Chapter 27: Extraordinarily Ordinary

  Fay let his feet leave the comfort of the sand floor, now floating in the lake with Millie beside him. He was doing the calculations in his head. Even without many variables, he knew Grace could handle all of them. If she was a tenth of Millie's strength, they still would have a hard time. “What chances do you give them?” he asked her, seeing half her face under the water, her eyes peeking out just a little.

  “Mmmm.” She popped out, her words bubbled up through the water, “depends, if it’s Marx, Lily, Jason and Joey I’d say around 1%”

  “Yeah…” Fay swam deeper into the water, “remember when I first got here and killed a bunch of fish, and everyone was so shocked.” He swam further, “I actually came back to kill all those snaky eels, yesterday.”

  “I know.” She followed him, them both reaching the middle of the lake, where nothing was trying to bite them. “I remember seeing you there, tired, risking your life and thinking that maybe you would be the one to reach forever.” She smiled.

  “Reach forever?”

  “Yes.” She moved both her arms out, letting them float around her, her shoulders poked out and rested along the surface tension of the lake. “Us prophets live forever. It’s how we survive so long.”

  He figured as much. “How?”

  She didn’t respond, rather, she just stared at a distant point behind him and he got the faint impression that it was something horrible. He saw fire rise in the distance, smoke and embers burning the rest of what was a beautiful forest down to the ground. “If I was there what would the chances of them winning be?”

  “Zero.” She splashed some water at him, “because I’d stop you.”

  He looked at his reflection in the water, he felt like he couldn’t even recognise what details were the same and what were different, he wondered if he went back to that island if anyone he once knew would remember him, “ah… so I’m not stalling you, you’re stalling me…” He smiled at her, “tell me… what happens when this is over?”

  “Well… you go back to the platform, midnight, we take you to the prophets’ center which is at the top of the hill and we get your class and profession changed… then you need to wait a rotation to join the next sacrifice and prove your loyalty… then you come back with hopefully the right skills, blood mana infusion mostly, and… stock regeneration, if you don't then we dispose of you, but you will. I know you will. Then… you live forever, you will sometimes have to go through rotations to keep your strength, we have around 20 prophets, excluding the main one who doesn’t go on rotations. The one who talks on that stage. Two per rotation, every year, so you will spend your days eating and sleeping and doing whatever you desire.” She sold this like it was a ware that he was thinking of buying, “doesn’t that sound wonderful Fay?”

  It sounded perfect, really, to do nothing for most of a year. “Yeah…”

  “And I’ll be there to guide you.” She planted a hand on his chest, softly brushing against his collar-bones and then sliding up to his neck, “we can be the greatest of friends.”

  Oh… Fay slightly leaned away, feeling stricken with some emotions he couldn't exactly control. “Yeah?”

  “Yes.” Millie kicked away from Fay and swam into the deepest part of the lake, “all you have to do is win, and I know a winner when I see one.”

  He followed her, swimming towards her and ending up to her side, “you kill people.”

  “Once a year. I’m not fond of it like others are. I felt a great deal of sadness when I stopped Bark’s heart.” She turned to him, expecting any sort of reaction, finding none on the surface. “I guess the question is, do you love yourself more than you love others? I find the answer with most mammals, monsters, fish, is that when it comes down to it, when that spark of heroism is burnt out… when you just want it to be over. Everyone chooses the same thing.”

  He wasn’t all that convinced, mothers died for their children, sacrifices don’t simply try to run away or kill the crowd. “Yeah…” he shut his eyes, liking the relaxation this all was bringing him.

  “This will take some time… we aren't all that strong because of some vows, just endurant, could take hours for the battle to end… we’re like venus fly traps, you see.”

  —

  “I just want to live Marx!” Joey struck the side of Marx with the handle of the scythe. Marx grabbed the handle that dug into his ribs and ignited it, burning both of Joey’s hands until he had to drop his weapon.

