V2Ch62-The Performer

Blood splatter from the Warrior’s sundered body sprayed everywhere, although none landed on Mina or the other competitors.

A translucent, previously invisible shield popped into existence in front of them and blocked the liquid.

Well, at least when we die, we won’t make too much of a mess, Mina thought grimly.

“Well, who’s the next volunteer?” Charon asked. He sounded mildly amused. “So many brave humans. I wonder how our poor chimera will endure.” As the hound spoke, the flame of the candle beside him died.

That poor man, Mina thought despite herself. The way Charon’s talking, it feels a lot like he died for that monster’s entertainment. He was an idiot, but no one deserves that. She also noted that with all of the candles out, the challenge had reset for its next challenger. The only thing that didn’t reset was the chimera itself.

She looked around at the people who surrounded her. Not a single one looked eager to step in where the Warrior had failed so violently.

Mina considered volunteering, but she didn’t want to sacrifice herself either. Certainly not just to try and improve the group’s morale or something.

There was a long, uncomfortable silence. More than one person seemed to cast an eye in Mina’s direction.

Surely they aren’t expecting me to step forward, right? After that big guy got ripped in half?

Then she remembered how Leo had built her up in people’s eyes in a very short period of time. Maybe they actually imagined she was some sort of heroine.

What would James do here? The answer was obvious. She knew what James would say. Don’t sacrifice yourself for strangers, no matter how they look at you. Be ruthless about this. Look out for yourself. She decided not to volunteer just yet. She would watch and look for weaknesses. If other people had to die so that she could gather intel, that was that.

“If no one volunteers themselves, some individuals will be volunteered for the task,” Charon said. “After all, the entire population of this Orientation will die if you fail to complete the mission.”

Mina spied movement at the edge of her peripheral vision. It was Jose. He was starting to step out from the midst of the packed crowd, as if he wanted to volunteer.

She strode over to him quickly, just as he broke free of the group, and she grabbed him by the wrist. He looked a little alarmed.

“Jose, how old are you?” she asked in a whisper.

“Eighteen, ah, ma’am,” he said politely.

“You’re not volunteering,” she said bluntly. “Not yet anyway. Let some of these older people volunteer first. You haven’t lived your life yet. And I don’t want Yulia to see you receive the same treatment that guy got.” She tilted her head at the steaming remains of the Warrior the chimera had bisected.

Jose swallowed, then protested, “I’m not afraid to die. I—”

“Be a little more afraid, then,” she interrupted. “That guy probably wasn’t afraid either, until he was cornered by the monster. Be smarter than him. You have so much to live for. You don’t know anything about this monster yet, and dying is forever. And very painful.”

Jose’s eyes had dropped to the ground as Mina spoke. There was an awkward silence while he seemed to process what she’d said.

“Yes,” he said finally. “You’re right. I’ll wait.”

“Well, it seems we have no further volunteers,” Charon said. “I choose that one!”

A short, balding man in Mage’s robes began levitating from within the crowd of contestants, flailing his body as he was lifted over their heads and moved to the front of the group.

“Me?!” he managed to choke out. “Why me?”

Finally, the invisible force that lifted the man dropped him on all fours. The hood of his robe fell over his eyes, and he hurriedly rushed to his feet as the hound responded to his question.

“Everyone in the competitors’ group identified themselves as being volunteers, as far as this challenge is concerned, Mr. Dabbs,” Charon replied. “The stakes are high for all of you, and no higher for you than they are for all those you fight for. Now go and do your best!”

Despite being a Mage, the man began by employing a similar strategy to the Warrior’s earlier. He ascended the stadium and started by lighting the candle beside Charon. Then he descended to deal with the chimera.

Here was where the Mage and the Warrior differed.

While the Warrior had been afraid to approach the chimera and hadn’t gotten near the other two candles as a result, the Mage began quietly chanting, until he had gathered fire Mana around his body.

This was exactly what I needed to see, Mina thought. Her eyes tracked the movement of Mana from Dabbs’s core through the rest of his body, and she tried to break down the differences between fire Mana and the wind and water elemental Mana that she already had access to. If she could acquire Basic Elemental Magic: Fire through Quick Study, then she might have a chance of completing the challenge if Dabbs failed.

He tossed several fireballs at the candle floating on the lily pad before one actually hit. The others bounced like balls until they ended up landing harmlessly in the stands.

But when Dabbs set the lily pad candle ablaze, the chimera took notice.

As Dabbs aimed at the candle levitating above the pool, the goat head of the chimera drew in a visibly deep breath, and then it exhaled and blew the lily pad candle out.

