Me: ...(Enters stage, with a paper bag on his head). Well, I guess it was time to... Well, you know, give this story and update. (Sighs). Yes, I suck!
Serya: You do not suck. Is that a real word? What I mean to say here is that you are not a person that sucks. You are just a procrastinator.
Me: Gee... (sweatdrops), thanks. That really helped.
Serya: You are welcomed. (Leaves stage)
Me: Who is she fooling?
Strike: (Enters). Don't get used to this. But, it's better late than never. So stop your whining and let this desperate people read the chapter. (Goes).
Me: Well, if he's lecturing me then I have to be way low. Anyways, erhem... here's the disclaimer with...
Boko: Kweh, kweh kwe kweh kweh!
Me: I'll keep the comments to myself... Enjoy the chapter!
Zeph: "I can still write"
Oh! It's been a long time since I've seen this book. Anyways... The tournament finally started. It didn't look like any normal tournament I think. But I have only known of tournaments by books.
The first contest in the tournament was battling some berserked monsters. I could listen to the crowd gasp in horror because of the wimpy animals they sent the fighters to kill. I looked at Kiomi and she was completely rooting for everyone. Well... she had some pom-poms and began to do some cheering.
"Gimme an R. An A. A Y. An N. And an E. What does it spell!" she said, while Serya was the only one answering to her cheers.
"Rayne?" my summoner said with doubt.
"Yay!" Kiomi continued cheering the whole tournament.
After that "thrilling" event, the second part of the tournament came. That part sure seemed more daring. Each fighter had to go into a maze in which there were some hidden traps. We, the expectators, would watch everything from a screen that was in front of us.
"Good luck, everyone" the commentator said. "Now, go!" and after that, everyone participating in the tourney entered the maze from different tunnels.
The screen showed only one player at a time, and 40 persons were competing, so it was quite difficult to watch one of our caravanners in action. I could see from time to time that Rayne was battling some mechanical monsters that multiplied everytime they were struck with thunder, and weren't eliminated. Cypros was finding his way in a dark room (I only saw him before entering that chamber). And Stricken was constantly disintegrating moving walls with drills that slowly went towards him. Really, the suspense was killing me. I could only see one of them for about every 10 minutes.
It was taking a whole lot, and the crowd started going to their houses. It seemed that the tournament wouldn't give the participants a chance to rest.
"Guys don't you think it's weird for Ztal not being here?" I asked. "And Viktor still hasn't returned"
"About Ztal..." Kiomi said (she seemed a lot better now than before), "he's just angry and doesn't want anyone invading his space... So he must be at the inn or something. But about Viktor..."
"Yeah, it's not like him to take such a long walk" Nanta finished.
I looked at the screen of the tournament and Cypros' dark room appeared. after a while I noticed it was still there and I wondered...
"Isn't that supposed to change?" Nanta asked bored of watching the black room.
"I think it has been shut off" my dear master said.
"You sure?" Nanta continued and suddenly Viktor appeared from nowhere, and Ztal followed him with two big and heavy books and some scrolls.
"Guys! We gotta get in there" Viktor said panting.
"C'mon! Breathe!" Ztal said as he put the books on one of the benches and opened it. "This tournament here is a fake" he began to point at some names in the book. As some of the police officers in town' he though angrily.
"Look at the names Ztal's pointing" Viktor said and opened another book. "In this book of registration of entry and exit of the Pass, those people were not inscribed in the exit part of the book. And when you look for the Townspeople" he changed the page "you don't see those names. Meaning that they..."
"Disappeared" Ztal explained. "Or, that's at least the conclusion of a four-year-old kid. The real reason of that is..."
"Well... we don't know yet. But we do know that this so-called tournament is just a lure for fighters to a trap. We still don't know what happens to the participants. But we know it's not pretty. And to topple it up, the disappearing fighters were the ones that surpassed every obstacle. Fishy, ain't it?" Viktor said and finally sat down.
"So, you're trying to say that Rayne, Strike and Cypros are in danger..." I said, struggling to organize the data they gave me into my brain.
Both, Viktor and Ztal sighed heavily and nodded.
