Ivan Kal - What War Had Wrought

“You must know that I am far stronger; you have no hope of winning against me,”she sent, her words reverberating through his head. “Already Garash is finishing off the Kar Daim. She was strong, I must admit, but not even she could have stood against the Son of Carnage,”she sent. Adrian was very much aware of what she was doing. Mind battle was more than a simple strength match. She was using psychological attacks, trying to get him to give up. Too bad for her that he could feel Anessa and the other O’fa still fighting. “Soon he will come and kill your body. Why fight me, when your fate is inevitable?”

Adrian tuned her words out, compartmentalizing and devising ways of countering her attempts to pierce his defenses. Her attacks were powerful and perfect, no weaknesses for him to exploit, no room for him to send out an attack of his own. There was only one thing he could do, but it carried an incredible risk. He would need to be faster than her, or he would die.

Composing himself, he did one thing that he was certain she did not expect—he collapsed his outer defenses. Suddenly the targets of the Gatrey’s attacks disappeared; all the memories that he hadn’t put inside his inner walls, inside his construct, were vulnerable to the Gatrey. And in that moment of confusion, he struck. He reached out to the Gatrey’s mind and with all of his power pulled her inside his mind, inside his construct, to a place where he was most powerful.

Suddenly the two of them were inside the central chamber of his construct, surrounded by the gray walls of the cave. The tunnels leading to other areas of his construct were closed, leaving only the central cave. Adrian saw the Gatrey’s surprise, and struck before she had the chance to recover. He unleashed an attack on her mind, which manifested inside his construct as spikes that sprung from the rock floor to impale the Gatrey’s avatar from the floor.

“I’m impressed,”said the Gatrey’s avatar as she shimmered and stepped out of the spikes, seemingly unhurt. “You are a mindbender; I did not anticipate this.”She looked at him askance. “You have a large true-mind. A cave inside of a mountain. Simplistic, yet massive and powerful.”

She took a few steps forward and Adrian attacked again. More spikes sprung from the rock floor, impaling her once more. She stopped for a moment; her face showed sign of strain and discomfort, and then she shimmered again and stepped out of the spikes for the second time. “Very powerful, but I have fought against many mindbenders over many millennia. You cannot defeat me,”the Gatrey said, almost sadly, as she sent an attack of her own which manifested as chunks of rocks flying toward Adrian’s head.

“Why are you doing this?”Adrian demanded, as he deflected the rocks with his mind. “We could’ve had peace, and now no matter the outcome of this trap, you will have only war.”

“It is simple; it is in the nature of the strong to seek domination. We have learned these lessons a long time ago. Better that we stop any who have potential to threaten us while we are superior.”

“It doesn’t have to be like that. We can still have peace, a cooperation of equals,”Adrian said.

“You are young and naïve. Equality among those of different opinions and goals is impossible. Eventually one swallows the other; it is the law of nature.”

Adrian could see that he wouldn’t convince her, and she was more powerful and more experienced, he could feel that. Focusing, Adrian forced his mind to work faster, bringing his entire construct into his mindspace as he kept a tight hold on the intruder in his mind. Telepaths inherently could perceive and process information faster; their brains could for short periods of time speed up. But Adrian’s mindspace was something on a completely different level. While a telepath could experience minutes as hours, Adrian could experience minutes as days. Nothing in the construct changed, but Adrian could see that the Gatrey had noticed a difference.

“What… are… you… doing…?”she said slowly, every word spread out, her face contorted in pain.

“You are in my head now, and you might be powerful, but your brain back in your body can’t keep up with mine,”Adrian said as he started attacking her.

Spikes from the ground pierced her, and rocks pummeled her as Adrian kept her mind locked deep inside his own. He knew that he was hurting her, because she was trying to escape. Adrian was keeping her mind tight inside his construct, and with the mindspace straining her brain by forcing her to experience everything much faster than she was used to, she couldn’t even mount a defense.

Then as Adrian knew she was nearing her limit, she roared and a screech pierced through his mind, forcing his avatar to the knees. A large rock appeared and smashed into Adrian from the side, and he lost focus—and in the process lost his mindspace. His construct lurched and the walls shook as time changed speed.

Adrian rose from the floor, and from a kneeling position looked at the Gatrey, her avatar form now battered and wounded, but standing and walking towards him. “I thank you,”she said honestly, as her attacks still pierced his mind, filling it with a painful screech. “I have forgotten what it feels like to be so close to death, to have my power challenged by an equal. So before I kill you, I will bestow upon you the greatest honor one telepath can give to another. I name you, Heart of the Mountain.”

Her hands rose, preparing for the final blow. Adrian was close to his limit, his power expended and his mind injured; he had nothing left to defend himself. Then, he felt a presence, large and familiar, surround his mind, and Adrian lowered his shields to allow it in.

The Gatrey’s avatar flew backwards as invisible force threw her across the room. The Gatrey rose from the ground and looked at Adrian, and the newcomer standing beside him.

Lurker of the Depths stood inside Adrian’s construct, his power blanketing Adrian’s. “Kar Daim needs your help. Go, I will deal with this,”Lurker of the Depths sent him in private, and then his power grabbed hold of the Gatrey, allowing Adrian room inside his mind.

“Thank you,”Adrian said, and with one last look at the Gatrey, together Lurker of the Depths and Adrian pushed her out of his construct and mind.

Lurker of the Depths felt Adrian’s mind detach itself from the Erasi attacker, and without waiting, he turned on the mind that he had a tentative hold of, sending tendrils of his mind to bore into her defenses. He was struggling, and straining himself by stretching his mind from the shuttle to the meeting place; he was at the very edge of his range, and couldn’t bring to bear all of his mind’s power without extending himself too far and breaking his mind. That meant he couldn’t do what Adrian had done and bring the Erasi into his construct, but he could still hold her at bay. Her mind was exhausted from the fight with Adrian, but still Lurker of the Depths could feel considerable strength from her. His attacks encountered her defenses, and started boring holes that were already there from Adrian’s attacks, but each time he focused on a single point, she would reach over great distance to strike back at him.

“Another surprise. You too are a mindbender,”the Erasi sent. “And even more impressive, that you are able to reach out and hold me from such a distance.”

Lurker of the Depths ignored her, and reinforced his attacks.