Echo Chapter 9
The Clash
Guild Battle? Isn't that a little bit rash?
No.
But putting all those lives at stake for one kid. . .
Listen. We recruited Echo for his abilities. If he fails we're all pretty much screwed.
But...
Are you saying you doubt his talent's then?
No, its just that there are so many strong fighters, none in Rose are below rank three, even their 20th position.
My word is final. The guild battle will continue as scheduled.
As you wish sir.
In five minutes time all the guild was milling around the dorms, waiting anxiously for Matic. Everyone was excited; lots were polishing or sharpening their weapons. One boy was sewing a rip in his shirt, which had the same look as mine, only larger.
"Why is everyone so excited? Doesn't this kind of thing happen all the time?"
"Actually no. There hasn't been a huge guild battle in at least three months." He paused and lowered his voice to a whisper. "Especially after that last kid died."
"What?"
"Well all of our fights take place in The Mind, but the mental stress was too great for him to handle. He was found dead, lying in the middle of the battle room. There hasn't been a large battle like this until now."
"Interesting."
Just when you get here.
Exactly what I was thinking.
"So how does this whole guild battle thing work?"
"Well the common procedure is that the respective ranks fight each other. The winner goes on to help a team mate the rank above you. Usually the battle comes down to two members. The winner of that fight wins the whole thing for the guild. The guild leaders usually only join in the fight when there're only two left."
"That doesn't seem very efficient."
"Well that's the way it's done."
"Whatever. What rank are you?"
"Oh, I'm fourth."
"Fourth?! Then why were you in the hammock above me?"
"What I can't use someone else's hammock? It's not like I was sleeping in it."
"But why don't you have better armor."
"I don't need armor. I can destroy my opponent before he even gets close." He grinned widely and fingered his bow, clamped on his back. I never noticed it before, but it was a very formidable looking bow. It was made of ivory, and the very front was fashioned into the shape of an eagle's head. The handle was wrapped in the same gold foil that coated the beak of eagle. It looked like it took a lot of strength to fire.
"If you're so strong why'd you let Kiel hit you like that?"
"No need to add to the conflict. I'm just glad you're ok." I smiled, and he grinned back. At that moment, Matic burst into the room.
"Ok people, overview." Matic sat at the biggest desk in the center of the room. Everyone crowded around, trying to get a good view. He placed a larger version of my desk on the table and booted it up. The holo projector displayed the bios of each member of Rose guild.
"Rose guild is made up mostly of warriors. Second is Fire and Poison mages. They have one Bishop and one Cleric. They also have only one Ice Lightning Mage. There are three bowmen, one novice Ranger, one Bowman, and one Crossbowman. That's it." There was a murmur of approval from the guild members, which didn't really make sense because there was no question asked.
"Fye, I'm going to count on you to back me up with Felix. His Dragon Spear is a formidable weapon, and his technique is very advanced. Last time we fought I nearly lost to him, and I would have if it hadn't been for Charles' help." Matic grinned, and Charles grunted approvingly. "Ok, let's head out to the Battle Room." Everyone filed out, by rank. Matic grabbed Kiel as he was walking out. "Not you scum." He roughly tossed him back into the room with one hand and slammed the door. He walked up to me.
"Echo, it's Echo isn't it?"
"Yeah, it is."
"I'm going to need you to help take care of the Rank 20 in Rose Guild, now that Kiel is sitting this one out."
"No problem, if you think I can handle it."
"Heh, the way you destroyed Kiel, you should be fine." I grinned and followed the rest of the crowd to the Battle Room.
We reached the Battle Room. Matic swiped his card and logged in the whole guild. We all charged in, and were scattered throughout the room.
—Echo—
Echo materialized in the same forest of trees he was in last battle. In the unexplained heat of the battle room, the shade was a very comforting sight. He looked towards the ground and saw no one. Jumping through the trees he surveyed the area, still not coming across anyone.
This is weird. There are supposed to be at least 40 people in here, and no one. We must have traveled at least half a mile.
What do you mean we? You're not doing anything.
That's not the point. Don't you think. . . Yian was cut off by a arrow of flame scorching past Echo's face.
"Jin?" He asked, taking a defensive pose.
"No. Worse."
Several more flaming arrows shot toward Echo. Since they were made of fire he couldn't just block them with his dagger. He dodged out of the way and looked frantically for whoever was shooting the projectiles. Several more were fired directly at his face, giving him only moments to dive out of the way. The trees behind him caught fire, sending the smell of burning pine needles shooting into the air.
The Fire Poison mage laughed at Echo's pathetic attempts. He coated his wand with fire and charged from around the tree he was hiding behind before.
Echo caught sight of the mage's flaming wand almost instantly, and jumped to a higher branch formation to get the higher ground. His plan was to get up as high as possible, and make one devastating onslaught from his advantageous position. He wasn't getting tired at all, conserving all of his energy, hoping that the mage would run out of stamina before he would.
