Chapter 122 – Monstrous

[2009 – September]

SHING! BANG!

With speed at the limit of human capability and strength that far exceeded even that, a crystalized arm shot out, its fingers and palm straight making it seem like a spear forged out of diamonds.

And yet, the incredibly powerful blow was deflected from its course by a strike performed by a seemingly normal palm, the back of this human palm colliding with the wrist of the crystalized arm, the sound of this collision akin to clashing steel bars.

This sound rang out continuously as Emma struck with her arms and legs, giving her opponent barely any pause, her movements smooth and without any exploitable openings.

She may have been an Omega-level telepath and an Alpha-level psionic but the White Queen of the Hellfire Club prided herself in her excellence in many different disciplines, among which close-quarters combat was naturally one of them.

Her strikes were sharp and powerful enough to pierce through several inches of steel with the greatest of ease, the durability of her organic-diamond body enough to withstand even missile strikes with ease.

If any normal human even dared to think of deflecting her blows like her current opponent did then they would be in for a rude awakening, their bones most likely shattering upon contact with her crystallized form.

And yet, her opponent clearly did not fall into this category, her little brother's hand seemingly as durable as her own body.

She knew that Elijah wasn't using his barrier powers while sparring with her, instead, he relied solely on his supreme mental fortitude to force his own bodily structure to remain intact during their clashes.

In a burst of speed, Emma pushed forward as she attacked without holding back, her knee shooting out, ready to shatter Elijah's ribcage.

His shadowed green eyes were calm though, his expression impassive as he pressed down on her knee with his palm and used her own force to move with her, the muscles in his arms shifting as they redirected the force of her strike to his back and from there to his legs, and into the ground.

It felt as if she had fit a feather as Elijah just used her attack to seemingly float back a single step, the way he simply canceled out and redirected force was an absolute marvel to witness.

In fact, they had been sparring for over an hour and it had been like this the whole time as Elijah simply stayed passive as he diverted her strikes and canceled out even her strongest blows with his inhuman control over his own physical body.

Emma had fought innumerable battles in her life up to this point but she had never faced off against someone like Elijah, she had never even heard of someone who was capable of what he was doing.

She knew that he had superhuman strength from the recording she had seen of his training in the gym, where he had lifted several tons with a single arm, so he clearly could face her head-on. And most likely overwhelm her with his advantage in physical strength as she herself was only able to exert around two tons of force while in her Organic-Diamond Form.

Instead though, he opted for this kind of battle style, using pure bodily control and minimal strength to make her unable to deal any kind of damage.

And even though it looked as if he was doing so with only minor effort, Emma knew that the focus required to fight like this was simply far beyond anyone's imagination. She even doubted that she could do it despite the incredible strength of her mind.

Focus and mental strength were different concepts after all, as the first signified how great one's control was over their mental strength and how long one was able to channel the full power of their mind into a single task.

Emma had great focus but she knew that she fell short in comparison to Elijah, the strength of his will simply monstrous.

Suddenly though, her brother changed his style with a fluidity that caught her off-guard as he leaned back to evade the horizontal swipe of her diamond claws instead of deflecting her blow as he had done up until now.

His evasive motion turned into a spinning motion, as he rotated on his back leg, his upper body leaning forward parallel to the ground while his other foot shot out at the same time, his heel striking her crystallized side with the force of a wreaking ball, its weight seemingly mountainous.

Emma couldn't even react fast enough before she was flung to the side, crashing into the ground and toppling over a few times before her diamond nails managed to stop her slide, carving out ten deep furrows in the ultradurable ground as she did so.

The settings of the room had been specially chosen to be as robust as possible to avoid unnecessary damage due to their superhuman strength.

Rising back to her feet, Emma gave her little brother a deep look. Wearing nothing but a long-sleeved tight-fitting shirt and some loose shorts, his feet bare, he stood there looking relaxed and at ease.

His eyes though told a different story as his intense focus caused them to almost glow, making anyone that dared to lock gazes with him not dare to breathe too loudly on sheer instinct alone, his intensity enough to intimidate even hardened warriors.

"So, playtime's over, I guess?", Emma voiced out lightly, having already felt that Elijah's last attack had carried a different kind of intent than before, not to mention the ludicrous force contained in his strike.

His lips quirking up into a faint smile, Elijah replied: "Yeah, playtime's over."

A moment later, he burst forward with inhuman speed that she only managed to capture with her eyes due to the fact that the strength of her mind was beyond the limits of a normal human being, her thoughts racing through her brain as she prepared to raise her arms in a defensive stance.

She managed to do so but barely, and yet it wasn't of much use as unlike herself who was limited to a speed within the spectrum of human limits, Elijah could exceed those at his will any time he wanted, which was exactly what he did at this moment.

Her bullet-fast thoughts made no difference in such a case as her body's reaction simply could not keep up with the speed of Elijah's approach.

He arrived in front of her in the blink of an eye, his palm raised as he struck her crystallized shoulder with the tips of his fingers, easily circumventing her hasty defense.

This one move showed Emma how incredible a fighter Elijah was as he struck a blow that not only forced her back but also opened up her defensive stance completely.

The force of his blow wasn't even that great and it felt more like a small push, and yet he had completely destroyed her balance, forcing her back in an attempt to reposition herself.

And thus her torture began.

Elijah dialed back his speed but he no longer just deflected her blows. Instead, he opted to disrupt her ability to channel force by striking her focal points with his fingers and the tips of his feet while using the minimal amount of strength necessary.

