Water (Buryoku Book 3)

by Aaron Oster

  The explosion of force was massive, rocking the entire area and blowing the Elemental’s arm off to the shoulder. It reeled back, other arm flailing as it tried to recover, and in that instant, Aika saw her opening. Despite the fear she held for Roy’s wellbeing, she focused everything she had left into the staff in her hand. It glowed white as her Qi flowed into it, suffusing the weapon with power.

  She then pulled her arm back and hurled the staff directly at the Elemental’s unprotected back. At the same time, she dashed forward, summoning her Containment technique and holding it in place, right before the activation. Just as she’d expected, the Elemental, despite reeling from Roy’s explosive attack, turned just enough to avoid the attack to its Core.

  However, Aika had predicted that and, thus, had aimed slightly to the right. The Elemental’s other arm was sliced off as Aika’s staff blurred through the shoulder, leaving the Elemental all but defenseless for just a split-second. Its other arm was already reforming, the creature turning to face her, but it was just a second too late. Aika let out a yell and slammed her palm into the Elemental’s unprotected chest.

  Her Containment technique injected into its body and wrapped around the Core, cutting it off from its surroundings, including its power source. Without preamble or showmanship, the Elemental’s body collapsed. The Core, now held in Aika’s Containment technique, dropped neatly into her open palm.

  She let out a long shuddering breath, then sagged, allowing her shoulder to drop but forcing herself to remain on her feet. Roy was lying near the exit, and the glowing Core in her hand was the obvious key. Limping over to the indentation, Aika slammed the Core into it, releasing her Containment technique at the same time. The water around her surged briefly, but as soon as the Core was placed into the stone, it fell back down, remaining still.

  A bright blue glow began to spread across the stone, flowing outward from the Core and painting it in bright light. Aika staggered back, moving to where Roy still lay on the ground.

  “How are you doing?” she asked, crouching down next to him and wincing at the pain.

  In answer, Roy simply shook his head, seemingly unable to speak. It was clear by the way he looked that he was in very bad shape. His entire side was caved in and soaked in blood, his right arm hung limp and blackened at his side, and his entire body looked to be cooked from the inside. And still, he seemed to be channeling Essence. He was probably doing this to keep himself going until they could find a healer, though judging by the way he looked, Aika knew it was far too late for that. She wasn’t going to let that show, not after all he’d done.

  “Well, then. I’d better get you up so we can leave this hellhole,” she said, forcing false cheer into her voice.

  She leaned down, sliding her arms under his armpits and straightened, hoisting him halfway off the ground. He let out a low groan as the bleeding in his side intensified, but there was little Aika could do about that. Roy was much taller than her, and the only way she could carry him was in a position that would undoubtedly hurt his ribs even more.

  Aika herself would also be covered in blood, but she didn’t care about that. Roy had saved her life with his last attack, and she wouldn’t dishonor him by leaving him here to die alone. She grunted, feeling his knee flare up as she got a good grip under one of his knees, hoisting him onto her shoulders. It was a very awkward carry, especially seeing as he was so bulky and she was so slim.

  Her shoulders barely gave her enough purchase to keep him in the air, but Aika did what she had to do. The stone covering the exit vanished in a flash of light, leaving a swirling rainbow portal in its place.

  “Just hang on for a little longer,” she whispered, feeling her heart breaking as she spoke. “We’re going home.”

  Roy didn’t respond, remaining limp as he continued to bleed all over her shoulders. Aika trudged forward, water splashing beneath her steps as she walked directly into the rainbow light. It was different than exiting a Dungeon, because as soon as she stepped into it, her body locked into place and the world around her began to move.

  Rainbow-colored light flashed around her, and Aika began to feel a rushing sensation, as though they were moving at great speeds. Then, a shock ran through her body and she screamed as her Core was forced wide. Light Essence poured into her, forcing her Core to near-bursting. Twice, she felt herself advance, then had her Core stuffed to the brim. The rushing sensation continued and Aika felt as though she were about to vomit, but it wasn’t over.

  The Essence in her Core began to change, turning to Qi, even as more Essence replaced it. She did vomit when that happened, emptying what little remained in her stomach into the rainbow light. She could feel Roy twitching and writhing on her shoulder but was physically sick once again as the rushing continued. Then, all at once, it stopped, and Aika found herself standing in an empty room.

  She swayed on her feet for a few moments before finally toppling to the ground, dropping Roy in the process. She lay there, groaning and trying to recover from the horrific experience of having her Core violated like that. It was completely stuffed with Light Qi and bursting at the seams. She had a feeling that if she looked down, she’d see a Green-Belt, complete with five blue stripes.

  Despite the pain, blood, and dizziness, Aika knew that Roy didn’t have much time left. She needed to be with him when he died. She needed to hold his hand and tell him how she felt. Aika couldn’t allow Roy to die without the knowledge that someone loved him. He knew she cared about him, but never in his life had he experienced what love truly was, and Aika was sure now about how she felt.

  They’d spent so much time together, learned so much, and had been so many places. He’d shown her a world she could not have imagined and displayed the honor and bravery of those ten times his rank and power. Someone like that did not deserve to die this way, not alone.

