The Deadliest Earthling Read online

  The idea narrowed his options. He needed to end this fight immediately. Except it meant signing his opponent’s death warrant. His parents’ will tasked that he show no mercy to Anunnaki. Humans were a different story.

  “What’s a fighter wearing a necklace for?” The man lunged forward with more speed than Johnny thought possible. In a flash, his big arms engulfed Johnny’s legs. The impact of the ground sent a stunning pain rippling through his entire body. A slice of fear burned in his stomach. Somehow, he forced his arms up in time to deflect the barrage of punches. Strong as they were, only one tagged him clean.

  Between whiffs of the man’s heavy odor, Johnny didn’t have to block as many punches. Was the man slowing? The sinister determination in his eyes said no. He was searching for an opening. Unless Johnny pulled a stunt quick, he’d find it too.

  Whipping his hand down, Johnny grabbed a heap of the gravel and flung it directly at his face. In the second that bought him, he clasped his hands over the man’s ears. Gravity connected the man’s nose with Johnny’s forehead. Not enough to stop him, but enough to slip free.

  As soon as he rose to his feet, Johnny slashed the air with his fists. In one ominous moment, he caught the man staring at his chest as if he could see the Conifer. It was still cloaked, though.

  Time to finish this. Somehow.

  The man feinted a lot. Could Johnny time them and catch him with a clean shot? The combination of his own punch and the man’s feint would knock him out cold. The problem was the man moved fast, and his body was slick with sweat. To hit him directly, he’d need lots of luck. Something he wasn’t keen to rely on.

  Johnny racked his mind for a better possibility. It occurred to him that the man’s sweat also dripped into his eyes. Every so often, he squinted. The smoke from the fire must’ve irritated them too.

  They danced for a few more seconds. In that time, Johnny circled around so an oil drum burned behind him. Close enough that the heat tingled along his back. Johnny figured the contrast of the fire and night sky would temporarily burn a blind spot in his vision. As his opponent swung forward, he ducked to the side. In a single fluid motion, he came in from that shadowy angle, threw all his weight into his right leg, and crashed his foot against the man’s kneecap.

  A shriek of agony and the man crumpled to something between prone and a crouching position, his bald head shining below Johnny in surrender. Instead of hollering at his victory, the crowd recited the Ascendi’s rule. Fight or die. Fight or die. Fight or die.

  Stomach clenched, Johnny watched the man crawling through the gravel, trembling as he struggled to keep the pressure off his knee.

  “Please. I couldn’t control myself.” His voice was so shaky, Johnny couldn’t believe this was the same guy who’d tried to bash his face in just minutes ago.

  “Help me! Please!” he screamed, spit flying.

  Johnny let out a long breath. He could fake the man’s death with the Conifer, but he couldn’t stop the locals from dumping his body in an oil drum.

  As he wiped the sweat from his face, the crowd swarmed Johnny. A forest of hands wrapped around him, collecting his body. Before he knew it, they lifted him up and he was looking straight into the sky.

  “Wait,” he yelled, trying to turn back to his defeated opponent. Despite the praise drowning him, he couldn’t deny that none of this made sense. He hadn’t even completed the Ascendi’s Trial.

  Then the Conifer chain tugged around his neck. Out of the corner of Johnny’s eye, an Anunnaki extended its hand. It made contact with his shoulder, sending a numbing zap through his body. Everything darkened around him.

  Chapter 27

  Anunnaki saluted the Ascendi in a dark desert village. All but one. The Ascendi checked his arm, saw the blood flicked from the disrespectful soldier. Not the soldier’s blood, but a human’s blood. One of the prisoners from this village. The Ascendi confronted the soldier and a few seconds later, the disrespectful soldier slumped to the sand, unconscious.

  The images flashed before Johnny.

  And then a foreboding voice bombarded his head. Like you, I faced difficulty managing the opinions of my peers. I knew if I was going to earn their following, I had to break the rules. I had to show the other Anunnaki I was the same as them. And so I burned your city to ash.

  An intense wave of fear flushed all else from Johnny’s mind. The kind of maniacal, limitless fear of a nightmare. He realized that’s what this was.