The mage kept bombarding him with fire arrows, making sure that one Echo couldn't get back down by any branch-ways once he got up. He knew he was starting to feel the fatigue of his offensive barrage, but it didn't matter if things continued to go as they were.
Soon they were nearing the top of the forest, Echo uses his acrobatic skills and agility to leap from branch to branch, the mage teleporting after him, burning all the branch-ways on the way up. There were not many paths left, and soon there would be no where to go.
The attacks from the mage were getting more violent and frequent, one singed his hand, making it hard to grab the lose limbs of the trees to pull himself up. He was at the last branch-way now, no where else to run. The mage teleported up to the branch, slowly burning it as he walked along.
Now!
Echo leaped off the branch, just before the mage enveloped it in flames. Remembering back to the first day of Battle Academy he landed on the trunk of the tree, sideways, and launched directly at the mage. The mage's staff began to glow green. As Echo got closer to the mage, the mage slammed the staff into his stomach, just as Echo let loose a well timed but poorly executed Savage Blow. The dagger hit the mage twice in the chest, causing him to stumble a little bit. Echo used this pause to use his shoulder as a fulcrum and flip over his back, letting loose another Savage Blow before hitting the floor. He rolled out into a somersault and stood upright his back to the mage. The slight bruise on his stomach was already healed.
"My advice, you shouldn't attack physically, being a mage and all."
The mage grunted, holding his wounds with his free hand. He managed to shoot off a fire arrow with just one hand, although it wasn't very accurate. He reluctantly took one hand off his wound and started shuffling through his pocket, soon revealing a glass bottle with a white liquid in it. He popped the cork and dumped some of the liquid on his hand, rubbing it on his wounds. They closed up just enough so that he could continue to fight. He downed the rest of liquid and threw the bottle away from the forest.
"For later."
He grinned and started shooting fire arrow after arrow at Echo's torso. Echo dodged every one. He charged at the mage, preparing to unleash another Savage Blow. As he was a few steps away, the mage reached forward and pushed Echo's head downward, sending him crashing into the tree behind him. The mage teleported away and shot several fire arrows directly at Echo's head. He managed to jump, but not nearly enough to clear the arrows. At least six arrows slammed into his chest, burning a hole his armor and sending him flying back in to the tree. He quickly got back up and ran back at the mage, only to get hit back again.
"Feeling sluggish?"
Echo's face was full of sweat, his vision was blurred his senses were escaping him.
"What is this?"
He collapsed on a branch-way nearby.
"Poison. You didn't think I would just hit you with my staff for no reason did you?"
The sun was shining right in Echo's eyes. He held up his hand to protect himself from the light. From under his arm he saw the mage standing over him, fire arrow in his face.
"You were a worth oppo. . ." He was cut off abruptly, his eyes started to roll back slowly into his head, until they stopped and refocused. Echo looked him over; his blood was poring from his shoulder. An arrow was lodged in the tree behind him, and he started to spin around in a circle. Echo took this opportunity to thrust out his leg with all his remaining strength. His foot slammed into the mage's leg, causing him to topple down the three hundred or so feet to his death.
—Fye—
Fye materialized on the top floor of an extremely rundown building. The room he was in was covered in a layer of dust, dull graffiti coated every wall. He walked over to the window and surveyed his surroundings. It looked as if to be a scene from Kerning City. The buildings were dilapidated and extremely close together, most were beginning to fall on top of other pathetic excuses for infrastructure. Since he was in the building, his opponent couldn't be far behind.
Fye charged into the building slamming the door open. A cloud of dust filled the air, kicked up by the wind from the door. He unlatched his bow from his back and notched two arrows, keeping them level to where a man of average height's heart would be. He walked through the whole floor, closely inspecting every room for any sign of his opponent. He went from floor to floor, there were about twenty floors, inspecting each room in the same manner, coming up with nothing. He exited the building and looked around. The streets looked even more depressing from the ground. Fye eyed the fire escape on the side of the building that led all the way up to the roof. He climbed it to the top and kneeled at the very edge of the building, leaving only his head and the top of his torso exposed. He put one arrow back into his quiver and recited the simple verse that allowed him to activate the skill soul arrow, lessening his reliance on the few arrows left in the quiver.
"Eagles eye." Fye whispered as his vision sharpened in on his surroundings. The eyes of the carved bow were glowing a dull blue. Down below he saw a rat running into a building. A fly landed on a mutilated flag pole about three miles away. And there were four small shadows on the floor below him. The shadows quickly started to grow, until Fye recognized what the shadows were being cast by. He jumped to the left quickly, just as four ilbis slammed into the floor where he was once standing.
