by Aaron Oster
They had more important things to do, like searching for their next advancement.
“I, like the others, sensed both the awakening of the Ancient One as well as the birth of two new Scions. We met and elected for one of us to come and meet with you.”
“But Duncan isn’t here,” Hermit said, his brows coming down.
“I wanted to meet you alone,” Hana said, making Hermit’s heart skip a beat.
It was strange, he thought, that after so many years of disinterest in relationships, he was now fawning over this woman he barely knew. The way she spoke, her bearing, and the fact that she was directing her perfect smile at him didn’t help.
“Why?” Hermit asked, feeling his mouth go dry.
“I was curious,” Hana said, removing a slender hand from her large sleeves and examining a pink-painted nail. “I wanted to see how you had changed since the last time we spoke.”
Hermit remained silent as she turned her hand this way and that, checking for any chips or cracks. Of course there weren’t any, as the woman had likely used the power she had over her own body to change the pigmentation and thickness of the nail to make it appear as though it were painted. He could have done the same, but the cosmetic changes hadn’t really interested him upon advancement. Right now, he was kicking himself for not fixing a few of his larger imperfections.
“I am pleased,” Hana finally said, lowering her hand and meeting his eyes. “Your name and bearing prove you worthy of the title of Honor. The man who laid waste to entire clans is no more.”
Her lips pulled up a bit more on one side, giving the woman a more playful expression.
“I should like to meet again under different circumstances. Hearing your story would make me happy. Right now, though, I am afraid I must change the subject to a more pressing matter,” she said, the playful smile slipping from her lips.
Hermit had time to register the implication behind the Scion’s words before she changed the subject. He wished they could continue talking about the same topic, as he’d been entranced with this woman since their first — and only — meeting. But he didn’t try and prolong it, knowing that would be a mistake.
“The Cavern Beast is staying in the Dreadpit for now,” Hermit said, crossing his arms and staring across the Windblight to where he could see the intense concentration of Fire. “His forces are spilling out in the surrounding landscape, however. Our own are being pushed back, and each day, we lose more of the Windblight.”
“Why do you not join the battle yourselves?” Hana asked. “Or send your Sovereigns to balance the odds.”
It appeared that Hana — and all of the other Scions — had really not been paying attention to the world at large.
“The enemy has three Scions of their own,” Hermit said grimly. “Additionally, they have over twenty Gray-Belts, at least five of whom are Sovereigns. Even if we enter into the fray and manage to push them back, there’s always the chance that the Beast will join the battle personally, and if that happens…” Hermit trailed off, not needing to finish the sentence.
“A dire situation indeed,” Hana said, twirling her finger into a lock of her long, shimmering black hair. “The Beast poses a danger to us all. Even if we do not involve ourselves, I suspect it will come for us eventually. Additionally, if the enemy has three Scions, it may not even need to come at all.”
Hermit grunted in answer, and he cast his senses outward. He could feel them, the three looming pillars of power hovering near the Dreadpit. They were strong. So strong that Hermit suspected that at least one of them had made it past Base Black. If they decided to join the battle, he very much doubted his and Duncan’s ability to fight them off alone.
“I will go and tell the others of my findings,” Hana finally said after contemplating their current predicament. “I cannot speak for the others, but I will do my own research into this enemy to see if any weaknesses can be exploited. Additionally, I will be happy to offer you my assistance if needed. Just call my name, and I will hear you.”
“Before you go,” Hermit said, causing Hana to pause as she turned to leave. “What did you mean earlier, when you said, ‘it’s a hard one to crack?’”
“Exactly what I said,” Hana said, her lips pulling up into the same small smirk as before. “Breaking past the wall between Base and 1st Dan Black-Belt is nearly as difficult as reaching the heights you have already achieved. It requires more than simple insight into oneself and more than just power. The Imprint will help, but it is not the only way.”
The Imprint was very rare. It was what marked an ordinary Gold Belt from one who had earned the title of a Sage. An Imprint was a mark, one left on the soul of a Marital Artist by the Spirit of their Path. It was why Sages were so rare and why there was no Black-Belt alive today that wasn’t also a Scion.
Unlike that of Sovereign, the title of Scion was only earned when a Sovereign who was also a Sage advanced to Black-Belt. Should a Sovereign reach these heights without having earned an Imprint, they would still only be a Sovereign. Then again, it was technically possible for an ordinary Gray-Belt, one who had not earned the title of Sovereign or Sage to become a Black-Belt, but Hermit had never heard of something like that happening.
If someone were powerful enough to make it to that point, their insight into their Path would have granted them at least one of those titles.
“Thank you,” Hermit said. “Both for the advice and the offer of assistance. It is greatly appreciated.”
Hana gave him another of her playful smiles as she stepped into a rift in space.
“Do try calling me before you need any actual help.”
Then, she was gone, her presence winking from existence. He spread his senses wide, straining at the very limits of what his power as a Scion could cover. It only took a few seconds to find her — the power of a Scion was hard to miss — thousands of miles away. He could try and follow her, but something told him that would be a bad idea.
