by Jakob Tanner
The opposite happened.
One of the enemy was a bowman, who launched a powerful arrow that collided with Max’s lightning attack with enough force to cancel out the ability.
What the—
Good thinking, Max, Harold thought to himself as he kept his hands steady on the reins of the giant worm. But that won’t be enough.
The worm shrieked and shivered.
Harold looked over his shoulder and saw the enemy worm had bitten into their worm.
“We’ve been hit,” shouted Sarah.
Oh no, thought Harold. This is really bad.
Desert worms never fought one another unless commanded to by a tamer or an external force. They were normally quite peaceful to one another, but when they did fight...
Things got real bad.
The worm suddenly swerved and made a massive U-turn to attack the enemy worm.
The worm was overriding Harold’s mana reins.
Damn, damn, damn.
The two worms collided, their open mouths shredding into each other.
Harold caught a glimpse of the enemy squad in front of them.
This is what they wanted to happen all along.
Harold let go of his mana reins and grabbed Sarah.
“We gotta go,” said Harold. “These two worms are going to destroy all of us if we don’t get off right now.”
Casey swerved the paper crane away from the enemy.
Harold and Sarah were leaping off the worm as was the enemy squad.
Blake was waving his hands, still on top of the worm.
“Pick him up,” Casey said as she swerved the paper crane near Blake.
Max held out his hand and Blake grabbed hold of it as they descended to the desert ground to meet Harold and Sarah.
The worms tumbled and fought with one another, caught in a deadly embrace, rolling across the desert away from them.
The enemy squad stood across from them a good twenty meters away.
They didn’t give Max and his teammates a moment of respite.
The bowman shot forth a barrel of arrows.
Max and everyone scattered in different directions.
KABOOM!
Oh crap, Max thought. These were explosive arrows!
“SARAH!” shouted Casey.
Max looked up as the swirl of sand settled.
Sarah was standing in front of the squad with a third of her head missing.
Her right eye, nose, and cheek were gone. The insides of her skull was there for everyone to see.
“Sarah?” Max gasped.
A loose bit of brain fell from her head and onto the desert floor.
17
Max stared at his childhood friend with half of her head blown off.
Tears filled his eyes.
“Sarah!” he screamed, rushing up to her.
They should never have allowed her to go on this mission, he thought. It was too dangerous.
“M...a...x...” said a voice.
Max looked up, and by some miracle, Sarah was still alive.
Particles of flesh grew back on her head, like a jigsaw puzzle rapidly being solved.
Soon enough, her entire head and body was back to normal.
The horrific sight of her blown off head was now only a memory haunting his vision.
Max stared at his old friend in disbelief.
“Regenerative healing, huh?” said Harold. “I can see why you got nominated as our E-rank member now.”
Max sighed with relief at the sight of his recovered friend. His heart still pounding in his chest.
Regenerative healing.
So that was Sarah’s trait.
“Not to interrupt the celebration of one of our members not dying from a head explosion,” said Blake. “But not all of us will grow back any limbs that go missing, so do we have a plan or what?”
“These five have been tracking us since floor-11,” said Harold. “They’ve finally chosen to show themselves. Now we’ll show them who they’re messing with.”
Harold cracked his neck and stretched his muscles.
“No need for a plan,” said Harold. “I can handle them all on my own.”
Braden smirked as the A-ranker rushed towards them.
The old man moved with lightning speed.
“Impressive,” said Braden, turning to his bowman. “You know what to do, we planned for this.”
Harold Swiftstriker was one of the most powerful human climbers known throughout the tower. He was strong enough to kill them all with his bare hands. Did he really think they’d attack him without some kind of strategy as to how to defeat someone so powerful?
The bowman launched a series of explosive arrows.
Tufts of sand and smoke burst in the ground as the explosive arrows landed.
The human A-ranker flickered through the landing arrows, moving too quickly to be hit by them.
That’s right, Braden snickered to himself. Come closer, you old fool.
Max watched as Harold dodged the enemy squad’s attacks with impressive speed.
From what Max could gather, Harold was going to take out the bowman first.
That would open the enemy squad up for a full frontal attack.
That’s what Harold wanted the rest of them to do.
But then Max saw something strange.
A different member of the enemy squad suddenly materialized a bow from his pouch and went on to launch a different type of arrow.
“Harold!” shouted Max. “Watch out!”
The arrow flung through the air towards the old man, but it didn’t hit him.
Harold dodged the attack, but the arrow landed not where he had been, but closer to where he was going.
A circle of energy shot forth from the arrow, creating a yellow rune in the ground.
Harold rushed forward and slammed into an invisible wall.
Oh no, thought Max.
Their strongest team member just got paralyzed. Their A-ranker was suddenly out of the fight.
Crap crap crap.
What are we going to do? thought Max.
