“And would you agree, Kai? ”
“~ Of course I would... ~”
Sora looked up for a moment.
“~... If I was a complete moron, that is. ~”
Sora smirked and looked down again.
“~ Sora and Vikram might both be fast, even the same speed for that matter, but I’d rather say that the one who uses his speed the best will be the one to win this fight. Sora is a melee fighter, so as I see it, he could use his speed to the greatest advantage. ~”
“~ You heard them, people! It’s a 50-50 decision. Danush predicts it to be Vikram’s win while Kai goes for Sora. I don’t think anyone was surprised about that. But I assure you, this fight will have more surprises than we can handle. Hold on to your seats, folks! This battle is about to start! ~”
Sora closed his eyes for a few seconds. He had visualized this fight numerous times as he slept at night. And each time, he had gotten better at facing him but had only won twice. But now, it was time to fight in reality, against the real thing.
There was a clang and Sora’s eyes shot open to see Vikram disappear in front of him. But Sora had enough experience to know that he shouldn’t try to find Vikram with his eyes. He whirled around and blocked Vikram’s strike with ease.
The next second, both of them disappeared.
Rufus Crumbs was as baffled as most of the people in the stands.
“~ What we expected to be an explosive fight has ended up being quite a letdown. Where did they go? ~”
“~ Shut up and watch the fight. ~”
Rufus stared at Kai and Danush, who were on their feet and whose eyes were sweeping all over the arena, following invisible movements. Rufus glanced at the arena and then suddenly thought that he saw a small blur.
Sora and Vikram were moving at a speed which the normal human eye could not hope to see. Each of them was trying to outrun the other. Katie, who was sitting alone in the stands, had given up trying to see their movements. But she didn’t have to sit still for long. There were blasts of wind every time the two speed stars clashed with each other. And they were happening all over the arena.
The crowd gasped as the clashing contractors became visible to them. No one spoke a word. They didn’t have any words to describe the spectacle in front of them. Then, finally, after nearly a minute of high speed battling, there was a huge blast at the centre of the arena as Sora’s and Vikram’s fists collided.
They jumped back and stood still, panting. Their clothes were torn up but neither of them had injuries worse than scratches. Sora took a deep breath and said, “That was good. Let’s start round two, shall we?” There were two flashes and Sora was clutching the Wind Fangs while the Emperor Ape roared and beat its chest.
Sora and Vikram both used their split step yet again. Sora unleashed a torrent of blind scythes. Even Vikram could not completely evade the invisible slashes of wind. But a bolt of lightning from the emperor ape’s fist suddenly struck Sora.
Sora did not have it easy. It was as if was facing two opponents at the same time. The colossal ape was not as fast as they were, but being a beast class contract, its mind was synced with Vikram’s. He could tell it where and how to attack, without saying a word instantly so that Sora was never given a second to take the offensive. The crowd could not see anything other than fancy fireworks in the arena. But that was enough to keep them engrossed in the fight. They had no idea what was really going on.
Sora knew that the only way he could get a chance to attack Vikram was to change his present target. He suddenly switched directions and unleashed a wind meteor at the emperor ape.
The ape instinctively raised its arms and tried to hold back the great ball of destruction. The force of the wind meteor began pushing it back. Sora found this to be the perfect time to strike.
A decisive split step enabled him to blast a wind smash at point blank range.
Blood splattered as Vikram skidded. But the fight was far from over.
There was a bang and the emperor ape blasted through the wind meteor. Sora could not believe his eyes. The ape was still full of energy and ready to explode. The beast punched the floor. Sora could vaguely remember it doing something like that in Sean’s fight, but by the time he remembered, the ice spears had already started shooting from the floor.
One of them managed to penetrate deep into Sora’s stomach. He tried jumping out of the way, but they kept bursting out whenever and wherever he landed. Vikram was getting back to his feet just as Sora jumped as high as he could. “It’s useless,” Vikram shouted. “They’ll get to you once you land! Give up!”