"What are you guys wating for? We've got some friends to save!" Kiomi yelled, her words echoing throughout the stadium.
"It won't be that easy" the Dragoon stated. "There are traps of all kinds waiting to capture those who try to stop the bad guys plan... But that's when our little friend starts doing his work" he looked at me, as so did Viktor.
"What do I have to do?" I asked after some thoughts seemed to fly past my head.
"Well..." Viktor started explaining.
"Hey! Guys! I wanna listen too!" Kiomi yelled looking for a spot to listen to the plan.
--------------------------------------
I entered the weird structure in search of a way to let the others enter. But there was no switch, no door knob, no nothing.
"Did you check everywhere?" Kiomi asked from outside.
"Yup. And there's nothing. You try to find a way to get in. I'll go check on the others, as the plan follows" I answered and submerged into the darkness.
After passing through hundreds of walls I finally reached the chamber of moving walls.
'Strange... Stricken isn't here anymore...' I thought and saw an opened gate. 'Maybe that leads to him'.
Following the path I encountered him. But there was no time to say hi. He was fighting against a giant eagle. The creature shot a beam straight to him but he side-stepped and evaded it. Then he noticed me.
"What are you doing here?" he yelled forgetting about the creature.
It charged some wind elemental energy and shot a ball of wind to Strike. It hit him and he flew to the wall, crashing and making a hole in it. I ran to the eagle and casted holy a couple of times and it finally disappeared... which made this whole tournament be more fishy.
"Strike, let's move! We need to find the others!" I continued the search, as he stood up.
"What's going on, you midget?" he asked irritated.
"This isn't what everyone thinks it is... But there's no time to explain" I hurried my pace and went through a wall.
It was the dark chamber... and it was extremely silent.
"Is there anyone here?" I asked moving with caution.
I heard someone or something struggling to breathe, afterwards. For what I heard, it wasn't something small. Having the need to see what was that in the room I made a small light energy sphere levitate on my hand to lighten the place up.
'Weird, there's nothing here...' I thought as a bad odor struck me.
I looked behind me and saw Cerberus, the three-headed dog and in one of his mouths was Cypros. The legendary beast looked at me with a fierceful glance. Suddenly a huge blast was heard and one of the walls of the room was destroyed.
"What were you thinking?" Strike asked, his figure between the smoke and pieces of the crumbling wall. "I can't pass through walls!"
Without answering his question and thinking it twice (I didn't even think it once) I threw the light energy ball to Cerberus. The ball dispersed and hit the six eyes of the Cerberus, leaving him blind and roaring of pain. With that happening, Cypros flew from the beasts mouth and landed on the floor.
"Let's go! We need to find Rayne now!" I told Strike as I went towards Cypros.
"Heck no! I'm beating this one" he began to gain energy around him.
"Cypros, wake up" I gave him a bit of my energy and he opened his eyes. I went to the gate that lead to the next chamber and Cypros followed me, but Stricken was playing around.
"This is serious Strike!" I yelled at him but it seemed he didn't listen.
The Cerberus had recovered from his blindness and could see Stricken perfectly with its six eyes. It began to attack him. One chomp here, another chomp there. It was incredible how Strike dodged those bites, but still he would get tired sooner or later...
"You idiot come! Move it now!" Cypros yelled and put his right hand in front of him. And closing his eyes he pulled Strike from his death, thanks to his telekinesis.
"What are you doing?" he pushed Cypros.
"HEY HEY HEY! Stop it already! Rayne's life is in grave danger, leave the figthing for another time" it was getting annoying by now.
We had been searching for Rayne for a while now and there was no trace of her. But for a strange reason, I felt we were going around in circles. Then I bumped into Cypros... And it was a fact, we were going around in cirlces (I was the one leading them, to make it worst).
"Rayne! Scream!" Cypros yelled waiting for an answer.
"Down here" said a weak voice beneath us.
As I went down the floor, Strike destroyed it. And there she was, surrounded by (more or less) a thousand robots. They were all aiming at her with their hands and a purple light was shining from them. Then a thousand purple beams flew straig to Rayne. Rayne began to run from them, but they were moving to fast and followed her everywhere she went. Stricken tried to destroy them, but he couldn't, as Cypros tried to control them but failed as well. It was up to me. I felt an extremely familiar rush of power in me and I concentrated it in one attack.
