by Aaron Oster
Sure, once she reached Purple, her senses would outstrip even the ferret’s, but if Ferry advanced to Blue, then the scales would once again tip in her favor. Aika didn’t mind. Everyone had their strengths and weaknesses, and physical attributes were always more pronounced in Beasts than in humans.
“What do you smell?” Aika asked, keeping her eyes trained on her surroundings.
“Man,” Ferry said, her voice coming out in a low growl.
“How many?”
Ferry held up ten fingers, then flashed another four.
Fourteen. There were fourteen people out there!
Aika’s hands tightened on her staff, and she began channeling Light Qi through her body. If she wanted to even stand a chance of keeping up with these fighters, then she’d need every advantage she could get. Of course, she only had a couple of Qi techniques she could use, but it was better than nothing.
She waited and waited, then waited some more, but nothing happened.
“What are they waiting for?” she muttered, her eyes flicking around and trying to spot the people that may as well have been ghosts.
“Right. Tom,” Ferry said, her black eyes fixed on a point to their immediate left.
Aika’s brows furrowed for a moment before she realized what Ferry was trying to say.
“When is the right time, though?”
Ferry shrugged, letting Akia know that she had just as much of an idea as her.
Her eyes flicked back to Hermit, wondering if his presence was keeping them at bay. However, as soon as her eyes left the forest, she felt it. The flare of Qi as the Martial Artists unveiled their Cores and dove from hiding. Aika whirled, her staff blurring through the air and catching the hand that had been aimed at her neck.
Her feet slid back, tearing twin furrows in the ground, as the man who’d attacked caught the staff, driving her back with his superior strength. Aika’s eyes narrowed as she tried to tug the staff free, her arms trembling from the effort of intercepting his blow. The Belt around his waist shone a blood-red in the early-morning light, the rays of the sun reflecting the twin slashes of gold on its ends back at her.
Ferry let out a yowl as she was driven to the ground and pinned there by a woman with a 5th Dan Purple-Belt. No matter how the ferret thrashed or tried to use her Essence, she couldn’t so much as budge the woman.
Aika, seeing that she’d be unable to pull her staff from the man’s iron grip, released her hold and instead dove at the woman in an attempt to free her comrade. She barely made it two steps before she was driven to the ground. She gasped as she felt the ribs on her left side creak in protest, and tried to roll to one side to escape the hold. But her attacker was too fast.
Her staff, which had helped her in so many fights, was driven through her side and into the ground, effectively pinning her in place. She cried out in pain as blood began to seep from the wound, staining her robes and the ground beneath in a dark crimson.
“Well, now that we’ve gotten the weaklings out of the way, we’re clear to attack the traitor.”
Aika craned her neck upward, and through teary eyes, could make out the forms of several Martial Artists, all of whom were wearing Red-Belts, moving to surround the paralyzed Hermit. She groaned, low in her throat, then forced the pain down and reached back to clasp her staff. The man who’d pinned her hadn’t bothered to stay, figuring she’d be in too much pain to even move. But he didn’t know her, and that was a mistake he’d come to regret.
With a muffled groan, Aika tore the staff from her back, then extended her hand and unleashed her Terrain technique. The ambient Light Essence was strong here, so her Rainbow Halo flashed into existence with little trouble, lashing around the waist of the nearest woman and beginning to compress around her waist.
However, instead of cutting her in two, as the technique was meant to do, it stopped when it hit her waist, trying and failing to bisect her. She let out a sound of disgust, then reached down and grabbed the technique. With a single flex of her fingers, it shattered into a thousand pieces, light particles spinning away into the air.
“Your charge escaped, Yang. Don’t be so lazy next time.”
The man who’d pinned her turned, shooting Aika a glare for daring to rise after he’d taken her down. But Aika hadn’t just unleashed her attack and waited to see if it had worked. As soon as she’d used her technique, she’d shot to her feet, doing her best to ignore the hole in her side as she moved to confront the woman currently pinning Ferry.
