Diamantine (Weapons and Wielders Book 2)

by Andrew Rowe

  I deflected most of the projectiles in a flurry of swings, then caught one of the knives by the hilt and threw it at the still-winged wasp. The knife hit it dead-on and it fell lifeless.

  That was about when the bear-thing decided it didn’t like me standing on it, and decided to shake me off. I maintained my footing for long enough to hop free, swinging in mid-air and cutting a wolf-like beast in half.

  Then I landed, swung around, deflected another two arrows, and cut into the bear.

  The bear was large enough that it didn’t go down in a single swing. Instead, it swiped a counter-attack at me, which drove me backward toward the panther that had decided to come up behind me.

  As it lunged, I kicked backward, once again hitting it in the face.

  After that, I felt a little awful about continuously hurting it, so I killed it instead. A single upward swing did the trick.

  Another wolf jumped at me from the left. I punched it out of the air, then spun and kicked the bear toward the wall of arms.

  The bear flew backward into the reach of the arms and, uh, let me just say that the results weren’t pretty.

  I resolved to clean up the rest of the monsters without letting the wall near them.

  It didn’t take long. There were two more wolves and an additional panther. The wolves attacked at the same time, but it didn’t help them much. I switched to a low stance as they approached, then made two swift cuts the moment they entered my range.

  I sensed more stone approaching me from behind, ducked a knife, and deflected a few more arrows.

  The last panther ran away, moving straight through one of the nearby, seemingly-solid walls.

  I had been unaware that it could do that, so I blinked at it.

  That distraction almost cost me, but my hand moved up and caught an arrow aimed at my face faster than I could consciously process what was happening.

  That was...odd, actually. I’d always been pretty fast, and I’d reacted on instinct many times, but catching arrows at that distance would have been something of a challenge even weeks before.

  Dawn, I realized.

  I’d known our connection was helping speed me up and think more clearly, but this was the most obvious example I’d seen. With her in hand, clearing the monsters out of the room had been absolutely effortless.

  The wall was still approaching, but without the other monsters distracting me, it was less of a threat.

  There were a few easy approaches I could have taken. I could have backed off and used Luminous Arc to blast holes in it, or reshaped something to stop the wall’s movement.

  But that wasn’t any fun.

  I charged right into the whirling mass of dozens of arms.

  Within an instant, several arms were swinging weapons toward me.

  I danced gleefully around their strikes, deflecting few and landing glancing cuts on the wall itself. As I’d suspected, the arms and wall weren’t solid stone; they tore easily when Dawnbringer struck them.

  After a moment of enjoying the game of parries and dodges, I searched for the core.

  There wasn’t anything obvious at first, just an undulating mass of limbs that were creepily reaching out for me. If I’d been a little more squeamish or superstitious, I might have assumed the wall had been consuming people, but I was pretty sure it was just something designed to look creepy.

  Hopefully.

  There weren’t any heads, torsos, or anything else I could see out on the surface.

  So, naturally, I stepped in and jammed Dawnbringer deep, then extended my senses through her.

 

  I guess she was a little more grossed out by the whole thing than I was.

  But in a moment, I had it.

  The wall wasn’t entirely stone, but it was close enough that I could sense the structure within it. And there was a clear “empty” spot toward the center, a portion I couldn’t read simply from contact.

  I danced back, dodging a saber and deflecting a thrown axe (which I’ll admit was unexpected), then adjusted and lunged at a different spot.

  The entire mass quivered as I struck the core.

  Then it swarmed around me, moving far faster than I’d expected. In that brief surge, it flowed like water, twisting until arms surrounded me on all sides.

  The arms came down, swinging weapons at too many angles for me to defend against, even with my heightened speed.

  I didn’t bother trying.

  Parrying is fun, but my preferred method of defense is an overwhelmingly stronger attack.

  My destructive aura flared around me, annihilating the closest weapons. Then I shifted my aura down to around Dawnbringer and swiped forward four times, aiming carefully.

  My aura extended outward with each swing, disintegrating out of the section around the core.

  Then the core — a bright yellow crystal — was visible.

  I grabbed a nearby dagger straight out of a nearby hand, hurled it, and knocked the core right out of the wall.

  The wall sagged, seeming to deflate, and then vanished a moment later.

 

  I laughed, stepped forward, and picked up the yellow crystal. “Not bad.”

 

  Sorry, Dawn. I’ll give you a nice cleaning later, okay?

 

  Sure. I’ve been meaning to buy some oil for you at some point, anyway.

 

  I chuckled, then set about picking up the remaining crystals in the room. Oh, and killing the wasp that I’d cut the wings off of. I’d forgotten about that one. “I’m just talking about basic sword maintenance, Dawn. Oil is a part of that.”

 

  I’m not going to be using my hands, Dawn. I—

 

  I meant an oil rag, Dawn. A rag. Ugh. Why do you have to make it weird?

