From my hiding spot in the dense foliage, I watched as my rivals began emerging from the jungle's edges around the lake.
"Watch carefully," Siri's voice rang in my head.
"That guy with the longsword and blue hair is super quick!" I said, observing the fierce looking player.
Siri taking on a teacher's tone. "He's accumulating soul power in his legs—basic technique, really. Just channels energy to specific body parts for enhanced performance."
True enough, the blue-haired guy's legs were glowing with a faint light as he bounded forward in huge leaps. 'Huh, that doesn't look too hard.'
"Don't even think about it," Siri warned. "You'll probably just blow up your kneecaps."
"Observe the woman in red," Yore chimed in. "She's using a more advanced technique—partial wind transformation. By converting only her lower body into wind, she maintains control while achieving greater speed."
The woman in question was practically skating across the lake's surface, her legs a swirling tornado beneath her.
"Show-off," I muttered.
"OH!" Siri exclaimed suddenly. "Now THAT'S impressive."
A figure in white had just launched themselves from the treeline, their entire body dissolving into pure wind before reforming twenty meters ahead. They repeated the process, essentially teleporting across the lake in rapid bursts.
"That's called 'dashing'," Siri explained. "Way harder than it looks. You need perfect control over your soul's form to pull it off without, you know, accidentally dispersing yourself across half the jungle."
'Note to self: don't try that one without adult supervision.'
"The difficulty scale goes something like this," Yore lectured. "Soul power accumulation is entry-level—anyone can do it with practice. Partial transformation comes next, then dashing. Full wind transformation, like what you accidentally stumbled into earlier, is actually quite advanced."
"Wait, so I did something advanced?" I perked up.
"By accident," Siri deadpanned. "Like a baby accidentally writing Shakespeare by drooling on a keyboard."
As we watched, more contestants arrived, each showing off their own movement techniques, all to get to the middle of the lake where the treasure is at. Some ran across the water like discount Jesus, others swung through the trees like caffeinated monkeys. One particularly enthusiastic fellow seemed to be bouncing across the lake using only his buttocks, which was... innovative, I suppose.
"Look!" I pointed excitedly. "That guy's flying!"
"That's… falling with style, I've never thought I could see it here." Siri corrected. "True flight requires—wait, are these…?"
Indeed, through the clearing mist, I could now see what was in those eight chests surrounding the central stone.
"Are those...?" I squinted.
"Weapons," Yore confirmed grimly. "This isn't just a race. It's about to become a battlefield."
"Is this like hunger-games?" I gulped.
"What's the hunger-games?" They both asked in unison.
"Ohhhh! I knew I should've taken some weapons with me, this is all over. Now that the weapons will be taken, I have to cammouflage myself with the forest." I cried while discustingly trying to cover myself with moss and leaves. 'It's safe now, I'm safe now…'
"But isn't it weird?" Yore pondered. "Even though they have skills and their own weapons they still risk their lives for the ones in the chests."
'and that means???' I thought to myself
"You're probably thinking what it might mean you idiot." I felt Siri's gaze on my neck.
"It means that the only weapons which can harm you are the ones in these chests."
"HUH!" I exclaimed and shouted "So why the fuck did we go back? If not for you, you stupid ghosts I would've gotten a headstart and some LIFE-INSURANCE if you may—"
"Also it seems that there is only a certain number of players who can advance to the next stage, so they'll probably come at you once they see—"
"That's even worse!" I angrilly shouted but shortly after despair came to me.
"No matter the case, we need to work something out."
"That's right, plus you have the sword from that potato." Yore added.
Meanwhile I grieved in my sorrow
"Shut up and get yourself together!" Siri blasted.
"but—" "No buts!" Siri jumped at me with her rough tone.
"Yore, I can't believe I'm saying this, but teach Luke your technique"
"I can't believe it, am I hearing it right? Is this the sound of Siri—"
Slap
"Not another word." "…"
"Okay Luke, firstly—techniques are all about imagination, whether you can do something mostly relies on whether you can perceive yourself doing it…"
[Around 6 minutes later]
"Afterwords when the overall status of your body is on the level of your 'self' you may only then truly comprehend the—"
"Oh shut the fuck up!" Luckily Siri interrupted and freed me from Yore's lengthy, if I may say so, teaching session. "I'm gonna teach you a technique which will blow these pricks of their feet. Just do this Luke—Imagine a sea that strethes as far as your eyes can see. Imagine the waves of the hot sun splashing against the water as it slowly evaporates. Are you there?"
"Yeaaah, sun waves on evaporating water" I repeated a couple times.
"Now what's important is to blend yourself with the evaporating water. From the smallest specks of air, to boiling water, to puddles, lakes and the whole ocean as one within you."
"Ugh, I can't do that. How do I be one with water?"—'Isn't this task a little too difficult for a proud idiot as myself.'
"Think from it's perspective; What do you see, what do you think, how does it feel?"
'It feels… good kinda. As if i were in a bath of feathers.'
"Good, I can see that you feel it. Now take your sword and point it at the tree."
