Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Revive and Repeat

Pound for pound, human bone is stronger than steel. For instance, the human femur will typically take up to 4,000 newtons of force before snapping. Bone is not simply strong, but also flexible, most notably in younger children, and the stronger the skeletal muscles, the healthier the underlying bone becomes.

When Kazna Hit Adam, it was with far more than 4,000 newtons of force.

It shook the entire cathedral.

She brought her spear down in an overhand arc at speeds that shouldn't have been possible, intercepted at speeds that were not probable. She brought down the center of Sunny's spear on the shaft of Adam's spear, creating an impact that sent a visible shockwave through the air around them. Feet planted strong against the stone, Adam did not move, but the stone underneath his feet cracked, and splintered, sending him an inch downward into the stone.

Kazna seemed almost surprised at the outcome, orange blood dripping in rivulets down her chest, and she looked up at Adam with some measure of shock. Their faces were inches apart. Adam looked up into her cold golden eyes and gave a lazy grin before drawing his head back, and headbutting her hard right between the eyes.

The very point of the forehead in a human is one of the densest pieces of bone in the human body, and the apex of the forehead itself is surprisingly devoid of nerve ending.

As soon as as his strike impacted, Kazna's carapace splintered like windshield glass and an eye socket burst into tiny fractures. She howled in pain and staggered back. Adam shook himself, blood now trickling down from the cut on his forehead, running downward over his ruined eye to flow down his cheek and over his lips.

When he smiled again his mouth was filled with blood.

He didn't wait for her to recover, instead charging forward, batting her spear aside with his his own, and bringing the front of his elbow down against the side of her head.

Like the forehead, there is a piece of the elbow down onto the forearm that faces outward, which has a surprising lack of nerve endings. This is why martial artists often use this particular bone to break bricks and cinder blocks because it is the least painful. Kazna's already fractured eye socket broke completely, and she was driven into the ground.

Adam spun in a tight circle to bring himself into better position, Hand holding the lower end of the spear he whipped it in a backhanded swing that caught her in the face again sending her sprawling to her back. From an outside perspective the fight was looking incredibly one sided.

Adam approached again.

But perhaps it was cockiness that proved a problem.

Kazna rared back with one foot, and kicked him hard in the chest as he approached, a surprisingly un-Drev move he had not expected her to make. The kick was incredible and landed right in the center of his already wounded chest.

The ribcage of a human needs to be both strong and flexible to expand and depress with the lungs, but also to protect the internal organs. A "human kick" can generate power at over 8,000 newtons more than enough to snap ribs and depress the ribcage far enough to crush the heart. However, the more muscle and training a person has, the less likely this is to happen. If one is to flex the muscle of the chest and abdomen at just the right moment, damage can be mitigated.

Adam was lifted off his feet and thrown a good meter before impacting the floor, rolling once and skidding across the stone on his back. Around them the room was still recovering from their shock. Sunny was drawing herself to her feet, Etium was positioning himself to fire on Kazna, Maverick was still going after Everette, and Celex had just made it to his feet.