49th of Season of Air, 80th year of the 32nd cycle

  Newt’s flags lowered themselves onto the soft, squishy ground yet again.

  “This is so annoying,” Newt mouthed the words, but did not vocalize them.

  He had two choices: stand in the middle of a small clearing, or head for the nearby bushes from which he could ambush any would-be attackers. He chose neither. Newt left the flags where they were but walked around, searching for any possible treasures, like the ones promised in the previous trial.

  He found a tree hollow big enough to fit a child, but wretchedly void of enchanted equipment. Then he saw a quadruped saurian, taller than a man, making its way through the jungle, its tongue flicking and tasting the air.

  The folded sail at its back declared it a sailback. Newt guessed it was an evolved form, one with an unusual fighting style, if its watery aura was any indication of its abilities. Newt paused, then focused once more on his mindcore. Checking the manabeast one more time.

  No. It’s definitely in the fifth realm, a middling layer. Why is that in a questors’ challenge?

  Newt stared at the saurian in confusion, searching for any signs of it being an illusion deployed by a member of the Diamondsouls’ team, but the creature was approaching him, walking well outside an illusion spell seal’s range.

  A twenty-five flag floated just above the sailback’s nape, accompanied by four smaller ones, one belonging to the saurian faction, and three to assorted teams whose colors Newt didn’t recognize.

  Given its direction, the sailback would pass some twenty feet to Newt’s left, and Newt shifted back behind a trunk. Once the manabeast passed him, he would strike from its flank. Patiently, he waited for the monster to stride past him. The slavering tongue came into view. It flicked through the air, sending a shower of droplets, when suddenly three massive javelins of ice formed from thin air and shot towards Newt’s chest.

  Granite Crust sprang into being, and the heavy icicles exploded on impact, sending Newt staggering a step back, forcing him out of hiding. The sailback turned and surged towards him. The beast had obviously spotted Newt a while ago and played oblivious to entrap him. Its eyes shone with uncanny intelligence as a pair of icy horns manifested on its head before lancing towards Newt.

  He dodged one, swatting the other with his glaive. The force of the blow was massive, but it lacked the advantage of surprise, and Newt’s body was powerful enough to resist the recoil. He was ready to stab the sailback the moment it tried to close its jaws around his body, but the giant lizard swerved to the side, avoiding a frontal clash. Unfazed by its failure, it shot another three icicles at Newt.

  The youth dodged one, but another struck him on the shoulder, while the third slammed against his temple, making the world spin. Newt staggered, but instead of pressing the advantage, the surprisingly nimble sailback pelted him with an iceberg’s worth of missiles, staying outside Newt’s reach.

  Unlike the single-minded illusions from the fortress defense trial, the sailback was intelligent, able to deduce that Newt posed a serious threat, and reacted accordingly.

  Newt endured the onslaught, the icicles replaced by heavier blocks of ice, but in a matter of moments it became apparent he couldn’t maintain the situation. The sailback was a genuine fifth realm manabeast with a pool of energy far vaster than Newt’s.

  Making a snap decision, Newt charged towards the saurian. The spray of ice shards stopped as Newt batted away the last incoming projectile, and chased after the retreating sailback.

  The beast was fast, but bulky, and the forest terrain worked against it. Newt caught up with it in a matter of moments, bringing his glaive down against its back. A spiked shell of ice materialized to protect it, but the high-realm weapon smashed right through it, cleaving the back-sail and slashing into the creature’s flesh.

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  It let out a hiss-like grunt, slowing down as its hind legs went limp. In its despair, sailback’s instincts took over. The monster twisted, snapping its jaws at Newt, who kicked a bolt of flame into its face while yanking the glaive from the sailback’s back.

  The sailback, used to taking damage and regenerating it later, ignored the fire scalding its head and chomped down at Newt’s chest. Granite Crust creaked, its outer layer dissolving into motes of mana, but the second one held as the glaive’s head sank into the sailback’s neck.