They needed to make a plan and quickly too.
The rest of the team turned to Blake, the next highest-ranked climber.
“Uh, why are you guys looking at me?”
“You’re a freaking B-ranker!” said Casey.
“Hey—I set shit on fire, that’s it. I’m no strategist.”
“And you wonder why Sakura won’t go out with you?” muttered Casey, crossing her arms.
“I don’t feel good about this,” murmured Sarah.
Max’s heart raced.
“Guys, we gotta come up with something fast,” he said. “If no one else has any bright ideas, I think I have a rough idea of what we can do.”
Max quickly walked them through his plan and within seconds they got to work.
“Remember what Harold told us,” said Max. “We need to learn to work together!”
Casey and Blake rushed towards their attackers.
Sarah and Max waited behind.
“Are you sure about this, Max?” asked Sarah.
“Yeah,” he said. “Just watch.”
Casey and Blake moved forward at a rapid clip.
Blake was utilizing his B-ranker agility stat, while Casey had materialized her origami wind board to ride along the sand dunes.
Max watched the two team members rush forward.
They were putting their lives on the line in service of his plan.
It couldn’t go wrong.
“What the hell are you fools doing!” yelled Harold from his mana prison. “They’ll pick you off one by one. Didn’t my failed attack teach you anything!”
The enemy squad leader snickered at them as if he was thinking the exact same thing as Harold.
Both Harold and the enemy’s eyes bulged at the sight of what happened next.
Casey materialized a flock of origami cranes from her climber pouch, shooting them towards the enemy squad.
Then
with a flick of his fingers, Blake ignited the winged cranes on fire.
It was a brand new team combo move.
One Thousand Paper Phoenixes!!!
18
The flaming phoenixes swirled across the desert ripping through the armor and flesh of the enemy squad.
The final cherry on top to the magnificent combo ability was setting their enemies on fire.
“Incredible,” gasped Harold as the thousand paper phoenixes swirled across the desert battlefield.
Max grinned.
Stage one of his plan had worked with deadly success.
The augmented team combo move meant that Casey’s D-rank powered attack suddenly had the force and power of a B-rank flamebringer trait.
Her already deadly attack was now at double the power.
Take that you jerks, Max thought to himself.
Smoke swirled around the enemy squad.
When the smoke finally cleared, the five attackers were all standing there, still perfectly alive and well.
Some of their clothing had been burned off, but that only revealed the gargantuan set of muscles underneath each squad member.
“How are they still alive?” asked Sarah, shivering.
Max thought it was ironic that the girl who just had half her head blown off and survived was still amazed that these people withstood Blake and Casey’s deadly combo attack.
Her surprise was warranted though.
Did the fact that they were able to survive a B-rank assault mean they themselves were all B-rankers? Or did they all share some kind of trait that allowed them extra fortified defense and endurance? The latter wouldn’t surprise Max given the gargantuan size of their biceps and other muscles.
“Do you really think setting paper on fire would be enough to finish us?” snickered the leader of the enemy squad.
Max bristled at the man’s taunt.
Blake and Casey were currently catching their breath, taking in the futility of their incredible attack. Harold clenched his fists from inside his paralyzed zone.
The enemy attacker was using their recent resilience as a way to demoralize Max and his squad.
“What are we going to do?” said Sarah, turning to Max. “Your plan didn’t work.”
Max smiled, letting his true emotions show.
“Don’t worry, Sarah, everything is going exactly as I planned it.”
Sure, he had hoped Casey and Blake’s combo attack would be devastating enough to finish the battle on its own; but, its real purpose was simple: to figure out how powerful this enemy squad really was.
With that in mind, he was ready to initiate stage two.
“Wait here,” he said to Sarah.
Then in a sudden flash, he was charging the enemy squad head-on.
The five-person team shifted their stances, preparing for Max’s assault.
They would take him on all at once.
“Fool!” shouted the enemy. “You won’t be able to survive the blows of all five of us!”
Max raised his fists as he charged, letting lightning crackle all around his knuckles, and shouted, “Just watch me.”
Sarah watched on with horror as Max flung himself across the desert battlefield.
Lightning swirled around his fists as he went straight for the squad’s leader.
C’mon, Max, she thought to herself quietly.
She knew Max was powerful but she couldn’t help doubting her old friend’s plan. Could he really take down all five of those enemies after Casey and Blake had failed to do so?
The enemy squad leader lifted up his hand and caught Max’s lightning fist, dead on.
Max squirmed, locked in the man’s grip.
The muscular enemy smirked before throwing out a massive punch in retaliation.
Sarah wanted to cover her eyes.
She couldn’t take seeing her friend being harmed this way.
It reminded her too much of their childhood. The nightmarish lives they once lived.
She thought those times were finally over now that the walls between the outer-rim and the tower-zone had fallen.
