by Aaron Oster
The pieces weren’t moving very quickly. They were almost drifting, as though gravity in the area had no effect on them at all, and Roy realized that could very well be the case. He looked around for a few moments, wondering if the test had started. When he didn’t see anything, he decided to jump to the nearest floating piece of rock.
This one was bare stone, devoid of any trees, grass, or water. As soon as Roy landed, he felt a tremendous weight press down on his shoulders, nearly driving him to his knees. Had he not reinforced his muscles with Qi, he would have dropped.
“What’s going on here?” Roy asked. “The air is so heavy. It’s hard to breathe, let alone move around.”
“It would appear that the gravity here is quite a bit stronger than what you’re used to,” Geon said, actually being useful for once.
“And here I was expecting the gravity to be weaker,” Roy said, cycling more Qi from his Core to his body to be able to stand straight.
“Challenger!”
The voice boomed out, echoing from all sides, both out loud and in his mind.
Roy’s back straightened, and he quickly looked around, searching for the source of the voice.
“To pass into the realms of those who use Chakra, you must pass the three stages of battle. The first begins now!”
Roy still couldn’t see anyone speaking, but he sensed several spots of power flaring as people appeared on the floating blocks around him. There were four in all, and Roy felt his jaw drop and anger flare as people he recognized appeared out of thin air.
“How do you battle your greatest enemies?” the voice boomed. “Begin!”
Shah Koya, Tonde Irusaru, Shah Lynn, and Itachi Ikari stood there. All people he had come to despise over the years and who despised him in return. Had they all been at their actual levels of power, Koya and Lynn would have been a joke to defeat. He would probably have had a difficult fight with Irusaru, but Ikari would have been impossible to defeat.
Thankfully, he could feel that they had all either been restrained or bumped to his level, that of a peak Purple-Belt on the cusp of advancement.
They all stared at him with such hatred and malice that it was palpable. Additionally, as Koya moved, his legs flexing as he leaped and taking him down to Roy’s level, he could feel something else, the looming presence of the Spirit of Power. She was here and watching, which meant that there would be no easy way through this.
Additionally, as Lynn, Ikari, and Irusaru all moved as well, he could see that this wasn’t going to be a fair fight.
“We should probably get off this rock,” Geon commented as Koya drew closer.
Roy grunted in acknowledgment, then activated his Shockwave and leaped to his left, his legs flexing powerfully as he hurled himself to the side. It was far more difficult than it should have been, thanks to the increased gravity, but as soon as he got about halfway between the two pieces of land, gravity suddenly shifted.
When Roy landed next, this time on a moss-covered rock, gravity felt like it had been cut in half. He felt light as a feather, which in his mind was a good thing. Koya then landed on his platform in a flash of blue and struck out at him, Water Qi coiling around his fist in a Physical technique.
Roy moved to dodge and found that he moved far slower than he’d have liked, while Koya didn’t seem at all affected by the lower gravity. With a grunt of pain, Roy took the full force of the attack straight in the face, feeling the cutting force of the Water Qi and the power behind the blow toss him clean off his feet.
He felt his nose buckle, but thankfully, it didn’t break. Still, tears sprang unbidden to his eyes as he was blasted off the platform and was sent hurling upward, his back slamming hard into another before he fell, landing on a platform some ten feet up.
He groaned as he landed, gravity dragging him forcefully down.
“Next time, you might want to try blocking,” Geon said. “Just a suggestion to keep us alive.”
Roy shoved himself to his feet as his spirit flared a warning and was just in time to see Shah Lynn leap onto the platform. He threw both arms up in a cross-block, and this time, managed to brace himself before the attack hit. Roy grunted again as the empowered Physical technique slammed into his upraised defenses. His knees buckled a bit, and the ground beneath his feet cracked, but he managed to block it without taking any substantial damage.
