Fire (Buryoku Book 5)

by Aaron Oster

  The world suddenly snapped back, the cavern returning in an instant, leaving Roy to stare at a blank wall.

  “Roy? Are you okay?”

  He turned and saw Aika watching him from the opposite side of the room.

  “Didn’t you just see that?” Roy asked.

  “See what?”

  “Me being swallowed up by blackness?”

  Aika’s expression changed to one of worry, and Roy could see that, no, she hadn’t. Hoping she wouldn’t think he was insane, he explained everything Azure had told him. Even as he spoke, he realized how crazy that all sounded, but for some reason, Aika didn’t seem to think he was nuts.

  “Wow, that all makes a scary amount of sense,” she said when he’d finished.

  “You don’t think he’s lying?” Roy asked.

  “No,” Aika said. “Because frankly, it’s the best possible explanation anyone has posed. Think about it. You can hardly remember a thing before you came to the Shah clan, and you spent your entire life without a Core. You had an extremely difficult time even making it to Green, and from what you said, you even lost your way.

  “No one makes the kind of rapid progress you have, and no one can get a new Belt without passing a test. But you did.”

  “Then why did my old Core only start coming back once I became a Green-Belt?” Roy asked.

  “In case you’ve forgotten what happened, you almost died when you tried using Qi back in Light City,” Aika said. “Imagine what would have happened had a bunch of corrupted Qi flooded your body before you were prepared to handle it.”

  Roy wasn’t ready to give up. Too much of this didn’t make any sense.

  “How then? How were they able to do it? I thought removing a Core meant death. How were they able to extract my Core and revert me back to where I was before I started, without killing me?”

  “I have no idea,” Aika replied. “But I’m not a Sovereign. They know things we couldn’t even hope to understand.”

  “What about the rapid growth then? Have you ever heard of a five-year-old Purple-Belt?”

  “No,” Aika replied. “But that would probably be why they separated you from your Core. Especially if you were out of control.”

  Roy sighed, pressing his back to a wall and slumping to the ground. It was all so hard to take in.

  “If what you say is true, Azure promised you’d have your answers once we reached the bottom level of the Dungeon, right?” Aika said, sitting down next to him.

  “That is what he said,” Roy replied.

  He had no one to blame for this other than himself. He’d wanted answers, and now, he had them. When he thought about it from this point of view, was it so far-fetched for him to be forming Chakra?

  “What will happen once I get all of that power back?” he asked. “What will happen to all the residual power I’ve gathered up until now?”

  He knew that it was a lot. Even if some of the power came from his old Core, the power that flowed through his channels now was mostly new. If six Belts’ worth of power came flooding into him at once, what would happen?

  “I…Don’t know,” Aika said. “I doubt you’ll burst, if that’s what you’re afraid of. Maybe you’ll just become the most powerful Purple-Belt on the planet?”

  The two of them remained silent for a few moments after that, Roy wondering about his future and now, needing to reach the bottom of the Dungeon. He had no idea how long that would take, as it was only their first day and they hadn’t even reached the end of this level. But now that he knew more answers were waiting for him at the bottom level, there was no way he was going back without them.

  “I think I’m going to go to sleep,” Roy said, pushing himself from the wall with a grunt. “I don’t believe we need to set a watch. I doubt anyone will be coming down here to bother us.”

  “Good night. Sleep well,” Aika said as he stumbled over to retrieve his pack and lay out his bedroll.

  “Good night,” Roy mumbled, barely getting his roll out before collapsing into it and closing his eyes.

  He didn’t know why, but he was suddenly very tired, and even having to unroll his bedding for the night was just too hard. Within seconds of closing his eyes, Roy was fast asleep.

  ***

  Aika watched Roy’s back as it rose and fell in even breaths, her mind too restless to allow her such luxuries.

  She was worried, but not for herself. Roy had been through so much in their time together, and it seemed that no matter where they went or what happened, he always seemed to get caught up in the worst possible situations. Now that they knew more, she had to wonder how he was still sane.

