68. Premonitions of Destruction
"Say hello to contestant #1673, the lithe and limber Sabine Cune!
Sabine exhibited amazing finesse and grace in the second preliminary round, where
she took a flying leap across the entire elevator shaft!"
Sabine was stone-faced as she and Amyr walked up to the platform. Next
to the burly warrior, the woman looked even more petite than usual.
"Right beside her, we have contestant #1672, Amyr Jaq! He also
showed his physical prowess in the second round by scaling the whole wall! Bet
he burned some carbs on that one!"
Amyr stepped up onto the platform with troubled eyes. "Sabine. This–"
"Alriiiight, you two!" Trunculo cut in yet again. "Let's
see some bloodshed! Goooo!"
Sabine let out a sigh as she turned to face Amyr. "I guess the
upside is that one of us will get to relax for the rest of the day."
"Not someone," Amyr spoke quietly. "You."
Sabine's eyes snapped up. "What the fuck are you talking about?"
"Let's not drag this out any more than we need to, Sabine,"
Amyr said. "With Cliff out of commission, and now this, there will only be
two of us left to handle the three remaining Dark Zodiacs in the semi-finals.
We can't mess around."
Sabine arched her eyebrows defensively, "So you think I can't handle
them?"
"It's not that, it's just–"
"Yes it is!" Sabine shouted. "Amyr, if anyone should sit
out, it's you! You nearly killed yourself in the preliminaries! You think it's
the chivalrous thing to do, just because I'm the woman?"
"I'm healed now," Amyr said. "Come on, Sabine, Don't get
defensive. You know it's not about that."
"I know it's not," Sabine sighed. "It's because it's me."
"Sabine–" Amyr moved forward, trying to comfort her.
"Heeey!" someone shouted from the crowd. "What is this,
a soap opera? Let's see some heads roll!"
"Oh my!" Trunculo piped up as the shouts and screams from the
audience increased. "It looks like the audience is getting restless! If we
don't see some action soon..."
"I’m mad now." Sabine was seething as she unsheathed her rapier
from her side. "Let's go, Amyr. We'll find out which one of us will really
be more useful in the semi-finals, right here and now!"
Amyr stared at the seriousness in the woman's eyes as she approached him
with her weapon outstretched. "Sabine, there's no need for this."
"Sure there is. This is the only way I'll be able to move on to the
next round, right?" Sabine pierced Amyr's defenses with her desperate brown
eyes. "I'm only doing this because you're giving me no choice. En guarde,
Amyr!"
"I'm not letting this happen, Sabine," Amyr muttered in his deep,
gravelly voice. "You mean too much to me."
The vice-captain of the 1st division closed his eyes, concentrated
for a moment, and instantaneously produced two extra
*************
arms from just below her armpits.
"Seal #2...Svadisthana...I release you!"
Feeling the rush from her second chakra seal, Ravi Katjagaarda sped forward
through the air and hooked her four arms around Cecilia's legs. A painful grunt
escaped the Sheep's throat as Ravi spun her body and sent it sailing toward the
streets below.
Before she collided with anything, Cecilia displaced gravity once more and
caught herself in mid-air. Her mothball psynergy aura still felt as powerful as
it had always been.
"Where is all that power coming from?!" Ravi asked, after landing
on the ground. "Your body is too fragile to contain so much. And after
taking this much damage, you should be exhausted."
Cecilia adjusted her dress and straightened herself out in the air.
"Haven't figured it out? My body is free of stress because of the lessened
gravity around me. As a result, I can produce five times more psynergy than normal."
"What?!" Ravi shouted. "How?!"
"It's simple science, my dear." Cecilia laughed. "All I
need to do is lessen my own pull while increasing yours, and soon, you'll be
crushed like a tiny bug."
As Ravi desperately tried to wrap her mind around Cecilia's abilities,
the pressure on her body became even heavier.
Cecilia grinned psychotically as Ravi's body hunched over. "You don't
look too good. That's what you get for being so mean to me!"
