Chapter 44

Luke's eyes widened in surprise at her attack.

"How did you—"

Ignoring him, she held her hand out, a wide grin stretched across her face as flames spewed forth from her open palm.

"BURN!" she yelled, cackling like a witch.

What the— Luke ducked to the side once again, his eyes narrowed with focus as he thought about how to get past her fire. He winced in pain as a gout of flame nicked his arm.

I really don't know how she's doing that, but it has to cost her a lot of mana. I think. Depending on how deep she is into the Mortal tier, though, she could have a lot to spare. Especially with the rings raising the Arcana stat, and with the baths boosting Constitution. She probably has a shit ton more mana than I do right now. So I can't rely on her running out. Especially if everyone's mana grows the same way mine does.

The First Stance could help, but I'll need to be cautious with how I use it. If it drains all my mana before I even get to her, then like with the giant, it'll be useless. At least she won't kill me, though. Hopefully.

My boots will help, too, but I still need a way to get in close without toasting myself alive. Just climbing high into the air might take me out of her range, but what then? Do I wait her out? No, that's stupid—I can't turn this into a game of who has more mana. I need to hit her hard and fast.

He tightened his grip on his weapon, his thoughts churning erratically, as he desperately tried to think of a solution.

Should I throw my sword? No. That's even more stupid. If I miss or she dodges, then I'm done. What else? I need to make an opening. If I had a shield, then she wouldn't be a problem, but I don't.

Think. Think. Think.

He dived to the side as another jet of flame tore through the air, in a feat of agility that surprised even himself. Rolling back to his feet, he grabbed a fistful of sand and flung it straight into her eyes.

"AHH! What the fuck!" she cursed loudly, instinctually bringing her forearm to her face to rub the debris free from her eyes. Blindly, she lashed out with gouts of flame in his general direction to keep him at bay. Seizing the opportunity, Luke started kicking more and more sand into her face.

It looks like she can't sustain the attack for long, either. It cuts through the air, but it's not a continuous stream of fire. More like a stretched-out fireball than a flamethrower. I can work with that.

A second or less. That's as long as the burst of fire lasts.

It's just long enough for it to reach me, but not long enough to change the angle and attack where I'll be. Even so, one hit and I'm looking at some serious burns.

Eyebrows furrowed in concentration, he channeled mana into his boots and stepped into the air.

Leveraging every ounce of power in his legs to close the distance between himself and Rose as quickly as he possibly could, he sank into the First Stance in midair. He panicked briefly as felt his mana start to dwindle before tamping down on his emotions.

If I lose, it's not a big deal, he assured himself.

Her every action came into focus, and he became intimately aware of every movement of her body as he did. He savored the look of shock on her face when she finally cleared the sand out of her eyes and saw that he was no longer where she expected him to be. Blinking rapidly, she swiveled her neck so fast, Luke thought that she might give herself whiplash.

When she did see him, it was too late. He was too close. His mana rapidly drained away as the First Stance revealed the intent behind her every twitch. The information the skill provided was considerably less detailed than when he had used it on Yjarn, geared as it was to guiding Luke past swords and other weapons, but it worked well enough that he could predict where and when a blast of flame would come.

Using his boots to bounce off the air, he came down at her like lightning. The skill urged him to sink his sword through her left eye and into her skull. Ignoring its direction, he came to a skidding stop in midair, his wooden sword resting lightly on her shoulder, its dulled edge flat against her neck.

If I had a real sword, one flick from my wrist, and her head would fly, he thought darkly, as his eyes met her red and puffy gaze.

"You cheated," she huffed, crossing her arms under her chest.

No.

"You threw fireballs at me," Luke said, taking a step back and then falling to the ground, having cut the flow of mana to his shoes. "How did you do that, anyway?"

"Tsk." She turned away and walked out of the ring, not answering him.

Rude.

"I didn't cheat" he said, walking out after her.

"You kind of did," she snapped back.

"How?"

"You flew!"

"You threw fire!"

"It's not the same!"

"Enough," Clite said authoritatively. "There was no cheating. Luke used wit and the tools he had available to defeat you. Rose, you let arrogance blind you. Had you deigned to even hold a weapon and lured him in close enough that he couldn't so easily dodge, then you would have fared much better. With your flames you had the longer reach, but you lost that advantage when you let him obstruct your vision."

"Whatever," Rose mumbled under her breath, walking past Clite and standing next to a raven-haired girl.

"Theo, Jax. You two are next." Clite called the next match, and the two boys broke from the crowd and armed themselves with a weapon of their choice.

After standing around awkwardly for a moment, Luke's eyes raked over the assembled teenagers before he walked over to Rex.

"That was a good fight," said Rex. "Rose is hard to beat. Her fire makes every battle with her trickier than it needs to be."

