FIREFALL, OR IN EXO WONDERLAND ▷ COMPLETE

Newton's Word is Law

CHAPTER 21: NEWTON'S WORD IS LAW

Eun-soo was suspended in a twisted time-stretch of her own when Kris fought off his attackers.

Everything was blurred to her eyes. Every motion, every movement and every moment passed her in a daze. Lo and behold! The Dragon Warrior aimed at a card-soldier standing in front of him and thrust his sword. He was targeting the third of the soldier's five red hearts.

According to Newton's Second Law of Motion, the acceleration of a body is directly proportional to the applied force. So to speak, force is mass times acceleration.

Han Eun-soo! What are you thinking! Snap out of it!

Kris pushed her back, growled in defiance and ran towards the soldier. His muscles flexed, from his shoulders to his waist to his right foot. His hands were driven forward faster and faster in a frightening acceleration of about 117.19 ms-2. The sword secured in his grasp was 1.134 kg of weight—added with almost 70 kg of moving mass—and as the blade lurched forward, it struck the unfortunate soldier with an overwhelming force about 8336.19 N.

And there's pressure, force per unit area.

See the sword Kris was holding? It was a medieval European sword, probably of Viking origin. You could tell from its iconic lenticular blade, tapering to a sharp tip with 1.084 cm2 of area.

The tip of the blade would contact with the card's surface by exerting a great pressure of 7690.21 Pa.

A card-soldier so paper-thin won't stand a chance. Sounds of metal ripping through paper invaded Kris's senses. The sword sliced through, forcing black-and-white bits through a gaping hole and jutting out the soldier's back.

Kris yanked back his sword. The impact tore the card-soldier in half. Its expression was stiff and mask-like, so it couldn't be told whether it was in happiness, in relief or in agony.

An intermittent chuff-chuff noise distracted Kris momentarily. The noises settled into a single loud screech. The sight and smell of soot and fire eclipsed everything else. Another train had arrived from the depths of hell. A new set of card-soldiers marched out of the train.

One down, more to go.

So much more.

Once in a while, Kris had to switch his mode of attack from sword-fighting to electric-beaming to water-gunning to catch up with the increasing number of card-soldiers, but even that wasn't enough. Soon, Kris was outnumbered.

The King of Hearts was never running out of cards.

Kris changed his fighting style and tried swinging his sword horizontally. The first swing was a test. The outcome was impressive. He managed to halve three soldiers at once this way. Quite an amazing and efficient discovery it was. He smiled at his own genius.

Thwack!

From behind, another card soldier batted Kris in the side with a club. He crouched for a moment, trying to supress the stinging pain. He swore he could hear something cracking. His slowing movements provided an opportunity for the card-soldiers to strike. Another blow got his back. The immense force got him knocked down to his knees.

"Got it!" a voice cried in triumph. A butcher's knife flew towards the attacking card-soldier's neck. Kris watched its disembodied head flying several inches over his own head. Had he been standing, his head might have flown as well. As expected, it was Eun-soo who threw the knife.

"Yah! You'd almost killed me!" Kris yelled at her.

"I'm helping you here! Please say thank you."

"You should find a less fatal way to save me!"

"War is fatal, dear sir." Eun-soo etched a smirk on her face. "Look alive!"

A card-soldier labelled six ran towards him with a thicker club ready to smash through anything in its way (how could a paper-thin soldier even lift that thing?). Behind Six, more card-soldiers ran in the same direction, this time targetting Eun-soo for beheading a fellow soldier. Now she regretted throwing her only weapon in an adrenaline rush. Pabo, pabo, pabo! she cursed herself. Eun-soo searched the platform for another weapon and found nothing.

Approaching footsteps caused the platform to vibrate. The card-soldiers sprinted as she became nearer and nearer in their view. Somehow, they wouldn't stop in their retribution.

There was no option left but to run.

"Run, you two! Run!"

The earth rumbled. An impenetrable wall almost as high as the Scientists' Domain rose up from the ground. A great divide was formed between the train station and the Domain. The blocked soldiers swung their clubs to break through. But the wall was too strong. D.O turned to Eun-soo and Kris. His lips curved into a heart-shaped smile. "I'll take care of them. Now get inside and save yourself. Watch out for remnant cards!"

"Thanks, Professor Do!" Eun-soo said to D.O before being pulled harshly by Kris. She stumbled for several steps, unable to catch up with his speed.

D.O scratched his non-itchy head. How did she know my rank and surname?

Kris walked and surveyed first, keeping Eun-soo in a distance from him—a safe distance where she was still in sight. The area around the Scientists' Domain was semi-clear. Several card-soldiers stood guard before the door, many of them collapsing without any reasons. An angry Tao kept shifting positions around the soldiers like a cartoon character with a severe animation problem. Some soldiers were even burned by Chen's thunderbolts. He threw them in spears at any soldier that caught his eyes. The soldiers exploded into flames. More smoke and soot hurt the combatants' eyes. It made things harder to see.

However, Baekhyun, a phantom in the midst, was the least stressed individual in the battlefield. He lay sleeping in front of the Domain as if none of these was his business. The irate card-soldiers trooped through his body while he slept. When the surroundings get too noisy, Baekhyun would be awakened rudely from his slumber and shot a harmless ray of light from his hand to blind the meddling soldiers. He was too weak to do anything else—he couldn't touch anything and anything couldn't touch him, so it was rather forgivable.

Chen eyed Baekhyun with great envy. How can he sleep in a time like this? "Aishh, this Baekhyun! I will tear you to pieces if you're not a—" he grunted.

Kris's assessment was complete. Situation normal: all messed up. He beckoned Eun-soo to come closer. She paced carefully next to him. The route towards the Domain was clearer now. "It's safe, I guess." he said. Kris tugged her hand and raced their way inside.

"Five, Two, Seven, Three! Look!"

An idle pack of cards sensed their quick motion and started another unneeded chase. Both Kris and Eun-soo were sick of running. They hadn't even caught their breaths yet.

"Come back here, you troublemakers!" the pursuing soldiers shouted.

The two ran past the first hallway and stopped by the second one. Kris thought of the two-metre jar in front of Luhan's door and hid behind it. He hoped that anyone won't notice them. He sat down and leaned his throbbing back against the jar. Eun-soo sat beside him, their faces curtained by the jar's greenish-red shadow. The mock-puppy looked creepier up close. Yuck. The slime!

Kris placed a hand over her mouth. "Keep quiet," he commanded. They held their breath and listened.