Mechanisms from above activated, causing the dome to open once again.

“Mochi…” Mochi said, gazing up at the giant steel dome splitting open, allowing the sun to peer in. Sensing something, Mochi swiveled its body as an arrow bolted right past him.

“Consider that a warning shot,” Haruki said.

“Mochi mochi,” Mochi said, holding out a thumbs up.

“So is Mochi’s real name actually Mochi?” Hanabi said in the stands. She had returned from helping Rai.

“Nah,” Alan said. “Mochi was actually silent for some time, however Tofi named him Mochi and he seemed to take a liking to it.

“Kind strange if you ask me,” Rina said.

Among the elites, Knox asked Aegis, “Are you aware of Mochi’s root ability?”

“I am not… From what I was told, Mochi had refused to utilize the device that registers roots. So your guess is as good as mine,” Aegis said.

Within the empire’s throne room, the emperor said, “Mochi… The only apprentice whose root we still have yet to uncover. I wonder why he was chosen in the first place…”

“Mochi was chosen by Temin, and since he is no longer serving the empire, there’s no telling what it could be,” General Kur said.

“What about any apprentices that have worked with him, or even elites?” Emperor Adonis said.

“The previous apprentices never saw him use his abilities, and the last mission Mochi went on, Aegis handled on his own mostly. He wasn’t aware of where Mochi was at the time, however when he found him there were a bunch of downed fighters around him.”

Haruki, reaching for another arrow head, aimed it directly, at Mochi, “Ignition strike!” he shouted, firing the arrow. About halfway through, a fire kicked in behind it, causing the arrow to burst forward at twice the speed.

Mochi, panicking at the site, wobbled his long lengthy body, causing the arrow to fly by its stomach, however in doing so, Mochi’s outfit caught fire.

While Mochi ran around, arms flailing, Haruki gripped more arrows. One by one he fired multiple, each narrowly missing Mochi who seemed to be dodging them in a strange unorthodox running patterning, even ducking and rolling to get rid of the fire, while rapidly screaming his own name.

Mochi, sensing that arrow barrage had stopped, glanced at Haruki, when suddenly an arrow pierced straight through his foot.

“Ow, that ones got to hurt…” Otto said, his voice still booming out from the speakers and Lucam’s floating around.

Casually looking down, after a moment, Mochi placed its hands on its cheek’s, “Mochi mochi mochi!” he said. Soon, many small circle shadows appeared on the ground. From above, arrows rained down!

“It looks like Haruki has launched a massive number of arrows in the sky!” Otto said.

Mochi ran around but as they fell, they exploded. Mochi was tossed around by the force of the explosion, before expanding its stomach and spitting out a wave of air that caused them to soar back to Haruki.

Haruki, seeing this, quickly darted to his left, now dodging the explosions of his own arrows, however, as one arrow passed by him, he snatched it mid-air, twirling around and slapping it onto another arrow he already had, shouting, “Ignition strike, times two!” The arrow burnt any other arrows Mochi blew his way to a crisp.

Mochi’s hands expanded like white plastic gloves do when having air blown into them, however these were larger than a horse. Slapping the arrow in between his enlarged hands, the fire sizzled out before the smoke was gone. Deflating its hands, Mochi blew on his palm, shaking it fast. “Mochi mochi mochi.”

“Wait, he didn’t use roots?” Jack said.

“Does this mean he’s a Nefarian of Solomon descent?” Chloe said.

Alderai furrowed his brows. Mochi… He’s definitely not a Nefarian.

“Could he have bonded with a creature?” Reezo said, seeing Alderai in deep thought.

Glancing around, Marco didn’t notice any sort of ally. “A Link doesn’t need to be around their bonded creature to utilize their special abilities that separate them from regular Link’s. They need only have them summoned from within their core. If he is one, it would be extremely unwise to not have the the bonded creature fighting alongside him. It’s when they’re strongest after all.”

“It would seem the person behind the mask is quite the intriguing figure,” Reezo said.

