Sixth Realm

by Michael Chatfield

“How fast?” Someone called out as she dodged each of the attacks. While she flowed, Gert was forced to bring his shield up as he thought she would counterattack him and strike out at his vitals.

  He had broken out into a cold sweat as he found that he was forced to defend. He was quickly losing his momentum and his opponent hadn’t made a move yet.

  Why does it feel like she sees all of my openings but she doesn’t strike. Am I overthinking? Is her ability to dodge me getting better with time?

  She continued to weave and dance away from his cudgel, a thoughtful look on her face.

  “Why does this fight feel weird. I thought that the Ironshield would win easily, but why is he sweating?”

  “Isn’t she the one dodging?”

  “But why does it feel like he is the one that is weaker?”

  “You’ve noticed it? She is adjusting herself, using him as a training device. Her dodging has become better with each attack. She is in control over the fight, she must be a dark horse!”

  Gert was getting frustrated, he jumped backward as he started to channel his technique.

  “Seriously, just standing there and taking my hits, you won’t be able to win like that!” He taunted, using his words to buy him time.

  Why would Lin Lei give him time when she could sense him drawing in the ambient mana?

  She executed her own technique. She turned into a blur, turning her dagger to use the pommel instead of the blade, she hit the man in the chest, his eyes went wide as blood leaked from his lips and his armor deformed slightly. He was thrown backward and off of the stage, rolling on the ground.

  She put her daggers away and looked to the referee.

  “Match goes to Lin Lei of the Adventurer’s Guild!” He called out.

  She cupped her hands to the referee, he returned the gesture.

  She was about to walk off the stage as the man pointed two fingers down on his left hand and tapped his forefinger against it, creating an ‘A’.

  Her cold expression turned into a smile as she gave him an imperceptible nod.

  “Ahh, Ironshield of the Purple Clouds Sect. It seems that the Purple Cloud Sect has just been talking up their members, bah!”

  “I have a new favorite! Lin Lei of the Adventurer’s Guild, how cool is she?”

  “An assassin type, they’re the coolest with their getups.”

  “Why are you talking about what someone is wearing? This is a fighting competition!”

  “She’s already strong, didn’t you see that move, pow! One hit!”

  ***

  Gu Chen was looking at the fights, already most of the Silver Dragon fighters had passed the first rounds, finishing their fights in just a handful of moves, one fight took seven exchanges before the enemy fell.

  “Impressive,” Klaus said from his seat.

  Gu Chen glanced at the screen that was showing an assassin and a shield warrior.

  The shield user looked to have the upper hand, but as he watched he realized how the assassin was just toying with him.

  Wait, isn’t that the Iron Shield from the Purple Cloud Sect?

  Look at her feet, she hasn’t moved from her spot since the beginning of her fight. The only move she made was at the end to stop him from activating his technique. To dodge all of those attacks, and then pick the perfect timing to strike her opponent.

  The shield warrior jumped backward as the woman appeared beside him and he shot across the stage, rolling in the dirt. Healers moved to him as the woman accepted her win.

  The image changed to another fight.

  He looked down at the stages, people were fighting with everything they had, motion filled the fighting stages.

  Lin Lei, is she one of the people under Blaze? From the lower realms?

  ***

  Lin Lei walked off of the stage and went over to the waiting area, the first rounds of fighting were still ongoing. A few unlucky people had already lost while there were plenty of undetermined fights happening all across the different arenas. Two new people stepped onto the stage she had left but she didn’t notice it as she was replaying her fight in her mind.

  At first she’d been apprehensive, she had trained and leveled up aggressively, throwing herself into it completely.

  The dungeon was filled with humanoid creatures, those that were fast and agile and those that were slower but stronger as well as variants of them both. They had pushed all of the branch heads to their limits. Under those pressures, they had improved their skills.

  They sparred with one another still but in her first fight she had felt that Gert’s techniques and his movements were filled with flaws, he was slow and his movements were all choreographed.

  She had adjusted to him, using him to understand her new limits and get a better understanding over her body.

  Adjusting to his fighting strength, she was able to easily deal with him when he started to use a technique. Techniques could turn a fight around and not wanting to leave anything to chance she’d tested out her strength, tossing him clear of the stage and winning.

  I thought that they would be a bit stronger? Maybe he was just weaker than others?

  Still even after all of my training the Alvan trainers could defeat me with ease. Did I really get that much stronger?

  ***

  Blaze didn’t know how well his guild would do in the competition. He believed that they would place well, though seeing Lin Lei go up against The Purple Cloud Sect’s Iron Shield, a man with considerable fame and prowess, he was prepared to see Lin Lei lose.

  Once the fight had started, knowing how strong Lin Lei was and using her as a measure he could see that they weren’t on the same stage.

  Can’t get too cocky, after all, he is used to fighting as part of a unit, not fighting on a stage. His actions were exaggerated as that was how he had been trained and he has not needed to hide those motions in his fights as he used his overwhelming attributes to win.

  He continued to watch the other fights throughout the day.