"Hmph, don't count on that luck forever." Fye whipped around to see Rue, one of the strongest assassins in the school, standing on the roof top of a building nearby. "First rule of combat, always search for the high ground." Rue grabbed two stars quickly with his glittering Casters claw, and launched them directly at Fye with binding speeds. Just in his arm's wake, a shadowy hand launched another two stars, also composed of shadow, that followed the original two.
Fye was known among the guilds for his impeccable aim and extreme speed that rivaled that of a well trained rogue. He dodged out of the way and unleashed a volley of four glittering arrows, launched one after another, directly at Rue's clawed hand. Rue easily bounded over the arrows and leaped the gap between the buildings, landing directly in front of Fye. He was ready though, and slammed his bow directly into the assassin's stomach. He crumpled to the floor, but his shadow was still active.
The shadow quickly started jumping around the roof, launching off stars now and then. The shadow's movement was wild but in a complex pattern, so Fye was able to easily knock aside the stars as they came.
This is probably just a reflex of the shadow designed to buy Rue some time. Fye thought to himself. He slowly began to phase the shadow out of his focus and re-aim it back at Rue, who was already starting to get up. Fye shot another volley of four arrows at his body, only to be intercepted by four stars shot by his shadow. The shadow ran to rejoin his master and Rue was now fully prepared to fight.
"I admit you caught me off guard, don't expect it to happen again." Rue whipped out three stars and fused them together, forming one gigantic star. "Say hello to my avenger." He shot the giant star directly at Fye's neck, and since he was so close, Fye narrowly avoided it. Fye quickly got back up from his crouch, directly in the way of the avenger shot by the shadow. Instinctively he summoned a puppet directly in front of him, which barely stopped the star from slicing his head off.
"Quick thinking." Mused Rue, standing with one arm resting casually on his hip.
"Can you just shut up and fight, I do have other things to do."
Rue, infuriated, jumped into the air and using some of his energy, launched himself directly at Fye with extreme speed. With his clawed hand he punched Fye directly in the jaw, sending him flying off the side of the building.
"How's that?"
"Shut up." Fye quickly reached into the bottom of his quiver and pulled out a grey rock with an ancient rune engraved on the side. "Silver Hawk!" He shouted into the air while squeezing the stone. It started to glow a silver light, and Fye threw it into the air above him. In a brilliant flash of light a Silver Hawk appeared and caught Fye by his shoulders, gently slowing his decent.
"What!?" exclaimed Rue. He jumped off the side of the building in pursuit. Fye notched one of his real arrows from his quiver into his bow and infused it with the power of fire. He shot it to the ground, which for some reason was covered in a thin layer of ice, with incredible speed, exploding and sending huge chunks of cement and ice flying into the air. The hawk easily avoided the rock and gently lowered Fye to the ground. Rue wasn't so lucky. The more he tried to avoid the rocks the more damage he recieved. He would slam into one chunk and roll off, only to slam into another, and another, until he fell to the ground, his armor in rags. The shadow began jumping around and attacking again, but Fye's hawk easily countered and began an attack of its own. Rue struggled to his feet. The temperature in the room began to steadily rise, melting the ice and covering the city with a heavy fog.
"No way and I going to let you beat me!" He charged at Fye, using his flash jump again. His shadow rejoined Rue and both started sending off star after star directly at Fye's torso. He easily countered by sending several volleys of four arrows each at the stars, sending both the stars and arrows uselessly to the floor. When Rue was only one hundred feet away, Fye summoned another scarecrow directly under his feet when he was at the peak of his flash jump. Since the mist was so thick, Rue didn't see the puppet and slammed his legs directly into it, sending him sprawling to the floor, face first. Blood started to pour from his forehead. "No, no, No!" Fye kicked his body over so his chest was exposed.
"I'll end your misery now." He shot an arrow into Rue's forehead. His breathing instantly stopped, and his body dematerialized. Fye called the hawk over and it carried him high into the sky. In celebration he shot several arrows into the forest into the distance. The hawk pulled away and veered over to the next battle.
—Jin—
Jin found himself standing on a tall piece of scaffolding, which looked a lot like the place called Sunset Sky in Kerning City. He quickly materialized his sword, the blaze singing the air around him. Jin glanced up from his sword and looked around for his opponent. It turns out he didn't have to search for long. He heard a loud scoff behind him. He turned around and faced the maker of the noise, Harold of Leaf Guild.
"Ha this is the guy I have to fight, this is gonna go by quickly then."
"I could say the same about you."
"Really now? Well I'm the best Ice Lightning Mage in my guild."
Harold once again looked Jin up and down, checking him out to see if there was a chink in his armor. Unfortunately there wasn't, but he maintained his cocky attitude anyway. "I could kill you with my eyes closed."
"Well, I'm an adept." Harold snapped his attention back to Jin, his face slightly paler than it previously was.