  The world swam as Aika forced herself to her hands and knees, feeling her stomach roil once again. There was nothing left in her stomach, so she ended up dry heaving for several moments before her equilibrium returned. Tears were threatening at the corners of her eyes, yet Aika did not allow them to fall. There would be time for mourning later. Now, she had to honor what he’d done.

  I can’t let this happen. I need to be strong, for Roy. I need to…

  Aika lifted her head, and her thoughts came to a screaming halt. She stared for several long seconds, wondering if she were imagining what was standing before her. Two shining Torii gates, one Green and one Blue, stood side by side. It took her brain several more seconds to realize what this meant, and when she did, a strangled cry left her lips.

  She staggered to her feet, feeling the tears coming now, despite her best efforts to keep them at bay. Roy was lying on the ground, his limbs splayed awkwardly at his sides, and his eyes closed. His chest rose and fell, though judging by how shallow his breathing was, he didn’t have much time.

  “We really have to stop doing this,” she whispered as she kneeled next to him.

  Roy didn’t reply as Aika smoothed his hair back. Then, she leaned down, placing a kiss in the center of his forehead.

  “I’ll see you on the other side.”

  A single tear fell from her cheek, landing on Roy’s face before Aika grabbed him and hurled him through the Green gate. The joy she felt when the gate vanished almost robbed her of her ability to think straight. However, she knew that she was in a bad spot, too. Despite her Core being stuffed with Qi, she was close to dropping. But, with the Blue Torii gate shining before her, she knew that she would be alright.

  Even if she weren’t ready, even if she failed, the Trial would heal her as she entered. And, when she emerged, Roy would be waiting here for her, completely healed. It didn’t matter to her if he passed or failed. The fact that he’d be alive was more than enough. With that thought in mind, Aika limped forward, entering the shining Blue gate.

  Had she gone just ten seconds later, she’d have heard the explosion, but nothing of the real world could enter the Trials
, not even the screams of the dying.

  41

  “Drive it towards the squalor sector!” Ikari yelled as she and Hermit danced about the Cavern Beast.

  To say that things had not gone well would have been the understatement of the century. And Hermit would know, because he’d been alive for many. His efforts to curtail the Beast on his own had been mostly unsuccessful and even once he was joined by Ikari, they hadn’t been able to stop it before it reached the city.

  With so many Cores and Essence for the creature to feed upon, it had ignored them upon reaching the walls and merely barreled straight through, and now, they were busy trying to keep the Beast from rampaging through the most populated areas by driving it away.

  Hermit slammed a powerful blow into the Cavern Beast’s side, sending it reeling. It toppled sideways, crushing a building and roaring in anger. The waves of distortion that rippled through the air sent cracks spreading across the sky. The Beast was growing in power, now near the peak of Brown. The number of people it had killed upon entering the city, and in the minute he and Ikari had needed to come back after being teleported away was staggering.

  Thousands had been devoured, feeding the Cavern Beast’s endless appetite and propelling it forward in power and destructive capabilities. Even now, as Ikari slammed into it, Darkness Reiki cloaking her body, Hermit could feel a wave of low, burning anger towards his sister. She could have warned the people to evacuate, gotten them to at least move deeper into the city. They’d had ample warning, well over an hour, which would have been more than enough time to clear the area.

  Instead, she’d allowed her pride to win out, and thousands had paid the price. When this was all over, the two of them were going to have a serious talk about the price of leadership and gross negligence. The sheer callousness in which she treated the lives of their clan members, people she was supposed to protect, was appalling and went against everything he stood for. For now, they had bigger problems to deal with.

  Ikari’s attack drove Time Ripper through the streets, demolishing a dozen buildings and killing several more people who were still evacuating. Much as he hated what she was doing, Hermit couldn’t fault her for the direction. They were now trying to do damage control, which meant that the lives of a few were no longer as important as the clan as a whole. Even if they had to wipe out the entire squalor sector to do so, he would, and without hesitation.

  This entire mess could have been avoided if Ikari had simply come out with him to deal with the Cavern Beast. Then, it had barely been above Brown, and the two of them could have destroyed the creature together. No one would have had to die. But politics had kept her in the city. She dared not abandon it for fear that one of the other Sovereigns took it as a sign of weakness and moved in to claim it as their own.

  “Your entire system is broken,” the Core said as Hermit slammed into the creature and sent it flying once more.

  “You don’t have to tell me things I already know,” Hermit snapped.

  He didn’t mean to be rude or lose his temper, but the massive loss of life weighed on him in a way it never had before. Though his Core remained pure, burning with an orange-red light, he felt as though it should be bathed in crimson, coated with all the blood of the innocent people he could not save.

  “Honor demands that you do all you can,” the Core said. “And as you can see, your Core and body remain whole. You have not sacrificed your Ideal, no matter what you might think. Do not shoulder the blame for others’ mistakes.”

  Hermit grunted in response, then rolled to one side as a blast of distortion ripped through the air. Ikari was caught in the blast, though her Armorer technique soaked up the damage without leaving her with so much as a scratch. Time Ripper got back to its feet, shaking rubble and from its body as it glared up at them.