Haruki was surprised as well, saying, “Solomon?” How else would he be able to utilize his abilities without using his roots? Unless he’s a special class Link…

“What’s Haruki going to do, he’s almost out of arrows?” Rai said from the viewing area below.

Haruki, placing his large quiver on his back, activated his roots, which emerged from the ground, glowing orange. Soon, the quiver refilled with arrows, but this time they were much thicker, each resembling a black sword almost; they even had a wooden hilt to grip them. As for his bow, it changed shape as well, now decorated in gold and black patterns.

Haruki, attached the first sword-like arrow to his bow, but it seemed to stick to it, without him having to hold it. Rushing Mochi, his opponent, enlarged their hands yet again, slamming down giant fist. Jumping over the attack, he swung down, using the arrow as a blade.

Mochi sucked the air from his giant fists into its stomach, causing Haruki to be launched into the sky by the sudden expansion.

Aiming directly down, Haruki yanked the sword back, now utilizing it as a bow again, causing the blade to slice through the air straight toward Mochi.

Mochi, deflating, whizzed around the air like a balloon, narrowly missing the arrow which crushed the ground, causing a crater to form.

“That’s a lot of force for an arrow…” Seppe said.

Mochi’s deflated body twisted in the air, before reforming to his slender self behind Haruki.

Haruki held his guard up as Mochi slammed him with a large fist, causing a large dust cloud to form on the ground. Hidden in the smoke, many smaller arrows, like the original he had, shot out, slicing away at Mochi who was suspended in the air.

“Mochi mochi!’ Mochi expanding his foot, managed to block all all the arrows before stomping down on the dust cloud Haruki was hiding in.

Haruki, leapt out, shooting another of his bladed arrows, missing Mochi who dropped to the floor.

Mochi inflated into a large ball, bouncing around the arena as Haruki shot one black blade after another, each barely missing Mochi who kept changing shapes as he bounced around the arena. The blades collided heavily against the arena walls, causing them to crack nearly half way up the high coliseum walls.

Haruki, pulling his arm back, tossed the bow with blade attached, and it spun directly at Mochi who dodged it, before unraveling into his normal self.

“He threw away his weapon?!” Lily said, she was watching the fight from the hospital tv with Eiji beside her.

Mochi, scratching his head, turned to Haruki, but before he could react, the bow came directly back, slicing Mochi’s leg before landing back in Haruki’s leg. “Mochi!”

“Haruki has used his own bow as a sort of sharpened boomerang, slicing Mochi who never saw it coming!”

Mochi fell to a knee, gripping the black blood oozing from its leg, before looking up. “Mo—” many small arrows pierced its other leg, causing Mochi to fall to his hands.

“Dawn Ignition!” Haruki said. Yanking the arrow back, he launched it, however all the arrows he had shot which were in many craters around the arena, quickly sucked into the one he just fired, just like how magnets tend to stick together. As it continued forward, it grew in size with each blade that sucked into it.”

Mochi attempted to catch again, inflating his hands and slapping them over the enlarged blade-arrow, but this one couldn’t be stopped, tearing straight through Mochi’s grip and ripping Mochi’s shoulder.

“It would look like Mochi took a direct hit from Haruki’s black-bladed arrows! Is this it for Mochi?!” Otto announced.

“That looked like it hurt…” Peon said.

“Hope he’s alright,” Neptus said.

“Black… blood?” Daichi said, chewing on a hot dog while watching near the arena food stands.

“How long do you plan on lying there?” Haruki said.

Soon, Mochi’s head popped up, “Mochi mochi.” Mochi glanced around at his blood splattered all across the floor. “Mochi mochi mochi mochi mochi!” Mochi’s shoulder which had a gaping wound, seemed to reform, almost as if the injury was never there; meanwhile, the black blood on the ground began to wiggle. From both the large and the small blotches of blood, black slim smiling figures emerged. Some were the size of a parrot, while others continued to stretch into large imposing figurines. They had no particular shape, forming what seemed to be arms and legs, but it couldn’t be determined what thing they resembled the most.

