The next several hours involved us walking and occasionally running to locations till we got to the academy grounds. We had taken one teleportation to the planet from the space station port. Then we ran to a low-altitude transport that flew us at high speed to the Academy city. Then we had to ride a high-speed train the rest of the way due to not having clearance for air traffic near the Academy.
After seeing the impressive sights of a space station, teleporting, and traveling through the city of an advanced civilization, I was unfortunately wide-eyed and slack-jawed the whole time. I had tried to hide my tourist’s face, but each time I did, there was something new. New species, some sentient, some not humanoid, some going about their business, and some surprised to see me in my blue jumpsuit and white boots, carrying my only shred of earth; my sneakers.
We were on foot, walking briskly as we approached the Academy grounds. My mouth was dry from my unconscious mouth breathing. I was surprised I kept doing that as I caught myself staring at the new sights. Unfortunately, it only continued to happen.
As we rounded the corner, I could finally see the Academy gate entrance. It was like a giant mix of French and Greek art slammed into a sci-fi-themed castle wall. It flowed elegantly from the massive gate, transitioning into the wall on each side. The form and function would have been excellent; if it had a door. As it turned out, there was nothing to bar the entrance. It was just a 60 feet tall wall with a 50 feet tall by 50 feet wide entrance archway. I was only giving it my best guess. The French stone and Greek pillars were captivating, all highlighted in exotic metals. Carved statues of powerful beings were interspersed on every level of the arch and down the walls. They seemed to be watching.
“Don’t be intimidated,” Nicol spoke quietly as they were now among a crowd.
“Are they watching me,” I asked, afraid he was reading my mind.
“Who?” He turned to catch my upward gaze. “Oh, no, not unless you cause a scene. They won’t activate the guardians for just anyone. No, I meant we are later than I’d even feared and the seats are filled. You look like a crew member, and you’ve received next to zero training or preparation. I only let you sleep since you’d just gotten your system, and I need you to survive the ceremony.”
“About that,” I tried to get my concerns out, “will this be a battle to the death or a blood sacrifice? Or something sinister like that?”
“Yes,” Nicol said with a deathly severe tone and not a hint of humor.
I again found myself stopped, watching Nicol walk ahead to the gate. I was stuck. I imagined them placing me on my back on an altar and plunging a ceremonial dagger into my chest, carving my still beating heart out, and then the carver taking a bite and looking down at me with a smeared smile and a red trickle down their chin.
“Come,” Nicol had grabbed my elbow and snapped me out of my daydream. “Yes, there is a match in which you must fight. And yes, there is a part of the ceremony where you must sacrifice some of your blood. It is symbolic and should only be a few drops. You don’t need to know much; if you are on time, you can observe others before you go. Unfortunately, there won’t be many to observe. I received word that they are nearly done with the Rising.”
I could walk, but things seemed to intensify as we walked. Nicol retained his grip on my left elbow. We passed through the gates alone. No one from the crowd followed. We walked along the side of a road and approached a stadium or a coliseum. The surrounding buildings continued the wall’s theme of stone, gold, silver, obsidian, and other unknown metals. They were the size of a university building. Many are 3-5 stories tall. There were old trees, but many I didn’t recognize. Everything was immaculate and well cared for.
“At least we are on the Cycles side of the campus,” he didn’t slow his pace but let a resigned sigh pass through his nose. The guy was hardly breathing while I had been sweating and nearly exhausted after the half-day travel from the ship to here.
“Cycles?” I huffed between breaths, finally feeling the tax of our trip coming due.
“No time, come,” he said, pulling me to the left. I had stepped toward a large entrance to the giant stadium and would have lost my balance, but Nicol just raised his hand and set me back down to continue when I got my feet under me.
