“Ms.Belfour, it seems your captain has gone full commando. He’s been eliminated.” Chester said as he manipulated thousands of small geometric scouts.
“He lost to Volain?” Tiffany asked.
“No, by my calculations it appears as though it ended in a draw. Then a masked third party got off a sneak attack.”
“What type of attack could kill him?”
“It seems he was surviving a lethal blow with sheer force of will when his concentration was shaken.”
“In any other situation, he wouldn’t have been in that position.”
Chester removed Volain and Kyrion from the board. “How much thinking does manually pumping blood require?”
“Depends on how active and skilled you are. Fighting without a heartbeat would take all his focus a year ago.” Tiffany stated.
“Does anyone else know about his ability to survive without a heart?”
Cecil raised a hand. “I taught him the basics of how blood flows and he expanded on it. Though I also doubt his defeat was accidental.”
“What do you mean?” Chester asked.
“Our team does not need to win this tournament and receive the top prize as much as anyone else. It’s more we don’t want the Beast Blood empire to win. Also free publicity is the best publicity.”
“What does that mean?” Asela asked.
“That man’s brain is like a labyrinth, the more you try to understand how he thinks the more you get lost.” Arion answered.
“Who the hell are you?” Nicole asked the masked figure.
“I am thou.”
“No. Who are you? Take off your mask.” Nicole stated.
“It doesn't matter who I am. As I am but a summoned entity. If you must refer to me as something, Arios will do. Person I’ve never met.” Arios said while mimicking Nicole’s voice and tone perfectly.
Nicole took a step back in confusion.
“Arios. What’s with you?” Chester said.
“Nothing. I just hate the smell of wet dog and for some reason it’s strong here. I’ll be going.”
“What’s that about?” Tiffany raised an eyebrow.
Kyrie responded. “Ari, and the captain have a bit of a special thing going on. It’s a bit personal and revealing more than that is a breach of privacy.”
“Who is your new captain anyways? And how did you get past the teammate requirements.”
“We’re all summons, in a way. Also I believe he used to go by Kyrion.” Kyrie stirred the pot a bit as he wasn’t bound by oaths and getting her blood boiled enough could lead to mistakes if their intuition was on point. If she wasn’t moving around or chasing a target, someone else would replace her.
----------------------------------------
“So. What's the plan?“ Atimn asked while he looked through a pair of binoculars.
“Canary. With my captain down we need to look desperate. Attack them head on and get them to focus on us while we dodge and evade and separate them. Afterwards, Noah, Bella and Brion will form a pincer attack from the north. While Wura, Chester, and Minah attack from the south. Kiara and Cecil will fire from a distance, and Hel will use her bugs to clean up.”
“That’s the plan…Wait, I only count four orcs.”
Tiffany activated her communicator immediately. “Assume we’ve been compromised.”
Two blades missed as Atimn rolled to the side out of instinct and slashed at an obsidian-skinned orc.
The orc knocked the blade with his arm bracers before moving forward to slam both blades into Atimn.”
Tiffany fired two bolts of light mana that caused the orc to wince as where he was struck gray skin could be seen.
The orc clicked his tongue before attempting to vanish.
“Field of light!” Tiffany combined five of her symbols to create a spell that made every shadow more pronounced while countering the effects of the orc’s cloak of darkness.
“Behind you! He’s fast!” Atimn yelled.
Tiffany parried one dagger and dodged into the second as they slammed it into the orc’s throat.
Tiffany’s rapier clattered to the ground as though she’d struck a metal wall. She didn’t skimp on strength training and could pierce many things that shouldn’t be pierced with a rapier. But either the orc was made of tungsten or…
“Saved by my own training weights. How poetic.”
“Why don’t you take your weights off then?” Atimn asked as a shadow shot out of the ground under Tiffany’s sword and tossed it to her.
“The weights don’t come off unless he’s at war or reaches maturity. It’s an orc custom.”
“Yes. As much as i’d like to remove these. Going against tradition to win would make me lose, in my heart.”
“Now I feel like if we win it was because you were weakened, and outnumbered.” Atimn sighed.
“As an orc being beaten in spirit mastery would be embarrassing. It is my people's magic afterall.” Wura stated.
“Really?” Tiffany sighed as her hair began to glow, pentagrams made of light scattered about while her silver blade gave off a different feeling than it had previously. It was no longer using what they referred to as mana.
Atimn thrust his blade into the shadow behind the orc and received a punch to his face for getting that close.
“Light Blade Bombardment!” Swords made from white lights manifested in the air and aimed themselves at the orc who seemed concerned when his legs failed to work.
Atimn crawled away from the blast zone as hundreds of swords simultaneously slammed themselves into the orc which led to the emergency evacuation magic triggering.
“Saying the chant makes it stronger, but could have made the attack too lethal for a tournament like this. It also uses too much mana, get out of here Atimn.” Tiffany stated as she fell unconscious.
