War and Survival

Ikem looked around the room pensively.

Unlike in the situation of the other captives he could see perfectly well in the darkness.

There was no sign of blood nor of scuffles from a fight anywhere, the only thing that seemed off about the room was it's inherent vastness, and the lack of any furniture except for an ornate wooden chair.

'They may have cleared it up', he cautioned himself.

"Sit down on the chair under the spotlight", the voice commanded.

Ikemefuna went straight for the only chair he saw, though he couldn't see any spotlight, he could somehow sense a concentrated point of photons on the chairs location.

'Photons', he reminded himself, another word in which the meaning he had of it was only of a standardized dictionary knowledge .

He sat on the chair before turning to look around warily, "What next?", he asked the voice.

There was no reply, so Ikem decided to sit quietly and wait.

No sooner than he had sat down, he felt a foreboding sense of danger.

And his body, as if on instinct moved to the left; tumbling out of the chair and unto the metal ground.

In turn a dark object passed by his previous position, shattering the wooden chair to pieces and sending flinters of it's wood flying.

'What was that?', he asked himself as he began getting up from the floor. He looked about; in search of any more attacks.

He spotted the black object reversing, straininng the muscles in his arms he pushed himself off the ground and into the air, narrowly dodging the second attack.

The attack caused a huge dent in the area formerly beneath him.

He landed on his feet, unharmed.

"Nimble, just like a cat, I see", the voice complemented. "However most of the others also survived this, and I'm getting tired of small games, let's see how well you fare against... legion".

One by one, hundreds of black, slender spikes flickered into reality, all of them tangible, floating eerily as they surrounded Ikem from all sides.

"Why are you doing this, I have not done any wrong to you!?", he asked, trying to prepare his body for the upcoming attack.

There was once again no reply. Ikemefuna closed his eyes, and on instinct, changed his breathing, his breath became deep, powerful and grounded.

The calm before the storm.

His right leg leaned out, crouched, his back arched as the muscles in his body turned tense.

When he opened his eyes, it turned completely purple, like the unbridled, unrestrainable rage of a lightning deity. The handcuffs exploded, as if unable to withstand the constraining pressure.

A large, sharp, purple war machete appeared in the air in front of him.

And, almost as if he had done it a thousand times, he grasped it's handle, and with a single hand pulled it to himself.

"Come", he whispered, not to the machete but to his opponent.

The sounds of unseen drums being played echoed throughout the room.

"What little trick is this", the voice asked, surprised.

Ikem stood silent. posing no questions nor did he reply; at this moment, there was only three things that mattered: him, the fight, and the unseen opponent. No, that was wrong, Ikem could 'see' his opponent.

He had long since sensed an confluence of electric charges; the kind produced by a person's brain waves and cannaled through his nervous system as it functioned.

"Come", he whispered once again, this time more violently.

And alas, the spikes did come. All two hundred and fifty six [256] of them.

Ikem slashed them down with his machete, as he zipped through with the speed of lightning. His movements were grounded, sharp and imperceptibly nimble.

Swerving to his right, he dodged an attacking spike, and, gathering the momentum agitated into his right arm, he swung downwards, shattering ten spikes at a go.

He kicked into the air as he dodged more, appearing to be untouched by the laws of physics. And that was it; attack as he dodged. This was his instinctive motion; and there was no recklessness involved.

But, the spikes seemed to home-in to him, and as soon as a single spike was cut down, more would emerge from it's broken parts, multiplying the total number of spikes. It was troublesome.

"Wow, you are good", the dark praised sincerely, "very good infact, but where is your Divine veneration, I have tested all the others, they have no lightning, so, I am positive the one I am looking for has to be you".

The owner of the voice, had sensed charges and sparks in the atmosphere as Ikem fought. But for some reason, or just to sure, he wanted Ikem to used his ability.

As Ikem fought, it was inevitable for him to get hurt. It wasn't long before the spikes struck; dealing damage to his body, hurting him.