"Seal #3...Manipura...I release you!"
A small yellow light close to Ravi's solar plexus flashed, and six
additional arms grew out of Ravi's body: four on her sides, and two just below her
lower shoulder blades. They shot toward Cecilia, stretching out like rubber props,
and captured the Sheep before she even knew what hit her. An arm grabbed each of
her limbs, one wrapped around her neck, and another clawed her head. As
Cecilia's influence over gravity wavered, Ravi stood tall once more.
"Body manipulation?" Cecilia shouted down. "I knew you weren't
out of tricks yet."
"Seal #4...Anhata...I release you!"
This time, a green light appeared on the captain's chest bone, spawning
dozens of new limbs that covered Ravi's body. The Knight groaned in pain as her
body twisted and contorted, then her limbs converged on Cecilia. Bronze hands grabbed
out for any part of the woman's body that was available, eventually dragging
her down to the ground.
After releasing four chakra seals in a row, Ravi's physical strain had become
acute. But compared to the bone-snapping pain of Cecilia's gravity manipulation,
it was a small price to pay. Still, she wouldn't be able to last forever, and
was desperate to end things quickly.
Ravi felt the ground rumble, and the gravity around her returned to normal.
Most of the buildings that lined the streets had already caved in due to Cecilia's
attacks. Dust began to settle, and for a few moments, all was still.
Suddenly, Ravi's extended limbs were torn to pieces. Leftover psynergy
dissipated into the air as Cecilia let out an explosive gravitational shockwave
from where she lay, jetting her body once again into the sky.
Furious with pain, Ravi shot up after the Sheep and unleashed a barrage
of punches. Even with her remaining extra limbs, she was just barely able to keep
up with Cecilia's amazing speed and strength. Eventually she lost control and
Cecilia slammed her hard in the cheek. Ravi went sailing into a concrete wall.
"And that's not all!" Cecilia zoomed after the Knight with a
burning leg.
Even with her enhancements, Ravi's body was still no match for the power
of gravity. She was struck again in the stomach and went crashing through another
structure. Cecilia pursued immediately.
The fifth seal... Desperate
thoughts entered Ravi's mind. I've only unsealed five once before...and it took
me weeks to recover...
Cecilia's leg connected squarely with one of Ravi's lower ribs, causing
the woman to cry out in pain as cartilage and bone crumbled.
Ravi opened her mouth again. A bright turquoise light exploded from her
throat.
"Seal #5...Visuddha...I release you!!"
Instantly, Ravi felt as if time had slowed to a snail's pace. Another punch
from Cecilia slowly moved forward, and the woman's face was frozen in desperate
anger.
Five moments of enlightenment...
"Sarvangasana!" Ravi moved into a shoulderstand pose
and caught Cecilia's left fist between her legs.
"Setu Bandha Sarvangasana!" Ravi dropped down into a
crab pose next, pulled Cecilia's arm in and snapped it on the spot. In the next
second, Ravi grabbed Cecilia's right leg with her own and moved up into her
final pose.
"Adho Mukha Svanasana!" she screamed, then shifted into
a perfectly symmetrical triangle formation and crushed Cecilia's leg.
By the time Ravi's enlightenment wore off, she had completely wrapped
her body around the Zodiac. Both of her muscular legs embraced Cecilia's waist,
while her four arms locked in the Sheep's torso, and each of her palms rested
on the sides of Cecilia's head. If Ravi so much as even flicked her wrist at this
point, the fifth Zodiac's head would be torn clean off.
But the yoga master hesitated. "I do not want to take your life,"
she warned. "This is your last chance to forfeit!"
That split second was all she needed. In the next moment, Cecilia flexed
her psynergy and sprang forward from the Yoga master's grasp. Blood spilled out
over the pavement as she fell.
"You truly are powerful..." she gasped, drooping against the
ground as she supported herself with her two functional limbs. "But there's
still one way I can beat you..."