She had all but told him to call for her before she’d left, which meant that the Scion of Tales, a woman he’d dreamed of for centuries, was interested in meeting him privately.
Despite the dire situation they were in, Hermit felt a smile spreading across his lips.
“I wondered how long it would take for you to find some interest in a woman,” his Core said. “For a while, I was concerned that you simply had no urge to reproduce…”
Hermit cut his communication with the Core off at that. He didn’t need it ruining this moment for him, not one which had taken centuries to come to pass.
5
Roy flashed to one side, his Shockwave carrying him to the edge of the platform as Aika’s buzzing staff slammed into the ground, sending chips of stone into the air as wide cracks formed in the ground around her. The only warning Roy got was the small droplets that began hitting his neck. Ferry exploded from the trees’ shadows, stepping through the small stream in the process.
He ducked, four claws of forged Darkness Qi grabbing overhead. He spun in place, Power Qi crackling across his fist, and lunged upward with all the force and momentum he could, intending to blast a hole straight through Ferry’s Core. But as he came up and saw her face, he hesitated.
That hesitation cost him, as Ferry was able to avoid the attack by slipping back into the shadow. His fist sailed harmlessly over her shoulder, throwing off his balance. There was a light buzzing from behind, but Roy wasn’t quick enough to turn nor avoid the attack as it slammed directly between his shoulders.
He felt the staff rip into his skin, his spine straining under the force of the blow as he was sent sailing upward, only just managing to catch himself on a piece of floating debris before crashing into the invisible wall. He didn’t know why, but he had a pretty good feeling that hitting the wall would be a bad idea.
“What in the world was that?” Geon exclaimed as Roy hauled himself to his feet, wincing at the pain and the feeling of hot blood trickling down his back.
“I couldn’t hit Ferry,
” Roy said, casting about for his attackers.
“That wasn’t Ferry, you idiot,” Geon snapped. “It’s a fake! Anyone with even half of your squishy human brain could tell that.”
But Roy wasn’t listening as Hermit flashed in, appearing only as a blur of blinding red light. Roy jumped into the air, using the Airstep to take him higher, as his teacher’s technique shattered the block of stone to dust, blazing lines of fire blasting outward and nearly catching him despite his quick movement.
He grabbed onto a piece of debris as he reached the height of his jump, then swung himself over to a nearby platform, one that was still intact. He’d barely landed when Aika was there, her hand extending and sending a glittering arc of rainbow-colored light at him.
Roy tried to dodge, but his forward momentum carried him right into the Containment technique, and just a second later, his body was being squeezed from all sides, tying him down. Aika was over in a flash, her staff, still buzzing, sweeping out for his head. Not having much choice, Roy tapped into his own Containment technique. Golden Qi blasted out of him in a wide sphere, catching her mid-flight.
Ferry, who’d been coming up behind him, let out a surprised exclamation because she was also caught.
“Good, you caught them. Now break out of this and kill them,” Geon said.
Roy growled, his arms straining to break the technique but finding that he simply didn’t have the power to do so. He was tired, battered, and had no shortage of injuries. In all honesty, he doubted his ability to take his friends on at the best of times.
There was a rush of heat from up above, and Roy just managed to crane his neck upward as a pillar of fire crashed down into him. His technique was disrupted in an instant, and Roy was blasted down through the platform, slamming into the ground of one below and immediately pressed there by intense gravity.
Roy’s face, back, and shoulders all felt scorched and raw, and he could smell burning hair. His Containment technique had been disrupted, as had Aika’s, but when she leaped down through the hole Hermit had created, her staff drawn back to strike, Roy couldn’t bring himself to raise his defenses.
He tried to rise to his feet, only for the staff to drive forward like a spear, slamming into his chest in a series of rapid strikes. A flash of agony accompanied each blow as Light Qi was forged into sharpened blades, driving deep into his body. Blood flowed from the puncture wounds, Roy staggering back as each struck.
“Behind you, idiot!” Geon yelled, just in time for a fist to crash into his back.
Roy bent almost double as the force of the impact slammed into the center of his spine. Pain flared up and down his back, and he caught a flash of dark fur before he was sent careening forward, only to feel a skull-cracking impact slam into his head as Aika took a swing at him.
His back smashed into the hard ground, his head impacting a moment later. Roy gasped as he bounced back up with the force, his eyes wide and air unable to enter his lungs. His vision blurred, going black around the edges. He knew this was it, knew that he just couldn’t bring himself to fight his friends to the death.
Something burning hot slammed into the center of his chest, driving him another foot into the solid stone ground. Roy felt more ribs crack under the force, all while Geon yelled at him to get up and fight. As Aika, Ferry, and Hermit all loomed over him, preparing their finishing blows, all Roy could concentrate on was the taste of copper in his mouth and the overwhelming desire to just go to sleep.
This fight was as good as over. Their finishing attacks would see him ejected from the test, having failed, but at least he’d be able to say that he didn’t turn on his friends, even under the most dire circumstances.
Roy could feel it, the disapproval radiating from his surroundings. Power was not happy with him, that much he could tell. Just how unhappy, Roy didn’t know, but the weight settling down on him was anything but kind or understanding.
