Moyo stood next to Ashira as they stared down the bird that turned to them, gripping dominion with his two hands Moyo steeled his gaze, Ashira at his side, blazing with golden power, her eyes alight with determination. The bird took one step forward and Moyo swung dominion with all his strength, all his power, and all his Ashe, trees were ripped, reality distorted and the bird screamed. They had made their way deeper into the island, knowing fully well the undertaking they were about to make could spell the end for them.

There was a tale told back when he was young, back when children gathered under the moonlight and listened to old men with poor eye sights and clothes that smelt like charcoal with the faint but welcoming scent of the soil. Moyo could vividly remember back then, the story of the spider Anansi, the trickster spider, much like the tortoise named ijapa had gone to petition Eledumare, the deity of the skies and the supreme God of creation to help them to in no better terms evolve against their predators.

The tortoise complained about being slow and the spider complained about being little, Eledumare chuckled and asked the both of them how they had survived for this long. Ijapa, the tortoise had spoken with eyes alight, about how his tough shell had allowed him to survive long enough for predators to get tired and move on to find softer prey. Anansi the spider, the ever-vigilant one explained how he usually paid attention to his environment, ensuring he spun his webs in safe corners.

Eledumare had shown them the rabbit, a nimb creature whose only means of protection was its speed. The owl, a predator that could escape fast enough due to its sharp eyesight and the chameleon, an absurdly slow creature but could seamlessly merge with its environment. The story had been taught to teach children contentment, but Moyo had remembered the story from a childhood that seemed eons ago, about the shell of the tortoise and the eyes of the owl. He embodied the tortoise, his body its hard shell, and his eyes the blessings of the owl.

Predators like the birds albeit stronger than him could potentially get tired of him should he get strong enough, but like always, the beast in him refused to play defensive even in the face of adversities, he wasn’t just a wall, he was a blade, a sharp one at that. He was the wall and the blade that protected, he wouldn’t just fall back and huddle while others did the battle for him. It was due to these reasons he had faced the first avian they had come across with a steel gaze, Ashira had glanced at him in that first moment, checking to see if he wanted to fall back, and had seen the same look she had always seen whenever he was about to do something absurdly stupid but with his mind dead set on it.

So she had raised her blade too, even with the skies howling in the distance and flashes from the battle of the diamonds also in the distance as they called down near god like abilities on dungeon monsters. Both their mantles locked in place, rain falling heavily with their bodies drenched, she spoke softly, but it carried with it the determination of gold rank. And at that moment their eyes blazed to life,

“For diamond rank” he said and swung his blade,

Dominion sang, followed by a sonic symphony by the blade of Ashira and with a note so high the air vibrated from the cry of the bird. Space warped, explosions rang out, but the titan was already flipping through the air, realm expanded to cover the bird who shrugged it off only to have Ashira’s realm slam into place. One hand gripping dominion, Moyo spoke, a soft command that carried the Ashe of the titan,

“HOLD”

The bird froze for a second before shrugging the command off, but it was a second Moyo and Ashira took precise use of. Titans might landed with a roar from Moyo on the skull of the bird, the force blast of the hit had the head of the creature bowing, its body crashing to the ground in time for Ashira’s claws to grip its neck, her blade flashing before burying itself in its eye. They both blinked away from the bird as it released a cry that blew everything in its surroundings away, and as fast as they had gone, they had appeared back. The bird turned to Moyo, talon flashing to clang on dominion, driving him to his knees with a grunt, he maneuvered the clawed leg to slash within its thighs, wincing as dominion scratched its diamond hard skin before rolling away.

Ashira withdrew her blade from its ruined eye, it opened its mouth again but Ashira stepped forward, arms wide,

“ROAR!” she shouted,

Her mantle blazed into the form of a Leonid in Moyo’s Digi Aye sight, mouth open as a sonic roar blasted towards the bird filled with intent, the bird screamed with its sonic voice and the two met in an explosion, an explosion Moyo took absolute advantage of. It felt like sandpaper was being rubbed on his skin, his eyes burned like pepper had entered them and he felt his body fighting the compression as he blinked in between the two attacks, but he held on. Blood dripping from his nose he flashed forward the moment the attack from the bird stopped, propelled by the sonic wave from Ashira, dominion poised.

