Contractor: The Legendary Contract of Vento

by Sai Prapanch A

  Sora heard Emily say, “But that’s not all. Julie can release these orbs anywhere within a two hundred meter radius from me and these orbs are guaranteed to be on target.”

  Out of the smoke, orbs started raining down on Sora. They exploded on contact and the tag team braced themselves to withstand the impact. Emily and Julie glanced up to survey the scene. The smoke cleared up to show the place covered in cinders.

  “Where did he go?” asked Emily.

  “Okay, that was fun!”

  The two of them whirled around to find Sora leaning coolly against the wall on the other side.

  “How did you get there?” spluttered Emily.

  “Split step!” Julie exclaimed.

  “For all your talk, though, you girls are weaker than I expected,” said Sora. “And you expect Zack to notice you when you guys are this weak!”

  Sora seemed to have lit up a spark. Emily shouted, “Shut up! We aren’t the type of people who trick others to defeat them like you did!”

  Julie roared and let out another barrage of orbs. This time Sora didn’t move from the spot. The orbs exploded but it was a meter away from him. When the smoke cleared, the girls said, “What the…!”

  Gray walls covered Sora. It seemed to be as thick and hard as reinforced steel. With a wave of his sword, the walls disappeared. He started walking slowly towards them. Sora said, “That was a technique I developed, the wind cage. I compress the air around me to make a hard wall of air. Not as sturdy as a typhoon shield, but far less ki consumed in comparison.” Sora stopped and looked at their faces contorted with fury. “But I’m more interested in what you said before, that I used tricks to win against Zack. That hurts, you know.”

  He jumped high into the air and said, “Why don’t I get serious in this fight? Maybe then you would reconsider.” He raised both the swords above his head and slashed the air and shouted, “Wind smash!” A huge grey arc of compressed wind erupted from Wind Fangs and came crashing down to the ground. The girl’s screams could be faintly heard over the sound of the wind smash cutting through the air. They braced themselves for what might be their last moments. But there was a flash followed by a gust of cold wind. Emily and Julie looked up and felt their knees get weak.

  The wind smash was frozen solid as it fell to the floor. It shone brightly, blinding their eyes, but they could notice the silhouette of a man jumping in front of the falling ice.

  With one hard punch which echoed around the whole room in contact, the man shattered the ice as simply as though he had snapped a stick. He landed on the floor in front of them as huge chunks of ice fell around them. He turned to face them and said, “Are you girls okay?”

  “Kai Fullbuster?” squealed the girls as they got back on their feet. Kai smiled and said, “I’ll take that as a yes.” He turned to the other side of the room. “But that’s not like you, Sora.”

  Sora was sitting on one of the ice blocks. He sighed and said, “You didn’t need to intervene. I was about to dispel it anyway. I wanted to scare them, not kill them.”

  He looked straight at the tag team. But this time, they started shivering and cowered behind Kai. “I guess it worked.”

  He jumped off the ice block and proceeded towards the exit. Kai asked, “Where are you going?”

  Sora answered, “Work. I wanted to let loose so I played along with what they spouted. But, they started to bug me.” He stopped and glanced at the girls and said, “If you two really admire Zack so much, then you should know that tricks don’t work that easily on him. He’s a really strong guy. Making excuses for his fight against me means that you are underestimating him.” Sora smiled at their startled looks and exited.

  He took the elevator and pressed the button for fifth floor. “Hey wait up!” Kai managed to squeeze in through the closing elevator doors. Sora said, “What do you want now?” Kai looked at him queerly and said, “You’ve been pretty cold to me today. What’s the matter?”

  Sora sneered and said, “Matter? Nothing’s wrong? I’ve been training like hell for seven years and end up finding lost pets, helping people in their shopping and what not for the past week. What could possibly be wrong?”

  Kai scratched his head and said, “You can’t actually complain. I went through your progress file and noticed that in the twenty D rank missions you’ve completed; you’ve gotten yourself involved in four C rank missions as well. What do you say about that?”

