As the attention centered on them, Jon felt Loo’s emotions.

  Notably absent was fear. There was no pounding heart, no pit in the stomach, no creeping cold chill running across the bowels. There was only resignation, some contempt, and a great deal of shame.

  It was strange to feel something so familiar in the alien mind. Jon had seen it many times in the dying. It was the same shame as the farmer who was now bedridden; once the powerful family patriarch, and now the skeleton struggling to feed itself soup in bed. The grandmother who raised multiple generations, now shitting herself in a hospital bed and hitting the call light a third time asking for someone to clean her up.

  Loo had lost something profound, a husk of his former glory.

  Jon’s attention shifted back to his immediate problems as the other bunnies began to roar and the cherubs’ circles grew tighter above. He felt numb, and though he was tempted to take the controls back, that was certain death. Jon had to trust Loo knew what he was doing.

  Loo continued to share his perspective as the bunnies made their first attacks. Loo spun out the fishing lines again in a fraction of a second, re-establishing the mental links. Jon felt a few of the bunnies transiently fight back against the lines, but they seemed to forget about them a moment later.

  As the links returned, the sensory input from the bunnies was still there, but muted. In its place, Jon felt a simulation of each bunny emerging as Loo processed their intentions.

  In humans, there was an area of the brain known as the premotor cortex. It was the filter between intention and action. Jon did not know for sure, but he was pretty confident Loo was tapping into was the premotor cortex of the rabbits.

  Loo effortlessly integrated this input into his movements. He sidestepped slightly to avoid a lunge, then hopped two meters in the air to evade a sonic attack, landing on one of the basic bunny’s backs and decapitating it with a swipe of a front claw.

  The den mother had not been idle while Loo moved among her offspring, and Jon noticed her preparing to jump across the battlefield at them.

  Loo messed with her perception, making it appear he was three meters to the left of his actual position. She pounced from across the clearing with all her claws extended, jaws agape, intent on killing Jon in a single blow.

  Instead, she landed on one of the alphas. The alpha had an almost comical look of shock as she impaled it with her claws.

  One of the smaller bunnies came hurtling at Jon as a ball of quills, missing his ‘head’ by a hair’s breath. Jon heard the den mother roar in pain as the tiny ball of quills impacted her nose instead a moment later.

  The cherubs seized on the opportunity provided by the chaos, attacking as Loo dodged and weaved between the bunnies, the den mother in hot pursuit. Through Loo’s near-omniscient battle sense, Jon saw two cherubs home in on the alpha who had initiated this fight with its roar.

  One cherub missed completely, and was attacked by two bunnies as it attempted to free itself from the ground. The other, an orange cherub without the bone spurs, rammed directly into the tiger-sized bunny and bowled it over onto its right side. Two more red cherubs with bony spurs fell a second later, impaling the alpha’s chest and stomach.

  The den mother was still chasing Jon, roaring, but not letting loose any sonic attacks. Loo always kept at least one bunny between her and them.

  The group of bunnies tried again and again to pin them down as they passed. A bunny lunged at them with saber teeth gnashing, then another passed as a ball of quills, and a third kicked at them with its hind feet. Loo dodged the attacks, allowing each to miss by a fingers-breadth. As they passed between, over and under the rabbits, Loo gave each at least one parting slash from Jon’s claws.

  Over the course of thirty seconds, two of the alphas had fallen, one of the regular bunnies had died to Loo’s attack, and five more suffered lacerations from Jon’s claws in passing. There were two alphas remaining, the den mother, and ten lesser rabbits.

  A cherub was lifting one of the injured bunnies into the air, flapping urgently to carry itself toward some caverns over the waterfall. As Jon saw this, he felt the den mother nearly upon him.

  Loo created an impression of Jon jumping towards the river bank that he projected to the den mother, and then jumped vertically a few meters in the air. As the den mother turned to pursue the illusion, they landed at the nape of her neck.

  Oregano dove out of his carrier as they landed and began scurrying towards the den mother’s right ear. Loo bit the den mother with Jon’s pincers, surprising Jon by easily piercing the thick hide and fur. The poison glands contracted powerfully on either side of Jon’s face, and the den mother roared once more, rearing and shaking, trying to displace them. When this failed, she began to run and buck like a bull at a rodeo. Loo managed to hold on by using Jon’s pincers, but it was a near thing.

  One of the alphas miscalculated as it tried to grab them off the den mother’s back, and ended up taking a back-paw to the face, landing multiple meters away. The den mother then began barreling straight for the river. As she reached the edge, Loo let the pincers fall slack and leapt off her back, landing neatly on the bank and rolling.

