A tense mood reigned over the Azure Dragon Forest. Nearly a hundred elementals had gone into the forest as their first step in making their dreams and ambitions come true. Half of them, however, would return home empty-handed. In a matter of minutes, every participant was in different areas of the dark woods, in search of the totems that would allow them to be one step closer towards classifying for the tournament. Most elementals went their own way, but others formed teams.
Such was the case of Espika and Finster.
Both elementals rushed into the forest, without a specific plan to get their two required totems. They had only 120 minutes to do so, and while their combat skills were decent, this would prove pointless if somebody else got to the totems first and hid them. The most important thing was to be quick about it.
"How do we start with this, Espi?" Finster asked his sister while both of them were running through a section of the forest slightly lit up by a few rays of light.
"Your portals could give us some advantage. We should look around caves and in the bigger holes of trees, they seem to be the most obvious hiding spots for them."
As a shadow-bound elemental, Finster had several special abilities at his disposal. He could vanish in the shadows and reappear wherever he wanted as long as his emerging location was close enough and there were shadows around. A technique often used by Finster was the so-called creation of 'shadow portals', through which he could warp to any point in his field of vision. An additional utility to these portals involved Finster taking anybody holding on to him through them; both siblings used this technique to travel fast or catch opponents off-guard, as they used to do in their Combat classes.
"Leave it up to me," Finster nodded and smiled confidently, stopping in his tracks. "Wherever you wish, that's where we'll be. Oh! Look at the rhyme!" Finster clapped in amusement, proud of his unintentional rhyme. Espika giggled at that, her brother always knew how to lighten up a situation as tense as the one they were in.
"There's a waterfall over there," Espika pointed to her left, where a small waterfall could be seen from a distance, almost hidden among the trees. "Probably there's a totem in there."
"Alrighty, the Finster Express is departing towards the Mysterious Waterfall. All onboard!" Finster declared with a jolly tone of voice. His right hand started channeling his moles, the name given to the energy elementals had in their bodies. through which their elements could be used. A portal as dark as the night sky formed in front of Finster's hand. Said portal was big enough to allow any person passage through it.
Lastly, he extended his left hand towards Espika, who held it as she tended to do. Finster went through the dark gateway, taking his sister through it. Both siblings disappeared inside the portal, which faded away instantly.
In a farther region of the Azure Dragon Forest, Kerket made her way through the darkest sections of the foliage. Once in a while, she stopped in her tracks to look inside hollow trees or in places she thought a totem could have been placed, to no avail. She had to admit that the place was quite interesting, she had never been in a forest as big as this one in her entire life. After all, Qilin City lacked any sorts of woods and the region she was born in did not have that many, at least none as immense as this one.
She kept a watchful eye on her surroundings, paying close attention in case any other contestant could have a surprise attack in store. At this point, she was more than capable of reacting on time against any problem or threat; nevertheless, she would rather avoid any unneeded conflict if it was possible. She kept her guard up as she jumped out of the tree-covered area to a clearing, momentarily distracted as she pondered where she could go.
A sudden, distant noise interrupted her thoughts.
Kerket had no time to identify the source of the noise, whether it was one of the beasts that dwelled in the forest or another elemental. Before reacting, she tried to listen closely so as to ascertain what sort of noise it was.
Two human voices, both apparently belonging to males, could be heard from the direction where the noise came from. Both voices laughed heartily, making their presence known.
Kerket was in no mood for a fight. She decided to hide and thus climbed up a tree, using the shadows of the area to her advantage. She was not going to start a fight, especially against more than one opponent. Still, it wasn't unwise to learn more about the enemy and, if it was possible, to do some reconnaissance about the possible locations of some totems. In absolute quiet, she stood on the tallest branch of the tree, keeping her eyes trained on the direction where the voices could be heard.
Two young men, apparently of Kerket's age, came out of the foliage. One of them had spiky blond hair, with a yellow short-sleeved t-shirt bearing the drawing of a gray cloud with a single yellow lightning bolt, and a necklace with yet another yellow bolt. He also wore black bracelets, torn blue jeans and red sneakers. The other person had short white hair put in such a way that a short fringe covered his forehead and two locks, longer than the rest, fell on either side of his nose. A striped white and gray scarf, a white long-sleeved t-shirt, black jeans and gray sports shoes were the clothing of choice of this other young man for this forest trial.