“We go in the side entrance; now listen close,” he said as we entered a lightly lit hallway. The overhead light of the planet’s sun was cut off as we entered this hall, and only a golden glow like Edison bulbs give off came from rocks stuck in the ceiling. It was like seeing shining gold nuggets buried in the rock. “I will have to leave you in a moment. Follow instructions and observe everything. This is symbolic but important. Your life is not guaranteed, and your success or failure here starts now. Don’t tell anyone I said this phrase but remember this for now: observe and exchange, combine and conquer. I know it means nothing to you, but it’s what they tell the children when they prepare them for tonight. Good luck,” we’d approached a room at the end of the hall, and a woman stepped out from that room, stopping our advance.
“Who are you? You shouldn’t be here,” the stern woman was not happy. “Turn around or else,” her hand went to her waist, where a dagger was in a sheath. She pulled it slightly from the sheath, metal gleaming.
“Apologies, this is one for the Golden Path, a child of the Arcane,” Nicol bowed at the waist. I turned to watch him but kept one eye on the dagger. It slid back into the sheath as Nicol finished his explanation. I still didn’t know what the Golden Path was or anything, but at least I wouldn’t get a dagger in the gut.
“At this hour? Are you serious? You’re at the wrong entrance. And I didn’t receive word of this; you must wait here while I check.” She stepped back the way she came out of sight. But I heard her take several steps.
“Jordan, you need to go before she comes back. Head straight till you find others like you. They will be dressed in hooded robes. You can’t miss them on the floor of the stadium. Go, run till you hit the opening!” His hushed voice was forceful, as was his shove, but I was picking up his intentions and was also able to keep my feet. Apparently dagger lady was trying to hold us up or make excuses, so I missed the big dance. That sounded sneaky and rude, so I was all for spoiling her fun.
I took off faster. I heard her yell behind me in surprise. I turned back to look and was shocked when a flash caught my attention, and I was in the bright sunlight again. I turned around front just in time to see the back of a hood as I collided with someone.
My nose was smashed.And I could hear a crowd yelling. Those were the first things I noticed as I pushed up with my hands and felt the grit of sand on my palms. The next thing I heard were muffled sounds below me. I quickly realized I had tackled and landed on someone.
A screen flashed golden background with black borders and font across my mind.
Arcana Sufficient for Combat & Damage Logs
Insufficient Resources for Augmented Combat Protocols
Insufficient Combat Simulation or Active Experience
Expected Combat Effectiveness ~0% (F Rank)
Recommendation: Evasion and Escape
Alternative Outcome: Most Probable Outcome from Combat - Death/Serious Injury
“Stop!” I yelled as the frightening messages continued across my mind’s eye. At my cry, the messages cut off and disappeared.
Unhindered by my outburst, I was forcefully pulled off the downed figure by one person on each of my arms. My shoulders ached as those lifting me were not gentle but applied great force against my shoulders as they put one hand under my armpit and held my arms spread wide with their others. Too wide. Leverage was used, and I felt a sudden and sharp pop as my shoulder dislocated. I yelled out in a pained wail.
“Hold!” A commanding voice boomed throughout the entire stadium. The whole stadium went from uproar from my arrival to silence instantly.
My cry became a whimper as another person behind me placed a hand over my mouth. Tears fell from my eyes as I battled the racking pain, and the jostling of my captors only fueled the torture. My left shoulder felt like it was being ground in salt and set on fire.
I only saw him as he stepped around from somewhere to my side. The voice I barely heard calling for a stop addressed me up close. His eyes pierced me, and I felt a pain in my chest that eclipsed my shoulder for a sharp, brief moment.
“I don’t like to repeat myself,” he commanded, “Are you the child of Earth? The one to enter the Golden Path?”
“Yes,” I spit out between my clenched teeth, tears sputtering from my lips and my sharp exhale.
“Release him,” he sighed. “There will be no execution. Healers…” he was interrupted.
“There will be no healing for that,” venomous anger came from the new voice. “There are two pairs left, and my daughter will be healed, but not the late arrival. There needs to be some order maintained over your people High Councilor. But with his arrival, the pairs are even. You won’t need to have a stand-in.”
“Observe as those who are born to be here show you how the paths rise, shine, and fall. I expect you will not see a pleasant fall.” The second man was now entirely in front of me as he rested his hand upon my injured shoulder; he gave a slight squeeze. My responsive cry brought a smile to his face.