  ***

  Experts emerged from among the fighters, drawing the crowd's attention as the different groups researched the fighters and any powers behind them.

  The fighting continued to heat up as people were looking for the strongest among the first round participants.

  Suddenly there was an uproar as a large berserker man was sent flying off of the stage. One would expect to find a similarly muscular man standing on stage, but there was a petite woman with a frown on her face, lowering her hand from in front of her, the bow on her back remained untouched.

  “Just how strong is she to hit him off of the stage in one strike?”

  “She must be a strength based fighter and she’s just has a bow and quiver on her back to make her look like an archer.”

  “Why would she do that? Wouldn’t it only be good for a few fights?”

  “Probably, but that could be enough to get her into the top one hundred just fooling people.”

  “You saw how strong she was, do you think that she needs to fool anyone?

  ***

  The first round of fighting went on all afternoon, even with hundreds of stages, there were one thousand matches in the first round alone.

  Four out of the five Purple Cloud Sect’s people had pushed on.

  The Crimson Wolves, led by Amarann had crushed their opponents with all three people passing through to the second round. The three from the Stone Fist Sect had similarly defeated their opponents in one or two moves.

  The Adventurer’s Guild lost two people that had run into experts. The rest had all been able to advance.

  “Ah, this is frustrating I thought that more of the sects would come and participate. Are they looking down on us?”

  “It is the first competition and we don’t know what all of the rewards are. To put their people on the line for some unknown prizes is asking a lot from them,” another said.

  “Hopefully they show up in the next tournament. I want to see just how the adventure groups fro
m Vuzgal stack up against them!”

  One of the last matches saw Kim Cheol matched up with one of the fighters from the Silver Dragons.

  Kim walked up to the stage, his helmet under his arm, his opponent was a dazzling woman with wicked curved blades on her hips.

  The two of them looking at one another looked really mismatched.

  ***

  Kim Cheol reached out his hand to greet his opponent as was good practice.

  Diana scoffed and slapped his hand away.

  “Don’t think that you and your simple guild can stand in the way of my Silver Dragon Adventuring group. I don’t know what you did to anger my branch leader but don’t worry I’ll make your punishment quick, if you fight too much then who knows, you might just die. These spars can have so many accidents,” she sneered.

  “What are you talking about?” Kim Cheol asked, confused.

  “Don’t worry, you and your guild will soon feel the blade of my Silver Dragons. The weak need to be culled.”

  Kim Cheol’s expression turned dull, his eyes lifeless. He pulled on his helmet as if a machine in a man’s body.

  Kim Cheol had been a miner in the First Realm. He had worked all of his life to support his family and the orphanage he had grown up in.

  One day he was mining and a beast horde descended on his town. The soldiers that were meant to protect them fled and ran, looking after themselves instead of the people they were supposed to protect, but had instead lorded over and treated like their slaves.

  Kim Cheol and the miners had used their tools to try and defend the town.

  Then a group of fighters that were in the area hunting down beasts charged over. They fought alongside the miners and called their guild over.

  The guild which wasn’t getting paid for it, but heard that their people were in danger, charged over. Leading them was their Guildmaster, Blaze.

  He didn’t sit in the rear, but coordinated the fight and they were able to blunt the attack and scatter the beast wave.

  Kim Cheol was badly wounded but the Guild had helped with healing people.

  Blaze had talked to Kim Cheol and offered him a job, a way to become stronger, to stand up for the people in the guild. To join a new family.

  He joined the guild and found a family there. A group of people willing to drop everything to stand up for others. It was why not doing anything against the Willful Institute burned so badly.

  Hearing someone threaten those he cared about, his easy smile was washed away.

  He hoisted his shield and rolled his shoulders, lowering himself.

  The woman sneered as she looked him in the eyes, looking down on him.

  The referee waved his arms, starting the match.

  She launched forwards, her curved blades in both hands. Mana gathered on her blades as her speed reached the limit.

  “So fast! That must be a technique I can’t even follow her shadow!”

  Kim Cheol kept looking into her eyes, feeling her murderous intent as the blades aimed for his vitals.

  She lunged forward, a wind blade covered her blades causing them to blur with speed.

  ***

  Gu Chen looked over just as the two were closing, his eyes became firm.

  She’s executing Wind strike already? That’s her sure-kill technique right off the bat. Even if they dodge her wind blades, her real blades are the true weapon which she’s angled to trap her enemy within so they have nowhere to retreat. Why is she looking to kill him?!”

  He was hoping that Kim Cheol could dodge the attack, somehow.

  Kim Cheol shifted his foot and stepped forward.

  “What is he doing?Why is he charging forward, is he looking to die?”

  With the aura of a boar meeting an intruder on his territory, Kim Cheol charged into the attack. His shield glowed with power and his muscles bulged, his charge looked simple but it effectively blunted the wind blades attack, broke Diana’s stance and launched her up into the air as he moved past.