Kerket intently listened to the conversation the two were having. Her muscles tensed, as she got ready to either fight or flee, depending on how the situation turned out.
"Hey, Thunder," the white-haired boy looked at his blond companion sideways, whose name and looks seemed to indicate he was an elemental with lightning affinity. "We've been looking for quite a while and there's no totem in sight."
Thunder, keeping a very serious look on his face and walking slowly beside his friend, looked at the latter through the corner of his eye.
"Calm down, Sheetson," Thunder said. "We can make it to next round as long as we defeat the others. Non-lethally, of course."
"Whatever," Sheetson sighed, "You know I could always use a level 2 technique to scan my surroundings."
Kerket got even more tense but did not move an inch. Judging by the white-haired boy's rather… interesting name, his clothes and what he said last, he seemed to be an elemental specialized in paper.
The concept of the five levels was considered to be the groundwork for elemental-to-elemental combats. Kerket was familiar with the fundamentals of this theory. The idea was simple: the number indicated the quantity of moles required to use a specific technique; the lower the number, the less energy was spent by the elemental. However, contrary to what might seem at first, a low number did not mean the attack would always be weak, as with enough training, a level 1 technique could be quite lethal. Level 1 techniques involved melee or defensive abilities that always originated from one's own body, thus the amount of energy spent was relatively low. Kerket knew a level 2 technique always implied a long-distance attack. It was entirely possible that the white-haired elemental would be able to throw an elemental attack from where he was. Not only that: if he had enough control over his element, he would be able to form an attack right beside her.
"Why are you so eager to steal the spotlight? Just go to Paperworld and let me think a bit," Thunder kept staring at his front, keeping a serious visage,
"I even told you I can put the totems we find in Paperworld and just have us both win, but no… you are the one who likes the attention," Sheetson sighed and turned his head to face Thunder. "And I'm sorry, but I can't leave you here thinking, the tournament'll end by the time you get an idea."
"We have no time to lose. We should start fighting and taking down the competition. Non-lethally," for this last word, Thunder's voice suddenly turned into a whisper, before raising his voice again, as in trying to get somebody's attention:
"That way we can get to the Olympus of Lightning and meet the kings in person!" Thunder grinned widely and turned around, pointing with his finger to a different point of the clearing. "You can come out now!"
Kerket noticed Thunder's finger was pointing in her general direction. She got ready to fight, intending on ending this as soon as possible.
To her surprise, however, a figure appeared underneath her hiding spot. It was an elemental with sky blue hair in a high ponytail, teal eyes and interesting clothing. Kerket could not help but thinking she had seen this person before, when they were about to enter the woods.
She stayed where she was, observing what came of this.
Souji has had a quite rocky start in this trial, rife with unforeseen difficulties, but due to a stroke of luck the obstacle was overcome. However, it appeared yet another problem was in sight, as Souji noticed there were two elementals in front and a fight was probably going to start. Fighting was not something the blue-haired elemental wanted to do. The two other elementals received a courteous handwave instead.
"Hello, forest fairy," the blonde spoke to Souji while making a strange symbol with his right hand, joining his index and middle finger and holding them apart from his too joined ring and little fingers. This confused Souji, who could only blink in response. The white-haired elemental beside the blonde sighed, taking a hand to his face in exasperation, and continued:
"Have you been listening to everything me and my friend Thunder have said?" The white-haired boy observed Souji with his arms crossed over his chest. Meanwhile, Thunder's fists started crackling with sparks.
"A bit, yes," Souji nodded and shrugged, reasonably sure that nothing wrong had been done. A feeling of nervousness did kick in, as the situation was tense as it was.
"Then you know that only two of us can remain standing. And I'm sorry, but this doesn't include you. En garde!"
Sheetson instantly formed several paper throwing stars and flung them towards Souji, who reacted by creating a wall made of a viscous, slimy material that stopped the stars and dissolved them.
"Careful, Sheetson, I heard snot elementals are very dangerous," Thunder commented.
"That's more acid than snot! How the hell can snot dissolve anything!?" Sheetson asked screaming.
"Acid…?" Souji asked with an expression of confusion, complete with a tilting head. Comments referring to Souji as a snot elemental were quite common, but nobody had ever used acid before.
Ignorance creates fear. Confusion will be your greatest weapon.
