by Aaron Oster
“So, all you have to do is make sure that three of them die before you do,” Geon said.
“Damn it all,” Roy whispered as the implications hit him.
Making this rule would all but ensure that the team didn’t work together, and seeing as the Beast was stronger than all of them, no one would bother putting up a fight. In fact, some of his teammates might even be tempted to attack each other in an attempt to end the fight early. He locked eyes with Marrie, and he finally understood what she had meant. In a situation like this, where they were actively encouraged to stab each other in the back, how would he act?
The entire arena seemed to shudder as the gate clanged open, leaving a gaping dark maw to stare back at them.
Roy watched as a pair of shining, yellow eyes became visible in the darkness, followed swiftly by a scaled black snout. The scales stopped about halfway up, becoming interspersed with short, wiry hair.
“What in the world is that thing?” Roy exclaimed as the massive lizard-wolf hybrid slunk into the arena.
Its body seemed to be a near-perfect blend of the two, containing a mix of their body shapes, a mix of fur and scales, and a long row of spines running down its back.
“That isn’t a lizard and wolf hybrid,” Geon said, his voice not containing so much as a hint of his usual haughty self-importance. “Roy, that is a juvenile dragon!”
Roy’s eyes went even wider as Geon proclaimed this Beast to be one of the creatures of legend. Dragons were one of the least seen Beasts on their continent, and what little was known about them terrified him to his very core. Seeing as the Dungeon Core was afraid, it was clear that this Beast was no joke.
“What do we do?” he asked as the announcer’s voice boomed, calling the start of the match.
“Run,” Geon said simply as the dragon opened its mouth.
Power flooded his body as Roy dove to the side, the black crystal exploding beneath his feet. He was just in time as the dragon’s mouth opened wide, and a torrent of black fire billowed from its open maw, blasting across the entire length of the arena and slamming into the far wall.
There was a scream of agony, and Roy spun to see Remy staggering away from the roaring flames and clutching at his right side. Roy had seen many gruesome injuries in his life, but seeing half-melted skin that was crawling with black fire nearly made him lose what little food he had in his stomach.
The stream cut off as the dragon snapped its jaws shut. Remy’s screams continued to echo through the arena, sounding even above the crowd’s roars for blood. The man staggered around, slapping himself and trying to put out the flames. It actually looked as though he might succeed, but then the thing Roy had been fearing most came to pass.
Xu appeared next to the man, joined by Noko, and together, they ended the man’s life. The sickening crunch of the swords severing bone reached Roy even as the dragon roared, launching itself across the arena in several quick leaps. It was easy to see where it was headed, and Marrie danced from her hiding place just as the dragon’s breath hit the pillar.
The explosion of obsidian glass was nearly as deafening as the crowd’s cries for blood as Marrie skillfully avoided the shards and worked her way free. The dragon followed, its body appearing almost wraithlike as it slithered between the pillars, snapping at her with its sharp teeth and swiping with its claws.
Marrie moved like no one Roy had ever seen before. Her body flowed, almost like the wind, dancing around the strikes and allowing the force of the dragon’s blows to keep her at a distance. It was an incredible display of both dexterity and ability. She didn’t become flustered, remaining calm and collected even as a monstrous Beast tried to tear her limb from limb.
Roy was only brought back to reality when Xu, Noko, and Sue appeared next to him, each using their Movement techniques to get within striking distance.
“This is nothing personal,” Xu said. “But none of us really feel like dying.”
Then, he lunged, extending his sword out in a powerful thrust.
24
Roy reacted without thinking, his body exploding with Power Essence in an instant and extending into a massive bubble around him. Overflow was what he’d called his Containment technique, and it demanded an absolutely massive amount of power. Luckily for him, Roy had plenty to spare. There was a collective gasp from the crowd as Roy turned, eyeing all three of his would-be attackers.
They were all suspended mid-strike, their bodies frozen and locked in place by the rapidly spinning sphere of Essence extending from his body. Roy wanted nothing more than to attack and kill these treacherous snakes, putting an end to the fight, just as they’d try to do to him. They were all staring at him in wide-eyed terror, realizing that they were trapped.
For the first time in his life, Roy finally understood what it was like to have power over others. It was an interesting experience, especially seeing as they’d written him off as an easy target. He could practically see the thoughts going on behind their eyes. After all, he was supposed to be the weakest here. All of them were at 2nd Dan Green, while Roy was still at Base. So, how in the world had he caught all three of them?
Before he could do anything, Roy noticed the dragon out of the corner of his eyes. It had finally trapped Marrie against a wall, and despite her best efforts, she didn’t seem to be able to escape. Roy was now faced with one of two options. He could either kill two of his captives, ending the fight, or he could try and rescue Marrie himself.
The former would be the safer bet, but there was no guarantee that they’d be able to stop the fight in time to save her. On the other hand, if he blindsided the dragon, he was sure he could free her. The decision was not an easy one, but Roy knew what the right thing to do would be.
“Try that stunt again, and I’ll kill you without a second thought,” Roy said, then took off toward Marrie.