“Enough,” he was politely pushed aside. “You’ve had your say. I cannot counter your command as your authority, and mine are equal. No healing, but he goes as the final pair.” His voice was spoken to those immediately around me. Then he leaned closer to me and waved off those holding me up. I dropped to the ground and felt another shock of pain.
“Listen closely, you have earned enemies just now, and I am not yet a friend. But you must still fight for your life in just a moment. Watch the next pair and be ready after they finish. You are the last.” He turned to someone behind me. “Remove his boots and top and get him to our side. We will resume when I return to my seat.” They looked to the second man, and he nodded.
I noticed the contrast then. Everyone around me, except for the main speaker, who had me released, wore black robes with gold trim and lining. The potential friend who gave me suggestions wore gold robes with black trim.
I finally saw the person I’d plowed into. It was a beautiful girl. She was adjusting her hair as others wiped the sand from her robes.
My observation was interrupted as I was pulled to my butt, and a man went to his knee and roughly pulled my boots off one at a time. On completing his task, I felt a tear behind my neck. I would have cringed, but I was in too much pain to care. My jumpsuit was rapidly cut from my body. Only the parts at or below the belt were intact now. I was not an athlete before, and my new system hadn’t changed my build. I mean, I didn’t look like a cancer patient anymore, but my chest and arms were not impressive. Especially when I turned to see the men who helped me rearrange my shoulder; they were smiling and wearing the same tight-fitting shorts. Their upper bodies were impressive and didn’t look like they skipped one leg day at the gym.
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“Go on, you Arcana rat,” one said as he kicked sand at me. I turned away from him.
“Where?” I spit in frustration.
“The girl I’d run into caught my eye again as she pointed to her right towards the other side of those gathered on the arena floor. I noticed her face looked sad as she shed her robe and handed it to another next to her.
Then I saw another group wearing golden robes with black trimmed edges facing their mirror opposites. I carefully got to my feet. I looked around and couldn’t see my boots, and most importantly, I couldn’t see my sneakers. But I stumbled towards the golden robes when I was pushed from behind.
After I got to the edge of the black robes, I saw that to my left, in the center of the arena, was a circle of stone in the middle of all the sand. There were two small tables with something black on one and gold on the other. The tables were just outside the stone ring and stood about waist high. I kept my shuffle going as I turned to my right and saw the High Councilor, in a theatrically slow motion, take his seat. I took that as a signal and hurried the last bit over. I didn’t know what to do, but a gap was opened, and I took it, filing into the row and spinning back around to face the black robes.
“We will resume with our final two pairs. The Rise begins,” he said as if it meant something significant. And apparently, it did because simultaneously, a figure from my side and the opposite stepped to the middle and bowed to the High Councilors. They rose and turned around, and walked to the stone circle. Each entered and walked to the center. It was hard to see, but as they stood in the center facing each other, a gold-colored spike swirled with black rose from the very center of the stone circle. It came to chest height and stopped. Each person, both looking like young human men, took turns and placed their index finger on the spike, and then they clasped each other’s wrists. After a moment, as if some silent signal only they knew went off, they turned and sprinted to the table behind them. They grabbed what I formerly couldn’t identify. They charged at each other. Each with a large knife or maybe a dagger.
So there was a ceremonial knife. Two, I guess.
Their charge turned into a short-blade fight. The black shorts man dove dagger first while the other dodged to the side, swiping at the passing man, drawing first blood. The black shorts only took a shallow cut to his back and rolled to his feet.
They circled, taking jabs and swipes with daggers, fists, and kicks. Their actions increased in speed, and soon, each was covered in cuts. The tides changed when the black shorts got a deep stab in the dagger hand of the man from the golden shorts.
His dagger fell, and before he could retreat had a blade to his throat. He slumped to the ground in defeat. The fighters immediately returned their knives to their original tables and walked back in front of the High Councilors, and bowed.