"Not only that, but I've been trained by Hans Heal himself because I was to strong for the normal, and the advanced, combat classes."
"Lies! Everyone knows Hans died in the last Great War."
"Are you willing to bet your life on that?" Now Harold began to sweat, even through his failed attempt to maintain his composure.
Wasting no time, Harold whips out his wand and aims the point at Jin, one hand clutching his small shield powered by mana. Jin glanced at the puny wand and laughed hysterically.
"And what exactly do you plan to do with that."
"I plan to kill you." Once again Jin began to laugh, rolling around on the floor, laughing and holding his sides. Harold's anger boils over. He raised his wand to the sky, slashing it down quickly. The surrounding air chills rapidly, a jumble of blue streaks of ice rush directly at Jin, who by now was off the floor and preparing himself for a fight. Upon noticing the ice he slashed upwards with his sword, extending the blade of fire so it cuts through the ice, evaporating it in midair.
"What the hell?"
"You plan on using an ice attack on a man who controls fire?"
"Yes, in a matter of fact I do!"
Harold's wand begins to shine blue, cooling the air to temperatures even lower than they were previously. He pulled his arm forward and lashed it out like a whip, shooting a gigantic flash of ice at Jin. He easily jumped away from the attack, causing it to smash into the metal scaffolding behind and freezing it effortlessly.
Jin lengthened his sword and leaped off the side of the scaffolding, holding his sword out in front of him so it cut directly through the frozen structure. The weakened scaffolding collapsed to the floor, with Harold on top of it, into a giant heap on the ground. Jin walked over to the pile, sphere of fire in hand, ready to melt it into oblivion. He was interrupted by a powerful spear of lightning smashing to the rubble, barely missing his head and sending debris flying into the air.
" What the hell!?" Jin quickly shot several spheres of fire in the direction of where the spear came from, but to no avail. Harold had already teleported away, and stood in the area where rubble was still raining down from the spear's explosion. Harold began to freeze the ground around him. Cold and deadly spikes of ice rose up every now and again in the area's where it had grown especially cold, some killed a few simulated animals milling about, and one actually encased a student of a lesser rank inside it, killing him instantly. Soon the entire room was covered in a thin layer of ice. Jin thought nothing of it, the ice around him melted and evaporated almost instantly anyway. Jin stared at the steam as it rose up, an idea suddenly striking him. He maneuvered into a stance that lowered his center of gravity. The ground beneath him began to turn black, heating up and turning the ice in the entire room directly into steam, ignoring the liquid phase of matter.
"What did you do? Where are you!"
Jin's maniacal laughter was the only thing Harold could hear. Four balls of fire slammed into the floor around him, making a perfect square.
"What the hell is this?" Silence. "Answer me!"
"It's the technique that will end you." Suddenly pillars of fire rained down from the sky, attaching to the four flaming spots a Harold's feet and spreading out in a cage like pattern. Harold scoffed and waved his wand, effortlessly freezing the fire pillars. He simply pushed some of them aside and they toppled, melting into mist and thickening the already blinding veil. Harold turned around and around, looking for where Jin could have been hiding. His blood curdling laugh filled the room. Harold shot out several arrows composed of both elements in random directions. The bolts cracked as they hit the walls of nearby buildings and some monsters lost in the steam as well. He continued his flurry for about a minute and almost fell over panting heavily from the loss of energy.
"Turns out you got me."
"I knew… you couldn't… beat me." Panted Harold.
"Don't get ahead of yourself, I said you hit me, I never said you beat me." Several spheres of fire seemed to come out of no where and speed directly at Harold's face. He quickly focused his energy and six large ice crystals came crashing down from the ceiling and landing in front of him, creating a thick ice wall that successfully blocked the bolts of fire. Jin's fire blade melted through the wall in to time. He charged through only to be met by another barrage of those gigantic ice crystals. He created a shield of fire above him, reducing the ice crystals to harmless pebbles as they fell to the floor. He grabbed the shield and threw it directly at Harold's face, barely giving him enough time to knock it to the floor with a few well placed arrows of ice and lighting. The destroyed arrows only added to the now blinding steam.
Out of no where, a hand bursts out of the mist and grabs Harold's throat, lifting him up into the air.
"The only reason I'm not the guild leader is simply because I haven't had an opportunity to fight him yet." Jin takes Harold and slams him into the ground with all his might, knocking the wind out of him. Jin withdrew his hand and set it aflame, punching it down into Harold's chest, leaving a huge scorch mark behind and successfully knocking him unconscious. Jin casually kicked Harold's body away watching it dematerialize mid-roll. As soon as Harold's wand disappeared an announcement was blasted over the loud speaker.
"There are now only two guild members left in the Battle Room. Guild leaders may now enter the battle." A loud rumble shook the entire room, and the next phase of the battle began.