Lynn followed up immediately, flowing into a spinning hook-kick. Instead of stepping back, as he would have liked, Roy used his Shockwave, having to fight twice as hard against the increased gravity to move. It was less a technique and more of a tackle as he slammed bodily into Lynn while she was off-balance.
The woman was blasted off the platform, sent hurtling into the closest one, where she impacted with a crunch before falling to one below. Roy spun, seeing Irusaru leaping onto the platform, his body glowing gold with the telltale signs of a Movement technique.
“If there is a normal platform around here, we need to find it,” Geon said.
Roy flexed his knees and leaped upward, ejecting a burst of Power Qi from his feet, then kicking down hard and using his Airstep to project him farther up. He felt gravity shift again, this time almost matching what he considered to be normal as he landed on a platform with a couple of trees and a small stream.
“This will have to do,” Roy said, breathing out as he tapped into his Core.
Small hexagonal plates flared around him as he used his Armorer technique, tracing lines and forming just an inch off his skin. Lynn was the first to reach his platform, having been the closest, but with her advantage all but nullified, Roy was able to act as soon as she landed.
The Void Sphere-Pulse blasted from his extended fist as he punched, the beam of displaced air driving the off-balance woman into one of the trees with a splintering crack an instant before the wave of golden Qi slammed into her, driving through her defenses.
Lynn’s Core flared, her body glowing blue as she tried the typical Water Artist response of slipping along the attack to lessen the damage, but having seen that coming, Roy had thrown another attack, this one in person. Without the restrictions bogging him down, Roy’s Movement technique allowed him to cross the ten-yard span of the platform and drive a closed fist right into the woman’s solar plexus.
There was a satisfying whoosh of displaced air as the wind was knocked from her lungs, and an instant later, the woman was blasted from the platform, Roy’s Exploding Fist-Strike ripping through her body and Core.
A scream tore itself from the manifestation of Lynn as her limbs locked up, Roy’s technique slamming into her Core and disrupting the flow of her Qi. The power of the attack sent her smashing through two platforms, the stone shattering to hundreds of pieces as her body ripped through them.
Her flight was finally halted as her head caught the bottom end of a third, tossing her body upward before dropping it to the platform below, where she fell in a broken, bloody heap. She didn’t get up. Roy’s initial attack, while having caused plenty of damage, wasn’t what had done her in. Rather, it was the disruption of her Core followed by the force of the impacts that had finished her.
His eyes flicked to the sides as Irusaru, Koya, and Ikari all landed on the platform. He sniffed, feeling his nose throb where it had been struck as he turned to face them.
One down. Three to go.
2
Ikari vanished in a flash of darkness, leaping from the shadow cast by one of the trees. Her entire body radiated a misty blackness that Roy instinctively knew to stay away from. The problem was that when he moved to dodge, Irusaru was right there, his short frame taking him in under Roy’s defenses.
In a blink, he’d hammered seven blows into Roy’s Armorer technique, bending and cracking several of the plates. The blows drove him back, right into Ikari’s waiting arms. The woman wrapped him up from behind, leaping onto his back and locking his arms to his side. Immediately, his Armorer technique began to take the strain as the misty blackness surrounding her began to eat away at
it.
Having been told of Ikari’s lethal attacks, which apparently had to do with dissolving and poisoning, Roy knew he was in a bad spot, especially as Irusaru continued to hammer away at him. Additionally, Koya was now forming Water Blades, the signature Projected technique of the Shah clan, except these were far larger than the ones he was used to. Additionally, they seemed to be vibrating at high speeds, which told Roy they would likely cut through his Armorer technique with little trouble.
He tried to move by using his Shockwave, but Ikari wrenched his body back in place by countering with her own Movement technique. The Water Blades slammed into his chest, and Roy flooded the technique with more Qi as the whining blades ripped through the golden lines protecting his skin.
Irusaru dove at his knees, trying to bring him down as Koya formed a second pair of blades. Roy could feel the strain on his Core building as he tried to keep himself from being torn apart. With a growl, he twisted violently to one side, allowing both blades, one of which had just torn through his defense, to skate by.
