The Fate: Book 1: Tournament Wysteria

by Ko, John

  “What are you doing?” the Princess shouts at her subordinate. “Just stick to the plan!”

  “But I can beat him,” Cales says. “Something funny is going on here. He hasn’t moved at all.”

  “Do as you’re told,” the Princess commands.

  The Conflagrator grumbles something underneath his breath and then sets himself on fire. “Sacrificial Flame: Blow to Kingdom Come!” the burning boy screams as the whole ring erupts into flames.

  “Double Knockout,” the announcer declares. As the flames subside they reveal two spheres, and within each the Criers lay knocked out. Their prone bodies are carried off the field. Even though everything is going exactly as planned, the Princess can’t help but feel as if something is not quite right.

  “Second up for the The Chosen Few of The Royal Team, the other half of Wysteria’s Top Duo, The Molten Kid, Crag Melti!” A large round boy bounds into the ring and clasps his hands together for his adoring fans. Even as he does, he closes his eyes and begins to chant a complicated verse.

  “Chances are good that he’ll finish the rest of them all by himself,” the Princess says confidently. “And that will be the last we hear of these Monsters.”

  Kase snorts.

  “Could you beat this combo?” she asks her champion. He doesn’t say a word.

  “And second up for Monsters to Believe In, The Water Knight, Wake Avenoy!” Wake is slow to enter, instead wasting his time checking on his fallen captain. Even as he ensures the Fate is seated comfortably, Crag Melti finishes his chanting. A large boom erupts, filling the still burning ring with smoke.

  The crowd, disappointed by the previous round, comes back to life as the smoke clears to reveal a gargantuan meteor floating in the middle of the flaming ring. The burning rock spins in place and opens its single monstrous eye.

  Bolide the Colossus has entered into play. He can only be summoned under precise conditions. The Conflagrator didn’t just sacrifice himself to take out the other team’s captain but to prepare the field for its arrival.

  The audience gasps at the rare sight—an Unleash-level Summon. The humongous floating rock roars back at them, belching fire and spitting molten gravel. The Princess, however, pays no attention to the living boulder. Instead, she turns her gaze to their opponent, Wake Avenoy. If he would’ve only paid more attention to entering the ring instead of focusing on the well-being of his captain, he might’ve had a chance. He’s lost before the fight has even started. For some reason, she expected more of him.

  And for a moment, she remembers the look on his face before the race. How could he even ask that? He doesn’t understand anything at all.

  Bolide roars again and she can feel the heat of its breath from even there. Summoned creatures of the Unleash-level are truly frightening. Their powers are equal to that of a full-fledged Crier. That’s two versus one right there, but there are even more surprises awaiting Wake Avenoy. She almost feels sorry for him. The choice was his.

  The other team’s strategist, the young clerk, whispers something to Wake. Whatever it is, it won’t be enough to help the Water Knight. Wake nods his head in determination and summons a Shield of Water in each hand before diving headfirst into the inferno. At least he’s intelligent enough to do that much.

  Chapter 52

  WAKE

  [Battlefield: Twin King’s Corridor]

  I have to get rid of the Molten Kid, but how? Wake wonders. He’s actually making it sound easier than it really is and he knows it. Sense explained it all on the sidelines. Their strategist also told him that they have no chance … unless he wins.

  As soon as he enters the fiery ring, he realizes just how wise he was to have brought some Water in from the outside. Cales Cent’s sacrifice did more than take out the Fate—it totally changed the battlefield, transforming it into a burning nightmare. There isn’t a drop of useable moisture left in the whole area. All he has is what he brought in: his two shields. Even under their protection, he’s already beginning to burn. My only chance is to keep running and dodging. The more I use my shields to block, the more Water I will use.

  He knows what else he has to do, but he still needs to find a way to get it done. For now, he has no choice but to dance. Fire and burning rock fly all around him. The Molten Kid, cloaked in the flames his partner left behind, flings small meteors to no end. Bolide vomits a stream of lava that chases him like the line of a kite. Even the flames of the field seem to lick at his every footfall. I can’t even hit the Molten Kid through his Cloak of Flames without my Water evaporating.

