by Aaron Oster
Releasing his Nature’s wrath, Morgan then forged a gauntlet made of violet wind, and slammed it into the back of his skull, driving the man to the ground. His senses warned him of an incoming attack and he stepped to one side, avoiding the fist, glowing with the power of a force enhancement.
Sing’s eyes only had a second to widen in shock before Morgan’s fist snapped up, cracking at least a couple of ribs. She was hurled backwards, screaming in agony, and coughing up blood.
Morgan stepped to the right, avoiding Arnold’s blast of destructive power, then spun and slammed the gauntleted fist into his jaw. He heard a loud crack as it snapped, sending the man reeling back and howling in pain. Morgan stared down at his hands, more shocked by the casual ease in which he’d just dispatched two people who had nearly killed him only minutes before.
Was his advancement to the Intermediate stage really this incredible?! It wasn’t just his strength, but his reflexes as well. His body seemed to know where the attacks were going to come from and acted almost without him thinking to counter them. His senses cried out another warning, and Morgan dropped to the ground as a colorless ripple of force blew over his head. Then he rolled to one side, his hand slapping the ground and launching him into the air.
Arnold’s fist slammed into the sand where his head had just been, leaving an imprint nearly an inch deep. He also noted that Sing’s attack had sheared clean through a section of the arena wall sending it crashing to the ground. With his Aura sense active, he could feel them both building up power for an attack, and used his newest skill.
Two pillars of sand roared up before their faces, making them both stumble back in surprise. Landing nimbly on the ground, Morgan sprinted toward Sing, using the ground beneath his feet to increase his movement speed. When his foot landed, he hardened the sand for an instant, then used it to give his foot a small push forward.
This gave him extra speed, while reducing the time each of his steps spent sinking into the sand. He calculated that this would help him move twenty-three percent more efficiently than either Sing or Arnold, not that it mattered to him. They were both going to die. The sand pillar died down, revealing Sing, her teeth clenched in rage.
“You’ll… Pay for this!” she gasped, gathering her power for another attack.
Morgan didn’t give her the time to even finish readying it. Sliding into her guard, he smashed his open palm into her chin, snapping her head back and putting her off balance. He followed up by pivoting on his right foot and cracked her across her jaw. Morgan swore he saw a couple of teeth fly from the woman’s mouth as she stumbled to the side, cursing him all the while.
A sudden warning from behind made him step to the left, only to sense another warning just an instant later. Too late, Morgan realized that he’d been tricked, and braced himself, forcing his shield to activate right before a roaring column of molten rock slammed into him. Morgan winced as he was hurled back, feeling the heat even through his shield, which he noticed was now back to the same purple as his core, only with lines of red, blue and gold tracing throughout.
His back slammed into the arena wall, and it took all he had to avoid being buried in the molten rock. Sand flooded up from the ground, forming quickly into a wall before him and thickening with each passing second. He could feel his reiki rapidly depleting as he continuously used his Restructure skill to pull sand from his surroundings to stop the lava. He’d attempted to take direct control of the molten rock, but had found that he was unable to, likely a byproduct of it being someone else’s skill.
Finally, after what seemed like ages, the lava stopped, leaving Morgan to dig his way out of the molten slag. He grimaced, feeling his body becoming sluggish as the stone rapidly cooled on him, causing cracks to appear in his shield. Finally breaking free, Morgan had only a split-second warning before a massive force slammed into his midsection, buckling his shield and sending him flying into the wall he’d just dug himself out of.
Growling in annoyance, Morgan forced himself out of the new crater his body had created, wincing at the new bruises accumulating on his recently healed body. He’d grown overconfident with his new abilities and he’d forgotten that he was facing two skilled combatants. He had to stop thinking in terms of power and focus at what he was best at. Speed.
