words as the chain on my neck pulled back. My back arched painfully. Any more and it was going to snap! Fuck! My grip on his energy slipped as two more chains shot out around me and slammed me into the ground. The smell of charred skin filled the air. My nerves were so fried at this point I didn't even notice the burning.

As I tried to grab his energy again, Ken appeared and slammed his heel on my diaphragm. I threw up in my mouth, coughing and gagging as I struggled for air. Which is incredibly hard with spikes in your throat. My energy drained again, making my body spasm. My eyes pinched shut, water leaking out of them down the side of my face.

Then the crushing started. It felt like someone was slowly lowering a boulder on top of me. I tried to squirm with no success since I was pinned down. My screams sounded like creaking groans in my throat. Blood started to leak down my esophagus and trickled into my lungs, making it even harder to breathe. The strain made me cough, making it hurt worse.

As I lied there feeling like death, I felt a tiny brush of warmth in my chest. Synergy from my friends. The strength of Kami's will. The power of Felisa's determination. The warmth of Jay's love. I clung to it, my vision turning grey as the pressure began to put strain on my joints. I had to hold on. No matter what, I had to hold on.