Ashen Crucible

Untitled Episode

Chapter 19: Killing Grounds (Part 1)

The temperature in the cramped barracks kept rising, the stifling heat fueling panic. In the darkness, labored breathing intertwined with drum-like heartbeats.

Su gripped his Magnum tightly, the once-cool steel now scorching against his feverish palm. Staring fixedly at the ceiling, each exhale spewed 60-degree steam. His satin-like skin flushed crimson, subcutaneous veins bulging as blood raced through them at inhuman speeds. Su resembled a volcano nearing eruption, molten fury stoked by escalating danger signals.

His body began trembling, then vibrating violently until he started bouncing slightly off the iron bedframe. Initially the bed clanged with each impact, but as Su's movements intensified, the noise mysteriously ceased.

With each descent, muscles along his spine subtly protruded then retracted, perfectly absorbing the kinetic energy before catapulting him higher. Four more bounces would've peaked his body temperature and combat readiness. The external danger hadn't yet reached its needle-sharp apex.

Suddenly, an oppressive sensation compressed Su's chest like shifting air pressure. Unbidden, his mind conjured the unmistakable image of Ben Kotis.

The sergeant was intervening. Su's instincts screamed.

Without warning, Su unleashed his pent-up energy mid-arc. Though not fully charged, the explosive force propelled him ceilingward until his back nearly brushed metal.

BOOM!

The Magnum's bestial roar shook the tin walls. The superheated round punched through metal, entering an approaching cadet's shoulder. It tumbled through organs before lodging in his pelvis.

Compared to modern firearms, the antique revolver had countless flaws - except in raw stopping power. The cadet collapsed, drowning in his own blood.

After firing, Su transformed from predator back to human. His legs coiled against the ceiling, launching him floorward. A final kick against concrete sent him cannonballing toward the window.

SHREEEK! The iron shutter tore from its frame, barely missing another cadet's face before clattering in dust.

The shocked cadet turned from the fallen shutter to stare down the Magnum's cavernous barrel.

Su's trigger finger moved with glacial precision. His jade-green left eye showed neither mercy nor bloodlust - only arctic calculation, as if aiming at trash rather than human flesh.

The cadet's heartbeat stretched each second into eternity. Though Su's finger seemed frozen, he knew the truth - that digit moved inexorably toward detonation. His assault rifle felt welded to the ground, trigger finger paralyzed by invisible weights. The safety catch's fingerprint sensor might as well have been lightyears away.

He realized with horror: his enhanced neural speed now prolonged the death experience fiftyfold. Would he watch the killing round crawl through air?

BLINDING light engulfed both men. The cadet's senses rebooted - terror and exhaustion flooded him. Facing the smoking muzzle, he lacked courage to dodge or counterattack, especially with Su's finger paused mid-pull. Though ignorant of antique firearms, he knew millimeters separated him from brain matter splattering concrete.

"Hyperactive brats! Drop weapons and step into the light! No tricks!" Ben Kotis' metallic growl echoed. After two weeks under this demon drill instructor, everyone knew the cost of disobedience.

Two cadets emerged grudgingly from barracks shadows, rifles lowered. Su smoothly placed his Magnum on the ground and rose hands-up. Three remaining cadets first aimed weapons at Su - one nearly squeezed his trigger - before remembering Kotis' order and tossing aside guns.

Kotis carried a searchlight the size of small artillery. The massive device looked weightless in his grip, cables coiling like pythons. THUD - he dropped the light, advancing with rubber baton twitching. Every cadet present had tasted this unremarkable rod's bite. Even Su's temperature spiked at its sight.

The sergeant eyed the arsenal - three rifles, one revolver - then the offenders. "Seems you pups need cooling off."

The baton blurred. Su took the first strike to the gut - lightning pain severing neural connections. He crumpled wheezeless. Two more blows between shoulder blades pancaked him. Kotis' steel-toed boot finished with two savage kicks.

Su spasmed on concrete, fighting to reboot his nervous system.

Three surviving cadets watched half in schadenfreude, half dread - until Kotis filled their vision. Simultaneous gut strikes dropped all three.