As he broke free of the wall, he saw that both Arnold and Sing had regrouped, and were now eyeing him warily. Apparently, they didn’t feel so comfortable charging in as they had before. That was good for him, because it gave him a few seconds to try and split them up. Breathing deeply, Morgan could feel his bruises healing, and began enacting his plan. Using his new skill, he sent a pillar of sand right at Sing. As predicted, she dodged to the side, easily avoiding it, and sent an attack back at him.
Morgan stepped to his right, avoiding the blast of force that had been aimed for his head, then jogged forward to avoid the pillar of molten rock that erupted out from the ground under where he’d just been standing.
“You can’t dodge us forever, you brat!” Sing yelled, running forward and launching attacks at him.
Morgan began moving forward as well, weaving in between her strikes while trying to predict Arnold’s next attacks. It was working for now, but Morgan could already feel his mind straining as he tried to keep up with two people at once. Eventually however, it was too much for him, and he took a hard blow to his right shoulder, which spun him around and finally cracked his new shield.
It didn’t, as Morgan had expected, vanish. The shield remained, but now sported a hole where the attack had landed. He threw another wave of sand at Sing, rolling to one side to avoid Arnold’s next attack, and was caught by another of Arnold’s skills. He gritted his teeth as he was sent staggering back, his shield shattering completely and a few small cuts opening on his chest and forearms.
He tried his best to keep his breathing even, even as he attempted to fight two on one. Noting that Sing had significantly closed the distance between the two of them, Morgan pulled back just a bit more. He needed to separate the two by as much space as he could. Unfortunately for him, Arnold seemed to wise up to the maneuver when his latest attack failed to hit Morgan at all.
Roaring, he charged after Sing, calling out to her to wait. Morgan couldn’t take that chance, so he was forced to make his counterattack early. Morgan used Explosive impact. If the world had slowed to a crawl before his advancement, now, it appeared to not be moving at all. Morgan didn’t have the time to admire his new skill, as he could feel the time running out in his head. Before, he wouldn’t have been able to cover this distance in the time he had. Now however, he made it with a second to spare.
His gauntleted fist slammed into Sing’s ribs, shattering them and sending her hurling to the side, screaming in pain. Morgan was forced to jump back as he attempted to follow, when a line of red fire split the air between them. Before he could get moving again, Arnold was on top of him, swinging his one good arm in a powerful blow that would have taken his head off, had he stood there to take it.
Morgan knew that relying on his new instincts were liable to get him killed here, so he relied on his old ones. His right arm snapped up, deflecting the blow to the side, and his left drilled into Arnold’s solar plexus, bending him double. Arnold, who had expected Morgan to sidestep the attack, was instead sent stumbling back, gasping for air as Morgan advanced.
He barely got off another blow, when he was forced back by an explosion of force that split the ground open. Sing was back on her feet, albeit painfully, and had launched a distance attack while he’d been occupied with Arnold. She grimaced coughing up a lungful of blood and spitting to the side as Arnold regained his balance, sweat beading his brow.
Despite his core working overtime to numb his injuries, they were beginning to pile up once more. Even though Arnold and Sing were injured, they were still capable of putting up a fight. Morgan grimaced, breathing just bit harder than he had before. His newest set of cuts were still bleeding, despite the fact that his core was still pulsing. He had to do some t
esting to see when it would stop working, as his core was now in constant motion, as opposed to before, when it had been completely still.
“You might have gotten a bit stronger,” Sing wheezed, coming up to stand beside Arnold. “But don’t think for a moment that you can beat either of us!”
Arnold nodded his agreement, his black eyes gleaming with hatred. The two of them shared a look, then turned back to face him.
“I’ve waited too long to have my vengeance against you. I won’t lose now!” Arnold shouted.
They both yelled, and Morgan could see them building up a massive amount of chi. Judging by how much, he could assume that it was an area of effect attack, meaning that they would both be disqualified. Not that it would matter to him, as he would likely be reduced to ash. He could always counter with one of his own. His black hole charged quickly enough that he could get it off before they could, but then he would be disqualified. Now that he wasn’t so close to death, he wanted the Skyflare more than ever and he wasn’t about to give up on it now.