  The desert bent and distorted, a painting saturated in the rain. Just because you know it’s not real, doesn’t mean you can escape, the Ascendi Major warned.

  Orun once told him the Conifer worked in part by reading its user’s brain waves. Johnny felt something similar. Like the Ascendi was forcing his demands into his head.

  The world reshaped around him, and suddenly he was staring at Kandrazi from a hundred feet in the sky. We know the Eagle is there. Tell me where the Conifer is so I don’t have to end that city the same way I ended yours.

  Johnny fought back against the Ascendi’s will, knowing somehow that he couldn’t destroy Kandrazi. Even the Sinsers wouldn’t allow it. Besides that, he didn’t know where the Conifer was. An Anunnaki stole it from him right before he went unconscious.

  You can’t hide the Conifer from me. I knew your plan even before you did.

  New knowledge flooded his brain. The Ascendi was inserting his thoughts into Johnny’s head. It must’ve been using the mind Conifer.

  Johnny immediately understood that the Ascendi was referring to his plan to capture him in Kandrazi. The Ascendi Major suspected a trap, so he didn’t investigate himself. It didn’t stop at that.

  The Ascendi sent his soldiers with clothes flashing the Fort Bloodhound symbol. He’d fabricated the Ascendi Trials on the World Tree, asked the Anunnaki in Fort Bloodhound to invite any travelers and spread the word. And as soon as he learned that a teen decided to take the challenge, he knew to come.

  Chapter 28

  A bright flash jarred Johnny into a groggy state of consciousness. He was in a perfectly cylindrical hole. His back rested against a warm, hard surface. Glancing down, he registered only his bare chest and his jeans. His eyes burning, he knew the light sprang from the walls all around him, thanks to the Anunnaki’s mannadium spread technology. Slap a little mannadium on a rock, and that rock became a multifaceted computerized tool. With the mannadium spread tech, they could turn piles of stone, like this base had probably once been, into fully functional proxy-cities. No wires or batteries required.

  After several blinks, he became newly aware of his missing Conifer. His mind shifted into alertness, and he made out the Ascendi Major above him, a blue Conifer resting in his hand. No matter how hard he tried, his arms and legs only twitched. Panic surged. The Ascendi had been using the mind-control Conifer on him. That explained Johnny’s nightmares and the reason he couldn’t get complete control of his own body.

  So if the Ascendi didn’t snatch his Conifer, who did? He could only think of one Anunnaki who would be clever enough to pull off theft of the Conifer from right underneath the Ascendi’s nose. Orun. He must’ve zapped Johnny into unconsciousness with a Naga palm stunner and stolen the Conifer in the chaos of the crowd surrounding him.

  The chamber around Johnny shifted suddenly, and a dirt quarry surrounded him. Another mental vision from the Ascendi. Something massive and golden loomed over him, but it didn’t seem important right now. Because all around, people in skimpy beige tunics lifted and plunged shovels and pickaxes. The sudden clang of a pickax on something hard drew his attention to the diggers nearby. Sarah, Hamiad, Krem, and Skunk. He didn’t believe it. Only a few feet away, he could see the dirt coating their beaten faces. He shouted at the top of his lungs in dire longing. But an invisible force muffled the sound.

  Hot coals sank through the iceberg of his psyche. A pang of longing hit him. Were they alive? No. It had to be a lie. A mental delusion the Ascendi created to torment him. Because the implication was obvious.
Turn over the Conifer, and he could see his friends again.

  “I’m not going to fall for your mind games. You can quit trying,” Johnny growled. Rage flared in him, and he managed to jerk his legs. He concentrated and tensed his arm, moving it an inch.

  The Ascendi gave a contemplative hum. A disappointed hum.

  “Well, look at that, my will power is stronger than yours,” Johnny said, focusing hard to push the Ascendi’s mental grip off him.

  “You’re stronger than the Fort Bloodhound earthlings,” the Ascendi said.

  Please. I couldn’t control myself. That’s what his opponent said as soon as he’d shattered his knee. The Ascendi must’ve controlled him and the other villagers with the mind Conifer.

  The floor lurched beneath him, and he felt himself rising up. Slowly, control was returning to his body. He staggered to a standing position by the time the platform leveled with the Ascendi. Somehow he didn’t discover any real pain. Only numbness.

