Chapter 21

His battleboard sailed through the distance as his blades slashed the armour of not just soldiers but battleships and battlecarpets, his Trident interlocking with the blades of tens. Thorace parried and struck like lightning, making moves from unpredictable angles and taking down scores of soldiers in scores, leaving every battleship he landed on in a crashing mass of flames then landing on another to unleash a more severe form of destruction upon those aboard.

Staring at them as they charged at him in droves, he countered the assault as he confronted the soldiers head-on. He ducked, swirling around to slash down his opponent through the limbs, his sword cut through tens with a single stroke and his trident fell upon another score, unleashing a halo upon the rest, he sent them flying in a wave of flames. Gliding onto another battleship, he continued his rage of chaos, parrying blow for blow he leapt from his battleboard, landing on his knees he slid, taking down his attacker from the knee sending him crashing to the ground. Launching himself forward his trident struck through their ranks, creating an opening which he dove into, swirling around with both blade and trident cutting through scores as they came. His battleboard rose behind him blocking an oncoming blade with its surface and unleashing a volley of beams upon the soldiers, sending them falling off the ship.

Battling through this sea of soldiers and halos, sword and trident flaring, Thorace became as fast and deadly as lightning, his being fraying through distance and time, parrying blow after blow and deflecting halo after halo, he unleashed a fiery force of destruction from within. This was what he was and this was what he had always been. As a boy he had longed for battles like these, hungering and thirsting for them every moment of his teenage years, while his peers only thought of their frivolities, he spent his growing years in isolation, practicing the art of combat, mastering the techniques of battle and manipulation of cosmic machinery. But the one they considered the most boring - Cosmic Sage Genetics - this was the theoretical study of the manipulation of astral realms.

To them he was crazy, how could one like him from the lowest of the lows study such an art meant for only the elite ? They would say. But he was determined to become a master of the astral seas, not the slave of a feudal lord. And he had fought his way to the peak, one they could never attain with such a state of mind, a process that he a spent centuries forging through. The pains, anguish and the defeats, the fears, tension and the loneliness that always haunted him, those were the things that had made him into this warrior. Unshaken by fear and failure and ruled by purpose, desire, knowledge and will.

This was what he wanted, to fight against those who thought themselves as the overlords, that was what he had always dreamt of. And he had come all this way, fighting against the mockery and jeers of the doubters and haters, beings of feeble minds and no ambition, the con heroes of an age who only bragged about deeds which they couldn't back by action. And the world was so dumb, myopic and shortsighted that they followed such a lot. And that was what he had swore to never be, right from boyhood he had desired true courage, he had sought for the opportunity to serve the cause of all, gains and glory weren't just his aims, he nevertheless had those in the end. Now his name was proclaimed above all those who once looked down on him, across the astral seas, they heard his name echo - Thorace Nertival !

Slashing, his sword cut through the steel armour of this battlecarpet exhuming sparks. Crashing into that army of soldiers, his being raved and his eyes glistened lightning gold as he unleashed that wave of condensed flames which consumed them all, completely wiping them out. But one rose like a cosmic comet into the air from that falling wreckage of flames.

Gliding across the distance on his battleboard, he slithered through the rain of beams and halos falling upon him from the cannons and rayguns of the Feudal Order's fleets of battleships and chariots. His blade and trident cutting through their armour left behind a trail of colossal jewels of flames, the destroyed ships crashing to the earth. Taking down rank after rank, Thorace's sword and trident raved, steaming and flaring of the intense surge of energy within their cosmic cores, they had attained their peak, heralding that storm which swept through distance and time.

Landing on another battlecarpet, his being now a mountain of of marmoreal flames, Thorace charged through that thick sea of beams shot at him by the Feudal Order's soldiers. Ramming like a wall of lightning into their core, Thorace struck, his blade and trident unleashing halos, taking down the entire ship in just one fall. Plummeting downwards, he landed on his board which spun around, catapulting him onto the deck of another battleship. His blade cut through its armour sending him crashing into its lower decks, confronting waves of soldiers who fell upon him like a sea of armour and blades. But he was fury itself, stellar in countering, deadly in striking, his soul raved of the fire which had always burnt within him from childhood, that fire which had sent him voyaging and battling through the depths of the astral seas, that fire which had given him the will to challenge and crush armies belonging to tyrants and the imperial lords and emperors. It was that same fire, that same desire that was taking him higher, making him rise to his apogee.

His being blazed, unleashing that wave of flames and lightning, shattering the armour of this ship, he arose, his board coming under his feet as he burnt through the enflamed distance of halos and laser beams, he was born to battle, born for war and now, he was war.