  Maybe he isn’t, and that’s the point, Aika thought, biting her bottom lip.

  She’d never heard of someone’s Core being removed before, but she had heard of rogue Martial Artists being put down by their own clans. If someone behaved erratically, it was a clear sign of mental deterioration. While most could handle the rigors of growing and advancing, some simply could not, and when those people became violent, they became a threat not only to themselves but to all the people around them.

  Roy had made a very good point about what would happen when his old power returned. If he had been in the high Purple stage when his Core had been removed, then his body and mind might not be able to take the strain – no matter what she’d told him to the contrary.

  That much power needed an outlet, and while Roy’s Core could hold a massive amount of it, this much would be far beyond him.

  Azure had said that Geon would be able to assist in keeping the Qi from corrupting him and that his mind was sounder than it had been back then. But what would happen if Geon became as overwhelmed as Roy most likely would? Would Geon die? Roy technically didn’t need him if his old power would be returning, so what would happen to the Dungeon Core? And all that aside, say he did somehow manage to survive, what would he be like after?

  The nagging worry that something would go horribly wrong kept her awake well into the early hours of the morning. Finally, exhaustion from the day’s fighting began to assert itself, forcing her mind to shut down. Before she drifted off, she promised herself that whatever happened, she would make sure to be there the entire time.

  He needed her, just as she needed him. Because as much as he leaned on her for support, Aika doubted she would have made it this far without him pushing her to do so.

  ***

  Roy awoke the next morning feeling oddly refreshed. The mental fatigue from the previous day was all but gone, and he felt lighter than he had in weeks. The knowledge of what was waiting for him at the bottom of this Dungeon still stuck with him, but now at least, he had an end goal.

  Thoughts of his past were still troubling, especially of what he would find once he reached his destination, but for the moment, he was able to push it to the back of his mind and concentrate on the present.

  “How are you feeling?”

  Roy turned to see Aika emerging from behind a rigged partition. After yesterday’s battles, changing clothes was an absolute necessity. However, neither of them had been able to bathe, and their drinking water was now being rationed. He could see that Aika had done her best to clean herself off, but her arms still bore traces of blood, though her face was mostly clean.

  “Aside from a little soreness, I’m doing alright,” Roy replied, giving her a reassuring smile.

  Aika’s shoulders relaxed at that, and she smiled back at him in turn.

  “That’s good to hear. I was getting worried about you there for a moment.”

  “I’m sorry for the way I’ve been acting,” he said. “I’ve just had a lot on my mind. But don’t worry, I’ll be pulling my weight from now on and not make you do all the heavy lifting.”

  Roy went behind the partition to change and try to clean himself, though without water, there wasn’t much he could do. After that, they ate a quick breakfast of dried rations and drank sparingly from their water.

  At their cultivation ranks, food and water we
re becoming less necessary, but fighting still put a strain on their body’s resources. They had enough food between the two of them for about a month, but it was the water that would be a problem if they couldn’t find any within a week.

  “You ready to get back into those lovely tunnels?” Aika asked, looking to the far tunnel unenthusiastically.

  “As ready as I’ll ever be,” Roy said, though he didn’t even want to imagine what kinds of horrors they’d be facing.

  30

  “Is there any end to these blasted tunnels?” Aika groaned as she and Roy stumbled into a bare cavern with another tunnel leading off on the opposite side.

  It had been nearly a week since they’d entered the Dungeon, and they hadn’t even made it past the first floor. Every day, they wound their way through the narrow tunnels, facing some new Beast that had a serious advantage over them within their confined space. Worse, they all had Earth Essence Cores, so they had little use for any of them.

  Of course, they carried the Cores with them regardless, as they would have value once they got out. Still, it was aggravating that they couldn’t run into Beasts with Cores that could actually be used.

