Chase didn't like being alone. It had gotten harder to avoid ever since the Austin Outpost started hemorrhaging members, so that these days he was used to staying back by himself while his Captain went off on assignments.
This Tournament was supposed to be different. Him and the Captain together, facing the odds as a real team, risking everything to show the world that their Outpost was still worth joining despite all the rumors. Win or lose, it didn't matter as long as they came out of this with their reputation back in one piece. That's what his Captain had said.
And now that Captain was nowhere to be seen. He hadn't been since they dropped into the Sanctuary the day before, he hadn't been all that sleepless night, and he still wasn't now in the early morning.
Chase trudged through this strange forest alone, glancing nervously around each red trunk he passed, hand tight around the hilt of his short Hardblade. A standard-issue Dupe whose only power was simply to not break as easily as a normal steel sword might, this stumpy weapon he'd clipped sideways to the back of his waist was the only defense he had against the monsters he could hear all around him.
The drone of their collective chirping, huffing, rustling, it all assaulted his ears with silent, never-ending anticipation. The few critters he'd seen were on the small side—long-necked birds flying from branch to branch, or shelled bugs that both horrifically and thankfully only came up to his ankles—but he knew there were real beasts out there somewhere. He could feel the odd rumble of the ground as something big traveled far out of sight, could see the subsequent flocks that puffed up over the tree line miles away.
And it wasn't just the fauna. These trees, red and yellow and gold in color, gnarled and bent like hunched oaks in shape, were all tall enough to encompass most of the sky in a canopy of wide, split leaves. Chase felt as if he'd been shrunken down and was now navigating the world as an insect would, stepping well over thick outgrown roots and at times needing to climb down a steep hill whose grassy earth turned out to be held partially upright by a barricade formed from several curved trees. Bizarre and disconcerting, every bit of it.
But that would've been fine if Chase wasn't alone. If only he'd have had the presence of mind not to open his parachute so soon after he and the other Magicians had been dropped. His Captain had gone on ahead, diving speedily down while he'd been left to slowly glide to the ground. Every second he'd been terrified of some flying monster coming and sending him into an uncontrolled plummet, a fate he'd seen less fortunate Magicians be dealt during their descent into the Sanctuary. Now he was safely on solid ground, but the same fear of something coming to crush his small and frail body persisted.
Then the rumble he'd slowly gotten used to went from a slow and steady thud to a rampant stampede in under ten seconds. Startled, Chase ripped his sword right out of its sheath and pointed its trembling tip toward the noise, seeing the trees shake and leaves fall as something big came closer and closer. He grasped blindly around for his Spirit and found it there inside him, cowering in some psychic corner. It fought him as he pulled it out, as sluggish and hesitant as his own body, but he had to be ready, had to meet this danger or die trying.
Chase expected some beast as big as the trees it called home, something with rippling muscles and curved claws and bulging fangs. But to his befuddlement, what he got instead was a boy who couldn't have been much older than himself. Curly-haired and donned in as standard a black t-shirt and jeans combo as you could get, broad-shouldered and athletic but not anything particularly special. And then there was his smile, an almost crazed curve that showed all his teeth.
The boy's smile turned into a surprised 'oh' when he finally caught sight of Chase standing right before him.
The tackle knocked all the air from Chase's lungs, and it didn't help his sense of balance at all when the two boys rolled around in the grass for several yards. Still, Chase was a trained Ranger, so gulping down the fear and vertigo he brought his Hardblade up, shifted it into a reverse grip, and stabbed down just as they stopped rolling.
The blade stuck. At least that's what it felt like—looking down, Chase saw that his sword hadn't actually pierced his assailant. Instead, said assailant had apparently caught the blade between his hands, its tip hovering mere centimeters from the strange pair of blocky, parallel red stripes that ran diagonally down his cheek. Chase pushed down, panicked, but no matter how hard he did so the Hardblade remained as it was, not moving an inch.
The boy then twisted the sword aside, yanking it and Chase away with surprising force. "Did you seriously just try to kill me?" he asked, brow raised in confusion rather than anger or shock.
Thrown roughly, Chase rolled to a kneel and kept his sword trained on the boy. His voice sputtered. "I... Well, maybe next time don't go around crashing into people!"
"Feels like a bit of an overreaction, dude."
A roar brought them both back to the present. Beside them the monster closed in, an arm coming up to swipe at them with a hand big enough to encompass either of their whole bodies. Chase saw it coming, and could already imagine the blow slapping him away like a human ragdoll. Struggling in vain onto his feet, Chase dropped his sword to bring his hands together, but it was too late. He flinched, bracing for impact.