“Nope. Not abandoning you here.” Atimn helped Tiffany up and moved towards the fallback position being guarded by Chiyo and Asela. His sword seemed to fade away and magically appear in his sheath as he moved.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Brion winced. “They’re scattering!”
“Damn it! Which one is the shapeshifter?” Noah asked as four
“I don’t know. Should we split up?” Bella asked as she got low to the ground.
“Numbers are our main advantage.”
“Then you two should go after the human while I take on the elf.” Bella had begun to run on all fours as her body shifted to that of a giant wolf and gravity intensified around her. Her speed seemingly doubled as she vanished from their view.”
“Another beast type?” Noah asked as they approached the orange-haired human.
“Something like that. To the human then.” Brion led the duo towards the slow-running orange-haired boy who appeared to be excessively weak, almost laughable.
Brion remembered having to carry teammates like them in the past as favors to their parents, favors that meant nothing now.
Despite being slower than the orcs it seemed as though no matter how fast they ran. Brion and Noah couldn’t close that last bit of distance.
The trio arrived near a grove in the middle of a desert. The orange-haired man turned around. “This should take you out of the fight for a bit. Even if I lose it will take you a bit to get back. I’m Meta, I assume you are the raging lion and the hero’s shield?”
“What?” Noah didn’t recognize the moniker.
“A bit early then.” The orange-haired man snapped his fingers and it seemed as though the sun teleported across the sky as it began to set.
Brion looked down and noticed a set of familiar runes that encircled the trio. “It’s a stasis enchantment! How long?”
“Fourteen hours. That's a long time to be missing from this fight.”
“How are you not drained of mana? I know how much mana it takes to keep living creatures suspended in one of these.” Brion stated.
“I gamed the system a bit. By using myself as a catalyst and encasing myself in the enchantment I was able to force it to pull from the ambient environment. Didn’t even put a dent in the ecosystem. How disturbing.”
Brion seemed horrified. As he looked up and heard a loud howl in the distance. A giant dark red-furred wolf-human hybrid stood about seventy feet up and was covered in cuts. The gravity on the continent seemingly increased as it began to attack the ground.
“Now that was unexpected. She should have been able to win based on our observations of the fight with Marigold.”
“Bella was told to hold back a bit to keep most of our secrets hidden. Along with quite a few others.” Brion stated as earthen blades erupted from the ground and stabbed into Meta, who seemed unbothered as they struck him and shattered into dust.
“Nice try. And while that attack was strong. You’ll need a bit more force to make–”
Noah let out an enraged roar as his body shifted and grew until he stood at a solid forty-eight feet tall molten armor covering his form as he looked like a giant lion coated in magma. His ax grew with him and now looked twice as destructive.
“If you guys are just going to go Giant! Why am I here?” Brion asked in irritation.
“So…You’re free?” Kyrie said as he seemingly appeared from behind Meta.
“How did?” Meta started.
“Doesn’t matter. Brion I need your help. The other teams are attacking the fortress while we’re weak and Cecil is headed this way to help Bella so our most destructive team members are either resting or incapacitated.”
“We didn’t agree to an alliance.”
“Well. Volain was used to take out our captain. Though I doubt it was intentional.”
Kyrie held out his hand and Brion shifted into a greatsword.”
“Resonance 110%. Sword rank Master, parameter scaling, maxed. What have you done?” Brion asked in a monotone.
“Sword Fighting instructions from Ander, Maldain, and Damian.”
“Right. What’s the plan?”
“Remove Edwin and hold off the Black Knight. Then wait for the real enemy to show up.”
“Real enemy?”
Kyrie laughed. “Bastion beating White Fox in a game of rock paper scissors threw their wave attack plan out the window. So they’ll be rushing this match. The plant we hid inside birdman is transmitting information to Arion and the others at this very moment.”
“Weren't there three of you masked people with Kyrion?”
“I don’t remember a third.” Rie started with a shrug.
“Nevermind then.”
“Great. Now hold on.” Kyrie jumped into the air and blasted off multiple explosions chaining behind him as he blasted forward. It was flashy, destructive, and wasteful but it allowed him to fly like a projectile without his wind affinity. Of course, he had trouble landing, but going by what his main shard could do, there was a way to transfer the force underground.
“Boss? Who exactly is that shirtless man with a large maul that you seem to be leading me towards and why does he have my face?”
“Ah. Right. This is Brick, The Wall, Johnson, and he's probably from Almira if the enchantments are anything to go by.”
“Why is he wearing trunks!? We must eliminate them.” Brion grimaced.
“Wasn’t your training all about getting out of your comfort zone?”
“Yes, and I am free, but this man is showing off all my features as though he’s a theater performer.”
“Well it's a good thing we’re coming here to crush that wall before he crushes ours.”
“How did you get his name?”