There was a line of red across his chest as Ikari forced his back right into the path of the oncoming attack. It was right at that moment when Irusaru’s attacks made it through as well, buckling one of his knees and putting his face right where the blades would hit.
Having little choice, Roy tapped into his Full-area technique. Golden Qi blasted from his body, tossing Ikari off his back and locking her into place midair. As the sphere expanded, Irusaru was also caught, his arms and legs being locked mid-strike. Koya, on the other hand, leaped off the platform just as Roy’s technique reached the edges. The two Water Blades weren’t halted, but without the restrictions of the other two, he was able to avoid them.
He could immediately feel the strain as the two of them began to struggle, but the Power Shackle wasn’t merely binding them in place. Roy breathed heavily, the effort of having to maintain his Armorer technique while taking that kind of punishment having taken its toll. His Core was fine, but the mental strain of keeping it up had been difficult.
Roy turned, watching both Ikari and Irusaru straining and bucking against his technique as small cuts began appearing over their bodies. Explosions sounded one after the next as his technique continued to assault them, but Roy knew that he couldn’t keep this up forever. He also couldn’t forget that the voice at the beginning of the test had said this was the first of three rounds. If he exerted himself too much now, he’d be too exhausted to keep fighting.
His eyes flicked to Irusaru, the small man slowly forcing one of his arms forward, despite the technique keeping him locked and in pain. Golden light glowed around the man like a second skin, highlighting an Armorer technique.
Roy stomped down as he planted one foot, the ground buckling as he did. He swung his other leg up and around, then brought it crashing down with all the force of his Movement technique. The ax-kick split the platform in half, tearing through Irusaru’s defenses in an instant. Roy, whose perception had sped up to match the speed of his attack, watched in slow motion as the old man’s technique shattered, followed shortly by his skull.
His perception rapidly sped up again, only to watch the old man’s body split another stage, smashing through the edge of a second before his corpse spun off into empty space. The body slammed into the invisible barrier closing them in, leaving a bloody smear as he slid down to the bottom.
“You ruined a perfectly good platform,” Geon commented as the platform they were on began to tilt.
Ikari, who was still trapped by his technique, began to rise as Roy started to sink. However, now that his Full-area technique was focused on only a single assailant, its effects were far more devastating.
That was the thing about Full-area techniques. They were extremely powerful, and Geon theorized that with his current range, Roy could probably keep twenty Martial Artists trapped and in pain at once, but with each added body, the damage done would lessen. Consequentially, the fewer bodies the technique had to attack, the more damage it would do. The technique also scaled up and down drastically.
Two people at his level would receive a world of hurt, but one person…well, that was pretty obvious by what was happening. With the full force of his technique focused solely on her, Ikari didn’t last very long.
She screamed, her entire body quivering and shaking as the explosions and cuts ripped her to pieces. Limbs were torn free, still kept locked in place by his technique. By the time Roy felt himself slipping off the tilting piece of stone, Ikari’s body was in so many pieces that there was no way she was still alive.
Roy released the technique with a breath as he leaped to a more stable platform. He landed, but his feet didn’t even touch the ground on this one. Small pebbles floated around him, and when Roy poked one, it drifted away. There seemed to be no gravity here, which did not make it an ideal place for him to fight, especially when Koya leaped onto the platform, once again having no problems with the gravity distortions.
He dashed in, his body flowing from side to side and avoiding Roy’s Projected techniques. He was moving so slow that it would have been impossible to hit him, even had he been at Yellow.
Roy brought both his arms up, and this time, his Armorer technique — battered and beaten — shattered under the force. Thankfully, the low gravity didn’t do much to stop him from being tossed off the platform, his body spinning through the air to crash to the ground several yards below.
