The crystal scorpion queen shot a new volley at Rai at the same time as it charged him. He landed a hit with sword aura shooting out from his sword as it approached, and the nearby Isa also landed a swing. None of their elemental effects seemed to do anything, and the damage it sustained from the physical impacts was greatly reduced from what they felt it should have been. It slammed its stinger into Rai’s side, tearing through his forcefield, then grabbed him on either side with its pincers before he had a chance to move, squeezing and breaking bones.
Isa burned star energy. “Dragon’s Wrath! Dragon’s Wrath!”
Gems flew everywhere as she slammed her halberd into the scorpionlike creature twice with incredible force. It released Rai and turned on her, bombarding her with magical bolts even as it grabbed, squeezed, and stung. Rai hit it with a trio of stabs, making it let go, but before it could turn on him again, she hit is with two more Dragon’s Wrath swings, shattering and scattering it.
They turned to the newly-revived others.
“You can have all the smaller Diamondhearts. We’re taking the big one,” Isa said. She grinned. “Unless you wanna fight us for it?”
There was a long pause.
“No, I think we’re good,” the human said.
“Three Diamondhearts for each of us,” a dwarf said.
“Ahem!” the kobold interrupted. “You’d all be dead if not for me.”
“Two Diamondhearts for each of us, including you, with two to sell and split the profits?”
“That’s better.”
The Diamondheart taken from the rubble of the queen looked much like a giant, fist-sized diamond, except that a very faint light pulsed within its depths. Besides that, there were many, many gemstones to collect from the bodies of the crystal scorpions, which they split based on type and size – again with Isa and Rai getting half and the rest getting the other half. They continued on for a while, then headed back, their second day a resounding success.
Days three through five they didn’t find much in the way of treasure or dangerous monsters, but on day six they encountered a nest of Corroders eating a silver vein. With the others afraid to risk their weapons, Rai and Isa killed them with magic. They received a hefty bounty when they turned in the antennae of the half-dozen monsters as proof of their kills. Day seven was uneventful once more, and Rai and Isa decided to call an end to their underground adventures; they had enough gems to easily pay for their stay at an inn for the remaining time before the Spring Tournament. They hadn’t learned anything about the star fragment from working in the mines, so it was likely that it wasn’t down there, even if it once had been.
However, Isa didn’t want to give up the Diamondheart to Old Man Quartz.
“It should be the centerpiece of our hoard!”
“Neither of us is a dragon. Besides, I didn’t think dragons were big on sharing.”
“Eh. You’re my partner. So long as you don’t try to steal it and use it for something yourself, I have no problem with it being our shared treasure.”
“So I guess we ask around, then. There should be a Temple of Knowledge here; let’s try that first.”
-x-
“We’ve received word from the Plentira temple about you, but I’m afraid you’ll have to pay us for us to reveal anything else,” the temple-worker said.
“And what will we owe you?” Rai asked.
“Information. Three hours of information about your era.”
“I… don’t see what that could hurt. Sure.”
Three hours passed.
“The shard in Ferrigen is likely owned by someone who will be participating in the Spring Tournament. He has been participating in ordinary matches at the arena, and he’s grown much stronger than he used to be… and continues growing over time. He wears a breastplate with what appears to be a star shard embedded in its center. His combat name – a pseudonym used in the arena – is Flamefrost. He’s a fairly young dwarf, only sixty years old (that’s the equivalent of a thirty-year-old human, in case you’re unaware), but his combat prowess is exceptional, bordering on the absurd. He was a fairly decent fighter last Spring, but nothing compared to what he is now.”
“I see. Thank you.”
-x-
Three weeks remained until the start of the tournament. After registering the two of them as a team by the name of Timeless, Rai decided to spend the next week simply exploring the city and checking out the goods available for sale. Weapon and armor were especially ubiquitous, as were other metalcrafts. Nearly all weapons and armor were at least one-star magical items, with 2-star not being uncommon. Many weapons and armor made of silversteel, the most common non-iron metal, were three-star, and he even spotted some four-star items for sale. Adamant weaponry and armor was mostly two-star with the occasional three-star, and the rare orichalcum item was generally seven-star, which blew Rai’s mind, since that was considered impossible in the modern era. He even spotted a couple pieces proclaimed to be eight-star, but the price was so mind-boggling that he pretended that he hadn’t.
He found that ivorite, the white metal, was mostly used in decorative pieces and magic charms; in fact, it was seemingly considered the next step up from gold in terms of value, since gold was so ubiquitous in Ferrigen. It wasn’t used for money, but it was common in jewelry and expensive trinkets, often also enchanted. One particular gnomish artificer liked to incorporate gold, silver, and ivorite in his works to make them look prettier, even when the core of the mechanical items was made of steel.