But Vikram noticed that Sora was rising higher and higher into the air, and he was not falling back to the ground.
“~ Oh my... This can’t be... Sora is flying! ~”
Everybody was as amazed as Rufus was. Some even pinched themselves to check whether they were dreaming. Vikram could only just stare and gape as Sora flew a little higher, trying to catch a breather while clutching his wound.
He then muttered, “Let’s get this over with.”
Sora began flying faster and faster around the Emperor Ape. As he got closer to the ground, he activated his twister burst. Though the shards of ice shot out of the ground, the twisting, compressed wind easily shattered them. With his feet back on the ground, he could now use his trusty split step once again. Combined with his twister burst, he ran at top speed around the Emperor Ape, which tried to hit him with everything: ice, water, fire and electricity, with none penetrating his shield of wind. Sora began closing in. From the stands, it appeared as though a small cyclone had formed in the arena. A burst of wind and a roar from a beast followed.
The walls of wind slowly disappeared. The crowd took one look and gasped. Vikram shouted, “NO!”
Sora stood over the bloody body of the emperor ape. There was a flash and the beast vanished. Instantly, Vikram fell to the floor, panting. He couldn’t move out of exhaustion. His legs were burnt out from the excessive use of the split step. But he had enough strength to ask, “What... what did you do just now?”
Sora said, “That was my latest technique, my finisher, you could say. With my split step combined with the twister burst, I created a vortex where the opponent is surrounded by sharp blades of twisting wind that can easily rip anything inside it apart.”
Vikram began to falter as he said, “That is one storm of a move.” He then closed his eyes and fell to the floor.
“That’s why it’s called the Tempest Takedown.”
The judge ran out of the tunnel and raised his flag at Sora. The crowd went ballistic, completely insane. Rufus was shouting something nobody could hear clearly and Sora thought he distinctly heard Kai shouting for his money from Danush as everything blacked out around him.
Sora could feel the soft, warm bed under him. He wanted to keep lying down and not open his eyes for a very long time. But then his stomach gave a huge roar of protest, forcing his eyes open. Sora tried to sit up but he was very disoriented. He placed his hand on his forehead for a few seconds. Then he rubbed his palms and placed them on his eyes.
The warmth restored his senses partly. He struggled to get up and then took a look around him.
He realized he was in the infirmary. And on the foot of his bed was Conner, snoring soundly. Images of his fight flashed in front of his eyes. Sora remembered that he had won and without realizing, he said, “Hell yeah!”
“What?” Conner got up, startled. Sora said hurriedly, “Sorry, Conner, didn’t mean to wake you.”
“No, I’m glad you did,” Conner said, wiping the drool off his mouth. “You woke up faster than the doctors expected.”
“How long was I out?”
“Around ten hours. It’s pretty late in the night now. Wait, you must be hungry. I’ll ask a nurse to get you something.”
Sora groaned, “Please, anything but that! I hate the hospital food. They’ll try restricting us from eating all the good stuff.” Conner shrugged and ran out of the door. Sora glanc
ed around. He noticed that the beds around him were filled up as well. But the lights were too dim for him to recognize them. He suddenly remembered something very important.
He staggered as he got out of the bed and searched for the switch to turn the lights on. After fumbling with them for a moment, the room was bright once again.
Sora spotted Vikram lying down in the bed opposite his. Vishal Raju was snoozing on the chair next to him. There were two more beds filled up; Zack and Jake, both of them bandaged up just as much as Sora was. Katie, who was also asleep on the chair next to Zack’s bed, woke up because of the lights. She rubbed her eyes and then noticed Sora staring.
“Sora! You woke up? Are you okay?”
“I’m swell. But that doesn’t matter. Who won?”
“You did. Didn’t you know that?”
“Not my fight! I mean Zack and Jake’s!”
“It was a good fight.” Sora turned to see Vishal getting to his feet as well. “Those guys were amazing. It was almost as good as yours and Vikram’s fight.”