  At least I’m not the one throwing up this time. He can’t help but start to giggle as he watches Bolide belch lava at him.

  Crag Melti, the Molten Kid sneers at him like a cat to a mouse. “It’s true, you really are daft, aren’t you?”

  There goes his smug look at least. And even better, he stopped hurling those hot rocks for a moment. Wake laughs even louder. Facing a field of fire, a giant horror of molten rock, and an opponent who can hurl meteors without end are what he’s up against.

  He looks into the crowd and for a moment, his eyes fall upon the Royal Box and the girl that sits at its center, a girl who’s looking at him just now. Time is still for an instant as their eyes lock. Clear your head and find an answer! But there is no answer. There’s only what he has learned in the past month. If I don’t think I can win, I have no chance.

  “Is the heat getting to your head? It can do that, you know …”

  Even Bolide stops to stare at the sounds of him giggling. Just win the moment, Way. “When you’re expected to lose, do the unexpected,” he whispers to himself.

  “What the hail are you mumbling now?”

  Without any moisture to draw upon, his 128’s are useless. They’re just weighing him down, so he takes them off. A flame licks his hand and singes his fingers. He quickly runs his hand though one of his watery shields to lessen the pain. He tucks his dripping fingers deep inside of one of his Battle Boots and flings it directly at the Molten Kid.

  Crag Melti sidesteps the attack easily and laughs himself. “Man, I’ve seen some really desperate moves before, but I’ve never seen anyone so desperate as to throw a shoe. Just give up before you make any more of a fool of yourself. Your Water can’t get past the heat. I’ll vaporize your Water and melt your Ice into nothing.”

  Wake throws his other boot at him.

  “Just finish him already!” the Princess yells from the stands.

  The Molten Kid glares at her, then back at him. Then he begins to chant.

  “Heavenly fires

  Rain down on my enemies

  Obliterate all.

  “Orange Summon: Meteor Swarm,” the Molten Kid commands. That sounds bad, is all Wake can think.

  Slowly, the dark above the ring fills with tiny burning rocks. Wake tries to move out of the way, to be anywhere but there. But there’s nowhere to go. Behind him is the edge of the ring, and an angry one-eyed behemoth holds its center.

  He dodges the first and then the second wave of meteorites, but soon they rain down in all directions. The meteorites know no end, growing larger and more frequent with each passing moment. With every hit, his armor grows more faint. I have to sacrifice one of my shields or I won’t make it …

  Wake tucks one shield behind him and blocks with the other. The scorching rocks explode as they smash against the Water. It reminds him of the time he brought home some particularly interesting rocks he found in the river. His mother wasn’t very pleased with the wet stones cluttering their already cramped home. On a lazy whim he disposed of them in the fireplace. How was he supposed to know that heating up the wet rocks too quickly would cause them to explode? Sorry for the vase, Mom. He thinks before realizing, that might just work!

  As the meteorites stop falling, the flames come to life and reach toward him with deadly intent—just as he expected and just as Sense warned him they would. Ready, he jumps out of their way.

  “You may as well come out, Cales Cen
t. I know you’re still here.” Things would’ve been much easier if he wasn’t keeping his back to the edge of the ring from the very beginning. But he wasn’t about to leave his back exposed after what Sense told him. Thanks to his friend’s advice, he’s still standing. But I’ve already used up half my Water.

  Out of the crackling flames rises the fiery form of a boy.

  “How did you know?” says the living flame in the shape of Cales Cent.

  “I didn’t really, but our strategist guessed as much,” Wake says, thumbing behind him at the grinning clerk. “He’s watched every match this year and he happened to notice that every time you two ran into trouble, you’d resort to that Sacrifice Tech. And even though your body would be asleep on the sidelines, somehow the flames would conveniently strike out at the most opportune of times—almost as if they were being controlled.”