Exactly, Souji thought, if those two wanted to fight badly, there was no other choice. Leaving all nervousness aside, Souji smiled confidently and got ready for battle.
"Acid elementals? I haven't ever heard about anyone using such an element. How can anybody like this even exist?" Kerket thought as she observed the scene from where she was. Time was running out and she needed to get a totem, but this caught her eye. She kept thinking how, even though she knew there were going to be powerful adversaries, this could represent a possible future threat.
The next thing she observed was the blonde crossing his arms, closing his eyes and suddenly screaming out:
"Level 2! Wrath of the 30,000 Electrical Gods!" Thunder put his hands together and threw a lightning bolt with a rather strange figure in Souji's direction, who dodged the attack.
At this moment, Kerket realized that Sheetson had moved from his initial position and prepared an additional attack. A large number of origami butterflies, too many to count, appeared all around Souji. Kerket recognized this as a particularly powerful Level 2 technique, as it was practically impossible to escape at this point and the cuts provoked by the butterflies could prove quite dangerous.
When the paper butterflies all flew towards Souji at high speeds, more slimy matter emerged from the elemental's back, stretching and catching every paper butterfly without being harmed.
"What the…" Sheetson muttered in disbelief. "They just stuck to it?"
An interested Kerket observed the scene. The sole fact that anybody could stop an attack like this was something to behold. Normally years of training would be required to pull this off, and this young person, despite seeming to be of Kerket's age, could do it without breaking a sweat.
That's not acid at all, Kerket thought. What in the world is that power?
At some point, Souji's ponytail had come undone, leaving long strands of sky-blue hair loose. Even from where she was, Kerket could notice something in the young elemental's stare had changed. It was a cold and calculating stare, proper of somebody who had grown weary of the situation.
Without uttering so much as a single word, Souji flung each one of the butterflies back at both opponents.
Thunder reacted quickly by creating an electrical field that burned off the projectiles. Sheetson was incapable of moving. It seemed that the white-haired youth did not expect this.
"I see you're itching to fight," Souji spoke. Something in the voice had changed, but Kerket could not put a finger on what it was.
Souji moved his neck sideways, making a cracking noise, and keeping his eyes on Thunder and Sheetson:
"I'll be happy to oblige," Souji smirked.
Sheetson remained in shock, Kerket could not blame him. After all, abilities such as Souji's were out of the ordinary. She was unable to take her eyes off theh blue-haired elemental.
What the…? What happened to this guy? It's as if there were somebody else here, Kerket thought to herself.
"What's going on? It's like a completely different person!" Sheetson shouted out loud, every fiber of his body in tension.
"Well, I ain't seein' anything different, to be honest," Thunder answered while crossing his arms. This earned him a disbelieving stare from his friend.
Souji took advantage of this distraction and leapt towards Thunder with his arms transformed into that viscous material, in an attempt to attack the lightning elemental. Souji's movement speed was such that even Kerket had problems following it.
Thunder stepped away from the trajectory of Souji's attack. The latter elemental, however, seemed to have expected that. Thunder's eyes locked with Souji's, whose long, flowing hair had transformed into slime. Kerket kept observing the entire scene in disbelief, she was expecting powerful opponents to be around, but this was concerning even by her standards.
"Look out!" Sheetson screamed, reacting fast enough to get in the way of Souji's attack and protect his friend. This selfless act of sacrifice had gotten his right arm stuck in the slimy matter. "What the…!?"
Kerket continued eavesdropping on the battle. Sheetson had fallen prey to this adhesive goo and was now at the mercy of his blue-haired opponent, who started approaching slowly, with slime-like hair strands holding Sheetson down. Kerket noticed a certain look of amusement in Souji's face, as if it were a predator having fun with their prey. Was it really the same meek person from a few minutes ago?
"Hold on a second," Thunder spoke out loud, keeping his eyes on Souji, "I understand your frustration. It must be no fun being born a snot elemental. But it's important for you to accept yourself for who you are. After all, without boogers, we would fall pray to the many viruses that enter our nostrils. Yes, virus users are quite the nasty bunch," Thunder said, in an attempt to calm Souji down. Kerket got even more nervous, she knew this was not going to end well.
"That's not snot, you dense…!"