“How is he?” Sora asked anxiously. Vishal smiled simply. “He’s quite tough, you know. There’s no serious injury left. You really did a number on him though.”
Sora nodded. “That’s good. Anyway, you guys didn’t answer me. Who won the fight?”
Vishal glanced at the unconscious Lucifer’s Fall contractors and said, “It was a strange fight. But nobody could argue about the result. I still have a hard time believing it.”
Katie nodded in agreement. Sora couldn’t bear it anymore.
“Just tell me who won already!”
“The winner was Jake Tyler.”
Sora replayed the video again. But the more he saw it, the less could he believe it. Cold sweat ran down his back. Jake was far stronger than he had ever imagined.
He watched the television screen in awe, as Zack first successfully struck Jake with his blue flames. But after that, Zack was completely dominated. The flames he shot at Jake suddenly backfired. Anybody, who did not know that Jake was a psychic contractor, would think that he was an amazingly strong fire contractor.
Jake actually managed to control the flames and use it as his own. Zack might not have been too badly affected because his body was adapted to the flames, but he was still hurt.
Then came the queerest part of the fight.
Jake managed to get about five meters close to Zack when he shot a green orb from his fingers straight at Zack.
Zack covered his face and screamed. And then he flopped back and fell to the floor. Jake clutched his burns and raised his fist as the perplexed judge pointed his flag at him.
Sora had no idea what that strange green orb was or what it did. But he did know this; there was no way he could win if he didn’t find out what it was.
“Still trying to figure out how to beat Jake?”
Kai walked into Sora’s hotel room. Sora finally switched off the TV and lay back on his bed.
“It’s only that one move. Otherwise, I’ve pretty much figured him out.”
Kai settled on the couch next to the bed and said, “Don’t be so sure. Jake has managed to hide most of his techniques from you. You’ll never know whether he has a few more tricks up his sleeve. Take the fight with Stella Blight for starters.”
Kai picked up an apple from the table as Sora asked, “What about that fight? I’m sure he used the same technique on her as well.” Kai took a big bite off the apple and said, “I’m not talking about the finisher here. I meant the fight in itself. I’m sure you noticed something you found strange.”
Sora tried recollecting everything he could about the fight. His eyes went wide.
“Jake didn’t have a scratch on him at all. He didn’t have to use too much of his ki either!”
Kai grinned and took another bite. He said, “Stella Blight is no easy opponent to face for you lot. And she’s not so bad as to miss hitting Jake in each of her attacks. And mind you, Jake isn’t that fast either. And against Zack, he wasn’t struck more than once. Most of Zack’s blue flames, despite being homing, did not hit their target even when they weren’t thrown back at him.”
Sora had to agree it was pretty odd.
“Well, enjoy trying to find out yourself.”
Sora glanced up at Kai. “You’re not going to help me?”
Kai took the final bite as he got up to leave and said, “Now, that wouldn’t be fair for Jake, would it? I can’t play favourites when it comes to my juniors. I’ve given you a hint, which would be more than enough. I have to head to the palace now anyway.”
“Isn’t betting on Jake during his fight with Zack called favouritism?”
Kai didn’t say anything as he waved and exited the room. Sora sighed and slumped back onto his bed. He glanced out of the window to see the walls of the palace not too far away. The morning sunlight lit his face.
Sora didn’t get any brainstorms then, so he figured a walk around the city might give him a few ideas. There was nobody in the hotel anyway. It was New Year’s Eve after all.
Sora pocketed Conner’s memory card, which contained Jake’s fight’s video as he stepped out.
The first place Sora wanted to go to was the market place. But sadly, he could not find Rose anywhere. Dejected, he strolled through the streets when someone called out to him.
It was Conner. He was sitting in a cafe with his laptop. Sora approached him and asked, “Hey Conner, don’t you ever let go of your laptop?”
“Not if I can help it,” Conner said, smiling. “What are you doing here alone, anyway?”