Her staff flashed out in a brilliant arc, blades of Light Essence gathering around the edge and oscillating along its length. The woman let out a snort, then drew the sword at her waist halfway from its sheath, blocking the attack with little trouble. Aika, who’d already been expecting the block, lashed out with a powerful kick, her foot flashing up and slamming into the woman’s chest.
Gravity and momentum were on Aika’s side with this, and the woman, despite her higher cultivation, was sent flying back, smashing through one of the nearby trees with a splintering crack. Aika cried out as the pain from her wound intensified, blood splattering to the ground from the hole in her side.
Ferry gave her a grunt of thanks, leaping to her feet and moving to stand beside her. It was nice of her to do so, but Aika already knew their efforts were futile. The man who’d taken her down was approaching almost lazily, while the woman she’d sent flying was pulling herself from the wreckage of the tree. She was completely unharmed, though her robes had taken a bit of a beating.
“Alright, you’ve had your fun,” the man said, stopping just out of reach. “Give up before we really have to hurt you.”
Aika honestly had no idea why these two were taking it so easy on them – relatively speaking – but she had a job to do, and Hermit was already under attack. The other fighters were unleashing everything they had on him and were starting to get through. She had no idea how, seeing as none of them were higher than Base Gold, but Hermit had said that he’d be vulnerable.
Perhaps absorbing the Core somehow weakened his defenses, but whatever the case, she and Ferry needed to do something, and fast. Otherwise, Hermit was either a goner or would be dragged back to his sister, at the very least.
Her muscles tensed in preparation to move toward Hermit, but the man stepped into her path, preventing her from getting any closer.
“Last chance,” he said, eyes narrowing.
Aika wrapped herself in Light Qi, then activated her Movement technique. She flashed through the small gap between them and dove at the closest fighter. Taken off guard, the man was sent tumbling head over heels and clearing a path to Hermit. However, before she could take even a single step more, she felt a hard impact to the base of her spine. Had Aika not already have activated her Armorer technique, she had a feeling that that would have broken it clean through.
As it was, she was driven to the ground, horrible pain shooting up and down her back, and her vision dimming for a second as unconsciousness threatened. She rolled quickly to one side, ending up on her back. She was just in time, too, as a foot drove down, slamming into the ground near her head.
Her hand flashed out, unleashing her Light Lance. The technique unleashed several of the spears at once, not that it did her any good. The Red-Belt merely ignored them, allowing the technique to hit him full-force without even trying to block. When the spears shattered against his chest, it was obvious as to why, even if they drove him back a few steps.
“That was cute,” the man said, brushing at his smoking robes. “It’s clear that you have no respect for your betters. But not to worry, I’ll make sure the lesson sinks in this —”
A bolt of freezing blue light caught the man on the side of his head, encasing it in a block of ice nearly a foot long. The man staggered away, completely taken off-guard, and flailing his arms as he tried to free himself. He never got the chance.
A man appeared right before her, a shining Gold Belt wrapped around his waist and his body exuding a freezing aura. Before the
Red-Belt could free himself, his palm impacted with the center of his chest. There was a horrible cracking sound, and Aika felt bile rise in her throat as an explosion of red spikes seemed to sprout from his back.
The Itachi fighter staggered back, his hands scrabbling at his chest before toppling to the ground, the frozen blood that had torn him apart from the inside shattering into a million tiny fragments.
There was a scream of rage from the woman, who was in the process of pinning Ferry once again, as she saw her comrade go down. She took a step forward, as though preparing to intervene, when a red line appeared across her chest. She staggered, looking down at herself in confusion. Then her body fell to the ground, splitting in two as it did and sending a fresh spray of blood across the grass.
“A bit gruesome, don’t you think?” the man asked in a voice that was oddly familiar.
“No more than your display,” a woman’s voice replied.
