Muri The Lightning Primordial

In The Beginning There Was Nothing.

And Nothing had a name.

They called him Umbrion.

Ruler of the Void.

Before light carved its first ray across the dark,

Before fire learned to breathe and radiate,

Before water remembered how to move,

There was only the Void.

Infinite.

Hungry.

Patient in the way that only truly ancient things can afford to be.

Then came Aelion.

The First light.

And the universe exhaled.

Between the two of them — Chaos and Order.

Darkness and Light.

Everything that has ever existed, breathed, burned, bled or laughed was born.

Five children.

Seven Primordials.

Five forces of nature given flesh, will and purpose.

Goren shaped the worlds.

Kael'Tharos fed the sun.

Neraya filled the oceans.

Zephyros commanded the wind.

And Venit ...

Wild, untameable, brilliant Venit, became the lightning.

The last born. The most free. The most dangerous and uncontrollable.

Nobody warned them what happens when a god decides to die for a human.

Nobody thought to... Because it was thought unnecessary...

CHAPTER ONE

The Boy Who Could Not See The Storm

The pit smelled of blood, sweat and tears, old fear and something darker that Muri had long learned to identify as the particular scent of failure.

He knew this because he had stood at its edge three times before.

He could not see it , had never seen anything beyond the pitch void and silvery flashes that had lived behind his eyes since the day he was born.

But he knew the pit the way the blind know everything worth knowing.

By sound.

By smell.

By sensation.

By the stories that vibrate through the soles of bare feet pressed against ancient blood-soaked earth.

The crowd was large tonight. He could tell by the weight of their breathing. By the way the air thickened with anticipation the moment his name was called.

"Muri...”

“... Son of Chief Abara...”

“...Fifth wife..."

“...it's his Nineteenth cycle..."

The announcement landed the way it always did. Like a stone dropped into still water, sending ripples of whispers outward through the gathered clan.

Nineteenth cycle.

Three years past the age when a boy should have already proven himself.

Three years of watching his brothers, towering seven foot walls of muscle and certainty, descend into that pit and emerge as men.

Three years of standing here at this edge, lean and silent and blind, listening to a world that had already decided what he was before he uttered a word.

The beast below shifted.

He heard its claws rake the dusty floor leaving trails of impending death.

Heard the low guttural percussion of its breathing, seemly mocking it's opponent in deep chuckle.

Felt the vibration of its weight travel up through the ground and into the bones of his feet like a warning written in a language older than words.

His mother had begged him not to come tonight as she anyways does since two cycles ago.

"There is no shame in waiting another cycle." she had whispered, her healer's hands pressing cool against his face in the darkness of their hut.

"Your father does not require this of you."

But his father's love had never been the problem.

It was everything surrounding it.

Taking a deep breath, he turned towards his mother's warm voice and smiled with resolve itched on his handsome face.

He took one step forward and felt the edge of the pit with his toes.

Nineteen cycles old.

Blinded from birth by a cosmic phenomenal of solar flare clashing with pure plasma.

Lean by their standards , standing at only only six and a half feet of bone, handful of muscles and stubborn will wrapped in brown, tanned skin- and standing at the edge of a pit that had humbled stronger men.

He smiled again.

Not because he was brave.

But because somewhere in his vast heart he knew what had to be done to prove himself worth of his clan's respect.

A flash of lightning zoomed by and the weather grew gloomy as a stream of raindrops added to the dark aesthetics.

Great, just what I needed to cool down.

A loud horn bellowed in his ears and at that signal, Muri let go of all emotions as jumped down into the pit.

For a blind person, he struck the landing quite perfectly as he did a perfect tuck and roll, landing in the center.

Honing his sense of smell and hearing to quite an expert level, he could tell where the prehistoric beast was chained.

Sensing the foreign presence in its pit, the beast roared and jerked on the chains holding it down.

Clawing the ground in reckless abandon, growling impatiently, it tried to launch itself at the brave but stupid dinner, but was constantly held back by the massive chains around it's neck.

“ Muri, son of Abara, Are you sure this is what you want?? ” An Elder asked with a tone of boredom as he had said the same words three cycles ago.

“ Yes, by this rite I shall prove to the gods and to the clan, the blood of Abara the Slayer tolerate no weakness ” Muri rasped as he could barely hold down the adrenaline coursing through his veins.

The elder turned towards Abara who sat above the crowd surrounded by his wife and children.

For the past three cycles, his last son had to repeat the same cycle to prove his manhood in the clan but due to his handicap, it was hard for a blind boy to fight a prehistoric predator built to hunt other predators.

He had on a mild look of worry as he stared down at the pit staring at his son who had conviction written all over his white films for eyes.

“ Let him fight elder. But as soon as it goes sideways, pull him out ” Abara sighed as he gave the same command of the last cycle.

“ No Father, I'd rather die in the pit than be pulled out a suckling as before ” Muri growled.

“ I understand your heart boy!!! But I cannot have you dying amd leaving you mother alone ” Abara roared as he glared at the boy.