And then the tattooed boy was there, standing between him and the monster's great furry arm. The boy crashed into it like a football player, a heavy thud booming out as he somehow stopped the monster's attack stone-cold. His feet did slide back against the force of the blow, but when he shifted to push with one shoulder that stopped easily enough.
Strong. Chase hadn't seen the boy cast any Trick, so he was either subtler than he looked or his Spirit Boost was just that powerful. Either way, it saved his ass, and now he had a chance to retreat before the monster shifted its attention to him.
At least that was the plan until Chase saw the monster's other arm come around. Already holding back the first, the tattooed boy couldn't give ground without letting himself get tossed away, so chances were he'd get squished like a bug between the monster's meaty palms.
For a second, Chase thought to let it happen. What was this boy to him? Looking up at the monster, he could even see the tag attached to its drooping ears. Yellow, completely unlike the green one he kept in his pocket. There was nothing to gain from sticking around.
Except... This boy had just saved him, hadn't he?
Not smart, Chase thought as he clapped his hands. Too selfless for your own good, he remembered being told countless times, poking himself hard on the chest over his heart with three fingers. It'll come back to bite you.
But would his Captain cut and run when someone else needed help?
Spirit flowed out of Chase's heart and through every vein. It flowed down every limb and oozed out of every inch of skin. A translucent white-blue hue surged all around him, consuming him like fire, rising and flickering with a frenzied power. It hurt, like a million little ants running around both in and out of him, biting at will, but he needed at least this much.
Third Gear.
The monster's second hand slapped into him and, gritting his teeth, Chase met it with the same tackle the boy now behind him had thrown against the first. His feet also slid back with the force of it, and he also had to reposition himself so his shoulder took the brunt of it, but soon the hand stopped and Chase found himself holding his ground.
They stood side-by-side now, him and the tattooed boy both struggling against their share of the monster's attempted clap. Grinning, the boy glanced back at him, brown eyes bright against the light that still seeped out of Chase's skin.
"Hey, not bad! You're pretty strong for such a scrawny guy."
Was that supposed to be a compliment? Either way, the boy seemed fairly comfortable with his share, holding the monster's hand back with steady confidence. The same couldn't be said for Chase—jaw locked, he could feel the monster's hand slowly pushing him back.
"The name's Red," the boy went on, sounding downright conversational. "How 'bout you, Glowstick?"
"N... N-Chase."
"Cool. See, I've been tryin' to get away from this thing all morning, but it just won't leave me alone." Red sighed, turning fully to face Chase so that he practically squatted against the monster's hand, heels dug thoroughly into the dirt. "Let's you and me beat the living daylights out of it. Bet then it'll finally get the message."
He sounded like it was already a done deal, though Chase still felt his feet sliding slowly back no matter how hard he pushed. If things went on like this, he'd have to go up to Fourth, and Third was already hard enough to retain.
"Alright, here's the plan," Red went on, taking Chase's silence as agreement. "You hold down the fort here while I jump up and pop it in the chin real quick."
"Th-That's..." A terrible plan, Chase wanted to say, but it was hard to get the words out. More and more it seemed the monster was putting all its strength on his end of things. "I... Can't..."
"Oh, guess you can't take two of these, huh?" Red rubbed his chin. "Hold on, lemme think..."
There was no time to come up with some master plan! Chase wanted to turn around and shout that at him, but even thinking about it made his whole head throb painfully.
Red had been right about one thing: Chase's scrawny body shouldn't have been able to produce this much strength. It couldn't, to be honest. He could cheat all he wanted with his Overdrive, but if he wasn't careful with the Trick it would strain him bad enough to make whatever this monster they were up against could've done look minor by comparison. So whatever they did, they had to do it fast.
As if in response to Chase's growing desperation, something else shot out of the forest. He and Red both saw it from the corner of their eyes, a big blur dashing along the ground and heading right for them. Both boys tensed up, getting ready to add another front to their battle, but instead of attacking them the blur leaped into the air, passed right over their heads, and smacked right into the monster's snarling face.
Chase felt the weight against him disappear as the monster got knocked onto its back with a loud thud. He gasped, hands on his knees, and breathed a relieved sigh as the waves of Spirit emanating off his body dissipated. The pain dissipated too—the burning, itching feeling of his body eating itself to release so much energy.
Thankful and wary, he looked up to see their rescuer standing before them, a tall, muscular, and shirtless man covered only by a thick pelt kilt. His skin was a deep, pumpkin orange, and his braided hair traveled far down his back in barely tamed threads full of split ends. Atop his head sat the pelt of a wolf's head, its deep brown nearly the same tinge as his hair so that the burly and cheerful face beneath it seemed strangely out of place.