He dashed forward, using his Restructure skill to send a hardened spike of sand at Arnold to try and break his concentration, but Sing stepped in front of him and knocked the attack aside with a blast of force. He could see her grinning, her teeth stained red with blood as he felt the attack finish charging.
He wouldn’t make it in time.
“Checkmate!” Sing yelled, then her head was abruptly torn from her shoulders.
A fountain of blood sprayed from her neck, coating a shocked Arnold and making him lose focus on his attack. He stumbled back, staring in disbelief as Marsha retracted the thorn-covered vine that had beheaded the woman and aimed it at him.
“I surrender!” Arnold yelled, just as the vine reached him.
Morgan cursed as a bubble of force sprang up around him, deflecting the vine and sending it wide. Two of the referees stepped in, blocking Arnold from further attack and escorted him out of the arena to see a healer. Skidding to a halt, Morgan warily faced the unknown woman who had just saved him from disqualification.
“Thanks, I guess,” he said, watching her aura for the slightest hint of an attack.
“It was no problem,” Marsha replied, her vines retracting back into her body.
Then, she did something completely unexpected. Raising one arm into the air she said, “I surrender.”
The entire crowd went silent as a grave, and Morgan stared at her in shock. Just what was she playing at? As Marsha walked past him, he sensed a change come over her aura, and he felt his heart-core skip a beat. Instead of the light blue color of mana, he now saw the deep violet of reiki.
But how could this woman have fooled his skill? Not to mention the diviners’!
His question was answered a moment later when Marsha stopped for just a moment, eyes still facing forward.
“I always knew you could win, Morgan, but I’m glad I got to protect you once more, even with how strong you’ve grown. I’ll be waiting outside the city if you feel like returning the favor, or if you just want to say goodbye.”
She turned to look at him then and gave him a small smile, then turned and headed out of the arena.
Gwendolyn! Of course it would be her, Morgan thought, watching her retreating back. He felt conflicted about seeing her again. On the one hand, she had just saved his life, but on the other, she had been the one to get him involved in the first place. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to go see her or not, but he would think about it.
“And there you have it, folks, the winner of this challenge is Morgan! Since he was also tied for first and the others surrendered, I think we can all guess who won this tournament!” the announcer shouted.
It didn’t escape Morgan’s notice that he conveniently forgot to mention the corpse that the referees were now dragging out of the arena, but he decided that he didn’t care. The only thing he was mad about was not being able to kill Arnold before the bastard had surrendered. Morgan snorted, even as the ground beneath his feet rumbled and rose, carrying him a good ten feet up.
It didn’t matter either way. He knew he would meet him again, and when he did, he would be more than strong enough to kill him.
The crowd’s cheers greeted him as the screens flashed, showing the final scores for the tournament.
1st Morgan: 4,215
2nd Marsha: 3,950
3rd Arnold: 3,775
4th Sing: 3,760
The screens then displayed him, battered and bloody, standing atop a glowing white marble pedestal.
They must have placed some marble under the arena for when the winner was chosen, Morgan thought as he looked around at the cheering crowd. He didn’t care about the crowd, as there was only one thing he was interested in: his prize.
The pedestal lowered after another minute, and Eric rushed over as soon as it touched down.
“Wow! That was absolutely amazing!”
The normally reserved man was beside himself with excitement, going so far as to clap him on the back, causing Morgan to wince.
“Sorry,” he said sheepishly, quickly moving to heal him. “I just can’t believe you had such an amazing comeback, especially after we all thought you were dead!”
Morgan grimaced, remembering his near-death and Samuel’s offer. He then also remembered what had saved him, and turned his attention to the healer.
“Did you by any chance place a core in my pocket when you healed me earlier this morning?”
“I wish!” Eric responded. “Is that how you got that major power boost? Did you unlock some sort of new skill? Because I have no idea how you could have gained that much power otherwise!”