  Marx fell back, his arm was purple now from the poison, he felt stupid for letting himself be caught off guard like that. He still didn’t want to kill the boy, even if he could easily turn him into a crispy piece of meat. “Please...” He watched as Joey picked up the scythe once more and charged for him with killing intent. Marx moved a wave of flame to create a veil and dodged out of the way. Joey ran through the fire and slashed where Marx was once standing, burns trailing along his armor and hair.

  Marx conjured some flame along his arm wound and seared it closed so it would stop bleeding so much, he also hoped it would thwart the poison but knew it was unlikely, rot had already spread all the way to his bicep, looking bruised. “Joey I can kill you, just give up.” Marx said as Joey mindlessly charged yet again, blindly swiping the scythe towards his chest. Marx tried to move but his heart suddenly missed a beat and he was unable to move his body, the scythe passed along his chest.

  He landed back-first on the ground with the cut spanning from his shoulder to his ribs. Joey landed on top of him and held the scythe against his neck, “I’m sorry.” He began to cry as the weapon slid slowly along his neck in a sawing motion. Marx’s hands were trying to hold it back, feeling the blade dig into his fingers. He was doing it slowly, painfully enough to make Marx put his hand on Joey’s chest, planning to fire a compact flame right through his chest, to kill him, to kill another living breathing human being.

  Jason then kicked Joey off, breaking his ribs instantly and making him crash into the floor like a skipping stone, bouncing two to three times before a rock stopped the motion. “Stop breathing Marx.” He said, “poison stops if…” he wiped at his mouth, seeing that Joey was still awake and rising, using the scythe as a walking stick.

  “I yield!” Joey shouted, landing on his knees, “I yield!” He fell onto his stomach, Marx did as well, landing on his knees as the poison finally took his breath away.

  Jason, looking back at the fight and knowing he would just get in the way, grouped Joey and Marx together and carried them like a bundle of sticks away from the fight so they wouldn't get hurt. He wanted to join in, but he needed to find a way to clean Marx’s wounds and keep him alive.

  He found a spot where two large boulders met and placed them both onto the ground, he was watching Marx’s wounds intently, the spread had slowed quite a bit, likely because his vitality won out. “Where is Fay…” he spoke to himself, falling to rest beside them, deciding he wasn’t good enough for any of this. He shut his eyes and felt the passing of time, it was wonderful.

  —

  The sun was now at an afternoon glow, the sky pink and beautiful and sent rays down onto the ground. Lily’s and Grace’s shadows were long and distracting. No matter what Grace did she just couldn’t get Lily to fall over herself, even when she tripped her body would continue on. A couple of times she passed out and her body kept stringing along.

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  Roots slammed against Lily’s side, what would’ve broken her spine simply slid off as she twisted around the root until she was on the other end of the velocity. The root slammed into a couple of trees and split them apart with a whip crack. It was like Lily was covered completely with butter or oil. “You’re getting tired.” Grace noticed, she was panting now, while Grace used up two more regenerations and was breathing healthily. “If you just say ‘I give up’ I’ll let you go.” She lied, “I promise.” She lied.

  “Haah…?” She let in a big suck of air, her teeth whistled slightly as she exhaled, she genuinely couldn’t remember how long she had been fighting, “I’m fine, I am.” She wondered how she was even keeping up at this point, her class was rare but the skill seemed completely ordinary. She was around level 2 and barely had anything in agility, nor any accessories or a good profession. But neither did Grace, perhaps they were not allowed to collect any.

  “Fine.” Grace was contemplating ending this fight quickly, she had one more skill up her sleeve but it used up a lot of mana and if she failed she would have to take some time to recoup. She couldn’t use her blessing power on herself, because that would break some vows. “Okay, let's end this then.” Grace lifted her hand, “May the blessed sun split an eighth and rain its weather into me.” Her hand began to glow a bright white, it was a spell that could destroy the entire forest if not prepared correctly. She hadn’t tried this one before, it was burning up stocks as she kept having to regenerate to contain it within her body. Before she could point it at Lily, her hand was cut cleanly off by an invisible force.

