--donation bonus (day #30, post 1/5)--
Childishness, Roman knew--an immature impulse to test out his still relatively new strength. But still. There it was. And if he had no choice but to fight this time, then perhaps there was no harm in learning to enjoy it a little. And besides, the extra motivation had helped him practice.
‘Don’t stop moving and don’t stop attacking,’ said Voreese.
‘I know,’ said Roman. His arm fought against the pounding wind force as he sent a shock wave ahead of himself--his own flight speed added to it like a bullet fired from the nose of a plane.
Karkash responded in kind. Lightning cut into the shock wave before it reached him. The clash made the air erupt. Frantic waves of sparks shot out in all directions.
Roman banked right hard, and he saw Karkash following suit. Another shock wave, another surge of lightning, another furious explosion. And again. And still another time. They followed each other higher up, exchanging attacks as Roman gradually forced his way closer, swirling around each explosion, ignoring his own battered body because Karkash’s couldn’t be in much better shape.
When he was finally within range, Roman threw his fist out and surrounded Karkash with a pressurized cage. It certainly wasn’t enough to stop the man, but it slowed him for a moment, and Roman took the opportunity to move in even closer, a shock wave already flying ahead of him.
Karkash deflected it with another burst of lightning, but he was too close to the explosion this time and got caught up in the blast. He flew off course, toppling through the air.
Roman gave chase, preparing a bath of fire with a trembling hand. The flames poured forth on another shock wave.
But instead of struggling to steady himself, Karkash seemed to embrace his downward tumble, and it became a broad, swooping maneuver. He moved down and away from the fire, which burned up harmlessly after going too far. And then Karkash was flying up toward Roman again, smoothly sliding past the next stream of fire and retaliating with fresh lightning.
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.
You gotta love fire vs lightning matches
ReplyDelete‘I know,’ said Roman. His arm fought against the pounding wind force as he sent a shock wave ahead of himself--his own flight speed added to it like a bullet fired from the nose of a plane.
ReplyDeleteThat's not how shockwaves work, shockwaves are sound, and thus always travel at the speed of sound.
That's incorrect. A shock wave isn't necessarily sound. It's just any propagating wave traveling through a medium. In physics, the term "shock wave" strictly applies to only such waves that moves faster than the speed of sound. You're probably thinking of a "sonic boom," specifically, which isn't quite the same thing.
ReplyDeleteAlso, outside of physics, most folks attribute the term "shock wave" to any kind of impactful force, not necessarily requiring that it break the sound barrier.
This also helps to address the issue of the two forces colliding with one another, but in addition to that, we have already seen that Karkash can manipulate his lightning to "cut" through physical things (such as limbs), which normal lightning would do. It's simply a heightened degree of control on his part, combined with the ever-present spanner-in-the-works that is "soul-strengthening."
Okay.
ReplyDelete