He released his technique and felt the immediate relief as the strain of keeping such a massive expenditure going melted away. Marrie was too far away to reach using only his Essence technique, and Roy could already see how the next attack would play out. Even if Marrie were fast enough to dodge the dragon’s claws, she was too close to avoid its black fire.
“Well, here goes nothing,” he thought, then tapped into his Qi and used the Movement technique for the first time.
The explosion of obsidian beneath his feet wasn’t nearly as pronounced as it was with his Essence technique, but that wasn’t because of a lack of power. The level of control with Qi allowed for less leakage when using the technique, trapping more of the power in his body rather than allowing it to escape into the outside world.
Roy slammed into the dragon with enough force to damage himself, had he not activated his Qi Armorer technique right before impact. Hexagonal lines flared to life, expelling the massive force of the impact, dispelling it over the entire surface of his shield.
He leaped back, executing a backflip and landing on his feet as the dragon was hurled across the arena and slammed into the far wall. The roar of the crowd was deafening, and even the announcer had a hard time competing with the other noise.
“Are you alright?” Roy asked, having to yell to be heard.
Marrie nodded, her lips quirking up into a grim smile.
“Looks like I was right about you, after all,” she said. “But don’t think we’re out of this fight just yet.”
She pointed to the far wall, where the dragon was shaking itself free of the dust and debris. Just as Roy had suspected, the Beast was all but unfazed by his attack, showing only some slight damage to its scales where his body had impacted. The dragon roared, its glaring yellow eyes fixing squarely on him.
“I don’t suppose you’d like to work together to try and take this thing down?” Roy asked, chuckling nervously.
“If you can hold it off, I think I’ve got a better idea.”
Before Roy could ask what that was, the dragon attacked, opening its jaws wide and unleashing a torrent of black fire. Roy dove to one side, now drawing
solely on his Qi to stay ahead of the Beast. The dragon was quick and agile, and its movements were both wild and unpredictable.
It took all he had just to stay ahead of it and was nearly caught in its stream of fire several times. He could sense the Darkness Essence building, but there was more to it — it was condensing as well.
“That thing is going to unleash a Qi technique that you won’t be able to dodge! You need to interrupt its concertation!” Geon cried as Roy dashed between cover.
Roy knew what was about to happen, and when he next rolled out of cover, he launched a Void Sphere at the Beast. The Essence technique didn’t even phase it, exploding against its scaled hide without leaving so much as a scratch. For his trouble, Roy was nearly torched. The black fire, powered by Darkness Qi, acted much differently than regular flames.
They struck much faster, stuck around for much longer, and burned in a way unlike ordinary flames. He’d seen what they’d done to Remy before Xu and Noko had finished him off, and Roy wanted nothing to do with it.
He was beginning to feel the pressure, as he had both an Armorer and Movement technique active and they were costing him precious Qi. He didn’t have nearly as much Qi as he did Essence, and while the Qi was depleted at a much slower rate, his techniques were still quite costly.
The dragon blew another massive spray of black fire over the area, forcing Roy to dive to his belly then blast the ground, throwing him into the air to avoid the follow-up. He ejected Essence from his foot, throwing himself to one side as another blast of fire came. When he landed, he was forced to leap aside once more.
“This is infuriating!” Roy thought as he desperately avoided the attacks.
He now understood what Marrie must have felt like, constantly needing to move and not having time to do anything else as he desperately tried to stay alive. Worse, he could feel the technique building and knew that there was nothing he could do to stop it. All he could do was continue to dodge as the moment drew ever closer. Worse, he had no idea how this technique would be used, but he knew that whatever it was, it would cover a wide area, one that he most likely would not be able to escape.
Roy took a large step back and could feel the hard stone behind him as he avoided another attack. The dragon froze, its entire body locked in place. The world turned black as a wave of black fire exploded from the dragon’s body, spreading out so quickly that Roy knew he’d be unable to dodge.
“Up!” Geon yelled, and Roy reacted without thought.
He vaulted into the air using his Movement technique, only just managing to avoid the wash of the black fire. However, now that he was up here, it was clear to see that the attack wasn’t going to fade before he landed, forcing Roy to pull out his trump card.
With a massive effort on his part, he kicked downward, stomping as hard as he could while his Qi Movement technique was active. There was a blast of wind as his stomp created a shockwave, launching him forward in the air. The crowd gasped as Roy stomped again, and then again, running through the air until his momentum ran out, forcing him to drop back to the ground. He landed in a crouch, breathing hard and feeling the muscles in his legs all but buzzing with the effort.
This part of his technique was one that he had theorized might be possible if used correctly, but one that had no guarantee of working. He’d been saving it as a last resort just in case he needed to escape something bad, and it seemed that it had worked and gotten him out of an impossible situation.
His run through the air had carried him over fifty yards, clearing him of the blast radius of the dragon’s terrain technique and extending his life for at least a few more minutes.
It was in that moment, when he was getting back to his feet, that they struck. Noko and Sue came in quick, both swinging for his head. In his current state, it would take Roy at least a couple of seconds to activate a technique, and he didn’t have any time at all.
His Armorer technique was struck by both Green-Belts, their swords flashing bright as they impacted against the flowing pattern tracing his body. His technique held for less than a second before the combined might of the two fighters broke through. Roy saw the blades coming as though in slow motion.
