“She’s incredible,” Sage said.
“Yeah,” Reysha said. “She’s not as strong as him, but Vyce is totally on the run from her attacks. I’m gonna have to learn that technique.”
And Tolu was closing the distance, continuing her onslaught and backing Vyce up to the edge of the ring. It looked like Sage wasn’t going to get a chance to fight him after all. Strangely, the thought didn’t sadden him.
Then, just as it looked like Tolu was going to knock Vyce from the ring, a grin tore its way across his face and he dove forward, right into the path of one of her lightning bolts, letting his barrier absorb it, and grabbed her left arm.
Tolu screamed, her body going completely rigid.
Vyce had grabbed the only part of her forearm not covered in leather. Her hair stood up, and sparks danced on the surface of her pale skin.
He was electrocuting her.
“Shit,” Daos said. “He’s got her.”
“So much for that,” the other one said.
Tolu let out a battle cry; her lips struggled until her teeth were bared, eyebrows coming together.
A sound like cracking bone filled the damp air of the cavern.
And then Vyce was flung through the air. His body kicked up a small cloud of dust when it smacked back onto the ring, one of his arms hanging off the edge.
Tolu approached him cautiously, keeping her barrier up and her palms chambered.
He got up slowly. His right arm was hanging at an unnatural angle, flopping uselessly. Vyce’s face twisted in pain and horror.
“She broke his arm,” Reysha said. “Formed a barrier around herself and sent him flying. If she were any stronger, she would have taken the whole arm with her.”
“No, that’s not it at all,” Sage said.
“Huh?”
“Her barriers are more than strong enough to remove limbs. She held back on purpose. She knows this isn’t a fight to the death.”
Vyce was breathing heavily, gritting his teeth. “You bitch! How dare you!”
Tolu did not respond; she stopped, changing her stance to a more defensive one.
“Fine,” Vyce said, chambering his palm. “You asked for this!”
His Sulen spiked, sharply, causing their peers to gasp.
White light formed in Vyce’s palm, sparking with the familiar crackle of pure Sulen. The ring rumbled, rubble dancing on the surface and stalactites falling from the ceiling high above.
Padros raised his palm and formed a barrier around the rest of the participants, and Sage saw that Geidra did the same for her subjects.
Then, Vyce leapt into the air and thrust a wave of white light at Tolu, bathing half the ring, the seats, and the entire waiting area in his Sulen. Once the light faded, the walls and the ring itself were smoldering, and Vyce landed in a crouch, a weary look in his eyes.
“There,” Vyce shouted, struggling to stand. “She’s dead!”
Daos and his buddy gasped.
Then Vyce screamed and hit the wall below the seating area, falling out of the ring.
Tolu planted her boot back down on the ring. She had kicked him when his back was turned.
“How the hell did she do that?” Daos shouted.
“I don’t know...”
They hadn’t seen her move, but Sage had. She had darted forward at the last possible moment, while Vyce was still in the air, suppressing her Sulen as he bathed half the chamber in pure Sulen so he’d think she was dead while she stayed safe on the other side of the ring. Then, when he was most vulnerable, she’d taken him out.
“I think you have to fight her next,” Reysha said, chuckling.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Sage said.
Padros raised his fist into the air. “Victory! Tolu, Daughter of Dirkus, wins.”
Sage approached the edge of the waiting area and looked down on Vyce. He was sitting there in the pit, cradling his shattered arm. His wounded eyes rose to meet Sage’s.
“What the hell are you looking at?” Vyce said.
“Disappointment,” Sage said, before turning back around and joining Reysha again.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
REYSHA
With grace and confidence, Tolu stepped down from the stone ring. The others on the waiting platform did not address her; none spoke to her or congratulated her on her victory against Padros’s shithead son.
“You did great out there,” Reysha said.
Tolu looked back at her, her silver eyes narrowing. “Thank you.”
“Why don’t you join us back here?” Reysha asked. Beside her, Sage looked surprised.
