by Aaron Oster
49
Aika stood in the clearing where she’d spent the last few months, facing off against the intruders. They must have been really good at hiding their presence, as she hadn’t sensed them coming until they were right on top of her. As things went, she was in fairly good shape for a fight, which was what these two were very obviously here for.
Their appearances were decidedly unhuman, although their overall body shapes were humanoid in appearance.
They were both female, with dark blue-gray skin, pointed ears, and silvery blue hair. Their eyes were both red, a bright, blazing color that stood out against their darker skin. Aside from those similarities, the two appeared obviously different.
For one, there was a difference in the Belts around their waists. One had a bright Red Belt, like Aika’s own, although unlike her own 3rd Dan Belt, this one contained five Golden slashes on one of the hanging ends. The other figure’s Belt was a solid, shining Gold, placing her ability far above Aika’s.
Additionally, the wearer of the Gold-Belt was a couple of inches shorter, her body slimmer and her hair hanging nearly to her waist. By contrast, the other woman’s hair was cropped short, her body curvier and her face a bit broader.
“Who are you, and what do you want?” Aika asked, her voice calm as she faced the two of them down.
She knew what they wanted. That much was obvious by the murderous intent in the Red-Belt’s eyes, but buying herself a bit of time might give her some way out of this situation. Sure, she’d grown by leaps and bounds since she’d entered the Darklands, and even if she might have a chance against the Red-Belt, there was no way she was going to be defeating the Gold.
Much to her surprise, the Gold-Belt spoke, actually answering her question.
“I am Fel, Supreme of Molten Earth, and proud to serve the Bringer of Fire,” Fel said. “And this is Dia, Supreme of Splitting Earth. We are here to eliminate some of the competition, as commanded by our Scions.”
Her voice was light and melodic, contrary to her dark and frightening appearance, and she spoke with a small smirk curling her lips, as though this entire situation was highly amusing.
Aika felt her blood run cold. Both of her opponents were at the Supreme level.
She quickly readjusted their threat levels, immediately bumping Dia up a few notches. If she were just an ordinary Red-Belt, Aika might have stood a chance. The same would be true even against Master or Grandmaster, due to her own advancement, but a Supreme would be way out of her league.
“Why attack me now, instead of facing me in the competition?” Aika asked, already preparing herself for the fight to come.
“While we do not enjoy employing such human tactics, our Scions believe that we need to assure our victory. Removing promising candidates from consideration is only one such method.”
“Then why only come after me?” Aika asked.
She actually wasn’t sure she was the only target, but if she could get more information out of the enemy or keep them talking for long enough, she might find some way out of this.
“You were an easy target,” Fel said with a shrug. “We overheard some humans planning on coming here to capture one of their own. A silly internal affair to grab power for themselves. It once again proved how petty and inferior your kind is, but it also provided us with a golden opportunity.
“We would have liked to take the both of you out, but the other is being shielded by someone we would rather avoid. Others have gone to different parts of this continent to eliminate other viable targets. Though we don’t expect a high success rate, reducing our enemy’s numbers can only be to our benefit. So, to answer the question, you are not the only target, but you’ve definitely made yourself the easiest one.”
Aika found herself growing annoyed as Fel took a step back and Dia took a step forward.
“What, not gonna take me on yourself?” she asked, kicking her staff up from the ground and catching it deftly.
“Why would I bother doing that when you’re obviously so much weaker than I am?” Fel asked, the smirk still in place. “I’m not one of you lowly humans, after all.”
Aika grimaced as she spread her feet wide, turning her attention on Dia. In truth, she wasn’t all that insulted. She was relieved that the other fighter wouldn’t be blindsiding her. Then again, how much could she really trust the word of an enemy combatant?
Dia’s Core blazed with power as she unleashed the full might of her Core, the air around her distorting slightly as a reddish-brown haze sprang up around her. It seemed that there would be no testing blows, no dancing around and probing defenses. This Beast was going to go all out from the start.
Aika obliged, tapping into her Core and unleashing the power of her new Path. She’d only discovered two techniques on this Path so far, a Movement technique and a Projected one, so keeping her distance would be essential to her survival.
Rainbow-colored light rippled around her body, lightly distorting the air in her immediate surroundings. Just on a scale of pure power, it was already obvious who the weaker of the two was. Still, Aika wasn’t going to allow the enemy fighter to cow her into defeat before the fight had even begun.
From the name of her Path and the color of her Chakra, Aika already knew that Dia would be an Earth Artist, though she was very obviously on a branching Path, just as Aika was. Aika’s own Path — as of yet unnamed — took some aspects of her base Path though. Some branching Paths did that, while others leaned far from the base Path, growing further with each advancement.
Dia didn’t give any warning signs. One second, she was standing still, her body blazing with power, and the next, she was right in Aika’s face, red-brown stone coating her left hand — which was extended into a blade — slicing down at her neck.
Aika, who’d been able to follow the swift movement, had already been reacting. Triggering her Movement technique, the Starlight Walk, she stepped back, leaving a trail of shimmering rainbow light in her wake as she put some distance between her and the attacking Supreme.
