I knew everything about this guy. He didn’t have a single physical Soulkin, and he struggled almost as much against the retinue I fought in the first fight as I did. He had only one trait and a lower physical prowess than most retinues, and I was fairly certain he was an Adept.
He was my goal to success—my first victory.
He caught me in shadowy vines that burst from the ground and captured me. His eyes glimmered with confidence as he closed in, ready to end the fight in an instant, but he froze in his tracks. The shadowy vines dispersed, and I regained full control of my body.
My lips curled upward, and a victorious roar echoed through my mind. The plan had worked perfectly, if one ignored the loss of my blade, but I dismissed that tiny mishap knowingly. Wasting no time, I took a final step to close the distance and headbutted the Blessed. My mind was ringing, but it was nowhere near as painful as my skull being torn in two halves. Gritting my teeth, I continued.
I felt a little sorry for the Blessed; however, I was the last person who could afford to be merciful to my enemies. Not now, when everything was on the line.
My knee shot upward and connected with the Blessed’s jingle bells, hitting him where it hurt most. A fraction of a second later, Paralyse’s effect wore off, and the Blessed fell to the ground.
An angry shout reverberated through the pit, and I stopped for a moment, thinking it was the referee stopping the battle. Big mistake. The shout didn’t belong to the referee—it came from one of the retinues.
I moved in a hurry, kicking the Blessed to knock him out cold, but he rolled to the side, and the shadows reappeared once again. He leaped to his feet, and our eyes met for a second time, yet Paralyse failed me this time. Without the surprise effect on my side, the Blessed resisted. He cursed me, barreled forward, and pierced my heart with his blade. I tried to escape the attack, but shadows burst from the ground, piercing my calves and thighs, locking me in place.
Searing pain surged through my legs, and a second shout resounded. This time it was the referee, and he called out the victor.
How can that be?
The shadows piercing my legs dispersed as the healers arrived, but I turned to the referee, feeling angry and mistreated.
Our eyes locked, but the referee just sighed. “In a real battle, you would have been killed. Always make sure your enemy is dead before you celebrate your victory.”
I don’t need your damn lecture right now! I want— I gnashed my teeth and barely got out a “But I—” when the referee turned to the seats.
“Congratulations, Rochan Saritas. By interfering in the battle, your rank will be adjusted accordingly.” My heart skipped a beat at the referee’s deadpan delivery. He stared at a Blessed, who’d just jumped up from his seat, dead in the eye and added, “I don’t care about your opinion. Interrupt the combat exam one more time, and I will personally disqualify you.”
The Blessed’s lips parted, but he didn’t dare to utter a single word. He sat back down with a grim expression, but a warning was far from enough for me. I imprinted Rochan Saritas’s face into my mind and swore vengeance. Maybe I could order Aureus to take a pee in his boots if both of us made it into the Camp.
I might just piss in his boots myself…
My wounds were quickly healed, but my opponent’s issue seemed a little more complicated. He rubbed his crotch with a pained expression and cursed.
First, he glared at me like I was as good as dead, but his features softened as the pain faded, and he let out a chuckle. “I shouldn’t have underestimated you. A grave mistake that nearly cost me dearly.”
I should have kicked him harder. No, I shouldn’t have gotten distracted by that jerk.
Multiple gazes, strange and uncomfortable, lingered on me as I returned to Scott, and I heard someone say something, but I was too busy cursing my stupidity to listen.
“Don’t worry about it,” Scott tried to console me; however, the look on his face didn’t mean anything good. Weirdly enough, that changed from one moment to the next. Destiny squeaked, Scott’s eyes shimmered like the stars in a cloudless night, and he looked more confident—satisfied even.
“Focus on your Soulkin,” he said lightly before his focus returned to the fights in the pit.
I would have done that anyway, but I muttered a quick “thanks” and closed my eyes. Reaching out to my World was as simple as ever, yet many things seemed to have changed in my absence. It had only been a few hours—hours in which a lot had changed.
The golden cocoon had shrunk. It barely covered Aureus’s body and revealed most of the Soulkin’s frame. For one, Aureus was clearly larger than before. He’d grown to more than twice his size if the proportions of his World could be trusted, his head had an edge to it, and his back was even wider than some mature Soilbacks. His back struck me as an oddity, but I was more concerned with the thick cobweb-like lines covering the cocoon. They had spread across the entire cocoon and were expanding rapidly. It could only be a matter of minutes… or hours… before the evolution ended.
Unlawfully taken from NovelFire, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
As happy as my reunion with Aureus was supposed to be, the little glutton had awful timing. His evolution was cutting it way too close for my liking. But maybe I could help Aureus a little. I had no ether to spare, but I could always talk to him, push him a little, and try to get used to the most recent changes. The World had changed. It was swollen, filled to the brim with power, and a weird hue I had never seen before swirled around my core.
I tried hard to convince Aureus to finish the evolution right away, and I tried even harder to take in all the changes—digest them and utilize every bit of Aureus’s power—but it felt like nothing was working.