A horrible terrifying thought came to her as she watched the muscular warrior’s fist head straight into Max’s skull: had nothing really changed?
She waited for a scream of pain, a crack of bones, and a spurt of blood.
Nothing came.
The enemy squad leader’s fist went straight through Max’s head as if it were empty air.
A ghost.
Max slipped out of the attacker’s grip just as the other four enemy team members pounced on him.
A cloud of dust and sand formed where the enemy squad had pounced on Max.
Sarah couldn’t understand why they would attack with such ferocity after the display of Max’s phase-out ability.
Perhaps they thought the ability ran on a timer? Eventually Max would have to change from his immaterial form to his material one and at that point a good kick to the face would take him out?
It seemed like a sound strategy to Sarah.
What will Max do next?
Braden and his teammates eventually slowed down their blows.
They’d hit the kid with everything they had.
There’s no way the kid would survive that many attacks from such powerful climbers like themselves.
As the dust cleared, Braden’s eyes bulged at the empty patch of ground between him and his squad mates.
Beyond empty air was a fading wisp of black shadow.
Where did the bloody kid go!?
“Looking for someone,” said a voice.
Braden and his squad turned around in shock to find the red-haired boy right behind them.
He looked different now too.
His entire body had grown humongous with muscle and power.
This kid can borrow our abilities?
“That’s right,” said the red-haired boy as if he was reading Braden’s thoughts. “What’s yours is now mine.”
The boy channeled his new strength into his silver knuckles until three sharp beaming blue rays of mana emerged from each of his fists.
“There’s no way you can take us down,” said Braden. “Even with our abilities we can still match you in strength.”
The red-haired boy shook his head and swiped his claws.
Two of his companions were ripped to shreds.
“My trait not only steals other people’s abilities,” said Max, ripping his mana claws through the flesh of Braden’s two other teammates. “It doubles the power as well.”
Braden stumbled backwards.
What was happening?
They were supposed to kill these guys? How did things go so wrong?
The red-haired boy stepped towards him, pointing his claws directly at him now.
The beams of mana stretched further until they touched him in the chest.
The hostile mana began to burn slowly through his skin.
“Who sent you?” shouted the red-haired boy.
Braden began to feel a pain from inside of him. He realized he had lost and there was no way he was going to survive this battle now.
Either this boy was going to kill him or his clients were.
Trembling, he could see black lines forming on his skin. Black lines that would kill him faster than those mana claws.
He snickered.
So this was what it felt like to die, huh?
He glanced up to the red-haired boy and the last thing he said before bursting into a cloud of black dust was, “The Fallen Angels send their regards.”
19
Hermia Lee stood in the head office of the floor-30 coliseum.
She held a clipboard in her hand while her superior, Regulus Sampson, sat behind a desk, resting his chin on his steepled fingers.
“How are the registrations going?” Regulus asked. “Has everyone arrived?”
Hermia gulped. She knew this question was coming and she hadn’t wanted to deliver bad news to her boss.
She would just have
to tell him the truth.
“All the teams have registered,” she said. “Except for one.”
Regulus cocked an eyebrow from behind his desk. The gesture was supposed to show casual irritation and surprise, but Hermia knew it was anything but that.
She could feel the repressed rage from meters away.
“Shall I take a guess?” he finally said. “Is it the youngest, weakest, and most irritating of the lower races?”
“I’m not sure I know who you mean by that—”
Regulus slammed a fist on his desk.
“Those damn humans,” said Regulus. “They show no respect to those superior to them. I say, we disqualify them this instant.”
“Given that our relations with the humans has been complicated since the last time they attended the tournament,” said Hermia. “Maybe we should give them the benefit of the doubt. At least, until the official arrival date has passed.”
Regulus made an angry sigh.
“Fine,” said the man. “If they’re not here in a week’s time, they’ll forfeit their position in the tournament.”
Max stood still, looking down at the blank patch of sand where the mercenary had just been.
The rest of the group rushed up to him.
“Max—are you okay?” asked Casey and Sarah in unison.
Max wasn’t sure if he’d describe his current feelings as ‘okay,’ but he did feel a strong sense of relief. All of his companions were alive and well. If any one of them had been harmed, then he certainly would have been not okay.
“Well done, kid,” said Harold, who was freed from the paralyzed zone as soon as Max had defeated the bowman. “Those mercenaries put us in a pickle and you got us out of it.”
“What did that man say to you?” asked Blake. “Before he...you know.”
Max gulped and repeated the dead mercenary’s last words.
“The Fallen Angels send their regards.”
His companions’ faces went pale, except for Sarah’s.
“Who are The Fallen Angels?” she asked.
“I’ll explain later,” said Casey, before turning back to Max. “What do you think The Fallen Angels want with us? Is this revenge for thwarting their plans in Elestria?”