Blade West: Book 1

Chapter 11: Crash of the Thunderclap

      Ven was sparking excessively. Yellow electricity flashed around him so fierce that it was hard looking at him. At the same time though, it's always hard looking at Ven when he's using his powers. But this time was different. The electricity kept intensifying. The cackling kept getting louder and louder and eventually the sound coming from him and the storm overhead became undiversifiable. Was it Ven or was it the storm with the tremors and vibrations through the earth? At this point...Ven might as well been the storm all on his own. 

     "What exactly is he doing?" I asked Ace. HIs grin was still that of an insane lunatic. "He's releasing more of his power. He's going to the next stage!" "Next stage?" I said. What did he mean by that? Next stage?  "Just watch." Ace said.

     Ven released a yell. The lightning around him flashed and he leaped into the air. The Elite brought its rings back to its hands, extended them, and tried to slice Ven in half. This attack was identical to the thing he tried to do to us earlier. But mid-slice, the rings stopped. Ven's aura was still in its same spot but I honestly expected the rings to go through him. Did he stop the rings? I looked harder and I noticed that the rings stopped on either side of Ven. Ven was still flashing, and to the naked eye you would think he's strong electric aura is what stopped the attack. But that wasn't the case. Something else did.

     I took a closer look and I noticed something that intrigued me. There were these huge white and yellow things on each side of Ven. They were both circular and had huge spikes on them. I tried moving my head a little bit to get a bigger view of what it was he was holding, but suddenly, the rings severed. A huge chunk from each ring fell to the ground on either side of Ven and created a pretty massive dent in the ground when they hit it. Those things must've been more dense than they look; that would explain why they were able to go through several houses like it was nothing.

     But back to Ven. The creature recalled its rings and they shrunk back to their circular stage around its body, which allowed me to have a full view of Ven. In each of his hands were oversized chakrams. I say oversized because Ven had his arms relaxed at his side, and the spikes at the top reached his shoulder and the ones on the bottom nearly touched his ankles. These things were huge. The middle of the chakrams had a perpendicular black bar that Ven had a tight grip around; I guess this bar was the handle that helped him hold these beasts up. The core shape of the chakrams was a circle, but there were 6 huge spikes that extended from the inner circle. Those spikes were curved and jagged, like a saw almost. The design was absolutely gorgeous. The internal ring was gold and the outer edge/spikes were white. 

     Ven's electric aura overtook the chakrams and they started glowing a bright gold color. When those bad boys turned on, it was almost like being on a football field and someone turned the field lights on. Ven was somewhat far away but the heat I felt was almost like he was standing right beside me. The light that was being cast from him illuminated the sky and I could actually see through the black clouds like they were thin sheets. Up until this point, it had only been raining but now I could see lightning race across the sky. Was it Ven's doing? Or. Were the clouds producing lightning in response to Ven?

     "Ace." I managed to say. "Yes?" "What is going on with Ven? Where did he get those chakrams from?" "Did Ven tell you about Limitors?" "Yes he did." "Well, Ven got his Limitor to release more of his power. We release our powers at 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% levels. Ven's spear is his 0% level. Even though Ven isn't weak at 0%, aka his base power, he's nowhere near as strong if he was operating at higher percentages. So in the presence of this Elite, he must've thought his base power wouldn't be enough for us to take it down." 

     Interesting. Even though I was admiring Ven, I couldn't help but think back to me. Did that mean that my sword was my basepower-weapon too? How do you even know what power percentage you're operating at? And most importantly, why is it that they get to talk to their Limitor and mine has still been silent? But nonetheless, I had one question. "Hm. So why not fight at 100% all the time? Or at least 75%?" He smiled. "For several reasons.