“The Wall! Is! Tired of Waiting! The Wall smash wall!” The Maul was raised into the air.
“Brion. Kyrion’s move is called Devil’s Descent right?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“It does. If I get the name wrong then the aesthetics of combat won’t match.”
“Aren’t you different?”
“Fine. Angelic meteor!” Kyrie spun while in the air as his flames formed into white wings as he slammed into The Wall with enough force to shatter the ground. Using his earth magic, the impact of said fall was amplified and directed into the maul held by The Wall.
“Huh. Directing the impact of a fall into an object. When did he learn something like that?”
“It’s pretty basic. He just doesn’t do it as often, nor does he make it obvious when he does it. As it was an accident the first time. Also, compressing mana into a powerful strike is what I do best.”
“You broke The Wall’s Wallbreaker™. You will be crushed.” The Wall grabbed Kyrie and slammed him into the soft earth below.
Kyrie sunk into the earth as though it was a quagmire and disappeared.
“Earthen torpedo!” The wall Punched the ground to send an earthen fist straight down and through a trapped target.
Kyrie sank ten feet instantly and landed in a worm-carved underground reservoir. Using his water mana he easily found a method to resurface behind his opponent.
Standing on what would later be called the Drunken River. Kyrie held Brion in his sword from eying his opponent in irritation, the plant fibers that made up his body saturated with mana.
“How you dodge my Earthen Torpedo.”
“I didn’t. It just wasn’t all that special of a move.” Kyrie tossed a fish off his shoulder and wondered where that fish managed to come from.
“You belittle The Wall? The Wall crushes!”
“Walls don’t crush anything. They shield. Are you a dunce or just acting that way?”
“Walls crush things all the time! Like then…uh… when you push a wall over it can crush a person.”
“Doesn’t that just break the wall too? When a wall falls over then it fails as a wall.”
Brion seemed irritated. “You're going to give him an existential crisis at this rate.”
“But I am Brick, The Wall, Thompson! I crush… I crush… Why?”
“You crush because you're a failure of a wall.” Sword Brion spoke in a strangely flamboyant voice.
“How did you copy my voice!?” Brion seemed panicky.
“I did no such thing. What are you talking about?” Kyrie stated using all the experience lying he gathered from Kyrion.
“If you didn’t say, then who said it.”
“Listen to yourself! Brick! You are a failure as a wall. You should be building and protecting. Why crush like a failure?” Kyrie whispered into his ear with wind magic.
“It sounds like The Wall’s voice but the wall hasn’t heard his little voice in years.”
“O.K. You good there buddy? We should finish the fight.” Kyrie stated unperturbed.
“Buddy? The Wall is no dog!”
“Buddy means friend. Easy boy, just sit. Bah!” Kyrie took a step back on the dangerously deep river and watched as Brick charged forward enraged.
Before Brick could make contact he seemingly tripped on a bump that hadn’t been there earlier then fell face-first into the lake.
“Does this count as a homicide or a suicide?” Kyrie asked.
“Your part or mine. He’s still alive, but he isn’t trying to swim up. If he just relaxed it would be easy to get out of thee.”
“He probably doesn’t have a swimming skill, which means he never learned how to swim. Once someone reaches a certain level the ability to learn skills greatly decreases. Our ability to gain skills from Almira goes dormant the moment we leave her world.”
“Kyrion wouldn’t let him drown to death.” Brion stated.
“If he was a bit more evil maybe. The wall I mean. If he’d killed one of you, definitely. But he’s just a bit dense, like tungsten he’s also your shard. You could integrate with him if you want.”
“Hmmm…Why do you think he’s so imbalanced?”
“Do you know what brain surgery is?”
“Yes and no. I know it's something most healers need very high levels of study to practice.”
“Then you know that Kyrion has some degree of understanding of how most brains function. It isn’t discussed often but the system Almira places inside of us is located within the brain, which is how mental stats like Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma are determined. Someone who knows what their doing could seal or cap those mental stats. In a state like that the victim becomes easily manipulated.”
“Then he’s innocent?”
“Who knows. He could be an idiot, or a fool like me. There is even a possibility that he was cursed. Either way the only way to reset his mind would be for him to become subservient to him.”
“I think I get it. So, I take it you are one of those shards. Getting one no matter how dumb will make me stronger right?”
“Yes. You will be one step closer to your captain in terms of power.”
“Ugh… Could you even say I won?”
“Can you maneuver while underwater?”
“Yes?”
“Then decide how your bond will form. I won’t interfere anymore after this.” Kyrie dropped Brion into the deep water before turning towards the giant lion and wolf currently facing off against a flying serpentine creature and a winged stone golem covered in light.
“That’s one down. Ari, what's your status?”
“Bloody Penguins, did I ever tell you how much I hate these birds?”
“I didn’t think you hated anything. Why do you seem more emotional than usual?”