Molting the Mortal Coil

Chapter 836: Hunting

He rolled his shoulder backwards, twisting sideways and leaning over at the waist, narrowly avoiding the sharp point aimed towards his heart. His fingers snapped open, flattening into a rigid pattern to allow him to push against the water. The combination of tilting at the waist and pushing with his hands gave him enough impetus to save his hide. His legs kicked out together as one, like the flowing motion of a tail, propelling him out of reach of a second point that was aimed right at his spine. Then his legs bicycled to the side and his hands swept to the side like he was pushing open a huge curtain and he twisted out of the way of another deadly spike that was heading towards the top of his head. It narrowly missed his collarbone, getting shunted aside by the glowing layer of jade that sheathed his body.

Then he pressed his right hand against his left fist and drove his left elbow to the side, smashing it against the haft of the fourth spear approaching him from that side. The weapon was deflected at the last instant and prevented from puncturing his lung. This attacker had overcommitted and put itself in too close. He wrapped his upper arm around the spear hed just deflected and then his forearm swung down and completed the hold, trapping it with his armpit and locking the pole to his side. Then he used this hold to swing his legs forward, kicking off a piece of the enemys body and using it to spin himself 180 degrees around the pole and avoid two of the other spears from impaling him. The attackers rushed from either side and missed him as he flipped himself upside down.

He kicked back the other way and avoided the third who had time to change course and aim for his new position. Then he swung back to a spot between either of the two and stomped down hard with one foot. His heel stabbed into a squishy barrier and then punched through it, sinking inside and spilling a gooey liquid into the surrounding sea water. He used his foot for leverage and pulled hard upon the spear under his arm, leading its owner to twist and step into the way between him and two of the others. Yanking on the deadly weapon to the left and right, he maneuvered his enemy into becoming a shield for him, blocking the three others with the body of the fourth.

At least for a little while. After each of the three attacked a few times and had to pull back to keep from injuring their fourth, they shared a look and then rushed in. This time, when he pulled the trapped enemy in front of him like a shield there was no resistance. In fact there was even assistance, the enemy jumped into position and held themself stiff like a board. Recognizing what was going on, he used the enemys stiff body as a launching point and kicked backwards, twisting like a corkscrew and shrinking his exposed surface area as much as possible to the sharp points that punched right through his shield. They shot toward him from three different angles and only by escaping early did he have enough time to twist out of the way of three different killing blows, changing them from killing strikes into merely holes punched in his limbs.

The fourth enemy sacrificed itself, choosing to be a smokescreen to hide where the others would attack from. Instead of being pierced through the throat, heart, and kidney, he was instead stabbed through the bicep, calf, and shoulder. With his left shoulder punctured, his arm went limp. He was also stabbed through the right bicep, but that injury wasnt as fierce. He twisted at the wrist and used his shoulder to brace against the spear punched into him. The green layer of energy armor was made up of many carefully segmented plates that shifted when he moved and a few of the larger plates had been shattered apart by the fierce stabs. The thicker plates sheathing his forearm shifted and their energy slightly reshaped itself as those overlapping plates swung out and took on the shape of a long curved blade.

The green scythe of energy solidified and then connected with the spear caught in his bicep. He used the inwardly curved blade like a hook to catch the spear and make up for his severed bicep muscles. He threw his good shoulder backward and downwards, leveraging the whole of his core muscles to contract and drive the blade in deeper. There was a harsh crack and then the spear in his arm was snapped off. He used his right leg to kick away the body of the second attacker who had stabbed his thigh, avoiding a follow up attack from them.

He didnt have time to do anything about the first enemy, and the spear in his shoulder pushed harder against him, digging deeper into him and putting him closer to the main body of his foe.

A set of giant jaws with an opening that looked like a sewer manhole approached him and he quickly spread his legs to brace his feet against the upper and lower jaw of the beast. The spear in his shoulder was the ten foot long spike at the tip of this beasts nose and had a distinctly triangular profile, which forced the wound in his shoulder even wider. The third of his attackers had already had half of its head ripped off by his forearm blade and the rest of its huge body twitched a few times before it went still and started to slowly sink.

On the back of this giant fish was a line of sharp spines with thick leathery skin extending between them like webbing or a very dangerous version of a bats wings. On either side of its body, with a downward angle, were a pair of large blade-like fins that were of a similar shape as Sages forearm blades, yet at quadruple the size. These two fins along with the fin down its spine were of similar length and made its body into the shape of an equilateral triangle. The vertical fins of its tail in the rear were equally as sharp and imposing, yet even bigger than the front fins and propelled it at immense speed. Along with its triangular body, it also had an upside down triangle for a snout, a three sided blade or spear that shot outwards to a deadly point. The Trifish.

It was a deadly tier 6 swordfish and while Sage had killed two out of four, he had sustained heavy injuries in the process. He held tightly to the triangular spear nose of the first attacker and fought to keep it from using its powerful forward momentum to feed him into its mouth. At the same time, it was slowly circling around, charting an intercept course for the second Trifish. It was swimming at its top speed to try and use the water to force Sage into its mouth, which meant the other Trifish couldnt catch up if it followed after it. Instead, the two of them worked with practiced cooperation and circled around to rush towards each other from head on. The two spear nosed fish swam directly towards each other like they were playing a deadly game of chicken, but Sage knew they had probably done this maneuver thousands of times before and there was no danger of either colliding.

He felt them rotating to opposite directions and he knew they were going to try to bite him from above and below to tear him into two pieces.