Moyo felt the bones in his body shatter as he collided with the inside of the bird’s beak, he faded for a second as agony was all he felt, but with enough clarity, he summoned Oro to stab into its mouth also, toxin-filling its entire system. The bird attempted to close its mouth when he spoke, voice failing him but Ashe responded all the same,

“HOLD”

“HOLD!” Ashira said following his command with hers,

The bird fought off the two commands, but not fast enough for it to avoid Oro’s poison from make it up to its brain. The bird released one last shrill that sent his broken body flying through the air and crashing into the ground like a lifeless doll, the bird falling and shattering into aether and essence. Ashira fell to her knees, eyes, and ears bleeding, crawling to Moyo’s side she gently touched him. Then the aether and essence hit her and her back arced in pure ecstasy as it mended her bones and knit her flesh back, taking her to perfection and level 450. With a gasp she came down from the high, turning to Moyo who had been enveloped in the glowing light of essence and aether.

She took an elixir from the pouch tied to her waist, forcing his mouth open and pouring it into it, then with her hand she forcibly held his mouth shut as his body convulsed. Usually, gold rankers might need an hour or two to heal from such, but still to her utter awe his body healed at an impossible rate, akin to masters. Sitting back with a sigh she giggled to herself,

He made things look too easy,

True they had danced on the razor’s edge of death for a few moments there, but they had done it. Moyo had rampaged in the usual fashion he used, taking brunt attacks and returning them with devastating results, he had brought a diamond ranked beast to the ground. She hugged her legs to her body with a smile, shaking her head,

No, he was taken, no way…

However her mind wandered, even if he hadn’t been taken by some lightining female villain the way he described her, would he see her that way?. Laughing again at the absurdity of her thought in a dungeon where death could come for one anytime, she watched his body repair itself completely and the residual aether and essence being absorbed into his body. Her ascension process had been planned out for ten years by her mentors. Not that her parents cared, if they had their way they’d throw her into a master-ranked dungeon and force-fed her ascensions till she got to the rank of master in a year plus.

It was possible, it would had been her fate had the sage not stepped in and literally slammed his staff on their heads, dragging her away to his domain and ensuring she had a normal growth rate. Even by his standards, this was pushing it too much, normal ascenders had families, had lives outside ascensions, and only do so when they felt like it or had a particular reason to. The truth was that most of the situations in the archailect didn’t affect normal ascenders, few worlds ever heard of cults or great houses or even battles between rulers. There were close to a thousand galaxies in the archailect and millions of worlds with trillions of souls in them.

Ascension in some worlds stopped at iron rank expert, some even at advocate, and in most cases, new worlds don’t get experts for some time, maybe up to 5 years. Ashira watched as he twitched, knowing her parents would love him, for he carried the spark of a warrior, a beast, and the loyalty along with it. He had willingly thrown himself into the beak of the creature, something she should berate him for when he woke up, however she knew it would fall on deaf ears. Had he been born in the galaxies of house Kairos, he would had been snatched by either the plantsmen, wardens, or watchers into their hallowed halls.

