King of Swords 10-151
Chapter: 10
“I once heard a fellow refer to the Trigram Mantra as little better than an ideal set of rules for drinking hard liquor. In many circumstances I’m actually inclined to agree with him.”
-Musko Reeve
Kill Six Billion Demons
BREAKER OF INFINITIES
RIGHT NOW PLEASE ABADDON DO NOT LET WHITE CHAIN BE YEEETED
Dave is going to shatter her body into a billion little pieces. Don’t worry though, she’ll come back. Eventually. Probably.
At least she probably dealt a similar amount of damage to his ego! Maybe. Isn’t that supposed to be Allison’s job?
“They broke seven of your transverse ribs and fractured your clavicle.”
“A-ha, but I got off several cutting remarks, which no doubt did serious damage to their egos.”
-Julian Bashir and Elim Garak
Picard survived being stabbed in the heart as an Ensign. Worf could walk off losing several vital organs. Riker manages to duplicate himself at one point. They literally disassembled Data. Physical damage means little in Star Trek.
Cutting Words is supposed to debuff the enemy’s attack! You use that to keep you and your allies safe. If you cast Cutting Words and got hurt anyways, then Cutting Words was probably not good enough. ;P
My friend of black flame, you seem to have forgotten far too soon!
That shell is not her body.
Excuse me, but the proper term is “yote”.
“Yacht”?
Why, you shipping these two?
There is no shame in being yote: It places one in the high ground, the most desired strategic position. It might scare those birds, however.
Though, more seriously, I can only hope that White Chain’s next shell carries something from this moment.
A man who cannot see that even the chains of discipline will turn to naught but slag and ash is truly a man trapped within himself.
A true king of swords knows not only how to cut, but the value of each cut. Without weighing his blade carefully, he will soon find it carving away his own flesh. Intra.
Ki Rata depends on perfect control for each move or the user risks severely damaging their body. White Chain doesn’t need to harm Solomon, she only needs to disrupt him enough for him to lose control, just once.
well brother, this is very smart. I still think that in the end she will just poke him in the butthole with a gog agog worm
Ah yes, the infamous technique: Gog Agog Is Agog That Butthole-Worm Keeps Working, Why Do These Men Not Have Proper Underwear
In fairness, a typical pair of underpants will not be enough to defend against your everyday ferocious burrowing anus worms, much less anus worms imbued with the powers of a god and weaponized with martial arts.
This comment chain is going very well.
That sounds like the voice of experience speaking.
I am getting very confused with all this swapping between metric and imperial. Is it alright to round it down a smidge and call it a tenth of an ounce?
Shouldn’t you be reasonnable and use real units that make sense ?
Eyup. Ain’t about beatin’ the other man in the body, folks can heal from that.
Mental wounds don’t heal right. She just cut him real, -real- deep.
The normal mind does not wake in the morning knowing this is its last day alive. But in that realization there is a freedom, a STRENGTH. Its a good time to consider yourself, and your place on the Wheel. And in this place, a monument to one man’s pride and ego, the dust and stone soaked in a thousand tournaments of battle and bloodshed, all will remember this moment. An angel, the strongest willed sister among her many brothers, goes forth like a breath exhaled from Heaven, with one thought and one goal in her mind.
SHE
WILL
KILL
HIM
I cannot agree. All things that die are eventually forgotten. If the goal is to be remembered, the only possible method is to not die. A living mind can accomplish more in time than could be compensated for by any singular blast in death.
No man is an Iland, intire of itselfe; every man
is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine;
if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe
is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as
well as if a Manor of thy friends or of thine
owne were; any mans death diminishes me,
because I am involved in Mankinde;
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.
The Art of War says to always leave your enemies with ways to retreat and surrender. We’ve known for over 2500 years, an army that knows it’s outmatched and trapped with no way to survive can defeat a ten times larger force. But I fear ten times White Chain’s power is still nowhere near enough.
“In the twilight rain
these brilliant-hued hibiscus –
A lovely sunset”
御達人
First winter rain –
even the monkey
seems to want a raincoat.
“Consider me
As one who loved poetry
And persimmons.”
Coolness –
the sound of the bell
as it leaves the bell.
Despite how cool I do find Jadis, I find myself wishing now that Saitama was the Demiurge of sloth.
This next bit is going to happen before anyone else present can blink.
I wonder what we will see after they do.
Ah, but whose order and discipline to derive that strength? The order and discipline of festering avarice? The order and discipline of despotic control? That strength is false. The real strength is tested by breaking chains, and practicing disciplined freedom.
Oh my. This fight is proving incredible! My sales next tournament will be through the roof! Though something doesn’t feel right—I can’t help but wonder if the angel is goading Solomon into doing something incredibly stupid…
Disciplined freedom is a nice name for a longer leash.
In the immortal words of Lord Kitchener:
“It’s fucking ON now, chaps.”
This comment is a real Sir Garnet!
All Sir Garnet!
Righto, old bean!
See you, space cop.
I admit, I would have not goaded the emperor into wielding his full might. The smarter course of action, to me, is to let him continue showboating and use his laxness and his ego to your advantage.