  Around him, a horde of Anunnaki came into his focus. His gut knotted.

  “What is all of this?” Johnny asked, standing straighter.

  The Ascendi’s thin slit of a mouth curled into an ominous smile. Johnny got the sense he didn’t want to find out the answer. “You know, I was a prisoner once.”

  Johnny chewed the inside of his cheek. “During the Shroud War.”

  “An educated earthling. You really are a rare one, Keeper,” the Ascendi said. “I wonder, have you ever heard of the Games?”

  “The Games?” That pulled him up short.

  The Ascendi had the gall to turn his back on him. Unfortunately, he still lacked the coordination to attack. “When I took over your friends’ minds, I learned how much your city enjoyed a good show. The New Bagramites would’ve loved the Games.”

  More lies from the Ascendi. Heat racing in his shoulders, Johnny raised both his arms. But before he could attempt anything, the Ascendi wheeled around and pointed to him.

  “That is the one thing that I’ve learned from you earthlings. The value of exhibitions.”

  “Oh yeah?” Johnny asked. If the Ascendi kept his mouth running, he might be able to free up his body more.

  “The Games were a simple concept. Every couple of days, they’d pit me and the other Anunnaki against each other in a ring. Nothing but our fists, minds, and the will to survive. Fight or die. Fight or die.” The Ascendi said it with a nostalgic respect. “We’d keep it up the whole day. As soon as one of us died, we’d get a new opponent.”

  “Somehow, I made it through that first rotational period. But I was exhausted. Even with the meat they fed us, the hours of fighting drained me. That night as I waited to die in my cell, a man came by. He warned me that the next time, I would fight all of the other Anunnaki prisoners who’d survived their first day.”

  Johnny flexed his muscles. They all responded, but there was no way to know how mobile he was at this point.

  The Ascendi tilted his head to the ceiling, then let his gaze fix on Johnny.

  “I urged him to kill me quickly, but he told me that as an Ascendi, I was far more valuable alive. And then he moved me to a cage that smelled of old donkeys. I could barely stand, let alone fight. That was exactly the point. He knocked me out with two punches. His men applauded him for it as if he’d beaten me at my best. Every day I survived, he dragged me into that cage and defeated me. Each time, he showed that he could beat an Ascendi. And because I had beaten so many other Anunnaki, he got to claim he was better than all of them too.”

  The Ascendi gazed around at his soldiers with a gleam of satisfaction. “None of them speak English. They don’t know I weakened you. All they know is you are the Keeper. When I beat you, they will respect me that much more. Now I hope you’ve regained enough control over your limbs to keep this interesting.”

  Johnny’s mouth fell open. So the Ascendi knew he was gaining his coordination back. Scratch the element of surprise.

  His insides churned with dread. The Ascendi meant to kill and humiliate him. A hundred flickers prevented any chance of escape. His Conifer was gone. What could he hope to accomplish?

  Digging deep into his mind, he brought up the big points from his lessons. Anunnaki’s heads were their most vulnerable points. But they were also the hardest targets, due to their height. Avoiding their hands was a must. Beyond that it boiled down to whatever weapons you could acquire. Johnny bit his lip. His lessons didn’t exactly detail a scenario as primal as this.

  He stooped low, putting an additional six inches between him and the Ascendi’s hands, and feinted in and out. The Ascendi hunkered down and mirrored the feints. His hands dangled like barbs from his long arms, ready to immobilize any of his attacks before they made contact.

  Pushing off with his left leg, Johnny thrust his right foot at the Ascendi’s knee. As his foot closed the gap, he could already imagine the satisfying crunch. Then the Ascendi’s palm swatted him across the shoulder. From a human, the blow wouldn’t accomplish much, but the force of it knocked him back. He spent the next few seconds hopping to keep his balance.

  The Naga in the pod hissed. He fought back the onrush of vexation with a deep breath. A calm head was his last reliable strength in this fight.

  To his credit, the Ascendi knew how to analyze an opponent. There would be no time to warm up and gauge his capabilities, because he’d do the same to him. This called for Johnny to deal the damage using spontaneous combustion. The best option was to move in from behind and attack there. When it came to swiveling around, humans were more agile than Anunnaki.

