B2 Chapter 39: Entertaining the Local Court

Spears appeared in the hands of the Shrikon that surrounded us. We had only a few seconds before we were butchered. And to add insult to injury, the Sea King yawned and looked away. Too bored to even watch the execution he’d just ordered.

I had to do something. We couldn’t run and we couldn’t fight, but there must be something that I could say to stop this.

“Wait!” I said, trying to buy the time.

They ignored me and kept coming closer.

“The King is in danger,” I tried. There was a chance, and a slim one at that, but a chance that if the Golden Door does not get opened, then when the tower goes into lockdown, they would get trapped inside as well.

The thought of their king being hurt did stop them. Maybe I can talk my way out of this.

Then they laughed. In fact, the whole room laughed. Even the King smirked at the notion. I clenched my fists. I was just making our deaths more entertaining for them.

Gritting my teeth, I pressed on. “If one of us doesn’t complete a quest, then the Tower will trap all of us inside, including all of you.”

My words didn’t sway them and when the Shrikon’s laughter died down, the ones holding spears looked at each other and nodded before stepping forward. They were about to strike when the king raised his hand. A stay of execution only.

He appeared intrigued and said, “tell me about this quest.”

His words threw me off balance. It didn’t sound like he cared about the Tower locking down. So what was it that had caught his attention?

I tried to think of how best to describe it, but I could see that his patience was quickly wearing thin.

“It’s sort of a race between Tower climbers. We fight and compete to try and be the first to reach the door and open it. Whoever does gets a prize that makes them more powerful.”

His eyes shifted at that last part. He leaned forward and asked, “why is it that important to you?”

I frowned. “That’s why we’re here. To get stronger.”

“And you fight amongst yourselves to do so?”

I nodded. “We were caught off guard by your people in the storm, but fighting is what we’ve been trained to do.”

“Is it?” the King’s eyes sparkled with interest. He clapped, and the guards put their weapons away. “Perhaps you were taken by surprise. Let’s give you all a do-over. If one of you can beat the Captain of my guard in single combat, then we’ll safely escort you this Golden Door ourselves.”

“And if we lose?”

He smiled and showed his sharp teeth. “Then my people will have gotten a little entertainment before killing you.”

The Shrikon that had led us to and from the cells came over to unlock my manacles.

“No, you will go last,” the King told me. He then spoke in his native tongue for several moments, which brought a cheer from the crowd while some of us stood confused.

“What did he say?” I whispered to Hugo.

“I don’t know,” he whispered back. “It sounded different from how they talked before.”

I nodded. So the King was hiding something from us.

The Shrikon moved over and unlocked Jason first. As soon as he was free, Jason chugged a health potion and equipped his armor.

A lone Shrikon stepped forward, carrying a short spear. He looked like the others, but I guess that was to be expected.

The fight, however, did not last long. Jason put up a good effort, but he was outmatched in speed and strength. None of Jason’s attacks landed. Meanwhile, the fishman’s spear chipped away at his armor until he peeled Jason out of it. He was then beaten senseless and thrown to one side where he was placed in another sac.

I guess being put in a sac was a sign that the King intended to keep his word and transport us back to the surface if we won.

Sadly, the possibility of winning grew dimmer with each fight. I watched the same result play out with Hemi, Elise, and Kristoff. Carina got close, but she tried and failed to break his spear, which gave him the upper hand. A few more people whose names I didn’t know tried next. Each of them were thrown into sacs and tossed aside. The worst part for them was that even as our chances dwindled, they were immobilized but made to still watch.

When it became Hugo’s turn, Daisy leaned forward and whispered, “only use Norris.”

“But why, Os—”

She cut him off. “I know. Just trust me.”

Hugo looked at me for support. It was a tough call. Daisy had allegedly beaten one of these things on her own before, but she was essentially telling Hugo to lose the fight. Was she that confident in winning herself that she wants Hugo to hold back his strongest ability? True, the King had only promised us safe passage to the door. Nothing was said about what they’d do once they delivered us there. Perhaps it was wise to keep an ace up our sleeve?

Hugo flew forward and summoned Norris. The goblin spirit summon clawed its way out of the ground and barely had time to look up before the spear had pierced his heart. He dissipated while Hugo flew over head bemoaning his failure.

“Alas, you have bested me in single combat,” Hugo said. “Truly, you were the superior—”

A sac ball nailed him in the face, cutting off his words, and swallowing him whole. He softly fell to the ground where another Shrikon kicked him until he rolled over to the others.

Now it was just me and Daisy left.

“You’ve fought these things before,” I whispered. “Any advice in case you don’t make it?”

She glanced at me and considered her words carefully. “Their saccadic eye movements are slower than ours.”

She said it like I should know what that meant, but I could only give her a confused look.

“It means there’s a slight delay when they shift their vision from one point of interest to another and sometimes, they over or undershoot where their object of focus actually is.”

“So that’s why they insisted on single combat. But when Jason used two arm blades, the Captain didn’t seem to have any trouble following his attacks?”

