by Aaron Oster
Marrie froze at that, her muscles going taut and her eyes widening just a fraction before she composed herself and moved in to engage once more. Her fist flashed toward him, powered by Wind Qi, but when it hit his raised arm, Roy barely felt anything.
Marrie reached out then and snagged his arm, dragging it down to his side and pulling herself in close.
“What did this man look like?” she asked, her voice so low that it was barely audible.
“He was a few inches shorter than me. Slim, with a narrow face and red eyes. Oh, and he was a 1st Dan Purple-Belt.”
“Doragon,” Marrie hissed.
Her eyes flicked back up to the stands, then back to him.
“Fine. I believe you. Now grab me and throw me into the wall.”
“What?” Roy asked, his brows furrowing in confusion.
“It’s the only way for you to win without me being executed,” she hissed. “Just do it!”
Roy wasn’t sure what was going on, but Marrie had proven to him on more than one occasion that she was quite smart. So, grabbing her by her lapels, he twisted around and hurled her into the wall. Right before impact, he saw her spin, throwing up a cushion of air. The explosion looked very realistic, with a nice portion of the wall being blown out and dust billowing into the air.
Roy ran into the cloud, just in time to see Marrie drop from the crater and land on her back.
“You better be telling the truth,” she said, summoning green Qi to her fingertips and slashing them across her forehead, opening a shallow cut and allowing blood to flow down her face.
It was only now that Roy understood what she’d done. While a surrender might be cowardly and earn someone an execution, being knocked out was something else entirely. If Marrie was unable to fight, he would be declared the winner and she’d most likely be safe, if not a little embarrassed.
“I am,” Roy said as the dust began to thin. “And I promise, I’ll get you out of here.”
Marrie gave him a curt nod, then dropped her head to the ground, artfully arranging her limbs in a very convincing tangle and closed her eyes. The dust cleared then, revealing Roy, standing over the seemingly unconscious form of his opponent and leaving the crowd speechless for several moments. Luckily, the announcer never seemed to be short of words, and just a few seconds later, his voice rang out.
“Marrie has been taken out of the fight in a single blow! That means that the champion of the Green-Belt tournament is none other than Choi!”
The crowd erupted into cheers, even as Geon snickered at his expense.
“I guess we should go congratulate this Choi on his victory,” the Core said. “Maybe you can learn a thing or two from him.”
Roy did his best to ignore the Dungeon Core, instead looking to the top box where the Sovereign sat with his cronies. This tournament wasn’t over yet, and although he’d made it this far, the toughest – and likely impossible – challenge was still to come.
Roy didn’t know why, but he felt like things were about to come to a head. Hermit should be close by now, but more than that, he could feel a sort of tension in the air. It felt as though something far worse were coming, and as the guards came to escort him out of the arena and drag Marrie’s ‘unconscious’ body after him, he couldn’t help but feel that things were about to become very ugly, very quickly.
40
“Pin it down!” Violet yelled, her sword flashing out in quick arcs as she tried to land a clean hit.
Aika held back a sharp retort as she once again tried to use her Containment technique, only to have the Beast squirm free, slipping from the encircling rings just as they closed in. They’d been fighting this Beast for almost fifteen minutes but had yet to manage any lasting damage.
It was too quick and slippery to pin down, and since they couldn’t manage to keep it still, neither Violet nor Kaeru had managed a clean hit. Worse, it was on the verge of advancing again, its Core pushing past 4th Dan and starting on its journey to Blue-Belt.
Aika threw her arms wide, pulling on her Qi and trying to find some way to lock the Beast down using that. Her Essence techniques had been unsuccessful, but if she could just do something… Suddenly, her opportunity came, and seven massive rings formed around the Beast’s body, snapping down between its sectional body and pinning it in place.
“It’s slipping free already! Hurry!” she yelled, feeling her grasp on the Beast failing after less than a second.