Haruki furrowed his brows as the ink creatures gradually turned at the same time at him. With a harrowing screech, the countless ink figures rushed him. As they did, the smaller ones were often stepped on, absorbing into the large ones or splitting off a piece of the bigger ones, becoming slightly bigger themselves. Haruki focused flux to form wooden arrows with exploding tips, like before, jumping back as one figure clad in black, expanded its arms, similar to how Mochi did, before smashing them into the ground where he was. Pulling the arrow back, he fired it, however the creature opened its stomach, causing the arrow to fly straight through it, exploding behind it; right after it reformed its stomach, smacking Haruki away who crashed heavily into the walls of the arena. “Dammit,” Haruki said, leaping away as many of the smaller creatures collided into the wall, splattering like ink before forming into a larger one. It stretched its arms out like gum, grabbing Haruki, and tossing him into the air while another one smashed him down.

“Mochi mochi,” Mochi said, giving its recent allies a thumbs up. Whether it be from their stomach or head, foot or arm, every single one of the black creatures formed a thumbs up in the direction of Mochi.

“Wow, the tide has turned once Mochi’s… things appeared,” Otto said. “Could this be the work of a special class Link?!”

Haruki, wiping blood from his mouth, noticed a small little black creature, no bigger than his hand, wailing on his leg, but he couldn’t feel anything. He brushed it away with his hand, causing it to roll backwards before plopping on its back. Haruki gazed away for a second, but what seemed like a harmless version of the things attacking him, all of a sudden expanded, hovering over him, its mouth large enough to consume him! “Ugh!” Haruki leaned back, tossing his bow which cut the creature in half, before rolling away, and redirecting himself to another spot where he caught the bow. “Just what are you?” Haruki said, gazing at Mochi who was joyfully shaking the hand of one of the ooze creatures he summoned.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Mochi,” Mochi said, as it walked away and another waiting in a long line jumped up happily to shake Mochi’s hand. Reaching his hand out, before he could shake it, an arrow ripped through the creature, splattering it, “Mochi!” Mochi said, slapping his hand across his cheek as one of his ‘fans’ was obliterated. Gazing at Haruki, it looked down, noticing an arrow fly by, exploding near his face. “Mochiii,” he said, blasted away by the explosion. This caused all the blood creatures to once again charge Haruki.

Haruki, equipping the black bladed arrow to his bow, began to swing away at the creatures lunging at him, splitting them in two. Sliding under the legs of a large one that tried to crush him, he fired the blade, tearing through many more, however they formed many smaller versions, that could still enlarge themselves when attacking. Focusing flux, he crafted many arrows with exploding tips, launching them into the creatures, blowing them to bits that wouldn’t reform.

“Mochi!” Mochi hollered, flexing its arms, and the things smashed into one another while other’s split off into smaller versions in an attempt to capture Haruki who was skillfully evading each one.

“There’s no end to these things,” Haruki said, glancing over at Mochi who had just risen from the floor. Haruki shot a few arrows into the arena wall, scaling them up while snapping them when he jumped off each, until he was standing at the very top of the arena walls, a hundred feet in the sky.

All the inked figures tried to jump up, but they couldn’t scale the lengthy walls up to him.

“Mochi?” Mochi said, scratching his head while looking up at Haruki.

“I was really hoping to save this for my next opponent, but it doesn’t seem you’re going to allow me that luxury,” Haruki said. Taking his quiver off, he pointed it directly at the arena. Concentrating flux into it, countless black blades burst out. It once again felt like an earthquake within the coliseum as the ground was smashed again and again by the heavy black blades, obliterating everything below.

“Haruki is demolishing the arena below with what looks to be a canon that fires arrows! Makes you wonder why he uses the bow at all?” Otto said.

“Mochi mochi mochi,” Mochi shouted, sporadically ran around with his arms flailing around while the many creatures were torn apart. Narrowly dodging a few, one finally managed to fly by, heavily crashing next to him, sending him flying back into the wave of blades raining down, disappearing into the dirt cloud forming from Haruki’s barrage.

When the dust settled, Mochi was found arms and legs wrapped around many black blades.

“Mochi’s okay!” Alan said.