A thick blanket of silence hung over the clan as the boy stared defiant in the direction of his father who held on to his throne tightly, that cracks began to form on the handles.

“ Release the beast Elder ” Muri hissed as he turned towards the beast who for some reason was silent watching the standoff.

It had the features of a sabertooth tiger, but with more muscles mass, longer claws which could cut down lean trees in one swipe and furs bristling with thorns especially at its tail section.

It was not long when the chains holding the beast back fell off and it stretched leisurely taking a loud yawn before it focused it's hazel eyes on its prey.

With the rain pattering around, Muri's sense of hearing was rendered a bit useless due to the mixture of sounds. Knowing this made his mother amd father more worried about the youth, but his confidence damped their worries a bit.

Seeing his prey had no intention of moving, The beast sprang forward, intending to play with its prey for a while before it feeds.

It raced in a straight path and aimed for Muri, but in the last minute it jumped over him before landing on the other side of the pit with a deep growl.

‘ It's messing with me ... ’

Muri smiled as he had expected this and was quite ready to act.

He took out a slingshot which he had brought with him and fixed a smooth stone he had gathered just before the fight.

Earlier cycles, he had geared up in Bone mace, spears, daggers and other weapons. Choosing a slingshot for a beast whose fur is difficult to cut through using a dagger was quite laughable.

“ What is he thinking??” Abara sighed deeply as he stared at his son

Fixing the stone in the slingshot, he began to spin it wildly over his head as he felt the beast movement under his feet and began to track its location.

The beast circled him slowly and when it noticed he was not visually following his movement like other preys, concluded he was blind.

Seemly in disappointed at its prey, it moved towards him to end it quickly, but Muri had already locked in on his path and with a loud crackle, he released the slingshot and the rock tore through the cold rainy air and struck the beast right in it's eyes.

YELP!!!

The beast cried out in pain as it lost it footing and stumbled before Muri, who clenched his fist and punched the beast right in it's jaw, sending it skiing in the opposite direction.

“ What...what just happened?!?!” the Elder gasped as all form of boredom was wiped completely from his countenance and he stared at the boy in marvel.

“ Did he just punch it???” Abara chuckled in disbelief.

The crowd muttered in disbelief as the sudden development infront of them.

How was a boy who could barely see his adulthood, hit a predator???

Back in the put, Muri let a smirk form on his lips as he knew he had afflicted pain on the beast.

‘ Next time, don't punch Muri....argghhhh my hand hurts!!’

He steadied himself and set another rock in his slingshot as he tried to hone in on the beast location.

Learning from its mistake, the beast realized it had to take things serious and began to move like a hunter, using subtle steps and masking every sound under the rain.

‘ It adapted quite fast ’

Getting more serious, he struggled to hear the beast as it went totally silent even in breathing.

‘ This is bad’

On high alert, Muri stood, waiting for a intruder in his detection zone which was barely five feets around him.

An attack came from behind and he moved a bit little, bearing a red gash of claw mark on his back.

He winced in pain as he moved back and adjusted his zone.

‘ This is not going to work... I need to act’

Spinning his slingshot above him, he began to release rocks are reckless abandon at every subtle sound.

This did not reduce the growing hunt marks on his body as his rocks barely did any damage as the first did.

He was already a bloody mess when he had burnt half way through his rock stock. Arms ached from excess spinning, bleeding from a bite, head banging and adrenaline pumping, but he kept adjusting and tracking.

‘ I need just one hit!!! ’

The weather had grown worst with intense lightning flashes and heavy storms that the pit was ankle deep in water.

This helped with his tracking as he could detect subtle water disturbance different from raindrops.

The beast was barely faring well as for some reason all of Muri's shot which struck home, landed in one spot, it's jaw.

It was brimming woth anger and frustrating- for some reason, the human manage to dodge all major attacks with minimal injuries. It was a huge blow to it's pride that as a predator, it struggled against a blind human.

‘ This is it... just one rock left ’

Muri sighed as he held onto the last rock from his pouch.

It felt strange and completely different from other rocks her had used. It was a bit pointed and felt light but hard.

‘ As long as it hits it's fine ’

Taking a deep breath, he shut out all noise and it felt completely silent and he began to create a 3D image of the pit as he sensed.

This was not his first time in the pit, and previous times he would stroll over to get himself familiar with its layout.

It went without saying that he knew the pit like the back of his palms.

Narrowing all possible places the beast might be hiding at, he placed his final stone in the slingshot and mustered his strength to spin it above his head.

Faster!!!

Spin faster!!!

His arm cried out for help as he kept spinning but did not stop.

‘ If I stop I'm dead !!! ’

The beast, sensing the change in the human, decided to go for a frontal attack as it decided to end it all at once.

The crowd held their breath as they watched the scene below them in awe.

A battered boy stood face down with a slingshot spinning at an insane speed above his head, while an angry beast race towards him filled hunger and bloodlust.

“ Get him out of there!!! ” Abara yelled but his voice was drowned by a flash of intense lightning which struck the pit.

CRACKLE–

BOOOOOOM!!!!