At last, Scott jerked me away with a trace of ether, right as a fragment of the golden cocoon splintered, revealing a matte, onyx-colored scale.
“You’re up, Adam. The fights ended a little earlier.”
***
My last opponent was prepared for Paralyse. He’d either seen me use the trait or heard about it. One way or another, he was just a little bit too fast, and the duration of Paralyse too short to work on my foe.
I was fortunate enough to face another Adept, but that was where my luck ended. His spear, aimed for my chest, came fast and without warning, and the fight nearly ended before it truly began.
Forced into retreat, I deflected the first and second attack, yet I sustained two marks of everglow on my arms anyway. More marks joined the pair within seconds, and I was fortunate enough to still be ‘alive.’ The referee had yet to call out the victor, so I didn’t give up. I couldn’t give up. Not now. Not ever!
Ether pumped through my channels at my command, enhancing my physical strength ever so slightly. I added even more ether into my eyes, which could turn out pretty dangerous fairly quickly, but it didn’t feel like I had much of a choice. My vision grew even better than before, and I studied my opponent once more.
I was not doing too badly. I pushed forward, deflected a spear thrust to the side, and left my first mark on the enemy’s side. It was faint, barely worth mentioning; however, it was all I needed to know that I could make it work.
The Blessed was clearly displeased and accelerated again, forcing me to try even harder to evade his attacks. I managed, but only by a hair’s breadth, and only a few times, as more and more marks covered my body. The battle was still not over, though.
A thunderous cracking echoed through my ears. It reverberated through my entire being as time seemed to come to a crawl. Everything looked the same as before, and nobody seemed to have noticed the thunderous noise. Maybe… I was the only one who could hear it.
A quick glance into my World revealed it all. The cocoon shattered; Aureus’ evolution was complete. In response, my World ballooned and swelled further. First came pain, then came the power—raw and chaotic—and finally… came Aureus’ fury.
Somehow, at this very moment, I just knew that Aureus knew everything I had gone through in the last few weeks, and I couldn’t be happier as the familiar sensation of the bond and my friend’s uncontrollable rage billowed through me.
He was not angry at me. No. Aureus was angry at himself for being too late for the fun, and at those blocking our path.
My body throbbed with pain as it grew, tougher, faster, and stronger. Even my senses changed. The ground shifted again, granting my feet better grip. I weaved around the spear coming for my head and closed the distance. Taking away the Blessed’s advantage of range was necessary, but so was being as close as possible to unleash the full power of Paralyse.
My core quivered and convulsed as it grew alongside the World, and a surge of ether flowed out of Aureus and into me. Yet, as suddenly as ether rolled into the core, it vanished just as quickly.
My eyes ached, my vision was clad in a brownish taint, and a defiant roar resounded through my bond. My lips parted as I joined Aureus’ roar. The ground around me pulsed as if alive, and spikes burst outward from all directions.
Ether poured out of my body; my strength was fading, but all I could see were the spikes tearing through the Blessed’s torso as he froze mid-motion.
My arms moved instinctively. My body screamed as ether poured out of my gates, yet I moved faster than ever. The power of Paralyse settled at last. The Blessed’s lips parted under Paralyse’s effect, but the scream never left his throat as my sword flicked through the air, beheading him with a brilliant mark.
This time, I didn’t stop. My enemy had been beheaded; however, the referee had yet to end the fight. I was prepared to ram the dulled blade into the Blessed’s chest when the referee’s figure emerged beside me.
“The fight has concluded,” he said curtly. “The victory goes to Adam Savier.”
Strength left my body as the words escaped the referee’s mouth. Earlier, I had felt strong enough to fight a Shadowing head-on, but now? Right now, my ether gates were as empty as they had been when I first awakened. Worse still, my World was swollen and strained, and I had to listen to Aureus’ rambling about his boring time in the cocoon, how hard he worked on his evolution, and something about an elemental aspect or something along those lines.
I was not quite sure about the last part, but I was happy nonetheless. The healers arrived beside us, their eyes flitting from the spikes still tearing through my opponent’s legs to my miserable figure.
“The healers need to work on Mr. Lagost’s wounds. Please dismiss the earthen spikes, Mr. Savier,” the referee ordered, his steely eyes lingering on me. He grumbled something as he saw the confusion written on my face and turned to my opponent. “This year’s batch is such a pain in the ass.”
His hand flashed, and the earthen spikes crumbled to dust. The healers muttered something and split up to tend to my opponent and me. Something was shoved into my mouth—a small pill of some sort—and ether flowed into my system. Then a viscous, disgustingly bitter serum followed, and atmospheric ether rocketed toward me. It entered my core, which was rapidly drained, providing ether to the empty ether gates.
The healer’s warm hand pressed firmly against my chest, and his eyes widened in what could only be terror and a heap of confusion.
“What the fuck are you?” he cursed, blanching as the warmth of his hand spread through my body, accelerating my constitution’s recovery.
I couldn’t quite tell what this was about; however, I was happy when my blurry vision regained clarity.
The healer fell back, sweat pouring down his temples, but I was more interested in the brown, muddled particles woven into the sand spread across the pit.