by Ko, John
He looks up and sees her empty sheath and remembers. “Wait! You don’t have …”
Above him, Riser and the petrified skull meet. The conclusion is undeniable. Her Sphere of Protection begins to form. But even as it begins to close tight, she continues to push upwards, rising ever so slightly higher, pinning her Loser’s Ball against the serpentine head and the opening of her Roaring Rose.
Outside, the other head screams. It’s trapped! And since we didn’t destroy it, its masters are trapped underneath the ground as well.
“I hate this thing. But I have to admit, it makes a fine cork.” She gives her Loser’s Ball a punch. “What, you didn’t think I could do it?
“If you had, that would have been … “
“Unforgivable,” he finishes for her.
Riser laughs and says, “Now, it’s all up to Unnie.”
Chapter 65
RACHEL
[Battlefield: Rainbow Forest]
Rachel smashes into another branch. It hits her square in the stomach, leaving her gasping for air. It takes a couple of tries, but the words finally come out, “Spikey, wait!”
Leaping clear of the plateau to where the chipmunk was waiting had been easy enough. After that, all she needed to do was wait. Wake did his part, taking out the Princess—the only one with the ability to track Rachel.
And soon after, the ground turned back to normal, meaning that Monster and Riser were able to accomplish their mission as well. Everything is going exactly as Sense told them it would. Now, she just has to do is her part. “Unlike everybody else, their strategist won’t be able to see through your eyes. We are going to use this to our advantage. At some point after you and Wake engage the enemy, find a way to slip away and hide.”
Which is just what she did. Now, all that’s left is for her to go as fast as she can. Unfortunately for her, it’s not as easy as it first sounded. Even with Spikey to guide her through the Rainbow Forest, she can’t seem to get very far without tripping over a root or running into some stray branch.
It hurts everywhere.
“Squeak, Squeak?”
“I can’t keep up, you’re going too fast. I keep running into things.” Her palms are already a ragged mess and her skirt is beginning to stain red where it brushes against her knees.
The chipmunk scurries back and forth and then begins squeaking. He’s performing some sort of ritual, she realizes.
Spike finishes and continues down the path. But now, he's leaving behind giant marks that she can somehow see. They must be tear-made, she thinks. One such mark hangs in mid-air
When she reaches it, she finds a large rock. He’s marking the obstacles in the way. “Oh, thank you, Spikey. You never cease to amaze me!”
She follows the bouncing aura, careful of obstructions that the chipmunk marks. If we keep this up, I may just be able to make it back without having to fight anyone. All I have to do is get their Flag and return it to our side without them noticing. And since their strategist can’t see through my eyes and the Princess can’t tell them where I am through her gauntlet, we may just have chance.
She tries not to think about how much her knees hurts or how sore her right hip is. Instead, she focuses on each step. Win the moment, that’s all. Don’t think too far ahead. Just concentrate on reaching one mark and then the next. Spikey’s little legs must be getting tired too and he’s still going.
The Chipmunk is circling something. Is that it?
She reaches out and finds it, a cold hard shaft with a silky cloth tied to its tip. Rachel pulls it free and Spikey leaps up and seizes it in his mouth. She marvels at the properties of the flag. Only a Crier can pull it free, but even a Pet like Spikey is allowed to hold it. It even changes size to match whomever carries it.
We’re halfway there. All that’s left is to get it back.
Chapter 66
KASE
[Battlefield: Rainbow Forest]
The Chosen One curses loudly. So, that’s what they’ve been planning all along. A desperate ploy, he thinks, hastening his steps. I’ll reach her long before she can capture it.
One hundred yards in front of his enemies’ base, he finds a spot to end it all. She’ll have to pass this way. The leftover mud on each side will funnel her right to me.
Victory's pretty much assured, but he can't get the troublemaker off of his mind. Especially, after what the princess told him earlier …
They say Kase’s father was once a jovial man—that Senzen Shake even treated his first son, Anga, lovingly. Sometimes, when Kase tries hard enough, he can almost remember the face of his dead brother, but always the image seems to just slip away.
What couldn’t be forgotten was that Anga was a caring brother and a mighty Crier. No one ever talks of him or the day of his death. All that’s left of his memory are a few choice curses by their always-angry father. Just the smallest reminder of Anga brings out the fury that is Senzen Shake … and half the curses were always directed at a pair of names. Today, he found out those names belonged to the Fate's parents.
The approach of his targets snaps him out of it. The girl and the chipmunk stop before the bottleneck. “Rachel Avenoy, it's over. Please hand over the flag.”
Her reply is, “Grab the Sun.”
She looks down at the chipmunk and says, “Go, Spikey!” The chipmunk heads for his right just as she activates her 128’s and charges straight for him.
“Do you really think something like that will work against me?” he grumbles to himself. He knows how just how powerful the Sun Orb is—that it may even stop an average Unleash. But his is far from average.
He surges forward and begins to … hum.