Although Dia was stronger than her, she was on the Path of Light, the fastest of the Essence types. Dia was on the Path of Earth, the slowest Essence type, and although they were both on branching Paths now, that same rule held true. Dia’s attack, while powerful, missed Aika by a hair, the blow coming down and cleaving a two-foot trench in the ground where she’d been just an instant before.
Aika’s staff blurred out, swinging downward as she channeled her Chakra through it and out into the world. Starlight Wave was a technique that combined piercing and cutting power, extending it into a wider area than her Light Lance had ever been able to cover.
Rainbow-colored light washed out in long, half-moon blades, covering nearly a dozen feet in both directions. Additionally, Aika unleashed them one after the next, varying the angles of her swings to assure Dia didn’t simply duck under them.
Dia was moving too, charging forward as misty, rust-colored light gathered around her body, hanging around her like a cloak made of sand or dust. Aika’s first attack slammed into her, causing her to stumble for a moment. But the cloak of reddish-brown energy held, and even as she watched, began to eat away at her Starlight Wave.
However, as the second impacted right behind the first, Dia was pushed back, and when the third struck, it forced part of the destroyed first blade inside the field of particles.
Dia let out an annoyed grunt, then stepped quickly back and to the side, then dashed around, making for Aika once more. Aika wasn’t just going to stand still and let herself be hit though. She flashed back as well, using her Starlight Walk to stay out of the woman’s range, just as she’d planned.
It seemed that Dia was more of a brawler than a ranged fighter, as she continued advancing, throwing punches and kicks that left massive gouges in the ground. She was clearly starting to grow frustrated, for which Aika was quite glad. The more frustrated she became, the sloppier her attacks would be.
At least, that had been the theory, up until the poin
t where Aika’s foot suddenly stuck to the ground as she stepped back. She stumbled, looking down quickly and seeing red sand crawling up her leg. She jammed her staff down, blasting it away, but by then it was too late.
She barely managed to get her Qi Armorer technique in the way before the attack struck, slamming into her chest and tossing her clean off her feet.
The technique didn’t hold up very well to the cleaving power of Dia’s charge, the enhanced earthen blade shearing easily through her defenses and opening a deep gash across her chest. Worse than the pain of the cut was the force at which she hit the trees on the opposite side of the clearing, her body smashing through several of the heavy trunks before finally coming to a rest.
Aika knew she couldn’t lay there in pain, and even as she came down, her spine feeling as though it had been broken in a dozen places, she used her Starlight Walk again. Chakra flowed up to reinforce her damaged bones and try to stop the bleeding while Dia rushed after her.
The Beast had tasted blood and was now out for more. Aika used her staff to fend the woman off as she closed, feeling the jarring force of Dia’s attacks as she deflected them. She backpedaled the entire time, purposefully giving ground to diminish the force of those blows.
Never before had she faced an opponent like Dia. Her attacks were heavy, far more so than her frame would suggest, and yet each blow nearly buckled Aika’s knees, despite the fact that Chakra was flowing through her body.
Seeing an opening in one of the Beast’s attacks, Aika jabbed forward, using her Starlight Wave at point-blank range. The effect was quite impressive, as the woman was blasted clean off her feet, the waves of rainbow light blasting through the defenses she’d erected and piercing straight through to her back.
The woman hit the ground but rolled back over her shoulder, leaving a smear of green blood on the ground as she did. Now though, Aika was quite pleased to see that she was no longer smiling. She looked angry, her brows coming down and making those blazing red eyes look even more intimidating.
“Oh, you’ve stepped in it now,” Fel said, the smirk still very much present on her lips. “You’ve gone and made her angry.”
Aika took a few quick steps back, putting some distance between the gray-skinned woman and herself. She could feel the immensity of the power building around her and knew what was about to happen. The woman was pulling out a Conqueror technique, one that Aika would absolutely not survive.
The air around the woman began to warp, the sky changing from a dark gray to a ruddy, reddish-brown. The ground began to shake, long cracks spreading across the earth and splintering outward in all directions.
Judging from the density of the Chakra, Aika guessed she had perhaps a handful of seconds to run before the technique was unleashed. But, as she turned to do just that, she suddenly found herself face to face with Fel, who placed a hand on her shoulder, preventing her from running.
“We can’t have you missing the best part,” she said, her smirk widening into a full-on grin and a malicious one at that.
She roughly spun Aika around, her fingers tearing into her shoulders. Aika tried to hold in her scream but was unable to as blood began pouring from where her enemy’s fingers had dug in.
“Don’t go missing now,” Fel called cheerily to the blazing woman whose power seemed near its peak.
“Don’t worry,” Dia said, extending a hand, where a dense sphere of rust-colored light now sat. “Just keep her right there.”
Dia raised the hand with the sphere, then slammed it into the ground, her voice echoing with so much power that the very air shook.
“Tidal Rust Wave!”
A second later, the entire world turned red and brown as a tidal wave of rust-colored earth rose up before her, blotting out the sky and signaling her imminent death.
The clawed hands in her shoulders prevented Aika from running, the Gold Belt’s strength more than enough to keep her anchored in place. Still, that didn’t mean she wouldn’t try. Pain flared in her shoulders as she struggled to escape the inevitable, the aura of her Starlight Walk shimmering around her body.
