That evening, I sat on the floor back at the Desert Wind Guild, in my suite. Ellen was out with Jessie—my sister had an appointment for therapy, and Ellen had offered to take her and do some digging into the Traynor-Overholz Cannon. She wouldn’t go to Bob, but that didn’t mean she was out of contacts. Rebecca Overholz seemed like she wasn’t happy about working with the Traynor Corporation, and she might tell Ellen what she wanted to learn.
I didn’t think it was a need, and neither did Ellen. The weapon we’d seen hadn’t been world-changing. If anything, it had simply been annoying for most of the higher-ranked monsters it targeted.
As for me, I had two new Laws to learn and then a consolidation to attempt. If everything went right, I’d hit A-Rank tonight—and once I was A-Rank, I’d figure out what the bottleneck at the cusp of S-Rank was, and I could start working on overcoming that. My build was more than capable of getting there, but that didn’t mean the bottleneck would be simple.
If it was, Earth would have a lot more S-Rankers.
A-Rank would change things, though. It’d be the first time I was really, undisputably ahead of Ellen, for one thing. She still needed one more Law to get there, and her highest B-Rank skill was B-07. It wouldn’t happen for a day or two at the soonest. I wasn’t sure what that’d do to our dynamics, but I didn’t have much of a choice, and she’d said it’d be okay. It’d also isolate me from Jeff even more. He’d thrown himself into recruiting and testing the E and D-Rankers, which I couldn’t fault him for, but it felt like, for the first time, my best friend and I were splitting up.
But my fight with Deborah was the day after tomorrow. If I hit A-Rank now, I’d have a day to get used to the increased speed and strength, and to forge an A-Rank version of Stormsong. It was now or never.
I closed my eyes and started to learn the Last Law of the Clouded Eye.
The Laws of the Clouded Eye were a loop. Protection begets deception, deception begets aggression, and aggression begets protection. The three principles of swordplay worked in tandem—my father and my fencing instructor in middle and high school both agreed on that front. Swordplay was the interplay of defense, subterfuge, and attack. The final Law would be a synthesis of the three.
When I opened my eyes, the storm over my mountain had formed a whirling maelstrom. Lightning crackled between the typhoon’s gray, cloudy walls, but instead of clear bolts, all I could see was an occasional flash of light grey in the dark. It took me a moment to realize that it was raining. It had been raining nonstop since the siege started, but even so, I was a creature of Phoenix. I shouldn’t have gotten used to it this quickly.
I stared up at the sky.
Then I stared even longer. The whirling maelstrom roared overhead, wind whipping the rain into a frenzy as it fell until the raindrops came in sideways and stung at my face. The mountain below me shook in the wind; it had taken a beating in previous Law-Learning sessions, and I could only hope it’d hold out through this one.
But as I watched, something strange happened.
The hurricane slowed. Then it stopped. As one, the clouds seemed to halt in place, the wind that drove them dropped away, and the rain’s characteristics changed. Where it had been a brutal, welt-raising storm only moments before, it suddenly felt like a calm, drizzly afternoon at the park by our old home in Mesa. Every part of me screamed to relax. My muscles tried to un-tense on their own.
I forced them not to. Deception begets aggression. I couldn’t allow the storm to fool me—too much was at stake.
And, after a moment, the maelstrom overhead seemed to realize it. There was a pause, as if it was gathering itself. Then it renewed its attack. Deception had failed it. I’d won the first round of our conflict, and even a failed deception begat aggression.
The rain and wind pounded on my clothes, strong enough that I summoned the Stormsteel armor to protect myself. The temperature plummeted. I shivered on the mountain, then hunched over, still in the lotus position, against the hail that had started to form. But under my arched back, my muscles tensed. Deception begat aggression, after all, and right now, I was the one doing the deceiving.
The storm’s aggression slammed down around me. I rode it out for what felt like hours before the hail slowly stopped and rain began to fall again. By the time the storm shifted fully and let up enough for me to look at the sky again, I was soaked through to the bone.
