Beyond the barrier lies the true arena. Sand and wind no longer impact his senses though they still are around to a small extent. Further inland seems to be a ruined city with a massive structure at its core. The skies still seem as tumultuous as ever.
“Did I miss his signal?”, King asks himself.
Some bright ball-shaped projectiles rise in the air exploding one after another. Orange for Leo, green for Calypso, silver for Sylvia, brown for Schmidt, blue for King, and white for Don…
“It’s Leo! Now all I need to do is pick the right path to find Don,” he thinks.
Immediately after those lights follows a rainbow on the ground level seemingly released by Calypso. Leo seems to be up north while Calypso is to the southwest. Heading to them would make the most sense when it comes to ensuring survival but he has to be certain that Don can make it. Carefully maneuvering around closer and closer to the city that lies ahead, he looks out for any sign of Don.
“I have to find him before anyone else does,” he thinks before being made aware of far-away explosions. Though the tremors are small and the explosions faint, he knows where to go thanks to his hypersensitivity and his superior hearing.
“I could probably snatch at least one kill if it’s not Don but is he strong enough to get any?”, he wonders as he hides just out of view behind a building trying to listen in on a fight.
From what he can hear, he can deduce that two people are fighting each other. One of them can cast explosions while the other one is using some form of geokinesis. So far, the one with geokinesis is barely holding off someone firing blasts at them. Constructing walls and projectiles to be thrown at them is meaningless as all are destroyed as long as they are in sight.
Sudden silence alarms King. Believing that he’s been spotted he jumps to his right out into the open barely avoiding a blast that could have taken him out. The first thing he sets his eyes on is the one creating these explosions, a man wrapped in white cloth. His lower half is entirely covered while his upper half is mostly exposed. Wearing a hamsa, an amulet akin to an eye attached to a palm, he covers his eyes with the same cloth around his waist.
While at a standstill, King asks, “Say, would you mind talking some more after we’ve taken you down?”
“Some big words for someone as frail as you!”, the man says humored at King’s proposal. “You’re interesting. I’ll humor you.”
Before the two of them could continue talking, another rock is flung at the man willing to fight blind.
“Not yet, Don!”, he shouts. “I need his name before you do anything.”
Awestruck, Don hesitates as the rock crumbles apart and falls to the ground. Trying to lower his guard, he anxiously awaits the continuation of their battle. Before their confrontation could continue, they have to exchange names.
“Donnie, huh?”, the man says taunting Don with a nickname. “I go by Neo. What title do you go by?”
“King.”
“Then so be it, King! Come at me with everything you got! You too, Donnie!”
As soon as the words were uttered King approached with his longsword that he usually keeps sheathed till he is sure of his opponent’s might. All he can do is dig halfway into the arm that blocked his attack. With his sword lodged into Neo’s arm, he’s lifted off his feet by his sword that blasted into a wall by the following explosion to the gut.
Don attempts to strike Neo with his fist covered in rubble. Barely pushing Neo back, he’s blasted into the air by another explosion, then kicked into another wall by Neo. Before anyone could launch another attack, he removes the sword lodged into his arm and chucks it towards King flinging it into his chest. He then unleashes a vicious onslaught of smaller explosions in Don’s face not knowing that Don is protecting himself through hardening.
“He’s pretty fast. His strength is higher than mine and his ability is useful. Natural power and light magic coming together to form explosions…”, he thinks. “Don also is pretty impressive. Hardening and casual control over earth… and here I thought he’d need my protection.”
Stepping closer to Don, Neo prepares to strike once again. This time, he uses hardening superior to Don’s to charge through all projectiles thrown at him. Knowing that Don can harden, he mercilessly beats him in an attempt to crush his skull and deliver a kill that could have been swift if Don wasn’t so durable. Again and again, he beats a helpless child into submission fully aware that it is part of the game yet obviously displeased with the fact that he has to go this far to beat his opponent.
