Cyrus POV
"Dad, what is that?"
"That is this man's soul weapon. Be careful and just stay behind me," my father said.
The man before us looked poised to engage in battle. I saw the tattoo on my father's hand start to glow. The colors of a burning sun began to saturate the landscape. My father's cosmic energy rose, and I felt a dominating intent exude from him.
The tank chuckled and raised his serrated shield. "Well, I guess it's your funeral, then. Don't worry, I'll make your son's death quick and painless after I'm finished with you." He hurled his soul weapon at us with immense speed. I was so focused on the shield coming for us that I didn't realize the man had vanished the moment he threw it.
My dad wasn't bothered by the weapon at all. He effortlessly grabbed the soul weapon out of the air and sidestepped the man's sneak attack from the right. "Give up. You're outmatched," my father said, tossing the shield back at him.
The tank's face twisted in displeasure as he watched his weapon fall to the ground. His eyes made it clear he wasn't going to give up. Bloodlust now fueled his actions. Without a word, his arm began glowing that same dark red color, and his tan skin took on an iron-like sheen. With his new reinforced skin, he took on the offensive. With an explosive step he came barreling forward towards my father in a maddening rage.
My father raised an eyebrow. "So, you're a wielder of the Iron Warden Fate constellation, huh? Let's see how good that defense is," he said, dashing forward with an open palm.
The man couldn't match my father's speed, so he braced himself, prepared to take the brunt of the attack. My father's palm slammed into the man's forearms, sending him sliding backward. But my father didn't stop there.
He immediately transitioned into a spin kick, breaking the Iron Warden wielder's guard. "I'm going to melt that armor of yours," my dad said. I felt the temperature rise, and my father's eyes began glowing golden orange. An orb started forming in his outstretched hand—a fusion of cosmic and solar energy, like the birth of a new sun.
With fluid precision, my father swept the man's feet out from under him, leaving him suspended in the air for a brief moment. The wielder's eyes widened in panic, knowing he was defenseless. As my father thrust the miniature sun toward him, the man turned his gaze to me, stretching his hand out in my direction.
He mouthed something, but I couldn't make it out. Then my father's attack connected with devastating force.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the black, bladed shield twitch. It levitated off the ground.
"Dad, watch out! He's trying to hit you with a sneak attack!" I yelled.
My father turned, his eyes widening. "Cyrus, move now!" he shouted.
The shield wasn't aimed at my father—it was coming straight for me. A soul weapon connected to a starbound a full stage higher than me was a dangerous thing, I didn't need a lecture to understand that. I knew my cosmic augmentation wouldn't absorb the blow. I had two options: dodge and hope it stopped following me or activate my ability and risk depleting all my cosmic energy.
I funneled my cosmic energy into my legs and dashed backward as far as I could, but the shield redirected itself and hurtled toward me again. I watched the blades on the shield change shape helping it navigate the environment. We played a deadly game of cat and mouse, and each evasion drained my cosmic energy further. "Does his soul weapon have a mind of its own or is this a part of the man's fate constellation ability." I thought to myself. When we were protecting the city, I didn't see the man use any such abilities. He didn't even use his iron skin which was also weird.
Lost in thought I felt something trickle down the side of my arm, I had been cut. The deep red color of my blood falling from my shoulder started to bring this situation into reality. This soul weapon was going to kill me if I don't figure something out fast.
I tried using the trees as much as I could to slow down the momentum of the iron warden user's shield, but the weapon was just too strong, and it just destroyed them like a bull in a tea shop. At this point I only had one option left. It was something I didn't want to use at the moment. I had to use my ability. It was either I die right here with nowhere else to hide from the soul weapon, or I will have to deal with my core eating itself until I can refill my reserves.
I steeled my resolve and started to pour the little remaining cosmic energy I had left to into the first rune of my astral tattoo. I just prayed I had enough to activate the ability to hopefully stop the weapon in its tracks. "Fuck," I shouted when I realized my ability wouldn't activate. "So, this is how it ends huh?" I said trying to hurriedly revert the remaining cosmic energy into my legs.
Luckily, just as I prepared to dodge again, my father appeared and caught the shield.
"You okay?" he asked, his eyes still glowing and heat radiating from him.
"Yeah, better now that a flying guillotine isn't chasing me anymore."
"Good," he said, melting the shield in his hands until it turned into a dark black liquid and dripped to the ground.
He approached the scorched starbound and his team. Giving them a stern look, he told them to take their defeated teammate for medical attention. Then, in no uncertain terms, he warned them: "If you ever pull another stunt like that again, cores will be the least of your concerns."
The remaining man and woman wasted no time. They gathered their leader and vanished from sight.
My father turned to me with a smile. "Now that we've dealt with that, how about you go ahead and absorb the cores that everyone seems to want?"
The fact that he could smile after all that baffled me. What felt like life or death to me was mere child's play to him.
I gathered the ten aurora moth cores I had killed earlier. When I had them all, I realized something. "Dad, Dox never explained how to absorb the cores, and I don't think you've ever taught me either."
My father chuckled. "Honestly, for how talented you are, I just assumed you knew. Place your hand over the cores." I did as instructed. "Now visualize your core reaching out to them, like when you pull cosmic energy from the atmosphere. It's harder because these are concentrated sources, but the process is the same."
The cores began disappearing one by one. I looked to my dad for confirmation, and he nodded. "By doing this, you're forcing the cores to submit to your own, breaking their will and absorbing their energy."
As each core merged with mine, I felt my core attack the foreign entities and essential rip them apart destroying the container that held the cosmic energy. I felt my core grow significantly. It doubled in size. "It worked!" I said, grinning.
"Good. Now let's head back to town. I'm starving," my father said, patting my shoulder.
"Same time tomorrow?" I asked, laughing.
He turned slightly. "Yeah. Let's hope we don't get any extracurriculars again. I'll be having a talk with Adam about that."
We walked in silence for a while before I finally asked, "Hey, Dad, why didn't you use your soul weapon during that fight? You do have one, right?"
"I didn't want to destroy this forest by pulling it out of my astral forge. It would've been overkill."