Both still bleeding, they faced each other as the loser bowed low to the ground on both knees and head. He placed his hands on the feet of the victor in front of him. The victor from the black robes smiled wide with pride and put his hands on his competitor’s head. As he did, a pulse of golden light flashed through the skin of the bowing loser, and then that light was drawn towards the hands of each of them and was absorbed into the black-themed winner. He then stood straight, pulled his elbows tight, and screamed in victory. The loser, although bowed, then fell over, slumping as if asleep.
A pair quickly came and lifted him by the shoulders. I cringed as I imagined my shoulder being yanked on again. Then a voice to my left spoke near my ear.
“It is your turn. Good fortune,”
Combat Scenario Recognized
Recommendation: Enter Augmented Combat Protocols (ACP)
Sufficient Resources for 15 seconds of Immersive Assistance Overlay (IAO) or 5 minutes of Augmented Guidance (AG)
Recommendation 15 Second IAO, Lacking experience for AG effectiveness.
Again this text kept bombarding my mind. I could see normally still and process the input from the world around me and the System messages. But I didn’t know what it meant.
“IAO?” I mumbled, trying to figure out the acronym’s meaning as I stepped in to meet my opponent.
Authorization Received: Please State Activation Command Code
My distracted steps led me to my opponent. I instinctively raised my fists in response.
Repeat - State Command Code:
It was at that time I caught my foot in the sand and jostled my shoulder, and cried, “Owww,”
Command Code Saved: Repeat for Activation
“Not yet,” the man approaching me said and slowly turned from facing me. “Didn’t you pay attention before,” he kept his tone low, but it was accusatory. “Why did they pair me with trash?”
I followed his example, although in a poor imitation of the ritual bow. There were murmurs in the crowd. He turned and steadily marched to the stone circle. I realized I needed to do the same and followed.
I was slower, but I made my way, doing everything I could to limit my injury. As I reached my spot across from him, the silent rise of the spike of gold and black swirled stone rose between us. My heart began to race. I knew I stood no chance; I was about to fail regardless of the messages in my head. Left shoulder out of commission, weak, no fighting experience. Yep, I’m dead.
He was first to reach his right hand to the tip of the spike. It looked incredibly sharp for stone as it narrowed like an icicle point. He placed his finger on the point and pressed lightly. My eye flitted to his face, and not a hint that he’d just felt it.
It might not be so bad, I tried to tell myself.
Knowing I was up as he pulled his hand back, finger held up, I saw the blood pool on his finger and run over the side. I paused to watch the blood drip to the ground.
At the sight of blood, my eyesight changed.
Pre-combat Awareness Activated: 30 seconds available without impact to IAO estimates.
I had a faint overlay appear over everything. It highlighted the outlines of the stone, every rise, crack, and texture gradient; it all was displayed and relayed to my brain faster than I could typically observe and consider. Everything was tinted slightly brighter too. But the sun had not changed, and the light was the same.
Next, I noticed indications of his joints, muscles, and skeletal system. Then all the blood pumping through his body became clear, and his heart. The heart was highlighted as if the skin, muscles, and ribs didn’t exist. I saw it beat in slow-motion. This would have been a cardiologist’s dream view.
“Go already,” the man across from me quietly growled.
I finally did, no longer letting the new view of my world stop me. I gingerly placed my index finger on the stone. But nothing happened. I didn’t feel a prick, so I turned my hand over. No blood.
“You need to press harder,” he impatiently growled again.
“Sorry,” I apologized for some reason and tried again, this time harder. My skin resisted and then passed its breaking point and cut into my finger. I nearly yelped but managed to keep it quiet.
I forgot the next step till he extended his hand to me.
Rather than shaking hands, he reached past my hand and grabbed my wrist firmly. Mine was lined up, and I did the same.
I heard a sizzle and saw the man grit his teeth and narrow his eyes at me. I caught a whiff of burning meat. And I felt a bubbling under my bleeding finger.
Is the blood burning him?
He noticed something was off as he flipped my wrist up and looked at his blood smearing my wrist and forearm. Then he flipped it back over, and I saw the acid-like burning below my finger. I tried to pull away, but he held tight despite his burn.