  “Oh!” Thomas walked up behind her, “save that one for me.” He flung Grace into a tree, breaking her back. She regenerated mid-air and landed cleanly on the ground, her hand regrown. He looked at Lily and grew quite irritated that she was still alive, “be gone.” He tried flinging her up in the air, but her bones somehow crawled their way through the skill, finding their way out and landing on their side.

  Thomas looked at the girl, having a confused look on his face, “oh you’ve been a busy bug haven’t you?” He laughed, then turned back to Grace who had somehow gotten her hand back. “High vitality?” He wasn’t all that sure, despite his preparations and noble background even he was not told what the prophets' whims were, he was in the dark with only a couple of nasty rumours about the people that his family chose to ignore.

  “Almost…” Grace clicked her tongue, feeling her arm which still had the tingles of the spell she was about to use, wasteful, it was. That burned through four regenerations worth of stock. “You’re the one with telekinesis? Right?” She held her hand out, “we have no problems with you, lovely, you are one we are to take back.”

  “I. Don’t. Care.” Thomas slammed two spells together, creating sparks in the air and chucking the reflective force right into Grace, cutting her head off at the neck. A bright flash happened and she was back into one piece again.

  “We offer you immortality.” She watched Lily get her breath back, “if you kill her we offer you forever.” She smiled, “immortality and power, doesn’t that sound beautiful?”

  “I don't care.” He flung Lily into Grace, letting Lily slip around and cut Grace along the nape, cutting it cleanly enough to warrant yet another regeneration. “You think you can buy me off? I had everything already. I just want to feel alive again. And this place, these fights, all these life and deaths…” He palmed his face with both hands and felt the euphoria wash over him, “I’m finally happy.”

  Grace regenerated, “we offer you life.”

  “You don’t look alive, nor happy.” He tried cutting her again but she dodged, the skill was far slower than usual telekinesis, usually because the speed was limited to the force of the strike, and he didn’t have mana for both sharpness and speed.

  Lily took her breath again, panting with her forehead on the dirt, “ohhh man I’m tired.” She saw Thomas fling Grace up into the air and then dissect her arms and legs and torso, before she popped it all back together with a regeneration and fell, breaking both her legs and using the roots to slap Thomas back into a tree. He was far slower than Lily, and the roots had to be removed one by one just for him to get out of the way in time.

  She tried to catch him as he controlled his own body with the skill, throwing himself back like a ragdoll, avoiding trees and rocks by flicking his finger left and right. He had the biggest smile on his face as he did so, watching Grace try to grab him like she was a cat trying to bite its own tail. “Are you holding back, cutie?” His arm slammed into the tree and almost broke before he rose above the horizon and placed himself atop a branch. “Such a pretty face, shame to have it frown.” He flicked his wrist and tore her face off by focusing the skill on the tip of her nose. She regenerated rather quickly, not enjoying dying so often.

  “Why are you so strong?” She questioned, he was off on his own this entire time, both Millie and Grace assumed he would die, “did you cheat?”

  “Hah… I did.” He hopped down from the branch, “My papa is rich, some gold on some runes and here I am.” He saw that Grace was spinning her hand in a mixing motion, “are those roots your only skill-”

  He felt the ground rupture beneath him, a giant root, fit for a tree that reached the clouds, sent a shockwave that burst his eardrums, and with the loss of balance he was lifted atop of the root as it shot upright like a giant tentacle of a kraken. Thomas flicked himself back and stayed up in the air, holding himself up as the root continued to rise, far above him. It twisted and bent and made the ground below become a giant sinkhole, giant clumps of dirt flung out and landed some way away.