“Get up, you moron!” Geon was yelling, his voice sounding almost distant.
Fire, Light, and Darkness bloomed as his friends prepared to end him. He couldn’t even see their faces now, his vision clouding over as they each raised their weapons and fists high. Roy closed his eyes, waiting for the expected blow…and waited…and waited. After several moments more, Roy cautiously cracked an eyelid, expecting to see blazing attacks descending on his head.
Instead, he saw three figures frozen in place, their attacks ready to bear down on him. The world itself looked strange, as though most of the color had been leeched from it. Roy blinked several times, wondering if this was the end of the test, and now that he’d failed, he was going to be ejected.
However, when a small pinprick of golden light flashed down to land on his chest, growing into the figure of a scowling young girl sitting cross-legged on top of him, Roy knew the test wasn’t over. He didn’t feel her weight despite her size, but the weight of her displeasure was heavy enough.
She was exactly as he remembered her. Made completely out of golden Power, she stood around four-and-a-half feet tall. She was made of many different hues of gold, from the flowing robes she wore to her long, trailing hair to her overly large eyes, which were slitted in annoyance.
“Why are you letting them beat you up?” the little girl demanded, leaning over and bringing her face just a foot from his own.
The sheer volume of her voice was deafening, and the pitch certainly didn’t help.
“If you didn’t want me to get beaten up, maybe you shouldn’t have forced me to fight my friends,” Roy said with a wince.
“What kind of wimpy excuse is that?” the Spirit snapped. “I didn’t watch you get to this point, only for you to die now! Now, you’re going to get back to your feet and destroy these constructs of your friends!”
“No,” Roy said, almost petulantly. “I refuse to kill my friends, even if they’re just fakes. It doesn’t feel right.”
“You do realize that if you don’t pass this test, you won’t get another chance, right?” the Spirit asked, bringing her face even closer to his.
Her small button nose was almost touching his own as she continued to berate him, the volume of her voice only rising as he continued yelling.
“If you don’t pass now, you will fall apart the moment you’re thrown out of here. That means that your friends — your real friends — will be forced to watch you die. Is that what you want? To make that poor girl waiting outside to have to watch your squishy human body fall apart into a million bloody pieces?!”
“You paint a pretty violent and bloody picture for such a little girl,” Roy muttered under his breath.
“What was that?” the Spirit snapped.
“Nothing,” Roy said, wincing at the volume of her voice. “Just please, stop yelling.”
“I’ll stop yelling when you get off your lazy behind and start fighting like you mean it! I’ve watched you destroy enemies far more powerful than the three you face now. I know why you came to the place in the outside world as well, so if dying without knowing the truth suits you so well, then go ahead, give up.”
“Trying reverse psychology on me?” Roy groaned. “Who knew Spirits could be so sneaky.”
“Reverse what?” the Spirit asked, sitting back and looking a bit confused.
She then shook her head, jabbing him angrily in the chest with one of her small index fingers.
“It doesn’t matter. You have five seconds to shape up, young man. Either fight like you mean it or give up on everything you’ve worked for and allow all those counting on you to begin planning your funeral!”
She exploded then, literally, her body bursting into millions of motes of golden light, leaving Roy to stare after her and contemplate what she’d said. Then, the world came screaming back into motion as all three attacks came down on him at once.
Roy’s fists clenched at his sides as the words of the Spirit of Power finally sank in. If he failed here and now, Aika, his best friend and the girl he’d just started a relationship with, would be forced to watc
h him die, and in a horribly gruesome way too, if what the Spirit said was true. Not only that, but Ferry, Hermit, his father, and all the others who knew him would have to deal with that news as well.
Not to mention that he would never get a chance to speak with his mother and find out the truth about her. He knew that she was a Beast from a far-off land and that someone had tried to have them both killed. What he didn’t know was how she’d managed to escape, nor did he know her own story.
If he made it out alive, not only would he be more powerful, but he’d finally be able to speak with her. At least, that was the impression that the Spirit had given him.
Roy felt something welling up at his center, a kindling of the power he’d been keeping stored there since before he’d entered. It would be unsafe to use it, but he was starting to feel a sort of resonance. He was close, closer than he’d ever been. All he needed to do was push just a little harder.
Roy screamed as golden Qi blasted from his body in a massive wave. There was no technique involved in this, only an outpouring of power from his exhausted and battered body. The wave struck all three of his attackers, hurling them from the platform and snuffing their attacks out instantly.
The ground blasted away from him as Roy launched himself off the platform and after the fake Hermit, his teeth clenched and his body screaming in pain. He would not go down, not like this. This test was his to pass, and when it was all over, he would be declared the victor!
6
Roy smashed into the fake Hermit, catching him around the middle and driving him down into a nearby platform. Power Qi spiraled around him in a wave as he tapped deep into his Core and used his Full-body technique. Strength — massive, destructive strength — flowed back into his battered body.
He shot to his feet, his skin radiating golden light, then swung his foot up and around, slamming down on the center of Hermit’s chest. The man tried to block, getting both hands and an Armorer technique up in the way, but it wasn’t enough.