  The creature’s jaw went slack in panic, and the mistake killed it. With enough purchase, Newt pushed the glaive down, severing the spine and unleashing a torrent of blood as the sailback tried to heal itself. Newt hacked at it for a dozen seconds more while the creature healed its injured neck. Finally, it fell lifelessly, its healing ability unable to keep up with the damage Newt was dealing.

  A moment later, the monster disappeared, leaving behind its flags and a panting youth. Newt collected them, his heart racing, and his point total soared to fifty-seven.

  ***

  “And thus ends the Saga of Bigfang and the most savage duel I have seen in a long while!” Sleek’s voice kept grating at Woodhopper’s ear, as her heart raced almost as much as Newstar’s.

  “Newstar Salamandra punched up a realm, and boy did he smash it! I’m certain we can all agree that the grandmaster behind this event had planned that sailback as a roaming disaster to eliminate the unwary, not as an opponent one should fight head on. But the sailback doesn’t seem to be the end of Newstar’s troubles, quite the opposite. Dandelion, who has already eliminated a pair of Swordpeak family’s retainers and gathered twenty-three flags, is pursued by three members of the Firesahun team.”

  Woodhopper focused her attention on the screens the annoying broadcaster mentioned and scowled. He was right. Dandelion wasn’t exactly leading the group straight at Newstar, but if Newt kept his course, they would run into each other.

  “Make that two Firesahun retainers,” Sleek droned on as one of the pursuing youths abruptly stopped, looking at her now grounded flag. The golden-haired woman glared at the flag, then at her retainers, and raced after them. Woodhopper agreed with the decision. Nobody could steal the flags while they were rooted, and she could simply return and collect her flags later, assuming the Firesahuns defeated Dandelion.

  Finally, the two pursuers caught up with Dandelion and entangled him in a melee. Dandelion greeted them with a pair of frozen darts, and Woodhopper tuned out Sleek’s fake, overly excited shouting, focusing on the battle.

  The Firesahuns smashed the ice with their swords and lunged at Dandelion, who parried one attack with his staff, pushing one attacker to block the other. The black staff flashed, striking the closer man on the shoulder, and a familiar wave of retaliatory flames consumed Dandelion.

  His shield blocked most of the damage, but his skin still reddened from the burns. A layer of water covered his forearm, healing the damage even as he fought. Dandelion’s aberrant ability to manipulate all four elements was already widely known, but Woodhopper still stared in disbelief at how he weaved them together.

  Earthen defense covered only portions of his body, staying clear of joints, to allow maximum mobility. She even caught clues of air-attributed mana speeding his moves. Dandelion’s aggressive style kept his opponents on edge, but they fanned out and flanked him, making the battle precarious.

  He blocked a slash and slammed his earth-encrusted foot into the other man’s chest, sending him flying. He was about to finish off the one still standing when their third teammate appeared and stabbed Dandelion in the back.

  Dandelion whirled around like a dancer, blocking the sword, but the prone man rushed back into the fray. A sword flashed, but Dandelion ducked under it, then rolled under another stab. The third attack slashed the gap in his defenses beneath the left armpit and found flesh.

  Another bubble of water appeared, stopping the bleeding as Dandelion danced, defending without an ability to attack. However, if things remained the same, he would last a long while, and others could take advantage of the situation.

  The leader of the attackers seemed to realize that, and the group unleashed a barrage of fiery techniques at him.

  In the corner of her eye, Woodhopper caught the gatemaster smirk.

  “He’s faking, again.” His words echoed in her mind. “You have seen him fight on the first day. He had more than enough time to eliminate an opponent after he kicked the other one away, but he allowed them to regroup.”

  Woodhopper watched the battle more closely. To mortals, it would have looked like a cluster of continuous explosions around blurs of motion, but her eye easily made out the details of attacks and desperate blocks, and she saw the gatemaster was right. Nobody could make that many desperate blocks.

  Just as things were about to grow too suspicious, Dandelion faltered and vanished, leaving three panting royals.

  The young woman nodded, and ran back to her flag, while the lead male gathered Dandelion’s flags, upping his total to forty while his teammate had seventeen. The pair were taking a moment to collect themselves when Newt walked into the clearing.