“Why?” Tolu asked.
Reysha shrugged. “Your father kind of trained us. I don’t know, that kind of makes us friends in a weird way, right?”
“No. It makes us rivals,” Tolu said.
“Same thing,” Reysha said.
Tolu hesitated, but eventually joined them. “You’re Reysha, Daughter of Yce’ro, right?”
Reysha nodded. “Yes.”
“I’m sorry about your father,” Tolu said. “The other Valier say he was a good man. Father says you have his spirit.”
“Thanks...” Reysha said, her teeth clenched. Tolu probably meant well, but she’d seen her fair share of lip service to her father’s memory. None of them actually cared.
“That technique,” Sage said. “I’ve never seen it before. You’ll have to teach us some time.”
“Father mentioned you too,” Tolu said, her eyes narrowing into a glare.
“Oh?” Sage said.
“He says that you have your father’s tenacity,” Tolu said. “That you are dangerous.”
“And what do you think?” Sage said, his shoulders going rigid, his eyebrows coming together.
She liked it when he got intense. He had a passion that few things could quiet.
“I think we’ll see before this is over,” Tolu said. “We’re to fight next.”
“Damn,” Reysha said. “Would you two lighten up? Your match isn’t coming up for a while.”
“You are right,” Tolu said, bowing to Sage and herself. “I am sorry if I offended you.”
“I’m not offended,” Sage said, crossing his arms.
“You were a little offended,” Reysha said. “You always cross your arms when you’re mad.”
“I do not,” Sage said.
“It is a gesture meant to protect oneself,” Tolu said, a faint grin forming on her face. So she could smile. Reysha had thought that particular trait was absent from her family tree.
“The next match will begin,” Padros shouted. “Reysha, Daughter of Yce’ro, versus Nelic, Grandson of Elder Delecys. Step forward and assume your positions.”
“Wish me luck,” Reysha said, winking at Sage and taking to the ring.
Nelic was no boy. Standing at nearly seven feet, he was a large, muscular man. His red eyes smoldered as he approached the ring. His black skin seemed to drink the light around him. He kept his head shaved.
Nelic bowed to Reysha and got into the standard Sulen Tukar stance. Right foot forward, palms at opposing angles. His silver brow furrowed, veins popping out on his massive skull as his Sulen rose drastically.
If she had to make a guess, they were dead even.
This wasn’t going to be easy.
“Begin!” Padros shouted, ringing the bell.
To Reysha’s surprise, Nelic leapt through the air, coming down with an axe-handle smash on her barrier that made her teeth rattle. He was relentless, smashing her barrier with fire and lightning attacks. For such a brute, she would have thought he’d be slower. She had no choice but to back away from him.
She glanced behind herself. She was several feet from the edge of the ring.
He thinks he can push me out, Reysha thought.
Then, the big bastard reached back and then swung both of his arms out, clapping his hands together and creating a piercing, shrieking sound that caused cracks to form in the ring around them. She couldn’t help but clap her h
ands over her ears. The sound made her legs weak, causing her to lurch.
“What’s the matter?” Nelic asked, smashing through her barrier and hefting her into the air by her throat. His perfect, white teeth accented his smile. His ruby eyes glowed like otherworldly jewels. “Having trouble focusing?”
The room felt like it was spinning. How the hell was he making that ear-piercing noise? What the hell kind of technique was that?
“No doubt you’ve figured out that it’s me producing this effect on you,” Nelic said. His voice was deep, oddly soothing; a grin formed on his slab of a face. Reysh’s vision was doubling; up became down. “Sulen is far more versatile than you and your friends think. It can take many forms, so long as you can visualize the effect. Your mistake was thinking too small.”
“S-shut...up!” She wanted to vomit, wanted the world to stop spinning.
She had to get control of her Sulen. It felt like it was wavering, like she was trying to stand on water.
“I’m going to throw you out of the ring now,” Nelic said. “I would say you fought well, but we both know that would be a lie.”