  The fiery form scowls. “Congratulations on figuring out our little secret. It doesn’t matter though, since this will be the last match we ever fight.”

  Crag Melti, the Molten Kid reluctantly agrees. “But still, let’s make him pay for figuring it out.”

  “Yeah, let’s make him pay.”

  Wake just looks at them and smiles. It’s time.

  Two Weeks Before

  “It’s okay, guys. It’s not as scary or crazy as it may seem,” Wake tells them. “Just go slow at first and focus on a safe landing. The most important thing is making sure you don’t twist an ankle or stumble.”

  Poe and Sensei look at him the way he must have looked at the Fate his first time down the slope. If you think this is bad, wait until you have to do it with their eyes closed, Wake thinks.

  “Why are you smirking like that?” Sense asks him.

  “Am I?” Wake tries not to laugh. “I’ll see you guys at the bottom. Be careful and good luck.” He takes off down the mountain, trying not to show off too much. Behind him he can hear the Fate reassuring their more junior teammates.

  Halfway down the steep slope, just as Wake closes his eyes and envisions his next leap, he hears a loud rumbling behind him. The ground beneath him shakes and a small rock rolls past him. He turns around and sees …

  “Rock slide!” he screams. The Fate is barely ahead of the wall of rolling rocks … with Poe and Sense tucked beneath each arm.

  “Go! Wave Step!” the Fate yells at him as he leaps past. The four of us jumping around here all at once must have disturbed the rocks above, he thinks before activating his boots and sliding the rest of the way down.

  “Is everyone alright?” he asks, catching up with his friends. Thank goodness we had on our 128’s, he thinks, until he notices …

  “Fate, you don’t have on your 128’s?” he asks in confusion. That doesn’t make any sense, though. He just saw his Captain move like a flicker, blurring in and out with each step.

  The Fate releases his grip on Sense and Poe and shivers. He steps away from them and begins rubbing his legs. “I did not wear them today,” he says.

  “Then how …” Wake begins to ask.

  “Barefoot Dash Step,” the Fate says as if it’s nothing. Wake’s heard tales of it before, how the great warriors from long ago could do such things without Tears. But he never really thought those stories could be true.

  “How is that possible?” Wake asks.

  The Fate looks at him for a long time and finally says, “I will tell you how, but I want you to promise not to try it unless absolutely necessary.”

  Wake nods.

  “In truth, you already know how,” the Fate says, “The concept is the same as the one used to improve your Wave Step, just without boots. And over and over again.”

  That doesn’t make any sense, Wake thinks. If I tried to jump on flat ground while I thought it was really a slope, I would smash into the ground halfway through what I thought was my jump. It’d be like leaping into a wall …

  But … If I keep my feet tucked in tight, I would smash into the ground feet first. it would hurt like hail, but I would already be crouched in a perfect position to jump again. If I pushed off as hard I could just then …

  Wake looks at the Captain as he rubs his knees. It’s not even something any ordinary person would attempt. You really have to trick yourself into thinking the ground isn’t there. But if you managed to—you just might be able to move the way he just did, so fast that someone watching couldn’t even keep up with their eyes. It would just hurt a lot.

  That’s why he doesn’t want me to try, he thinks. But he just did it, over and over again.

  Present

  Wake grabs his remaining Shield of Water and tears it in two. “Blue Transform: Water Rapier, Water Buckler,” he says, forming a much smaller, round shield and a thin blade of Pure Water.

  I promised not to try unless absolutely necessary. And right now it’s necessary …

  “Want to see the impossible?” he says, all laughter gone.

  His opponents wonder what he’s talking about. Whatever it is, they decide they don’t want any of it. Cales Cent disappears into the flames. Crag Melti begins his chant anew.

  Wake closes his eyes and squats low. He imagines the slope he’s jumped down a hundreds times until he can almost see it before him. And then he leaps. Before he smashes into the ground, he opens his eyes and braces for impact. The bottoms of his feet feel as if they’ve been struck by a gigantic mallet. His knees crack and his whole body quivers, but already he is thrusting forward with all his might.