Her feet dug trenches in the ground and her shoulders screamed, but all of her efforts were for naught. Summoning every last ounce of her strength, Aika shoved backward, hoping to throw the woman off balance. To her shock, it actually worked.
One moment, she was facing a wall of death, and the next, she was over a hundred feet back, all pressure in her shoulders having vanished. For a moment, she was confused, though that confusion didn’t stop her from leaping back another few hundred feet and avoiding the crashing wave of earth that came down on the surrounding forest.
The confusion only lasted up until the moment when a red-gold blur flashed past her, slamming into one of the trees and all but uprooting it.
“Ow,” Roy groaned, staggering upright from the splintered remains of the tree.
He looked a bit dazed, though as far as injuries went, he only had a few small scratches. As his eyes focused on her, Aika felt a small kernel of warmth in her chest, and though she felt like yelling at him for coming here, she couldn’t help but smile.
“I missed you,” she said, hiding a wince as her shoulders throbbed in pain.
“I missed you too,” Roy said, though his eyes were fixed behind her, to where the enemy fighters were advancing. “We can talk more later. For now, we need to find some way to get away, agreed?”
Aika didn’t need to be told twice, turning her back to him and sizing up the enemy once more. She and Roy might be weaker than the enemy, but at least now, they had a chance.
50
Roy dashed through the forest, dodging and weaving between the odd, triangular trees as he rushed for where Aika was likely fighting for her life. He could feel the building power of Chakra and the telltale signs of a powerful technique, one that she likely wouldn’t be able to survive.
Now, more than ever, the fact that he couldn’t figure out a Conqueror technique of his own grated on his nerves. It would forever put him at a disadvantage against more capable fighters who did know how to use one. Even a technique that used Essence would be better than nothing, though he wasn’t really sure how much damage that would do to a Gold-Belt.
If someone used a regular Essence Conqueror technique on him, would it even do anything?
“Well, that depends on how strong the fighter you’re going up against is,” Geon said.
Apparently, Roy was allowing his thoughts to leak through, not that that was a surprise.
“If they’re a Sovereign, one of their Essence techniques would easily wipe you off the face of the world.”
“Your insight is endlessly helpful,” Roy deadpanned.
“I know it is,” Geon replied.
Roy blocked the Core out, focusing on not hitting any trees as they began to grow denser. The landscape was a blur around him as he ran, his Chakra raging in his channels and practically pounding in his ears. He was close to the scene of the battle, close enough that he could begin to feel the waves of the Conqueror technique washing over his senses.
Was this what a Supreme’s power felt like? And was this something he would have to face during the competition?
“You’ll need to be alive to fight in that competition,” Geon said, somehow managing to break through the barrier Roy had erected around his mind.
“I’m about to enter a life or death battle. So can you not keep distracting me?” Roy snapped, finally dashing into the clearing and taking in the scene of destruction in an instant.
He’d come in from the side, so he got to see everything in all its horrifying glory. One blue-gray-skinned woman stood behind a massive wave of rust-colored earth, and another held a struggling Aika in place, preventing her from running.
Roy felt his anger flare as he saw her injuries, mainly the ones in her shoulders, where the Gold-Belt’s fingers had dug in. Aika had to be in extreme pain as she tried to get away. With the other woman’s fingers inside her shoulders, she had to be making the
injuries worse.
Roy didn’t pause for even a second, dashing in and using Demon’s Hammer. His fist slammed into the side of the Gold-Belt’s head, the force of his momentum dragging her away from Aika and taking them over two hundred yards. Roy sensed Aika’s retreat, even as the wave of earth came crashing down.
He had about a second to be relieved before the Gold-Belt he’d attacked decided to strike back. He barely managed to throw up a defense before an oversized stone gauntlet slammed into him with so much force that he felt his bones creak. As it was, he was blasted back through the clearing, having his body halted by a friendly tree.
He groaned as he pulled himself free, finding that he’d somehow ended up near Aika. They had a brief exchange before the enemy moved in to take them on again, forcing him to turn his attention back to the reason he’d come here.
“Aren’t you rude, interrupting where you weren’t invited?” the Gold-Belt asked.
She was the shorter of the two, slimmer and seemingly more refined. Roy had no idea what type of creatures they might have been before their advancements, but in all honesty, it didn’t really matter.
“Hardly seemed fair,” Roy said, sizing the two women up, “what with you ganging up on her. Don’t you feel any shame having to pin a Red-Belt down just to make sure your friend gets a clean shot?”
“Not at all,” the Gold-Belt replied. “I was just going to make sure that my friend got a clean shot, is all.”
A small smirk twisted her lips, despite the small bruise that had begun to form beneath her eye, where one of the knuckles of the Demon’s Hammer had impacted. The fact that that was all it had done told Roy just how strong this woman was. Additionally, he could sense both of their Cores, as well as the distinct presence that belonged only to those who had mastered a Conqueror technique — not that he’d needed to be told that these two were Supremes. The Conqueror technique he’d seen on his way here had been more than enough to tell him that.