  Oregano had somehow escaped launching into orbit during that exchange, though all the movement had slowed his progress considerably. Jon felt a moment of horror as he registered the rat’s intent. Oregano dove forward at his target. The rat fell into the den mother’s right ear canal, scratching, biting and gnawing as he went.

  The den mother gave a shriek of pain and rage as she dunked her head into the water. When this had no effect, she jumped backwards and began slamming her head into the ground over and over. One of the smaller bunnies was unfortunate enough to end up in her path, and was quickly turned to paste.

  Jon's venom did not seem to be doing much as the den mother continued her rampage. One of the alphas and three of the smaller bunnies continued to pursue Jon, but the others were circling the den mother. They appeared intent on helping to dislodge the rat from her ear.

  The cherubs took advantage of the den mother’s distraction, and began an attack from behind. Even in her pain and fury, Jon saw the den mother pause to arch her back and fire quills up at them. They fired off one after another, at least two or three per second. Her missiles impaled two of the cherubs, which fell squealing from the air. The other cherubs beat a hasty retreat toward the roof of the cavern, finally accepting defeat. Three more fell as they fled, but the others made it out of range.

  Jon became preoccupied with the alpha who was nearly at his heels. To his alarm, Loo didn’t seem to be doing anything to stop it!

  Just as Jon felt like its jaws were going to reach him, he noticed sensory input from a new source leaping out of the river. The alpha opened its jaws to grasp his back leg, but it was slammed from the side.

  A second salamander sprung up from behind the unfortunate alpha, and the two salamanders began playing tug of war with the creature as the three smaller bunnies ineffectually tried to free it.

  Jon could tell his own presence had been masked in the salamanders’ minds, but he hadn’t even felt the links as Loo wove them. He got the sense it hadn’t been challenging for Loo.

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  As he processed all this, Jon felt the puppet master at work again. Loo magnified the threat of the salamanders and reduced Jon’s profile in the bunny minds. Even the den mother was affected, as she seemed to forget Jon entirely.

  Jon took stock of his energy reserves, and was shocked to see over half of his psionic stockpile remained. If he wasn't mistaken, he had more psychic energy than when he entered the prize chamber. The other circulating energy seemed even less depleted. Jon had no idea what Loo was using it for.

  The den mother had finally calmed enough to allow one of the smallest remaining bunnies to clamber up her hind leg towards her ear.

  Loo felt like he was weighing options.

  Jon felt him come to a decision, as Loo emphasized the threat from Oregano in the bunnies’ minds and began to scamper away towards the forest. Jon interrupted him, taking back control of the body.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Jon asked.

  “Leaving?” Loo answered.

  “We’re just going to abandon Oregano? What happened to ‘then we slaughter them all and feast on their remains?”

  Loo seemed a little surprised and confused,

  “Are you really going to lose your life over a lone scavenger?”

  “Are you really telling me you can’t take a bunch of bunnies?” Jon answered.

  Loo gave a sigh,

  “Listen. I can kill them if you want, but if I keep fighting this battle then that will be it from me. No more deus ex machina, no more get out of jail free. You’re back down to you and your own skills to get out of the next shitshow. And believe me, there is going to be a next time sooner than you think. If we leave the rat, I can save you at least once more. Is this what you want? What would your mate think? What would your offspring say if they knew daddy didn’t come home because he got attached to a pet rat he met a day ago?”

  “I don’t need to have offspring to know it’s chicken shit to accept a friend dying when I could have saved him.”

  Jon could feel Loo’s disapproval, but he also felt a sense of acceptance from the presence.

  “Very well. Your circus, your monkeys, and your path. Hopefully it leads further than the nearest cliff.”

  Jon relinquished control back to Loo, who turned to face the rabbits.

  Their whole exchange had taken place in a couple of seconds, the telekinetic communication much more efficient than regular speech. The small bunny had successfully gotten purchase on the rat, and was tugging on Oregano’s back legs while bracing against the den mother’s side. The den mother was still roaring, but had calmed herself enough to stop whipping about uncontrolled.

  As Jon watched, Oregano came free with a lump of flesh in his teeth, and the smaller bunny tumbled off the den mother’s side. Oregano whipped out into the air and landed two meters away.

  Jon watched Loo lift a single claw high in the air. He felt the other consciousness focus in on his targets, feeling for something. It was deeper than the blood, deeper than the viscera, deeper than the mind. There was a sense of resonance, a thrumming in the air, and white flame bloomed along the claw. The flames were translucent, ghostly. The surrounding world drained of color as Jon watched, and the vibrations of the earth and air ceased, sucked into a vacuum filled with dread purpose.

  The claw descended.