It was like she was trying to hold a block of ice with her hands, but they were covered in oil. Never before had she come across a creature that felt so slippery, and if this was what it could do at Green-Belt, she could hardly imagine what it would be like to fight it at Blue or Purple, let alone Red or Gold.
“Hold it!” Violet yelled, her sword weaving in a rapid pattern, lines of Darkness Chakra flowing out into the air.
Sweat beaded Aika’s brow as she tried to keep the slippery Beast from escaping, the creature’s thrashing not making it any easier. All of that was not to mention the constant attacks. Sure, the pellets of sand that continually slammed into her stomach weren’t managing to pierce her skin, but that didn’t mean they didn’t hurt.
“I’m losing it!” she yelled, just before the Beast slipped from its restraints.
Thankfully, she’d managed to keep it pinned for long enough, as a massive cage made of Darkness Charka landed around the creature, trapping it in place once more. It flowed toward one of the gaps and tried to break through, only for the cage to flare with power and knock it back.
“That should hold for maybe half a minute!” she yelled, directing her words at the Supreme currently standing twenty feet above their heads.
“That should be fine!” Kaeru yelled. “Get back!”
Aika didn’t need to be told twice. She turned on her heel and made a dash back toward where Ferry was, with Violet right beside her. She stopped when she was about halfway back and turned to see what Kaeru had planned.
The idea for their plan had been a simple one. Aika would keep the Beast pinned for long enough to allow Violet to create a more powerful Containment. Then, Kaeru would unleash his most devastating attack and wipe it out in one shot. Having never seen the Supreme’s most powerful attack, Aika was more than a little curious to see what it was and what it could do.
The entire sky seemed to darken, storm clouds gathering and rotating above the point where Kaeru stood. Mist began to flow from his body, coating the area in an eerie fog that contrasted with the bright sunlight just a few yards away. It was one of the strangest things Aika had ever seen — a storm in a concentrated area, surrounded by desert.
Kaeru’s body shone brightly as massive ice crystals formed in the air, all converging to a single point and forming into a massive block of jagged ice. Inside, however, she could see water still sloshing about and wondered what purpose it served. Her question was answered a moment later, as the block of ice came plummeting down, slamming into the cage and shattering upon impact.
There was an explosion of steam as the ice broke apart, revealing that the water inside the ice had been boiling. A shockwave suddenly emanated from the impact. It was so powerful that when it hit, Aika was knocked clean off her feet and Violet had to stop her from being tossed to the bottom of the dune. The ground trembled, sand sliding down the sides of the dune in waves and once again threatening to knock Aika off her feet.
Then, it was over.
“I think that did it,” Kaeru called, his body drifting back down to the ground and disappearing below the rim of the crater that his attack had created.
She and Violet shared a look, then both turned and dashed back up to the top of the dune to see what Kaeru’s attack had done. However, as Aika reached the top, she realized that the Supreme’s attack was far more powerful than it had first appeared. There was no crater, as she’d first thought, but rather, nearly half of the entire dune was gone.
It looked as though a massive hand had descended from the heavens and scooped away a portion of the dune, leavi
ng a miniature lake at the bottom.
“I think I may have gone a bit overboard,” Kaeru called up.
He was standing waist deep in water and was rummaging around, seeming to be searching for something. A moment later, he let out a cry of triumph and straightened, holding a brilliant Core, glowing with a rainbow-colored light — the Core of the Cavern Beast.
Kaeru came floating back up to them, not so much as a drop of water clinging to either his clothes or skin.
“At least you managed to kill the thing,” Aika said, trying not to allow her shock to show.
It wasn’t like the sand dune was a small thing. By her estimation, the dune was somewhere in the realm of three hundred feet tall! At least, it used to be. Kaeru’s attack had shaved a good fifty feet off the top and demolished the back half completely.
“Yeah,” Kaeru said, his eyes flicking up to the sky as a dark spec seemed to flash across it.
