Chapter 52
“Do you have it?” Lorenzo asked as he stared down at the two brothers, Henbeck and Rendrik.
Rendrik gave a sharp nod as he opened his pocket dimension and pulled out a crate with a strange symbol on the side.
“We tracked down a shipment coming from some kind of massive bakery,” Henbeck said as he brother opened the crate to reveal some kind of strange looking fruit. “It was strangely heavily guarded for a bakery shipment.”
“Not to mention all of the guards had the exact same Thorn, and were annoying as all get out to fight,” Rendrik added, tossing a fruit to Lorenzo.
The man caught the fruit and looked it over, a dark smile on his face. “So this is the Fossil Fruit, a food item used to restore Sucro to those who need it. A perfect short cut.”
“Yes, sir,” Henbeck answered as they handed some of the fruit to Leem, who ate it immediately.
“Excellent,” Lorenzo said as he took a bite of the fruit, feeling something immediately wash over him.
A smirk played onto his face as he turned his attention to the front of the church, his eyes looking past all of the bodies and right at the Scapil.
It hadn’t taken them long to find one, the only problem was an entire church had been built around it. Of course that was a short lived problem, as they didn’t provide much of a challenge to dispatch.
Finishing off the Fossil Fruit, he began to stroll towards the Scapil casually, confident in his actions.
“Should we test it first?” Rendrik asked as they watched their boss approach the pillar.
“No need,” Lorenzo exclaimed as he slapped his hand down right in the center of the Scapil, living up to his title of The Insane.
The moment his hand laid flat against the top of the pillar a large spike flew up and penetrated his palm. He let out a grunt of pain as an even more intense pain exploded deep within him.
A pulse rocked through his body, pushing him to take a knee.
His crew didn’t move to help him, just waiting to see what would happen next.
He stayed down for a moment, not moving.
Right when they began to wonder if he was alive he stood up, a massive smile plastered on his face.
“Sir?”
Lorenzo held up his hand with the Stomata in the middle of it and made a fist. “It’s show time.”
ooo000<^>000ooo
“They’re back!” Louie barked as he sprinted into Nova’s house, running around looking for her. “Nova, Phantasm Troupe are back! Come on!”
He finally found her in the backyard training with a few Living Dummies.
“Nova, did you hear me?!” He yelled as he watched her dodge and weave around the dummies lightning fast strikes.
“I heard you, my ecstatic friend,” she called out as her horn flashed, causing the dummies around her to stop moving and slump over. She then turned to him as she levitated a towel over to herself, winching as the pain in her chest flared again.
“Should you be training with your injuries?” He asked, taking notice of the way she walked.
“I will be fine, Summer Breeze will heal any further damage I cause myself,” she replied, coming to a stop before him. “Now, you say they have returned?”
“Yeah!” He exclaimed, returning to his excited self as he began to jump around in front of her. “I told them you were here and they want to meet you at the Mellow Pie!”
Nova gave a nod as she turned to walk around her house, “perfect. Come along, Lou.”
“Are you going to convince them to make an Enforcer so I can help?” He asked nervously as he ran around her as she trotted.
“I will do as I promised,” she assured him, giving him a warm smile.
“Sweet, you’re the best, Nova!” he barked happily.
It did not take them that long to make it to the Mellow Pie, once they arrived they saw that all the members of Phantasm Troupe were present, along with Bronwyn.
“Princess Nova!” Roxxy yelled out as she saw them enter.
Flippy Dew and Summer Breeze rushed over and hugged her tightly.
“We thought Champion killed you!” Flippy Dew cried, unable to control her emotions as she felt relieved to see the older mare.
“He attempted too,” she replied, returning the hug despite the pain. Once they broke the hug she regarded all of them at once. “Now, we have a few things that need discussing.”
Louie barked once, getting a nod from Nova.
“Of course, Princess,” Roxxy said as she gestured for her to take a seat at the largest table in the room.
“Please, just call me Nova,” she chuckled as she walked over and took a seat. The others took up their seats around the table, all facing her. Louie jumped up in a free chair next to her, looking extremely happy.
“Now,” she started, leaning forward, “where to begin?”
ooo000<^>000ooo
Quest complete! 3 skill points awarded!
“Sweet,” I muttered as I finished the last task for my Daily Quest, a bit sweaty after the run.
“So that’s stuff you have to do every morning?” Domitor asked as he and the others caught up to me.