'Zeph, you be careful now' Serya talked to me in my mind. 'Remember that you have to help us find them. We have already found a way in'.
'Not now, master' I told her as I unleashed the power.
I could only see a lot of lean beams flying around the room, and suddenly something dragged me away from them. It pulled me back... And soon, I was inside my master's staff, again.
"Darkness..."
What happened? Why is everything so black? It all was white before... because of the blast... "Cypros! Wake up..." Who's that? What's happening? Who's crying? No... it can't be... I can't be... "Rayne! Watch out!" There are still monsters around... And they're attacking us... BUT WHY CAN'T I SEE ANYTHING? There are more explosion and more hard noises on the floor. I feel cold... Oh so cold, so cold I think I'm numb... Now everything's silent. Where did those two go? Huh? What's this, something's holding me... Wait! Don't! Don't!
"Calm down!" Strike yelled after hitting my stomach, leaving me without air.
"You're supposed to revive him, Strike, NOT to kill him!" Rayne said, with a trembling voice.
I coughed a few times and opened my eyes. Nothing, it was all black. "Hey, guys. Where's the light?" I asked, trying to stand up but falling flat on my butt.
"Did you it your head or something?" Strike anwered in his usual self, as always.
"Well, yeah, I did" I started to rub my head after my second attempt to stand up.
"I was afraid of that" Rayne seemed to tell Strike as he helped me (A/N: Hey, miracles happen) to stand up, "Cypros... you're blind"
'Okay, there's no need to panic' I breathed heavily now. "Maybe it's that this room has an optical ilussion so I won't see it" I tried to justify the darkness.
"Just accept the truth, you crybaby! You're blind now. There's no optical ilussion shit around here" Strike seemed extremely angry.
Suddenly I saw an image of me in my brain. I had my eyes closed and Rayne was right next to me. I extended my hand towards her, and in the image in my head I also did. Suddenly, now I could see Strike. He was playing with an arm of a robot, throwing it up and catching it with his hand. In one of the throws he did I catched it.
"You sure he's blind?" Rayne asked Strike.
After that it all went back to darkness.
"Sure, if not, he'd block this" and he threw a punch. The image of Strike reappeared and I could dodge his attack.
"What's wrong with you slowpoke?" I tantalized him.
"Damn it! Well, he's still blind... but how could he?" he started to wonder.
I was also having that same question in my mind. I kept thinking on how I could do that. But a vision just didn't let me finish thinking:
"Okay, blasting the wall in five, four, three..."
"Strike get off the wall" I warned him.
"What
-" he couldn't finish since he went off flying in mid-air
through the room.
I could listen to happy voices, and at the same
time, worried ones.
'You know... Don't forget about your power' a voice in my head said... I couldn't recognize it though... But then again... 'Yes! That was it! I have the power of telekinesis. So that means that... I can see what other people see in ther minds!' I thought, solving this awkward puzzle.
Then she hugged me. I wasn't actually looking at her with my eyes, but I knew it was her.
"You okay?" she asked woried.
"Sure, I'm okay. Just need a pair of glasses" I joked and heard her smile. "Don't worry Kiomi, I'm really okay".
"I don't wanna break the moment, but we've got some stuff to find out here" Ztal said.
"Hey! Don't leave me alone here" I heard the voice of Nanta echoe in the room, and then I listened to her footsteps.
"Okay, we're all here..."
"Now, here's what's happening" Viktor finished.
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Me: Okay... Not what you would expect after six months... or something, right? But I really tried hard! Well... I just hope you won't kill me after making you wait so long for this... I'll try to at least update once a month... Especially now that Summer Vacation has arrived (-just after I take the freaking Chemistry test-).
Cheers!
Kiomi: You know, Ztal? His brain needs a whole vacation.
Ztal: What brain? He needs to get one!
Kiomi: I guess he's not the one that really needs one...
Ztal: What's that supposed to mean?
Kiomi: NOTHING! (To reader), I'll bewaiting for you in chapter... (Trumpet fanfare is heard) 22!
