Chapter 160

Chapter 160

Matt was strolling through the crowd with Liz as they made their way to Kyle's upcoming fight when he got a message from Emily through his AI.

Where are you? Hurry the fuck up! Kyle had his opponent changed. Someone used their skip!

Sharing the message with Liz, they stopped meandering and cut a more direct path to Kyles scheduled arena. There, he found a glaring Emily, sitting primarily next to a nervous-looking Tara.

To his surprise, both of the women had put on a little makeup and were out of their armor, dressed in more formal clothes than either usually wore to lounge around.

It seemed that Emily had finally gotten Tara to agree to a date, but his archer friend looked like Aster when she was surprised.

In fact, Melindas entire team had some variation of a worried or scared expression.

He shot Emily a raised eyebrow as they approached, and she pointed at the stage before saying, Can you tell them that Kyle will be fine?

Matt shrugged and parroted, Kyle will be fine. Pausing, he asked, Why would Kyle not be fine?

While he asked, he looked up Kyle's opponent to find out who they were.

At the same time, Melinda answered, Hes fighting the lightning support mage from Dianas team. Graham used his skip to change to Kyle.

Matt frowned.

That was a bad matchup for a low Tier blademage.

Graham was an excellent support mage, and while support mages had weaknesses, they excelled at keeping range, boosting their allies, and occasionally blasting their opponents away. Graham in particular was a menace with his lightning attacks. To make matters worse, he had gotten an insane power boost from a legacy, adding debuffing skills to his repertoire. It gave him the ability to render all of the common Tier 14 anti-debuff skills less than half effective.

Apparently, Graham had been forced to use their solo tournament skip, as he had drawn a match against Nyx, a stupidly strong archer who wouldn't be countered by their new debuffing skills. Nyx had proven themselves strong enough to be a solo Pather, and earned a top spot in the team skip brackets.

Kyle might just end up losing this round.

Looking at the anxious Emily, Matt chewed his lip. She might have a reason to worry that her date was going to be ruined or canceled if Kyle lost his fight.

This was the first time any of them had been put up against a strong contender, and it was an awful matchup for him. Technically, Melinda had already been eliminated, but she had willingly surrendered, like most of the pure healers in the teams had.

Liz tried to be positive. He has a chance to win. Hes been training hard on becoming a good blademage. She paused before adding, And even if he loses, he can fight his way through the losers bracket until the top one thousand, where he can earn his place back in.

Matt nodded. When they finally whittled the hundreds of thousands of competitors down to the top one thousand teams and individuals for their respective tournaments, anyone in the losers bracket who hadnt taken a loss would have the opportunity to challenge anyone in the top thousand for their place.

It wasn't ideal, but a single loss to a bad counter didnt mean that Kyle would be completely screwed.

But Matt wasn't sure if Kyle could win this upcoming fight.

Even he would have an issue fighting Graham without [Cracked Phantom Armor] to tank the hits from the mage.

Annie arrived minutes before the start of the fight and threw herself into Conor's lap, pouting.

Her arrival caught everyone off guard, but her boyfriend was the first to speak. How did the training go?

Her sister didnt let her get a word out before asking, Why the hell do you have a mini tree?

Annie bared her teeth at her sister, and then at the tree in her lap before growling, My trainer said this would be all I need for making my Concept. It's useless, though. It's a stupid overgrown bonsai tree. I don't need this! I dont think I need this?

Matt didnt miss that she sounded a lot less confident by the end of her statement.

Liz carefully prodded, What happened?

Annie slumped over and fell into her own seat before saying, So I bought the Concept help package, and I met with the teacher. Annie paused at that and looked as if she swallowed a lemon, but she recovered. Whatever. The teacher gave me some overly esoteric advice that was effectively useless. When I didnt instantly create my Concept from her stupid ideas, she showed me her garden and peppered me with a bunch of questions to try and explain more obtuse shit. When I didnt understand that nonsense, she kicked my ass out the door with this weird mini bonsai tree.