After only a few minutes of this, Emma already felt like crying even with her Organic-Diamond Form suppressing her emotions.

Elijah's blows made her feel like a clumsy toddler as she couldn't even exert the strength of a normal adult, much less her superhuman strength, her force dispersing before she even managed to attack.

Another part of her couldn't help but admire Elijah though, her little brother's understanding of force and the human body were just prodigious.

Still, a few minutes later he once again changed up his fighting style as he no longer targeted her focal points. Instead, Elijah showed her how truly monstrous he was.

Her arm shot forward once again as she tried to pierce through Elijah's chest with unstoppable strength and even greater sharpness, though he side-stepped her attack with the greatest of ease.

To be more precise, he took a half-a-step forward while turning his body sideways just enough to avoid her strike. At the same time, he swung down his arm like an axe, his palm facing downwards as he aimed for her shoulder.

His attack wasn't too fast though, so Emma managed to raise her other diamond arm in an attempt to block but the moment her indestructible forearm came into contact with Elijah's human arm, a sharp force drilled its way into her crystalized flesh that made her unable to exert any strength.

Her arm simply gave way without resistance as Elijah's hand came down on her shoulder, and the next moment she just collapsed without any strength.

Never had Emma felt something comparable to this strike, its force so condensed and penetrating that she could feel the echoes of Elijah's strength in her every limb.

The most horrifying part though was that this strike wasn't born out of strength, the fact that the ground beneath her was entirely unaffected was proof enough of that.

What Elijah had done was to modulate his force in such a way that it seemed to oscillate at an irregular frequency before sending it into her body with such precision that it completely dispersed her own strength.

With her diamond body, Emma wasn't the least bit injured but she simply lost her strength the moment Elijah touched her.

Powerless. Vulnerable. Fragile.

The overwhelming feeling of weakness – of helplessness – nearly shattered Emma's mental barriers as she lost all control of her body for a moment, her mental abilities sealed while in her diamond form.

Changing back her body into normal flesh immediately, Emma couldn't help but tremble as she gritted her teeth and tried to slowly raise herself back up, her breath irregular as she forced down the hint of panic that had appeared in her heart.

Suddenly, two hands grabbed her waist and raised her to her feet before wrapping themselves around her slender frame, Elijah embracing her softly.

"I am sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you.", he whispered, clearly not speaking of physical harm, guilt and worry thick in his tone.

The most horrifying nightmare for Emma had always been to be unable to resist, unable to fight – to be helpless. She had not felt like this for a long time but Elijah's last attack had just taken away her strength as if it didn't exist, to begin with.

This sudden shock of what had just happened was not so easily overcome, even for the White Queen.

Taking a few deep breaths, not resisting her little brother's hug, Emma regathered herself. Pushing against Elijah's chest a few moments later while suppressing the trembling of her hands, she took a step back and freed herself from the strangely comforting embrace.

Swallowing hard with her heart still beating wildly, Emma replied in a tone as even as possible while shaking her head: "I-I was just surprised. It's fine."

She could see the caring glow in Elijah's eyes but he didn't say anything more, not commenting on her temporary loss of control to protect her pride.

"Let's take a break and drink something.", he said instead, while turning to where they had placed down their beverages.

Nodding in agreement while following by his side, Emma's thoughts drifted back to Elijah's last strike as she analyzed how he had done what he had done.

Her intellect wasn't feared by her adversaries for nothing as she took only a few moments to understand the inner workings of Elijah's strike, though this did nothing to quell her shock.

On the contrary, her eyes widened imperceptibly as she gazed at her little brother's back, the magnitude of his actions shocking her deeply.

She understood that the force Elijah had sent into her body, must have been the accumulation of force generated by different muscle groups, which he had somehow managed to perfectly channel into his hand and inject into her body through physical contact.

It sounded simple but in fact, it was the opposite, as every partial force was akin to a physical shockwave and they all oscillated at different irregular frequencies.

By channeling this force into her body, he had basically assaulted her focal points with multiple different physical shockwaves from inside of her, which had made it impossible for her to gather any power or disperse his force quickly due to the irregular frequencies of this wave.

If she had stood still without moving, this type of attack would have had zero impact on her, due to her immense durability and strength, but since she had been attacking Elijah at the same time and even tried to block his attack, it was simply a devasting blow.

To exert force, one had to move and movement generated focal points on the foundation of one's balance.

Her durability was of no consequence in this case as Elijah's force had made it impossible for her to exert any strength, the physical shockwaves of his attack interfering with her focal points and disrupting her balance, causing her to collapse.

It might have been different if he had aimed to cause her harm, as that would have been impossible with his physical strength and her durability, but his force had only aimed to disturb her own force exertion, and through this to incapacitate her.

A spike of fear shot through her heart as she understood that Elijah's actions were nothing short of monstrous. What kind of bodily control and focus was necessary to do something like this in the midst of battle?

His understanding of force alone was so profound, Emma couldn't even begin to guess the horrifying power Elijah might be able to unleash if he used his shields.

He was like a sleeping beast, and Emma couldn't help but start to dread the day someone angered him and roused him from his rest.

As even the word 'inhuman' seemed lacking to describe him, what was left besides 'monstrous'?

'Dreadful'?

'Abominable'?

In truth, none of them seemed capable of putting into words the demonic skills her younger brother had displayed. Still, her fear dispersed as fast as it came, the warmth of Elijah's embrace still fresh in her memories, phantom sensations of it still present on her skin.

Elijah was her little brother, and that was all that mattered to Emma.