Rise of the Living Forge

Rounds of the tournament wore on. Arwin watched them with an odd mixture of interest and apathy. There wasn’t anything wrong with the adventurers on the field. At this point, every single person that still remained was an incredibly talented individual in their own rights.

Many of them put on incredible fights. If they’d been for any sort of purpose, Arwin would have been impressed.

But to him… this just felt like theatre. Arwin knew the need to understand the abilities of those under one’s command. The Secret Eye had their purpose in the kingdom, even if parts of their organization were rotted to the core.

It just wasn’t a purpose he cared for. Arwin didn’t draw any joy from watching people pretend to try and kill each other. He was, however, relieved to see that nobody else had gotten killed so far.

Just because he didn’t care that the assassins had died didn’t mean he wanted to watch as people slaughtered each other for the sake of entertainment.

But for the most part, the teams seemed to be playing aboveground. That, and the healers were definitely far more attentive after the incident in the first round of the tournament. It seemed they didn’t have any plans of losing more people, which was probably wise.

The Secret Eye wouldn’t get a very good reputation if they killed half the people that showed up to their tournaments.

“Whoa,” Reya said from beside Arwin, leaning so far over the railing that Arwin was tempted to pull her back so she wouldn’t fall. She’d returned about an hour after setting out to meet Olive. “Did you see that? That was awesome!”

“What?” Arwin blinked and glanced back to the arena. A fight had just ended and he’d completely missed it. “No, sorry. I was distracted. What did I miss?”

It didn’t even look like they’d had much of a fight. From what he could tell, none of the three had even budged from their starting spot — and none of them were armed with any visible weapons.”

“That dude just pointed at the other team and floated them off the stage,” Reya said. “That seems kind of unfair, doesn’t it? It was definitely cool, though. I hope he can’t do that against Olive. He can’t, can he?”

Some manner of telekinesis? That’s one powerful telekinetic if he’s able to lift three people and toss them wherever he wants. Not too common to see mages clad in heavy armor like that either. Interesting.

“I’m sure Olive will have a way to deal with it. What team is—”

“And just like that, Starforge’s team advances to the next round without so much as budging from the spot they started the fight on!” Kraven’s voice boomed through the crowd, but there was a distinct note of annoyance in it. A team getting eliminated so easily might have been impressive, but it didn’t exactly make for a very good show.

Arwin’s lips thinned at his announcement and he took a closer look at the three adventurers that were already heading off the platform and back to their lodgings. It was difficult to make out much from where he stood, but they definitely carried themselves like they knew what they were doing.

“Did you catch anything else important that happened during the fight?” Arwin asked sheepishly. “I might have spaced out a bit harder than I was planning on.”

“It only lasted a few seconds. The guy just tossed the enemy team off the platform,” Reya replied with a shake of her head. “Even a long blink would have been enough for you to miss it. There was basically no fight at all.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.@@novelbin@@

Not exactly what I wanted to hear. I’m sure Olive and Art’s teams saw what just happened, though. They’ll already be thinking on a way to deal with that ability… and so will everyone else.

That certainly begs a question.

“Why would they reveal such a powerful skill now?” Arwin mused, his brow furrowing in thought. “Being able to lift your opponents right off the platform and automatically win the fight by disqualifying them is a ridiculously useful power. It should have been kept as a trump card. Now that people know about it, they’re going to be working on ways to counter it.”

“Maybe that’s the only thing the guy can do?” Reya offered.

“Maybe,” Arwin allowed. But he wasn’t so convinced. “That power is strong, but it’s not without a way to counter it. People with ranged attacks will go for him first now, and you can always find a way to bind yourself to the ground. I doubt he’s powerful enough to rip the whole arena up.” ŕÃℕ𝐨𝖇Ě𝐬

“You think they’re planning something?” Reya asked.

Arwin nodded slightly. “Maybe I’m just being paranoid. But if I had to guess…”

***

“…Starforge is revealing that ability because their actual trump card is considerably stronger,” Art concluded.

He always did his best to be as impartial as possible in his analysis of anything, but a burning note of anger lit in his chest and refused to leave for as long as the Starforge team was still in sight.

This was the guild that had hunted men from his family. Sure, there was no official way to prove it in a way that would get back at the guild, but that changed nothing. Given what he’d learned of the Adventurer’s Guild, he didn’t trust them to properly punish any misdeeds anyways.

That would have to fall onto their own shoulders.

“We’ll get our chance,” Vix said from beside Art, her words as cold as ice. “You can deal with the Gravity Mage, right? His magic is fucking ridiculous. It’s going to completely stop us in our tracks before the fight even starts.”

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll handle him,” Art confirmed. Cards rifled through his hands in a blur before he slammed them back together in their deck. “I’m far more worried about what the twins are capable of. One controls fire, the other water. They haven’t revealed any of their abilities yet — which means they’re the biggest threat. I don’t know how much stronger they’ve become since I last got information on them.”

“You have history with this team,” Kien said. It was a statement, not a question.

“We do,” Vix said. “Starforge is a guild of snake bastards. They’re trying to steal Thornhelm from our father by undermining his influence and attacking our people whenever they get an opportunity to get away with it. Unfortunately, they’re also very good at covering their tracks. We’ve only been able to get word of mouth proof to what they’re doing.”

Kien’s lips thinned. “That is not the purpose of a guild. More and more, I realize that this kingdom has gone awry. It is rotted to the core. The purpose of guilds is not one of power. It is to provide a service to the people of the kingdom, be that protection or any other.”

“You might want to let them know,” Art said dryly. “But something tells me they aren’t going to listen.”

“The unwilling student never listens until they are left with no other choice,” Kien said quietly. “I would know. Rest assured. We will not fall to this team.”

“Not that I’d argue with you, but if you’ve got some strategy we can use against them or an ability that you think would turn the tides, I’d love to know about it,” Art said. “It’s much easier for me to plan when I know the full extent of what we can all do.”

Kien leveled a flat look in his direction. “I understand your dilemma.”

Several moments ground by where nobody said anything. Art tilted his head to the side, but the silence didn’t seem to bother Kien in the slightest.

“Does… that mean you’re going to tell me?” Art asked.

“No,” Kien said. The faintest flicker of a smile crossed over his features. “Do your plans with the information you have. If there is one thing I have learned in life, it is that we must always strive to improve. See if you can determine a method to defeat this enemy of yours without relying on abilities you haven’t seen.”

Art’s eyes narrowed. “The stakes we face are far too high for me to be making pointless bets like that. There’s more than just honor on the line here. Vix’s life depends on us. We need to win this tournament.”

“Then I suggest you plan intensely,” Kien said. “And you are mistaken. This is not pointless. Life — the Mesh — exists to push you further. But it can only push you as far as you are willing to go. You should take every opportunity to become more than what you were. If you cannot, then complacency will defeat you far before your enemies ever get the chance.”

“I feel like there’s a time and a place for that,” Vix said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “But this—”

“You cannot choose all of your battles,” Kien interrupted. “Do not mistake me. I will not lose this tournament until the monster that was my brother no longer draws breath. He is my responsibility. I will face him, no matter who arises in our way first. But I will not bring children into our fight. I will only bring of equal standing. If you are unable to develop a method to defeat these enemies of yours, then I will face him alone.”