Whatever drove him to such levels of determination, Ashira wasn’t sure she wanted such drive as far as she was concerned. He opened his eyes with a gasp, his body fighting for air it didn’t need, Ashira helped him sit up as he grinned,

“Did we do it?” he asked, purple and silver eyes glowing,

“Yeah, somehow we did it, we killed it” she replied,

He nodded at got up, looking down at his hands, dominion on the ground along with Oro that lay at the spot where he had killed the bird. Bringing up his HUD, he had gotten to level 415,

“Climbed 5 levels,” he said,

“Same as I” Ashira replied,

He turned to her,

“So, each diamond bird gives 5 levels?” he asked as he picked dominion and summoned Oro to his hands,

“Looks like it, the higher we go the more levels we should be given” Ashira said,

“That bird was a level 510, I’m not sure we’re capable of killing anything higher than that currently” Moyo replied with a wince,

“Then we keep hunting with stealth and running from anything we can’t handle”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Moyo squeezed dominion as he picked it up,

“No, I’m tired of running” he murmured,

Ashira glanced at him,

“There’s no way I’m following you into a suicide run against overwhelming odds” she replied darkly,

“you do realize these are diamond beasts right?, I’m all up for a good rampage, but when I know we can win, hell even diamonds from different kingdoms are banding together for this threat”

Moyo raised his hands in surrender,

“Cool it, I know” he replied with a smile,

Ashira raised an eyebrow,

“I mean it, I do!” he laughed,

“Good, I’d hate to die in this dungeon” she said darkly,

Moyo nodded,

“Too true, this place has taken enough from us as it is, come on, let’s go hunting” he replied,

Together they trudged through the trees, sticking to the giant trunks of the trees and using Moyo’s Digi Aye to find their way through the thick canopies that could hide dungeon monsters. The islands had been shaking, cracks forming on the ground, a sign of dungeon disintegration. Getting close to the fifth day, it drove home the fact that they needed to get out of this dungeon soon. With the diamonds getting ever closer to the dungeon boss, they needed to be there as well. Soon enough they met another bird, but this time they were prepared.

The both of them started with a hail of intent blades over the bird who used its wings to cover its head, Moyo slammed his realm over the bird. Blitzing forward to slam his fist into the underbelly of the bird, his body vibrating from the force of the punch as its diamond ranked body repelled some of the attack back to him. Ashira took the stumbling backwards of the large predator to use her clawed hand to grip the bird and drive her blade through the underside of its throat. The blade hung after entering a few inches after breaking through the weak diamond cover, but with a flip and a kick, the blade sank in and straight through to its head.

The bird having been caught off-guard and in the throes of death cried out in its loud sonic voice, totally decimating its surroundings, throwing the both of them into the air and slamming them into shattered trees. Rolling to the ground almost immediately, Moyo used his step of Ogun to appear in front of the beast even as it twitched, slamming his fists repeatedly into its skull as he cracked it bit by bit. Ashira appeared almost immediately, driving her fists along with him, blood splashing all over them.

The bird twitched his last before breaking down into aether and essence, Moyo stepped backwards, Digi Aye flashing through the forest in caution, checking to see if the bird had any other friends that hadn’t made their appearance yet. The both of them staggered under the influx of aether and essence, gaining an extra five levels, Moyo shook the high from the gains. Raising himself with dominion, he cracked his neck as he took in a deep breathe,

“Aura looks distorted in the distance, possible birds, let’s move” he said,

Ashira nodded, glancing at him,

“You ready?” she asked,

He nodded distractedly, swinging dominion in his hands,

“You had your bones broken though, you sure you don’t need to get some rest?” she asked,

He smiled,

“a bit too late for that, don’t you think?” he replied,

“First thing we do after we leave this godforsaken world is to have you take a rest, no fighting, no ascending, nothing” Ashira said,

“You do know we’re going for a swordsman tournament, right?” he said with a smile,

“The tournament proper holds for a mere two weeks in the one month assigned to it” she replied,

“So, what do we do for the duration of the other two weeks?” he asked confused,

“Strut around, factions and great houses display their future powers, host parties to lavish wealth, trade insults, things like that” she said with a shrug,

“I never did ask about what sort of tournament it was, have you witnessed one before?” he asked,

She nodded, bow drawn,

“Went for the one a decade ago, saw the rise of famous diamond rankers like the stellar blade”

Moyo glanced at her,

“Master Killian participated?” he asked,

She nodded,

“Along with master Ajax who was participating on behalf of the Dracons, also as a diamond, he lost to the blazing princess of house Garuda though” she said,

