Chapter 38 - The River

After throwing that punch, the world began to make sense. It was like she had been colourblind for years and suddenly she was seeing the entire spectrum again. At last, the river of possibility flowed smoothly once more.

Blüt growled, ripping his hand from the earth. Quickly Luna processed. “Hand used, watch other fist. No data on kicks. Think simple. Target equals brute. Swipe.” Luna followed the flow, accurately identifying Blüt’s next move. He swept the hand previously buried in the dirt toward her, so she leapt over it, landing on top and riding it as he dragged it upward.

“Other fist.” The river only had one realistic path, she didn’t allow herself to get lost in the reeds of fringe possibilities. Sure enough, Blüt attacked with his other fist. Another jump allowed Luna to easily clear it, landing atop his arm and running across it, springing straight toward his back where Merri was pinned.

Blüt growled in frustration. Luna calculated. “Simple… Rage may induce unorthodox action… Too many words.” Luna frowned, the river split. She made her call. “Simple.” Luna continued her sprint, turning up her pace. The situation she anticipated was a slap with his other arm, attempting to swat her like a fly. This burst of speed would avoid that.

Unfortunately, Blüt chose the other possibility. Just because she saw it, it didn’t mean she could act to beat it. One cannot throw both rock and paper at once, after all.

Just as Luna was about to reach his back, Blüt slammed his head downward, tilting his neck into his shoulder to shield Merri from view. Luna leapt back, avoiding being caught in the slam. If she hadn’t seen this possibility, it was likely she’d have run straight into it. It was a fine compromise.

“Swats me now. Dodge unlikely. Counter.” Luna rode the rapids of logic, bringing the unused idea back into the fray. Sure enough, the shadow of Blüt’s other hand was already above her, attempting to catch her leap backwards. To counter, she leveraged her backwards leap into a handspring, launching herself to meet his hand halfway. She drove her feet into his wrist, forcing his hand to snap back as she drilled upward.

Hundreds of paths spawned off in an instant, but they were quickly fading. Luna had only a moment to choose one. She found footing on Blüt’s arm and leapt straight down, taking the most efficient path to the ground. A simple manouvre in theory, but it was layered. By leaping beneath his arm, Blüt’s vision became obscured by his own limb, allowing her a chance to run, unseen, between his legs.

Once again, she was at his back, but she had the difficult task of climbing. “My move. He has to turn. Few viable attacks.” Luna leapt upward toward Blüt’s back, feet quickly finding skin. Far more limited options flared up now, the angles she could jump becoming limited. After all, if she leapt forward from his back, she’d be moving further away, would have no surface, and would fall. Unlike his arms, it was a sheer surface, so she couldn’t run up it either. Climbing was too sluggish. All these paths were ignored as Luna sailed cleanly down the one true road.

“Translate forward momentum to backward.” In an incredible acrobatic feat, Luna leapt quickly off of Blüt’s back, and flung her head backwards, casting herself straight back into him. She repeated this several times, backflipping her way along his spine. It looked ridiculous, and frankly, it was. Each time she lost momentum, and gravity was sure to catch up with her soon… But upward momentum wasn’t the true plan.

Blüt flung an arm back, attempting to catch Luna. Unfortunately for him, she was already clear. She didn’t flip this time, instead she leapt forward. “Baited.” She said aloud, speaking for the first time in what felt like hours.

As she fell from her vertical jump, she reached an arm out and grabbed his hand. Once she had a firm grasp of his fingers, she used him pulling his arm back upward as a launching mechanism. She let go at the apex of him drawing his hand back to his front, flying into the air.

“Too high.” Some options were cut off, but others formed in their stead. “Punch.” She was determined. Sure enough, Blüt did so, launching a killer uppercut straight toward the falling Luna.

There was little he could do to alter her momentum mid-air, but she didn’t need any big alterations. She just needed to drift a little bit forward… As such, she spun, rotating into a forward flip. She made just enough forward momentum and aligned herself just right that when his fist reached her, her foot caught his knuckle. She kicked off, blasting herself straight toward her target: Merri.

Unfortunately for Luna, there was one piece of data she was unable to input into her calculations. Something she had missed about Blüt. He fought dirty. Though she aimed for Merri, Blüt’s arm arrived there first. He ripped her from his back, pulling her away as he held her tight in his fist.

