Quantum Cultivation by Jace Kang (simple e reader TXT) 📕

blow shattered the armor there and dislodged the weapon. It hit the pavement, the spinning barrels spitting sparks as they clattered over the stone.  The shocktrooper he’d flattened with the Blazing Globe rose up to a knee, took aim, and shot.

Ryu yanked the closest’s arm, fingers finding purchase in the armor’s dents.  He twirled in a circle, dragging the soldier around to serve as a shield between him and second. The energy bolts plinked into the power armor, while Ryu’s yank sent the first man’s blade stabbing into the second.  The point found a gap in the joint between the torso and arm. It skewered its victim, who grunted. In the same motion, Ryu shoulder-butted the first with a Crashing Wave.  More of the armor cracked and splintered, and his opponent collapsed.

By the time Ryu reached the outer edge of ice, the first immobilized shocktrooper was just breaking free. Before he could move, Ryu punched him in the chest, fist enforced with a Water Blast. It crushed the armor and sent the hulking brute crumpling to the ground.

Having cleared the path, Ryu entered the fog. It was too thick to see through, but his connection through the mist revealed the location of everyone within. At the far end, the two shocktroopers struggled to break free of the ice, and in the middle, the Kappa was wrestling with their leader…

And winning.

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise, given how spiritually weak these shocktroopers were. Using its diminutive size, the Kappa slithered through the leader’s grasp, never fighting against his force as it flowed into superior positions.

Though hard to follow visually, it was a thing of beauty.

Ryu dodged the minigun’s errant shots as he drew closer.

The shocktrooper reached for the Kappa’s neck, but it spun out of the way, seized his wrist, and leaned back into an armbar. The smoothness of the motion pinned the man beneath the water. The soldier’s minigun splashed and shot, the bolts superheating the water and increasing the steam in the area.

Just as Ryu reached them, the armor hummed and the shocktrooper bent his arm. It and the Kappa lifted out of the water. It was an ugly creature, no larger than a child, with green skin and a turtle shell on its back. A dish of water balanced on the scraggly black hair of its head. Its webbed hands now splayed open as it released the shocktrooper’s arm.

Gathering water molecules into a whip, Ryu lashed through the minigun’s mounting, sending it flapping like a fish back down into the canal.  When the shocktrooper sat up and his head broke the surface, Ryu drove a Splashing Hand into his face. It cracked the visor and knocked him back into the water, unmoving.

The Kappa made to flee, but Ryu grabbed it by the wrist. It twisted its hand free and dove into Ryu’s waist, wrapping him up, but Ryu slid one arm underneath the Kappa’s. Lifting that one while pressing down on the Kappa’s shoulder with the other, he flipped it onto its back beneath the water’s surface.

It would regain its strength there, and it continued its roll out of Ryu’s grasp and swam between his legs. He twisted into a cross-legged squat, pinning the Kappa down and protecting his anus, but it hooked one of his ankles and sent him plunging back into the water.  It scrabbled up between his legs, forcing Ryu into a back roll to avoid having his Core stolen in a most unpleasant manner. He finished his roll as his feet found the canal’s floor, then popped back up, breaking the surface of the water.

The Kappa emerged next, its back to a shocktrooper who set his blue energy blade to the creature’s throat. The Kappa only came up to the man’s waist.

Another blade appeared in Ryu’s peripheral vision as the last shocktrooper behind him reached around his own neck. Ryu seized the wrist, turned it over, then yanked the shocktrooper’s arm down while rising with a Surging Wave technique. His shoulder rose up into the man’s sinking elbow. Armor shattered and ligaments tore.

The man screamed. With a torque of his waist, Ryu flipped the soldier over his hip and into the canal with a spray of water. His light blade sizzled more water into steam before winking out.

Ryu then looked to the Kappa, held in check with the last shocktrooper’s blade at its jugular. Though a Water Whip could sever the blade emitter, the space between its ear and the metal tube left an exceedingly thin margin of error.

The fog hung heavily around them. Could the shocktrooper see Ryu?

They locked gazes.

“Hands up!” the man yelled.

Bluffing, Ryu snorted. “Why? I don’t care if you kill it.”

“What?”

Sinking his feet and rooting to the canal floor, Ryu bent his knees and lifted his arms in the Watershaping form. A column of water shot up, dousing the blade with yet more steam.  With a push of his hands, the column of water rocked back, taking the man with him, but leaving the Kappa standing there.

It gaped for a few seconds. Then it bowed, the bowl of water gliding along its head to stay upright. It spoke with a croaking voice. “You saved me. I owe you my life.”

“Yes,” Ryu said, taken aback for a moment. But it made sense, since Kappa did have a strange sense of honor back in the World of Rivers and Lakes. “Come. We need to get to our hiding place. Follow me.”

“Hiding place?” It came out of its bow.

“The people here can track you with cameras.”

“Camera? What is that?” It quirked his head.

“Never mind, just follow me.” Ryu turned and beckoned.

“All right.” It shuffled on quick toddling feet as Ryu worked his way through the fog. With the power of his intention, Ryu kept the mist around them.

“You’re from my world, aren’t