Page 160 of Light Leech

I unclenched my fist and grabbed onto something metallic on its head. I ran my fingers down it, recognizing it as one of the cognitive bands that helped advance its sentience, if it held to the same principles as Finians. I tightened my grip and let the light drain from me. I felt the current travel from my Bite, down my fingers, and into the cybernetics. Though my eyes were closed, I saw a flash of green light through my eyelids.

Something spoke into my mind using the same method as Zhu, though this voice was lighter and lacked the ancient formality that he spoke with. It was that of a frightened girl. “Who are you? What is this? What do you want?”

“Stop attacking,” I told her.

“Why?”

I pushed more light into her and felt the resistance wane. “What do you want?”

“To get you out of here.” I’m sure there was something better I could have said that didn’t feel like the words a cheesy hero would say to an imprisoned monster in a children’s mindshow, but it did the trick.

The tentacles moved me onto its back and it surfaced. She surfaced. I held onto the tentacles on her side and worked my legs into a semi-comfortable position. I whipped my hair to the side and wiped my face as I took in the air still stained with the wine’s aroma.

My boatmates dropped their spears. The rowers stopped their panicked scrambling to look at me, despite the sinking boat.

“Tell the other orca to stop attacking.”

She cried out with squeaky clicks. The other sea-mech replied with a docile retreat from its current target.

My captain laughed and clapped. The others cheered with him, as did the other boats. The two undamaged boats rowed over to the sinking ones and helped them onto their already crowded vessels.

The few audience members did not find the sudden calm a reason to rejoice.

The turrets in the middle arose to balance out their frustration.

“Tell the other one to attack the turrets!”

She responded with another series of calls.

Those on the boats who were not ducking in terror took up their spears and aimed for the turrets. While the turrets still hit some of them, the others continued to bombard the devices.

The other orca-mech breached as if putting on an aquatic spectacle and landed on one of the turrets. All that was left were a few pieces of floating debris as the other remains sunk into the wine. The orca-mech repeated the process until there were no turrets remaining.

I turned my orca towards the audience. Even fewer people remained now that there was nothing left to terrorize the competitors.

I let my light flow through my steed. I felt the light that gave her her power. There was a large storage of violet light that could run down the lengths of her tentacles. I tapped onto the power source and let the light flow down her arms.

I pointed us towards Zhou and charged the veil of light that divided the audience and the lake.

We dove down to build momentum. I held onto her as the wine rushed by my body. She built speed, then rose in a magnificent breach that pointed us towards our target. With tentacles forward to shred the light, she tore through and shattered the veil around us. She landed with the grace of a spider, though her weight would have been enough to crush Zhou, had he chosen to do so.

Three Eunuchs remained by Zhou’s side and rushed forward to protect him. Naoma peeked out behind his throne alongside the other elevated elites Zhou had invited to sit with him. With the rest of the arena now empty I wondered what threats he had made to keep them at his side.

Zhou remained in his throne wearing a look of simple annoyance on his face. I couldn’t tell if it was from stubborn confidence or if he was good at masking his fear.

The Eunuchs tapped their necks. Violet light shields covered their bodies like diving suits with violet spears like harpoons to match the theme of aquatic warfare.

The front two ran towards me while the other stood in front of Zhou, his spear in the diagonal position.

They deflected my orca’s initial tentacle stabs with the reflexes of trained combatants, despite their otherwise docile appearance. Even targeting them with two tentacles a person was not enough. While they deflected one, their light shields could take an occasional hit from the same degree of light.

“Use the anti-spectrum.” Zhu’s words sounded like a ripoff of an alien sage from an old sci-fi mindshow.

Can I?

“Feed your steed, just as you did to control it. You have ascended, use your elevated abilities lest you become another wasted investment.”

I tightened my grip on the orca’s band and released my light. Dark specs flooded my vision, but I was not ready to pass out. Green light covered the tips of her tentacles like poisoned spears. While the first Eunuch deflected the violet body of one tentacle from above, the other stabbed from below, skewering him from bottom to top. The Eunuch went limp and dropped the spear.