"Thanks. How does she—" Luke made a gesture with his open palm.

Rex shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, and does it really matter?"

Luke frowned, slightly caught off guard by his overly defensive tone. "I guess not. I was just curious. I didn't know that was even possible."

"Mmm-hmm. We're all curious about how you flew into the air, too, but no one will ask. That's kind of the rule around here. We're all the freaks and prodigies that the emperor could get his hands on so that Sylcra has a shot at winning the tournament." He stared at Luke meaningfully. "We're not here to make friends. If anything, we're all competition. Only one person from each tier will win the prize, after all."

Well, isn't he a little tense. Still— Luke looked around the room, his eyes darting from person to person, and suddenly he felt incredibly lonely. He's not wrong. If we are going to be competing against each other, it doesn't make sense for us to reveal our tricks. Besides, it's not like I'm champing at the bit to tell them my own secrets, either.

Speaking of flying, though … He looked over at Rose. Are her flames from an artifact like my shoes? Or something else?

Maybe, but I don't think so, he thought, his eyes lingering on a bracelet she wore before going to a ring on a left-hand finger. Cyzicus probably has vaults full of powerful artifacts. If all it took to win at the Olympics was a rich backer, then he wouldn't bother recruiting any of us.

The rest of the fights went by fairly quickly; unlike Rose, the others fought only with weapons. Much to Luke's disappointment. If they had any abilities beyond those that came from cultivating, they didn't display them. Still, Luke paid careful attention to each battle and listened dutifully to Clite's assessment of each one, learning what he could from their mistakes.

Each and every one of them, however, showed skill far beyond what Luke expected, and he knew without a doubt that without the First Stance guiding his moves, all of them would make quick work of him.

More than that, they were all nearing the peak of the Mortal tier, hitting harder and moving faster than Luke could even dream of doing himself.

"So what do you guys do around here when you're not training?" Luke asked hours later as he followed Jax back to the part of the castle Cyzicus had set aside for them.

Jax scratched his head. "There's not much to do," he said, but the small grin on his face told Luke otherwise.

"So you just train and then sit in your room with the ring?" Luke prodded him.

"Yeah."

"I don't buy that. Come on, what do you really do?"

"Nothing." He looked off into the distance. "Clite doesn't like us slacking off. She goes out of the way to make life harder for us if we slack off. Says that the emperor's generosity isn't to be trampled upon."

"Hmm. Is she the one that organizes all the training?"

"Sometimes. Normally it's Cyzicus, but she's always around. It was weird of him not to come today, though. He's been dropping clues about hunting some bear for a long time now, and I thought he was going to take us today. Guess not, though." He sighed, sounding more than a little disappointed.

Can't really blame him, though. Today's been kind of insane.

Luke opened and closed his mouth. "His grandson was killed."

"What? Which one? Felix? Lukeus? Algros? Telman?" Jax stopped in his tracks, rattling off one name after the other.

"I don't know. I didn't realize he had so many."

"He's an ancient emperor, and he's been alive for millennia. Of course he has a lot of family!" he scoffed. "Come, we have to find Rex—he'll know."

"He would?"

"Rex is one of Cyzicus's grandkids, too. He knows everything that happens in the capital."

"That … How many grandkids does he have?"

"A lot. He has three sons, and his youngest is famous for bedding a lot of women."

"Oh."

"That is an understatement. Cyzicus loves all his grandchildren, spoils them rotten. If one of them was killed, then he's going to go on a warpath."

"A warpath?"

"Yes!" He paced back and forth. "Rex is probably at the gardens. Come." He took off in a brisk run.

"What do you mean by warpath?" Luke asked, chasing after him.

"I mean that the last time this happened, all of Sylcra was roused to war," he said, his voice clipped.

"War? Against who?"

"The Peles."

That's helpful, Luke thought, his mind racing as mulled over what Jax had said. Obviously a murder in the emperor's family is a big deal, but Clite just rolled with it, and Cyzicus just left.

With everything else that happened, it didn't even occur to me that this would be a big deal, but that was beyond naïve of me. On Earth people are killed all the time, the police catch you, there's a trial, you go to jail, and then that's that. Story closed.

Stuff doesn't go beyond that. At least not anymore.

Here, though, Cyzicus, as nice as he seems, is the ruler of a nation. Killing his family is an act of war. Not to mention the fact that cultivators are, in a way, killing machines.

But who would do it? Arke?

Maybe, but what does she have to gain? Sure, he's an ass to her, but he's still helping her. If nothing else, she has to know that killing his family would end whatever relationship they do have.

"Couldn't his grandson have just died? Maybe in a giant attack or something?"

"You're the one that said he was killed!"

"Oh, right. Yeah."