Read The Path to Loss (Approaching Infinity Book 4) for Free Online Page B

whirlwind, slow, sticky, and inescapable.
    Before Peshil became too flustered, though, Jav recovered his wits, not at all sure what the mental lapse meant, and thrust his thumb back over his shoulder, pointing to the Vine.
    “I don’t know what shields you’re referring to,” Jav said, unconsciously emphasizing the word, “but surely you can see that we’ve come from out of the sky. We’re here to take your world.”
    Peshil’s face settled back into a tentative smile. “Well, if you can do as you boast, perhaps we might strike a deal.”
    Jav replied to Peshil’s meaningful pause with more silence.
    “You-you see,” Peshil said, “we all have many rivals here on Thrax Palonis. Alliances are critical to successful politics. I’m sure that we can give you something that will make it worth your while.”
    Jav shook his head. “Didn’t you hear me? We’ve come here to take your world. The Viscain Empire knows no politics.”
    “I don’t understand,” Peshil said, shaking his head.
    “ Enough of this ,” cried the man in green, to Peshil’s left.
    Jav cocked his head, his earlier annoyance at Raus’s comment tickled and rekindled by the man’s tone. Without seeming to move, Jav was back and sideways of the man in green, his right and the other’s left shoulders forming a ninety degree angle. He paused there as if listening to what the man might have to offer, but all that came was a change in the man’s face as it contorted with rage at being mocked. The semi-transparent image of something alien began to emit from the center of the man’s brow.
    Jav raised the index finger of his right hand directly before the man’s face as if to bring up an important point. He sighed, deciding. “Not for you.” The fingers of his right hand snapped into bent, rigid claws . While Dark, he had no nails, no need of any. His claws consisted solely of his impossibly strong, curled fingers.
    There was no wind up for the backhand. With a strange dull popping sound, Jav’s hand caved in the man’s face with splash of red and gray which obscured and extinguished the image of the beast coming forth. Jav’s mastery of Approaching Infinity, or AI, enabled him to create space—where there was none—with his mind, almost instantly build up momentum which approached infinity, then eliminate that space to strike with a mass that was supernormal. This was augmented further by his ranking of 30 standard gravities and further still by the Kaiser Bones.
    “Hilene,” Jav said calmly, “that was. . . impetuous of me. As I said, I want to give them a chance to display whatever it is that Scanlan detected, so you are to stand down.”
    “Yes, General Holson,” she said with no hint of anything but obedience.
    “ Impetuous ?” Peshil’s remaining comrade cried incredulously.
    “Nils!” Jav called.
    “Sir!” Nils responded from above and dropped down slightly.
    “Now hold on, hold on,” Peshil said, waving his hands.
    “You’ll not hold on to your territory like that, Gim Peshil,” the other said backing away hurriedly, taking his eyes off of Jav and Hilene only to glance at Nils. He wasn’t retreating though. From the center of his brow, just as with the other, the image of a beast began to pour out. “I am Baro Suunts, the Many-Scaled,” he shouted, “and I will not tolerate insolence of any order!” The image took on solidity as it grew to gigantic proportions until the Generals of the Viscain were face to face with what could only be described as a dragon.
    Baro Suunts stood thirty meters tall with his great, lashing tail doubling his overall length. He was, uniformly thick of body, probably fifteen meters broad at the shoulders and haunches, and was sheathed entirely in slate-blue scales like dinner plates. Sword teeth overflowed his elongated maw, and crusted ridges shadowed his electric blue eyes with their vertical yellow slits. Spines connected by a gray, vein-laced membrane fanned out from his back to