"Some weird guy just showed up," Red said, muttering to himself.
The stranger turned to him, eyes narrowed. "I am not this 'Some Weird Guy,' you fool human." He raised a fist, then pounded it against his chest. "I am Lu Lahan of the Western Canyons! Mine are the Kin of the Setting Sun! Mine are the Great Survivors, the Cliff Hunters, the Born Climbers, the—"
"Okay, okay, we get it." Red stuck a pinky in his ear, as if unclogging it of all the meaningless titles. "Look, dude, we're kinda in the middle of something here."
"This thing, you mean?" Lu crossed his thick arms, watching the monster some yards away start rolling back onto its hands and pawed feet. "You think to battle a cavernling? Fool human! Not even as it hibernates could you pair of twigs defeat such a beast!" He shook his head with a low, rumbling chuckle. "Even if you could, I would not let you. That yellow tag on its ear must be mine."
Red grinned dangerously, taking a step toward Lu. "Wanna bet, you discount Conan the Barbarian wannabe?"
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Lu matched Red's grin with a smile much more jolly, as if he were a wizened elder talking to a rambunctious child. "Ha! I see you have much Spirit, for a fool human twig."
"Guys..." Chase looked uneasily at the monster—the cavernling, as Lu had called it—and saw it glaring over at the three of them with beady, murderous eyes. "Maybe save the competition for later?"
Lu and Red both looked at the monster, saw its readying charge, then looked back at each other.
"Bet I can beat it up faster than you," Red said.
"I accept this challenge," Lu returned.
And just like that they were both off, Chase watching them go helplessly. He considered running out again. Leave them to it; clearly they were having some twisted fun with all this. But when he walked to the Hardblade he'd discarded nearby and reached down to pluck it from the ground, he found himself not sheathing it.
Something was drawing him to stay and fight. Curiosity? A sense of duty to finish what he'd started? No. Really, Chase just wanted to forestall another series of lonely hours.
At least until he found his Captain, of course. In the meantime, this would have to do.
- - - — MKII — - - -
After a long night under the shelter of the trees and the stars, Malcolm and Stretch found themselves at what looked like the edge of the forest. Before them sat a dry grassland, one riddled with tall and winding outcroppings of stone. Here the sun beat hot and bright, a change so distinct that it made Malcolm wonder if the Sanctuary was even more artificial than he'd thought. Soratan itself was already surrounded by a kind of barrier, one that granted it a kind of personalized climate. Who was to say each biome here didn't get its own personalized weather?
Either way, the fact they had run up on a new biome at all meant they were heading in the wrong direction. Red had fallen far enough from them that no amount of searching had turned him up, but he'd certainly landed somewhere in the forest.
"Let's turn around," Malcolm sighed, getting ready to do just that.
"Wait," Stretch said, grabbing his shoulder and pulling him into a crouch. The man squinted out at the grassland, then pointed a finger. "See that?"
Malcolm squinted along with him. Without all the trees in the way the horizon was clearly visible, even if the odd boulder did present its own challenges. And following Stretch's direction, he saw a sort of reddish, orangish blob that stood out clearly among the faded greens and browns of the landscape. Too far to place its details, the thing moved slowly, going from right to left before disappearing behind a short hill.
"A Mystic Beast," Malcolm guessed. "Kinda stands out, but I've seen weirder."
Stretch nodded, licking his lips and staring at the place where the beast had fallen out of sight. After a few beats of silence he glanced sideways at Malcolm. "What do you think about us going over and getting its tag real quick?"
Malcolm frowned. "Weren't you the one who wanted to find Red so badly?"
"And we still will! But, y'know..." Stretch looked away, scratching his goatee with a grimace. "We only have 'till midnight tomorrow, man. Wouldn't it be safer to get our tags now if we can, then come back to look for Red? If we can't ever find him, at least you and me can go to the exit and make sure we make it through to the next challenge."
A backup plan, then? It sounded practical, but then again, the longer they went without finding Red the more time the other boy had to get even more lost than he probably already was. "I dunno, Stretch..."
"In and out," the older Ranger said, voice almost pleading. "Tell you what, we'll just go and check the monster out. If it's got one of our tags, we'll go for it. If it doesn't we can run right back here. Shouldn't take too long, right?"
Malcolm shook his head, though the idea was starting to worm its way into his brain. "What brought this on? You're not usually so... so..."