“Right, it’s not a heavy disability on their part. They can compensate for it by being faster than us and two objects aren’t a lot for their eyes to switch between. You need more than that to distort the information that their eyes are sending to their brain.”

I nodded. I think I understood, though I was annoyed she didn’t tell Hugo to use his Corvus Commandos. A flock of small birds flying from different directions would’ve at least given him a small chance.

The Shrikon guard removed Daisy’s manacles.

“Good luck,” I said.

She drew out her scythe, and shadows roiled around her. She was our best chance at getting out of here. Truthfully, I’m not sure if I would have won my last fight without Sebastian firing that cannon. Plus, Daisy had shown that she was stronger than me when she’d forced me to accept the Shrikon’s blood. Maybe because I spoke for everyone, the King assumed that I was the strongest and was therefore made to go last? But honestly, out of every Tower climber here, my money was on Daisy.

Shadows covered her entirely, shortening and lengthening. A living tapestry of darkness that made her body difficult to define.

Like before, the Shrikon lunged with his spear. Daisy deflected with her scythe and then the pair backed off. They stared at each other, measuring one another, before the fishman launched into a series of blindingly fast stabs.

Daisy’s longer scythe kept them at bay at first, but eventually he slipped past her guard and went for a killing blow. As soon as the spear tip got close, she fell into shadow and disappeared. The Shrikon looked confused for a second until a puddle of shadow formed behind him. She partially re-emerged from it and sliced the back of his legs.

The Shrikon howled in rage and pain, turning around only to find her gone.

Daisy appeared further away and dared him to attack. The Shrikon did, but what he didn’t notice was all the puddles of shadow that lay on the floor between them. As the fishman strode forward, vines of darkness shot out of these puddles. He tried to dodge or cut them with his spear, but for every one he successfully countered, six more appeared. They wrapped themselves around his arms and legs, and with a wave of her hand, she pulled them tight. The trapped Shrikon tried to struggle. His muscles bulging, but he could not move.

Yes!

She’d done it. We finally had our freedom. It would mean going into one of those sacs again, but it’ll be worth it once we’re standing in front of the Golden Door. After coming so close to losing it, maybe there’s an amicable way for us to figure out who should open it.

“It is over,” she said.

The King shook his head. “Our people are not so tolerant of failure as yours. You must kill him to claim victory.”

Daisy pulled out her scythe. It was just in its stick form when she pointed over the trapped Shrikon’s shoulder. There was a metallic clink as she activated her weapon. The blade snapped out into position and severed the fishman’s head from his neck.

Both of us watched as the head rolled over to the bottom step that led up to the King’s throne. Neither the rest of the Shrikon nor his majesty seemed displeased by the result. Whereas all I could feel was relief.

I congratulated Daisy, but she looked sad.

The King laughed and his court of fishmen sycophantically followed with a polite chuckle. “It seems there is one among you who’s worthy of fighting my Captain after all.”

The true Captain, who’d been hiding in the back of the crowd, strode forward.

He stood taller than every one of his kind, save for the King. Similar to the other guard, he had blue and black scales that allowed him to blend more into the background. It was his bearing and demeanor that set him apart from the others. There was no laughter in his eyes nor anger. His body was relaxed, and he was calm as he walked into this makeshift fighting arena.

Like us, the Captain also possessed an inventory. He chose to make good use of it as armor and weapons appeared. A bronze breastplate covered his chest, while a set of green greaves covered his shins. A blue pair of scale like bracers protected his arms. He had no helmet but carried a black tower shield in one hand and a short sword in the other. All of the pieces looked mismatched, like he’d claimed each one from a different battlefield. I had to admire the sword though, as it reminded me of my katana. Though the design on the handle was different and I doubted the blade was like the cheap pig iron my old one used to be before I’d enhanced it.

The Captain of the guard banged his shield with his sword. He did it in a rhythm over and over again to stir up the crowd. And it worked. The crowd went wild and started stomping their feet in time with it. Even the King looked amused.

The Captain was as emotionless as ever but seemed to be playing a role for the crowd.

“Begin,” the King declared.

The Captain rushed forward and Daisy used the same strategy from before. Which made sense. She hadn’t dismissed any of her shadows, but even after watching the guard get trapped by them, the Captain didn’t seem to care.

He sprinted at her with almost reckless abandon. But Daisy was ready. She sent her shadow vines out to greet him.

As soon as the vines made contact, his bracers glowed red, and the shadows were burned away. He slammed his shield into her just as she brought up her scythe.

It wasn’t enough.

Daisy tumbled and fell on her back. I blinked and suddenly the sword was at her throat.

God, he was even faster than the other one.

A gnawing chasm of despair opened up in my stomach. Knowing that I had to somehow beat that. Knowing that all our lives depended on it.

Daisy does not even fully get the words out that she was surrendering before a sac ball was tossed onto her. The Captain moved back into position and calmly waited.

The King’s eyes dance with fire as they looked at me.

“Your turn.”