She held up the two-inch tall tree before glowering at it.

Matt probed it with his spiritual perception to find that it was a simple Tier 1 tree of no real value.

Emily rolled her eyes at her sister, And she said nothing else? I swear you don't pay attention to shit people actually say. You just absorb every third word. What did she specifically tell you, stupid? She gave you a tree; that must mean something.

Annie snarked right back, She said something about the guards, but I was frustrated at that point, so I stopped paying attention.

Emily snapped back, Did you make it past her first few sentences before you zoned out?

Fuck you! I didnt zone out, I just didnt understand what she was getting at with her riddles and shit.

Fuck you right back! Those were our team points, and it seems like you squandered them. If you dont understand, look at your AI. It records everything.

Annie looked guilty and wilted like a flower.

Conor rubbed her back, What did she say about the tree?

Annie sighed. She said it was a normal ass tree.

Liz cocked her head to the side disbelievingly. That's it? Really?

Yes, really. I asked like twenty times, and she just kept saying that it was a normal tree. And before that, she was just talking about gardening techniques. I listened, I really did. I just dont really understand how it applies. Im an assassin, not a florist. But there was something. It's like I can almost touch it, but I can't put my finger on it.

Melinda tried to be encouraging, Well, maybe you only need a normal tree?

Before she could properly respond, Vinnie interrupted, Also, aren't bonsai trees also usually more well-trimmed? To keep them healthy and all? That thing is a mess.

Annie paused as she heard that, and then her face morphed into flabbergasted contemplation. Matt asked what just popped up into his head. And when she said guards, did she mean the Gardeners? Tur'stals gardener guards that she employs?

Annie looked like he had just shocked her as she plopped down. Then Matt felt something in her pop and shift as her spirit flexed and grew.

Like a seedling sprouting from the earth, her true Concept broke apart the bottled one that she currently held in her spirit, and pushed through the cheap imitation to make room in her core.

***

Annie desperately wanted to curse at Matt and Vinnie's words, but it had given her the inspiration to finally finalize both her Phrase and Image.

She had resisted variations of brutal assassination-based Concepts for nearly two decades now, as she didnt want to be the type of person that relished in killings like that. She knew that sometimes a good assassin was needed, but she didnt want to only do wetwork.

She didnt want to be defined by her Talent, no matter how much she enjoyed it.

When she had spent nearly all of her team's points for a Concept trainer, she had expected someone high Tier to help her. What she hadnt expected was to see Tur'stal sipping at a glass of wine.

She was half-convinced that she had gone to the wrong room, but the royal had shut the door behind her with a wave of her hand and told Annie to sit down.

After that, Annie had been so flustered, she had missed most of what the royal said, and it was only when Tur'stal brought her out to look at her garden that she was given the bonsai tree and sent on her way.

It wasnt every day that you meet a royal, and she hadnt been prepared for such a big moment.

Sit down, Annie. Ive been impressed with how well youve been doing without your own Concept. You do more than just hold your own, in fact. That's impressive, and people have taken note.

Annie swallowed at the implication, So Im one of the only people who don't have a Concept on The Path at this point?

That was so embarrassing, she hoped it wasn't true.

On the Path all together? No. At this tournament? One of a handful, and the only one whos doing well in spite of that fact.

Hearing that was too embarrassing for words, but Annie forced herself to listen to what Tur'stal said next. A garden can represent a grander image than just plants in a greenhouse. They can represent life and growth. Hardship and triumph. Struggle and success. Life and death.

Tur'stal flipped over her hand and a small flower grew, bloomed, and died before fading away to dust.

Annie felt like there were giant question marks hovering over her head, but she resisted the urge to say anything.

Tur'stal is a royal. She must have a point. Right?