Both of Souji's slimy arms stretched and blocked both opponents' mouths and noses. Kerket felt alarmed at this sight, there was a clear difference between simply battling and trying to outright kill people; it seemed that there was no way for the two of them to free themselves from the technique. She couldn't allow this to happen, so she got ready to intervene. She created a fireball in her left hand, in the meantime.
After a couple of seconds that might as well have been hours for the couple of young elementals, both were finally let go. It seemed Souji had a change of heart at last minute. Keeping a cold stare towards the pair, the blue-haired elemental declared:
"If that's the best you can do, you'd better quit while you're ahead. I've got bigger fish to fry."
Sheetson could only stare, breathing heavily and standing up. Thunder did the same. He was about to reply when Sheetson put his hand over his mouth, preventing him from saying anything.
"We're leaving now, Thunder," Sheetson said with some effort, still trying to catch his breath. The blonde appeared to try to say something from underneath Sheetson's hand while his eyes stared at his friend. It seemed the situation could get worse had he been allowed to speak. Thunder nodded, as Sheetson put his hand away and took Thunder through the forest without saying a word.
Kerket was still processing what just occurred. Esper was sure that both of them would pass the forest trial without a hitch, but an opponent like this could prove to be a major obstacle in their path. Considering her options, she decided to escape for now to keep searching for her totem. There was still time to find her totem, she was sure of it. She saw Souji, who was stretching as if this had been a mere warm-up session and was about to jump to another tree. She turned her head to see any possible routes and, once she decided which path she was going to take, she decided to shoot one last glance at the potential enemy.
Souji's and Kerket's eyes met.
This moment seemed like an eternity to Kerket. She was sure that escaping wasn't an option due to Souji's high speeds during the battle. It seemed her only options were either to fight or, as she hoped, try talking her way out of this. Kerket closed her hands into fists from the branch where she was, prepared for what was to come.
"Hi! Were you looking?" Souji asked nicely, using some slime to put the high ponytail back on. "You can come down now, don't worry."
This was quite unexpected for the black-haired girl. While it was true that this was an outcome she preferred, the situation was quite disconcerting to her. She couldn't do anything else but wave at Souji from a distance, not knowing if climbing down the tree was the most cautious of choices. It was possible she was being lured into a trap.
"Have you found your totem too?" Souji asked.
Too. Was it possible that the other elemental had already found a totem even though the trial had just started? Then again, it wouldn't be much of a surprise if that was the case, as she had seen Souji's battle prowess. She didn't feel any hostility, thus she decided to get down from the tree cautiously and, while keeping her distance, shook her head.
"No, I still haven't found one, unfortunately," Kerket answered and crossed her arms over her chest. "If you already got one of your one, you're either really lucky or really fast."
Souji laughed with a hint of discomfort:
"I don't know what to say, I only looked around and in a matter of minutes I got to one in a cave. Thing is… well… once I took it, the entrance collapsed."
Kerket raised an eyebrow and inspected this strange individual from head to toe. There were no bruises, wounds, cuts, smudges of dirt or any other signs of having gone through such a situation. Souji's calm behavior confused Kerket, overall. She didn't know what to answer, but replied in a polite manner in spite of that:
"I suppose it makes sense, they did tell us a few of them would trigger traps."
"Yes, I should have imagined that…" Souji smiled. This stumped Kerket even more, especially remembering what had happened with those two lightning and paper elementals. What in the world had happened there? She saw somebody who was an actual threat become someone who could be seemingly harmless/didn't seem able to hurt a fly.
"But well, I was able to make my way out," Souji continued explaining to a silent Kerket, while looking down and smiling. "If you have problems… and if you don't mind, I could help you find a totem, if that's ok with you?"
Kerket hesitated at this offer. This could perfectly be a trap, although, as they say, it's wise to keep your allies close, and your enemies even closer. Additionally, she judged she would rather have someone like this as an ally rather than a possible opponent. After thinking about it for a while, she offered Souji a sideways smile and replied:
"Sure, it would be good to have some extra help."
Upon hearing this, Souji's face lit up. There was something in that smile that slightly calmed Kerket, although she kept her guard up lest she be stabbed in the back.
"We can look around the quicksand area, I'm sure we can find something interesting there," Souji suggested. Kerket could only shrug at this proposal.
"Well, it wouldn't hurt to take a look there."