“I didn’t expect that to do the trick unfortunately,” Haruki said.

“Mochi… Mochi…” Mochi said, unwinding himself while leaning over in defeat.

Haruki, kicked his quiver off, but the moment it hit a black blade on the floor, they all started to vibrate.

“Mochi?” Mochi glanced behind him, noticing a blade zip by, cutting his arm. Suddenly, many more flew by, each on slicing him before they collided like a magnet to another black-blade. Then, hundreds of them started to zip around, each aiming for Mochi.

“The fields turned into a magnet storm of blades aiming to rip through Mochi!” Otto said.

Mochi ducked and dodged hundreds of blades, deflating himself to become skinnier or taller to avoid them. When jumping into the air, an arrow blew up, causing him to soar to the ground. While he fell, Mochi noticed Haruki breathing heavily. His hand was placed on the wall of the coliseum, and from it roots appeared slowly twisting around one another until they formed another explosive arrow.

“You won’t be getting out that easily,” Haruki said.

Mochi returned to dancing around the magnet field of black swords, however as they attached to others, they would become bigger, making it increasingly difficult for him to dodge both small blades and large.

“Look out!” Jack shouted, but it was too late.

A blade tore straight through the waste of Mochi, as did another! Mochi’s body was being torn up faster than it could heal by the many sharp and heavy bladed arrows. As they continued to attach to one another, the largest one raced his way, and before he could react. He tried to catch it but instead it smashed into him, sending him flying back into the coliseum wall opposite of Haruki. The many remaining blades hastily detached from the ground, pulling towards the large arrow, smashing into the spot Mochi was at.

“I hope you’re still alive,” Haruki said, digging an arrow into the wall to slow his momentum while sliding back down to the floor.

“M- Mochi…” Mochi said, appearing from the shadows. His entire body was torn, with even chunks of his leg and arm missing.

Chloe held her hand to her mouth.

“M-mochi,” Rai said, seeing Mochi’s state.

“Mo…chi” Mochi said, falling to the ground in defeat.

“I’m sorry Mochi, but to be an elite, I simply can’t hold back against my opponents,” Haruki said. “You can call the fight,” Haruki said to Otto before turning to leave.

“R-right,” Otto said. “It looks like we have our winn— Wait a sec… What’s that?”

Haruki eyes opened wide, sensing something behind him.

Mochi’s body back was bubbling, and a dark black aura seeped from him.

“Impossible?” Haruki said, turning around.

“Mochi!” Mochi’s body burst open, and black goo erupted in the air. His body completely disappeared, expanding into what looked like a huge black flame.

“Something’s not right,” Rai said, furrowing his brow.

“MO CHI CHI ChI,” the enormous black vortex voice echoed.

“What is that?!” Alan said.

“It’s even more disturbing than Kenji’s transformation…” Ayame said.

Haruki quickly leaped at the wave of whatever Mochi became, slammed into the ground. Forming a few more arrows, Haruki spit up blood. “Take this!” he shouted, and many more arrows shot out, exploding on contact, however they didn’t faze Mochi at all.

“MO CHI CHI CHI,” the voice echoed, its swirling black self, began whipping out in random directions. The lulu tech alarms went off and the shield reformed, but Mochi’s sporadic attacking smashed it; even slamming the stairs in which the audience was supposed to walk down.

“UH!” Knox stood up. “If someone had been standing there?!” Knox activated his roots, incasing the fighters below within a smaller dome made of gold, blocking the fight from everyone, however the lucams within the smaller dome, were still able to feed the footage to the main screen.

Haruki, sensing the danger, ran to his quiver, where he aimed it directly at Mochi, firing countless black blades at the cost of his core beginning to crack. They disappeared within the swirling black substance, before shooting right back at Haruki. Placing the quiver in front of him, many of them collided heavily, though they couldn’t pierce it, instead propelling him into the arena walls.

Alderia’s grimaced, “Now’s not the time to be stubborn.”