But it was my turn.
I needed to protect myself from the next round—if there was going to be another round. I needed to flow from deception into aggression.
I needed to embrace the storm’s flow.
The storm paused overhead for an instant, and in that moment, I struck back. Not much. Just a single Thunder Crash. But that was enough—deception begets aggression, and I was completing the cycle and embracing the storm’s flow.
Law Learned: Last Law of the Clouded Eye
Mistwalk Forms: Rank B to A
The eye of the storm contains infinite possibilities, but every one of its possible moves is one of three. The eye sees the destruction it wreaks upon the world. It protects its champions with walls of stormcloud. And it moves faster than its enemies believe possible—all in the service of that infinite possibility. In embracing the eye of the storm’s flow, Kade Noelstra, you have taken a step down the Stormsteel Path: the rain flows.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Flashstep upgrades to Storm Dance: Consume Lightning Charges to instantly reposition.
Part of me relaxed—one down, one to go.
The rest of me focused on the hurricane overhead, though, because I wasn’t done yet. I still had another Law to learn—the Last Law of the Sirocco. The Laws of the Sirocco were that power is patient, that patience conquers strength, and that restraint and action are one. I didn’t know how the final Law would combine them—or if it even would—but I knew I was ready to learn it.
I had to be, because I was out of time.
The moment I thought it, the storm shifted. The rain faded, then stopped, leaving behind layers of thick mud all across the desert floor around me. The smell of ozone disappeared from the air—it had been there the whole time, but I hadn’t noticed it until it was gone. And to the east, the sun broke through the hurricane’s massive, gray walls.
I relaxed. Then I caught myself; I’d just been reminded that the storm used deception, and now here I was, falling into the trap. The hurricane broke overhead, shifting slowly into something else.
A real windstorm.
The kind that scoured the desert and ripped at stone and sand and the saguaro cacti that made their homes here. The kind that choked the air with dust and covered Phoenix with a layer of dirt a quarter inch deep. A dry, shredding storm.
It didn’t start as that, though.
For a long time, the only clue I had for what was coming was the faintest breeze blowing against my hair. It was almost gentle, especially after the storm I’d just ridden out, the kind of wind that felt good even on a blazing hot July day. I wasn’t fooled, though. I was a creature of Phoenix, after all, and I’d ridden out enough of the horizon-eating desert storms to know what was coming.
But it didn’t come. It waited. Power was patient, and restraint and action were one. The storm was demonstrating that—but to what end?
All I could do was brace myself for the storm’s strength and wait—prepare myself for what was coming.
So I did.
In a way, the dust storm brewing far in the distance wasn’t that different from my fight with Deborah Callahan. She was strong—possibly the strongest being I’d fought. The wolves in the Crone’s world might be close, and the God of Thunder had been stronger, but he’d also been holding back every time we crossed blades. Deborah wouldn’t. I couldn’t rely on her making mistakes, either. It’d be her peak power against whatever preparations I could make.
That was it.
It hit me suddenly. A revelation. The storm in the distance was patient—but it wasn’t only patient. While it waited, it was gathering its strength and preparing to break.
I could do the same.
Law Learned: Last Law of the Sirocco
Cyclone Forms: Rank B to A
The wind rips across the desert. Sand and dust fly in its vanguard. A wall of brown approaches a city. And all because of a tiny action far across the ocean, weeks before. The strongest storms don’t appear from nothing. They build slowly, preparing their might over time. That time is the storm’s luxury, not the world’s. By taking the time to ready yourself, Kade Noelstra, you have taken a step down the Stormsteel Path: the storm prepares.
Lightning Strikes Twice upgrades to Rolling Thunder: Consume Lightning Charges to apply spell echoes to the next two casts.
