by Aaron Oster
“Really? Hermit doesn’t strike me as the legendary type.”
“I know what you mean,” Aika said with a grin. “But when he was younger, he demolished thousands of smaller clans along with his sister and brother and consolidated them all into the massive clan they are today.”
“You’d think they’d have more faith in him staying alive if he was such a legend,” Roy mused.
“He hasn’t been seen in over three hundred years,” Aika said.
“And how do you know all of this information again?” Roy asked suspiciously. “And don’t tell me you ‘overheard it.’”
Before Aika could reply, they came to the end of the corridor, the doors already swinging inward to reveal the room beyond. She mouthed the word ‘later’ at him, then proceeded into the room, with Roy following curiously at her heels.
“Good, at least you’re on time,” said a rich feminine voice as they entered.
Roy’s eyes were immediately drawn to the woman, sitting on an elaborate throne-like chair, with one leg folded over the other. She was easily the most beautiful woman Roy had seen in his entire life, and not by a short margin. Every facet of this woman seemed perfect in every way possible.
From the proportions of her body to the shape of her face, she was beautiful. She had completely flawless and smooth skin, and slanted almond eyes, a perfect and pert nose, and full lips. The 5th Dan Gray-Belt seemed to radiate a dark, ominous presence, yet fit perfectly with the woman’s overall look. Her skin was lighter than Hermit’s, so much so that she appeared more tanned than dark-skinned, which Roy found to be quite odd — not that he really cared, as he was too busy trying to keep his jaw from hitting the floor.
“Roy!” Aika hissed, jabbing him in the ribs hard enough to bruise.
“What?” he asked, snapped from the spell the Sovereign had cast over him and clutching at his ribs.
Aika motioned with her head to bow, which Roy only now realized that he’d completely forgotten to do, entranced as he’d been. He could feel the flush creeping up in his cheeks, and oddly enough, noticed the same, if somewhat lesser, effect that the Sovereign was having on Aika. He briefly wondered why Hermit didn’t have a similar effect on either of them, but then the Sovereign began to speak.
“My brother says he’s brought you here for training, and since he’ll be gone for a few days, it has somehow become my responsibility to teach you in his absence.”
Her voice was so smooth, rich, and melodic that Roy found himself having a hard time concentrating. The pain in his side from Aika’s earlier jab gave him something to focus on other than the strange effects of the powerful Itachi leader, so he honed in on that. The fact that he was still bowing and couldn’t see her also helped immensely.
“I do not think either of you are worth his time,” the woman continued, a note of scorn entering her voice. “To be so pitifully weak at your ages is a shame, both to your clans and my brother. If it were up to me, I’d cast you out and never think twice. However, I gave my brother my word that I would see you trained in his absence, and as the leader of this clan, I keep my word.”
Roy felt a small shiver run down his spine as something swept over him, piercing into his very soul and laying him bare. He didn’t much enjoy the feeling and squirmed in discomfort as it coursed through him. However, he didn’t dare move or say so much as a word. For one, he was too scared, and for another, he physically couldn’t.
Something had seized hold of his limbs, locking them in place and keeping him there. He heard the light pat of soft slippers and the rustle of cloth as the Itachi leader walked towards them. His heart began to race, his mind imagining a mixture of horrible outcomes that could come from this. He couldn’t move and was in the presence of a woman who’d just admitted to wanting them gone. That was hardly something that made him feel safe or welcome, and the cold tone in her voice had chilled him down to his very soul.
A shadow fell over him, and Roy suddenly found his body straightening, forcing his head up until he was meeting the shorter woman’s dark brown eyes. They seemed to be two fathomless pools, pulling Roy in deeper and deeper the longer he stared. The woman’s lips turned down ever so slightly. She then moved out of his line of sight, and no matter how he struggled, Roy didn’t have the strength to so much as twitch.
Finally, the woman moved back into their line of sight as she fetched something from within her robes.
“I did say I’d train you, but as you are now, you’re both far too weak to even survive. Not to worry, though. I have the perfect test for you, something to give you the little nudge you need.”
Roy didn’t know what was going on, but by the way the small device in her hands began glowing, a bright blue light that started cascading over the entire room, he had a very bad feeling about this.
The Sovereign smiled then, a display of perfect, white teeth that sent Roy’s head spinning, and she tossed the glowing blue object onto the floor between them. There was a loud whooshing sound, and then, a literal whirlpool of twisting water formed in the ground, widening and deepening as the woman continued to talk.
“You’ll find the Trials of Water more than challenging enough, I should think,” she said, taking a step back as the whirlpool continued to grow, Roy now feeling the very edges brushing up against his bare feet.
He began to truly panic then, trying with all his might to break free as the water washed over his ankles, soaking into his robes, and beginning to drag him forward.
“What’s going on out there?” Geon demanded. “It feels like we’re suddenly drowning in Water Essence!”
“The Sovereign just made a whirlpool in the middle of the room!” Roy yelled back. “I can’t move, and it’s getting bigger!”
“Well, I guess it was nice knowing you,” Geon said.
“Why do you always go there?”
“Because you have a nasty habit of always getting into situations where I’d assume death as the outcome.”