Another arrow was fired, exploding on contact with Mochi, but nothing happened. Swiftly retreating, Haruki aimed to get a better vantage point, however the black substance, reached out, gripping Haruki his leg and slamming him into the ground.

“Gah!” Blood splattered onto the floor as Haruki felt bones within his body crack.

“Get out of there!” Rai shouted.

“This isn’t good,” Knox said sweating. His hands were now on the dome. “He’s completely out of control.”

“Mochi’s already entered the realm of the elites,” Mu said, sweat slightly falling from his forehead.

“Shall we put an end to this?” Reezo said.

Looking down, Haruki noticed his leg was still wrapped in the black substance which seemed to form a hand around it. He gazed up and noticed what looked to be a smile, but he couldn’t be sure. Pulling his bow back, he shouted, “Damn you!” But before he could fire, he felt the black shadow wrapped around his leg twist and tighten. Shreeet! A ripping sound reverberated within the dome. “Gaaah!” Haruki screamed as blood was spilled across the floor.

Everyone’s face held a look of terror; his leg was torn completely off.

Haruki, dragged his body away, his blood smearing the ground in his retreat.

“MO CHI CHI CHI,” the looming presence voice echoed. It rose high into the air, before crashing down!

Haruki held his hands up in self-defense, however the attack missed, slicing through the dirt beside him.

“Get out of there!” Lily shouted from the hospital room.

“This isn’t good…” Eiji said.

In the stands, Alan said, “Did Mochi miss on purpose?”

Gaius, watching beneath with Rai, smiled. Gazing at the guards in front of the entrance, he said, “Open the doors.”

“B-but your highness…” Gaius gave them a cold look, shutting them up. “Yessir!”

The swirling substance formed arms and seemed to somewhat start to pull itself back under control as what looked like hands gripping a giant head screaming in pain formed, however its many twisting black tentacles still slammed heavily against the walls and the golden barrier Knox was maintaining.

Haruki turned around, forming a black blade from roots emerging from the floor. This one had an exploding tip, making for double the impact. “This is it!”

But before he could fire it, Mochi returned to its normal uncontrolled self, and the agonizing screams disappeared as a tentacle sliced toward Haruki, completely severing his right arm.

“Gaaah!” Haruki shouted in pain. Fear was apparent in his eyes as the figure slashed the ground beside him, as if it was attempting to resist killing him. “I forfeit!”

Otto, who was in shock, said, “W-we have our winner! Mochi!” the tentacles burst through the golden barrier, destroying the place in which Otto was, however Reezo showed up and rescued him.

“I can’t hold this much longer!” Knox said, and the elites all stood up at once.

“Huh? What’s he thinking?” Marco said, gazing within the crumbling golden dome. Gaius was calmly walking toward Haruki who kept trying to crawl away.

“Gaius?!” General Kur said from the throne room. “Quick, call the elites to act now,” he said.

“That won’t be necessary,” Emperor Adonis said.

“But Emperor Adonis, he’s your son?!”

“It’s not my choice, but his own…” Emperor Adonis said, recalling their conversation before the tournament. “Gaius, what was it that you wanted to speak about,” the emperor said, standing within his chambers.

“I’ll have you know, once I’ve won this competition, you will step down, and I will take my place as the 76th ruler of the Illuminous Empire,” Gaius said.

“Don’t you think you’re a bit young to take up such a position?” Emperor Adonis said.

“Were you not around my age when you became Emperor?” Gaius said.

“True, though the circumstances were different then,” Emperor Adonis said, brushing the curtains aside and gazing at the many lights shinning that night from the people with the empire’s walls. “Tell me, why do you wish to become emperor Gaius? Is it because I am powerless? Have you deemed me not worthy?”

“There was a time when the empire was the most feared in the world. There was no one kingdom, or force that could stand against us on their own. Had we bided our time, we would have won the Jade Wars, and this world would be how we make it. Instead, you’ve let those like the Axien Church grow in such a way, it now even eclipses the might of the empire. This empire is a joke. That is why you’re no longer worthy of carrying that title, and I intend to show you this,” Gaius said turning to leave. Before closing the door behind him, “Don’t you dare try and intervene, or I’ll consider that as you forfeiting the crown.”