  “How much Essence do you have left?” Roy asked as Aika slumped against one of the walls.

  “The Core I have is almost empty,” she replied. “It’ll last maybe another day if I ration it.”

  Unlike him, Aika was having a much harder time replenishing her Core with ambient Essence, since while their fighting generated plenty of Power Essence, Light Essence was another matter entirely.

  Light was sparse in these dim tunnels, leading Aika to lose more and more Essense with each fight and not fully recovering. After six days down there, she was on the verge of running out completely. The caverns had also not given them any new water sources, and they were on the verge of running out. If they didn’t come to the end of the floor soon, Roy didn’t know what they were going to do.

  “What I would give for a bath right now,” Aika groaned, pulling her long, black hair out of its usual pony and running her fingers through it.

  Where once it had been shining and lustrous, it now hung limp and greasy. Days of fighting, sweating, and being covered in all manner of bestial bodily fluids were adding up. In short, they both reeked.

  Roy knew that women tended to pride themselves on hygiene more than men, but he felt like he could kill a hundred Purple-level Beasts if it meant he could get in a bath.

  “There has to be an end to this soon,” Roy said, sitting down and starting to run his Qi through his channels.

  “But will we make it in time?” Aika asked, continuing to work on her hair.

  Roy didn’t know the answer to that, so he instead changed the subject.

  “I can’t believe neither of us were seriously injured making our way through here.”

  That was a miracle in and of itself, considering the level of Beasts they were fighting and their natural advantages in the tunnels. Sure, they stumbled out of each stretch covered in cuts and bruises every day, but considering that the worst injury suffered was Aika’s fractured rib, they weren’t doing too badly.

  Aika grunted in reply, pulling her hair back as tightly as she could and twining the piece of string around the base to keep it up.

  “So, do you want to stay and rest for the night, or do you want to keep going?”

  Aika thought on that for a moment, then sighed.

  “I guess we should probably keep going. I feel like now’s the time to be pushing hard, since we don’t have much water left. Just give me a few minutes to recover,” she said, pulling the depleted Light Core from her pack.

  Roy took the time to concentrate on his Core, looking inward to the matrix of channels that lit his body from within. He was now brimming with Power Qi, his Core strained to the maximum of what it could handle, and yet, no advancement was forthcoming. He remained stuck at Base Blue, despite having more than enough to move up at least a single Dan, if not more.

  He could still pull in and refine Essence, oddly enough, but there really wasn’t anywhere for it to go. Not having anything else to do, Roy started pulling purified Qi from his Core and running it through a new pattern.

  He still didn’t fully understand what he was doing, nor could he comprehend the energy he was working with. All he knew was that if he ran his Qi through the pattern around his Core then constricted the channels using his spirit, the Qi would begin to transform.

  The process of forging Chakra from Qi was much harder than forming Qi from Essence, as it required far more concentration and willpower. Aside from that, it required something extra. As the Qi would run through its final loop, turning into Chakra, a sharp pain would ping in his chest, and a small amount of blood would enter the spec of Qi. It would then darken and take on the same glimmering hue as the rest of what he’d managed to build up and join the small sphere at the center of the pool of Qi.

  After having it sit there for more than a day and finding the energy didn’t actually hurt him as long as he didn’t try and use it, Roy had decided to try and figure out how to make it. It had taken a few tries and more than a little teasing and complaining on Geon’s part, but eventually, he’d succeeded.

  He still wasn’t sure where the blood came in, as he didn’t remember it last time, but then again, he was in the middle of a heated battle and pain could have gone unnoticed.

  “I’m ready.”

  Roy opened his eyes to see Aika already standing with her back to him and stretching her arms over her head.

  There was no sign of the Light Core, but Roy suspected that if there were anything left, it would only be enough to power maybe a couple of techniques before she ran out. In Aika’s mind, the worst part wasn’t running out of power, but the fact that she had to stop working on her advancement due to the lack of Light Essence.

