A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

Chapter 182: The Shadows - Part 7

But that wasn't enough. They could not afford such inattention when faced with Beam. As it sprung to the side, thinking it had dodged, Beam's sword followed, cutting deep into its back, and breaking through its spine.

He drove his sword through its skull a moment later, finishing it.

Finally, the remaining four Gorebeasts had their attention on him, as he stood directly between them and the pile. One opened its jaws as wide as it could to hiss – an intimidating display, but one that wouldn't deter Beam.

Another bounced on the spot, running from side to side, looking for an opening in Beam's defence that it could run past. Similarly, Beam was eyeing them, wondering how he could most efficiently deal with them.

They were so focused on the pile that retreat wasn't an option, which made this strategy a marked improvement from when he had to hunt them down in the past, only for them to dig underground and escape.

But now he had a huge weakness at his back. If he allowed even a single one to slip past, that evolved beast would cause him significant problems. It was rare that he had to fight while protecting something other than himself, and as one might expect, he was rather unused to it.

His style was entirely focused on attacking. On battering the enemy as well as he could until they made a big enough mistake for him to seize on. Here, he didn't have the means to do that. If he ran forward, the Gorebeasts that he didn't catch would simply run past him. Somehow, he needed to keep the four of them at bay at once. He needed to round them up with his movements.

He fell to doing what he had tried on the horned goblins earlier that day, for in their standoff, there was nothing more he could do without making a fatal mistake. He would sidestep and sidestep, before stepping back and then stepping back again. It looked silly, with how clunky and forced his movements were, but slowly, he settled into a rhythm of doing it.

And then once he was in a rhythm, he'd break it with his misdirection, he'd feint a step back, before diving forward. Every time he did that, the Gorebeasts flinched. With mere movement, of the simplest kind, he was able to coax a reaction out of them, he was able to wear at their defences, and build something.

Yet Beam still didn't know how to build. He'd seen it done through Dominus' lens, where when the old warrior moved, not only were his attacks overwhelmingly powerful and accurate, but every movement seemed to accomplish more than Beam was able to do in several.

Merely in twisting his arm a certain way, Dominus countered several attacking possibilities from the opponent, whilst, at the same time, he put himself in a better position to attack.

Slowly but surely, those positional advantages would build up, until it was no longer a question of strength, or speed, the enemy just ended up so out of position that they didn't have a single chance of defending themselves.

Beam tried that. His movements didn't accomplish anything nearly as much as what Dominus' did, but with no avenue of attack, he fell to exploring that which he'd noticed potential in before, however silly it might have seemed.

With him concentrating as he was, merely probing, merely trying to invoke a response from the Gorebeasts, to break the equilibrium with the simplest movements that he could muster, to build a platform of attack that created a threat, whilst also keeping his own defence high.

His movements sped up, and he took a step forward, yet with his posture as it was, it was as though he was assaulting multiple areas at once. The Gorebeasts felt the danger. With each step he took, he provoked in them visions of the future, letting him know which areas he could easily defend, with a swift motion. They had no counter for the space he was taking up.

Yet it was nothing physical, it was merely a threat, a threat that couldn't be tangibly felt by anyone except those engaged in the combat itself. Still, the threat was very real. The visions of the future they were forced to see and the danger they felt, it was all very real.

One Gorebeast tried to challenge the reality it felt, it snapped, breaking out of the stalemate, eyeing the pile of meat that was behind Beam, as he slowly but surely prowled the circle, merely stepping forward and merely stepping to the side, his body testing the limits of the situation, as it searched for openings.

The Gorebeast went streaming past. In that web of connections that Beam had built up, the Gorebeast tripped on a wire. Beam didn't have to respond, he didn't have to think of a reaction – for the reaction had already been built moments before. It was the eb and flow of water. As the Gorebeast moved, so too did he move, as he attempted to become more fluid. brought-to-you-by-MvLeMpYr

The Gorebeast ran straight into his sword, much to its own shock. It could have sworn the distance between them was greater than it was. But illusion became reality and reality became illusion. Before the Gorebeast had even started to move, Beam's body reacted to the changes in the environment.

He felt the balance that he'd created shift, and he moved to fill that gap before the Gorebeast even knew what it was doing.

And so, it executed itself, joining the pile.

The stalemate was broken, thinking that Beam's defence had also fallen through, the other Gorebeasts charged forward. Beam felt the shift in momentum, he felt all the attacks coming towards him at once.

It was with a swiftness that he executed the second beast, driving his sword through its side. With the fluidity of his movements, it appeared as though all the Gorebeasts were mere puppets on strings that Beam controlled. It seemed as though he'd managed to draw them all in, so that he might execute them at once.