“There is a clear path out,” the Sovereign said, interrupting his conversation. “If you make it out alive, I’ll definitely be impressed. Good luck. Oh, and don’t forget to hold your breath.”
The water was at waist level now, and Roy could feel his footing go out from under him, his body toppling backward into the whirling cyclone. He immediately clamped his mouth shut, closing his eyes and praying that this didn’t kill him. He could feel a tremendous pull coming from the center of the whirlpool, and although he fought with all his might to escape, his body still refused to move.
Around him, the water grew ever darker, as he was dragged downward. The last thing he saw was the outline of the woman standing above him before the world turned black.
19
Roy felt his lungs begin to burn, just as his limbs unfroze. He immediately began to thrash towards the surface, ejecting bursts of Power Essence from his hands and feet using the Exploding Fist to do so. Unfortunately, he was unable to breathe, so the technique was greatly weakened. Still, it propelled him forward at far greater speeds than he could have otherwise managed on his own.
The water around him was still very dark, and even as he thrashed toward the surface, robes weighing him down, Roy could feel his lungs straining for air. The more he pushed, the harder it became, but Roy continued swimming upward, his eyes wide open now and looking for even a glimmer of light.
After a few more seconds of swimming, the water above began to visibly brighten, and Roy pushed harder. Now that there was a goal in sight, new life flooded his limbs. The robe dragged at his body, but he knew there was no time to shed it as his vision was already beginning to cloud. Stars were popping before them, and his lungs felt ready to burst.
Another blast of Power Essence displaced the water around him, throwing him ever upwards. He could now see the clear and bright blue water. However, at the rate he was going, Roy knew he wouldn’t make it. Desperately, he clawed upward, trying to force his sluggish brain to think of something.
Then, it came t
o him—his Shockwave. Roy reached for his Core, trying to activate the technique, but without the proper breath and with his lungs practically bursting, he couldn’t muster the concentration to use the skill. Had this been a minute ago, he may have had a chance of succeeding. Now, though, he was on the verge of drowning.
Geon was oddly quiet, though Roy couldn’t spare the time to think about him right now. He kicked out a few more times, seeing the surface just feet above him. It was hard to measure distance underwater, but he knew he was close. Roy kicked one more time, and then his lungs finally gave out.
A spray of bubbles billowed up around him in an explosive wave, but before Roy could inhale, his Core pulsed once. Then, a massive shock ran through his body as it expanded, dispelling the mass of water in a bubble. Roy gasped, getting in a half-breath before the water came rushing back in, but it was enough. With the little air he’d managed to gather, and new strength flooding his limbs, Roy pushed upward with one last kick, activating his Movement technique.
The Shockwave launched him upward with such speed that Roy was forced to close his eyes, but within just a couple of seconds, Roy felt himself break the surface. His eyes snapped open, even as he took in a long, shuddering breath. He had a couple of seconds to see the landscape – or lack thereof – before coming back down and splashing into the water once more.
This time, it only took a couple of seconds to break the surface of the water, leaving Roy to tread in place as he tried to get his bearings. All he could see in any direction was water. It didn’t have the rough waves of the ocean, but the short, rippling waves of a large lake. That meant that there had to be land nearby, but just how far would he need to swim to get there, and what about Aika?
He knew she’d ended up in here with him, but he didn’t know where exactly she was. Roy wasn’t too worried about her, as she was far tougher than he was, and Light Essence lent itself to speed far more than Power did. Plus, Aika had access to Light Qi, which would have gotten her to the surface far sooner than him. Her body could probably last a lot longer without air, as well. All he really wanted to do was find her, as he had no idea how difficult this area would be.
“Geon?” he asked tentatively.
“What?”
Roy felt a huge sense of relief when the Dungeon Core answered. His lack of communication over the last few minutes had been alarming.
“Any idea where we are?”
“Well, we’re not dead, so that’s nice,” Geon said. “All I can really see is water and Water Essence in every direction. I guess this is as good a time as any to see how well you can use your Spirit Sense.”
Roy let out a long breath but knew Geon was right. First of all, Aika might be closer than he realized, and his Spirit Sense would help him locate her. Even if she wasn’t super close, land would have far more variety where Essence was involved and would give him a direction.
Not having much choice, Roy closed his eyes and began to expand his senses outward. It was tentative at first, just a tendril of his spirit, just in case there was something dangerous nearby that would feel his touch and come to investigate. Then, he began to push further, expanding his range of vision in an outward bubble. At first, all he could sense was the blue Water Essence, permeating the entire area in a massive cloud.
Soon, though, he began to feel something else. Above the water, mixing with the blue Essence at first, and coming into greater clarity the further up he stretched his senses, he could feel the flow of Wind Essence. The green energy was wafting along in a single direction and sending small ripples across the water. Roy’s brows knitted together as he began to hit the limits of what he could reach, and all without finding a space to land.
“You need to keep pushing,” Geon said, as he felt him straining at his bonds. “You just broke through to 2nd Dan, which means that your Core couldn’t be filled any further. On the level of Orange-Belts, you’re probably one of the strongest in the world right now, and the range you have is pitiful compared to even some Yellow-Belts.”