Aika blinked, not sure if she’d imagined it or not.
“Ikari,” Violet said, confirming her fears just a moment later. “She’ll be catching up to Hermit in just a few minutes at that speed. We’d better get going. If we move quickly enough, we might make it there in just a few more hours.”
What she left unsaid was that there might not even be a city left in a few more hours, especially if three Sovereigns were going to be fighting near it.
“Agreed,” Kaeru said. “Let’s go grab Ferry and our unruly prisoner, and…” Kaeru trailed off again, his brows furrowing.
“Damn it,” he muttered, dashing down the side of the dune toward where Ferry was.
Feeling a cold dread beginning to wash over her, Aika followed as quickly as she could, already fearing the worst. However, when she reached the spot where they’d left the two of them, only the ferret remained. She was curled up in a ball, her entire body shaking and great sobs wracking her frame.
Kaeru was standing over her, trying to get the ferret to talk, but having no luck. Aika could feel her anger beginning to boil over, realizing that Doragon had once again escaped, taking with him her only chance at revenge. But right now, Ferry was beyond distraught and needed her.
“Give me some space,” Aika said, running over and all but shoving her clan’s leader out of the way.
Normally, she wouldn’t be so rude, but Ferry seemed to be in a really bad way, and she couldn’t have him hovering. Contrary to what she thought, Kaeru did as he was asked and backed up, moving with Violet to speak quietly a few yards away.
“Ferry,” Aika said, moving carefully around the humanoid ferret. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”
The ferret failed to respond, her body continuing to tremble. Someone had hurt the poor girl very badly, and seeing as only one person could have been the culprit, Aika felt her hatred of the man grow. She crouched next to her friend and began slowly stroking her back, moving in to embrace the ferret as best she could.
“It’s okay,” she whispered. “I’m here. He can’t hurt you.”
Aika was silently beating herself up for leaving Doragon with Ferry. Had she stayed, she could have prevented this. She had no idea how badly Ferry was hurt but seeing as the ferret had taken plenty of physical injuries and hardly flinched in the past, this was the type inflicted on her mentally.
Ferry continued to shake and tremble, though after a few minutes, she returned the hug, pushing her head into Aika’s shoulder and continuing to bawl like a child. Which, in her case, that was pretty much what she was right now.
“H-He s-said Roy h-hates me!” Ferry finally said, her voice coming out in hiccupping gasps.
“Roy doesn’t hate you,” Aika said soothingly.
“B-Bad smell man s-said R-Roy leave because m-me!”
“You can’t believe anything that snake says,” Aika said, continuing to rub Ferry’s back.
“H-Hit him. Poof. M-Man go away in light.”
Ferry’s body began shaking again, and Aika could feel the shoulder of her robes quickly beginning to soak through with Ferry’s oversized tears.
Now that she understood what Doragon had done and how he’d managed to escape, Aika could focus on calming the poor girl down. Doragon had really done a number on her, telling her that Roy hated her and that it was her fault he was gone. Ferry, being young as she was, would have believed him, and seeing as she was so close to Roy, the wounds had cut deep.
“The bad man was lying so that he could get away,” Aika said. “You know that Roy loves you, right?”
“R-Really?” Ferry asked, her voice containing just a hint of hope.
“Yes. Really,” Aika said, pulling back from the hug.
She placed her hands on Ferry’s shoulders and looked into her big black tearstained eyes.
“Roy loves you. You’re more than his friend. You’re pretty much like family to him, and after all you’ve been through together, how could you believe that bad man?”
Ferry hiccupped a few times, but she was beginning to calm down, Aika’s words finally breaking through.
“He cares about you just as much as you do him, and thinking that he would voluntarily leave you behind, just to go be with that monster, is ridiculous! I’m sure he’s waiting for you right now. I bet he misses running and playing with you and he probably hasn’t had a good night’s sleep without you there with him!”
Ferry’s lips finally pulled up into a quivering smile, the light of hope shining in her eyes once more.