Gems were also much more common than he would normally expect to see, which explained why selling off gems for living expenses and the tournament registration fee didn’t earn as much (relative to the worth of gold in Ferrigen, anyway) as he thought it would – still plenty, just not the overflow of wealth that much volume of gemstone would normally be. He ended up discovering that getting someone to cut gems to spec was actually fairly inexpensive and quick as well, since the tools for doing so were widely available and lapidaries weren’t uncommon. As a result, he had a number of his gems cut so that he could fix them into the rings and bracelet made from the dryad branch.
Selling a few more of his gems and mana crystals (the latter of which fetched quite a lot of money), he acquired some resources to do enchantment work on the rings and bracelet made from the dryad branch over the next two weeks. Using the skills he further developed while working at the Plentira Ruler’s Tower, Rai managed to enchant all four rings and the bracelet. Three of the rings were what he called Guardian Rings, which generated a deflection field around their wearers to ward off attacks, a field that grew stronger the more worn rings were in close proximity. One of the rings he called a Dimension Dodge ring, because it conferred the supernatural ability he had to briefly dodge out of phase with reality when trying to avoid area effect attacks, such as blasts of fire, enabling its wearer to completely avoid damage instead of merely reducing it. The bracelet he called a the Bloody Bracelet; whenever its wielder drew blood from an opponent (up to five times daily), it turned blood into healing energy and healed the wearer.
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He didn’t have enough time to work on the wands or the pendant.
Rai wore one of the Guardian Rings and gave another to Isa along with the Dimension Dodge Ring and the Bloody Bracelet. He also made sure to tweak the enchantments on their equipment rings so that their enchanted jewelry didn’t swap in and out.
-x-
Isa grew tired of the constant ill attitude people gave her in her time exploring the city with Rai, so when Rai took the final two weeks to work on enchanting, Isa decided to spend her time training. She did this by registering for regular arena fights under the combat name Blood Dragon. Most of the people who participated in the normal fights were third tier combatants hoping to help develop their skills and qi cores, which meant that the fights were heavily in her favor. After winning a few times she asked the organizers if they’d pit her against groups to make it more fun – and make the betting odds better so that she could actually win something appreciable.
Considering that she could usually take down any opponent in a single hit, even without using Berserk Mode, this only made things marginally more fun, so she started testing how well she could do without using any arts, combat stances, or spells. This gave her enough of a handicap that it now took at least two, sometimes three, strikes to take down the tougher combatants, and actually made things entertaining when she went up against teams of five or six, since the fights were much closer – though whenever it looked like she might lose, she silently cast Enhance Scales, slipped into her combat stance, and went full power – though she still didn’t use Berserk Mode or arts.
As a result, she had developed something of a reputation by the time the tournament arrived.
-x-
“So, how many contestants are there this season?” a certain redheaded human man asked his companion, a young dwarven woman, as he sat down beside her in one of the upper seats of the arena, which had been divided into four equal sections by transparent magical partitions, each a quarter of the three hundred foot diameter circle.
“About four thousand, so eleven rounds, since it’s singles, doubles, or trios, and the singles and trios kind of cancel out… I guess. I think it’s supposed to be eleven rounds and around four thousand people, anyway.”
“This is going to take a while, since they allot five minutes per battle and there’s only four battles at once for the earlier rounds. It’s what, two days for the first round? Eleven hours or thereabouts with an hour break halfway through on each day.”
“Yeah. Two days for round one, one day for round two, one day for round three (with the arena split in half instead of in quarters). Round four and five are on day five, with round five getting the full arena. Rounds six, seven, eight, and nine are on day six, and the semifinals are in the morning on day seven while the finals are in the afternoon. To keep us busy after the quarterfinals and between the semifinals and the finals, they’ll show replays and give commentary. Why are you even asking? Isn’t it basically the same every time?”
“Well, sometimes they like to switch it up a bit. Remember last summer?”
“Oh, yeah. That’s true. They cut down on the time significantly by holding those mass combats for the first few rounds. So, Garrion, who do you think’s going to win this time?”
“I dunno. It depends on whether any of the champions participate. If they don’t, it might be that rising star, Flamefrost. I hear he’s been destroying his opponents. Though I don’t think he’s fought in the last couple weeks. Pity; I would’ve liked to see him face off against that saurian woman, Blood Dragon.”
“Ugh. Talk about a provocative name.”
“True, but she seemed nice enough when I talked with her a month ago. Her and that human guy. They’re probably participating in the tournament as a duo.”
“Quiet, the announcer’s about to speak.”
“Welcome back to another seasonal battle tournament!” a booming voice cried, magically amplified to fill the entire arena and its stands. “For this Spring Tournament, we have eleven rounds, seven days. Singles, duos, and trios will be competing in single elimination style, testing their combat prowess against one another.” Illusions of the eight teams appeared high in the air above their respective sections of the arena, enlarged so that the observers could see them in detail. “Sit back, eat a snack sold by our vendors, and enjoy the show!”
