Josh was getting very tired of hearing the sounds of muffled shattering and subdued pinging of loose pebbles being instantly pulverized by immense and as yet unseen stone weights that were, rolling over them? The noise was coming from every direction and the sounds were getting closer by the second. Much closer!

  Josh’s not knowing exactly what was spiraling toward them on all sides and bringing with it some kind of unimaginable doom was definitely adding a crowd pleasing element of suspense for the spectators. This was made clear to the forty-four year old lawyer turned iteration cultivator, by the spontaneous gasps of disembodied excitement that randomly punctuated the otherwise looming atmosphere of death and destruction.

  Anyone who could see the study in angst expression his face was wearing could tell that the Josh was nearing the edge of what he could stand. And if he was being honest with himself, Josh was a skosh further down the path to crazy town than he wanted to be. Still lucid for the moment however, Josh’s eyes continued their twitching at the root of his consternation, the visually impenetrable ‘fog of war’ surrounding him and Sen. The wall of white mist, less transparent than a half-inch slice of bree had started swirling about them in heavy blankets shortly after the Titans had dropped them both in the center of the gaming pitch he and Sen were now marooned in. Now essentially blind, Josh’s could only rely on his enhanced hearing for anything more than ten to twenty feet away. And aside from the monsters rolling at him and Sen, all he could hear was the low rumble of anticipation from the as yet unseen, but somehow all knowing crowd of spectators. A crowd that was also, somehow, all around them. If he listened very closely he could even discern small audible gasps of anticipation from them with his every move. How the spectators could see him, or for that matter anything through the fog, I haven’t a clue.

  Josh’s reflexes waved his left hand ineffectually to disperse the fog always collecting before his eyes. Like trying to swipe the ocean away as you swam underwater, nothing improved and he didn’t like it. If he was being completely honest, since being thrown into this iteration, ‘eight aspect doors from his own,’ whatever the heck those are, Josh had to admit that he had developed a thriving dislike for the unknown. And he thought that was healthy. In his experience, all too often the unknown would pop out and taken giant chunks out your hind quarters… At least if you didn’t do it to them first.

  Josh tapped his Karmic Bond awareness and felt a bit more than saw Sen about five to six feet away. His Karmicly Bonded and fallen Immortal brother, was laying on his belly with his right ear to the ground, both eyes closed. Josh had to admit that he was doing a damn good impression of a Civil War era indian scout despite the constantly increasing impact tremors from their unseen and encircling pursuers growing close enough to make the loose gravel and dirt near him bounce up and down like fleas on a wild dog.

  Sen was sending no mental thoughts through their Bond. But Josh was sure from his overall constipated look that what he was hearing wasn’t good. No surprises there…

  “Yululululululululululul!” Josh jumpedin his own skin at the piercing sound of an ancient native war cry that like everything else,seemed to be coming from all directions in the mufling fog. Falling off the cliff’s edge of emotional control, his mental tongue finally cracked under the building pressure and he let his brother know.

  ~Sen…some kind of rock monsters are literally circling in to crush us. We can’t see anything because of a fog whiteout so thick it could teach Carl von Clauzwitz and Walter Bright a thing or two…and somehow, you think a Tanto impression is going to help us?! Let’s just pick a direction and get the heck out of here while we still can!~ Josh’s four of Josh’s fingers had unconsciously pointed in the direction that his cycling Essense was telling him that the ‘Safety’ area that Thiea, the Titan youth and Goddess of Wisdom, had said would be ‘perceptable’ after the game had started when she and her brother/lifemate had dropped them both here .

  Build up frustration flooded into Josh’s tone. ~I know your cycling Essence is telling you the same thing it’s telling me. We are supposed to head that way, toward the safe zone we can feel! I almost believe that if I let my feet do their own thing, they would walk there on their own…~

  Josh trailed off his mental tirade with decreasing volume at the realization of his own statement because it was true. I am being pulled in a direction without giving thought to wether or not it is the smart thing to do…

  Not reacting to the escalating tone in Josh’s Bond-speak, Sen remained as he was, flat on the ground. He did however encourage the exploration of last realization in Josh’s surface thoughts. ~Yes, brother. You are correct. If you weren’t controlling your actions, you would find yourself walking in the direction of safety without giving it conscious thought. Its a side effect of being under the influence of a signifncatly superior Will and Inention.~

  ~So you mean that we are being controlled by these bastards. Against our will?!~ Anger touched Josh’s tone at the violation.