Aika turned, despite the pain it caused her, and saw the last person she expected to see walking toward them.
“What are you doing here?” she croaked, the pain of her injuries momentarily forgotten.
“Why, we’re here to save you, of course,” the man with the Gold-Belt replied.
Aika turned once more as the man leaned slightly down, bringing his face into clear view. It took her a moment to recognize the man as, once again, she was not expecting to see him here. Before she could ask how he’d gotten here, he straightened, turning to face the oncoming threat of the other Itachi fighters.
It was hard to miss seeing two of your own going down, and with the threat they posed, it would hardly have been wise to keep attacking the helpless Hermit.
“So,” Tonde Kaeru said, spreading his arms magnanimously. “Who’s next?”
13
Roy tried to ignore the cheers of the crowd as he sat cross-legged on one of the benches and cycled. It was hardly an easy task, seeing as the others in his ‘team’ were all talking, each betting on who would make it out alive of the most current match. Roy found this to be sickening and wondered how these people could be betting on something like this when they would soon need to go out there.
One other person didn’t join in, instead choosing to sit and cycle, just as he was. Marrie was a mystery and one that he intended to unravel. The girl was obviously talented, and if she were part of the Seven Great Clans, she should not be down here. She barely spoke to any of them and seemed to have the temperament of an angry boar. Yet she was the only one who seemed to be keeping up with training, while the others wasted their time away.
“Oof! That has got to hurt!” Xu exclaimed, causing another lapse in Roy’s concentration.
The crowd’s cheers told him that the latest fight was over, and the announcer’s voice told the same story just a few moments later.
Roy was about to go back to cycling when a pair of guards – the same as before – appeared before the bars.
“You!” one of them called, clearly pointing to him. “On your feet. You’re fighting next.”
“So soon?” Roy asked, cocking his head. “Well, I won’t complain. It seems like you want to see me pay off what I owe as soon as possible,” he said, placing as much scorn on the word ‘owe’ as he could.
Neither of the guards reacted to his barbed comment, one of them merely opening the gate and waiting for him to come out. Roy rolled his eyes, then uncurled himself from his cycling position and headed back out to the arena.
“Hey, if you survive this one, do yourself a favor,” Xu said as he passed. “Just take something from them.”
Roy grunted in reply, but in his mind, he was already planning on how to keep himself from owing the Inu clan anything more. He knew the risks, but if he took even a single thing from them, it would ensure he’d never make it out. Right now, when he was still relatively fit and strong, he’d be able to put up a fight and might be able to make it out. The second he took anything from them, however, would be the second that he’d be giving up on ever getting out.
“We’ve got a treat for you!” the announcer boomed as Roy headed down the short corridor and back toward the arena. “Choi, the rookie who bested our undefeated Garnet, is back for another fight!”
This time, when Roy stepped onto the sands, the reception was quite a bit different. Although there was still plenty of jeering, a good portion of the crowd cheered for him. Roy paid no heed at all to the crowd, as his attention was fixed on the top boxes. He could still see the same group of people, all dressed in fine robes, looking back at him.
Even from here, he could feel their malice. It seemed he’d angered a lot of them with his defeat of their supposed champion, but he wasn’t about to let himself be killed by some honorless coward just to please them.
“Choi surprised us all with his stunning debut, winning his fight without taking so much as a single injury,” the announcer said as he continued walking toward the center ring.
That wasn’t true, and Roy knew it. His ribs had taken a good pounding from that last fight, and even though he’d had about an hour to recover, he was still feeling it. But it didn’t show on the outside, and for the people gathered here, that seemed to be good enough.
“So, who do you think we’ll be fighting this time?” Geon asked.
“Isn’t that what I’m supposed to be asking?”
“Well, seeing as you always do, I figured I’d get ahead and ask the question before you,” Geon replied. “And to answer your question — how am I supposed to know?”