'Point it at the—'
In that very moment a light flashed faster than I could blink and a second later, that viny tree bark which stood there for whoever knows how long, disintegrated in front of my blade as a bubble would when you tap it with your finger.
"That right there, Is the Saint Water Technique" Siri stated with pride and admiration."
*****
[Perspective - Kairi]
"The moment my feet touched the island's shore, I knew this wouldn't be a simple race. You landed beside me, ad despite being a dwarf hybrid you helped a human like me"
"I told you already that it's nothing personal, an alliance is benefitial for both sides." He said but his face looked like a kind man hiding behind a mask.
"Eight chests," he muttered, his deep voice barely audible over the lake's gentle lapping. "And company incoming."
I caught sight of three figures emerging from the mist across the lake, just as another group materialized to our far left. We run up to the treasure and spoiled the riches along with the hostile group before us. My fingers instinctively found the hilts of the twin daggers I'd pulled from the nearest chest. The familiar weight brought little comfort—these weapons felt different, more alive somehow.
Rhite twirled his newly acquired spear, its obsidian tip catching the strange purple light. "Remember," he said, eyes fixed on our approaching opponents, "just like we practiced."
The first clash came without warning. A man with a longsword rushed me, his blade singing through the air like fire through tall grass. 'A fire technique.' I thought.
I ducked, letting my body flow like water—a basic soul technique Rhite had taught me during our brief alliance. Though as if the enemy saw through me like reading a book, a heat wave that I had to dodge came right at me.
Luckily Rhite came in between us, absorbing the heat into his obsidian spear.
"Hah!" The rogue laughed. "Wasn't this supposed to be a one-on-one between a pretty young lady and a kind gentleman?" And so I answered calmly. "This is a battlefield, not kindergarden so grow up!"
"Your footwork's sloppy!" Rhite called out, already engaged with two shield-bearers. His spear was a blur of motion, keeping both opponents at bay. "Channel your soul power through your legs, like I showed you!"
I gritted my teeth, focusing my energy downward. The sound, scent, and taste of water was enough to perceive it's essence. The familiar warmth spread through my calves, and suddenly I was moving faster, my daggers finding gaps in my opponent's defense. He was good, but his soul power was concentrated in his arms, leaving his lower body vulnerable.
With a moment of breathing room—"Behind you!" I shouted to Rhite, who spun just in time to deflect a shield bash. His movements were efficient, practiced—the result of years of combat experience. He'd explained once how hybrids often had to fight twice as hard to earn respect. "I owe you one!" He shouted back with a roar in his eyes as he swiftly begun spinning around the battlefield with his spear.
'The Tornado Spear Technique, his unique move he conjured himself.'
The air around him accelerated, a whirlwind that left the ground behind him flattened.
'Now it's my turn to do something amazing.'
The battle flowed like a deadly dance. Rhite and I moved in sync, covering each other's blind spots. A symphony composed by a master conductor, our movements creating a perfect harmony of jabs and slashes. With our back to each other, covering our vital spots we begun to compromise their chemistry.
One shield-bearer overextended. Without a moment of notice I slipped past my own opponent into his own shadow and hamstringed him. Rhite's spear finished his job with clinical precision. Both of them crumbled in defeat, one of them vomiting and the other looking at me as the light left his eyes.
The killing blow felt... wrong. Necessary, but wrong. Though it wasn't as obvious, I saw the same conflict in Rhite's eyes as he withdrew his weapon.
"This should be enough. Give up your weapon and leave this place or we will show no mercy." Rhite spoke to the last man standing.
The devastated face of the one left behind, the last enemy to be slayed imbued itself into my mind. Tear falling down his cheek, brows shaking in agony, the expression changing from sorrow to confusion to…
Thats when he did something none of us expected. As his companions fell, he pulled out a black vial.
"Don't—" Rhite started, but it was too late.
The man's scream turned inhuman as he drank. His muscles bulged, veins turning black beneath his skin. Before I could blink, he'd crossed the distance to Rhite, his shield hitting with the force of a battering ram and his sword slashing across his chest.
I heard bones crack, then blod shed. Rhite crumpled, blood spreading along his body.
"Rhite?" Rhite didn't answer.
My daggers seemed pathetically small against this monster. The berserker turned toward me, his eyes completely black now. A step as powerfull as a mamooth's roar, his gaze as engaging as a Lion's stare.
This was it. I was about to die along with my only companion only on my first trial. 'I though this time would be different, that I had a chance in this highier world.'
My daggers fell to the ground—If I see a wall I cannot climb, I try to walk around it—If I cannot walk, I shall crawl—But here I felt as if I layed in a coma awaiting an unmeaningfull death—
The air shifted. As I turned my head something whistled past my ear.
I looked back at the berserker when his head separated from his shoulders in a clean arc, his body taking two more steps before realizing it was dead.
Behind him stood a figure I hadn't noticed arrive—a young man holding a sword that seemed to ripple like water. His blade dripped, but not with blood. It was as if the very air around it was liquefying.
"Well," he said with an awkward grin, "that was dramatic."