  I heard a snort, which was pretty impressive, since she didn’t have a nose.

  I sighed. Having finished collecting the crystals — including the green one that served as the room’s reward — I headed toward where the panther had disappeared.

  There were a couple possibilities for what had happened there. Maybe the panther could go into some kind of incorporeal state like Reika could, but...

  I reached a hand into the wall. My hand went right through it.

  I grinned.

  Or there could be an illusionary wall leading into a secret room.

  I stepped through the wall.

  ...and immediately started falling.

  Secret walls, it turns out, do not always lead to treasure.

  [Three minutes remaining,] a helpful announcement instructed me as I plummeted.

  I jammed Dawnbringer into a nearby wall, slowing my fall. I slid through a false ceiling, then ended in another dark room.

  Of course, it wasn’t dark for long. Dawnbringer chased the darkness away the moment I ripped her free from the wall.

  The room was square shaped with a single open doorway to my left. There was a treasure chest in the center. Or maybe another nope box; I wasn’t sure.

  I’d find out after I dealt with the other problems.

  The panther I’d chased was down at the bottom of the shaft. It wasn’t alone.

  The more worrisome creature was a gigantic mass of eyes, because apparently arm-wall wasn’t sufficiently awful looking for whoever made this test.

  Most of the eyes were fist-sized and attached to tendrils. The central eye, however, was torso sized and had a fang-filled jaw on the bottom of it.

  Yes, the eye had a mouth. That was hideous even by my standards.

  I didn’t have much time to think about it, though, because a heartbeat af
ter I’d landed it was looking straight at me — and where monsters like that are concerned, looks really can kill.

 

  I didn’t, either. The moment the central eye looked at me, I felt an odd sense of weakness that I couldn’t immediately explain.

  There wasn’t much time to think about it, though, because a moment later I was dodging a blast of black energy that lanced forward from one of the eyes. Everywhere the beam passed, it seemed to eradicate the ground it touched, leaving only dust.

  That dark energy felt oddly familiar as it came near me. It wasn’t quite the same thing as the annihilating essence within me, but it felt similar, like the connection between crystal and stone.

  That gave me an idea, but I didn’t have a chance to test it. Another two eyes aimed at me a moment later. One of them fired a blast of lightning, and the other just pointed at me without any obvious effect.

  “Radiant Dawn!” I swung Dawnbringer straight into the lightning, trying to smash it toward the panther.

  Dawnbringer flickered for a moment just before the lightning struck the sword, then shot up the blade into my hand.

  I’d been electrocuted before, but that didn’t mean I’d ever gotten comfortable with it. The jolt was strong enough that my right hand spasmed, and I lost my grip on the sword. Even that moment of contact had been enough that a smoldering, tree-like pattern traced up my palm to my wrist.

  I might have reached down to grab my sword a moment later, but I was having difficulty moving, since I was gradually turning to stone.

  I realized only belatedly that each eye had a different function, and apparently the one that had no clear visual effect was petrifying me. That might have been the kind of thing that made an ordinary adventurer lose hope, but I was a bad target for something like that.

  Petrification was stone sorcery. Stone mana was spreading across my body and flooding into it. In a sense, it was like my own Body of Stone technique, only used offensively.

  And with the slightest bit of concentration, I turned that power to my will.

  The petrifying mana shifted upward at my command, focusing around my left fist. My body’s speed returned, and as I lunged forward, I punched the next lightning bolt with my stone-covered hand.

  The stone splintered upon contact, but the bolt was stopped.

  I closed the distance to the eye-monster, dodging a bite from its gigantic maw.

  Then its disintegrating eye turned toward me.

  I didn’t dodge.

  I caught the destructive beam in my right hand, letting the power pool and gather.

  The eye-creature cut the beam off suddenly, floating backward, but it was too late.

  I’d already collected the energy of the attack, then reshaped it into a blade around my hand. With a single swing, the blade extended and cut the monster in half.

  The panther took one look at what had just happened, then ran down the nearby hall.

  I could have blasted it from range, but honestly, that thing was growing on me. I approved of its instincts.

  I dispersed the remaining essence from the eye-monster’s attack, then concentrated and transmuted the stone off of my hand.

  [One minute remaining.]

  I picked Dawnbringer back up, then collected the crystal the eye-monster had left behind. It was a yellow one, so well-worth my time.

 

  “Thanks. You feeling better?”

 

  “I think that eye was using void sorcery to suppress the use of mana. I’ll look into it later.”

 

  “I didn’t mean that as a pun, but I’ll take it. And speaking of taking things...”

  I walked closer to the treasure chest, debating.

  [Thirty seconds remain.]

  I stabbed the treasure box.

  It didn’t react.

  “Good enough.”

  The box, predictably, was locked.

  I cut the top off it.

  Inside was a single, glimmering silver gauntlet.