  He was a few steps past her when he stomped on the ground, launching himself into the air. He hit down and backward with his shield, and it rang out as she was slapped into the ground, creating a crack in the platform.

  Her clothes were torn up and there was blood falling from her lips as she struggled to get up, staggering from the attacks.

  The referee was looking between them and stepped back while a medic rushed over to the stage.

  Kim Cheol touched the ground, taking the impact of his weight and armor with his legs. He walked over to Diana.

  ***

  Kim Cheol undid the straps on his shield and tossed it off his arm and into his hands. His eyes were lifeless still as he saw Diana getting up, her legs stuck out to either side to support her.

  He charged, she raised her weapons to defend herself, there was panic in her eyes. He appeared behind her, his shield was raised in both of his arms. He swung it like the hammers he had used in the mine, she half turned as his blow hit her.

  She was slammed into the ground once again. Cheol’s shield rang out again as he struck her for a second time with three quarters of his strength. He didn’t want to kill her.

  The stage cracked around her as she was embedded into the stone.

  Cheol stopped hitting her, her weapons had fallen from her hands long ago.

  She was coughing up blood. The referee was running, a barrier appeared around her so she couldn’t be hit again.

  Kim Cheol sank to a knee.

  His lifeless eyes looked upon Diana. There was no derision in her eyes anymore, fear dominated her now.

  “Don’t touch those that are precious to me.”

  The referee stood in front of him and held up a hand.

  “You’ve won,” He said.

  Cheol nodded and walked off.

  The referee got to work on Diana and the medic arrived shortly afterward.

  Cheol gave off the aura of a beast protecting what belonged to him. He put his shield away and walked towards the waiting rooms. Those waiting to go up on stage flinched away from him as he walked down the stairs past them.

  ***

  Gu Chen felt that something was wrong, Diana had slapped away Kim Cheol’s hand and had said something to him. As soon as the fight started they had fought all out.

  Are they targeting us? Why did Diana start the fight with a killing move?

  He had more questions than answers, for the rising star that was the Adventurer’s Guild, he didn’t want to start off on the wrong foot.

  ***

  Blaze also felt that something was wrong. As the matches had gone on, more of the people in the booth had come over to talk to him. Talking of different deals and possible partnerships.

  He talked to them and told them that he would meet them after the contest, hosting them in his Guild Hall.

  As the last of the first round wrapped up, it was nearly dark. Fighter’s hopes had been crushed, while others were revelling in passing the first round. All of Vuzgal was talking about the competition as word spread through the totems and along the trading routes.

  There were still one thousand contestants remaining. It was still early in the competition, anything could happen.

  Chapter: Hidden Orders

  Gu Chen returned to the Wandering Inn where the Silver Dragon Adventure group were resting.

  “You did well,” he said seeing them. All but Diana had been able to pass through the first round.

  “Make sure that you rest, you have a number of fights ahead of you.”

  He headed to where Diana was resting, her injuries were severe and while the healers had worked on her, she needed to recover stamina for them to heal the non -critical injuries.

  She tried to get up as he was walking in the room.

  “Please don’t, you’ll only make your wounds worse.”

  She gave him a look of gratitude as she let out a pained hiss as she fell back to the bed.

  “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to get rid of him as you wanted. I was t
oo weak and underestimated him.”

  “Wanted to get rid of him?” Gu Chen asked.

  “I got the order to eliminate the members of the Adventurer’s Guild and make sure that they know their place,” Diana said, perplexed.

  Gu Chen, felt his anger building within him.

  She was just following my orders, but who sent them.

  “Who told you to do that?”

  “Your assistant,” Diana said.

  Gu Chen gritted his teeth before calming himself.

  “Fighting Kim Cheol, what was it like?”

  Diana was visibly shaken, her eyes went wide as she paled and broke out into a cold sweat.

  “He’s a Monster,” I thought that he had lost where I was. He saw through my attacks. Hit them perfectly with his shield. He could’ve sent me out of the stage in one hit, but sending me up in the air I was in his range still. With one strike he forced me into the middle of the stage. I was at his mercy then. His eyes-“ She froze up before pushing forward. “His eyes, they were dull, like there wasn’t a man I was facing, but a monster.”

  “What did you say to him?”

  “I threatened him and his people, I wanted to throw him off mentally before the fight.

  So he knows that Diana was aiming for his life. Will he take this to Blaze, what will Blaze think if he hears from Kim Cheol we’re looking to cripple and maim his people?

  Gu Chen’s anger only grew, but he hid it from Diana.

  “Is there anything else that happened?”

  “At the end, when he took a knee next to me,” Diana was visibly shaking.

  “He warned me to not touch what was precious to him. He meant that guild. I could tell he was willing to fight to the end for them,” Her eyes found Gu Chen’s and he felt the fear that filled her mind.

  Being this scared, she’ll need time to recover before she can go fight. We’ll have to see how badly affected she is once she recovers. Otherwise she might not be able to fight again.

  “Rest up, it looks like someone passed the wrong order, I’ll see what I can do to smooth over the situation,” Gu Chen said.