“Wow, thanks for the pep-talk,” Roy said, pushing harder.
“I’m here to help,” Geon replied.
While this would normally have annoyed him, Roy was glad for the company. As differently as he and Geon thought, he and the Core still shared a singular goal right now, and that was staying alive. Hermit’s sister had called this place the Trials of Water, right before he’d been dragged in.
His previous experience with Trials told him that there would undoubtedly be monsters, Beasts, constructs, golems, and every other imaginable creature under the sun. Seeing as it was also called the Trials of Water, he really hoped that there might at least be some land mixed in there.
As his body was continuously rocked back and forth by the gentle waves, the light of the sun glinting down and warming his body, Roy found himself falling into an odd, trancelike state. His breathing calmed, his worries abated, and his mind relaxed. Slowly, the barriers that his senses refused to pass began to fade, allowing a few tendrils of power through. Normally, Roy would be tempted to rush, perhaps throwing himself against the barriers for all he was worth. But here, surrounded on all sides by the tranquil Essence of Water, Roy simply allowed himself to relax.
Soon, he began to feel the Light Essence projected downward on the water’s surface, easily picking it out amid the sea of blue. Then, as his senses continued to expand, Roy finally felt it. There, on the very edges of what he could feel, there was a small line of golden Power Essence. As soon as he felt it, Roy immediately locked onto it, turning in the water and angling himself towards it.
Over the past year, he’d learned a lot about the various ways in which Power Essence could be generated. He’d coincidentally learned one of the ways while fighting a giant Crab Beast.
Roy activated his Shockwave, throwing himself forward into a breaststroke and allowing his legs to do most of the work. While the Movement technique was designed to be used on land, the same principles held true in the water, and though he couldn’t move as quickly, it was still far faster than he could have moved using regular means.
Water fountained behind him in a spray as Roy rocketed towards the source of the Power Essence, slowly feeling a small line of Earth Essence turning into a small mass.
“Looks like you’ve finally got the hang of this,” Geon said as Roy continued pushing himself.
“Yeah. I guess I have you to thank for that,” he admitted,
Truthfully, it was only because of Geon’s teasing that he’d managed to expand his senses as far as he had, and even if it were only by a few hundred more yards, it had still been enough. The water continued cascading around them as Roy kicked mightily, feeling the weight with each kick, as well as the resistance of the water.
This was far more challenging than using his technique on land, and even though he could burn more Essence at a faster rate now, both his body and channels were starting to feel it. He still hadn’t recovered from his ordeal from the previous day, and the longer he pushed, the more he hurt. Finally, when the land began to come into view as a small dot on the horizon, Roy was forced to let go of his technique and stop to recover.
“Are you hurting so bad that a half-mile swim winded you so much?”
“Yes,” Roy replied, his chest rising and falling as he fought to regain his cycling rhythm. “In case you’ve forgotten, I almost died twice in the last twenty-four hours. I think I’m entitled to a bit of exhaustion.”
“This is why Dungeon Cores are so superior,” Geon said. “We don’t have any squishy flesh bags to slow us down.”
“Yeah, but you also can’t go anywhere, or ever leave your Dungeon.”
“I did.”
“And now you’re stuck in a squishy flesh bag as a result,” Roy finished, turning his attention back to the landmass.
There was something about it that was bothering him, though he wasn’t entirely sure what it was. He was recovered enough to continue swimming, though he now took it a bit easier. Instead o
f using his Movement technique, he simply ejected Essence from his hands and feet. This propelled him forward at a faster speed, all without causing him the same pain that using a technique would.
The closer they drew to the landmass, the more worried Roy became. He’d thought he might have imagined it before, but now that his Spirit Sense had expanded – or as Geon put it, gotten to the level of a Base Yellow-Belt – he was fairly confident he was correct. Still, he didn’t want to jump to any conclusions. At least, not until he reached the landmass.
Another half-hour of swimming had Roy walking on the bottom of the riverbed, allowing him to rest his arms and leg muscles for the first time since he’d been forced here.
“It feels so good to be on solid ground!” Roy exclaimed as he walked onto the sandy beach, already pulling at the Power Essence created by the water drifting in and out.
“By the looks of it, there isn’t much ground, though,” Geon replied.
“I know,” Roy said with a sigh, heading up the beach to a grassy hill covered in strangely shaped trees with wide leaves stretching out into a canopy.
He reached the top of the bluff in just a couple of minutes and felt his heart sink as he beheld the body of water stretching out before him.
“Can you feel any sort of end to it?” he asked hopefully.
“Not if you can’t,” Geon replied. “Remember, I’m just an extension of you. I can teach you to do things, but if it’s beyond your reach, I’m pretty much helpless.”
“I thought as much,” Roy responded dejectedly. “I still had to try, though.”
He got a mental equivalent of a nod from the Core in response, before Geon went silent, leaving him to stare out at the endless expanse of glittering water on his own. They were on an island, perhaps a hundred paces across, in the middle of what seemed to be an endless lake. He had no food – though water was plentiful – no sense of a real direction, and worst of all, Aika was nowhere to be seen.