He raised his arms, thinking that he might at least be able to stop them from taking his life, but he already knew that was an effort in futility. They had him dead to rights, and he was a goner. At least, he should have been. It was in the split-second before they struck, when their attentions were fixed squarely on him, leaving their backs unguarded and wide open, that Marrie attacked.
There was a flash of green Qi, nearly blinding in its brilliance, and Roy felt both swords strike. However, instead of removing his head from his shoulders as they’d been intending, the swords barely nicked his skin before clattering to the ground. He blinked several times, his mind trying to understand what was happening as the two headless corpses fell to the ground, blood spraying from the stumps where their heads had been just moments before.
He kept staring, for some reason, looking around for the heads and wondering where they could have gone. He got his answer as his eyes locked onto a bloody puddle lying several feet away. The mess lying there was so grotesque that Roy once again felt bile rising in his throat.
“And that’s the match!” the announcer boomed. “It seems that Team Ragged chose to take the safer path and eliminate half their number rather than face the wrath of Ravager!”
Roy swayed on his feet, only managing to stop himself from falling by grabbing onto one of the jagged bits of obsidian. He barely even noticed the sharp edge trying to tear through his palm, his skin too tough for the stone to break. He stared as the dragon was subdued, several Purple-Belts clamping its mouth shut, holding its legs in place and dragging it back toward the other side.
Marrie stood several yards away, covered in blood and looking thoroughly disgusted, while Xu stood in the center of the arena, pumping his arms in victory as though he had something to celebrate.
“This place is worse than I thought,” Roy said as more guards swarmed the arena to escort them back to their cells.
“For once, I can agree with you,” Geon replied.
This time, Roy didn’t even bother putting up a fight as he was dragged out of the arena to the cheering of the crowd. He might have survived that fight by the skin of his teeth, but if he hadn’t gotten extremely lucky several times during the fight, he would have been one of those corpses being cleaned off the floor.
For her sake, he hoped Marrie actually knew a way out of here.
25
Aika stared at the endless stretch of desert in bleary-eyed exhaustion. They’d been going for well over a week with little rest for food or sleep. For some reason, Hermit was pushing them hard, driving them ever onward through the Windblight. The Wind Essence was so thick all around them that she needed to keep a constant coating of Light Essence flowing over her skin to prevent damage. This place was a Wind Artist’s dream, but to anyone else, it was a never-ending nightmare.
The worst part of all this was that they hadn’t seen anything in all their time traveling through here and Hermit hadn’t let them slow down. The longer they went without picking up any signs of Roy, the more worried Aika became. For all she knew, he was already dead. The only thing that kept her going was Ferry’s reassurance that she could still feel her connection with Geon.
They’d been forced to keep certain conversations to themselves, of course, with Ferry having to make gestures interspersed with the few words she could use to communicate. Because, according to her, Kaeru could understand what she said, and seeing as Roy’s secret wasn’t exactly hers to give away, they were all keeping Geon’s existence a secret.
“Hold on a moment,” Hermit said, raising a hand.
Their group halted, Aika and Ferry visibly drooping while Violet took the chance to sit down. Kaeru looked none the worse for wear, while Violet was starting to show some signs of weariness. Still, they were holding up much better than Aika and Ferry were, both of wh
om were in desperate need of a good night’s sleep.
Just because Aika had advanced to Blue didn’t mean she didn’t need sleep, and although she was holding up a bit better than Ferry, it wasn’t by much. Then again, comparing her constitution to that of a Beast’s was hardly fair. But tired as she was, Aika couldn’t help but be a bit bitter and jaded.
“Why are we stopping?” she asked, her voice coming out low and hoarse. “Have you found any signs of Roy?”
“No,” Hermit said, staring off into the distance. “But I think I found someone who might have seen him.”
There was a flash of red light, and Hermit was gone, the sand beneath his feet turned to solid glass. Aika blinked, staring off into the distance, but even with the reach of her Spirit Sense, she could no longer feel his presence.
“Wow, he’s fast!” Kaeru exclaimed. “I guess that’s what you can expect from someone at his level, though.”
“What exactly is his level?” Aika asked. “Since he’s absorbed that Cavern Beast Core, nothing seems to have changed.”
At least, she couldn’t tell if anything had, and Hermit’s Belt was not visible, as usual. In its place was a length of knotted brown rope that he kept there.
“Actually, he’s grown quite a bit stronger over the past week,” Violet said, her eyes still closed.
“How can you tell?” Kaeru asked, cocking his head to one side. “If anyone should be able to sense a difference, it’s me, but I haven’t been able to get anything from him.”
“You can see it in his Soul, from the way he moves and acts,” she replied.
“Hmm, the Soul again,” Kaeru muttered, rubbing at his chin. “I feel like I’m so far behind because of my inability to leave the clan.”
He sounded both frustrated and intrigued, which only served to annoy Aika even more. She knew she shouldn’t be so testy, but her exhaustion, combined with her worry, had her on the verge of snapping at her clan leader. That was, until the shining Red Torii gate appeared before Violet, shocking her into silence.