  As he circled clockwise, the Ascendi rotated with him, like a giant crab. That’s when he swooped in the opposite direction, launched his feet forward, and wrapped his legs around the Ascendi’s ankle. But somehow, the Ascendi had already scooted to face him. Before he could reel in his legs, the Ascendi hammered a fist deep into his stomach. Pain speared through his torso, and he felt his legs loosen.

  Johnny cursed under his breath as he scrambled to his feet. Upright again, he stepped back. In only a minute, the Ascendi had scored two significant hits.

  Johnny had shaken off the Ascendi’s attempts to control his body. His combat training should’ve allowed him better purchase. The problem was that almost all of his reliable tactics assumed he had a weapon of some sort. A tool. Anything. Because when combat was reduced to an Anunnaki versus a human, and solely what they were born with, the Anunnaki won every time.

  Chapter 29

  Think. How do you fight an Anunnaki with your bare hands? Orun’s harsh voice gripped him. He bombarded Johnny with that question the first time they sparred using nothing more than their bodies as weapons. No guns. No knives. Not even shoes. He claimed Johnny needed to know this. As if six years of training wasn’t enough already. He was a week from leaving Orun’s care and officially joining New Bagram’s new class of Watcher recruits.

  He knew all sorts of combat techniques and strategies by then. He stood with his head off-center, closer to his right foot, set behind his left. In his Anunnaki form, Orun’s knees were his weak spot. Not that Johnny’s attacks would truly hurt him, but for simulation purposes, they would. Johnny reminded himself not to trust his eyes in telling distance. That’s what his jab was for.

  And still, Orun caught him every time with a punch to his chin that stung all the way to his brain.

  It’s not fair. You’re an adult. I’m only twelve, Johnny complained.

  And four years will make a big difference against an Anunnaki? If you can’t beat one now, you won’t ever be able to. Now think. How do you fight an Anunnaki with your bare hands? He acted like there was an obvious answer. But Johnny couldn’t wrap his head around it. Every technique he tried—feints, jump kicks, sidesteps followed by elbow strikes—Orun either dodged, parried, or nullified by leaning back.

  Time for a break, Orun said when Johnny was sweating and sore from getting hit back. He stepped into the kitchen for water. And that’s when he decided maybe Orun was asking him a tri
ck question. The only way to beat an Anunnaki barehanded was to cheat, he decided. So as he filled his cup from the faucet, he drew open the drawer with utensils. A cutting knife that was rarely used for cooking. He tucked it underneath his knuckles, blade aimed down at his skin.

  Again. How do you beat an Anunnaki with only your hands? Orun kicked off their sparring session. They brought up their hands and began. Exchanging blows and blocks lightly. Little by little, the power behind those hits rose. Suddenly his entire body quivered in weakness. He noted the dull pain forming underneath his forearm. And a poking sensation. He’d been stabbed by his own knife. Trembling consumed him as he dropped down and saw the blood flowing. Johnny moved to pull the blade out, then remembered that was a bad idea.

  Orun’s eyes dimmed at the sight. He said nothing as he grabbed the first-aid kit from the nearby shelf and fished out clean dressing. All the while his arm throbbed in agony.

  Johnny writhed, trying to fend off the waves of hurt for a few minutes. Finally he sat against the wall, pressing his good hand against the bandage over his wound. His cheeks were red hot, from the intense pain as well as shame. He’d taken a foolish risk without really considering the possibility of failing.

  As Orun cleaned the rug with his Khepers, Johnny couldn’t help but sense his disappointment. He fought back the urge to ask Orun to use the Khepers on his arm, not wanting to reveal any weakness, even if the injury stung worse than a thousand bee stings. There was another way, though. It was early in the day. Orun would want to train as soon as he was healed.

  You could use those on my arm if you wanted to get back to training, Johnny said quietly.

  Orun shook his head. Sometimes we have to learn the hard way.

  That was their last sparring session. They worked on small things up until Johnny’s last day. Tactical questions that tested his knowledge of Anunnaki and quick-thinking abilities. He never did figure out how to beat an Anunnaki without weapons or tools, though.