He groaned as he pulled himself out of the crater he’d made with his face, feeling the bruise begin to spread across his cheek. His body felt heavy and sluggish, but as Koya fell toward him, his lips pulling back in a sneer, Roy felt a small flare of anger. Tapping into his Core, Roy flooded his body with Qi, reinforcing his muscles and bones, which would make it easier to move.
He roared, his voice, enhanced by the power of his body, causing the air to tremble. Koya came down, his body glowing with blue Water Qi, and Roy did what his Path demanded for once. Power coiled around his fist as he used his Physical technique. There was a massive explosion as their fists met, the ground beneath Roy splintering and cracking as a shockwave blasted from the point of impact.
Koya’s eyes widened the instant he realized that Roy’s attack was more powerful.
“Probably shouldn’t have met a Power artist head-on!” Roy yelled, pulling his fist back and allowing Koya to begin falling.
His enemy’s arm had crumpled under the force of his Exploding fist, his own hand a bloody mess of destroyed tissue and jagged bone. Roy’s other fist caught him squarely in the face, and Koya’s head vanished into a shower of bloody mist. The boy’s body hit the ground next to him with a thud, and Roy straightened, breathing hard.
That fight had been far more taxing than he’d thought it would be. Then again, this was a test. If it weren’t difficult, what would be the point? Roy’s knees flexed as he leaped to another nearby platform, this one containing a large stream.
He continued working on catching his breath, restoring his normal breathing and cycling. His Qi had started to act less efficiently as he’d strained himself and lost his rhythm, and it was important to remain in control, to keep his techniques as strong as they were supposed to be.
“You had to fight way too hard for that win,” Geon said.
“It was four against one,” Roy replied, breathing out slowly as he finally caught his breath.
That fight had cost him a good deal of Qi, but as he reached for the Power Essence his fight had generated, he was surprised to find that it was being rapidly sucked away. Apparently, the test didn’t want to give him a way to recover lost power.
“Well, that sucks,” he muttered.
“Quit complaining,” Geon said. “You still have plenty of Qi left. On an actual scale, I’d say you used maybe a tenth of your overall capacity.”
“I still like to keep myself full,” Roy replied, realizing he was acting a bit childish.
“You do realize that most Martial Artists at your level would drain their Co
res dry in seconds using the kinds of techniques you do, right? Worse, you have a bad tendency to be wasteful. If you want to use less, stop being so careless.”
Roy had been about to comment that plenty of Marital Artists had no problem keeping on going for quite a long time in fights, at least until Geon commented on his wastefulness. In truth, he was probably letting more power leak away with each attack than necessary. He realized the Core was right, but he wasn’t about to tell him that.
“Challenger!”
The voice boomed out again before Geon could continue ridiculing him for all his shortcomings.
“How do you battle the enemies of the future?!”
Roy only had a second for his eyebrows to shoot upward before the voice shouted, “Begin!”
Three figures appeared this time, but their bodies were shadowed and their features were indistinct, unlike the last ones. All Roy could really see were the shapes of their bodies. One female, roughly his height — which was quite tall for a woman — and two males, one bulky and squat, the other towering over him by nearly a foot.
The tallest man came for him first, fire blooming around his arms and legs as he streaked toward him. Roy barely had time to get his defenses up as the man attacked in a series of furious blows. His speed was astonishing, as was the power behind each attack. Roy fell into one of the stances of the Unaru Kuma, his hands held in loose fists. His Movement technique flared around him as he battered away the attacks, reinforcing the backs of his hands with Qi to be able to handle the searing heat of his enemy’s blows.
The woman streaked in next, her fist seeming oversized right before Roy realized it was clad in stone. He tried to duck, but she was far faster than the massive man. The blow caught him in the shoulder, spinning him around, just in time for him to catch a punch in the face from the bear man.
Roy’s nose did break that time, blood immediately gushing from it as he staggered back. His head rang like a bell as the woman’s fist drove him into the ground face first, grinding his broken nose into the dirt. Roy tried to move, only to feel a rapid series of powerful blows slam his head into the ground each time he tried to get up.