Luna disengaged, landing on the ground behind him. She waited carefully for his next move, watching with ocean-calm eyes.

Blüt didn’t attack. Instead, he turned to face her, holding the squirming Merri in his arms. “Quit jumping around like a flea or I pop little Merri’s skull like a grape!” He roared, pressing a thumb against Merri’s head, earning a scream from the girl.

Luna’s expression remained blank. It wasn’t that she didn’t care, just that even her caring was another data point to be input, another variable to change the flow of possibilities. Even a conversation was merely information for generating new potential outcomes.

“Won’t kill hostage. Scared to die. Needs her healing.” She concluded, bursting into a sprint.

Blüt’s eyes widened as Luna totally neglected his warning. Angrily, he made an attempt to stomp on her.

“Merri heals anyway. Dying is acceptable.” Luna concluded. She could see a strategy, one that necessitated her being intentionally hit. If she allowed Blüt to splatter her along his arm, Merri’s range of healing would revive her, and she could use that moment of confusion to retrieve her from his hand.

“No… Dying acceptable. Not preferable.” She shook her head, stepping into range of Blüt’s foot but evading at the last moment, allowing her a chance to leap onto his outstretched knee as the next step of her ascent. “Do better.” Luna could feel it. She wasn’t close, but it was in view once again. The door of infinity.

The possibilities spanned far and wide in front of her. She scanned them all with joy, each one flooding her with new ideas that she devoured with abandon. “Bluff.” She recalled the path she had taken to get here, how she had called out Blüt’s bluff. “Counter-bluff…”

“Crush her? The source of your immortality?” She snickered. “If anyone’s going for that… It’s me!”

“Force… Too much? No. Healing. Reasonable. Possible! If Merri equals Luna…” Her thoughts became further fragmented despite her speaking in full sentences. More and more of her internal monologue was fed into the stream, becoming part of the constant flow of consciousness. She needed to pick out individual ideas less and less, the totality becoming clearer now.

Luna sprang forth from his knee. Blüt attempted to catch her with his free hand, but she anticipated his angle of attack, kicking off of his thumb before his fingers could snatch her from the air. She kept just ahead of his arm, propelling herself straight toward Merri.

She kicked through the air, foot outstretched. She flew at the young Auf with enough momentum in her strike to break her neck. Merri stared at her, wide-eyed. Luna hoped she understood the plan. If she did, this was surely their victory.

Blüt’s eyes flew open. Fear. Fear of losing his immortality. Just as accounted for. He was scared of dying. That was data point 1. He clearly knew her strike was enough to kill a fragile girl like Merri. Data point 2. If Merri died, her mana flow ceased, and therefore so did her healing. Data point 3. With all this in mind, there was only one possibility: Blüt would attempt to save Merri.

He did, lowering Merri down to keep her from Luna’s kick. “Planned.” Luna nodded in the split second she crossed over Merri. Her momentum would soon carry her far beyond the girl. This is where the possibilities grew messy. It all relied on Merri.

Merri reached up, Luna reached down. They met halfway. Their hands clasped one another and Luna’s momentum was changed. It was too much force for Merri’s small arm, pulling it out of her socket. Merri bit her lip, cutting into them, but healing instantly. The pain was momentary, but the reward was forever.

Using Merri as a focal point, Luna snapped backwards. She got whiplash from the sudden turn, but Merri’s range of healing quickly negated it. This allowed her to rapidly kick backwards into Blüt’s thumb, forcibly loosening his grip enough for Merri and the sword in her chest to fall through.

Merri was free at last. She landed on the grass with a graceless thud, followed by the clatter of Sol’s sword and a delicate landing by Luna.

“No more healing.” Luna said, addressing Merri, not Blüt. The young Auf looked up at her, eyes full of wonder. “Promise me that, okay?”

Merri hesitated. “What if you-” She began.

“Promise me that, and I’ll promise you this in exchange.” Luna grinned, eyes a vast, oceanic blue. “I’ll beat this bastard without any magic. No more healing for you, no more magic attacks for me. How’s that sound?”

Merri stared up at her, tears pricking her eyes. “Mhm!” She nodded, before scurrying away into the woods.

Luna kicked Sol’s sword upward, catching it in mid-air. She could feel it now. Zero words, once again. It was within reach… The door of infinity. By the end of this battle, she could knock on it once again.