Justin released the trigger in his mind. Faster accelerated

his personal clock to 625X normal, and Lord Tsukanu's

blade-first charge at him slowed to something. . .quicker

than a crawl, because the lordling was accelerating too.

 

But not quick enough.

 

Justin increased his dodging abilities by 5 times

with the one exponent in Better, leaving the last four

in Harder to protect him from his own speed. He

sprinted forward, crouching low, and Tsukanu’s eyes

widened as he lowered his sword’s tip, trying to catch

up. When it reached too low to rise again in time,

Justin took one last hunching step, then straightened

as he switched Better’s exponent into Faster, flashing

forward while he carefully extended his left arm.

 

His. . .everything. . .strained at 5 times his normal exertion,

but he got in close, past Tsukanu's sword. Pulling two

exponents back out of Faster and one from Harder, he

rebalanced them at 125X speed and toughness, put one

into Better for a 5X improvement to his aiming, and

the last two into Stronger for 25X his usual strength.

 

His clotheslining arm touched Tsukanu's upper chest. The boy

threw himself backwards and to his right to avoid the impact,

bringing his blade up and around for a draw cut. Justin

didn't quite panic, but he stutter-stepped through quick

reversals to his original 4-1-4 allocation of Harder,

Better, and Faster, then back to the previous 3-1-3-2 with

Stronger, unwilling to commit to either offense or defense.

 

He'd kept the edge in speed over Tsukanu, though, and the

next thing both of them knew, the swordsman was spinning and

rotating in midair, helpless. As they'd circled each other,

close as a tango, Justin's force kept being applied to

Tsukanu across two different axes of radial motion,

until Justin finally got some good leverage, and

automatically pushed at the outmaneuvered lordling.

 

To the watchers, Justin appeared to effortlessly flicker forward

and spin Tsukanu around his arm like an aged master playing

with his favorite staff. . .before mercilessly slamming him

face first into the dock so hard that after bouncing

nine feet in the air, he left a cracked outline in the stone

below as his limp, unconscious body rose overhead.

 

An invisible coffin compressed Justin's arms against his sides.

He hardly needed to see or hear Taisa to know it was her work. But

he turned his head and did see Taiko crumpled in a motionless

heap farther up the dock and almost lost his temper completely.

 

“And now, my little -” Taisa crooned -

 

- as Justin threw all nine exponents into Better to -

 

“- Void-boyo, you will -”

 

- conceal his biting down on the toxin pellet tucked

in his cheek between his teeth, and focused on Sol.

 

“- answer to me -”

 

O GREAT SOL INVICTUS! UNCONQUERABLE SUN!

Justin shouted in his mind.

I WISH FOR MY WEAPONS TO OVERWHELM THIS FOE!

 

ΦSO MOTE IT BE!Φ Sol said.

 

Justin switched Better to Get her! and vomited the

sudden flood of black poisonous goo towards

her voice, blasting straight through all her

Hokyukko barriers, including the ones restraining him.

 

“- becauurghhklhrrgllguh! kkh! uhghkk!” Taisa coughed and choked.

 

“YOU ARE NOT!” Justin roared,

switching two exponents each into [Harder], [Faster], and [Better] -

 

“THE BOSS!”

- and the three left into [Stronger] -

 

“OF ME!”

- before lunging forward, grabbing her by the poison-drenched

face, and thrusting her into the Right's no-go zone. The

purple lightning cascaded over her body, leaking through her

final, skin-level barrier to cover her in a web of burning,

crippling agony, while bypassing him completely.

 

She jittered and jerked in his hand like an overpowered

wind-up toy, and Sol, that wonderful, magnificent bastard

of a god - it had to be him - began flashing and flaring

the Right’s super-taser bolts in synchrony with Swatkin's

technofunkalicious talkbox scatting, bringing the

SHOoO/zap!/Oo/zang!/OoO/zow!/WaAh/zap!

/OoH/zang!/OoOOH/zap! to the dance floor.

 

Justin stalked down the dock towards the frozen

observers, dragging Taisa's blackening form

through the electrified air beside him. Her hairs

were coruscating like sparkling threads under the

Right's punishment. As Swatkin’s voxalising riffs

rose to their crescendo, Justin roared at them:

 

“DOES ANY AMONG YOU DARE TO STAND AGAINST ME!?”

 

No answer came, but a few of the wiser in the

mob's middle and rear began backing away.

 

“ANY TWO!?”

 

Most flinched; none met his gaze straight-on.

 

“ANY TEN!?”

 

This time, none met his gaze at all.

 

“ANY NUMBER AT ALL!?”

 

There was no reply, but the back of the mob had thinned

noticeably as prudence became ever more contagious.

 

He yanked Taisa's body free of the lightning and flung her

towards them. Her smoking form ragdolled to a stop at

the feet of the nearest ones, who stumbled backwards in

sudden terror, as if she were about to explode.

 

“THEN GO YOU NOW IN PEACE

AND TROUBLE ME NO MORE!

HERE! ENDETH! THE LESSON!”

he bellowed at them.

 

The remainder broke and ran.