User: Kade Noelstra
Reforged Core, B-Rank
Stamina: 460/460, Mana: 575/590
Skills:
1. Stormsteel Core (B-08 to A-01, Unique, Merged, God-Touched)
2. Thunderbolt Forms (B-09 to A-01, Altered, Merged)
3. Mistwalk Forms (B-08 to A-01, Altered, Merged)
4. Cyclone Forms (B-08 to A-01, Altered, Merged)
5. Stormlight Bond (B-03 to B-05, Altered, Merged)
6. Shadowstorm Battery (C-02 to C-05, Altered, Merged, Dual)
7. Stormbreak (C-01 to C-02, Unique)
Path: Stormsteel Path
Aura: Negative Space
Laws: First Law of the Stormcore, Law of the Shadowed Storm, First Law of Darkened Lightning, Third Law of the Sirocco, Second Law of the Stormlight, Second Law of the Unbroken Storm, Last Law of the Thunderhead, Last Law of Stormsteel, Last Law of the Clouded Eye, Last Law of the Sirocco
I’d built up a huge number of Laws.
Four were A-Rank capstones—the Last Laws of the Thunderhead, Stormsteel, Clouded Eye, and Sirocco. Together, they represented a massive increase in my understanding of my core build. I’d need all four to beat Deborah Callahan. But I’d need more than that, and I’d only be able to consolidate five Laws.
There were three possibilities in the leftovers.
The Third Law of the Sirocco. I hadn’t consolidated it—it alone, from the core build, would be left behind if I didn’t do it now. Adding it into the consolidated Law would unbalance it in favor of spellcasting, though.
The Second Law of the Stormlight. Cheddar deserved my focus. He was hard to use in every situation, but even hiding and acting as a battery, he was incredibly helpful. But that didn’t make him the right choice—not for what was coming.
For what was coming, I was pretty sure I wanted—
“The Second Law of the Unbroken Storm.”
I opened my eyes to a familiar vista—the God of Thunder’s domain, with its floating towers and gray void of a sky. Eugene hung in front of me mid-air, his long, draconic body almost draped lazily over the air. His eye stared at mine, and I glared back. “Hello, Eugene. I was wondering when you’d interfere.”
“Now, kid, I don’t like interfering, but it’s been boring here, and you’re about to be up against a monster.” Eugene laughed, peals of thunder echoing through his portal world.
I didn’t stop glaring. “You know what’s up with Deborah Callahan?”
“I do.”
“And you can’t tell me, because you made a deal with the Crone?”
“Correct.”
“But you’re willing to violate those rules right here, right now, to warn me that I’m up against a monster and tell me which Law to learn?” I stood up and squared up with Eugene. “Or is this not enough to irritate the Crone?”
“She understands the spirit of the agreement, not just the letter of it.” Eugene landed across from me, shifting into his glowing, lightning-built humanoid form. He laughed again. “As for the monster, kid, I can’t tell you anything about the Paragon involved, but I can tell you that you’ll want to go all-out as fast as you can. The Last Law of the Sirocco isn’t a trap, but your preparations had better be complete the moment you step into the arena, because the woman you’re about to fight’s been preparing for it, too—and her Paragon is better at it than we are.”
I watched, waiting for more. Stormsong was in my hand, humming and crackling with lightning. Tallas’s words stuck in my mind, and I couldn’t clear them out. The God of Thunder needed me to fail. His agreement with the Crone was potentially at stake—or his relationship with another Paragon. And even more, the moment when we’d be enemies instead of allies was approaching. It was approaching fast. Faster than I’d expected, and far faster than Eugene would likely expect. But the storm prepares, and he was preparing just like me.
Could I trust him? I wanted to. Stormbreak was a core part of my plan for fighting Deborah Callahan. Any understanding I could gain would only help me. And I’d been leaning toward it before Eugene interfered.
After a moment to think, I nodded slowly. “Alright, Eugene. The Unbroken Storm it is. It’s poetic, don’t you think? That’s what people are starting to call me.”
“You earned a title? Congratulations, kid. Sincerely. Now get to it. You have a lot to learn, and a lot to get used to once you do. Prove yourself worthy of it.”
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