“Yup, free skill points and shit,” I replied as I opened my menu and dumped all three points into Reflexes.
“No idea how that works, but it’s fucking cool,” Floria commented as she walked next to Vanilla, who was walking all proper like, hands behind her back.
I lifted my mask to wipe my face with a towel Domitor had brought for me, not enjoying how much of a workout I’d had to do for this Daily Quest.
“I’m just going to say it,” he said as I dried myself off. “This new outfit makes you look like an even bigger asshole than you normally are.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at this, as I knew what he meant. It was an unintended side effect of just looking so damn good in a leather jacket.
The absolute best thing about not having the chest armor on though was now my wings were able to be used, since I’d cut slits in the back of the jacket.
“Yeah, the jacket adds to that effect,” I agreed as I pulled the mask back down and tossed the towel aside.
“It’s not the jacket,” Floria snickered, but I ignored the little jabs at my appearance. I at least still looked like a guy, so I was thankful for that.
“What do you think, Vanilla?” I asked, wanting to see if I could get her to drop this stupid act she was putting on.
She just smiled at me with the same smile she’s had on her face since we left the hotel, “you possess the appearance of a fearsome barbarian.”
“Is… is that an insult or a compliment?” I asked, looking at Domitor.
He looked to be trying not to laugh as he just shrugged, “take it as a compliment.”
“Alright then,” I said, looking back at Vanilla as I flexed hard, making my muscles ripple and pop, just as before. “What do you think of this?”
“Very imposing,” she said with a nod, not having a reaction like the last time I did this to her. This caused me to frown and stop flexing.
“Come on, you going to play this stupid act up forever?”
“What act?” she asked, cocking her head.
“Forget it,” I said, throwing my hands up. Spinning around I began stomping for the coliseum.
The others were asking her similar questions, but I didn't pay attention as I increased my pace, wanting to get to the arena to see who my next opponent will be.
ooo000<^>000ooo
“Round four of Galben’s Tournament is about to begin, folkaronies! But first, a word from our sponsor, Galben!”
Scamp’s ears perked up as the radio finally blared to life again, the others also turning their attention to it as the strange radio announcer spoke.
“We offered this chance to all as a sign of our good will,” a new voice, more than likely this Galben guy, said proudly over the radio. “Many have come and died for our favor. Do you hear that, Emilyn? The people flock to die for our favor.”
“Okay, Galby, no need to-” Flavio tried to interject, but was silenced by the booming voice of Galben.
“We knew you would be too cowardly to appear before us, Emilyn! Another win for us! Another loss for you!”
“Sorry folks!” Flavio exclaimed as it sounded like he was fighting for the mic. “Our great host Galben is just saying ‘hi’ to a friend of ours!”
“Friend? She is no friend of ours! She is a-”
“Whoa! We can not say that on the air!” Flavio yelled, followed by the radio cutting off.
Spark blinked and then looked at his two friends. “What was that?”
“Lovers quarrel probably,” Mallogory offered, shrugging as she helped Scamp fix their bed.
“Huh,” Spark muttered, going back to eating his breakfast.
It wasn’t long before the radio came back on with just Flavio talking.
“Sorry about that, bongos! Technical difficulties! However we’re now ready to start! All of our groovy competitors are finally here and ready to rumble!” There was a pause as an obviously fake crowd cheered in the background. “Yesterday was an eventful day! But today promises to surpass it in terms of excitement and drama! Just look at our first match of the day! Shane Beltosh versus Mag! A match up of the century!”
ooo000<^>000ooo
“This one will prove quite difficult,” Rosemary said as I walked out into the arena, my opponent not there yet.
“Domitor said she’s all about magnets and shit,” I said aloud, frowning. “But as long as she doesn't touch me she can’t use her full powers against me.”
“Your metal bones make you susceptible to her attacks, so you need to be very careful here,” she warned. “However, you still get a challenge.”
“Oh yippy,” I rolled my eyes, taking my place in the center of the arena.
“I want you to get to level nine before the next match,” she said as she appeared before me. “You gain one of your signature abilities then. So this challenge will be harder and should trigger a quest.”
“More system bullshit?” I groaned, hating how much shit came with this Ego.
“Do not worry, this one is a simple power up ability that you’ll love,” she promised. “Now, for your challenge you must allow her to touch you and beat her while she’s at her full potential.”