But you can look at nearly any Concept image and get the result you desire, if youre clever enough. A flame image can be more about heat. It can be a representation of love and passion. It can even symbolize returning to your mothers embrace. It can be anger and rage, or it can represent whatever else truly fuels you. Its your phrase that helps narrow down your image. Why do you feel a draw to gardens?

Annie shrugged helplessly. I don't know. I can tell that theres something about my Concept and gardens that isn't just about stabbing things, but I can't figure it out. I even worked part time at a plant store for a few months, but I got absolutely nothing out of it.

Tur'stal nodded and started to repeat things about life and nature, and how they link and mirror society, but Annie was lost. It all felt like pointless small talk that she would normally only half-listen to.

Eventually, Tur'stal had caught on that she was losing Annie's attention, and she brought her out to see said garden.

That had been impressive, but when Tur'stal started to talk about how she managed the place, Annie was lost again.

She was more interested in how the garden had a wild look, while also clearly having the touch of guidance. Annie just knew if she could get a shovel and start to dig around, she could discover something.

Her not stabbing things Concept was resonating with some ephemeral idea, but she couldn't put her spiritual finger on exactly what it was.

She flushed as she cringed at the memory of Tur'stal handing her the tree.

She asked, What good is this? Am I supposed to meditate under it? As her imagination ran wild, she asked, Is the tree going to make a fruit that gives me powers?

The woman was a royal, after all. Her gifts should be as magical as she herself was.

Instead, the woman had given her a flat look. The tree is a little small to be sitting under, but youre welcome to wear it like a hat if that helps.

Annie must have given the tree a weird look because the royal quickly added, That was a joke. It's a perfectly normal tree you could buy at any garden shop. If me hinting at what I believe your Concept is verbally isn't going to work, I hope this will work better.

Annie just looked at the tree, But how?Ñøv€lRapture marked the initial hosting of this chapter on Ñôv€lß¡n.

Tur'stal must have finally lost her patience, as that was when she waved her hand and lifted Annie out of the room, calling out, For fucks sake, girl. I can feel that youre right there. Go think about what I said about gardening and keeping things healthy. I can drown a horse, but I can't make it drink.

With that final statement, she had been teleported out.

It wasnt like what Emily said, and she wasnt air brained. She was really good at remembering things, but with this Concept stuff, she felt lost and out of her depth.

Despite his words, he circled around Kyle to approach him from the side.

Matt smiled as he saw Kyle charging a [Mana Charge] in his blade. Outwardly, the skill was nigh identical to [Mana Slash], but Matt knew that his friend had both.

Most considered [Mana Charge] a mages skill, but after seeing how Matt abused it in close range, Kyle had also picked the skill up during their blademage training with Kurt.

Kyle slowly moved his blade to touch the ground as Graham neared him and leaned in to stab him.

Right when Graham was going to place the blade against his neck to claim the win, Kyle unleashed the stored energy into the arena, sending stones flying in every direction from the explosion.

Graham was sent tumbling back, but the immobilized Kyle was forced to take most of the damage without being able to roll to dissipate the energy. But despite the explosion shredding his armor, he had managed to break the debuffing skill.

Turning and charging, he was only inches away from skewering the mage when he was hit with a [Jolt], and without his armor, he seized up before falling to the ground, smoking.

He tried to lunge from the ground with a dagger, but Graham hit him with another [Slowing Shot] before throwing out another two [Jolt]s.

It was only after that third shot the referee intervened, calling the end of the match.

As Kyle was pulled out and all of them got out of their seats to visit him in the hospital, Matt saw the blood running down Graham's face. While it hadn't been a vital hit, he had a deep wound that cut to his skull. It was large enough it left a flap of hair and skin falling down, covering one eye.

Kyle might have lost the fight, but he had surprised his opponent, and taken his own pound of flesh.

To their surprise, Kyle was in good spirits when they were finally allowed to see him, just half an hour later.

He was actually listening to the announcer's recap of his fight and smiling along.

