Chapter 11
Speed Run
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Ken stayed low in the thicket, the double-sized, but still minimal, chi core a warm comfort in his gut.
The raw, buzzing energy was gone, replaced by the stable promise of power.
He now had the capacity for two controlled Momentum Strikes, a massive increase in fighting power.
One he still refused to use.
?
The new strategy was clear:
Eliminate the remaining patrol before they return to base. It was going to be dark soon, so he needed to hurry.
?
?He moved with a focused, silent, intensity.
Nerves causing him to twitch at every shifting shadow or sound.
Angling away from the creek he moved quickly trying to cut off the return path of the deep-woods patrol.
?He ran for several long minutes, pushing his physical endurance to its limits. He moved past the initial kill zone and deeper into the quiet, dark recesses of the forest.
?
Heightened perception and recent experience guided his choice of routes. He needed to cut them off and set the last ambush far enough away that any sound wouldn't carry back to the camp.
After about twenty minutes of scanning, only hearing birdsong and insects, distant movement caught his eye.
Small bodies, scurrying through the brush, following a slight ridge a hundred yards to his left.
Racing as fast as the shadowed underbrush allowed, he desperately searched their route.
Where the fuck is my convenient tree?
He was in danger of losing his best and only strategy as the ridge was sparse.
What he did have to work with was a small cluster of rocks.
This will have to do.
The gaggle slowly approached his hiding spot, their demeanor reserved and quiet.
Ken was low in the shadows, the two compressed charges of Momentum Chi sitting like a warm, dense stone beneath his sternum.
Four tired goblins, two with spears and two with clubs, moving close together for safety along the sparse ridge.
?
He waited, letting the anxiety settle into a cold, surgical focus.
He had to drop them fast and violently, turning their formation against them.
The moment the rear-most club-wielding goblin passed his cover,
It's go time. ?
Ken exploded from the shadows. His target was the club-wielder bringing up the rear.
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In a single, massive stride, Ken was on him.
Ken stepped into the strike, using the momentum of his body.
The kick didn't just hit, it transferred every ounce of his two-hundred-pound frame into a four-inch patch of the goblin’s spine.
The air didn't just leave the creature.
Its lungs burst.
The creature’s breath exploded from its lungs in a high-pitched wheeze.
Its small body was launched forward with devastating velocity, slamming headfirst into the spear-wielding goblin immediately in front of it.
?
The impact was a chaotic mess of flailing limbs and weapons.
The spearman was knocked completely off balance, its own spear flying from its grasp as the club-wielder tumbled into its legs.
?Two threats down.
?
The final two goblins—the lead spearman and the remaining club-wielder—let out staggered cries.
They wheeled around to face the sudden, violent chaos that erupted behind them, eyes instantly locking on Ken vaulting over their fallen friends.
The remaining club-wielder, reacting purely on instinct, brought its club down in a desperate overhead smash.
He clamped his right palm onto the club's haft.
With the goblin momentarily off-balance, Ken snapped his torso, unleashing a tight, devastating left hook that found the goblin’s temple.
The creature collapsed, lights out, gifting Ken with his weapon.
?
The final threat, the lead spearman, having recovered from the initial shock, roared and lunged forward with its spear high.
?Ken executed a sharp, instinctual side step.
As the spear tip whisked past his cheek, Ken slammed the club down onto the haft of the spear, deflecting it violently downward and forcing the goblin's hands low.
Before it could recover, Ken swung the club in a quick, powerful backhand, striking it across the face.
The blow lifted the small body clean off the ground.
The goblin landed hard.
Its jaw mangled and its spear forgotten.
?
All the threats were now down.
After practicing for his audition for ‘Stomp!’, it was over.
Four goblins down in less than five seconds.
Best time yet. Maybe.
Who cares?
Ken stood over the silent bodies, chest heaving, steam rising from his soaked hoodie.
Cheek is bleeding pretty good.
Just blood.
Four more kills, still no chi spent…
How many more before I go home?
Before I see Kim again?
He tossed the club to the ground.
Only the fist for me…
Damnit, that sounds... whatever.
The familiar, welcome glow of the raw chi began to steam from the four corpses.
He really focused on how he did it this time.
Internalizing his inner world, he imagined it as a thrumming ball of violence.
The twisting streams of chi adding layers of force.
Constantly moving, a neverending hum.
Draw in everything.
Let nothing escape.
He applied ‘force’ in opposite directions, crushing it together.
Every stream of power, every rotation, it grew denser.
Until finally, all loose chi was gone.
In its place, a new ball of power.
Smaller, denser, and if he wasn't mistaken, containing three charges.
Ken was spent, but the job was done.
The last patrol was eliminated.
After finishing his cultivation, Ken crawled into a little opening in a secluded thicket of bushes, and curled up to sleep.
This thing controls the whole universe and couldn't give me a blanket?