When consciousness returned, they scrambled up faster than thought - Kotis' boots being nearly as feared as his baton. They exchanged relieved glances, then noticed Su already standing pale but steady, unlike their twitching muscles.

"Got guts, kid." Kotis eyed Su ambiguously. After pause: "Quick hands. Killed someone before I intervened. Gotta say - f*****g impressive."

"Your praise honors me." Su replied evenly.

This provoked the boldest cadet. "Tonight was luck! You've made powerful enemies! Maybe tomorrow I'll blow your brains-"

WHACK! Kotis' baton dropped him mid-threat.

Su smiled at the standing pair. "Tonight was your luck. I planned to kill four."

CRACK! The baton floored Su again.

Kotis' face contorted demonically. He kicked both downed men three times each - heavy thuds vibrating through observers. Each impact made standing cadets flinch. By the end, their sweat had soaked through combat uniforms.

The sergeant wiped his gleaming scalp. Baton pointing: "Drag this trash away. Don't forget the corpse. Show some respect for the dead."

"Toss it to dogs?" a cadet ventured stupidly, recalling Cook's fate.

"Bullshit! You savages learn nothing? Return the body to family."

The chastened cadets efficiently removed evidence - dead and living. Under Kotis' gaze, efficiency became survival instinct.

Ten minutes later, Su crawled back to his bunk feeling disassembled. Nine total strikes from Kotis brought agony beyond six-hit torture. Overstimulated nerves turned to white-hot filaments, incinerating thought.

The Magnum rested nearby, barrel still warm.

Su methodically reconnected with 81% unresponsive muscle fibers. He'd marked three mental death warrants tonight.

Hunger returned, stomach acid burning. As Su sat up wolf-eyed, the door SLAMMED open, framing Kotis' blocky silhouette.

"Kid, you eat like a f*****g hog." Three nutrient tubes arced toward Su.

In another barracks, Mad Dog lay chewing straw, staring at a black-and-white photo nailed overhead. The single green speck glowed like a predator's eye.

Chapter 19: Killing Grounds (Part 2)

The chaotic night faded quickly. As training concluded, Kotis' camp entered its final and most brutal phase: live combat.

Wind.

Ripping winds defined Su's first and enduring sensory experience. Through a porthole the size of his palm, he observed the churning radiation clouds flashing kaleidoscopic colors, as the decrepit aircraft bucked through turbulence like a drunken dragonfly.

Fifteen survivors clustered in mid-cabin. Thirty-two had entered Kotis' hellish program; now over half were either dead, maimed, or broken. Four women remained among them. All sat unrestrained, spines fused to seats through sheer will as the plane corkscrewed through thousand-meter drops.

Su studied the vibrating tin can they flew in. Rust hemorrhaged from every rivet, cables dangled like disemboweled serpents. Through cracked portholes patched with duct tape, he glimpsed the first functioning aircraft he'd ever boarded - most planes in his nomadic youth existed only as skeletal wreckage.

"Enjoying the f*****g view?"

Kotis' blocky silhouette filled the cockpit doorway. Without warning, he wrenched open the starboard hatch.

Arctic winds howled in. Two cadets became human tumbleweeds. Su clawed the ceiling like a gecko as subzero air carved skin. The sergeant casually braced against the maelstrom, producing a steel shard to scrape against the fuselage. Ear-rending screeches drowned engine roars.

Metal glowing red, Kotis lit a crumpled cigarette with sparks. He inhaled deeply, smoke snatched by turbulence.

Windshift reversed. A screaming cadet became human projectile. Kotis' boot pinned him floorward with bowel-loosening impacts.

Clanging alarm bells announced drop zone. Cadets lunged for gear packs as the plane plummeted through cloud layers. Mountain peaks rushed upward - engines howling, wings grazing snowdrifts. A spiral descent barely cleared granite fangs before skimming evergreen crowns.

Ten meters above primordial forest, the vessel transformed. Wings rotated vertical, turboprops roaring upward. The craft hovered like obese dragonfly, flattened vegetation rippling concentric shockwaves.