Nelic released her throat, grabbed her by her forearm and swung as hard as he could. A rush of wind in her hair, and she was flying through the air.
Visualize, Reysha thought.
She opened her eyes and let out a scream, forming a barrier around herself. It rang out, expanding like an explosion, slamming into the wall he’d sent her hurtling toward and stopping her momentum.
Her body fell to the ring; she felt something wet trickling from her ears as she picked herself up off the rubble strewn ring. She was bleeding.
Reysha forced herself to her feet. Her barrier was holding strong. The big guy was talking, but she couldn’t hear him. So far, her trick was winning out. The barrier was blocking his sound technique. It was almost tempting to drop her guard and listen to what he was saying, but that would be a fatal error. But if the bastard managed to break her barrier, then it would be over.
And if she couldn’t drop her barrier to attack, she’d be in trouble.
There was one chance, however.
She rushed to the center of the ring, dodging under Nelic’s massive arm as he attempted to clothesline her with a barrier strike.
Once she was in the center of the ring she crossed her arms and released a battle cry that could have rivaled the strange sounds he was making. She poured every ounce of her Sulen into her barrier. Slowly, its radius started expanding. Sweat beaded atop her brow.
This was something she’d only read about in tomes. And it was costly.
Nelic seemed to recognize what she was doing and started pounding on the weakest part of the barrier; her teeth rattled from each blow, but she screamed louder, pushed herself harder, and her barrier held.
When flailing against her barrier didn’t work, Nelic planted his feet and slammed his palms against her barrier. At first she thought he’d just try to hold it at bay.
She was wrong.
Great arcs of plasma, like the legendary cosmic lightning bolts described in their history tomes, covered her barrier, weakening it gradually. That wasn’t all it did. She felt like she was starting to cook inside her barrier.
He isn’t trying to break my barrier, she thought. He’s trying to make me faint from heat exhaustion.
Before long, her lungs couldn’t get enough air; her body felt heavy; the room was starting to fade; she fell to her knees.
Sitting there, hanging on the edge of unconsciousness, she remembered her father.
He had smiled at her the day he’d left for his assignment. Told her that she was the guardian of their meager little home, that she would have to look after Mother.
The news came later that the town he’d been assigned to had been wiped off the face of the continent. That the Shar were suspected to have found him out and eradicated every living thing in retaliation.
She swore that day that she’d find out what happened to him, that she’d make the Shar pay for killing Father.
Only, if she lost now... She’d never get the chance.
“No!” she shouted, pounding the stone with her fists and gritting her teeth. The heat was nearly unbearable and her barrier felt like it would shatter at any moment. But she couldn’t give up. Even if it killed her.
Through the blue of her barrier and the arcing plasma, she couldn’t even see Nelic anymore. But she could feel him.
She forced herself back to her feet. “I will not fall!”
Closing her eyes, she sucked in all the air she could, visualizing her body temperature cooling as if she’d just fallen into Yce Ralakar’s river. And just as she’d done hundreds of times on the Pillars of Thought above the ever-burning fires, a cooling aura spread from her feet to her head, and her breath stabilized.
Fighting against Nelic’s Sulen, she thrust her palms at him, forcing her barrier to explode and redirecting his plasma back at him. A cacophony of sound exploded around her. Electricity and gale winds swirled. She covered her face, falling back to her knees.
When she opened her eyes, Nelic was not in the ring.
“Winner!” Padros shouted. “Reysha, Daughter of Yce’ro!”
Reysha stumbled to the edge of the ring, still feeling the effects of his strange technique. Nelic was dusting himself off in the pit beneath her.
“Come to gloat?” Nelic asked, standing up.
“Not at all,” Reysha said. “I came to thank you.”
“Thank me?”
“For being a better teacher than Padros.” She smiled.
He nodded. “You are welcome.”
Reysha returned to the waiting area, shaking off the strange effects from Nelic’s attacks.
“I was worried he got you for a moment,” Sage said.
