There was another thing to worry about, as well. If Roy’s story was true, then he didn’t have long to live. Unless he advanced, and soon, he would die. If he knew he was dying, she knew he would become reckless with his own life if Koya did catch up to him. She knew something he didn’t, something about Power Essence that her grandfather had purposely not told Roy.
Even now, she cursed the old man for being such a traditionalist, insisting that everything be done the proper way. It was because of his stubbornness that Roy was even in this situation, to begin with. Had he given him the water sooner, he would already have been a Yellow-Belt. No one could say that Tonde Irusaru wasn’t a stickler for the rules.
She could feel the familiar anger bubbling up from the pit of her stomach and forced it down with an effort of will. Her grandfather was a bitter old man, but he wasn’t worth it. He had finally done something right in his life. He’d brought Roy to their clan, but then, in typical fashion, he’d blown up and sent him packing.
Ever since her father had died, her grandfather had been attempting to get her to take over as the family head. It was highly unlikely, as there were candidates far more suited to the role, but he’d persisted. She was the youngest Green-Belt of her generation, but she would no longer be tied down by the shackles of his ambitions. She’d had enough.
Roy was a nice boy, one of the nicest she’d met, both in and out of her clan. He didn’t have the haughty arrogance most Martial Artists had. He didn’t hold himself above others, and, above all, he was genuine. She’d never had friends; her grandfather had never given her enough time to make any. Even when he was gone, he would send her on assignments or training missions. Her time spent training with Roy had been some of the best months of her life, and she wouldn’t let that wretched old man ruin anything else for her.
Aika ran on through the afternoon and into the early evening. Thunder rumbled overhead as the sky darkened, and soon, it began to rain. She could feel she was growing closer, though, her Spirit Sense locked on the trail of blue Essence ahead. Then it was suddenly gone. Skidding to a halt, she began frantically searching for the Essence that had led her here, but she could no longer see it among the myriad of blue that was the rain.
Gritting her teeth, she whipped her head from side to side, trying to listen for sounds of fighting, shifting stone, or footsteps. All she heard was the patterning of rain on stone. Her heart beat faster in her chest, as she imagined Roy, helpless before a superior foe, or Roy, dying due to his inability to find what it took to trigger the first Belt test.
A loud series of splashes pulled her attention, and her head turned to the west. Squinting into the dark, Aika cycled Essence up to her eyes to pierce the gloom…and saw a massive furry creature bounding towards her!
She threw her hands up, calling forth a spear that shimmered with multicolored light when the furry form revealed itself to be Ferry, Roy’s Beast companion. That worried her more than anything had so far, as she couldn’t see Roy on her back.
Ferry ran right up to her, bounding around excitedly and pushing at her back with her head.
“What is it, girl?” Aika asked as she watched the ferret’s strange behavior.
When the ferret latched onto her robe sleeve and began tugging on it, she got the idea.
“You want me to follow you?”
The ferret let go of her robe at that, intelligence shining behind her eyes. Aika realized with a start that the Beast was a whole 2 Dans higher than she had been previously. When had that happened?
She was snapped from her thoughts as the ferret took off running, turning her head to make sure she was following. Aika didn’t hesitate, bounding after the Beast and channeling her Essence into her Movement technique to speed up her run.
They ran for ten minutes straight, the rain whipping at her face and body, drenching her to the bone. It seemed that the downpour was only getting worse as they continued on, but Aika barely noticed. Her senses were fine-tuned, searching the route ahead for any sign of Roy.
Then, she felt it- a tremor in the ground, followed a moment later by the familiar sound of displaced air. While she’d never personally seen Roy’s techniques, she’d heard Power Essence long enough to identify the sound it made when it was used in any destructive capacity.
She poured on the speed at that, using the second stage of her Movement technique, Light Speed-Sprint. She rarely used this second stage of her technique, as it burned through Essence like no other technique she had. She’d originally designed it to be used with Qi, but as she had yet to create any, she would have to settle for now.
Her body shimmered, power churning through her limbs as she shot past Ferry in the blink of an eye. Now that she had a direction, she no longer needed the Ferret to guide her. Even as she ran, Aika could feel the rumbling increasing and did her best to keep moving at her current pace.
She could feel her Essence burning away and knew that she could only sustain the technique for a few more seconds before her core was completely empty. Just as she feared that she would have to release the technique, she finally caught sight of something.
One of the massive spires was crumbling, and standing right beneath it, were two figures. She felt her heart skip a beat when she saw that she only had seconds to act before they were both crushed. Now that she was closer, the rain no longer obscured her Spirit Sense, and she could see that one of the boys look badly beaten, though his core shone with brilliance. That would be Roy. The other’s was nearly empty, though he looked to be almost completely unhurt.
That would change in a matter of seconds, as the massive spire fell towards both of them. She saw the Shah boy try to escape, only for Roy to tackle him to the ground.
The idiot was going to let himself be killed!
Aika gritted her teeth, seeing she wouldn’t make it in time.
“You are so going to owe me for this,” she muttered, then used the third stage of her Movement technique.
Light Speed-Dash was not a technique she would even have attempted to use before gaining her Core-Body. In fact, even now, she was taking a huge risk. It would burn all her remaining Essence at once, giving her a massive increase in speed. The problem was that if her body couldn’t handle it, it could tear itself apart in the process.
The stone exploded under her feet as she used the technique, the very raindrops themselves appearing to fall in slow-motion. She closed the distance between her and Roy in the blink of an eye, already feeling her muscles and tendons straining under pressure.
Diving forward, she hooked an arm under his chest and heaved, screaming as the muscles in her calves began tearing themselves apart. The stone pillar was just seconds from crushing them, and she could feel the top of the stone brush her hair just as she dove forward, dragging Roy out with her.
She hit the ground hard, as the technique sputtered out, and rolled a few times before coming to a stop, her chest heaving and her body throbbing in pain. Her core was empty, drained dry by the Light Speed-Dash.
As much as she wanted to lay there and catch her breath, she knew that Roy didn’t have much time left, if any. If that fight hadn’t finished him off, his time was almost up. Rolling onto her stomach, she saw Roy lying face-down just a few feet away. His body was bloodied and broken, and she could clearly see the white of bone protruding from his back.
She could also see that her lunge had dragged the other boy partially out from under the spire, but only partially. He lay there staring up at the sky with a blank expression, most likely shock. His bottom half lay under the spire of stone, crushed to a bloody pulp. The spire had gotten one of his hands, as he’d been pulled out at an angle, and though he was still alive, Aika knew he didn’t have long in this world.