Nimr …

Haiku

Jedi Master
The battle ground for this round was the world of Plinth. It had all environments from dense jungle to arid deserts, frozen tundra to the gelatinous plateau’s of Agar.

Today’s battle was set in a forested area. A creek, some five meters wide in places, gently trickled by. Stones were scattered around the creek bed, some large enough to take cranes to move it, others as small as pebbles. Then there was moss everywhere on the stones, what wasn’t in the water was intensely moss covered. Only stones that could reach some sun had voids of naked rock that were cooked away by the radiation.

On the right side were trees, very closely grown together for a hundred years, leaving very little space to get through them. It greatly reduced the visual range and would hide other attackers looking for a different angle to get at their opponents.

On the left side were more trees, with the addition of severely tight bushes making it almost impassable. It was so close that only a snake or a rat would make it through.

The Gi-Ants were chirping up in the trees, the soft sound of water running past boulder’s in the creek. All of the sudden the chirping stopped.

A sphere of gold dropped out of the sky and dropped low to the ground behind the bushes on the left. It dissipated to reveal one of the opponents for this event, it was a Baleen with fifty tongues. Each one was a three feet long detachable snake that closer resembles a short spear that was beyond sharp. The Baleen itself, was a spherical entity that floated low above the ground from its gas filled bladder. It was a regenerating beast that could regrow each detached tongue in a mere thirty seconds.

Five blue spheres came down next, each containing a raptor hybrid that applied the capabilities of all of the raptor species. They were six feet tall vicious beasts and nothing that you would want to run across in any environment. Five of them was definitely a challenge for any opponent. They were dropped into the trees on the right, hiding them from view.

The last sphere, a dark green one, lowered down to the center of the creek onto an exposed rock and dissolved into Nimr, she was a slender theta class Orion. She had a standard Orion head with eyes that wrapped around the head giving her a 300° view at all times. Her hands and feet were clawed and excreted an acid like poison that disables any and all creatures. She had two sets of knees on each leg, and it allowed her to shift from a two-meter-tall bipedal form with forward bending knees to a form where her knees bent backwards giving her ability to jump ten feet straight up into the air. Her main weapon was a double ended sword, that resembled a samurai sword blade. One end was glowing blue with steam coming off it, the other end looked like it was made out of yellow amber with an edge so sharp that it could slice straight through marble without even a blemish on the blade.

It is different being a silicon plant lifeform. There were standard mixes that your soul could be drawn to, and they were used quite commonly on the drones, the minions of the High Li-zard. Nimr was a plant hybrid, one commonly not used for anything but sport. Her skin was standard Orion grey with a hint of purple added in, it glistened in the sunlight. She was mostly bamboo and elephant grass with several other spices added, like cress, green beans and peas, chives and for spice they added cilantro. Then for beauty, they added Clematis. And for strength they added the pure plant from Arcturus. All were fast growing species, and they gave Nimr an advantage over her opponents.

She was a killing beast, the High Li-zard’s best warrior, all for a game to show who was the strongest, who was at the top of the self-serving pyramid. As there can only be one.

Li-Zard was top of his family line, he was matched by the other fifteen self-serving family lines. He held the ‘High’ prize for three battles now and others were impatiently waiting for the honor. The battles they fought were between the sixteen family lines with only one decree, ‘There will be no rules’. There was going to be cheating, it was always expected.

It started with placements of opponents. Nimr was exposed, the others were hidden from sight.

That didn’t matter to Nimr, she could see through their rouse. She popped her knees backwards and crouched down, her sword held outright in her right hand, glowing blue end up, because it made her look more ominous with its steam coming off it.

She sent out a tracking tone, it was a cross between a whistle and a low growl and it made everything in the area vibrate, except her opponents. This made them easy to identify and locate. There were five grand raptors to her right and a single Baleen, a big one, to her left. She watched as the raptors peeked through the trees, all Nimr saw was the eyes looking at her. They were preparing to attack.

Opposing them was the Baleen and it tongues, they retracted getting ready to launch, right at her.

She was caught between two enemies, she could only take down one of them if they attacked simultaneously, which would it be. She waited for the attack, wondering which will be the first to fall …
 
Nimr was a killing machine, she had no other function. She was raised and taught to eliminate life and she was good at it, too good. There were few times in the battles that she was actually touched by an opponent, only one of them was fast enough to leave a scar on her. It was a single cut over her left eye barely a few centimeters long. And when she turned her head just right it showed, adding in an intimidating grin gave her a sinister look to raise the fear level in her opponents.

Her benefactor owned her, as he did with many others. Most of them were his subordinates for him to use and abuse, he was ‘a self-serving soul’ at its highest level. The problem with Nimr was that she wasn’t self-serving like her benefactor and one day she would find an absolution to her situation. It was also why he had no problem tossing her at battles like these, she was the ultimate other-serving apex predator, totally expendable to a self-serving soul. Very few knew of her alignment, they only saw the killing and suspected that she was as the others were.

And this is why she was in this battle, her against six others. Multiple opponents were common to her, this battle was no different.

Thoughts poured through her mind, it was too many attacks coming at a single point, the one that she was standing on. She needed to move but move rightly where it leaves her in the commanding position.

