Chapter 227: Jade vs. Quake 1

<Author note: I'll be using " (double quotes) for both psychic and normal speech now and ' (single quotes) for thoughts. I feel it's easier to read this way>

Jade discovered runes quite quickly. As he used magic to make and experiment during the week that went by after his evolution he noticed a similarity in them. The patterns worked because they were communicating with the universe and as a result the universe responded. The amalgamation of all these patterns were runes, a universal language, kind of like math, something everyone and everything understands on some level.

The runes Jade made when he faced the Ocean Master were made of more demanding resources than energy compared to the runes he made now. He could not make runes like the death rune he made for the Ocean Master with just energy. Those runes were what Jade currently called Authorities. He could create a rune that symbolized any of the words that made up the name of his soul glyphs, only his soul glyphs not his soul Mandala.

Jade saw the runes as a very advanced form of technology since he could utilize his soul glyphs with them, which was something his other technologies couldn't utilize. It was always more of the soul glyphs enhancing the technologies instead of the other way around.

The energy runes that Jade was using now were more of a simplified and more specialized version of the energy patterns Jade used to do magic before. He didn't use them often because most of the magic he did could be done effortlessly with his soul glyphs and at no energy cost.

The runes could achieve magical feats with more control and less energy than energy patterns and they were simple to make… to Jade at least. Each of the runes currently surrounding Jade could perform very complex processes that involved space manipulation as long as energy was supplied to them.

With them his space manipulation was not only more efficient but it was also more effective as he could do with them things he couldn't do with his energy patterns. Although this advantage existed only because Jade cut some corners with the spells so they had weaknesses that could be used to counter them but since no one knew how runes worked apart for him now he didn't mind.

Quake represented to Jade the best that the merfolk who hated humans could provide. If he could get through him the merfolk would be more open towards relating with him. Jade knew that they were still uncertain about him since Quake was fighting without any weapon of any kind; they did not want to reveal their strengths.

The energy runes around Jade connected into circles and each circle surrounded Jade, covering all his sides and forming a sphere around Jade with some triangular holes due to the fact that the sphere was made of circles that didn't overlap. Quake pointed his finger at Jade and sent another vibrating energy beam toward Jade.

The moment the beam entered one of the circles the space within the circle rippled and the beam disappeared; it didn't return. Quake knew that the beam would certainly come back to hit him but he was happy that Jade had a contingency of such.

He said "Good. I didn't trust that you could handle it but you're capable". For some reasons he could understand that the runes had a meaning but the concepts they represented were too complex for him to grasp.

Quake said "Attack, you don't have to be such a stick in the mud". Jade smiled and pointed toward one of the holes in his rune sphere and the runes that surrounded it shone lightly. A black beam of mist like space shot out of the hole and turned the sand and earth, twisting them on themselves, making them some parts fuse with others while others were sheered apart.

Jade said "Can you handle that?" Quake laughed and said "Easily Night Sky". Jade was surprised and he asked "Are you calling me Night Sky?" Quake nodded and said "I'm not interested in your human name. I'm not human". Jade said "Night Sky is actually quite a good name! I don't mind being called that maybe the merfolk naming style isn't that bad".

Quake smiled widely and said "Indeed Quake is also a good name don't you think?" Jade nodded and said "It's badass". Quake said "Baaaaadaaaaasssss. That's a nice word". Jade said "Indeed" and thought 'As expected, he is a simple guy'.

Jade shot a beam of what he called Warp at Quake. Warp was simply just chaotic space. It would twist whatever it touched and chaotically change its form. Quake sent a beam of vibrating energy at Jade's beam and the two forms of chaos battled against each other.

Quake wanted Jade to get closer so he had to pester him with long range attacks. Also he had a secret plan. The water bubbled and even changed to different elements, releasing large amounts of energy in the process, as the nuclear reactions were triggered by the chaotic energies colliding.

Quake increased the power of his beam to give it the edge but Jade far outclassed him when it came to energy so his beam was eventually shortened by Jade's Warp Beam. Quake smiled as his beam was overwhelmed at a steady pace; his secret plan had worked.

"BANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Jade's body and mind vibrated as he was hit by a kick that struck the hidden protective runes on his chin. Quake had somehow managed to close the distance with some method he didn't know of and obviously wasn't prepared against.

He flew along with his rune ball and stabilized after a while… or at least he tried to. His body and mind kept vibrating and Quake was approaching. Warp beams extended from all the triangular holes in the ball of runes and curved toward the approaching Quake.

Quake sent out beams of vibrating energy from his body to push back Jade's beams. Quake noticed that the beams were not filled with as much power as they were before. It was obvious that Jade wanted him to use the attack he used before. He thought 'Like hell I'll use it again!'

Jade ran away from the approaching Quake maintaining his distance. His body and mind were still vibrating, he could feel the vibrations reaching for his soul but failing to grasp it. He focused on his Cosmic-Soul glyph and used it to control his body from vibrating.

The influence of the glyph easily freed his mind but slowly worked its way from all over his body to his chin that was kicked before stopping the vibrations completely. Seeing that Quake wasn't taking the bait Jade decided to land an attack of his own.

Energy runes formed in front of him and spun around very fast. Jade faced the spinning runes toward Quake and thought 'Time for some revenge'.