"I don't appreciate what you did to Esme…"
"That's the game," Monika's voice wavered. She couldn't quite read her cousin, and that made her nervous. She wiped her throbbing left hand against her pants, only now taking note of the blood spilling from it.
"So you won't mind if I return the favor," Niko smirked. The younger Rose sighed.
"Really? Over a girl? Simp!"
"Shut up!" A hand-sized pair of white wings erupted from the spear's midsection. The Instrument shot above the forest's canopy, and disappeared from sight. It screeched as it soared through the air, a lethal bird of prey. Monika backed away from her cousin, eyes glued to the skies.
"It's pointless. Cloud Diamond can go mach speed when I put my wings on it. You can't avoid that," Niko explained smugly, "If you stay still, it'll only shatter your leg!"
BOOF!
As if on cue, the weapon broke the sound barrier. In contrast, David King quietly deserted his hiding place behind a nearby tree, and waltzed up to a distracted Monika.
"Ain't that a beaut," he whistled, startling the girl.
"David! Don't scare me like that!"
"Apologies, miss. I just couldn't help but notice you're in a bit of a pickle. I thought I'd swing by and help."
"You wanna help? Go look for some blooms, I'm busy," she didn't even spare a glance.
"I don't mean to suggest you're incapable of handling yourself, but it'd be problematic for you and your friends if you waste time here. Plus, I play a mean support."
"What do you have in mind?" Monika sighed, turning to him.
"Hold your breath."
At that moment, Niko's Cloud Diamond descended behind the girl and rocketed towards the back of her knee. David closed the distance between them and extended his hand upwards. A bubble of air shimmered around them.
The racing spear blasted itself into the bubble, but was drastically slowed as it distorted the shimmering air with its speed. It inched towards Monika's leg, and the girl watched in amazement, taking a step towards David to avoid its tip. The weapon finally came to a complete stop before it was sent spinning in the opposite direction.
"What is this now?" Niko thought, "I can't put my wings on either of them…is it because of that shimmering air?" She motioned for the spear to return to her.
"Nice technique…what is it?" Monika asked, only an inch away from the boy. The air seemed warmer, more humid. His atma resonated softly with notes of a lyre. David dropped his hand, and returned the atmosphere to normal, clearing his throat.
"Elasticity…anything my atma touches," he replied vaguely.
"So that's how you avoided slipping last round…" Monika mused.
"That's right. I elasticized a thin film of air and stood on it."
"Then I think I've got an idea…"
As soon as the words left her lips, Niko, carried by her brilliant wings, and accompanied by a BOOF, appeared before them. She thrust her spear forward before either maestro could evade, leaving Monika no choice but to rely on her reinforcement and catch it. The weapon sliced through her palm, but this wasn't enough for the older Rose who continued to push through the air.
Monika clamped down on the spear's shaft to prevent it from penetrating further as she stifled a yelp. She'd felt worse.
Suddenly, David rocketed his fist into Niko's face. As he pulled his arm back, the air behind his elbow shimmered with elasticity, and rebounded his fist into the girl's face again and stunned her. She loosened her grip on her weapon enough for Monika to gain control and strike her with the blunt end.
Niko stumbled back, caressing her face as her wings unraveled. In just a moment, she became the prey. All because of the nosy American who now, accompanied by her cousin, inched towards her with caution. This would be difficult.
~
Kuro's fruitless search continued. Every bloom he came across was brutally cut down with no hesitation. There seemed to be no end to this game but somehow, he hadn't come across any other participants. Curious.
Of course, the moment he dared to fully form that thought, leaping across branches, he saw another contestant on the ground. She had bright red hair covered by a black toque, sunglasses, and a scarf on top of an extremely baggy hoodie. The disintegrating bodies of a dozen blooms lay around her. She surveilled the surrounding area.
"She took them all out at the same time…that girl is strong, but she's not the one I'm looking for," the boy thought. At the same time he jumped to carry on elsewhere, Kuro watched as she unexpectedly started taking her top off.
The boy shut his eyes so fast that he didn't have time to see the branch he meant to land on. His foot slipped and sent him plummeting to the ground. Atma hugged his entire body as he braced for impact. Instead, something wet and spongy cushioned his fall then retracted, dropping him onto the damp forest floor.