A psychic howl punched every cadet's gut.

Su's pupils contracted. This primordial sound bypassed ears, vibrating directly through marrow. Seven hundred distinct predatory signatures resonated beneath - ravenous, primitive, patient. His adrenal gland flooded.

"LISTEN UP, CESSPOOL BRATS!" Kotis' voice carved through dread. He gestured at the alien wilderness below. "Radiation swamp split between mountains and plains. You couldn't cross it in ten days if you tried. Target: mutant nest hidden within. Code name: ORCHID. Purge it. Survive ten sunsets for extraction."

Metallic clicks echoed as weapons readied. The sergeant sneered. "Team up or get chewed. Loners die first."

The cabin became suicide chute. Cadets leapt like paratrooper confetti. Heavy armor crunchers shed plating before jumping. Su watched a woman frost her limbs into crystalline shock absorbers. Another unfolded paraglider membranes from jacket sleeves.

Su's turn came. Windshear clawed his jacket as he plummeted. Impact transformed legs into coiled springs - knees buckling, spine rolling, kinetic energy dissolving through fourteen revolutions. Crushed ferns marked his trajectory.

Above, the antique plane banked westward, two drunkards at the helm. Pilot "Flying Bear" nursed a whiskey flask thicker than his thigh. Kotis squeezed into co-pilot's seat sized for normal humans.

"Prime stock this batch," the pilot rumbled.

Kotis' teeth gleamed. "Special snowflakes brewing storms. Let the jungle trim weak shoots first."

Their laughter dissolved into engine roar.

Chapter 19: Killing Grounds (Part 3)

Su remained unaware: In Black Dragon Rider lexicon, "indigenous" carried specific gravity. The term denoted sapient organisms - not necessarily human, but any mutated lifeform achieving civilization. These ranked higher than wasteland drifters, often surpassing minor corporations in threat level. Higher status meant deadlier capabilities.

Kneeling by bushes, Su unwound his field bandages. Five kilometers from drop zone, he methodically wrapped his torso, redistributing ammunition and nutrient packs into the military rucksack. Dragon Rider gear proved efficient - modular compartments adapting to any loadout.

Persistent unease crawled between his shoulder blades. Though sensors detected nothing, his survival instinct screamed of observation. Memory playback began: six hundred distinct bio-frequencies recorded during descent. Comparison algorithms identified the anomaly.

A test.

Su approached suspect shrubbery. Wind revealed the traitor - one bush swayed milliseconds behind others. His composite blade sliced a sample branch. Green sap oozed, radiation levels negligible. Chewing revealed cellular hyperactivity beyond normal flora.

Flame test: Two .50cal rounds disassembled, powder dumped. The ignited shrub transformed.

Blue fire engulfed vegetation screaming in ultrasonic registers. Burning roots tore from soil, spider-leg appendages scrambling. Su's dagger pinned the flaming horror. Secondary shrieks answered - forty new bio-signatures triangulating nearby.

Human scream shattered ultrasonic chatter. Female. The jungle survival expert from training.

Su moved panther-silent, Magnum loaded with incendiaries. Approaching the feast: Twelve shrubs swarmed over flesh. Naked corpse twitched as root networks pulsed crimson. One specimen embedded in ribcage pumped nutrients through veined leaves. Others stripped metal artifacts, mangling alloy components with disturbing precision.

Five thunderclaps.

Magnum fire baptized the grove. Flames consumed shrieking flora. Survivors fled through underbrush, each erupting into torch-light under Su's surgical fire. The woman's perforated form became funeral pyre, one nutrition tube salvaged from ashes.

Metallic clink.

Su tossed spare bullet. Ten meters away, bushes spasmed toward the sound. Confirmation: Metal sensitivity. Burial ritual commenced - Barrett rifle, Magnum, all alloys interred beneath oak. Composite blade's grip wrapped in bandages.

Hair stood electric.

Behind foliage, twin emerald orbs glowed - predator's gaze locking onto prey.