Volume 2.5: Chapter XX: Trial 4530: Screwed Measures

Flying made Arson’s task of bomb placement throughout the forest easy. He finished more quickly than he’d expected, and rushed aerially toward the Stealth Guild building, landing on the roof with the weight of his incredible speeds. No longer used to how fast he could fly.

Maybe my mana levels are larger than I thought…

He’d not known just how much his body was improving throughout his training. Nor how much his body’s own natural growth had increased his capabilities.

Arson placed bombs on the roof before peeking over the edge toward the entrance; completely confused by the sight.

Where is everyone?

The long lines of Tested, travelers, and adventurers that had stretched out of the Stealth Guilds entrance for almost a fortnight were gone. The guards were also gone, and though Arson had yet to start his work on the street he was looking at, the nearby area was completely empty.

“Hmmm… so you aren’t a waste of space,” said a familiar voice behind Arson. He turned around to see Almarine dragging a bloodied Breaker by his ankle across the rooftop toward him.

Arson’s eyes widened and Almarine chuckled. Arson knew Breaker was powerful beyond many of the figures he’d seen fight up to that point in his life, but to see an untouched Almarine casually dragging the unconscious master made Arson’s mind mentally rework the levels of strength he’d previously built and believed in.

“Is he okay?” asked Arson, ignoring Almarine’s jab at his competency.

“Of course not. I beat him so bad I think I may have broken his belief in himself,” said Almarine. She let the man go, closing the rest of the distance between them before sitting on the edge of the roof.

“Have you ever known weakness?”

Arson’s question shocked him, slipping free of his lips as the preposterousness of seeing a man he believed to be powerful beyond his beliefs had been brought low, seemingly easily, and by a woman he idolized more than she would ever know.

“Yes, we all have, child, but some of us operate in ways that allow us to separate ourselves from weaknesses to such a degree, that they feel like nearly forgotten memories or suppressed traumas…”

Arson felt as if Almarine had answered the question in a way that showed that she too was shocked by the inquiry, but her smile as she looked back at him made chills run down his spine, another question falling from his lips. The dam that normally stopped his racing mind from dialogue now broken at the sight of his bloodied master.

“Where is everyone?”

Almarine began to chuckle, laughing in a way that made Arson’s skin crawl. The woman waved a hand through the air, gesturing out toward the city around them.

“Your eyes are wide open, and from what I can see within your aura, not even the powerful formations of this realm should be able to stop you from seeing…”

Arson frowned, looking around, seeing nothing but barren streets and empty buildings.

“What do you,” started Arson trailing off as a single blink of his eyes flashed his Closed Eye Dominion to life. He then closed his eyes completely, and his blood went cold, as twin suns lit across the surface of his face.

“This is supposed to be a place of pure bliss and growth, so to ensure that any who live here weren’t hampered by such meddling things as grief and loss, Origin wipes it from our vision entirely…”

Arson didn’t move a muscle. His senses showed a far different picture of their surroundings with his eyes closed, and shock had taken over entirely.

The dead and dying lay in every direction. Bodies hung half way out of windows, and through walls. Scattered across rooftops. Bleeding out rapidly in the streets, leaving nearly every section of the city covered in blood and viscera.

“Beside those you somehow made vanish, they're all dead. They were weak enough to submit to the will of that bloody captured goddess, so aren’t what the realms need to be pushed forward…”

Arson opened his eyes, and looked at Almarine. A completely different perception of his adoptive mother slowly overlaying the picture of perfection that had been previously imprinted on his mind.

“Why?”

“Weren’t you listening? They were weak and a waste of space, nothing more than an unending draw on the limited life-force held within the realms. It's better that I purged them now before they were given yet another chance to… draw on the gifts of the gods.”

Almarine’s eyes squinted momentarily, before she looked over her shoulder. Arson hadn’t sensed their arrival but she had, watching Merlin and Magnus land lightly on the rooftop. While Rebellion and Acu climbed up to stand beside the woman.

“Hello, how may I help you?”

The masters fanned out, Arson was given strange and betrayed stares by those gathered. He wondered if their eyes were able to see the massacre that had taken place around them. Only he didn’t have time to think about how he was being seen in that moment as the situation escalated rather quickly.

“Oh, you all must lack manners, or maybe you're as deaf as this one was…”Almarine stood and gestured toward Breaker’s defeated and broken form.