  Sora opened his mouth as if about to say something but then closed it. Then he said, “Maybe it’s some kind of higher calling. Maybe it’s a sign that I should get promoted to a higher rank, as I am worthy of it. What do you say?”

  “Don’t get ahead of yourself, Sora,” Kai said, laughing. “Those are just coincidences. The guild master won’t make decisions based on such random occurrences.” Kai’s G watch beeped. He gawked at the screen.

  “What’s wrong?” Sora asked just as the elevator doors opened. Kai blinked and said, “Nothing much. I’ll see you later.” A little awkwardly, Kai left with Sora’s stares piercing his back.

  With the day passing as uneventfully as the past week, Sora returned discontented at the end of the day. He ran into Jake at the reception, who said, “You look terrible.”

  “Don’t ask,” grunted Sora.

  “Don’t need to,” Jake replied, grinning. “Baby sitting, huh? Been there, done that.”

  Sora glanced wearily at him and said, “That mind reading is really starting to irk me.”

  Just as they were about to head to the cafeteria, both their G watches beeped. Jake looked at his screen, then at Sora and said, “Looks like we got the same message. I was expecting this, sooner or later.”

  Sora raised his eyes. “What do you mean? And what is this message anyway?”

  A minute later, Sora and Jake were standing in the conference room on the sixteenth floor of the guild headquarters. It was a corridor with many rooms, usually used to discuss strategies for various team missions. After looking around, Sora said, “They said room No. 5, right?”

  Jake said, “Yeah. Been a while since I came up here.”

  Sora said, “You’ve been to the conference rooms before? Why?”

  Jake smiled. “You’ll know soon enough.” They were in front of room No. 5. Jake put his hand over the doorknob and pushed it open. He walked in and Sora followed him.

  There were five people inside the room. He recognized all of them at once, except the one in the far left. The guild master, Gary Lightshield, was standing in the centre, with Kai and Steve Hancock on his right and Sara Lightshield and the unknown man on his left. He had jet-black hair and his glasses covered his eyes. He had a good-natured smile and seemed around the same age as Kai. Considering the company, Sora assumed him to be Sam Lorenzo, the Aqua God.

  Gary spoke first, “Welcome, Sora and Jake. You have been called here as we have considered promoting both of you to your next rank. None of the five elite contractors of Lucifer’s Fall guild have any objection. If you do not have any question on the decision, come forward and collect your new badges.”

  They walked up to the table behind the elites. There lay two badges, one of them bronze plated while the other was silver.

  Sora placed his metal plated D rank badge on the table and took his new bronze plated C rank one. He smiled and said, “Finally.”

  Jake said, “I hope you’re happy. I don’t want you butting into my missions anymore.”

  “I’ll try,” said Sora with a snigger.

  Gary said, “You seem pretty anxious to get into a higher rank, Sora. But we don’t promote you only based on your strength. There are some things you can gain only with experience. So be patient.”

  “I understand,” said Sora. “And by the way, why are all the elites of Lucifer’s Fall here just for our promotion?”

  Steve said, “No reason. We all happened to be present when we heard about your promotion.”

  Sara said, “It was a surprise to hear that someone got promoted only a week a
fter joining the guild. You seem to be doing a remarkable job.”

  Kai said, “He was just too reckless and impatient. He seemed pretty annoyed at the fact that he had to do such simple missions.”

  Gary replied. “Kai, you aren’t one to talk. You used to threaten me every day to promote you. I think he has more self-control than you.” Sora and Jake laughed as Kai looked flustered.

  Jake then said, “Well, I guess I better get going. I can’t wait to start our new missions.”

  Sora said, “I reckon I should as well.”

  But as he turned to the door, Sam, who had been quiet until then, said, “Not so fast. I still have something I need you to do.”