“master Ajax lost to the blazing princess?, who is she anyway?” he asked,

It was the second time he was hearing that name, the first being when master Killian had mentioned it and master Ajax had threatened him with throwing him inside a diamond ranked dungeon. Moyo smiled at the memory,

“The blazing princess, master Fiona, was or is still the scion of house Garuda, the daughter of the phoenix, the burning empress herself. She inherited the bloodline abilities of her mother the burning empress and her mastery of the blazing phoenix style cemented her position as the winner of the last tournament” Ashira explained,

“Seems the tournament would be fun” Moyo replied,

“And deadly, at least for the first half of the tournament, the first stages are free for all, and from the rumors I’ve heard, an entire continent would be used” she said,

Moyo whistled at the scale of the conflict,

“How many houses would be participating?’ he asked,

“Not just houses, schools, factions, sects, cults, and clans, every sword user would be vying to participate” she said,

“And the first part being risky?” he asked,

“Before the one versus one duels where projections would be used, the free for-all would involve everyone actively trying to take out the opposition, this is used for ascenders to climb their ranks to get as close as diamond as possible,” she said,

“we’ll cross that bridge when we get there” Moyo replied,

They had paused as the trees had gotten thinner, realizing they were getting to the end of the island, and in front of them were a trio of birds, levels 505, 510, and 515. Crouching behind a tree, Moyo glanced at Ashira,

“Too much” she whispered,

He nodded and glanced back at the birds who were oblivious to their presence, Moyo glanced back at the birds and took a deep breath,

“Be careful” Ashira whispered,

“What?” he asked,

“I can literally see your mind spinning, you’re about to do something dangerous, be careful” she replied,

Moyo stared for a few seconds and gave a grim smile,

“For diamond” he whispered,

“For diamond” she replied with a hard nod,

Dominion became Oro in his hand as he held it up, his gaze on the level 515 bird,

“The eyes” he whispered,

“The eyes” Ashira replied,

The only soft part of the birds they could actually pierce, it had served as their points of first contact and had never failed them, they weren’t about to change tactics now. Moyo activated his step of Ogun at the same time with his gold rank blink, appearing right in front of the level 515 bird that looked up with a startled squawk, he drove Oro straight through its eye. His realm slammed in place over its head,

“HOLD!” he shouted, infusing every bit of Ashe he had into that command,

The head froze in place as he twisted Oro deeper, letting the toxins spread deeper and deeper, eventually, the bird broke the command even in its throes of agony. It opened its mouth to scream only for a green arrow to pierce right through, choking and gagging the bird with poison. The other two birds had roused themselves up, one going immediately after Ashira and the other raising its beak open to release a sonic blast at Moyo.

He removed Oro and stepped away with his skill, rolling and running as its cries crushed trees. Rolling away he sighted Ashira running as the bird crashed through trees in hot pursuit, Oro in hand he slid towards her position, aware he had his own adversary chasing him. The cries of agony coming from the bird he had stabbed still echoed into the air, driving the remaining two birds into frenzy, both running towards each other, he shouted,

“High!”

“Low!’ she replied, sliding as he roared, eyes blazing and Oro baring down at the bird that had been chasing Ashira,

It opened its mouth to release a cry Moyo very well knew he couldn’t defend against, a good thing it wasn’t his plan either. With a step of Ogun in the air, he appeared behind it, watching as its cry blasted its other friend whom Ashira had slid under and used her clawed gauntlet to trip, rolling away from the blast. The bird hit with the sonic cry squawked in alarm as it took the full brunt of the attack crashing to the ground, and Moyo seeing all this in the air twisted, flipped, and slammed the other bird with his leg on the head, slamming it into its fellow bird on the ground.