I suppose such tactics require being able to take advantage of it. White Chains’s current riven state does not imply getting to this point was anything less than a struggle.
Every exchange they both survive takes White Chain further from victory as David gives more damage then he takes. the only winning strategy is to bait an over extension then reflect, redirect, or disable the attacker.
Infinitely more damage, as to this point Dave has taken zero.
To build off of what 2 Tranquil River said, Solomon has showboated battles for thousands of hundreds of these tournaments. He’s entirely in his comfort zone.
It does not rain on Rayuba.
What does rain means?
As Solomon put the suns in the sky, and they do not follow the laws of gravitation, one presumes he controls the weather too, so that every day is a sunny day in happy Rayuba.
Thus the dark skies and rain are likely a good bellwether of Solomon’s ongoing mood and or control. One’s sister is perhaps getting to him.
I see, Solomon will give all he has, kill the angel but at the cost of one drop of blood. Before she dies, she will ask he to train Allison in Ki Rata. So hope I.
I don’t think his control is lessening. After all, the situation is entirely under his control, as it has been for centuries. No reason to be upset now.
I do, however, think that his control is shifting. Ki Rata is a style that demands absolute control and focus, according to what little I know about it. His control on the weather is lessening because it is necessary.
…Perhaps this is a situation that would be good for those who seek to fight his control. His focus has shifted, allowing vulnerabilities in those areas his focus has just shifted from.
The power drawn from strength is mighty indeed.
All men respect the sword.
Greater still is the power drawn from ultimate weakness.
When a man has nothing to cling to, he has taken the first step to becoming Royalty.
Here comes the rain again
Falling on my head like a memory
Falling on my head like a new emotion
I want to walk in the open wind
I want to talk like lovers do
I want to dive into your ocean
Is it raining with you
— Annie Lennox / David Allan Stewart
Talk to me.
This really, really sounds like she’s goading him into making a mistake.
*cross fingers*
The heavens weep, but for whom? The angel or he who thinks he is god?
If you cannot win, then make your opponent Lose, many people forget either this or it’s inverse, despite it being the first of all lessons that the world will show you, over and over again
Even if you can win, make your opponent lose. Make being your opponent synonymous with losing. If the price of being your enemy is high enough, you will have only friends.
Thums nae friends.
Ehe, they’re not enemies either~
Openso nae. Fritted an cowed an bittersome an silent, latent enemigos thums likesome be. Waitin.
Welp, the storm clouds are brewing and it looks like the dunghill is about to hit the windmill…
Seriously though, what is the significance of said storm clouds, Allison noticing them in panels 3 & 4, and the “from the outside looking in” perspective of panel 5?
Hmm? Something germane to our story?
This is Solomon Davey’s WORLD. It is ordered by his WILL.
The sun rises and sets as he wills it. The storm can only mean one of two things:
Either he feels the cloud cover will suit his dramatic purposes, or perhaps he is losing focus and somewhere, something is slipping beyond his power to control.
As a man who decided to move several stars into this planets system in order to light the planet anew, Solomon can at least have the power of Foreboding Storm Clouds.
I have a feeling White Chain’s about to “dispel the illusion of Gwynevere” here. The sun was never there, was it?
Stars and planets still work normally I think, and illusions provide no heat.
You forget, in this universe the art of magic is lying so well you convince the universe to go along with your lies. A good illusion is indistinguishable from reality in all regards. A great one is better. Solomon has spent centuries building the lie of his perfect world.
It’s not a very good illusion.
“Why, White Chain? Why, why, why? Why do you do it? Why? Why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you’re fighting for something? For more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom or truth?! Perhaps peace?! Could it be for love?! Illusions, White Chain, vagaries of perception! Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose! And all of them as artificial as the world itself, although only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love! You must be able to see it, White Chain! You must know it by now! You can’t win! It’s pointless to keep fighting! Why, White Chain?! Why?! WHY DO YOU PERSIST?!?”
“Because I choose to.”
Very nice use of this quote. For those who don’t know, this comes from the third Matrix movie, a trilogy written by two trans women. Fitting, considering who we’re rooting for here and what she’s standing for.
This is going to end with our sisters carefully crafted body is going to shatter, but its also going to be so beautiful when she makes her final attack.
Who riises with the storm I wonder
The hard rock goes pop.
The titan falls from heaven.
An old flame still burns.
Perhaps the Demon was right to Flip The Cart.
The birds are bearing witness, despite the gathering rainclouds. Is this a part of the Multiplicity that is YS-Voya? Or is it just a few dumb little creatures, too foolish to take shelter from the approaching storm? Maybe it is both; that would be a contradiction most holy.
I seem to recall a meme involving fighting an RPG / Anime boss by yourself, losing, and it beginning to rain. We can only hope the sad music doesn’t start playing.
And so the tempo increases and the crescendo rises. The Angel’s song nears a tipping point. Will it rise to magnificent bombast or or slowly fade to piano?
How very interesting.
In battle there are four outcomes that are neither win nor loss. Stalemate, Draw, Forfeit, or Resignation. The later two are further split by which opponent takes the option. Which of these six, then, does our renegade intend?