  “This is taking too long,” Ikari muttered, then her Core flared with power.

  “No!” Hermit yelled, but it was too late.

  The Conqueror technique of a Sovereign was unleashed in a cloud of Darkness. Powered by Reiki, all who stood within its path were turned to dust. Thousands more died in an instant as the technique was unleashed, and though most of its power was directed at the Cavern Beast, a good deal washed back into the city.

  Death Mist was Ikari’s signature move. Clouds of Darkness billowed from her body, destroying all in its path. As an Essence technique, it poisoned the lungs of those who inhaled it. When used with Qi, it poisoned their entire bodies and with Chakra, their Cores. When used with Reiki, her mist turned anything living in its path to dust, and the range of the attack could blanket entire territories.

  Hermit used his own Conqueror technique then, the bright fiery light burning away to counteract the poison and stop the spread. His technique was far different than Ikari’s and much more destructive to property. A massive section of the city wall vanished in an instant as he attacked, engulfing the thousand-foot wall in a violet fire for an instant before it was blown outward.

  The backdraft of the powerful attack sucked Ikari’s mist out along with it, sending it to ravage the surrounding plant life instead of the people here. He’d been forced to use his Essence technique, as using Reiki would have destroyed the entire city and everyone in it.

  “What the hell was that for?” Ikari demanded. “I almost had it!”

  “And you would have killed hundreds of thousands in the process,” Hermit said grimly. “You couldn’t even be bothered to drive it all the way to the squalor sector as you yourself ordered only a minute ago and unleashed an attack that would have devastated half the city.”

  “They should be honored to die for their clan,” Ikari said. “As should you!”

  Before their argument could escalate, the Cavern Beast attacked, blasting the air with its distortion beam once more. It had emerged from the attack with a good deal of damage but was still very much alive. Half of its flesh was eaten away from Ikari’s attack, and judging by the Darkness Reiki eating its way to the Core, this Beast didn’t have much longer before it dropped.

  Still, Hermit knew that if it weren’t put down, it could very well recover. An advancement now would not only heal it, but it would make it more powerful than either of them. Cavern Beasts did not play by the rules of regular people, and their strength was comparable to a natural disaster. If you had the power and resources, you could stop it, but once it gained enough momentum, all you could do was get out of the way and hope the damage wasn’t too great.

  Ikari shot him a glare before her body was cloaked in burning Darkness, so bright and yet so dark at the same time that it hurt his head just looking at her.

  “We’ll talk about this later!” she yelled, then dove down and slammed into the Beast, driving it out through the hole in the wall and into the area beyond.

  Hermit watched for just a few seconds, feeling the hot anger that once defined him trying to bubble to the surface. The old him, Hakai, would never have taken a threat like that lying down. Ikari had gone far too long without being challenged, and the power had gone to her head. So much so that she saw others as nothing more than insects to be crushed underfoot at her pleasure.

  He could sense neither Roy nor Aika anywhere in the city, though he could feel Ferry in the main compound, hunkering down in a small, underground room. He didn’t know what Ikari had done to his students, but as soon as this Beast was dead, he was going to wring the truth out of her. If this was how the clan was now run, perhaps they would be better off if the Herald clan came in and took over.

  “You have to do something before she decides that the Beast is taking too long to die and launches another mass-scale attack,” the Core said, snapping him from his thoughts.

  This, more than anything, tempered his anger and brought him back to reality.

  “Yes,” he replied. “She cannot be allowed to kill anyone else.”

  Hermit’s body was engulfed in a burning red and orange light as he used his own Full-body technique, this time tapping into his Reiki. It was
time to end this, once and for all.

  ***

  Doragon, adopted member of the Herald clan, slunk through the deserted streets of Light City. Sounds of fighting and powerful techniques echoed from the distance, but in this section of the city, where the citizens felt safest, there wasn’t so much as a sound. The knowledge that the Itachi clan now had two Sovereigns was troubling indeed and something that his own Sovereign needed to know.

  For now, though, he had a mission to complete, and there was no better time to sneak into the main family’s compound than when all their members were occupied with evacuating citizens to the deeper parts of the city.

  Doragon had spent the last several days in the city, covertly gathering information on new arrivals. He’d also heard about the three strangers and a Beast allowed entrance to the main compound. Even stranger, according to those who liked to gossip, was the oddity of one in particular. He was a large man, who was built in a way that was foreign to this part of the world.

  If they’d ever seen someone from the Herald clan, they’d have recognized him immediately, or at least, placed his birthplace in the vicinity of Mount Moore, the homeland of the Heralds. If Leroy had been here to see the Sovereign, he suspected that she would have known, though why they’d been allowed entrance at all was a mystery in and of itself.

  Still, Doragon wouldn’t sneeze at his good fortune, and with Light City under attack, he now had the chance he’d been waiting for.

  Slipping silently through the open gates, he slunk towards the castle, scenting the air as he went. All he could smell at first was the smoke and death from the opposite side of the city, but as he neared the castle, something else tickled his senses. Blood. And of the sort that smelled very familiar.