Even so, Vir couldn’t afford to let his guard down. Especially when an Iksana Ghael had it out for them. He only hoped the Iksana didn’t use this opportunity to attack either of them—poisonous clouds meant little to those who wielded the power of the shadow. There would be little Vir could do to help Tara if the demon struck.
Which meant taking down the Matron as fast as possible.
Vir blasted through the horde of Warriors that surrounded the arachnid matron without hesitation, besetting them like some crazed Ash Beast. True, she might be smarter, and she might be stronger, but so was he.
No longer the prana scorned weakling, Vir pulverized her guards, before jumping onto her back, smashing an Empowered blade into the Matron’s tough chitin. At the very last moment—for the briefest instant—Vir fired Prana Blade, allowing the weapon to sink into the Matron’s hide.
Simultaneously, he opened his Life Chakra and focused his intent on attacking the Matron.
While Vir couldn’t know what Chakras this beast had opened, Ash Beasts opened their Chakras in random order, which gave him a chance.
The Matron chittered, making a screeching sound entirely unlike an arachnid. She was angry, that much was clear.
Vir didn’t care. Just like the previous time he’d fought this beast, he rode its back, using his katar to anchor him to it as it bucked and writhed under him. Why change tactics, after all? It’d worked before.
Except unlike last time, he didn’t need to slowly gouge open its chitin.
If his Artifact Chakram couldn’t be relied upon to seek targets, he needed only give it one.
The weapon flared to life, and Vir slammed it into the Matron’s carapace. Its blades ripped through the armor, slowly sinking deeper into its body.
The Matron’s screeches intensified, and every Warrior in the area stopped what they were doing and started hurling acidic venom into the air.
Vir had almost forgotten about those. Even with Prana Armor to protect him, he didn’t risk a hit. With the slightest movements of his body, he dodged the incoming acid. Haste, of course, made the ordeal far simpler. Dodging was easy when the world progressed at a third of its normal pace.
It wasn’t long before the Matron’s motions seized. It froze for a long moment, then flopped onto its belly and breathed its last.
All at once, the Hunters ceased their attacks. Echoing their matron, they froze in place—and not just the Hunters. The Scouts and the Workers did too, offering no resistance as the demons from across the Gate lay into them.
Then, whatever influence they’d been under dispelled, and they routed, running off in various directions. Some even ran to the Gate, but those were promptly eliminated by the demons on the other side.
Vir didn’t hesitate. Their fight allowed a dozen others to catch up. It was now a race—pure and simple. The fastest demon would win.
He locked eyes with Tara and nodded. This was where their partnership ended. It’d be cheating for Vir to carry her over the finish line, nor would he. As a Warrior, Tara would never have accepted it, either.
From here, it was everyone for themselves. Whatever trials and tribulations they’d faced previously didn’t matter.
Vir crouched low and activated Leap, sending as much prana into his legs as he could. Between raising suspicions and losing this preliminary, there was no contest.
Leap surged Vir past the other contestants, and he quickly closed in on the leader, intending on smashing into his back to prevent him from entering the Gate. Vir considered breaking the demon’s tablet, but rejected it. He didn’t need to cripple this person’s chances.
Vir needn’t have worried. Shan bounded in, pinning the red demon to the ground, before jumping off his back to rejoin Vir as they bounded through.
He forced himself to a halt and took a frantic look around. Three, five… eight. The more demons he counted, the more the knot in Vir’s stomach tightened. There were a lot. Too many.
But then came a booming voice. One that Vir recognized instantly.
“Congratulations, lad!” Cirayus thundered, placing a hand on his shoulder. “You passed. I take it we have you to thank for killing off that Brood Matron?”
“Cirayus?” Vir blurted. “How did you get ahead of us? I could’ve sworn we passed you.”
“Well, now,” the giant said with a wink. “This old man’s got his ways.”
“What number was I?” Vir asked.
“Fourteen,” Cirayus replied. “Two spots left.”
Vir’s eyes snapped back to the Ash Gate.
Tara was in her serpent form, slithering to the entrance, neck-and-neck with a gray demon who wielded movement arts, and a Bairan, who capitalized on his long gait to keep pace. Her cloud of death surrounded her, but at the speed she traveled, it failed to form a cloud—instead trailing behind her like a purple wake.
Unfortunately, it did her little good against her current opponents. Each moved in their own, unique way, and each was evenly matched.
Vir started forth unconsciously, but Cirayus placed a heavy hand on his shoulder and shook his head.
“You didn’t help her before. You won’t help her now,” he said simply.
It was true. Vir had no intention of getting Tara to fail. Yet still… He wished there was something he could do.
Something… Vir’s eyes widened.
“The chakram…” he muttered. It was still buried inside the Brood Matron. And it was still in the Ashen Realm, which meant it had plenty of prana reserves.
“Lad?” Cirayus asked with suspicion.
Vir simply reached a hand out and summoned back the weapon. He’d never known how exactly it worked, but the Artifact always detected his intent.
A moment later, the deadly disc blurred through the air.
He couldn’t control its path once it left his hand, so Vir could only pray it did what he asked of it.
The disc neared the three contestants… and blazed right in the middle, just a few paces above Tara’s head.
All three were trained Warriors. As such, all three had good instincts. And Tara’s were downright feral.
Vir banked on that.
The humming of the disc’s deadly spinning blades prompted both the Bairan and the gray demon to jump aside instinctively.
Tara, however, was a serpent. She kept plowing on, simply lowering her head to the ground. That was her instinct in action—distinct from the others.
The chakram sailed through the Gate and into Vir’s outstretched arm—deactivating.
Just as Tara slithered through the Ash Gate.
Cirayus locked eyes with Vir, his gaze stern.
Had he broken the rules? But how would they prove it? Vir had only recovered his weapon. Everything else was outside his control. Surely, they wouldn’t fault him for that. Right?
Cirayus remained that way for a long moment, and Vir braced himself for the lecture that was to come.
Then Cirayus, Ravager and demigod legend of demonkind—burst out laughing.
90UPGRADES
Vir swept his gaze across the fifteen others who’d succeeded.
“Guess Roshan made it, huh?” Vir muttered, eyeing the son of Raja Thaman.
“Well, of course he did, lad,” Cirayus said from beside Vir. “I didn’t train that whelp for nothing.”
“You trained him? I thought you hadn’t taken on a disciple in a long while?”
Cirayus shrugged. “Nothing as formal as that. The kid has potential. All I did was nudge him along.”
Vir suspected Cirayus’ ‘nudges’ more closely resembled hellish and deadly training than he’d ever let on, which prompted Vir to move Roshan up several slots in his mental leaderboard of potential threats. No demon who’d trained under Cirayus would be a pushover.
Unsurprisingly, Zarak’Nor—the Iksana they’d encountered on the way to Camar Gadin—was one. Vir spotted a smattering of Aindri, Iksana, Bairans, and Chitran as well. And among them was likely Vir’s would-be assassin.