Ignoring the bone jarring and numbing pain in his leg with that hit, he landed on the head of the bird on top, driving Oro straight through its eyes also. He twisted the blade in, dragged it out, and ran back towards the first bird he had stabbed, leaving Ashira to do the gory job of driving her claws into its head and finishing up the job. Leaving it to her discretion to run for her life when the other bird got free, he dashed with gold ranked speed at the first bird that staggered under the pain of the poison he had inflicted.

Hitting it with all his titan’s might, he drove Oro again through its other eye, the bird too lost in pain to even notice his arrival. It crashed to the ground, convulsing before dying and shattering into aether and essence, pouring solely into Moyo as he also crashed to his with the wave of power his mountain core drank up. Shaking his head to clear away the haze, he staggered to his feet, running back in the direction of Ashira as loud crashes echoed through the trees. Heart pounding, Oro gripped tightly in his hand, he blitzed his way towards where they fought.

Ashira weaved through the trees, dodging cry after cry, endurance elixir in her mouth as she guzzled its content. Her leather brown mantle was in place over her body, preferring pure defensive power over attack. Moyo went straight for the injured bird that tried struggling to its feet, Oro crashed through its already injured eye, releasing its toxin deep into the bird as it cried out in pain. The other bird swirled its head 180 degrees like an owl that spooked Moyo so badly, he cursed and withdrew Oro as he blitzed away.

It gave Ashira the chance to bring her now glowing bronze blade down on the distracted bird, cutting deep into its head. It screamed in pain and swirled its head back towards an Ashira that had abandoned her blade, dropping to the ground as her mantle became a scaly green color and her blade emitted a green glow with green wisps of toxic vapor coming from its edges. The second bird had died from its grievous injuries, its aether and essence slamming into Moyo and Ashira who rolled away to weather the haze of power. The last bird with its head bleeding and Ashira’s blade stuck deep into it cried again, sending sonic blasts around them as they dove for cover.

Moyo grunted as the edges of the sonic cry cut him, flinging him into a tree where he rolled to the ground and dived between trees. Standing up, Moyo wrapped his realm around its legs, tripping the bird and bringing the bird crashing to the ground. It grated his nerves that he had to go through underhanded techniques to kill the birds so far. A part of him accepted the fact that it was the only choice he had, he couldn’t beat the birds in a straight-out fight, their skins were literally diamond and only their eyes and the inside of their mouths were the only vulnerable spots, however, running and hiding was not his thing.

Ashira had transformed back to her golden state, clawed gauntlet in hand as she landed back on its head and drove the claw straight through its eye as it shrieked, attempting to rise and shake her off. Moyo landed like a comet on its head, driving Oro once again through its eye as Ashira removed her claw. They both slammed their feet on the hilt of the blade in turns, driving it straight through to the end, instantly killing the bird. Collapsing in mental fatigue, the both of them panted and relaxed as the aether and essence poured into them again,

“460” Ashira whispered,

Moyo brought up his HUD, ignoring the levels of his skills and checking his main level,

“430” he replied,

They stayed that way, on the ground for a while,

“Can you hear that?” Ashira asked as she suddenly sat up,

“What?” he replied, using his Digi Aye to look around but seeing no danger,

“The storms are gone, its dead silent” she said,

Moyo glanced up to the sky, his purple sight devoid of the roiling aether and blue aether of the matriarch bird,

“it’s gone” he said,

“Exactly, they’re closer to the matriarch” she replied,

“Meaning we need to move to the next island” he said as he stood up,

“We could meet opposition there, golds” she replied,

“Then we go through them should the need arise, I’m done playing nice” he said,

“you’ve been playing nice, have you?” she said with a smile,

Although he couldn’t see it, he heard the humor in her voice as he smiled grimly,

“I’m getting out of this dungeon one way or another, I could care less what and whom I go through” he replied,

Ashira stretched as she stood,

“Once we’re done with this dungeon, I’m taking a long nap” she grunted,

Moyo laughed as Oro swapped with dominion, staring into the distance,

“Diamond should be fun” he said with a smile