It's something he's picked up not too long ago. After last year’s defeat in the scrimmage against the Slate, the Chosen One became prone to cursing—outbursts here and there when he thought no one else was around. Soon, it became more. Whenever the memory of the loss came upon him, he would find himself cursing.At some point it ending up becoming a problem, he tried his best to control it. Even though he managed to suppress it somewhat, the thoughts still jabbed at him. He found himself uttering half-curses in the middle of conversations. People began to look at him strangely and the whispers began.
The loss haunted him and soon other little things did, as well. And when those thoughts popped unbidden into his head, he needed to make some sound to let it all out. So he began to hum. With the humming he found some control over his outbursts.
The humming came from deep within, a shaking from his very core. And with it came his first Unleash.
Kase hums and inside he trembles, a shivering that begins at his very core and spreads throughout his whole body, culminating at his shaking fists. In each hand, he grips the spears once wielded by his father—Claw of the Desert Falcon and Fang of the Sand Lion.
He thrusts one towards the scampering chipmunk and commands, “UNLEASH! Falcon’s Claw: Thousand Years of Pain, Shred Millennium!”
The second spear he aims at the desperate girl. “UNLEASH! Lion’s Fang: One Thousand Deaths, Chiliad’s Devouring!”
The dual Unleash was meant for him, but this will have to do. His spears are a blur, thrusting back and forth a thousand times with each passing second. One of his blows can take out half a Crier’s Spectral Armor. Each of these attacks are equal to a thousand of those.
The blind girl’s Orb of Sunlight cracks like an egg and she is sent flying backwards. He’s surprised that she doesn’t let go, even as she bounces and slides to a halt. She lands waist-deep in a patch of muck. His first instinct is to help the fair lady. But this is a match.
Nothing remains where the chipmunk once was. But, the flag didn’t return, he realizes. That means …
He looks down at the blind girl struggling, failing even to stand. She finally lifts her muck-covered face and spits out a mouthful of sludge. She’s done, he thinks, surveying the field for the tiny creature that somehow slipped by.
He finds the chipmunk struggling in the other
pit of muck.
The fact that both of his opponents have survived angers him far more than it should. He stomps his way slowly towards the chipmunk. He raises his spear for the finishing blow. Finally, victory is ours.
Chapter 67
SHINE
[Battlefield: Rainbow Forest]
I failed. I couldn’t do it, she thinks. This is all I could manage.
She looks down at the cracked Sun Orb still in her grasp, wanting nothing more than to lay there and weep. I’m sorry, is all she can think. He’s just too strong.
A blow like that would’ve surely finished anyone else on the Tour, but she is still there. Couldn’t she just be satisfied with that?
What could she really expect to do? She can barely lift her face out of the sludge to catch a breath.
She manages to catch a glimpse of Spikey still going. Kase Shake strides towards his slow-moving, tiny aura.
She tries another time to get up, pushing with everything she has. All she manages is to pull a muscle she never even knew she had. It feels as if some invisible hand is gripping and threatening to tear out the inside of her leg. She cries out in pain, only to be silenced by another face-full of mud.
Even if I free myself, what could I do? The answer is obvious. Nothing.
No! I can’t give up, not now. Not after everything we’ve gone through. Wake, Esperanza, Monster, Sense, Poe … Fate. Not after everything he’s gone through—it can’t end like this. Rachel reaches forward once more, struggling, splashing—making it nowhere. I must look like a fool, a dumb, blind, foolish girl, struggling in the mud—too stupid to know it’s over.
But she keeps trying. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Why that old saying popped into her head, she doesn’t know. That’s what he calls my brother, Way. He started calling him that after he learned his Unleash. He said that just listening to Wake speak had shown him what to do. I’ve listened to my brother all my life and that’s never happened to me!
It’s not fair. It doesn’t even make sense, but right now, she’s willing to try anything. When she tries to remember some hidden wisdom in the words of her brother all she can think of is a joke—of the one time she asked him why he likes Water so much. Her brother didn’t say anything, but instead summoned some of his Aspect and drank deeply of it. Because whenever I’m thirsty, it really hits the spot, was his answer.
She looks down at her useless, cracked Sun Orb. There’s nothing left but a shell of its former self, slowly leaking sunlight back into the world. Could I do that too? Is it even possible?
She pulls the leaking Orb close to her mouth and drinks of the Sunlight.
What once was Rachel Avenoy whispers …
“Consume the Sun: Celestial Being, Shining Fate!”
The world explodes around her. She feels the warmth of the Sun flow inside her. It feels just like the touch of a perfect day upon her skin, but surging through her.
She is up, her arms outstretched, her feet where no ground can touch them. The nasty, filthy mud is gone. Everything is gone; there is only her. No longer does she feel tied to the Earth; the world is now tied to her—it revolves around her.
Renewed and cleansed by the Light, Shine takes a step towards the brave, struggling chipmunk. But it is not like any step she has ever taken before. It is more like she Tripped the Light without falling.
And suddenly she’s there, scooping her tiniest friend out of the mud. She sets him down somewhere solid.
For a moment, he doesn’t move, but just stares up at her.