Roy rolled his eyes at the infuriating Core’s antics. Geon did technically have a point. When he was with Aika, he could simply bounce ideas off her and not have to deal with any sarcastic remarks. Geon, on the other hand, always made sure to answer in the exact same way. Roy had learned that it was just part of Geon’s personality and that no matter how human he seemed, Geon was a Dungeon Core.
“Facing off against our newbie will be a creature of nightmare! One that our brave fighters captured out in the Windblight and struggled to bring down for three days and nights!”
The crowd’s cheering was hushed as one of the doors on the far side – one of the much larger ones, Roy noticed – began to slowly clank upward.
“It is a creature of legendary bad-tempered repute,” the announcer continued. “A creature so heinous that even the most hardened of fighters would think twice about taking it on!”
“Well, that doesn’t sound good,” Geon said as the gate rose to the halfway point.
“You think?” Roy shot back.
“That’s what I just said,” Geon replied. “Was your brain damaged in that last fight?”
“I give you the Sand Boar!”
“Oh, come on!” Roy yelled, his voice lost in the roar of the crowd.
Out of the open gate shot a tan Beast with bristling fur, powerful muscled limbs, and a head that was larger than it should have been. To either side of its black-tipped snout curled a pair of tusks, yellowed and chipped in several places. The boar was around four feet at the shoulder and judging from its Core, it was somewhere in the Green stage. While it was technically a better fight for him than the last, the bad-tempered pig was not a Beast he wanted to tangle with.
However, just as with his broken legs, these boars seemed to be coming back to haunt him over and over again.
“This fight will, of course, be to the death!” the announcer yelled, eliciting wild cheers from the crowd. “Now, let’s see who has what it takes!”
The boar didn’t wait for any sort of signal, immediately locking eyes with him and charging wildly. The Beast had a Core brimming with Earth Essence and Qi, giving it the clear advantage where the terrain was concerned. Going into this fight, Roy had already suspected that he’d be at a disadvantage, so he was hardly surprised.
Golden light flared around him as he used Trace, triangular lines flowing across his skin and giving him a layer of protection against the powerful Beast. He dashed toward the boar then, hunching to lower his center of
gravity. It was necessary to do so when taking on a Beast as powerful and compact as a boar, and Roy did not intend to allow yet another boar to ruin his life.
He could feel the approval practically radiating from his Path as he closed with the Beast and unleashed a powerful punch. It was driven by the force of his momentum, plus the added strength of his Exploding Fist. The boar met him head-on, slamming into him with equal force, its forehead meeting his blow and threatening to drive him back.
The impact jarred Roy’s arm, sending shockwaves running through his body. He grimaced, feeling his arm trembling as the boar continued pushing against him. Roy grinned then, realizing that despite its strength, this boar was nothing but muscle. He struck, his fist drilling into the side of the Beast’s head and throwing it to the side. He ignored the cheering of the crowd as he followed, using his Increase as he landed consecutive blows on the Beast’s bristly hide.
The blows got stronger as he went, shattering one of the boar’s shoulders on the fifth punch and cracking its skull with the sixth. However, that didn’t seem to be enough to take the Beast down, and as Roy went for his seventh, the boar reacted with startling speed. Its body was cloaked in brown light, and its intensity told Roy it was using Qi. The Beast then rammed into Roy’s stomach at full force.
Roy was hurled back, his Armorer technique – made of Essence – shattering under the force of the blow. He hit the ground and rolled several times, springing back to his feet just in time to catch another blow from the monster in his midriff. The air was knocked from his lungs, and Roy felt his skin tear open as the sharpened tusks drilled into him.
He was tossed through the air once more, but before he landed, he managed to eject some Essence from his feet to right himself. Roy landed on his feet, skidding back a couple more yards before coming to a halt. The boar was charging once more, moving in a zigzag pattern to try and throw him off. But its injured shoulder presented a weakness, and it was one that Roy was more than happy to exploit.