There was no way to stop all of the tongues of the Baleen, it was best to avoid them. Nimr focused on them and the attack pattern that they were in. The Baleen had the ability to aim them in patterns, focused on a single spot or up to thirteen points. Its ultimate expression was the shotgun blast that sent all in a spray at the target, this is how it was aiming them right now. At her distance from the Baleen the spray would cover a three-meter radius and if Nimr stayed where she was right now, less than ten of them would hit her. Depending on the hit locations she actually might survive it. But that was not the ending she was wanting, she preferred not to be damaged in this encounter, especially with these lesser beasts.

Her attention then turned to the raptors, they were the best plan of attack, there were five of them. It was guaranteed that one of them was in a commanding position, all bets that they were one of the two on the ends of the group, but which one? With a moment of concentration, she saw that one end was a male and the opposing end was the only female of the group.

The male was showing his anger and flaunting his long feathers on his head like the other males, his were definitely grander than the other three. She could see that there was fire in the yellow eyes of the males, testosterone was building in them. This was not so in the female, she had a sly look that looked to be figuring things out.

The primary male was hissing, speaking some language that the others knew, he could be the alpha here, or he could just be the Sargent. The female was calmer, more focused in the attack than the other males, she was quiet, almost bothersome quiet.

Nimr worked out the attack, it was to be a two-pronged attack with the four males in the first front with the female as an alternate intrusion, she was the backup in case the males failed. It was probably a very well thought out plan on each side, that is if Nimr stayed where she was, which she wasn’t. You see these self-serving should talk more between each other, their positions were directly opposing each other, they were in each other’s firing line. If she was not to be hit then the tongues would continue on until they reach a target, they very much could strike one or more of the raptors in their attack.

It was the Baleen’s shotgun approach that made her choose her path, it was at the raptors. She chose the Male on the left end as her first victim.

She waited for the strike, the air went still, all the noises stopped as if in anticipation with hundreds of Gi-ants looking on, watching the event unfold in-front of them from the treetops.

It came a short few moments later with the raptors ripping out of the trees just as the Baleen discharged her load tearing a clear shredded hole through anything that they passed through.

Nimr jumped, not up but right at the left raptor, it had little time to adjust, and she caught it right across the mouth with her sword slicing off the upper part of his skull with its feathers flying off around it. All that was left was the lower jaw as it crumbled to the ground. The Baleen tongues hit next, the center raptor and the one to its right exploded into shreds against the forest background.

Nimr hit the ground and jumped again looking to pass right beneath the raptor on the left of center. In slow motion, you could see the tongues just passed the raptor lineup as she slid under the raptor spilling its guts behind her, it was down before it knew its predicament.

This left the female raptor and the Baleen. Nimr knew that the Baleen needed time to reload and with the number of tongues it had it was going to take longer than normal, Nimr calculated that she still had enough time.

This left the female raptor, and she had turned and was facing right at her.

Nimr was still in a slide as she jumped up and over the last raptor. Up to now she was using the amber end of her double sword, it was time to use the blue end. She took the swipe at the last raptor in a lower uplifting swing that split the raptor into two halves, right down the middle. There was no blood as the blade cauterizes the wounds as it strikes, the body halves fell to the ground.

She turned her head to address the Baleen, in three leaps she went from rock to rock across the stream. On the last rock she went vertical with a roll over the top of the tree that was hiding the beast and landed squarely on the ground beside it. With the amber end she swiped across the Baleen splitting it in two hemispheres then with a swing straight down on the beast she quartered it.

She knew these beasts well, they had a bad problem with self-immolation that could take out an adversary if it fails to win otherwise. This one was no different as Nimr leaped once again, flipping over the tree and landing back in the creek just as the Baleen exploded into a fireball behind her, she smiled as she had won the confrontation once again. She had no problem with these battles as long as they were all self-serving opponents, which they all were again this time. Sooner or later, she would be confronted with an other-serving opponent which she swore to refuse. The odd thing, her benefactor knew this and so far, he never put her in a situation as such.

Nimr stood upright just as a transport sphere enclosed her and she was gone once again. It was unknown to her as to where she was going, another battle or just an appearance beside her benefactor. Right now, she had no way to change her path as someone else was in control of that, but there would come a day when that too would change.

And the High Li-zard holds onto his title once again …
 
(Just found) This was a piece that my daughter wrote when she was only 16, it was the basis of the Nimr story I wrote. Haiku ...

Tears on a Hopeless face…..12/3/07


Towards the icy battlefield, I walk alone….in the dark.

The frost presses in the ground as every-slow-heavy step is taken.

This is my walk of pain in the misty moonlight.

I dread what is to come.

And I fear what will happen if I choose not to fight.


In one hand, I have my shattered sword,

The shards and my hope, crumble from my grasp in unison with my deathly pace.


And in the other, a blood-stained shield,

Battered with abuse,

Tempted to break with one single blow.


And out of the misty moonlight,

My opponents soon become clear.


The world to my left,

Waiting, watching for my next move.

Their judgmental souls burn targets into my being.

No mercy do I see in those black eyes.


And to my right,

A lone archer with a face paler than the evanescent glow that illuminates the field.

And an arrow, nocked and ready,

Aimed straight for my weary heart.


I feel the tears gather in my eyes.

I know my destiny is not to cower in a corner until I wither away with the ages.

I know I must fight.


But when the moment comes,

When I face my enemies,

I also know that I can only fend one off.


The question is,

Which will I choose to bring me down??
 
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