  Sen’s expression grew more tense and he pressed his ear even closer to the ground, making it clear to Josh that aside from having this conversation with him, Sen was still listening intently to the rumbling all around them. ~Not exactly brother. The draw in the direction of the safe area is merely that. A pull on a spirit being’s Essence in the direction in it is located. Nothing more for someone with the same relative strength as the being whose Will created the draw. For someone such as us– Much less powerful than those who were intended to feel the Intended nudging…it is a draw. For someone weaker than even us, it would be a compulsion– I have seen it many times from the other side, when, as an Immortal, I interacted with other spirit beings, even powerful cultivators.~

  ~So…they aren’t trying to mind control us…we’re just seriously outclassed?~

  ~I believe that is the proper way to interpret what is happening. Yes.~ Sen held up his hand to stop further conversation and focused his hearing on the ground. After a second he continued. ~ I also agree that our pursuers are approaching from all four cardinal directions. But, ‘where will they not be when one of them finally finds us and we need to run?’ That is why I am tracking their vibration vectors through this tera. And why I thought it best to wait for the right opening.~

  After hearing Sen, his brother’s words made way too much sense in comparison to Josh’s ants-in-the-pants strategy. Some of the tension left the Earthling’s shoulders as he saw the underlying wisdom. Unfortunately, Josh wasn’t able to get any of his gratitude out of his brain before Sen, apparently hearing what he needed, bounced up to the balls of his feet in a squatting position and made a brisk gesture pointing with his fingers to the left. ~Our path lies this direct–~

  “Yululululululululuyuuuuu!” Sen’s words were cut off by the repeated undulating cry from about fifty yards behind them. Instinctively they both turned their heads in the direction as the deep rumbling/crushing sound accelerated at them.

  I guess they can see better than we can…

  A split second later an eery red glow illuminated a bulky shape Josh estimated to be about the size of a delivery van as it billowed a bank of the blinding fog in their direction. Crimson light from it was diffusing through the cloudbank all around them, casting him and Sen in the color of bright blood. A second after that, Josh caught his first glimpse of one of their opponent chasers. Even with this admittedly disturbing harbinger, Josh’s first overriding thought after getting a clearer sight was…

  Really!!??

  Admittedly, it took his brain a beat as it attempted to categorize and take stock of the bizarre sight greeting him. Taken as a whole, it was a strangely perfect amalgamation of opposites. Josh’s reeling mind could only classify their enemy by reaching back to his childhood and the movies and TV shows he had watched. Armed with this, he decided that what rolled out at them was a seamless fusion of TRON and Flintstone technologies. The red light he had noticed first was shining from what he assumed could only be some kind of Fire Essence circuits whose glow was creating a diffuse crimson nimbus on the fog’s heavy backdrop. The sanguine channels outlined the structural countours of an oversized, open-topped, dune buggy that looked to be carved from a single piece of grey stone. Josh also noted that in some places the fire Essence flowed in seemingly random and temporary ‘midstructure courses’ through the vechicle as well. Given the complete lack of any stationary objects in the vicinity, its speed was had to assess. But it wasn’t super fast. Josh estimated it to be between ten and fifteen miles per hour. However, he could tell that it was perceptibly accelerating in a beeline and coming right at them!

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Maybe souped-up steam roller is a better description, Josh’s slightly panicked brain added as his eyes took in the vehicle’s main feature; a gigantic, six-foot in diameter, stone cylinder outlined in pulsing Fire Essence channels serving as its front wheel. A cursory glance also told him that the solid cylinder was noticeably larger than a similar tube serving as the rear wheel. The differences in diameter causing the front of the machine to be tilted up in a trailing angle of decline from front to rear.