“Just a walk. Sean and Jake are somewhere in the city while Katie is in the infirmary with Zack, who seems to be getting better. And all the S ranks were invited to some party in the palace. So I’m just wandering around. What are you doing anyway?”
Conner smiled cunningly. “Hacking into a few open systems for fun.”
Sora raised his eyebrows.
“I’m kidding, Sora. I actually came across some strange encrypted code while breaking through some company’s firewall. I’m not doing anything bad,” Conner retorted, as Sora stared at him. “I noticed the firewall was uncommonly strong, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to have a few goes at cracking it. But I only managed to find a single file there. And it was heavily encrypted. I’m trying to break through the codes.”
Sora said cautiously, “Don’t do anything too dangerous. And I wanted to ask, did you have any luck in finding our anonymous friend?”
Conner shook his head. “Whoever it was, he must have been one very skilled hacker or is heavily protected. Every time I think I’m close to triangulating his position, the servers keep changing. It’s almost virtually impossible to find him. And if I try to force through the server changing codes, I’ll be discovered.”
Sora nodded. “Keep low then. I have a gut feeling that things won’t be pretty if we’re discovered.”
Sora ordered a milkshake as he leaned back on his chair. Conner eyed Sora and asked, “So, how is it going for you?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re trying to figure out Jake’s technique, aren’t you?”
Sora sighed again. “No luck. I’ve wracked my brain all morning trying to figure it out. But I feel like I’m forgetting something very important. It’s different from his psychic knockout, where he needs physical contact.”
“You’re in deep trouble unless you do. I checked the odds on the Internet. It looks like Jake is the favorite to win it.”
“Oh yeah?” Sora asked. “And who did you bet on?”
Conner winked and said, “I have a small feeling that you can pull it off. Hopefully, that feeling isn’t some illusion.”
Sora laughed, but slowly, it turned to a look of concern. He sat up straight and asked Conner, “Do you need your memory card any time soon?”
“No, you can have it for now. What’s the matter, Sora?”
Sora got to his feet. “I think my luck is starting to shine a bit now. Thanks Conner. I need to
head to the infirmary now.”
Sora ran towards the coliseum. Conner was startled. “You’re welcome… for whatever…”
Sora burst into the infirmary door. Katie jumped to her feet.
“Sora! You scared me! What are you doing here?”
“There’s something I need to confirm before my fight against Jake. How is Zack, by the way?”
Katie sat back on the chair saying, “He’s fine. Just sleeping.” Zack was snoring a little as he clutched his pillow tightly between his arms. Sora wondered for a moment whether it was his substitute for his teddy bear. But he didn’t have the time to ponder over it.
Sora stormed past Zack’s bed and headed to the bed which had its covers drawn.
Sora pulled the curtains apart. Stella Blight was sitting on her bed, while her maid was combing her hair. The maid screamed, “How dare you! This is Ms. Blight’s personal bed! Do you know the consequences of what you have done! I’m going to call the guards right away unless you–”
“Lady! You can sue me and sentence me to death for all I care!” Sora shouted over her voice, silencing her immediately. He turned to Stella, who was staring at him and bowed awkwardly and said, “I apologize for my actions, but there is something I have to ask you at all costs.”
Stella observed Sora for a few seconds and then said, “It must be something very important, if the tournament finalist himself barges into my private room like this.”
Sora nodded. To his surprise, Stella smiled and asked, “How can I help you?”
The maid stared in stupefaction. Sora ignored her and said, “It’s about your fight with Jake.”
Stella’s face fell for a second. She looked down and said, “I’m sorry. But I understand very little about that fight myself. I’m afraid there is very little I can tell you about it.”
“Have you seen the fight on video, Ms. Blight?”
Stella was taken aback a little by the question. “No. I just woke up a few hours ago. But why do you ask?” Sora showed her Conner’s memory card and said, “I think you should have a look. There’s something I want to confirm with you after you’ve seen the fight… at least how everybody else saw it.”
Contractor: The Legendary Contract of Vento Page 34
