Inertia: Beneath The Starlit Veil Chapter 11: Chapter 11

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Chapter 11 Cyrus POV My father and I dropped our belongings and broke into a blistering sprint toward the town. As we entered, the scene was all too familiar—a haunting mirror of what our village had looked like the day we were attacked. Innocent bodies lay dismembered, blood smeared the walls of old, rustic brick buildings, and chimneys crumbled under the weight of astral behemoths leaping from structure to structure, stalking new prey. The town was in chaos, its people engulfed in mass hysteria. Only a handful of Starbound seemed to reside here, and they were desperately holding their ground in the city center, fending off the swarm of astral behemoths while trying to shepherd citizens into a bunker. "Cyrus, help the Starbound on the ground in the city center. I'll handle the astral behemoths in the air," my father commanded. Before I could respond, he propelled himself into the sky using solar energy in his arms and legs. "You know, you could've at least given me a weapon!" I shouted after him. There was no time to dwell on it, though. Imbuing cosmic energy into my legs, I bolted toward the Starbound. This was uncharted territory for me—I'd only ever fought humans and other Starbound. Astral behemoths were something else entirely. In the past, I couldn't even hope to face them, but my father seemed confident I was ready now. I needed to prove him right. In the town's center, I saw four Starbound holding a half-circle formation around the bunker entrance while a fifth darted back and forth, ferrying citizens inside. The Starbound were surrounded by dozens of spear beetles—perhaps more. Before engaging, I used my astral sense to gauge the strength of both the behemoths and the Starbound. The spear beetles were starspawns—the lowest rank of astral behemoths. As for the Starbound, they were all at the same stage as me, except for one: the tank, who had reached the Adept Stage. "Okay, this is manageable," I muttered, especially with Dad handling the flying behemoths. I launched myself at the back of the horde, aiming to catch them off guard. Forcing cosmic energy into my hands, I flattened them like blades and sliced through the beetles' hard exoskeletons, exposing their intestines. Greenish fluid splattered all over me, filling the air with a foul stench. "The old man better give me a weapon soon," I grumbled, "because this is disgusting." After cutting down several more beetles, some of them finally noticed me. In a moment, it went from none of the creatures paying attention to me to about a third of the horde making me their focus. While the situation sucked, I knew it was necessary—the other Starbound needed breathing room to finish evacuating the citizens. As I weighed my options, one of the beetles lunged at me, aiming to impale me with its massive horn. I sidestepped the attack and severed the horn with a swift chop. Without hesitation, I focused cosmic energy into my leg and kicked the beetle in its underbelly, puncturing its shell and killing it instantly. The rest of the horde became enraged, charging all at once. Seeing nearly a dozen spear beetles barreling toward me, my instincts screamed one thing: run. There was no way I could take them all at once. I wanted to use my ability to stop them in their tracks but couldn't risk a civilian accidentally stumbling into my gravity field and being crushed. I sprinted away from the other Starbound at the bunker, and a third of the beetles followed in relentless pursuit. I made my way back to the outskirts of the town, so that I had enough space to enact my plan. When I glanced up, I saw my father maneuvering through the air with practiced grace, switching seamlessly between solar weapons to cut down the flying behemoths. He was making it look easy. My attention snapped back as the beetles closed the gap. I readied myself, waiting for the perfect moment to spring my trap. Starspawns were primitive; all they wanted was to hunt. They didn't coordinate their attacks and charged h