“What is the meaning of this Arson,” asked Merlin, never taking her eyes off of Almarine as she spoke to him.

She must be able to sense Almarine’s power for what it is. I can barely breathe when I’m not concentrating on breathing deeply around Almarine. She must be far less willing to suppress her mana and aura at this point in her life, or maybe even incapable?

“I’m sorry Master Merlin, all of this was outside of my control. I did what I could, but—:

Arson stopped talking as Almarine squinted back at him, glancing toward his watch and then back up to meet his eyes nodding as if she’d just confirmed something. He hoped she wasn’t aware of what he’d done, but the eyes that stared back at him in that moment were not those of someone who was unaware, but instead, enlightened.

“Prepare yourselves, or flee masters, this isn’t a fight that you should take lightly,” said Arson then, noticing that Almarine had begun to crack her knuckles by clenching her fists, and roll her neck as she stretched.

Arson felt a new presence appear from thin air, looking over his own shoulder to see a rip in space open like that of an eyelid to show an eye very familiar to Arson. A voice heard as the eye blinked, confirming to Arson whose presence had joined them all.

“Really sister, wasting more time, I see…” Carter’s voice rippled powerfully through the rip in space; his eye flickering about to look at them all as he sighed heavily.

“Shut up, old man, you get to blow up a city, I get to break necks, we are who we are,” said Almarine smiling.

“And you, boy, have you completed the task given to you?”

Arson nodded, staying silent as Almarine chuckled.

“He did that and so much more, but no worries, I’ll set him straight after I finish with these wastes…”

“Hmm, I see, well I don’t have the time to expend on trivial combat, I’m headed to the cage of the goddess, if I don’t see you there soon, I’ll come and finish this idiocy myself.”

Almarine snorted, ignoring Carter, as the large floating pupil landed on Arson, and a flash of pain exploded throughout his body, dropping him to a knee. He clutched his head with both hands as golden blood dripped from his eyes nose and ears. Carter gave him a final command before the rip in space closed.

“Help her finish off these fools and you may even leave this dimension alive…”

Arson barely managed a slow nod, returning to his feet slowly, struggling as his knees shook from the phantom pain still thrumming throughout his body.

He turned to see the shocked faces of his masters shift from confused malice, to concerned sympathy. The threat on Arson’s life understood without a single further shared word.

“Again, I do apologize for all of this,” said Arson as he wiped his face clean of blood, anger beginning to build in his chest at what he was being forced to do.

Acu, waved a hand in the air, looking away from Almarine as he spoke to Arson.

“I see your plight, child. All is forgiven. Just do your best to survive what is to come.”

Arson responded simply with a nod of his own, receiving smiles from his masters in a way that broke his heart in a manner unlike anything he’d ever felt before, further fueling his anger.

“Enough of this talking, let us begin…”

Almarine exploded in a halo of green flames, attacking all four masters at once. The dense explosion of fire solidified at four separate places at once. Four of Almarine instantly standing in front of the masters, all striking in various ways.

One of Almarine grabbed a quickly fired arrow from Acu’s bow, snatching it from mid-air, before turning it around to stab at the bowman like she wielded a knife.

At the same time, another of her figures pushed forward with a palm strike toward Rebellion as the master’s own palm moved rapidly toward her own torso. Their palms collided and Rebellion was sent flying through the air end over end, trailing green flames that surged to life at the moment of impact.

Her third form spun with a 360 degree roundhouse kick that Magnus barely dodged. While her fourth form inhaled deeply, before spitting green flames that consumed Merlin, who was almost incinerated; only able to put up a mana shield a mere blink before Almarine’s burst of flames.

Arson stood frozen. Caught in awe as his adoptive mother vanished and reappeared over and over. Explosions of green flames like that of flash bangs as she attacked her foes from various angles.

A form in front of one master was quickly shifted into an attack on another. A constant readjustment on the angles in which each master was attacked, forced all there to be forced onto the back foot. Each master only given opportunities to defend themselves from the barrage, rather than a chance to counter and push themselves into a offensive positions.

Remembering the command he was given Arson drew his bow and decided to stay out of combat as much as possible, not wanting to make the fight for the masters any more difficult. He created his first arrow and fired at Rebellion. The incredible fighter was barely able to stay in the fight; Almarine continually punching or kicking him large distances, allowing her to fight the three other masters primarily.