"What the…?"
Kuro's eyes flicked open. There was nothing more bizarre or unexpected than what he saw: a childlike octopus-human hybrid. The red hair, evidently a wig, was on the ground in a pile of clothes. If not for the fact that he could see the atma emanating from the thing, he'd have thought it was a bloom. Still, he asked to make sure.
"Are you…that girl…?" he asked.
The octopus nodded. She was the size of a toddler, with similar proportions. She had a small torso, and Kuro could see that each limb was composed of two intertwined tentacles. Her head was bulbous and had big, black eyes. No nose, but a mouth. She simply looked like a strangely composed baby, and was somewhere between adorable and off-putting to look at.
"Are you a bloom?"
She shook her head.
"Why did you help me?"
The girl simply turned around and ran off into the woods, her small size and unique composition allowing for an impressive display of speed and dexterity.
Kuro just stood there, perplexed.
"What the fuck was that?" He had to ask out loud. The negativity that had been gathering in his stomach vanished, replaced with the laughter of disbelief.
~
"What's taking those girls so long?" Soji jumped onto another branch as Angelo's staff, Burning Man, whizzed past him.
It hit the trunk, then clattered to the ground where its owner dragged himself to pick it up. This had gone on for the past five minutes. The maestro would throw, miss, then hobble to pick up his weapon, wheezing as he did so. It was a sad display of desperation. Soji would've left him to wander, but needed to secure the points from beating Angelo without worsening his condition. He hoped to achieve that by tiring him out, but even like this, he was relentless.
Angelo coughed as he readied the Instrument to throw.
"Just…a little…more…"
Soji could feel his body's desire to blight, to give in to his bloom side and dive into strength and ecstasy. His fingernails excitedly sharpened themselves. However, he was still shaken by how easy it was to break Angelo, so with the help of his bandages, pushed back the transformation rumbling in the back of his mind. He hopped out of the way yet again, then landed on the ground, this time hoping to seize the Instrument, and put an end to this.
Suddenly, he felt the presence of six other atma users in the area prickle his skin. Before he could react, two metallic strings materialized from behind the tree he stood before. They wrapped around his neck and the trunk, digging into his flesh, and acting as a pair of garrots to pry the oxygen from him. He heard a boy's timid apology behind him.
"So that's what you really look like," Sandy West drew both boys' attention. She emerged from the surrounding darkness and stood next to a slumped over Angelo. Four other maestros followed suit and melted away from their hiding places and circled his arborous prison.
"Ah shit…"
"Get away!" Angelo growled, "he's mi—" He fell to the ground.
"He's mine!" Sandy mocked, "You keep saying this, but that thing is standing, and you are not."
"Your time is up!" Sandy declared. Barely a second later, one of the surrounding maestros fired a volley of hot atma pellets, shredding Soji's shirt and sizzling his skin as they scraped by. The other contestants rushed at him, eager to obtain the easy win his points would grant. Eyes bulging, he forcefully pulled on the strings strangling him, tugging the boy holding them off his feet, and slamming him into the tree. The garrots dissipated with what was surely a nose breaking against wood.
With exhaustion setting in, Soji leaped into action, wrapping his bandages around the branch of a tree across the clearing. He pulled himself forward with astonishing speed, evading the oncoming assault. His arms ached from the movement. Although a huge fan, he was no webslinger. His footwork and timing were sloppy, courtesy of fatigue and unfamiliarity with the physics of swinging around.
The adversary maestros continued their pursuit. Each time they caught up to him, Soji yanked himself away. Until one maestro, a particularly burly boy, anticipated his escape and caught the bandage midair. He pulled Soji towards him and planted a metal-coated fist into his face. He staggered back before Sandy rushed at him and kicked the back of his head. The other maestros followed suit in a violent onslaught while Angelo stood and watched.
"If they kill him, it's just as good…right?"