"So ambitious?" Stretch gave the boy a crooked smile. "Jay said the same thing. Maybe you're right. I guess I just thought..." He sighed, slouching against his knee. "I guess I want to see the look on their faces when we finally met back up and they see they never had anything to worry about when it came to me..."
Such a thought process could only lead to reckless and dangerous behavior. Rationally, Malcolm knew this. But it struck him that he also, in his own way, wanted the same thing Stretch did. Jay would probably be out there now, looking for them to make sure they were alright. Red was probably too easily distracted to be doing anything beyond whatever caught his interest at any given time, but while he likely wouldn't be obsessing over where the rest of the team was he'd also likely kick himself if they wound up at the exit without any tags of their own, like their failure would somehow be his fault. Like they couldn't even be trusted to account for their own losses.
Malcolm and Stretch were the vulnerable two, or so he'd determined the day before. The ones who were there just to make sure their comparatively stronger counterparts had something to worry about. He thought he'd accepted that, but...
"Super quick?" he asked.
Next to him, Stretch's smile widened. "Super quick," the man agreed. "There and back in a sec."
Nodding, Malcolm followed the older Ranger further into the grassland. The vulnerable two would at least prove that they could carry their own weight.
- - - — MKII — - - -
Something strange happened after Red, Lu, and Chase had spent enough time fighting the cavernling. What started as a competition between the former two, a race to see who could put the monster down the fastest, turned into what could only be called friendly play.
Chase saw it happen in a dozen little moments. Red pushing Lu away from a wide bite. Lu holding onto the monster's pawed feet so Red could leap up and kick it in its gut. Chase just scratched at the beast with his sword, not feeling any need to use Overdrive again, but even this started getting played around with. Each time he went for a stab or slice, the others went out of their way to give him the space for it.
By the time the fight was winding down, Red and Lu grinned at each other with blatant fun shining in their eyes. Without having to say a word some new tactic was transferred between them, and as one they moved into action, the former staying back with Chase and the latter charging ahead at the monster.
Red thrust his hands down before clawing them both up over his head, as if flipping over a table. At the same time the ground just in front of the monster inexplicably exploded, mounds of earth leaping into the air to slap against its eyes.
An interesting Trick, Red's. Some kind of bodily-activated telekinesis, though Chase didn't know the specifics.
Blinded by the flying dirt, the cavernling couldn't see Lu's approach. The little of it the monster sensed was met with a swipe of its giant, furred arm, one that skimmed the ground and upturned its own share of earth.
But Lu saw it coming easily enough and leaped over it. Then, while in the air, he kicked down again and somehow leaped once more. Again and again Lu jumped without landing back on the ground, feet planting themselves on nothing like he was climbing some invisible hill. Chase had seen it a handful of times now and still had no idea how he did it.
Regardless, the midair lunges got Lu all the way over the monster. From there he fell and landed behind it, hidden behind the beast's giant form, though it wasn't hard to know what he was doing judging by its reaction. Red and Chase saw the cavernling flinch, turn its head in a sudden rage, then crouch and plant its hands and feet on the ground with desperate strength. Its clawed fingers dug into the earth, finding what purchase they could as something tried its hardest to pull it by the tail.
Chase could imagine Lu now in this impromptu tug-of-war, the beast's tail grasped firmly in his arms. The barbarian couldn't hit as hard as Red, but from what Chase had seen he could somehow stand more solidly on his feet and grab more solidly in his fingers, as if he were somehow coated with strong glue that kept him stuck to whatever he wished.
Still, while his Trick let him pull at the monster it didn't give him the power to match its opposition. The cavernling crouched low, as if weathering a storm, and no amount of pulling on Lu's part could drag it toward him.
Which is where the others came in, apparently. "Let's trip it up!" Red said, running toward the monster.
Chase realized Red's intentions a second after. As he ran after the other boy he clapped his hands and, after a moment of consideration, tapped his heart with four fingers. Just a few seconds, he thought. That much he could handle.
Spirit surged in and around him. This time the whitish blue glow was more blue than white, a deeper shade that almost sparked as it flew from his body, trailing behind with each step, whipping in the air like fire.
He and Red dashed right up to the cavernling and then split, one going left and the other going right. All the monster's leverage came from its hands, so it was easy to know what to go for. Chase ran right up to the one on his side, the same one he'd struggled to hold back earlier, and with a shout of strength drove as strong a punch as he could manage into its wrist.
Something crunched and broke. Smiling himself now, Chase kept going past the wounded hand, passing Lu just as the barbarian stomped and gave the strongest pull he could manage. He met back up with Red far behind Lu, and both boys watched as the monster, its leverage gone, was in an effortful heave pulled up into the air.