The chimera began walking toward Dabbs, setting its body between Dabbs and the lily pad.

Keep using that fire magic, Dabbs! Mina found herself thinking. I just need to see a little more…

But at the sight of the advancing monster, Dabbs broke into a panic. He lost his focus completely, and the fire Mana vanished in a disordered rush, like mist breaking under strong sunlight. He turned, tried to run, and then the beast was upon him.

Dabbs met the same gruesome end as the first man. The crowd let out a collective gasp. Mina couldn’t be shocked herself. She was focused on problem-solving.

I need someone to go in there and last a little longer, so I can figure out what the monster’s abilities are, Mina thought. She felt immediately guilty at where her mind had gone, but then she reminded herself, Guilt won’t help right now. Need to survive. That requires more information about this thing.

After Dabbs’s death, Mina was surprised when another Mage volunteered almost immediately.

“I think I know what to do,” he said in a shaky voice as he separated himself from the crowd.

Investigate! Mina learned that the man was named Eugene Daltry, but not much else. His Status sheet seemed basically unexceptional. He was a lower level Mage than Mina, had raised Basic Elemental Magic: Fire up to level 3, and he had a couple of music-related Skills and Talents.

Wait, what’s that? There was a Skill called Soothing the Beast. Mina read the description. Oh… I can see why he would think he’s the right person to handle this. Hopefully he was right.

Daltry started off the same way the first two had. He walked up to the candle that was positioned near Charon, lit it, and then proceeded down the stadium toward the beast, although he stopped much further away than either of his predecessors had.

As he walked, Daltry drew a flute from the Small Bag of Deceptive Dimensions at his side, put the instrument to his lips, and he began to play a few notes, as if he was testing it. Mina guessed he was either trying to remember a certain melody or, more likely, trying to gauge the beast’s reaction to different tunes.

As she watched, Daltry switched tunes, moved to something deeper and smoother. At that point, the chimera clearly took notice. It took a few steps toward Daltry, but then something strange happened. The flutist’s tune had reached a very compelling point, where most of the humans in the stadium had their eyes fixed on him. He was playing beautifully.

And the chimera began to sway and move gently with the music. Instead of walking forward, it almost danced.

The tune progressed, and the mood of the music began to change slightly. It became relaxing. Calm, peaceful music that was nevertheless absorbing.

The chimera stopped dancing, sat down again, and the great lion threw back its head in a yawn. The goat’s head shortly followed suit. Mina tried to keep her eyes fixed on the flutist. This seemed like such a useful Skill, she wanted to try and understand it with Quick Study.

Fortunately for her, Daltry kept at the flute-playing for several more minutes, as the chimera’s body became more and more relaxed. Mina couldn’t see the snake’s head at the tail of the beast, but the other two were definitely falling asleep. Their respective postures were drooping more with each passing minute. Finally, the chimera’s great body lay, relaxed and slumbering, beside the reflecting pool.

He did it! Mina thought. All he has to do now is light the last two candles!

She kept watching, though. Daltry was still playing the flute, instead of putting it down and starting to chant, as he approached the chimera and the other two candles. Maybe he had to keep playing the flute to keep the creature sleeping.

Someone in the audience threw out a, “Woo!”

Daltry turned back, without taking his lips away from the flute, and shook his head sharply at the crowd. Clearly he needed silence or near silence for his magic to work. And it was magic, Mina had realized. It had taken her time to recognize the flow of Mana from Daltry’s body into the flute, but she finally saw it now.

It was a different color than any Mana she’d seen before, a brilliant shade of turquoise, and he was using much smaller quantities than she typically saw other people use, which had made it harder to see.

He projects Mana into the flute while playing. The Mana infuses the sound waves, which forms an invisible attack, since people can’t see sound. But what’s the nature of this Mana? Does it actually soothe the beast, as the name suggests, or is it like a drug that puts the beast to sleep, the way a tranquilizer would?

Daltry was approaching the beast now, and Mina continued watching, hoping to understand. He drew a torch from a sconce just like the Warrior had, and Mina realized he wasn’t planning to use magic at all, aside from what he was doing with the flute. He was going to set the candles burning manually.

But how will he reach the candle that’s hovering in midair, then?

The flutist seemed not to have an easy answer for that question himself. He focused on the candle floating on the lily pad first. He walked up to the reflecting pool, leaned out, and lit that candle again.

[Quick Study successfully analyzed “Soothing the Beast.” You partially acquired the Skill “Soothing the Beast!”]