His first words to them surprised Matt. Ha! I kicked ass out there. I didnt expect it to work at all, and I almost got him. Im awesome!

Seeing their friend in a good mood, everyone relaxed, despite Melinda trying to mother him. She fussed even after personally healing him, despite the official healers already doing their job.

Once he was cleared, Kyle pulled them all to meet up with Dianas team and Graham, who had messaged him after the fight and offered to get him a drink.

It turned into a good celebration, despite the loss.

Annie had created her Concept, and Kyle had made a fantastic showing. He even came away with a new friend in Graham.

Later on, Emily and Tara snuck away to a dark corner, and have a more private dinner between the two of them.

Matt considered that win too.

***

The next day, the fights continued, and everyone gathered themselves for their own matches. In the fourth month, Quill was finally pitted against a decently strong opponent.

As they were lowered into the arena, he nodded to his counterpart as he mentally organized his talismans, planning for how he would take out his newest opponent.

His current opposition was something of a dark horse in the competition, and favored a rare sound-based blademage style.

Or rather, fistmage.

Surely, Rusty was observing the other fist-fighter with anticipation.

Quill was just wondering how hed deal with the sound-based attacks. If he was able to use [Cracked Phantom Armor] as Matt, he could easily counter the man, but he didnt have an easy counter ready as Quill.

Seth stood stock still as they were lowered into the arena, but Quill didnt miss the throwing knife he had preemptively palmed before walking out.

He hadnt been able to hide that tactic for all of his fights, as he had been pushed to show more of his power.

When the countdown reached zero, Quill instantly prepared half a dozen [Air Barrier] talismans as his counter to the inevitable sound-based attacks, but also braced to have his eardrums ruptured. The earplugs he brought would be as useless as they had been for everyone else who fought Seth before him.

Still, it was worth a try with the quick-and-dirty sound repelling enchantment he had put on them.

Seth bullrushed forward with a speed that belied the fact he wore heavy armor, and Quill threw out a few probing [Fireball] talismans to little effect.

The man let out little yips, which popped each of the fireballs mid flight.

They were thirty feet away from each other when Seth unleashed his signature screech, [Banshees Wail]. It was so loud and fast that it created a layer of compressed air as it smashed into Quills [Wind Barrier] talisman.

Even with that defense, the earplugs were overloaded and the enchantment was disrupted.

But the [Wind Barrier] had done its job, and blunted most of the attack.

Seth tried to close the distance, but Quill threw out a pair of [Earth Wall] talismans to create a small trap around the sound mage, hoping to buy a little space to retreat with before flanking the man.

To his surprise, he forced Seth to use a thus far unseen skill. The man screamed into the wall, causing it to shake and collapse like it was made of blocks.

Seth punched out as Quill launched two of the stronger [Fire Bolt] talismans, but his opponents punch cracked the air, sending a pulse of sound in a projectile. The two attacks canceled each other out, but Quill thought he saw a glimmer of a solution in the pattern of attacks.

Letting Seth approach, he threw out a [Create Water] talisman, and used [Earth Manipulation] to mix the two quickly. With some mud between them, he watched as Seth stepped into the slippery mess.

Not one to sit still, Seth launched a preemptive [Banshees Wail], but Quill cast [Air Burst] at the same time.

The two attacks canceled each other out, which let Quill cast a [Jolt] at Seth as he rolled out of the mud.

His attack landed on Seths armor and caused him to jerk a little, but it didnt take the man out of the fight.

On his knees, Seth punched out and caught Quill in the chest with a [Sonic Punch].

Taking the hit, Quill felt the sound vibrations rupture his ears, and the world went silent as he felt the hit land on his chest.

It was less effective than a more traditional [Mana Punch], or any of the elemental variations, but it bypassed more of his armor to strike at his fleshly insides.

Quill cast [Jolt] once again while loading a five talisman array into his staff.