“You think?” she asked, sniffling a few times and rubbing at her eyes.
“I know!” Aika said, grabbing the sides of her face. “Now, come on. Roy is waiting for us, and the longer we stay here, the longer he’s going to have to miss you. You don’t want that, do you?”
Ferry shook her head quickly as Aika released her.
“No make Roy wait!”
“Good,” Aika said, getting back to her feet and holding a hand out to help her up. “Let’s move quickly then, so he doesn’t have to be away from you for even a second longer!”
She turned, giving Kaeru a curt nod as she helped the ferret to her feet. Doragon had escaped, but no matter how badly she wanted to go after the man, Roy needed her more. For the first time in her life, she had something she wanted more than revenge.
41
Roy sat in his cell, trying to recover from his last fight and pulling in as much of the Power Essence that was generated by the current fight as he could. This time, instead of converting it all to Qi, he was simply refining and keeping most of it as Essence, filling his Core to the brim. Had he converted it to Qi, it would have left plenty of unused space, and Geon liked to be as full as possible at all times.
“We need to talk.”
Roy’s eyes opened, and he looked up to see Marrie standing over him with her hands folded over chest. The cut on her forehead was all but gone, though the dried blood remained.
“I’ll tell you everything once we get out of here,” he said.
“No. You’re going to tell me everything, and you’re going to tell me now. I gave up a chance at freedom because you told me something so ridiculous that it has to be true. But I want to hear the whole story. You owe me that much.”
Roy sighed, and although he wanted to do nothing less, nodded in agreement.
“You’re probably going to want to take a seat,” he said, gesturing to the bench across from him. “This might take a while.”
***
Pelata watched the last of the Blue-Belt tournament come to a close, leaving the 6th Dan man from the Dacho clan as the winner. Not that he was surprised. This man had been favored to win since the beginning, and unlike the Green-Belt tournament, this one had no Eternals in disguise to throw the fighters for a loop.
The man was escorted out of the arena, and the bodies left in his wake were dragged out after. The announcer rose to announce the final battle royale between the three remaining Purple-Belts, which was the fight that everyone – at least, the people who didn’t know what was really happening – were
waiting for.
“What’s our time?” Pearl asked.
She, like everyone else who knew what was coming, was becoming antsy with anticipation.
“This fight is likely to be between five and ten minutes long,” Pelata said, watching the three candidates. “After which, the Green-Belt and Blue-Belt champions will face off. I’m expecting that to be quite the spectacle. If I’m right, the first Sovereign should appear right as the fight is ending, which will hopefully give us the goodwill of the Eternal.”
“What if it doesn’t, though?” Granite asked, voicing everyone’s fears out loud. “What if he’s aggravated that we kept him here for so long instead of releasing him as he demanded? What if he was actually doing something else and doesn’t feel like breaking cover?”
The very notion that someone as powerful as an Eternal wouldn’t just break out if they wanted to was absurd. But Pelata could see Granite’s point. Beings of this level of power saw things differently, and thus, acted in certain ways. Perhaps this man had been doing something for the last century, and breaking character would ruin his plans. There was honestly no way of knowing without asking, and none of them dared ask, lest they accidentally offend him and bring his wrath down on their entire clan.
“If we don’t get his help, our clan is done for,” Pelata said. “I might be a Sovereign, but so are they. And there are two of them. If I face them alone, I will fall, and so will the clan, shortly after. Right now, we have no choice but to sit back and allow this to play out.”
The Sovereign’s blunt honesty set a somber mood over the group. Although they were powerful, neither of them could really lend much aid. The power of another Sovereign was too much for either of them to handle, and even if both Pearl and Granite ganged up on a single one, they’d perhaps be able to hold them off for a few minutes before they were destroyed.
The Purple-Belt tournament began then, the three fighters moving in to engage one another while the crowd roared, completely oblivious to the threat that was fast approaching.