King rushes in once again only to be impaled by Neo’s fist. His heart crushed underneath the weight of his opponent's strike, his ribcage obliterated, and his spine shattered, he’s cast aside left to bleed out and drop out from the game. Neo continues beating Don into a barely breathing pulp. Unconscious, the only thing protecting him is his hardening. Both are doomed to fail under these circumstances.
King prevails and regenerates flinging his longsword at Neo this time even faster than before. Surprisingly, Neo actually takes damage as he hadn’t anticipated that strike or a strike that would come in that quickly.
“I may be absolutely useless when it comes to magic but my regeneration is my only pride! It takes a lot more to kill me!”, King shouts at the top of his lungs. “I guess that means I still have a chance, right, Neo?!”
With Don still recovering, Neo decides to deal with King believing him to be a lesser threat. His onslaught of strikes seems to leave King entirely powerless. King’s attempts at defending himself are entirely pointless as each strike breaks through his defenses. All he can do is wait for Don to wake up, for him to recover. Once again, he uses his blade but this time it’s shattered by Neo mercilessly crushing it with jaw strength alone. What was supposed to be a strike to the head turned out to be the loss of his sword.
While in shock, Neo uses King’s hesitation to his advantage and crushes the other still-sheathed sword with a kick destroying his hip bone in the process. Once again, King is sent flying into a wall. Though he quickly gets back on his feet, all he has now are his punches that have no effect.
Just barely, Neo dodges a spinning drill-shaped rock only to have one of his ears cut off by the remains of King’s longsword. Unaware of the fact that Franky can create more bladed weapons, he’s taken by surprise at Franky’s ingenuity. is forced to retaliate by using more advanced techniques. This time, the cloth he’s wrapped in acts on its own and defends Neo from projectiles while Neo himself is dishing out blow after blow. Cracked ribs, a caved-in skull, crushed joints, and so much more are done to King.
Jumping back, King takes a little bit of time to recover. Within that split instance, Neo decides to assault Don again but this time with even more aggression than ever before. His strikes are a lot less effective as Don learns how to handle himself far better than ever before.
King hesitates for a second to ponder whether or not now is the time to go all out. He’s under the belief that Neo can’t cast as many explosions anymore as he is running dry on magic and natural power. Don probably has far higher reserves than him. King however is still at 100% and has yet to showcase his speed. With haste, he throws several shards at Neo, picks up Don, and hides behind a wall.
“What are you doing? I thought we were-”
“I’ve got a plan, Don,” whispers King. “Neo may be faster and stronger than you but I’m even faster. His cloth is durable but can be pinned down as I don’t believe it’s as strong as he is. He’s also running dry on explosions just as you are on pebbles to throw at him.”
“How can you be so sure?”, Don asks.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“Observation,” King replies. “He also doesn’t know that I can create more swords and his perception range is limited. Because of that, your drill grazed him. Had he known about it sooner he could have dodged. That allowed me to cut him proving his speed being below mine.”
An explosion bursts through the small house they’re standing in. Tearing the walls to shreds, King pretends to be pinned down and helpless going as far as to stab himself in the chest and conceal the blade to give the illusion of being powerless beneath the rubble. Coughing up blood makes it seem like the weight on him has an impact on his lungs. Don, low on magic and natural power, can only engage in combat once again. With stone shivs, he attempts to break through Neo’s defenses.
His shivs break upon impact with Neo’s arms. His attempt at holding onto the white cloth that shielded Neo from projectiles proves that it isn’t as strong as Neo although it is under Neo's control. Finally, he lets himself be hit so that he can be launched back toward Franky. Winded, Don struggles to get back onto his feet. Neo steps closer and closer.
Finally, they can deliver the finishing blow. Shifting the ground to the side, Don makes Neo lose his balance. The cloth he’s wrapped in immediately tries to intervene only to be held captive by two separate pillars erupting from the ground at an angle. Finally, while Neo is mid-fall, King jumps out of the rubble, creates a longsword, and beheads Neo. In video game fashion, Neo turns blue and explodes into oblivion. Exhausted, Don falls over into King’s arms relieved of the victory the had just achieved.
