The Needy is eager inside of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus can feel him buzzing against the underlayer of his skin, warm from the excited action. Surrounded by the countless Daemon on the asteroid approaching Bludon, Zacchaeus knows that the Needy is the only chance for Maxx and the other Guardians to survive this encounter.
Even with lean and âmuk, there are too many, the Needy says inside of Zacchaeus’s mind.
Zacchaeus had witnessed the Guardians go âmuk against their enemies before, and the results were always the same: the Guardians triumphant and their enemies dead at their feet. Even though the majority of Zacchaeus’s time on Bludon has been spent attacking Daemon spawned from Minyak, he has witnessed Maxx and the Guardians of his secret team confront blues of rival gangs at the behest of Coxx who replaced Maxx when he went underground.
He thinks back to the massacre of the Swee Chin cell that attempted to hijack a shipment of outlawed goods from Rycoia that were being smuggled by the Ur gang. Zacchaeus arrived with Maxx and the Guardians to the dark islands in the west where the Swee Chin cell inventoried their stolen goods. It was early in his time with the Guardians and he hadn’t witnessed conflict between the Guardians and blues that weren’t possessed by Minyak, so Zacchaeus and the Needy watched.
The members of Swee Chin operated mech suits that they fit inside of like vehicles, but they were able to control arms and legs for moving over the ground and lifting things. The mech suits were large, like construction equipment capable of fighting, but the Guardians were not intimidated.
“You will return these goods,” Maxx said, “or we will take them from you.”
The Swee Chin powered up their mech suits so that they sparked with the electricity coursing through them.
“You guardians are no longer the strongest power on Bludon,” one of the Swee said and they all attacked the Guardians.
“Put them down!” Maxx yelled and the Guardians engaged the Superconsciousness that created a coating of yellow energy around their bodies and ringed their heads in halos, and they went âmuk which Zacchaeus didn’t realize because there was no visual component that he could perceive. The Guardians swarmed the mech suits that outnumbered them and were much bigger, but they quickly dismantled the sophisticated looking machines, ripping metal sheets and tubing, scattering the island with scraps. Even when it was clear that the Swee Chin were no match for them and the blues begged for their lives, Maxx and the Guardians did not relent. They did not stop until all of the smugglers were dead.
Zacchaeus thought it was brutal and necessary and his respect for Maxx and the Guardians only increased.
Staring at the Daemon, part of Zacchaeus is confident that the Guardians and Maxx can hold their own on the asteroid, but he doesn’t want to risk harm to his new friends and the number of Daemon is overwhelming. Zacchaeus allows the Needy to take control of him after Maxx asks him to do what he can, but before he fully ceedes control, he feels a body smash hard into his chest, like a punch, and in the blink of an eye, he is floating in the upper atmosphere of Bludon. A naked man with pale white skin who could be human hovers before him with large wings that seem reptilian; they are sickly green and scaled. They spread the sky at his back and he smirks at Zacchaeus with a crown on his head. Even though his skin is white, his hands and feet are jet black and he splays his limbs before Zacchaeus.
“I would eat you if Minyak didn’t insist on having you all to himself,” the Daemon says.
“You couldn’t if you tried,” Zacchaeus says and he smirks when the Daemon glares at him.
“I move faster than the time it takes your voice to travel! I am Astaroth and if I wanted to consume you, I would.”
Zacchaeus laughs out loud. “You talk a big game, but I could beat you in a race around Bludon with my hands tied behind my back.”
“Laughable,” Astaroth says and before Zacchaeus hears the word, Astaroth is next to Zacchaeus, grinning and stroking the black cape that drapes his back. “Is this what enables you to fly? The dark passenger inside of you gives you this to move at will?”
Zacchaeus moves quickly enough to grab Astaroth ‘s wrist and the Daemon looks at Zacchaeus with impressed curiosity.
“Deft hands indeed,” Astaroth says, and he proceeds to punch Zacchaeus, throwing his fists faster than can be perceived by the eye, and each time, Zacchaeus bats the black fists away. He is fast enough to simply dodge them, but he makes it a point to smack each of Astaroth ‘s efforts away. He has never moved this fast before, Astaroth moves faster than the speed of sound, but the Needy is strong in him, and he remembers his encounter with Xêvisoso on Lêgba’s Disc in the Fonlands, the fiercest battle he had ever engaged in to that point, and his body rises to the occasion to embarrass Astaroth.
You are finding your own power.
After time that is lost to Zacchaeus, he and Astaroth retreat, still very high up in the atmosphere.
Do you feel the anger approaching? I believe you have annoyed Astaroth and distracted him from doing his master’s bidding.
“You can deal with him when he comes,” Zacchaeus says out loud, “but let me enjoy this.”
“What was that?” Astaroth asks. His wings beat steadily and they are substantial.
“Nothing for you. Should we keep going? I’m ready to punch back.”
Astaroth has never encountered a being fast enough to toy with him like Zacchaeus has and he is worried. He wants to kill Zacchaeus, but he doesn’t think that he can accomplish it at this moment. He sprints down to Minyak, still tethered to the whale.
“Do not kill him, Minyak,” Astaroth pleads with the oily form. “Subdue him, capture him, but I would like to kill him. I did not know that he is faster than me.”
“He shouldn’t be,” Minyak says, “that wasn’t a notable skill about the Needy. No matter, go get stronger, I will subdue it for you. Run along, he approaches.”
Zacchaeus flies down to meet Minyak face to face, they are still closer to space than the surface of Bludon.
“I have deemed you worthy, Needy,” Minyak says. “Show me your worst.”
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