  Four occupants sat in a straight line on the cursh buggies single row of seating in the open-air cockpit. The single instant of attention Josh paid its occupants revealed that they were all wearing extensively decorated headgear adorned with features that radiated outward like rays of the Sun. The head pieces were different for each consisting of feathers, glinting crystals, dull stone plinths, and intricate wood carvings. Their riders faces, exposed torsos, and limbs were all painted in white pigment that highlighted their skeletal structure. It reminded Josh of the Calavera style used during the Day of the Dead celebrations from his Earth. The one holding the glowing red stering yolk just to the rough right of center in the seating line was thickly muscled with a bulky shaped head and blunt facial features. His looks gave Josh the distinct impression that he was carved from igneous rock. Sitting next to the driver, in the center left was a humanoid appearing to be completely skinless. Only connective tissue over muscle and bone along with an empty abdominal cavity could be seen. This flayed member was also the one yelling the war cry that was starting to make Josh’s molars grind. The two on the book ends had dark hair and eyes, and by all first impressions very beautiful, youthful looking human females. Josh thought he saw both of them smile as his decidedly male thoughts raced through his mind. The one with pheasant feathers as a headdress looking on more demurely. The one with a full bouquet of multicolored roses giving him a slightly more wicked slant from her full red lips. It also hadn’t escaped Josh that his mind had taken the time to register the unnecessary factoid of how hot the women currently trying to kill them were…

  I’ve been alone far too long, his last thought before three red lashes lanced from newly formed Essence launchers appearing on a roll bar just above the heads of the roller’s occupants. Josh’s Essence-enhanced body reflexively drove his hips, head, and right foot in coordinated and completely opposite direction moves that would have made Micheal Jackson envious. The three sizzling lines shot past Josh and had snapped back like over-stretched bungee cords in the direction they had come just before dissipating in evaporating motes of red. But Josh didn’t have any attention to focus on those three as he was much more concerned about the fourth and last snare that had hit his stationary right ankle and formed instantly into a sizzling noose. A noose that was filled the air with the smell of burnt leg hair and skin as it sizled away on his lower leg. Josh helplessly tried to yank away and momentarily grabbed the line with both hands only to pull back as his skin started to melt just before grabbing it.

  The part of his brain that wasn’t in full on ‘squirl-trapped-in-a-sack-hystarics,’ noted that the crush buggy was now twenty yards away and stationary, but burning the proverbial rubber as its front roller was spinning at the speed of a tornado’s vortex. Loose pebbles and soil below it were being pulverized and sent in an exhaust cloud of fine dust and rock shards to the rear. That same still aware portion of Josh’s mind noticed that at some point the glowing Essence tether had somehow split in two and attached to the axle on either side of the front crusher and was now being wound around the exposed ends of the front anxel. Josh’s right leg was unceremoniously pulled out from under him and he was slowly, but inexorably dragged toward what would be a much too pressing engagement with the buggie’s front crusher.

  The noise of the still unseen cheering spectators downed everything else out with a cheer of his all too rapidly approaching end.

  This is going to suck…

  But Josh’s long hours of training with Sen hadn’t been for nothing. Immediately Josh thinking dropped into combat mode, he enhanced his entire body, activated an Earthen Shield around his leg and called his Space/Time attunement to phase out of the snare. He then pivoted to start running toward the direction Sen had initially sent them in. Much like he should have when Sen first pointed…

  …At least he tried doing all those things…

  In a fraction he realized none of his attempted propagations had come into effect. Even more troubling was that he was no longer even enhanced by his circulating Essence. Currently, his unresponsive Essence was spinning uselessly in his core despite Josh’s furious mental lashings for it to get to work and do anything but leave him looking like a beached mackerel about to be smeared into the consistency of Skippy peanut butter on the millstone from hell.

  ~...Sennn!!~ Josh screeched a little too high pitched for even his own psychic ears. But Sen was already at his slowly dragged side making an uncountable number of sparking slashes with his dual blades. When Sen finished a second later her was breathing hard from the exertion. However, the blades’ severe heat discoloration and more than a fair amount of notching was all that could be shown for his efforts. What Josh had already being fearing was confirmed: there would be no cutting through the glowing tether. Their underpowered weapons were no match against the big boys they were currently going up against.

  ~Our weapons and powers of cultivation are not equal to the superior strength of their Essence flowing through the transport construct. Its direct contact with your skin will burn and prevent your own Essence from responding. I need you to brace yourself and be ready to send your Essence for maximal healing.~

  ~Ya. Tell me something I don’t know– Wait! Brace myself? Hold on! There’s got to be another option–~ Josh waved his hands hoping to change the unavoidable.