  Sora gave a questioning look. Kai asked, “What do you mean, Sam?” Sam said, “I meant to say that I was actually against your promotion when Kai brought up the topic, seeing as you have only been in the guild for a week. But Steve, Sara and even the guild master approved of it, so I didn’t say anything. But I have never really seen you in battle, so I can’t judge you. So now, I want to test you myself. I’ve known Jake for a while now so I approved of him. But you are a different matter.”

  Sora shrugged and said, “Sure, that’s not a problem. But how do you plan to test me?”

  Just then the door opened and Zack walked in. He asked, “Did you ask for me, Sam?”

  The group stood in the elevator, making their way to the basement. The atmosphere seemed somewhat tense because of the clear animosity between Zack and Sora. Jake seemed rather stiff as he stood in between them. The door opened and the group stepped out into the familiar arena where the entrance test had been conducted. Sam faced Zack and Sora and said, “Now, I want both of you to fight seriously. From what I’ve heard, you guys have some unfinished business with each other.”

  Both of them answered, “Yeah.” When their eyes met, sparks flew. But Jake stepped in and said, “Don’t start a brawl here. You two are going to be at each other’s throats with your contracts soon enough.”

  Sam suddenly said, “Oh, I almost forgot. You won’t be using your contracts. Use these instead.” He took out a long sword and a pair of twin blades from a locked shelf and threw it to Zack and Sora respectively. “These are just normal swords. I want to see how you two fight against each other without using your powers.”

  Sora and Zack both answered that they didn’t mind. They jumped into the arena and started warming up and swung their swords around to get a feel them.

  Jake got seated in the first row. But behind his back, the other elites of the guild gathered around Sam. Kai said, “You better explain what is going on, Sam. I was the one who gave you the video of their fight. You also said that you were impressed at his skill and predicted that he would get a promotion soon. What are you playing at?”

  Sam didn’t answer at once. He sat down, took a deep breath and said, “Kai, have we ever been close?”

  Sara and Steve stared. “Hell no!” Kai replied bewildered.

  Sam said, “Yes. We’ve been this way ever since we met.”

  Steve said, “If I remember correctly, you two first met twelve years ago during the guild entrance test. Both of you were looked down upon as you two were only eleven years old then. But the crowd was shocked at witnessing the two youngest candidates in the guild’s history reach the final stage, which was a one on one between the two of you.”

  Kai suddenly remembered something and said, “Actually, we still haven’t decided the winner of that fight, yet.”

  Sam said, “We were both about to use our final attack when the judge interfered and called the match a draw.”

  Sensing some malice, Sara asked, “Who was the judge? You guys seem to hate him a lot.”

  Kai said grimly, “I don’t know. Should we hate you, Steve?”

  Both of them turned to face Steve sternly, who took a step back and said in a worried tone, “Hold on a minute! If I had let you two continue, we might’ve had a corpse in our hands. I did it for the sake of your lives.”

  Kai spat and said, “Yeah, and now we never will know which one of us is the stronger one. After we fought each other in the Holy Dragon Tournament, which once again ended in a draw, we were ordered never to spar with each other by the royal government.”

  Steve said, “That was done so that the balance of peace is kept in place. If you two fight to the death, the aftermath would have been terrible.”

  Sam said in disgust, “That’s the least of my worries. Why can’t old people just mind their own business?”

  Steve, in an attempt to change the topic, said; “Now you should get to the point, Sam. Why did you ask both of them to spar right now?”

  Sam said, “As you can see, both of them are extremely strong for their age. Without a doubt, they will one day become the pillars of the guild, the world even. But just because of one undecided match, they were cold to each other. I guess that once the winner has been decided, without any interference, they might start to get along.”

  Just then Sora yelled from below, “Can we please start fighting already!” Sam said, “Yeah. Sorry for the wait. You guys can start.”

  Both of them at once charged at each other and there was a clash of metal. They jumped back and started having a close range battle.

  Sara, who was watching the fight, asked, “But why did you tell them to use normal swords?”

  “That’s simple.” Everyone turned to face Jake, who was still watching the clashing of metals below.