“Are you okay?”, asks King. “Do you need a break?”
“I just need… Just a little bit,” pants Don. He nods off and falls asleep within King’s arms as he is carried off like a child would be carried to bed by their parents.
While Don is slumbering away trying to regain some stamina, Franky has some time to let his mind wander. Upon finding a building worthy of resting in, he discovers a tunnel hidden underneath a rug. He can hear steps and faraway voices echoing through the tunnel. Believing that only rookies like him would have to hide in places like these, he prepares for his next attack.
“It’s been twenty minutes and he’s still not up… Maybe I should have acted sooner. Then he probably wouldn’t be this exhausted.”
“I can’t even protect Don… Florence has abilities far more useful than mine… They’ll probably just outgrow me or already have,” he thinks. Spiraling into a depressive circle of feeling like he’s not doing enough to protect those he holds dear, he wonders why he’s trying to begin with. Right now, the only one he can protect is Ben and that’s only because Ben isn’t a Dream Catcher. If he were, he’d probably handle this situation a lot better than others would.
“I can’t think like that right now. I need to try my best to keep Don safe. I just-”
Don pulls Franky’s sleeve. He seems to have woken up about forty minutes after he went to sleep. About fifty minutes have passed since the start of the game. Franky and Don have yet to find Leo or the rest of their crew. Still, they have to fight on all alone even if they’re vastly underskilled when it comes to fighting others.
“Listen, Don,” King whispers. “I need you to quietly create a rock as wide as my torso.”
“I don’t create, I manipulate…”
“Then manipulate for all I care. I just need some right now, okay?”
The narrow tunnel they’re in leads to a wider cross-section where a group of people is probably waiting for easy targets. Though it is risky to gamble on them being less durable than Neo was, it is something worth risking their lives on considering a good amount of kills could be up ahead. Splashing in the waters of this tunnel, King gives them the illusion of some naive rookie walking towards them.
“Ah!”, he gasps as he pretends to barely avoid a part of the tunnel collapsing onto him. He wraps the largest chunk he can find into his cape and throws it out into the cross-section. Three people fire at what they believed to be a person rushing down the tunnels. Another one inspects what they believe to be remains…
Only to have a sword lodged into their head killed in an instant. King rushes in and grabs one of the armed fighters while he slashes away at another armed Dream Catcher. The third one fires at him only taking out their ally and panicking as King draws closer. A pair equipped with polearms draw closer as a few others prepare an attack. Don blocks two fireballs launched at King as King takes out the last gunman just in time to jump over the polearms and eviscerate two people with a blade bursting from his right leg. Two thrown smaller swords take care of the last two fighters, the ones that launched the fireballs.
“Seven kills!”, exclaims King. “I bet you couldn’t reach that many kills at once.”
“Huh? But I killed eleven people before you arrived by using these tunnels?”, Don replies, confused, instantly killing the joy that surged through King.
“Well… Let’s look for the others, okay?”
Finding their way back out took a few minutes since simply exposing themself to the surface isn’t an option and is rather unsafe. As they emerge from the tunnels, another signal is sent out by Leo and Calypso. This time, however, Leo only displays his orange, King’s blue, and Don’s white. They seem to have gathered the others meaning that reaching them would allow them to survive even longer.
“That thing up ahead… That’s a tower, right?”, King asks as he stares down a massive structure reaching into the heavens. “Do you think we should avoid that thing and walk around it?”
Don nods.
“Say, Don, how old are you? You’re so quiet for someone your size. Do you remember when you were born?”
“I think I’m… twelve? I don’t remember. Why are you asking?”
“Like for your birthday and stuff. Maybe you already love me so much you want your birthday to be on the day you met me?”, Franky jokes. “I’m just joking of course. That would be-”
“I’d like that! I want my birthday to be today!”, he yells overly emotional.
“I guess I should think of what to celebrate your birthday with a year from now but before that, let’s see what those two are doing.”