His movements were purely instinctive and he didn't seem to have any concurrent memory on any art or style of fighting or particular method of dodging.

The slender spikes drew blood as they struck him; golden blood, that happened to fade into mist easily each time Ikem was hit.

The owner of the dark voice; sitting at a corner in the room, obstructed from sight by his shadows whist he controlled his teleguided spikes suddenly shot up.

"Ichor!!", he screamed. "I'll be damned, that's ichor, the runt is a demigod".

"Ikemefuna", the chi spoke up after a long period of silence, it's voice in ikemefuna's head had startled him, causing him to loose his footing, and with it an opportunity to dodge. This resulted in Ikemefuna being struck by dozens of the slender spikes at the same time.

"Crap!!", he grunted in pain. "What now?!!".

"He has seen you", the chi whispered, "he has known you for what you are, therefore.... he cannot live!!".

As he fought, Ikem suddenly felt two things at once, he felt confusion and dumfoundedness.

'Kill?', he asked mentally, 'wasn't he seeing me before?, and for what I am?, what crap is this and why is that even a reason to kill him.

He tried dodging and parrying the attacks as he queried, he knew it wouldn't work. With him at his current brain's capacity, and not the urge from his subconscious [instinct], he was soon on his knees, with about twelve slender spikes(or thereabout) attached to his back. Yet the spikes kept attacking.

"He has seen you for what you are, he has known you", the chi whispered; it's voice slow and unhurried, which made Ikemefuna grit his teeth in annoyance.

The strangest thing was that the substantial amount of pain Ikem felt was not nearly half of what a normal person in his position would feel.

'Kill him, Kill him, Kill him', the chi urged continually, not giving Ikem a chance for thoughts. Ikem, sweating with perspiration, was forced into a corner. He couldn't link any thought. His machete had long since disappeared without his knowing.

His body, with numerous spikes attached to it, now bore an uncanny resemblance to a porcupine's, drawing out the soon-disappearing golden blood.

"I suppose I can't let you leave now, this is no more your test ground, it has become your execution chamber". The voice bellowed coldly, "You are lucky no one is here to witness your death, though Commander Pixler tried protecting you by silencing most of us clanarians, you will still die, he let you live because he doesn't know what you are, 'rogue demigod', Abomination. Even after reaping the lives of a cities population; one with a count of 62,576 lives, you were still allowed to live".

'Kill him, Kill him, or he will kill you instead',the chi's whispers became stronger inside Ikemefuna's head, who, in his confusion failed to hear a single word of his attacker's brief monologue.

Ikem succumbed to the voice and alas.... he let loose.

[—Have you ever experienced a lightning storm. Dry, rageful lightning bolts raining down and across from the sky wreaking havoc, sowing and harvesting pandeminiously; seeds of destruction. Well, that was Ikem's release, but at least two times stronger–]

Ikemefuna roared as he let loose.

The atmosphere turned tense. The air in the room was soon filled with a choking smell of ozone. And then came the lightning bolts.

They were formed through the pores of Ikem's skin, scattering wildly across the metallic room.

The air itself was soon charged, a testament to his primal wrath.

'I knew it!!', Ikem's attacker exclaimed, at the first outburst of lightning. But as the barges continued; turning wild, he had turned sombre, he was learning firsthand the feralty of a cornered cat.

He tried defending himself at first instance after regaining clarity as a half experienced Clanarian, building a thick wall made of tendrils of tangible shadows, but a wrathful lightning bolt had pierced through. Striking him without his notice.

He fell.

An instructor of Camp Perudaux died that day; both by electrocution and a result of his carelessness.[He had always wanted to catch the lightning controller, why fight him in a metallic room.]

Ikem didn't notice his attacker's death, but he did notice the stop in the attacks by the spikes, which appeared to be fading out of reality.

Yet he kept on his release, till the ceiling of the test room collapsed on top of him.

Ikem's lightning release stopped as he lost consciousness.