“Ew, hate that for me,” I muttered, causing her to laugh a bit. “Fine, I can beat anyone if I actually try.”
“That’s the spirit!”
Quest accepted! ‘Rank S: Magnetic Rule!’
Rank S? Great.
“Perfect! That’ll be plenty to get you to level nine!” she exclaimed, seeming very pleased with herself.
The doors on the other side of the coliseum suddenly blew open as a beefy looking Halwen walked into the arena, a smile on her face as she approached her spot opposite of me.
“It’s your unlucky day, Kite,” she laughed, squaring up with me.
I really do not get this ‘kite’ insult.
“Same for you, bitch tits,” I threw back, smirking as I flexed on her. “Come get some.”
The bell rang, signaling the start of our round.
Sighing loudly I dashed over and stopped right before her, holding my arm out. “Slap it, you need all the help you can get.”
She eyed me suspiciously, but she still slapped my hand to the side as she jumped back a few times. The moment her hand hit me a very uncomfortable feeling washed over my body, like my bones were being tugged on from all directions.
“You’re either the bravest Kejtdra I’ve ever met, or the dumbest,” she said, flexing her arms as she pulled a bag out of her Vacuole.
“A little of both, so let’s stop talking and get to fucking shit up,” I said, drawing my wooden sword as I thought of the best way to handle her.
“You asked for this,” she said as she dumped the bag out, revealing it was just a lot of shredded metal. She crossed her arms and then flung them wide, sending the metal before her flying in all directions, landing all around us. “Now I’m ready,” she smirked as she pulled out a few knives.
Oh she’s going to be annoying to fight for damn sure.
Using my wings I propelled myself sideways across the ground, watching everything around me.
As I neared her she twisted her wrist, causing my wings to jerk hard and send me downward instead of sideways.
I recovered as fast as I could, but four knives were already flying towards me. Dodging them would be child's play since they were coming form so far away.
So I simply dodged to the left, smirking at her. What I didn’t expect was for them to change direction in mid air and fly right into me, embedding themselves in my chest and one in my left arm.
“Ah fucking shit!” I yelled in both pain and anger, eyes now ablaze with rage as I stared her down.
“Come on, be smarter, Kite,” she laughed as she turned her fist, causing the knives sticking out of me to begin to twist and wiggle around, causing even more damage.
With a grunt I ripped the four knives out of myself, but they kept trying to pull themselves right back into me, cutting into my hands a bit.
Growling I built up some Ego into my hands and obliterated the four blades, removing them from the equation.
“Now that’s a neat trick,” she muttered with a smile as she twitched her fingers around.
I dashed towards her again, aiming to shoulder check her into next week.
But as I neared her she simply waved her hand to the side, causing my right leg to get dragged out from under me. This ended up with me doing the splits, which hurt like hell since I wasn’t limbered up for a move like that.
“You skank,” I growled as I stood up, my hips burning from the sudden position I’d been pulled into.
“You Kejtdra, always forgetting about those metal bones of yours,” she chuckled, shaking her hand from side to side. I wasn’t able to control myself as I was shaken violently from left to right. “So, crushed to death, beaten to death, or stabbed to death? Which do you prefer, Kite?”
“I like a mixed bag of getting hurt and shit, so let’s do all three,” I said with a wink as she stopped shaking me around.
“That so?” she said as she put her hands on her hips, staring at me a bit seductively.
I rolled my eyes at her and pushed Ego throughout my body, attempting to block out her control by coating my bones in Ego. Yeah, Ego beats magnets!
“Alright, try me now, bitch!” I laughed, fully confident.
Now that I was sure she couldn’t control me anymore I rushed towards her, watching as she raised a hand. I smirked as I got closer, waiting for her reaction to realizing her powers no longer affected me.
She raised an eyebrow as she pulled her hand towards herself, causing me to suddenly get pulled right at her.
Ah shit.
I wasn’t able to recover as she held up her fist, my face flying right for it. Then with a boom my face was pulled right into her outstretched fist. My mask held up, but I was a bit worried about my face behind it.
My body landed on the ground right next to her as she held her hand down at me, keeping me pinned to the ground.
“So you’re just dumb,” she stated, smirking down at me.
I’m just surprised my Ego didn’t negate her powers.
“I’m going to be as nice as I can be,” Rosemary said as she leaned over me. “Putting Ego around your METAL bones does not negate the effects of MAGNETS. That was a very idiotic thought process.”
