Jeannie was gone, her performance wouldn't come for some time. Hana was worried but not enough to risk losing her spot in the Sect. She watched as more contestants fought the beast summons and learned as much as she could. Sometimes, she could be seen in the corner of the arena mimicking the way contestants were moving.
As a child of the Zao Royal Family, she had never been through combat training. Her name said so much, a solitary flower, lovely, undeniably full of bloom but still a flower.
The announcer spoke again, she called the next contestant up, it was the 300th participant to attempt the gauntlet of summons. Hana's turn would be coming up soon, she watched with eagerness. "OKAY, NEXT UP! A Leptidian Champion from Moore Caverns, Hoji Redwurm."
It must have been a change in the format, the announcer was naming the contestants as they arrived to the stage. More than half the contestants had attempted the gauntlet.
Hoji's first opponent was a Portaling Jackelope, upgraded by the alchemy department. He immediately shot to the other side of the stage and tried to get behind it. An string of mud shot from the ground to distract the Jackelope and Hoji had it by the Antlers.
The Jackelope portaled several hundred feet into the air, as they fell, Hoji lost his grip and the Jackelope returned to the stage with another portal. As Hoji was falling, a pit of mud sprayed into the air and caught him. He was furious, the mud went forward and filled the stage. It was bubbling up from the stage and getting deeper inside of the shield wall.
The undead creature struggled in the muck but was sucked under and stopped moving when it was ripped apart. The mud cleared away and fell from the stage, in the center of it were the severed parts and its Core.
Hoji ate the core and went to the next stage. 'yuk, that was horrible' he stuck his tongue out and scraped it clean against the stone floor. The crowd winced awkwardly at an participant licking the stage floor but watched attentively for the next round to begin.
There was nothing visible inside of the shield wall, Hoji looked up to see if maybe it was in the sky and then a crashing came against his chest, he was thrown across the stage by the strike and caught himself. He charged in the direction he was thrown away from and unleashed a wave of boulders to crash in the area, another strike sent him to the left of the stage.
Hoji spit out some blood. he stopped throwing boulders and tried something different.
Hoji say down on top of the tallest rock. Closing his eyes, he waited.
There was no movement noise his concentration was entirely focused on spiritual power in his vicinity. 'There.' He shot his tongue out.
A bug.
"That's round two! Ladies and gentlmen, that's why he's called the Champion from Moore Caverns! That's why. It takes a seasoned fighter to catch a scourge locust. Most of the time, they simply eat crops but when threatened the possess great strength for their size. The most formidable part about Scourge Locust is that they are almost entirely invisible and they don't make noise. Leave it to a Leptidian to use his head!" Jan cheered him on. "Now, onto the third stage!"
The crowd cheered, Hoji had made it to where only a handful of people had previously. "Its a Neostera!" The crowd couldn't contain themselves, it was rare to see one. Neostera almost entirely lived underground. Three large shredding pincers encircled its mouth and it could bore through metal. Tiny legs surrounded its body, making it move at great speeds underground. On the surface, they were still quite fast and impossible to topple over.
A roar sounded, and the third stage quaked. The Neostera emerged in front of Hoji, its jaws snapping at his face. Hoji twisted and a few feet spun away. The beast turned its body, flexing its body downward and redirected its trajectory. There were no pincers or stingers to worry about, it was all mouth. The inner teeth of its skull spiraled down like it was filled with shards of glass, the stronger than diamond-like teeth could grind virtually all substances over time.
'What will he do?' Hana watched carefully.
Hoji threw himself high into the air and started to rain down water. Everytime he would land, he would make another pole to launch himself back into the air. Soon, the bottom of the stage was filled with water. The Neostera couldn't maneuver in the liquid substrate, even though it was a bit murky from the rubble and muck, the water was simply impossible for the beast to move in. It floundered and was exposed. Hoji pulled out spear and threw it directly into its back, nothing happened, it sparked and flew back. he moved a few feet over and caught it.
When he landed to make another pole, the Neostera saw a chance, and latched onto the pole. It had a point of leverage, and threw itself directly toward Hoji midair. Hoji saw its big mouth heading his way and created the densest stone he could, lodging it and expanding it inside of its gaping maw. The three large jaws that surrounded its mouth couldn't keep up with the growing material, no matter how soft it was in its teeth.
Its body expanded, filled with material it couldn't process fast enough. The Neostera started choking and split down its back. When it finally stopped moving, Hoji landed on top of it and created spikes from the material from the beasts insides. The body was torn apart.
Hoji took out his spear and stabbed at the corpse digging for something, he pulled out a core.
"Another Core." Hana spoke to herself, Jeannie still wasn't back. I wonder what's taking her so long?"
"Okay, time for the real action! All participants will be given five minutes to collect themselves before the final stage, I'm so thrilled to see our first participant making his way to the fourth stage. Ladies and Gentlemen, lets give it up for HOJI!" Jan did her best to hype the crowd.
Hoji sat down on a big pillow he kept with him. Focusing his mind, he prepared himself for his opponent, he was sure it would be an inner core disciple of the Sect.
Hana watched with both eyes open, the eagles eye pierces rock was useful for nabbing details and her control over it was getting much better.
She tried focusing entirely on his posture, his aura, the feeling and subtle movements of his body, his breathing, his heartbeat.
Suddenly, she had a very bad feeling. She remembered Jeannie, her mind went elsewhere, looking around, she still couldn't find her. 'Jeannie, where are you?'
֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