"Souji," said the blue-haired elemental to Kerket, who could only look at him in confusion. Noticing this, Souji cleared his throat to speak more clearly. "Souji, my name is Souji. It… it's an honor to meet you."
Instantly, Souji bowed in an apparent act of respect, looking down in that position. Kerket felt even more flummoxed at this act.
"Oh, mmm… My name's Kerket, pleased to meet you," not knowing what to do, she bowed her head slightly. She couldn't remember ever being in a situation like this one.
Souji stopped bowing and giggled in a friendly manner, turning around and pointing at the right:
"It's over there. Let's go."
Instead of leading Kerket or just following her from behind, Souji decided to be at her side. Kerket stared sideways, still confused as to how she was supposed to react.
As both of them walked towards the direction the quicksand area was purportedly located, Kerket kept inspecting Souji through the corner of her eye. It was possible that it indeed was a trap, she couldn't fully trust a stranger; nevertheless, something in her had prompted her to trust this strange youth.
In the deepest reaches of the forest, there was complete darkness. The tall trees seemed to ascend to the heavens and very few rays of light fell through the leaves. The Azure Dragon Forest was known for its innermost areas, where the most absolute of silences was commonplace and where several fearsome beasts could potentially appear if their calm was interrupted. There were birds in the tallest branches. They were generally quiet creatures who rested on the trees, but they had started to fly away in flocks.
An explosion obliterated the stillness.
From a point of the dark forest where several trees had been burned and others toppled down due to the strength of the explosion, Esper backflipped away. Landing on her feet, she kept her eyes on the point where she backed away from. It seemed she had overdone it a little this time, it was difficult to restrain oneself in a battle sometimes.
"Dammit, I don't understand. How could you have possibly done that?"
Out of the smoke emerged a woman around Esper's age. She had shoulder-length dark blue hair with a snowflake-shaped pin. She wore a tank top, jeans, and boots, several bruises and slash marks could be noticed in her arms.
"You didn't even use fire," the blue-haired girl asked between pants and launched several ice needles towards Esper. "How did you do it!?"
Esper grinned widely. She loved the desperate scowls in her opponents' faces, it was a sensation that made her feel powerful. She was sure she would never get tired of this. Ice needles fired out of impulse? Piece of cake. She dodged most of the icy shards and, covering her hand in a crackling indigo element, swiped away the remaining projectiles. The sound Esper's element made was similar to buzzing, getting stronger as it melted the other girl's attack.
"If lightning falls in a forest…" Esper answered and immediately ran towards her foe with her hand covered in that element, "there will be fire!"
Esper's speed was such that the blue-haired opponent was caught off-guard and barely managed to get out of the way. Esper reacted using a level 2 technique of her own: a dark blue stream of lightning appeared close to her target and vanished before it hit her. It was a clear threat that had its intended effect: Esper had managed to, quite ironically, freeze the ice elemental with fear.
Esper stared at her and laughed with a tone of superiority, almost covering her mouth with her hand:
"While we're at it, hand me over your totem. I think the winner of this little skirmish is more than clear."
After hearing these words, the other girl showed both rage and dread in her visage, realizing she could not defeat her opponent. Esper enjoyed inciting fear in any poor schmuck who would challenge her to battle. However, there was a lot at stake this time.
"Hey, calm down, I'm no murderer," Esper answered laughing, although anybody who saw this scene would have noticed that said laugh was absolutely forced. "That doesn't mean that I won't take it by force, though. Your call."
"Why don't you find one for yourself!? It's obvious you're not an average fighter, why do you have to do this!?" the blue-haired girl answered. This earned her a condescending glare from her, as there was nothing lower to her than people this weak:
"If you see someone taking something you want away from you… would you allow them to? There are so few totems for so many people, why would I let you take something I desire?"
The venom in Esper's words made the blue-haired girl flinch instinctively and press her lips into a thin line. The look in her eyes said it all: there is no way I can beat someone this strong. After a few more seconds, she put her hand inside a bag she was carrying and threw a golden statue towards Esper. Without saying anything else, she ran immediately in the opposite direction, leaving Esper with her prize.
"You better run, coward…" Esper said with a taste of disgust in her mouth. She laid her eyes on the totem for a while and picked it up. "Another one."
Esper opened the bag and put the totem inside, along with the other three she had taken by force from other competitors at the beginning of this round.
"May the best win."