“It’s okay, Spikey,” she tells him. “It’s just me. Go.”
He bolts for the goal. Behind her she hears a terrible rumbling.
Kase Shake brings his two spears together above his head. He releases his grip and they begin to float high above him. The ground beneath him strains and groans. Piece by piece, the Earth gathers over his head.
A shaft thicker than a wagon begins to form. The hardest stones come together to create the form of a spearhead. Above Kase Shake floats a spear so large that even Titan Blue wouldn’t try to grasp it.
But the Chosen One does. “DEFY! Immortal Creation: GodSpear!”
The spectator’s hoarse voices scream louder than ever. A Defy Tech is a Power Move even above an Unleash. To see one at this level is unheard of.
Kase starts to hum and the GodSpear begins to shake. His feet sink deep into what remains of the ground. The ground quakes, the Coliseum trembles; even the air between them quivers. The whole world shudders and becomes a blur.
Slowly at first, and then faster and faster with each step, he charges straight for her.
She can see him—for once she can really see someone’s face, in the here and now. It is a handsome face, full of determination, twisted with fury. Actually, it’s more like I can feel it. She could feel it so acutely that she could make out every eyelash on her opponent’s face. I don’t want to hurt him, she realizes. I don’t ever want to hurt anybody.
She never hit anyone in her whole life; she never even learned how. Wake tried to teach her once …
“We’re all born with the desire and ability to create: some with words, some with music, some with wood or stone. The ways are countless. But we’re also born with the capability to destroy. And for as many different ways we can make something, there are just as many ways to take things apart. It’s part of us. I wish it wasn’t this way, but it is.
“I think that’s one of the reasons why Tournaments and Tear Battling exist. It’s a way for us to face our darker side, to embrace it and learn to control it. And sometimes we just need to let it out without anyone getting hurt. Otherwise we could just race for the throne.
“Haven’t you ever been so angry or frustrated with someone or something that you just wanted to smash it?
“No? Well, it’s different for everybody. For me … well, I like figuring out how something works and taking it apart. Other times, I just want to hold something solid between my fingers, even if it’s water, and lash out. The way people destroy are limitless: slicing, pummeling, clawing, tricking, hurling fireballs, tearing things apart with their bare hands, or even just pointing.
“Everyone has their own way they like to attack, and though it has no place in everyday life, it has a place on the battlefield. So sister, what is your preferred method of destruction?”
She didn’t have an answer then and she doesn’t have one now. Really, all she’s done so far is hold her Orb in front of her and … well, sort of let the other person run into it. I guess that’s not really an attack.
And now, as she faces a charging Kase Shake with no Orb in hand and she still doesn’t know. Why is this so hard for me? Why can’t I just hit someone?
She doesn’t know the answer, but she realizes she has to do something.
But, I can’t even hurt a fly. It’s true! In fact, she’s never hurt anyone or anything her entire life. At least not purposefully. Which reminds her of one time she did, the time she touched the Fate.
There was no malice in her touch, no anger. But it is the closest she can think of. If she really thought about it though, she just really wanted to touch him at the time. The same way she wanted to reach out and touch her brother or mother sometimes, but different.
When he described how easily he bound Spikey—how by sheer luck he achieved her greatest desire, it sparked something inside of her. The ease of how he achieved what was impossible for her made her jealous. But she didn’t want to hurt him or get even. She just wanted to feel him, and maybe give him a little push, just to let him know she’s there.
She looks down at her own hand. It’s strange to see, almost as if it isn’t really hers. It’s trembling … no, it’s the world that trembles and it’s been shaking so long it almost feels normal.
The Chosen One is almost upon her.
The Shining Fate is calm. She is serene. She is the Life-giver itself. You know what? I’ve always liked and respected Kase, as well. It’s hard not to, no matter how strong he i
s, how hard he works, or all the titles he’s achieved—he is modest and honorable.
He reminds me of Wake, just a little more accomplished. But my brother will get there someday.
A thousand Tear Battles play through her head. They tell her she should knock away the gigantic spear with her own mighty blow, but that’s just not her.
The promise of obliteration comes at her, a hundred ton spear that will strike her one thousand times with a single blow.
She doesn’t want anything to do with it, she decides.
It passes straight through her.
Shine finds herself face-to-face with a confused and angry boy. She gently reaches out and places her hand on his heart and says, “No way!”
She knows that he can feel the warmth of her touch, that it must feel pretty good. He stops dead in his tracks and one hundred tons of earth rain down around them.
A moment later, the horn blows. The match is over.
Spikey must have capped it, she thinks and laughs. Not the giggling of some mad genius, like her brother, but a joyous sound full of love.
When she looks at her opponent, Kase Shake is blushing. She tries to look him in the eye, but he turns away. She smiles and says, “Good Game.”
She can see the Chosen One open and close his mouth, beginning to say one thing then another, but nothing comes out. Boys; they’re so weird.
It ends just as quickly as it all began. She feels the pull of earth and lands roughly on her feet. No longer can she see the world by the caress of her light. And why is it so cold all of a sudden?