  There was a flash, and the world went white.

  ----------

  Jon was back in the room he had seen in the character selection suite, the one with darth squidward. The blue octopus-headed alien was standing in the middle of the chamber, which smelled of blood and offal. If the characteristic smell of flesh burning under electrocautery were present, Jon could have closed his eyes and thought he was in an operating room.

  A tall, dark and imposing figure filled the door, just as it had at the end of Jon’s first vision. The top knot and the sword over one shoulder.

  What had brought him back?

  The vision continued, and the figure stepped into the room, drawing its sword. The squid-like alien lifted all six of his blades, white fire encompassing them, and he struck, the flames shooting forward towards his opponent.

  The two figures were still separated by at least ten meters, but the one with the top knot brought up his blade to intercept, swinging it in a sweeping gesture towards the alien. Reddish-orange flames sprung out along the path of the blade and swept across the room towards the alien in a wave.

  The crimson flare fell back before dispersing as the white light passed through it, and the figure with the top knot was forced to swing again in an uppercut motion, generating another wave of red flame. The ghostly light of the white flames was subsumed in crimson from the second swing, and the alien had to defend itself as the wave rolled towards it.

  The alien spun out the same violet-hued shield it had used in the earlier battle. The flames washed over it, curling around the purple bubble like a whip, rapidly orbiting as the shield spun before condensing in a ring and disappearing.

  Many blows followed, and Jon felt the air of the room heating as the battle continued. The exchanges sped up dramatically as the two closed on one another, the movements too fast for Jon to follow.

  As the pace hit a fever pitch, Jon noticed patterns emerging in the white and crimson flames. The symbols were familiar, but not quite intelligible.

  Jon spoke a little Spanish, and this felt like trying to read Portuguese. He could nearly make out the meaning of the flaming symbols, but something was off.

  There was a flare of light from the white side of the exchanges, and an answering burst from the crimson.

  Then the crimson figure was launched back through the doorway, and a moment later, a blur of violet followed. Jon’s vision shifted as it followed the figures through the doorway, and he felt a sense of vertigo as the scene changed.

  Jon was floating high above the ground, and he saw the two figures fluttering through the air distantly. At first this seemed like a disadvantage for viewing, though Jon was appreciative of the scenic vista before him: mountains stretched towards the sky, a river wound its way past emerald green hills covered in vegetation, and a shining city with narrow towers rose from the mountain’s feet to rival the peaks.

  However, it soon became apparent that the distance was needed to have any appreciation of the conflict. The relatively contained space of the earlier fight had prevented Jon from understanding the scale of this battle. As one of the white blades of energy was deflected into the distance, it collided with the top of a mountain near the city. Jon saw the summit begin sliding as the upper third of the mountain slanted and fell towards the hills below.

  A crimson wave missed the mark and landed over a few kilometers of the river bed, which hissed into roiling clouds of steam. The steam floated up and away, leaving the nearby foot hills wreathed in fog. The vegetation of the green hills browned and blackened beneath the heat of the flames as another crimson shimmer deflected out to them.

  The confrontation continued for what felt like hours, and the scenic vista rapidly deteriorated into a boiling hellscape. The earth slide and resulting quake from the mountain alone had toppled the towers and raised a dust cloud that darkened the sun. Lightning flashed in the dust as it was stirred this way and that by the ongoing fight. What little could be seen of the city was burning beneath mist, smoke and dust. The horizon glowed a dull red as far as the eye could see.

  As Jon began to think the fight might never end, a rippling force blasted the air surrounding the two combatants clean. In the sudden clearing, Jon saw the blue alien impale its opponent on two of its blades. One was through the chest, and one was through the stomach. There was a flash of red light, and the man jetted backwards, fleeing the wrath of the creature as it pursued in a cone of purple light. Things were looking grim for the man as he dodged blow after blow from the creature, each movement slightly more sluggish than the last.

  Then a blue-white light lanced down from the heavens.

  It struck the alien square in the back, knocking it down towards the earth. As the blue alien hit the ground, another flash from the sky came down, and a massive column of light followed by a gigantic spear smashed down on the tiny blue form, driving up another great plume of dust.

  When the air cleared, a white shafted spear stood like a misplaced skyscraper where the alien had been. The vision faded into black, and Jon felt a fragmented consciousness, one that was now very familiar.

  Jon was not sure exactly how long he remained with this familiar mind, but it was a very, very long time. As time passed, the mental impression dwindled until it was very nearly gone. A tiny ember of the original bonfire remained when Jon felt another mind enter the void. He was not surprised when he felt his own consciousness appear, making contact with the remaining spark, which latched on without hesitation.

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