As the temperature of Soji's skin rose involuntarily, a blur of black and silver descended from the canopy, machete in hand. Before he could even land, Kuro slashed at Sandy's weasley face, eliciting a yowl that was quickly silenced with a punch. The other maestros stepped away, astonished by the sudden appearance of a boy with brilliant atma, oozing bloodlust. Soji struggled to stand, but managed to prop himself up, resting against Kuro's back.
"Taking it easy?" Kuro asked.
"I almost…I almost went too far with that masked guy. If there are this many…" Soji replied, "I don't want to kill them." Smoke arose from his healing cuts and bruises. Slowly, but surely, his stamina started to replenish itself.
"I get it," Kuro nodded, "even just now, I had to contain myself."
~
"Listen up," Miguel said. Tamara, Money, Monika, and Doc waited in a large white SUV for the trio. In just a few hours, they'd be on a jet to New Eden.
"The pit isn't just a danger to your physical wellbeing," he said, "it cultivates brutality. It ingrains in your mind, the directive to go for the kill. And I know that's not who you boys are. You'll struggle. I tried to warn you. That place's gifts are not without cost."
~
"Miguel was right," Soji finally stood on his own weight as their competitors looked on with hungry and cautious eyes.
"Yeah…what do you wanna do?" Just for good measure, Kuro wishfully pulled on his perpetually sheathed blade. Nothing. He sighed.
Suddenly, the ground shook, alerting all the gathered participants of something enormous approaching. Wood cracked, and trees split apart as an announcement of its presence. THOOM. THOOM. THOOM. Finally, the creature emerged; a blackened, twenty foot tall banyan tree with legs. Several vines hung from its canopy, two of which held Dione, and Penny.
"We found the Rank 3!" Penny yelled. Dione simply laughed as she swung back and forth with the tree bloom's momentum.
"Na wa o," Soji rested his hands on his head.
"Agreed. This just went from bad to worse," Kuro admitted. They, like the maestros around them, readied themselves.
"Can we free ourselves now?" Dione asked her sister.
"Go for it!" Penny slapped her hand against a branch and was sucked into its shadow. She sprang out of Soji's shadow, startling him, while Dione increased her weight, snapping the thin tentacles of her leafy captive. She proceeded to float down as the bloom continued towards the gathering of maestros.
Nobody expected a human-octopus hybrid, standing at half the height of the tree bloom, to come barrelling out of the woods and strike it with earth-rumbling force. The mysterious creature unleashed a barrage of punches that shook the ground and splintered its target. Eventually, the tree's iridescent blue core was exposed.
"What the hell is that?" Soji whispered.
"The octopus? Or the glowy thing?" Dione asked. The answer seemed obvious.
"It's going for the Rank 3's core…why?" Kuro pondered.
"It kinda looks like that girl!"
"Destroying a plant-based Rank 3 is a little different. Those types need to be burned, or have their cores destroyed. They keep coming back otherwise," she explained.
"I can burn it," Soji volunteered.
"You really wanna go in there?" Penny asked. A shower of plant matter sprayed the onlookers. The creature palmed the tree's exposed core and flooded it with atma, shattering it. As the tree underwent a rapid decay, the octopus started shrinking and ran off into the woods. All the participants stood shocked. That even maestros were bewildered was a testament to the bizarre nature of this spectacle. All that occurred in under three minutes.
"DA NA NA NA NAAAA!" The announcer's voice sliced through the tension.
"Surprise, surprise," he said, "it appears that Penny Otta of team four has taken the victory via elimination of blooms!"
"What?" Angelo scrunched his eyebrows.
"No, no, no! This was my chance!" He was tempted to rush Soji now, while everyone was still trying to comprehend what just happened.
"Please note, that violence before or after a round is prohibited," the announcer seemingly anticipated, "I'm talking to you, Rose girls!" The trees sank into the ground, blinding the participants who'd grown used to the forest's scant lighting. They found themselves back in an open field, the only difference being that there was only one, smaller, rectangle. The other contestants could be seen in the distance, wary of the sudden change to their environment.
Kuro could see Monika being held up by David over a kneeling Niko. Mild irritation made his finger twitch before he was overcome by relief that she was okay.
"Now, if you all will stay where you are, attendants will come and tend to your wounds, and assess you for fitness to continue. Congratulations on surviving Round Two of the Orchestra."