Morgan couldn’t detect so much as a hint of falsehood in the man’s words, so he nodded. This only deepened the mystery as to who had put the core there. It most definitely hadn’t been Sarah, as she would have given him any core that could have pushed his advancement.
“Yeah, it was a new skill,” Morgan lied as the man stepped back and gave him one last once-over.
“Well, I guess you’ll have to tell me about it at the party tonight! For now, I think you’re wanted by the judges table.”
Morgan saw the Queen, Hu Vah, walking onto the arena, with the deafening cheers of the West Kingdom, to receive a massive chest filled with gleaming coins.
“They don’t want me up there?” he asked, pointing to the stage.
Eric winced at that, but shook his head.
“I’m sorry, but I promise you’ll receive all the attention tonight. The people of the West Kingdom will want to meet their champion and shower him with praise!”
Morgan nodded. He wasn’t much for being showered with attention or praise, but he thanked the man all the same.
“Thank you Eric, it’s been a genuine pleasure,” he said, shaking the man’s hand.
He likely wouldn’t be seeing him again, so he figured he should get his thanks out of the way now. The healer seemed to be surprised by this, but shook his hand in return.
“It’s been a pleasure working with you. Now go, the judges are becoming impatient.”
Morgan gave the man one last smile, before turning and heading for the judges box. He could already guess why they wanted to see him, and he couldn’t wait to get his hands on the Skyflare!
47
Simon watched as his sister was decapitated in one blow, her head rolling to the ground and her body falling a moment later. His fists clenched as his eyes locked onto the woman who had killed his sister, but he knew who the real culprit was here.
“Morgan!” he hissed, turning his hate-filled eyes back on the boy who had been the bane of his existence since he’d first come into contact with his daughter, nearly seven years ago.
Now, he had taken his sister from him as well, and things had been going so well up until that point. Sing and Arnold had ganged up on Morgan, pounding him into a bloody pulp. Then something had happened. A dome of energy had sprung up around the boy and when he emerged, he was suddenly stronger and faster. It shouldn�
��t have been possible with a simple rank up, and if he’d broken through to rank 39, the diviners would have sensed it and disqualified him.
Seething in anger, he quickly rose from his seat and turned to leave the box.
“Weasel! Guards! We’re leaving!”
The tracker, as well as the two guards who’d accompanied him to the tournament, jumped to attention as Simon moved swiftly into the hallway behind his box and began moving down the stairs, heading for ground level.
“My Lord?” Weasel asked, not daring to get within striking distance.
“Which way is the room where Sarah is located?” he demanded.
“Right this way,” he replied, heading to quickly move in front of the angry noble and lead him in the right direction.
Simon inwardly seethed as he walked, fuming at his sister for being so weak and allowing herself to be killed like that. And Morgan, who had dared stand in her way. His plans had been thoroughly ruined and there was only one thing to do now.
Pulling the wooden box Loquin had handed him from his pocket, Simon produced four metal bands. Slipping one over his wrist, he tossed two back to his guards, and handed the other to Weasel.
“Put these on. You’ll need them for what we’re about to do.”
The two guards shared a look, but did as they were instructed. Weasel, who was already privy to the plan, didn’t waste any time either. They finally reached ground level, and Weasel increased his pace, almost jogging down the empty corridor that spanned the bottom of the arena. After another five minutes, he finally began to slow and motioned to a branching hallway about twenty yards away.
“They’re down there,” he said in a hushed tone, and Simon nodded, reaching into the box and removing a large metal sphere glowing softly with purple light.
“When I give the signal, you will move down the hall and kill the guards,” Simon said. “We will have exactly five minutes from when the device is activated, before it fails.”
He waited for the guards to nod, though they still seemed a little confused. Simon turned and headed down the corridor, then turned into the hallway leading to his daughter. He may have lost his sister to Morgan today, but at least he’d be getting something in exchange. Simon smiled grimly as the guards turned to look at him in confusion. He then squeezed the sphere and threw it down the corridor.