“You’re not that lucky,” Reysha said.
“Most impressive display,” Tolu said. “You might stand a chance against me. Provided your stamina holds out.”
“Umm, thanks,” Reysha said.
“The next match will begin!” Padros shouted. “Daos, Son of Elios, versus Byshun, Grandson of Elder Kanazh. Step forward and take your places.”
The thin boy with the mane of violet hair and citrine skin stepped up to the ring, followed by a boy with crimson hair and ashen skin. They both assumed their stances. Byshun took a strange stance, and the other one seemed to take the standard Sulen Tukar stance.
“The Elders seem to have quite the stake in this,” Sage said.
“I’ve never seen their grandchildren in lessons,” Reysha said, still trying to catch her breath. Every few moments, she’d have to close her eyes and focus to get the room to stop spinning.
Glancing at Tolu, she sincerely hoped she’d be able to recover before facing her next opponent.
The crackle of lightning filled the air. Daos fired lightning bolts at Byshun, and he returned the favor by getting in close, swiping his hands through the air like claws, leaving behind trails of lightning that seemed to linger like a glowing mist.
“That is because they are privately trained,” Tolu said.
“Isn’t that a bit unfair?” Sage said.
“Even your teacher, Commander Kiel, does this with his children,” Tolu said. “Wouldn’t you prefer to train your own offspring?”
Shouts rang through the air as the two boys exchanged barrier punches. Byshun dove under one of Daos’s strikes and grabbed him from behind, launching him into the air.
Daos landed and thrust his palms in a wide, ascending arc, sending out a cascading wall of flames. Byshun guarded with a fully spherical barrier.
“So far it hasn’t really mattered,” Reysha said. “This guy isn’t that impressive. I’d say they’re even.”
“That walking mountain used some pretty strange techniques,” Sage said. “No time in any of my lessons has an instructor even hinted at using Sulen to generate sound.”
“Are you saying he was taught this by Delecys?” Reysha asked, sounding a little more incredulous than
she’d intended to.
Sage nodded. “Probably to give them an edge over us in the Trials.”
He had a point. Reysha bared her teeth. If the Elders were really so concerned with the Shar, why would they hold back in their teachings? Wouldn’t it be best to teach everyone the best techniques to give them the best shot at surviving?
Unless it wasn’t about everyone’s survival...
“You are thinking of this in the wrong way,” Tolu said, perhaps observing her sneer.
“How?” Reysha said.
“Learning Sulen techniques is dangerous, no matter how old the subject undertaking the process is,” Tolu said. “We have no idea how dangerous to the user that sound technique is. The Elders are where they are because of their superior abilities; it is only natural that they would teach their own such techniques. Some would say their capabilities are generational.”
“So, you’re telling me that great Commander Kiel can’t determine which of us are worthy to take such risks on?” Sage said.
“You’re making a judgment based on one fight,” Reysha said. “One that I won.”
“Not just one,” Sage said, his eyes drifting to Tolu.
“Are you suggesting that I’ve gotten special treatment as well?” Tolu asked, chuckling.
“You tell me,” Sage said.
A shock wave rocked the ring, drawing Reysha’s attention back to the fight.
Daos’s crimson hair flashed through the air, as did Byshun’s violet mane. They landed on either side of the ring.
“It’s been fun,” Byshun said, spinning around like one of those dancers at market and shifting his feet apart. “But I’m going to end this.”
“The hell are you talking about?” Daos said.
The chamber started to rumble and Byshun’s Sulen seemed to extend at once, towering over the redhead’s. She had been wrong. Byshun must have been twice as strong as the other guy.
He’s been holding back this whole time, Reysha thought. What kind of training did they do?
“Let’s see what he’s capable of,” Sage said.
The attack that they expected to happen never did. For some reason, the redhead started fighting the air around him. Byshun paced around him, watching him carefully, taking care to dodge any lightning strikes or fireballs coming from the boy and keeping one palm extended until he was directly adjacent to him.
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