“Bite me,” I groaned to both of them.
“I don’t like the taste of chicken,” Mag laughed as she raised her other hand and made a fist. All the metal in the area lifted up and flew towards us.
Fuck me running.
Straining with all I had I was able to fight against her magnetic force and get up to my hands and knees.
“Ooo, you’re a strong one, Beltosh,” she laughed, pushing down harder against me.
I grunted as a few metal items slammed into me, sticking to me as they cut into my body a bit as they tried to get closer to my bones. This shit sucks.
As I was hit with more and more metal, I forced myself to focus as my Perception Field spread around my body, passing over her.
For a brief moment I felt like I could move, so I took advantage of that and exploded into action as I rocketed up at her and slammed a fist into her jaw, delivering a perfect uppercut to the dumb bitch.
She let out a panicked yelp as the force that had been pushing down against me faded away.
“Now you’re fucked!” I roared as I grabbed her clothes and pulled her towards myself as I punched her in the face again to disrupt her focus further. On my next punch I powered up my fist with my Ego.
As my fist flew towards her face again, she growled as her hand shot up. My eyes went wide as she snapped her finger, causing my wrist to snap backwards. However I continued my attack as I slammed my broken fist into her face, the bone that was sticking out impaling her in the right eye.
“FUCK!” I yelled as I shook my hand, causing it to flop around uselessly.
“My fucking eye!” she screamed, stumbling back as she held her face as green blood flowed down her face and hand.
“Don’t be a whiny bitch!” I roared as I used my wings to propel myself at her again, filling my good hand with Ego.
“Shayla you fucking idiot, use ranged!” Domitor yelled, causing me to stop my rush towards Mag as she gathered herself.
“Oh that’s a good idea actually,” I muttered, jumping back as I pushed more Ego into my good hand.
Mag wasn’t about to let me do that as she flexed her hands and slapped them together. A massive force slammed into me from all sides, feeling like I was being crushed as my body began to scrunch in on itself.
I growled as I fought against the force, still building up Ego in my hand.
“Come on, you fucking Kite!” she yelled as she slammed them together again, increasing the pressure around me.
“Gonna need to do better than that!” I grunted.
A smirk suddenly appeared on her face as she raised one of her hands and pointed it at me. “Try this one then.”
She yanked her hand towards herself, causing every bone in my body to jerk forward.
This erected a hoarse groan from me as I felt like my bones were being pulled from my body.
“Oh fuck this,” I gasped out as I felt the need vomit just from the feeling alone.
Metal bones suck now.
I let myself get pulled towards her, as it was the only way to keep my bones inside my body.
Mag let out a laugh as she spread her fingers and winked at me. “Game set match, Kite.”
“Yeah? Well Ego beats magnets!” I yelled as I threw my hand forward, sending a wave of cyan energy flying right at her. I couldn’t see her anymore, but I knew she was snapping her fingers, because my fucking hand broke, followed by the elbow, and then the shoulder.
A scream was heard as my Ego hit her. Even though it had been cut off short, there was still enough of it to do some damage. But the bitch still had it in her to snap her finger again, breaking my knee.
“Crap!” I yelped as I collapsed onto the ground. Oh I hope she’s done for, otherwise I’m gonna have to improvise.
Grunting, I forced myself to stand up, leaning on my good leg.
To my great annoyance, she was standing back up. Pretty badly wounded, missing most of her right side, arm included.
Luckily, she appeared to be blind now, so I had that going for me.
“You damn, Kite,” she said, spinning her hand around as all the metal in the area began to spin around her. “When I find you, I’m ripping every bone from your body and leaving you a sulking pile of feathers!”
I smirked at her as I began to gloat, but I was interrupted by Domitor’s yelling.
“Do not fucking talk, she doesn’t know where you are! So zip it!”
I just raised my hand and flipped him off, but he had a point.
So how do I handle this? She currently has a wall of metal flying around her, and if I get hit by any of it I’m pretty sure she’ll know where I am. I could hit her with another Ego blast, but that’s boring, doing the same attack twice.
Hmm… wait, if I can do a Kamehameha, then… Oh that would be badass.
Problem though.
Both my arms were out of commission. One arm completely fucked, while the other just has my hand dangling off of it. Can I even build Ego with those kinds of energies?
“Yes, you can,” came the frustrated voice of Rosemary.
Okay, then let’s do this.
