Page 170 of Stars in Umbra
Mo’s fists moved like thunder cracks, Caidan countered with calculated savagery.
They whirled over the hull, weapons drawn and discarded mid-strike, blades flashing, punches landing with bone-cracking force.
Caidan ducked, lashed out with a shoulder slam, and sent Mo sliding toward the bomber’s edge.
Mo twisted during a slide, caught the ledge, and launched back with a burst of Sacran propulsion. He spun, then delivered a rising knee into Caidan’s chest that cracked reinforced armor.
Electrical discharge sparked around them as Mo opened himself to the fullness of his power.
Glyphs ignited across his body in ancient Sacran script. His eyes flared with pale fire. Flight, hyper-speed, cosmic pulse, it all surged out of him in a wave of fury.
Gunfire erupted from the bomber’s turrets, trying to track him.
He blurred past the bullets. Arcs of white-gold lightning cascaded from him like divine lashes, creating a tempest of divine proportions.
He let the storm feed on his wrath.
‘I am not your blade,’ he snarled at Caidan with divine resonance. ‘I am your reckoning.’
Caidan tried to retreat, but Mo’s Sacran precognition perceived every move before it happened and anticipated each of Caidan’s maneuvers.
The ambiance around them shimmered with raw magic.
Mo struck again, and again, fast, agile, brutal, his fists speaking the rage of years lived in servitude and silence.
Then, from somewhere ancient within him, older than memory, Mo began to speak.
Not in Kwavi, not even in Standard, but in Sacran.
‘Kai’thun asara’ven. Tor ma’shakar eneth kai. Rin surai’vak.’
Chains of pure, glowing ether lashed through the air, shackles formed from the language of gods.
They encircled Caidan’s limbs mid-leap, binding him.
He struggled and roared.
But the more he fought, the tighter the bonds became.
Mo stepped forward, breathing hard, lit from within by an immaculate, divine blaze.
He planted a boot on Caidan’s chest and knelt, his heeled justice crushing the man’s sternum.
‘You stole my past. You manipulated my mind. You almost destroyed the only woman who’s ever made me want to live again.’ His voice dropped, steel wrapped in fire. ‘But you will not take her, nor will your evil and wrath touch Eden II.’
He lifted off the man, then with a flick of his hands, the divine tethers moved.
They lifted Caidan high in the air, then flung him onto the reinforced bulkhead, lashing him to it with bright, glowing whips that whipped his skin every so often.
The impact sent a grunt tearing from Caidan’s throat, his head lashed back against the metal.
Caidan roared in agony, and Mo caught the sound of bones breaking.
He didn’t give a flyingfokk.
The sacred shackles continued to burn, tethering the man infamous as Apex Wraith to the hull like a condemned soul.
Mo turned his head, gaze scanning through the bomber’s fortified seams.