Well, that’s good, I guess. But what does it mean to partially acquire a Skill? Mina wondered.

She didn’t have much time to think about that, though. In the moment when her vision was blocked by the notification, there was another murmur from the crowd.

She heard someone exclaim, “Look out!”

As the notification cleared, Mina saw Daltry turning to the stands again. Perhaps he hadn’t heard the speaker properly, because rather than looking worried, he just raised a hand for silence, with a stern expression on his face.

But Mina saw what the person in the crowd had warned him about. The tail. The snake’s body that formed the tail of the chimera was moving. Apparently, despite the music, this part of the beast hadn’t been soothed. I guess that rules out the idea that it works like a tranquilizer.

In the moment when Daltry turned away, the snake head reared up, opened its jaws wide, and sprayed a viscous, dark green liquid through the air.

Mina didn’t have to wait to figure out what it was. Daltry turned back to face the chimera, but he wasn’t quick enough to evade the green fluid. It landed on his face, his robes, and other areas of unprotected skin. Everywhere the liquid touched, smoked and burned.

Daltry went down in an instant, flailing and screaming in agony. Mina wished she could go help him. A few people around her forgot the rules of the challenge and tried to rush forward, only to run headfirst into the same shield that had protected them from the blood spray earlier. It sent them staggering backward on contact.

As Daltry writhed and screamed, the flute abandoned at his side, the other heads of the chimera awakened once more. The lion stretched, yawned, cracked its neck, and finally noticed the prey in front of it.

The flutist, whose face was now melted down to the bone in a few areas, stretched out his hands and fumbled for the flute. His acid-burned right hand found it. But before he could put it to his lips again, the chimera was upon him. It ripped his head from his shoulders and crushed it messily between its mighty jaws.

Darn. She turned away from the bloody geyser that shot out from the stump of Daltry’s neck.

“Well, he was quite the performer,” Charon boomed out. “I hope that one of you who remains can at least equal his performance. He got the closest thus far.”

“That son of a bitch,” growled Jose beside Mina. She turned to see his face. He looked absolutely livid. “Mocking how we die.”

“The joke will be on him,” Mina said. Jose looked at her. “When we win.” She put on her best look of gritty determination, but she could tell it was far from convincing.

His anger seemed to dissolve into despair. “Yeah,” he said softly, without conviction. “When we win.”

“I volunteer to go next!” a voice declared from behind them.

Mina turned around. There was another non-Mage pushing himself forward through the crowd. He looked taller and stronger than the first volunteer had, but Mina doubted he could do better.

“Damn it, Fergus!” swore a woman beside him. They both spoke with noticeable Scottish accents, Mina recognized. “Let the Mages handle this!”

“It’s pretty obvious magic isn’t actually the key to the challenge.” He drew a sword from his side and used it to point at the chimera. “You just have to deal with that beastie!”

“Good luck, Mr. Dalyell,” Charon pronounced approvingly from his high perch. “We salute your courage!”

As the man stepped forward, Mina saw that he wore the distinctive armor of the Light Warrior.

Maybe he can do this, she thought. If he could move faster than the chimera. If he could inflict a fatal blow quickly. At least he could do some damage.

Or so she thought.

As soon as Fergus Dalyell had stepped clear of the group, he charged at the chimera, sword raised.

The lion’s head rose from devouring the flutist, opened its mouth wide, and began visibly gathering bright yellow Mana in its maw.

As Dalyell got close, the lion let loose a bolt of lightning from between its jaws. It struck Fergus’s sword and then visibly ran down to his hands and the rest of his body. Mina smelled his burning hair and skin. For a few seconds, he thrashed as if he was in the throes of a seizure. Then the Warrior collapsed to the ground, unmoving.

“I think I know what to do,” Mina said quietly. She had seen one ability from each head. That would have to be enough. No one else was likely to force the chimera to show more Skills, if it had them. There was only one piece she was missing.

Jose looked at her as she spoke. “What do we do?” he asked.

“I need you to show me fire elemental magic,” she said.

He didn’t ask any questions, simply began chanting.

The others in the crowd backed away, seeing Jose was using magic beside them. But it only took a few seconds for Quick Study to finish breaking down the ability she had already seen more than once before.

[Quick Study successfully analyzed “Basic Elemental Magic: Fire.” You acquired the Skill “Basic Elemental Magic: Fire!”]

“Do we have another volunteer?” Charon called down. “Someone who’s so eager they didn’t bother waiting to announce themselves?”

“The next volunteer is me!” Mina yelled loudly. The arena had grown so quiet that she could hear Leo and Yulia gasp in the crowd.