I raised my arm, pushing Ego up into the air above my stubby wrist
Mag was spreading the metal around herself, looking for me.
Keeping my focus on the air above my arm, I watched as it slowly formed into a wide shape.
“What, are you scared now, Kite?!” she called out, trying to taunt me.
The Ego finally finished forming as it took on a disc shape.
“Fucking badass,” I muttered, causing Mag’s head to snap right towards me. “Oops.”
Her remaining arm shot towards me as all the metal flew forward. I flung my arm downward, sending the Ego disc flying right for the blind Kejtdra. It cut through some of the metal, but it all kept flying right for me.
“Great shit,” I muttered as metal sliced through my body and clung to me.
My body was then grabbed very roughly as she yanked me straight down to the ground, breaking a few bones in the process.
“A pile of feathers and flesh!” she screamed as I felt my faceplate being pulled roughly, like it was about to be ripped off.
“Shayla!” I heard both Domitor and Floria yell out, but I couldn’t be sure.
“Spectators must remain in the stands!” I heard Flavio call out.
Then everything stopped at once. The pressure around me let up instantly, followed by the metal clinging to me falling away.
I collapsed immediately, completely spent at this point. My body felt like it’d been thrown into a rock tumbler or something.
Fuck I hope she’s done now.
“Folks, what an amazing dramatic finish! Shane is this round's winner!” Flavio exclaimed into his mic.
Quest complete! 12 skill points awarded!
Level up!
New Ability unlocked! ‘VofKai’
You have 15 unspent points.
“Awesome,” I muttered, coughing up a bit of blood.
“Why are you stupid?” Domitor asked as he and Floria came up on either side of me as I laid face first in the dirt.
“I’m not stupid,” I muttered as they rolled me onto my side. “I won didn’t I?”
“Yeah but you’re all broken and shit,” Floria laughed, lifting my broken arm and wiggling it around. “See?”
“Floria, don’t do that, it’ll make the injuries worse,” Domitor said with a frown as she shrugged and dropped my arm.
“Is Mag… alive?” I asked, not sure how my attack landed on her.
“Oh, she’s alive,” Floria assured me. “You cut her in half, but she’s crawling away right now. She’s a fucking Halwen, she’ll go off somewhere and cocoon her ass to regenerate. Just be happy you actually hit her, otherwise you’d be dead.”
I just nodded as I groaned.
“Another spectacular round, kid!” Flavio exclaimed joyfully as he floated down next to me.
“Well I’m happy you’re enjoying yourself,” I grunted out as Domitor helped lift me so I was sitting up.
Flavio’s hands began to glow as he held them over me, filling me with whatever energy he had.
“Alrighty, Shanny, I have a question for the final round!” he said with a wide smile.
“Yeah?” I asked, feeling a sense of relief as my body slowly healed, my bones snapping back into place. Oh it hurt like fucking hell, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.
“For the final round, would you like to be called Shane, or your real name?” he asked as I sighed.
“Just keep doing it like you’ve been, alright?”
“You got it, dudette!” he laughed as my wrist fixed itself with a loud noisy crunch.
“That’s gross,” Domitor muttered as he held me up.
Finally the last of my bones fixed themselves as Flavio stood up, “there you go! One gallytastic body ready to go for the final round!”
“Thanks,” I mumbled, getting a thumbs up from him as he began to move towards Mag as she crawled away. “Maggy taggy! Wait up, you little vixen! Let me get those wounds fixed for ya!”
“Come on, let’s go take a break,” Domitor said as he helped me stand, grunting as he did so.
“I can walk, dipshit,” I said as I broke from his grasp and began to walk on my own back towards the stands.
My body felt fine, since he’d healed everything, even my fatigue, so I didn’t need any help. But…
I did a little fake limp and groaned, “fine, I guess I do need a little help, you fucking asshole.”
He chuckled as he came up next to me and stood up on his hindlegs, letting me lean on him as he helped support me as we walked towards the stands.
Floria just laughed as she walked next to us, humming to herself.
Up ahead I saw Vanilla still standing where she’d been when the match started, just smiling at us as she waited for us to return.
“We need to break her out of this funk,” I muttered, getting a nod of agreement from Domitor.
“I’m working on it,” Floria said cheerfully as she stared straight at the Halwen.
I nodded at her as I looked at Vanilla, feeling a bit bad about being partially responsible for her acting so… robotic and creepy.