  First he’s a blur and then a flash, then he disappears all together, only to appear once again in front of Bolide the Colossus. Behind him, flame and burning stone strike out at where he once was. Barefoot Dash Step! I just really did it! But I’m not done yet.

  He thrusts the thin sword of Water deep into the living meteor. His Pure Water attacks would evaporate before striking the flames surrounding the two Criers, but Cales hadn’t bothered cloaking Bolide in flames. Why would he? It’s already a giant burning rock.

  Wake’s not exactly sure what’s going to happen, but he has an idea. Whether that idea is actually possible is a whole other story.

  Inside of Bolide, his Water begins to dissipate into something else, something he’s never even bothered trying to control before. Liquid and flowing is one thing, solid and hard as Ice another, but this … this is too absurd to even imagine.

  He tries to control the Steam.

  If you can see it, you can do it. And for that split second he sees it, every single miniscule drop.

  He can’t quite control it, but he can keep it from escaping, from disappearing into nothing. Bolide the Colossus howls. Its mouth splits in two and the howl turns into a whimper. Inside of the monstrosity, something’s wrong; it quivers and shakes. Blinking molten tears, cracks form like so many empty veins where there should be none.

  “You guys must have been better at listening to your mothers than I was,” he says, cackling maniacally before diving out of the way.

  Bolide the Colossus explodes into a million pieces. Like a wet rock in the fire.

  The field is covered in smoke and flying chunks of dead meteor. The inferno still rages, but there’s no longer a gigantic behemoth holding its center. Instead, there is his laughter.

  “Waster! Waster!” the crowds chant. Wake’s on his back, looking up at the half of the buckler that survived. It’s all the Water he has left. He wants to lay there forever. But now he sees a way. He gets up.

  He’s weary from all of the running and burning, his palms red and blistered from trying to direct the Steam. When he looks at the Two-on-Two Champions he sees it—fear. Why can’t he stop laughing? “One down, two to go,” he says, dusting himself off. He doesn’t know if he’s faking it or if he really believes what is coming out of his mouth. Whichever it is, it really doesn’t matter. He’s already figured out his next move.

  “What did you do to Bollie!" the Molten Kid cries, while his dumbfounded partner asks, “How did you just do that without 128’s?”

  They both lo
ok at him in disbelief. Cales Cent snaps out of it first. “It seems we took it too easy on you, but there’s still no way you can touch me. Not as long as I am in this form.”

  Good, they don’t even realize what just happened.

  The old Wake would have been inclined to believe the words of his opponent, but not this one.

  The new Wake no longer dwells on a problem. Instead, he defines it, answers it, lays that problem to waste. He looks back at his teammates and gives them a crazy grin. Everything is going as it should and everything will go as it should. “I bet you two thought that I couldn’t even scratch the big guy,” he tells the top duo in the land. “Be prepared to be wrong again.”

  “Tsk,” utters the boy of Fire. He looks at his large, sweaty partner and says, “Leave this to me.”

  The Molten Kid retreats. The fiery form of Cales Cent floats slowly towards the center of the ring, all the while drawing in more and more of the flames around him. His blazing body swells larger and larger absorbing the fires burning the battlefield. Cales Cent hovers menacingly in his new form as he cries out, “Fire Form: Flame Elemental!”

  The towering pillar of flame reaches down with one massive arm and takes a swipe at the Water Knight. Wake dodges easily.

  “Too bad you didn’t get any faster,” Wake giggles. “In fact, you just gathered all of yourself into one spot, which is just what I was trying to figure out how to do.”

  Cales Cent flaps once and then twice and is high above him, a fire floating in the darkness overhead. And then he dives. Wake stands his ground. He thinks nothing can hurt him. That Water will just vaporize at his touch, that metal will pass right through him, but …

  “No fire burns forever,” Wake says. “Prepare to be wasted.” I really have to stop saying that.