 

  I picked up the gauntlet. I felt a hint of mana inside the moment I touched it and the wrist section had several runes etched into the metal.

  [This round has now ended. Please head to the nearest exit.]

  I tucked the gauntlet away in my bag, and then nodded to myself.

  Not a bad start.

  Chapter VI – Gauntlet

  I found a few other people on the way to the exit. I didn’t talk to them, but I did overhear a few people speaking in Valian.

  “...Did you see that guy in the green? He took down an entire team!”

  “…And what about that creepy-looking guy with the panther? He looked half-dead!”

  “...When that woman with the scythe came through, she just looked at people and they stopped dead in their tracks. I saw her walk straight up to someone and take their crystal without a fight.”

  “...That white-haired girl tore through a wall with her bare hands...”

  That sort of thing.

  I had a pretty good idea of who they were talking about in the latter case, and I felt a bit of comfort that Reika had probably been doing well. I’d have to find her soon and discuss what we’d seen.

  After I made it to a door, I found myself in a waiting room, and waited in line to turn in my crystals.

  I drew a few envious stares when I turned over my green crystal and the two yellows that I’d picked up from the handsy wall and the eye-monster.

  “One green is fifty points. Two yellows is another fifty. You have three oranges, which is another thirty. Then seven reds for another thirty-five, and six quartz for another six points. And...I don’t know what these are.”

  The man at the counter handed the golem cores back to me. Apparently, they weren’t the same thing as the crystals from the test.

  “Oops. Uh, ignore those.”

  The man frowned. “Right. That’s...one hundred and seventy-one points total. Very good. You said your name was Keras Selyrian?”

  “Yep.”

  “Very good. Can I see your identification sigil?”

  I handed it over, and he pressed a hand-held device that looked a bit like a dueling cane with more buttons against it. He pressed a thumb against the side of the device, and a glow emanated from the end. I heard a click.

  He handed the identification sigil back to me. “Your score has been recorded, thank you.”

  I blinked. I’d never seen magical equipment used for something quite as mundane as recording a tournament score, but I had to marvel at the efficiency of it. “Thanks. Oh, one more question. What’s this?” I held up the gauntlet.

  “Ah, you found a treasure inside.”

  I drew a few more envious looks from those remaining in the waiting room.

  The attendant continued. “There are a few items in each test. They’re hard to find, but generally of excellent quality. I don’t have any details on what each of them do, unfortunately. You’ll have to talk to the prize counter.”

  I nodded. “Okay. When’s the next test?”

  “A bit over a week, for everyone who qualified. With your score, I’m sure you did, but you’ll want to check with the main desk for more information on where you need to go next. You don’t need to do so immediately — you have a few days to rest first. I advise you to check with the prize counter soon to determine your spending strategy.”

  Ah, right. The points can be used as a currency. I should check what’s available soon.

  He gave me some directions to the prize counter, but I had something more important to do first.

  As soon as I finished confirming my paperwork was in order, I went to find Reika.

  It wasn’t difficult — we tended to think similarly
. I found her right back at the Study of Iron, Grandmother Iron’s martial arts school.

  “Keras!” She threw her arms around me. “I beat up so many people!”

  I laughed and pulled her closer. “Congratulations. So, you passed, I take it?”

  “Obviously.” She snorted. “I’m going to win this tournament, silly.”

  I slipped an arm free and poked her in the nose. “Going to have to beat me for that.”

  “Ooh, I’ll beat you, all right.” She pulled away from my nose-poke and tried to tickle me. It wasn’t very effective, so she tried to tackle me to the ground instead.

  That worked a little better. She was both strong and heavy.

  She was, however, nowhere near as used to grappling as I was.

  I slipped out of her grip, then rolled on top of her and tried to pin her arms.

  So, she cheated.

  I fell right through her as she turned into mist in my arms, then appeared on top of me and sat on my back.

  Body of Stone.

  I braced against the ground and pushed.

  She flew upward a couple dozen feet and yelped.

  As she was descending, I pushed myself up to my feet and caught her in my arms.

 

  I resisted the urge to drop Reika outright, instead setting her down gently.

  Release Body of Stone.

  Reika braced herself to tackle me again, but I held up my hands. “Time out.”

  “Aww.” She folded her arms. “But things were just getting interesting. And none of the guys in there were any challenge.”

  That was an interesting statement in itself. “Let’s talk about what we ran into in there before we forget all the details.”

  “Fine, fine. But you owe me a good match later.”

  “Deal.”

  ***

  We headed inside and found Grandmother Iron waiting for us. “Come with me.”

  We followed her back to her own small private room and closed the door behind us.

  “You both did quite well in there. Better than I expected, given your apparent lack of knowledge of the tournament itself.” She nodded appreciatively.

  There still weren’t any chairs in the room. Reika flopped down on a pillow, while I leaned up against a nearby wall. “You were in the audience, then?”