“You don’t belong here. But you made a mistake touching royalty and nobility,” his gritted frustration turned into a wicked smile as he nodded and lifted our hands to eye level.
Then rapidly, he pulled me a half step towards him and slammed our hands down. I was suddenly staring at a golden black spike protruding from the meaty part of my forearm. My eyesight highlighted the foreign object scraping against and between the two bones of my forearm. I felt it, but the trauma and blood that seeped out were shocking.
He released his grip and left me impaled. I couldn’t think. I didn’t scream as he turned and left me. It wasn’t until he grabbed the ceremonial knife and turned back towards me that I realized I was in actual shock and could feel the beat of my heart in my arm and pulsing through my head. I gained clarity, but all I could think of was the pain.
“OWWWW,” I screamed.
Command Acknowledged: 15 seconds of Immersive Assistance Overlay (IAO) will begin when Pre-combat Awareness indicates or you engage.
Then it happened. My body was no longer under my control. I felt everything, but I was not able to willfully move. I became a passenger in my own body. My body stood straight up, lifting my forearm off the stone, that had skewered it. Then without taking my sight off my opponent, I stepped backward.
My injured right arm reached across and down to my limp left arm and grabbed the wrist. With a sudden jerk far to my right, I felt immense pain and then some relief. I tried to scream, but my voice didn’t stir. My shoulder was back in place, but my right arm only bled more from the action. The knife-welding man took two steps to his left, my right.
As he did, I took another step back. Somehow I understood the IAO combat information that it was passing to me. There was time, but not enough to get our dagger and return. The opponent could delay, and I would bleed out and die. I needed to end the engagement quickly.
12 Seconds Remain
As my enemy stepped up to the right of the spike, I quickly closed the distance. Faster than we both expected, I was in front of him, and my right hand chopped with the flat side of my palm across his burned wrist. The motion was so fast and impacted just right that he lost his grip, the blade fell next to the ceremony spike, and he immediately started to retrieve it.
As he leaned down after it, my body slid underneath him as if trying to catch a falling body. Then faster than I thought possible, I had my feet under me, and with superhuman strength and speed, I had his entire body lifted over my head, as I stood still and tall for one brief moment. I had him squeezed on each side of his ribs.
My fingers deeply jammed into his ribs. Before he could react with a hit or kick, I twisted at the hips and pivoted on my left heel. I then slammed him back-first on the spike. I had a clear and detailed view as his heart was skewered and pulverized by the stone. I saw it, and his blood stopped pumping. There was some twitching and movement, but he was dead nearly instantly.
My right arm that crossed over the body narrowly but intentionally missed the spike.
Combat ended, and IAO resources stopped.
My body returned to my control, yet I was too weak to support myself. I collapsed onto the lower left half of my skewered opponent. Our bodies were forced by gravity to slide toward the ground. There was a moment when I felt a shift and heard a snap. It wasn’t bone.
The top half of the spike impaling the dead man snapped off, and we tumbled just past the remaining stub. I was then turned and ended up on my back. I blinked and saw the back of the corpse settle toward my chest. It wasn’t a sharp protrusion that hit me, but it did break the skin, adding insult to my injuries. But it wasn’t insulting, I felt. But rather, a jolt like someone had turned on the shock paddles right on my chest.
My body spasmed, and I felt something inside me change. My energy was spent, I was mentally drained, in excruciating pain, and now I felt like I’d been hit by lightning. My mind froze, and I felt certain something significant was happening.
I felt a mixing, like drinking too much soda and needing to burp or else throw up. But it wasn’t physical. Something inside me was roiling like a boiling pot of oil and water. The opposing forces were fighting but also being compelled to mix and become one.
Foreign System Detected
Current System Incompatible with Foreign System
Analyzing
Systems Compatibility Parameters Altered
Foreign System Assimilated
New System Integrating
Welcome to the Zancara Empirical System
Initiated at the Marquess Level
Title and powers acquired