  The root twisted and tried to swipe at Thomas, though he shot himself away, rising up higher to the point where the air became very thin, he planned to reach the clouds but was stopped by a barrier. “Huh…” in the heat of the moment he pressed his fingers against it, and then pushed as hard as he could, feeling the barrier bend and rip against the force. Cracks began to form all around the shape, on the far ends, by the magical forest, by the swamps, the lakes and the rivers. He pushed and pushed until it was too much and the barrier snapped, raining down as pure mana, looking like a blizzard's worth of snow.

  Lily saw it all, a thin veil of white that the sky had turned into, it began to fall onto the ground like hail, smashing into the floor and coating everything with pure white. “YOU IDIOT!” Grace screamed, “YOU IDIOT!!!” The sound was overwhelming, nobody could hear anything but the constant crashing and slicing of the rainfall. Eventually it stopped and the sky was shown yet again. The giant root was disabled and fell onto the floor, taking out a few trees with it.

  Grace watched the distance, this had happened only five times in the history of these rotations, the last one being 20 years ago since most of the time the prophets have a good handle on the wildcards. It was called breaking the tank and allowed sacrifices, if they had enough strength, to fight more level fours, higher level fours. “They’ll be rushing in now… crap… crap…” Grace looked at Lily, “stand up! Stand up!” She ran over and pulled Lily upright, “forget our battle… just…” she remembered the story. 20 years ago this girl who happened to get a rare class and rare skill from pure luck got strong enough and accidentally broke the barrier. Nobody came back that day, losing two prophets.

  Lily noticed that Grace looked genuinely fearful, she was shaking and brushing her hair, trying to fix it, “what the hell is wrong with this group…” she said in a whisper, then looked at Lily, “go find Fay, Millie, get them here please.”

  Lily cut Grace along the neck, then hopped back, watching the girl with genuine enjoyment. Grace regenerated after she fell to the floor with her hands along her neck. “No.” Lily told her.

  “What is wrong with all of you!?” She scrambled backwards and looked all around her, “this isn't normal!” She wanted to find Joey, no, screw Joey, she wanted to find Millie.

  —

  “That looks bad.” Millie said, putting on her clothes in the snake cave after she had dried herself off, the ground had a white layer on it now, and the lake had somehow fully dried up because the mana soaked up all the moisture, leaving a few flapping fish on the exposed bed. “Well…” She looked at Fay, who was drying off as well. They were waiting for the fight to end, and while it was taking some time, Fay respected the rules and didn’t try to intervene.

  “That was loud…” he whispered, he wasn’t even sure what had happened, it was all so quick, “what does this mean? For the… thing.”

  “Means this is no ordinary rotation, how exciting.” She held her hands together in a praying motion, “this is truly a beautiful first rotation for you, Fay, I’ve to admit I thought this would go ordinarily, but alas, extraordinary people do extraordinary things. What a great batch.” She was getting excited, “my blood is excited too.” She placed a hand on her heart and felt it.

  “I should find Lily…” Fay tried to convince himself.

  “Oh yes, truly, she has a special class you know, even I was shocked, the rarest of the rare. Oizys is the daimona of misery you see, wonderful that we have proof that they are still watching us… if Grace dies she would be quite the replacement.”

  Fay buckled back on his armour, “you’re suggesting…?” He felt a flood of relief enter his system.

  “We will see…” she buttoned up her robe, “people trip and fall, and I’m to guess a lot of falling will happen. Level threes, twos, fours will be storming this place very soon. It’ll be an endless rush. Thousands, tens of thousands.”

  Fay groaned and played with his shoulder, “can you heal this?”

  “I can't calcify the bone, it'll stop it from functioning.” She walked over and moved the leather armour to be slightly down, letting the fabric along his collar breathe. “You’ll find your way, you have luck on your side.” She brushed his hair, feeling the now silky texture from the fresh lake water.

  Even though Fay was allured by all the promises, he still felt like there was something she was leaving out. Killing helpless children may seem like the worst of it but there was something else that was making Millie seem on edge, Fay noticed, and didn’t say a thing, not wanting to know.