King goes into hiding. The plan is to make them come over by having Don wave at them as some kind of innocent child recklessly asking for company. Through deceit, they could gauge if there are snipers around at the higher buildings up ahead or trick them into coming closer to take them down. One of them takes the bait running towards Don while King circles around them to launch their assault. However, the one stepping closer is taken out by a sniper before either of them can as King beheads the other one.
“Don! Do you still feel like raking in more kills or do you want to go all out?”, asks Franky. “I’m honestly starting to get bored of this.”
“Huh?! Then why’d you even partake, to begin with?? It’s only been like an hour or something!”
“I don’t want to hear it! I’ve been up since like five and I honestly just want to go home and take a bath! You should come too!”
“Fine!”
With haste, the two of them rush out into open in the direction the bullet came from. Using a flash stemming from atop a five-story building to determine where their sniper is coming from, they outmaneuver bullets and dash forward. Don has to propel himself forward by creating protrusions to match Franky. Though the sniper seems to relocate every few shots, they’re still closing in on them until they’re forced to hide behind a wall.
Rapid fire from what seems to be a gatling gun is hindering them from getting closer. As such, King decides to be wilder than ever before and lets blades erupt from his arms tearing them to shreds. Running right back out into battle, he shields the two of them with his mesh of blades. Finally, Don lets the building their target is on collapse in on itself and launches Franky into the air. He’s taken out by a single shot to the head in the process of propelling Franky upwards.
Franky, now directly facing the sniper they’ve been chasing after all this time, extends his swords as he too is taken out. Both he and the sniper die in the process of attacking each other bringing an end to their game.
This time, he’s woken up on a train by Don and Neo. The three of them have all been defeated and therefore dropped out of the game as they are on their way back. A single wagon is delivering them to Spade Base.
“Did I take her out?”, he asks. “I didn’t fail, did I?”
The sniper he just took down walks up from behind them and makes herself comfortable next to Neo. Others are riding along with them as they too were defeated in battle. All kinds of emotions are gathering within this wagon. Some are disappointed, few absolutely overjoyed to go through this experience, others furious that dumb mistakes got them eliminated… everyone here has feelings to share and expectations like any other.
“I’m sorry that I cut your first game short,” she says. “I’m Krone.”
Her hair is gray with black roots and blue accents. Straight and with bangs, she gives off the illusion of having shoulder-length straight hair although most of it is just tied back now that she’s not in battle mode. She seems to be wearing a black uniform with XYZ written on one of her sleeves and Axia on another.
“I’m King and this is Don,” he replies. “There’s also Neo but we just met.”
“Yo,” says Neo. “So I heard you were out there mowing down a good amount of people?”
“About fifty. I was exhausted by the time I met Don and King so I wasn’t as good as can be,” she replies. “But I feel like I outdid myself even though I haven’t been here in a while!”
“I know! I know! I’m just coming in from recovery. Took down a nasty fusion and was hit with deadly levels of dark magic.”
Franky can’t believe it. The people he struggled to defeat most are still so much more powerful than they already were. Would he even have stood a chance if he had challenged them some other day?
“So you’re even stronger than this? Do we even stand a chance?”, he asks.
“Obviously not! I’ve been doing this for over half a decade!” replies Neo.
“But you still performed well. Even if we’re weaker than our prime forms, you still managed to conserve your stamina and coordinate better than we did. Isn’t that already incredibly impressive?”, adds Krone. “I definitely was far more of a nervous wreck when I started than you two were.”
Krone’s kind words are reassuring.
“Yeah! Yeah! You should be proud of what you did! All that really just showcases that you have the potential for more if you’re beating weakened veterans this early in life. Those kill assists and the multi-kills were incredibly impressive!”, Neo reassures.
It seems that overall, while he currently isn’t in the best state of protecting those he holds dear, he’s still performing quite well. Coming here likely was one of the best things he could have done to learn more about Dream Catchers though there is so much more he could find out. Though there are much darker secrets waiting to be unveiled, he at least doesn’t have to believe that so many of them have some kind of sinister goal or something they’re hiding for their own gain.