The only way he could think of helping was to keep Rebellion from the fight as much as possible, limiting his shots to moments where Rebellion would be able to easily dodge or knock away the shots.

She’s going to end up killing them if I don’t do something!

An idea struck Arson and his rate of fire increased. His shots became near misses, the majority of his arrows flying just beside Almarine. Some aimed directly at her back even, but the very aware Almarine sneered as she began to utilize the arrows being sent at her, moving a mere instant before they would strike her. Which quickly begun to result in arrows piercing the masters she fought who were unable to dodge or retaliate.

Sparks… that isn’t going to work...

Magnus’s ear was sliced by one of Arson’s arrows; the stone wall she summoned to block Almarine was not erected fast enough to stop the projectile.

Almarine kicked through the wall, grabbing Magnus by the neck, before she slammed her opponent into the ground with a single hand. An explosion occurred before she reformed above the scrambling woman, heel-dropping Magnus in the spine. Arson lowered his bow in surprise, until Almarine looked at him, waving an upraised finger at him.

“No no no, don’t stop firing now, boy…”

Arson raised his bow and continued, knowing what would happen if he didn’t; his ears still dripping with his own golden blood.

In a momentary lapse of situational awareness, his concentration fixated on the fight, and Arson’s blood began to boil. His heart raced, and an overwhelming exhilaration for the once in a lifetime chance to fight beside his hero pushed him to give the battle his everything.

Jack was summoned and fired conductive Water Orbs, which Arson trailed with arrows to devastating levels of effectiveness. The explosions caused by Almarine fused with the explosive orbs further ensuing chaos all around the masters.

Up became down, hot became cold, and the disorientation that built between the combatants drastically rose to tip the already overwhelming odds more in the favor of Almarine and Arson.

His Ancient of a relative increased the punishment being delivered by forming more copies of herself. Doubling, and tripling the blows that landed on the masters with every blink that passed.

Acu missed more times than Arson had ever seen, and had even given up on only firing at Almarine, but his shots in Arson’s direction were easily handled by Jack and the construct’s explosive projectiles. Arrows caught by Arson’s Living Hand Construct were snapped like twigs after being caught easily, ensuring that Arson was free to fire at them all without the stress of being shot.

Rebellion held up considerably better than Arson believed he would, gaining a growing combat awareness as the fight drew longer. He was able to dodge more blows, and even managed to land a few glancing blows on Almarine, but Arson felt even those hits were nothing more than a trap given to increase Rebellion’s confidence, drawing the fighter in for a far more deadly outcome.

Magnus did her best to slow Almarine down, summoning more and more stone walls; the constructs randomly spewing gouts of magma. Only to be blocked by large hands of solidified green flames made each time Almarine exploded to relocate herself.

Merlin seemed to be the greatest threat, as Arson’s arrows couldn’t come close to her at all. His projectiles slowed and weighed down by a gravitational field the mana shield that surrounded her emanated outward. While Merlin herself summoned an increasing number of lightning bolts from the sky above. Some of the bolts missing by nothing more than a single inch.

A smile spread across Arson’s face momentarily as he realized not only was he aiding in his master's defeat, the threat of his attacks were real and not to be taken lightly. He returned to consciousness after he finally managed to shoot Acu. An arrow able to merge with one of his conductive water orbs, exploding before Acu could deflect the arrow with his bow, just before the arrow pierced directly through the man’s arm.

“Son of uh,” cursed the man, glancing toward Arson, shocked at first, but the master too smiled momentarily, causing Arson to feel a twist of foreign emotion. Instantly feeling bad as he realized that pride in his disciple was what had flashed across Acu’s face.

Before the sensation of ever drowning emotions could fill Arson’s mind any further, a massive boom bloomed outward above them all, and in an instant Osiris’s entire workshop appeared floating in the sky above them with its massive front doors slowly opening.

The battle froze, and all on the roof watched as Osiris and Acu’s grandfather Sea stepped out of the opened door. Osiris floated on a massive tower shield, while Sea stood upon a flying sword, both men speaking at the same time.

“Hello, grandson. Sorry I’m late…”

“Shall we join you, my students?”

Almarine looked around at the battered masters and back toward the two above.

“Bring it on!”