“Jaks is about to have a very bad day,” said Naomi. “Actually, this is great. I have a feeling this fight is going to prove therapeutic.”
“Easy,” said Scorio, sweeping Bronze mana into his Heart. “Don’t kill anyone. Want to talk strategy real quick?”
Jaks and the other two had entered their own zone and were whispering feverishly amongst each other. Yuze in particular looked upset, and kept stabbing his finger toward where Scorio and Naomi stood.
“What’s there to talk about? You go high, I’ll move through my shadows, and we’ll take them down. Simple.”
Scorio scoffed. “Fine. But they’re probably going to use Gold mana. Be ready for that.”
“Noumenon wouldn’t save them today,” whispered Naomi, binding her hair back. “They’re fucked.”
“The Testament is about to begin!” Valdun extended his arm and a bolt of gold flashed down from the ceiling to shatter rock in a violent explosion. A moment later a beautiful pegasus stood there, wings fanning as it turned its noble head to nuzzle Valdun. The Pyre Lord leaped atop its back and the pegasus reared, beating its feathered wings before leaping into the air.
Scorio and everyone else watched as the winged steed flew in a lazy circle overhead, rising and falling with each great flap of its wings.
“Fight honorably if you can, dishonorably if you must.” Valdun’s voice boomed unnaturally loud. “Leave off as soon as your foe surrenders. I shall adjudicate as I see fit, and intervene if I must. The bout shall last as long as is necessary, and to all who strive to prove their might, I salute you!”
Across the caldera, the other three Flame Vaults sank into prepared stances.
Valdun raised his fist. “Let the Testament begin!”
Scorio’s Heart burst into flames instantly, its great spherical surface livid with Bronze fire. Power flooded into him, diluted though it felt compared to the Gold, and he surged up into his scaled form. He felt his shoulders broaden, his waist narrow, his thighs grow thick and heavy with muscle. Black scales flooded across his skin, forming a heavy coat across everywhere but his stomach, under his forearms, and his calves. Horns burst forth from his brow to sweep back, while his talons extended and blazed white-hot, the air around their tips shimmering.
Naomi leaped forward, changing into her Nightmare Lady form midair, and her swirls of inky black fog began to rise from the floor all around the caldera.
Almost a hundred Great Souls were watching, from Pyre Lords Valdun and Amity down to the humblest Emberling.
In that moment, something crystalized within his heart. Partly born of the pain from losing Leonis and Lianshi, from the anger stirred by the errant rumors, by the manner in which they were still regarded as others, as monstrous, as outsiders.
The upshot was that he checked his instinct to leap to the skies and fly toward their foes.
No.
He’d not rush.
He didn’t care if this played into their enemy’s strengths.
He’d crush them regardless.
So Scorio began to stride across the caldera toward where the other three were spreading out.
Dakshina hung back, both arms extended, fingers splayed as she glared imperiously at them. Yuze was hurrying out wide, hunched over low as if to make himself a lesser target, while Jaks jogged forward, grinning nervously.
Dakshina’s power touched him, and Scorio felt his body constrained as if the air were turning to liquid. Just as quickly glimmers filled the space before him as Yuze’s filaments faded into view, crisscrossing each other in every direction, affixed to the distant walls and slanting down toward the center of the caldera.
Scorio lowered his chin and strode on.
Dakshina’s power sought to steal his speed, but in practice he realized that simply meant he’d be forced to drain his mana faster in order to compensate for the resistance. He engaged the Delightful Secret Marinating technique and began to siphon what Iron and Bronze remained high above them into his Heart.
The Nightmare Lady was slashing her way toward Yuze, her tail cutting the filaments as she hopped from inky patch to inky patch, crossing a dozen yards at a time. From other inky patches, replicas of her tail were rising, undulating like horrific trees, their bladed tips seeking foes.
Dakshina’s eyes flared open wide as she focused her power. The air around Scorio grew more turgid. He burned more Iron so that he felt implacable, an unstoppable juggernaut, and realized he was already being forced to burn mana at a faster rate than he could siphon.
Which might have been a problem if his reservoir wasn’t so vast.
Staring past Jaks, he locked gazes with Dakshina, grinned, and began accelerating.
Dakshina let out a cry and split into two, a mirrored reflection peeling away to stagger and race out wide.
Scorio pushed against her power, burned even more mana, and broke into a jog.
Dakshina’s brow was beaded in sweat and she split again, another copy racing out wide.
Scorio’s shins and thighs burst the razor filaments. They bowed before him, seeking to cut into his scales, then snapped, leaving only light traceries scratched across his hide.
Scorio fought the urge to laugh. Yuze’s filaments might have sliced another man to pieces, but against him they were little more than actual spider webs.
The strands parted before Jaks as she reached the caldera’s halfway point, but she was slowing in shock as she watched Scorio tear a path toward her.
Too late now, Scorio thought.
Dakshina let out a cry of horror as Scorio pushed into a run, flooding her with an excess of power.
She split into two again, then immediately again, but all her copies, ringed out wide, were suffering, staggering, falling back.
Scorio snarled, and with his Heart bursting up into an inferno, he tore through all resistance and into a sprint.
Dakshina’s cry became a scream and she collapsed, all her copies vanishing.
The resistance around him vanished and Scorio all but flew at Jaks who suddenly backpedaled, panicked.
Scorio was on her. She leaped back, shrinking midair as she went, and landed at only three feet in height, her form nimbler and quicker for being smaller. She threw herself forward into a roll, causing Scorio to spin around, and kicked at his ankle as she went, trying to trip him.
She might as well have kicked a tree.
Jaks cried out in pain, rolled over onto her side, and then Scorio reached below the edge of her Shroud to raise her up by a leg, swinging her into the air only to bring her rapidly growing body smashing down onto the floor.
She screamed as her shoulder and head impacted the stone. Bones broke and she lay still, eyelids fluttering, blood pouring from her nostrils.
Scorio remained poised over her and glanced toward Yuze and Naomi.
The Flame Vault had disappeared, and Naomi was leaping around, tail flashing down again and again to shatter palm-sized spiders that scuttered away. But wherever they went her other tails impaled and crushed them.
Scorio felt a twinge of pity. He could read Yuze’s terror in the circles his spiders ran, desperately trying to evade the Nightmare Lady.
But he watched Jaks out of the corners of his eyes.
Thirty seconds.
Naomi laughed, fell to all fours, and skittered through shadows, each hand and foot crushing a spider as she went.
Jaks’ broken form was suddenly whole, though she didn’t move. Scorio pretended not to notice. The woman subtly gathered herself, placed a hand against the ground, then attempted to burst upward, exploding in size as she came.
Scorio whipped around and punched down, hard. She’d led with her Shroud, but it was a pitiful affair, just the size of a regular shield and maybe an inch thick. His talons sank through its glowing form, shattered it, and then he curled them into a fist a moment before burying his knuckles in her face. Bone crunched as he broke her nose. Her head whipped back and cracked against the ground again, her inflated sized diminishing just as quickly.