Back in the coliseum, Reezo set Otto down. “You should get out of here,” Reezo said.

“Get out of here?! No way! I’m Otto, LuluTech’s Media Executive! I’ve recorded all the worlds most enticing moments, even the incident at Crystal Heralds. I can’t run when theirs a story that needs to be told,” Otto said, running to the edge where he continued to announce the fight. “Ladies and gentleman, excuse my short absence. Huh? What’s this? It looks like Gaius the emperor’s son has entered the arena!”

Gaius standing beside the bleeding Haruki, said with a smirk, “I suggest you crawl faster, otherwise I can’t be responsible for what happens.”

Rai, running in behind Gaius, grabbed Haruki, saying, “Come on,” quickly bringing him out of the arena.

“MO CHI CHI CHI!” the black tentacle arms targeted Rai, however they split moments before hitting him. Once inside, the guards quickly rushed Haruki to a medic.

Reezo, gazing at Mochi, noticed it was once again trying to bring itself back under control.

“Gaius!” Alderai shouted. “There’s no need to fight this round, we can contain Mochi!”

Arms crossed, Gaius stated, “The emperor has no room for those who cannot control themselves. Their a liability.”

Sensing a threat, the large looming black substance that was Mochi, attacked Gaius, sending everything at once.

Almost immediately, and explosion rocked the coliseum and what was left of the golden dome barrier, burst skyward, completely wiped away. Mu activated his roots to cause the many sharp pieces of rubble to turn into bubbles, otherwise they would have torn straight through the crowd of people watching.

Below, a wave of air almost knocked Rai over who was just barely able to withstand it. “What happened?” he said, peering into the coliseum.

As the smoke cleared, all that was left was a mass of black blood, and within the center of it, a purple seed with a black swirling patter at the center.

Standing with his arms still crossed, Gaius.

“H- He killed him,” Alan said.

“No…” Ayame said.

Neptus was shook as were the rest of the apprentices.

“Mochi’s… dead?” Rai said.

“What sort of attack was that…” Reezo said, also surprised.

“In one attack?” Aegis said.

“So, he was an Abminus after all,” Knox said, gazing at the seed.

“Why’d you have to go and kill him!” Rai shouted, appearing outside of the entrance. “The elites said they had it under control!”

Gaius, staring at all those looking at him, said, “You think this is some sort of game? This era of peace has made you all soft and pathetic. You’ll know what true power is once I’m at the helm. An era where we are once again the strongest in the world, answering to no one. Not even the Axien Church.”

Far away, within the Holy Land of Cronos, a man with white hair gazed up at the hologram being projected, smiling slightly at Gaius’s remark.

Gaius walked out of the arena, directly past Rai.

“It would seem we have our finalist,” Otto said, though the mood was damp.

“Could you have stopped him…” Rai said, referring to Mochi. “Could you have, without killing him…”

“As if I would spare weak fools,” Gaius said, causing Rai to clench his fist in anger. He continued to walk towards the exit, when Rai was about to confront him, however Reezo appeared, blocking his path.

“You must know, when challenging as an elite to an elite, death is also at times unavoidable. These are the laws we must be aware of. This tournament gives apprentices a glimpse of what may come, if not in duels, in war,” Reezo said.

“Gaius was right about one thing. We’re all a bunch of fools!” Rai ran up to where Mochi was.

“You’ve raised quite the headache…” Marco said of Gaius, under his breath.

Rai, leaning over, picked up the seed lying in the black blood.

“Like all Abminus, when you die, you disappear, leaving a seed behind,” Neptus said.

“Ri Ri…” Hanabi said. She knew Rai better than anyone. Right now, he was surely in pain from the loss of a friend.

Rai pictured all the battles in which the apprentices had nearly killed each other... “Screw this tournament!” Falling to his knees he punched the bloody ground. “I’m sorry Mochi…” After a moment he muttered to himself, “Don’t worry... Once I’ve become the number one elite, I’ll make sure these stupid rules and competitions never come back.”