  Roy got to his feet as well, crooking his neck to either side and hearing a series of pops and cracks. He’d slept on it badly the previous night, and for some reason, his Qi wasn’t doing anything to get rid of the soreness.

  The two of them headed into another tunnel with a low ceiling and began moving quickly and carefully forward. They scanned the walls, floors, and ceiling, trying to make out any signs of Beasts. At first, when they didn’t run into any, they didn’t think much of it. Beasts in these tunnels appeared sporadically, as though the Dungeon were trying to catch them by surprise.

  However, when they’d walked for nearly an hour and didn’t come across so much as a single one, they started to become tense and worried.

  “You sense anything?” Aika asked, her eyes roaming between the floor and ceiling.

  “Nothing at all,” Roy replied, his eyes flicking between the walls.

  They’d already walked around multiple bends, expecting some sort of Beast to be there waiting for them, but had yet to come across anything. When they still hadn’t run into any creatures after another half hour, Roy started to wonder if they might be coming up on the end of the floor.

  “Do you think the Guardian will be at the end of this tunnel?” Roy asked, still scanning his surroundings.

  “Maybe. Maybe not,” Geon replied unhelpfully.

  Guardians were the last obstacle in any Dungeon or specific level or section of a Dungeon. They were the most powerful Beasts of the area and would pose a serious threat to even the best prepared Martial Artists. The two of them hardly fell into that category.

  “Well, that’s odd,” Aika said as they emerged from the tunnel and into another empty cavern.

  Except this one didn’t have a tunnel opening at the other end. Aika and Roy were immediately on guard, their bodies going tense as they looked around for the Beast they knew had to be here, and sure enough, a creature pulled itself from the wall a moment later, as though being formed of solid stone and clay.

  It was tall and spindly like the first Beast they’d come across, but it had six legs, standing on four and using two as arms. Long, serrated blades tipped the end of each inste
ad of clubs, and small, bulbous protrusions grew all over its body. There was no head – none of the creatures in this place seemed to have one – but when it lifted its shortened torse, the two of them could see a pair of glowing yellow eyes.

  A line of jagged teeth appeared as the Beast’s chest parted and a long gray tongue drooped out, hanging nearly two feet down. Neither Roy nor Aika made the mistake of thinking this creature would be easily defeated.

  As soon as the Beast unleashed its Core, Roy had to wonder if they would be better off simply turning back. Power blazed from the monster in waves, washing over them and making their spirits tremble. It was still in the Blue stage, but at the very peak, meaning that as far as challenges went, this creature was leagues above them.

  There were 6 Dans in the Blue-Belt stage, after which the Martial Artist could push for the next and open the Torii gate for their Purple test. While Roy and Aika were both Blue-Belts, there was a serious difference in power between Base and 1st Dan Blue and a Peak 6th Dan Blue. And although Roy might be a special case, his fights with the other Beasts in this Dungeon told him that this would not be an easy battle.

  Golden light flashed across Roy’s body as he used his Armorer technique, already debating whether to use his as of yet unnamed Full-body technique right from the start. This creature was clearly a cut above the rest, and he didn’t doubt that it posed a serious threat.

  “Any ideas?” Aika asked as the Beast let out a roar that sounded somewhere between a scream and hiss.

  “Hope we don’t die?” Roy replied.

  The Beast struck, both of its serrated arms shooting forward and stretching impossibly long. From experience, the two of them knew to dodge, even though the creature appeared to be too far away to hit them.

  Both jagged blades slammed into the wall with a loud boom, becoming lodged and sticking for a few seconds before it managed to pull them free.

  As far as Roy could see, the two of them had only a single advantage in this fight, and that was room to move. Every fight up until now had been in a narrow tunnel with a low ceiling. In this cavern, the ceiling was more than twice as high, and the walls were over two dozen yards apart. This Beast might be powerful, but if they had room to move, they had room to use their speed.