There was a short pause. “Oh, wait, I forgot to tell you what the prizes are this season! The semifinalists get a monetary reward of twenty thousand gold per team. The runner up gets twenty thousand gold, plus a seven-star weapon or piece of armor made of either silversteel or adamant, fully enchanted to their specification! And finally, the winner of the tournament gets twenty thousand gold and their pick of either a seven-star weapon or piece of armor made of orichalcum or a selection of ingots of valuable metals, including silversteel, adamant, ivorite, and orichalcum!”
“Ooh, nice rewards this time,” Garrion said appreciatively.
“And let the first round, first set of matches, begin!”
-x-
Several competitors stood out to Isa, who got to watch this time instead of being cooped up below the arena like when they had participated in the Orochi’s tournament. First, of course, was Flamefrost, the beardless dwarf with the half-fist-sized star fragment embedded in his silversteel breastplate. He was a dual swordsman, wielding hand-and-a-half swords in either hand, both made of silversteel: one was enchanted with flames and the other with frost. He was fast and strong, taking out his trio of opponents without suffering a single hit.
Another competitor that drew her eye was a dwarven woman who fought without weapons, taking down her opponents with her bare fists; she fought alongside two other fist-fighters. There was also a gnome duo who fought using some sort of body-enhancing frame armor while using utility spells to control the battlefield by creating patches of grease or plant growth. Finally, there was a mage swordswoman who used magic to blind her opponent before taking them down.
The first two days of the tournament allowed Isa to examine the fighters. Most of them were likely third tier, but considering their durability, quite a few were fourth tier, and there were a handful that she suspected were fifth or sixth tier. She saw no one that she felt was seventh tier or above, which likely meant that no “champions” were participating.
She and Rai didn’t have their first battle until the second day of the tournament, when they were pitted against a trio of third tier fighters – an insultingly easy win, even if they did have magic weapons. Day three and four covered the next two rounds, cutting the number of participants down to roughly a quarter of the initial number. It wasn’t until the first half of day five that they fought anyone strong: the fist-fighters.
“…and Emerald Fists versus Timeless! These four matches… begin!”
“You two, take on the human. I’ll deal with the saurian,” the woman said.
Her two companions rushed at Rai, while she herself beckoned to Isa.
Isa charged, rushing off to the side and running directly between the other two fist-fighters before looping back around to aim at the woman. An invisible wake accompanied her, tripping both of the others and sending them sprawling on their faces, thanks to the effects of a third tier art.
“Savage Tidal Rush!”
Too late Isa noticed the sly grin on the woman’s face. The dwarf shifted her stance, hooked her arm around the haft of Isa’s halberd when it was mid-swing, kicked Isa’s feet out from under her, and threw Isa to the ground. The dwarf pounded her fist into her palm, then crouched and started whaling on the saurian, delivering a flurry of strikes to her face. Isa managed to block two of the five hits with her arms, but each blow hit with considerable force.
Digging deep into her qi core, instigated a portion of the star energy within to explode outward along with her aura as she entered Berserk Mode. The resultant wave of force threw the dwarf off her feet to land on her back. Isa stood first, the dwarf moving more slowly as though disoriented, which gave the saurian warrior a chance to attack while the dwarf was still rising, punching the spearhead into the dwarf’s unarmored chest, blood-acid sizzling. The woman staggered back, revealing a seemingly undamaged torso – though it was an angry red. She clapped her hands together, and the redness vanished.
Isa took a step forward.
“Down-n-skewer!”
The dwarf recovered from her disorientation and neatly sidestepped the sweeping trip attempt.
“Knockdown!” Isa followed up without hesitation, burning more star energy. She brought her halberd down in a hammer blow, but the dwarf deftly leapt aside, and the attack glanced off of a forcefield similar to Rai’s. Isa burned even more star energy, this time from her mana heart, and her body accelerated. She dumped the mana of a fifth circle spell directly into her halberd and raging green mist appeared around it as she thrust, her halberd sending an explosion of magical acidic liquid all over the dwarf, eating at her clothing and turning her skin completely red. Had it not been for the magic of the arena, it would have been eating away at her flesh.
Apparently realizing that she couldn’t take the punishment Isa could administer, the dwarven woman bet everything on taking her out first and let out a yell, her fists suddenly glowing with a yellow light as she unleashed haymaker after haymaker at lightning speed, each punch hitting with bone-shattering force. The deflection field around Isa turned aside two of the punches, turning them into glancing blows, but the three that connected were staggering.
Dodge this! Isa thought, silently casting the first circle spell Guided Blow, then burning star energy to immediately follow it with a mana-imbued attack. The magic of the spell guided her swing’s fate, and she swung directly in the path of the dwarf’s dodge, her halberd passing all the way through the dwarf’s neck and showering her entire body with magical acid.
The woman’s head stayed attached; her entire neck turned crimson, and the acid burned through clothes and reddened skin. Her eyes rolled back and she collapsed.
Isa let out a roar of victory.