The attack was traded with a silent clap of Seths hands that caused a wave of visible sound to slam into Quill.

Even as he slid across the arena, he cast the talisman array, and the area turned slightly dark as storm clouds started to form, and the wind started to pick up.

A miniature tornado reached the arena floor despite Seths attempts at clapping it away.

Seth turned to him and said something, but Quill was deafened, and didnt bother asking his AI to read the man's lips.

He just snarked, Not nice to deafen a man then try to hold a conversation.

Throwing out two [Wind Blade]s, he cast [Air Manipulation] to guide the tornado, and used some of the energy in the array to send out some [Wind Blade]s from the cyclone of wind. Quill had tried to make a talisman array that would suck all the air out of an area for this fight, but he hadn't managed to make it stable enough to be broken down into a few talismans. It was a shame, because it would have ended this fight instantly.

It was when his attack landed and Seth exploded into dark smoke that Quill knew something was wrong, and he rolled to the side on instinct.

Seth had never used illusions before, and it wasnt a good sign that he was using them now.

Coming out of his roll, Quill jerkily scanned the arena.

It only took a second to see the misshapen blob of shadow fluttering around the edges of the dark cloud.

Quill launched a [Wind Blade] at the darkness and directed his tornado at the location, blowing the smoke away.

Seth was revealed, and Quill saw that he had taken his time in concealment to drink a healing potion, if the bottle rolling around on the floor was anything to go off of.

Still, Quill didnt let up, and sent another wave of attacks at Seth to hopefully keep him at bay long enough to whittle him and his heavy armor down.

Seth rushed Quill and either dissipated the attacks he sent at him, or took them on his heavy armor.

Just as the wind array was ending, Seth threw a ball of black, exploding smoke and concealed the battlefield once again. Except this time, Quill was inside the darkness.

Cursing, he readied an [Air Burst], but a punch landed on his shoulder and sent him tumbling to the ground, as his armor failed to absorb the damage.

Spinning, Quill caught Seths legs and tripped the heavily armored man, sending the both of them to the ground. Rolling the two of them over during the struggle for grappling position, Quill was finally able to get into a guard, taking two hits to his kidneys as Seth tried to get him out of the advantageous spot.

Seth tried to buck Quill, but he was a second too slow, and Quill got the [Air Burst] off.

The explosion of air was at point-blank range, and Quill heard the crack as his head slammed into the ground behind him.

As the fight wasnt interrupted by the referee, he slapped an explosion talisman on Seth's chest for good measure, before rolling off and activating a [Mana Barrier].

That finally ended the fight, in contrast to his fight against the gems four months ago.

The fights were getting harder as the tournament progressed, but slapping a dazed opponent with 5,000 mana set to explode was usually a good way to ensure someone's defeat. The fight might have only lasted a few minutes, but it had been a hard won victory.

With the smoke cleared, Quill staggered to his feet before waving off the referee who had been about to teleport him out of the arena.

Cracking his neck, he walked over to his fallen staff and picked it up before walking to the podium that lowered him into the arena.

As he exited the enspelled arena, Quill looked around to the crowd and put his hand to his ear, calling out, I can't hear you!

Despite his reputation being both good and bad, people loved a victor, and he could feel the screams of the crowd.

Waving to the flying drones, he hopped off the stage and walked over to the healer's station, where he sat down and kicked his feet up on an adjacent chair as if he didnt have a care in the world.

It was all an act; he hurt all over from the sound-based attacks, but he needed to put on a good show.

As Luna beat into him over and over, Ascenders were more than human. They could not be allowed to show weakness. They were meant to be near mythical cultivators, not humans who hurt after a fight. No matter how false that idea was.

An Ascender was a sign of hope for the Empire, and Quill tried to project that invincibility to the watching crowds.

No matter how bad the damage, he would always be ready for another round. When things got hard, they could look to Quill and Torch for comfort.

For hope.