  ~Nope.~ Was Sen’s only utterance as he laser focused on Josh’s right ankle.

  The out of sight crowd went wild with cheers as the enhanced swing of Sen’s right Kaizoku scimitar arced a solid blurred wheel of reflected crimson. Its now slightly duller blade than before was still up to the task of slicing cleanly through Josh’s lower leg just above the burning red loop. A geyser of blood erupted from the lopped off limb and the fan’s cheers got even lauder drowning out all other sounds. The lash continued on its way, pulling back Josh’s severed foot at the same, non-rapid speed to whirling grinder of death. Still having a piece of Josh’s anatomy, the crusher was apparently not yet freed to move forward. The waving arms and angry expressions on the faces of the Aztecs let all know that Sen was a lot less than their favorite spirit being for his denial of their early kill.

  But unlike Josh, Sen had no time for the cares of his opponents. Like the Hulk in a hurry, the short man grabbed the wide-eyed and jaw clenching Josh under his armpits from behind. With a rapid bending of his enhanced knees Sen propelled them both into a herculean leep, once again gaining the cover in the dense fog.

  It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that Josh had suffered his fair share of injuries since being the last person on the elevator after lunch back at FSU’s Jacksonville campus. But none of his wounds had been as dramatically self-inflicted as Sen chopping off his left foot like the cancer it had become. The science side of his brain was making all kinds of noises to continue to study the oddly masochistic phenomena. Josh was going to tell it to shut the hell up once his regained Essence circulation had healed him enough to stop the searing pain burning its way through the bandwidth of his soul. Strangely, the pain hadn’t started as world encompassing as it was now. In fact, immediately after the bizarre cleaving pressure from Sen’s sword had freed him Josh hadn’t felt anything for the first half a second or so. He had been oddly detached from it like some kind of yogi’s out of body experience. Sadly, by the time Sen had them lifting off the ground, the smoldering flames of agony had reminded him in all to vivid colors of ‘frying-ultraviolet’ and ‘neon-race car red’ that it had indeed been his foot that had been chopped off. Two seconds into their jump, near what must have been the apex 20 yards off the ground, Josh’s healing had stopped the bleeding and numbed the pain enough to return the power of cogent thought.

  ~…Thanks for the save… brother~ Josh Bond-spoke through pained hisses both auditory and mental.

  ~As you instructor it is necessary for me to point out that It wouldn’t have been needed if you had followed me like a padawan should. Instead, I received images you sent along our Bond of imagining your female opponents doing flips in the brigantine’s zero-G suites while wearing only their underwear…or this thing called a ‘bikini.’ You have never told me about this garment…~ Sen shook his head physically to get himself back on track from what must have been a short mental detour involving the beach ware in question. ~I can tell that you are guilty of gawking at trouser meat and being led like a hoochie mama!~

  Even with his brain far less than 100 percent, Josh knew he had to correct this misapplication before something really bad happened.

  ~Ya, Sen. Listen, I only ever said that once! And I wasn’t ‘led by my trouser meat because I was gawking at the hoochie-mama’s…’ I swear! I was studying the vehicle for weaknesses– And I’m sure neither of those two ladies are hooches. Despite trying to kill me…~

  They had gone through the parabola of Sen’s leep and were coming in for a landing. Josh, still held in Sen’s arms like a bride across the threshold. There was no way he’d be able to stick any landing, cultivation intact or not, with only one foot.

  Still Sen’s jaundiced glare told Josh that he wasn’t going to get out of the flubbed escape due to staring at girls. Sen made this epxressly clear as he bunched his legs to land in as quiet a manner as possible. ~Once we are finished with this task we will discuss this in more detail. As well as this admittedly intriguing concept of the biki–glackkkkaachhhh”

  They hit the ground hard and Josh felt that Sen attempted to throw him to the side with feeble, unenhanced arms. Josh heard the sound of both of Sen’s femurs snapping from the force of the hit and looked on with sickening realization as he saw Sen laying on his back both of his legs flopping askew in disjointed asymmetry. The monk’s hands were furiously, but ineffectually struggling with a yellow colored Essence tether that was latched firmly around his neck. Just as Joshua had been a minute ago, Sen was slowly being slowly dragged on his back. Pulled head first into a revving up crusher.