  Sam said, “You were eavesdropping, Jake? That’s not like you.”

  Jake smiled and said, “Well, you guys weren’t actually keeping things quiet. Anyone could’ve heard you.”

  Sara said, “Well, you explain, Jake. Why should they use normal swords?”

  Jake said, “It’s to understand each other’s true strength and ability, that’s why.”

  Kai and Steve nodded, but Sara said, “You’ve lost me. I have no idea what you mean.”

  Jake looked back at her in surprise. He said, “Well, seeing as you are a beast contractor, who depends solely on her beast for battling, I think you don’t get it. But the others are used to fighting with their own strength, so they understand. Just watch and you’ll notice the difference in the fight they had with their contracts and the one they are having now.”

  Sora ducked as Zack’s sword brushed past his head. Zack dodged Sora’s counter with a back flip and got some gap between them. But before he got back his footing, Sora covered the distance in a flash and sent a crushing blow with one of his blades. But Zack showed some great swordsmanship by letting the attack slide to the side with his saber. With Sora’s inside exposed, Zack sent a double handed slash with confidence but it was nicely blocked with Sora’s other sword. Sora almost got Zack in the back with his free blade, but Zack spun and deflected the strike with his sword. He rolled over to a place outside Sora’s range and got some more space.

  The spectators seemed greatly entertained at the spectacle. Jake asked, “Do you notice anything different in their skill, which you didn’t notice earlier, Miss Lightshield?”

  “Yes,” said Sara in bewilderment. “Though they are about the same speed, Sora’s strikes seem much more powerful than Zack’s. But Zack’s refined technique is able to nullify the power behind Sora’s swords. But why didn’t I notice this before?”

  Sam said, “That’s because they used contracts then, not normal weapons. They depended on powers other than their own then. But when they use normal weapons, it becomes a form of martial arts. They will recognize each other’s skills and respect each other’s strength in the process. It’s something only martial artists will understand.”

  Sara was silent for a moment, but then said, “I have no idea what you just said. How do they respect each other if they are fighting to death?”

  Jake said, “See for yourself. Those guys seem to have forgotten that this is a test.”

  Sara looked down at them. She was startled to see that both of them were smiling. They seemed to be, unmist
akably, enjoying the fight.

  Kai said, “You might not understand the bonds people, who fight hard against each other with their own skill, have. But such things affect their perspective greatly. Even hatred and grudges can be changed to friendly rivalry.”

  Steve said, “It’s true. There has been many times when I started respecting the enemies who gave me a hard battle. It’s a strange yet understandable thing.”

  Sara gave an awkward look at the others and retorted, “Or it might just be that men are extremely weird.”

  Jake called out over the others’ protests, “Quiet! It’s getting extremely interesting.”

  They seemed to be reaching their limit. Neither of them could give a decisive strike but they were beginning to get a few cuts on each other. Zack had a small wound on his cheek, while Sora was trying to stop the bleeding on his stomach.

  Zack said, “You really are fast. I haven’t fought anyone who could fight me this long and only have a small graze. And my hands are about to give out from blocking your blows.”

  Sora smirked and said, “You aren’t shabby either. I can’t believe you had so many cards up your sleeve. But at least I managed to scar that pretty face of yours.”

  Zack replied, “You haven’t seen all of it. I’ll show you the secret technique passed down through the Titania family. We aren’t called a noble family by name only.”

  He tilted his long sword to the left, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them, there seemed to be certain sharpness in his eyes. He called out, “Come on then.”

  Sora rushed at Zack. But Zack showed no signs of movement at his approach. As Zack came into his range, Sora slashed with his left sword. But Zack seemed to glide past the smallest opening in the left and evaded the attack. As he was turning, Sora suddenly fell to his knees and was clutching a deep gash on his left hip. “When did you… do that!” spluttered Sora in pain.

  Jake was also taken aback at this. He turned to the others and said, “Would someone tell me what the secret technique of the Titania family is?”