The impact of the star-iron chisel against the white-hot copper bus-bar blew up with the blinding fury of a captured star breaking its holding sphere.
A sphere of pure blazing bright white star-fire erupted from the contact point. It stretched outward with the bone-shaking force of an explosive powder charge. The intense light instantly bleached every color from the apex platform. That turned the polished dark rock flat stone slabs, the bronze machinery. The shredded silk robes into stark, blinding silhouettes. The sound blast wave slammed into Lin Tao’s chest like an iron plate dropped from a church roof. It drove the air from his lungs in a single, violent gasp that rattled his ribs against his spine.
Tie Shan didn’t flinch.
The giant’s massive boots were wedged four inches deep into the load-bearing spreading seam between two six-foot dark rock foundation slabs. His broad, muscular chest pressed hard against Lin Tao’s back, his tree-trunk arms wrapped securely around Lin Tao’s ribs to absorb the staggering moving recoil. Sixty thousand pounds of magnetic-pull pressure slammed backward against them. Then, Tie Shan’s spine remained fully locked, his teeth bared in an unbending grimace of primal mortal pushback.
In the iron quarries of Mount Taiyi, Tie Shan’s grandfather had taught him the secret of the anvil. When iron strikes iron, the earth must be your root. A man who relies only on muscle will be thrown and broken. A man who anchors his heels into the living rock becomes an extension of…