Lu threw the tail and the monster at its end over his shoulder as if slamming down a gargantuan hammer, twisting his whole body with the swing and not stumbling an inch despite the unimaginable weight. The monster came up, up, up, reaching its apex almost in slow motion before inevitably coming back down, its furious face drawn into pure alarm, the whole furry mass aimed to land right where Chase and Red were now standing.
"You ready?" Red asked, pulling his fist back with an ear-splitting grin.
Chase nodded and mirrored his pose, the Spirit all around him still flowing.
The pair waited for the beast to fall, watching its giant form encompass what they could see of the sky and the trees, before with a shared shout of joy and victory they leaped and drove their fists up into its descending jaw.
The cavernling's head snapped back up against gravity, and the life in its eyes shuttered at once. Its body bounced against the force of their combined punch, and when Lu let go of its tail it flew back a few yards before crashing into the ground, thudding to a motionless stop.
Silence fell on them then. Chase sighed harshly, letting his Trick and its pain dissipate once more, shoulders slumped as he looked around at the other two. Red and Lu stared at each other, both breathing only marginally harder than they had when they met.
Then, as one, the two began laughing.
"Fool human!" Lu shouted, walking over and slapping Red hard on the back. "I underestimated you! Very well done for a twig!"
"Dude, you lifted that whole monster like it was nothing," Red said, eyes sparkling. "I don't think even I could do that!"
Lu puffed out his chest. "My Vice Grip is powerful. Nothing escapes my grasp, not the rushing rivers or even the winds. Something like this is very easy for one such as myself."
Red twined his hands behind his head. "So you're saying that's your Trick. Pretty flashy, gotta say."
"Yours is also impressive," Lu said, grabbing Red's shoulder. "Tell me, Twig, what is your true name? I must tell my people of your feats once I return."
"Call me Red. A lot better than Twig, at least."
"Red..." Lu stared hard at the boy, eyes narrowing on the tattoo on his cheek. "Human, do you know a minotaur by the name of Joseph?"
Somehow, Red's smile got even wider. "Bull Boy! You know him?!"
"I do know him!" Lu met Red's grin, his teeth decidedly sharper and thicker. "A great traveler! And in knowing him I know you, Red Two. The great warrior with his name marked on his face, or so I was told. Joseph shared your story with my people when he stayed with us not long ago."
"Dang, Bull Boy's really getting around. You gotta tell me how he's doing."
"Of course! But first, the challenge." Lu frowned, then widened his eyes in excitement. "Let us combine forces! With this cavernling's yellow tag I have succeeded, but I must help you do the same."
"Heh, you won't hear me complaining. Get the tag and then let's go find some other big thing to fight."
Standing a bit off to the side, Chase watched and heard the whole exchange with a growing sense of distance. He didn't know half of what they were talking about, and the other half seemed entirely made of an enthusiasm he was only vaguely attached to. It had felt good to fight the cavernling alongside them, but it had felt surreal too, like he hadn't quite been himself.
Neither Red nor Lu seemed to worry much about him. Neither of them had given him direct orders or advice, and neither had tried to keep him out of danger. They'd simply expected that he would perform as they needed him to, another cog in their machine, even despite not knowing who he was.
Or maybe it was because they didn't know who he was, Chase suddenly realized. To them, he was just another contestant. They expected him to do well because they expected themselves to do well.
It felt daunting, but it also felt... good. Chase was used to being the junior of his Outpost, the one still learning the ropes, the protégé. But to Red and Lu, he was something like an equal.
At least he had been until now. With the fight over, they'd somehow found another thing to bond over. Their shared friend. Their shared confidence and desire for a challenge. The more they talked, the more they seemed to ignore him, the more it seemed to Chase that it was about time to go his own way again. This had been a nice distraction...
"Yo, Glowstick!"
Glancing up, Chase saw Red and Lu by the downed cavernling, both ready to journey into the trees. The two looked back at him with bemused, expectant faces.
"Uh..." Chase coughed into a closed fist. "Wh... What?"
Red tapped his foot, hands on his hips. "Well, you comin' or what?"
"M-Me?"
"Duh. C'mon already, we don't have all day."
Chase blinked. Then, hesitantly, he found himself smiling. "Right. I mean, sure, I guess I can tag along for now." He stepped forward, and in moments fell into step with the others. "But only until I get my second tag. My Captain's probably already waiting for me at the exit."
Lu shrugged. "Whatever you say, Twig."
"... Don't tell me the nickname transferred over..."