Ravi stared down at the crumpled woman, speechless. "Don't embarrass
yourself," she said coldly. "Your body is battered and beaten. Your
psynergy aura is a dying flame now. There's nothing more you can do!"
"Gravity exists as gravitational waves," Cecilia mumbled,
rolling over to her side and staring up to the sky. "These gravitational
waves are carried by particles called gravitons, which I can manipulate with my
psynergy."
"Cecilia!" Ravi called out to the woman, even though it seemed
as if she had become delirious. "Accept your loss gracefully!"
"No. Instead, I'm going to summon all the gravitons in this area
together and compress them..." Cecilia said, closing her eyes. "Do
you know what that will do? When gravity is crunched into such a small space, the
results are unpredictable."
Ravi looked up to the sky. Although there was nothing visibly wrong with
it, she could feel something strange undulating within the atmosphere. Soon,
the dark afternoon clouds began to slowly skew and warp above them.
"You can't run, Ravi," Cecilia whispered, as a small black spot
appeared in the sky. "You can't run from gravity..."
Ravi watched as the black spot spread out, crackling, swallowing up the
clouds. The spatial rift caused by the unbearable weight of gravity gradually
opened its jaws, and soon it had transformed into a massive void ready to suck
up anything and everything around it.
Ravi stared in shock
*************
as Sabine raised her rapier and slashed out at him. At the last moment,
Amyr raised his hand and knocked her weapon away. Sabine was strong-willed, but
he never thought she would actually attack him.
But Sabine refused to back down. "Amyr! I'm not afraid to hurt you
in order to move on. Save yourself the trouble!"
Amyr sighed and raised his hands. "I'm sorry Sabine, but this ends
here."
As Sabine swung forward again, Amyr dashed toward her, allowing the blade
to cut into his flesh as he wrapped his four limbs around her.
"Amyr!" Sabine shouted as she wriggled and squirmed. "What
the hell are you doing? Stop it!"
"Sabine, forgive me."
Imprisoning the woman in his vise-like grip, Amyr walked over to the edge
of the arena and fell face-first on the ground. Sabine felt Amyr's thick, battle-scarred
arms cradle her protectively as they fell – even if it was only for a split-second,
he still insisted on protecting her.
The two lay still on the turf, while Trunculo stood up tiredly from his
seat. "Yeah, so, umm, this battle's over, I guess. Sabine's head touched
the ground first, so Amyr's the winner! What a waste of time!"
Sabine scrambled out from under Amyr, straightened her dress, and stared
angrily at her ally. "You son of a–" The sharp-tongued warrior choked
on her own words as her eyes focused in on the pain, sadness, and love emanating
from Amyr's eyes.
"I'm sorry," he said. "But I could never endanger anyone
I love so much."
The two were silent, gazing deep into each other's eyes as years of
passion finally came brimming to the surface.
"Amyr..." The woman's face softened, and she kissed him.
"Urgh!" Trunculo screamed. "What is this? How can you disgrace
our sacred colosseum with such lewdness? Get outta here! Now then..." He
cleared his throat. "Since there was no damage done in that last 'battle,'
if you could even call it that, we can move right on to the sixth round! Would contestants
#2498 and #0031 please make their way into the arena?"
Clad in polished, gleaming equipment, Saffron immediately strode out
from the waiting room.
"From the eastern sector, we have #2498: Saffron Morrigan, our tournament's
very own knight in shining armor! Those swords aren’t just for show, folks – he
pierced over 200 bodies since we first began this morning! And look at that nice,
clean, heroic chin he's got! Oh, and that shining blond hair! Let me just say this,
if I was ten years younger, uhh...well, anyway, let's go to our next contestant,
shall we?!"
Across from Saffron stood a bipedal, humanoid lizard carrying a long
spear under his right arm.
"From the southeastern sector, we have contestant #0039, known simply
as Rezzo, a cutting-edge animal-human hybrid! A former psynergy researcher, Rezzo
gave his life up for science, and now, he has risen to become one of the most esteemed
bounty hunters of our time!"
The lizardman made his way onto the platform, flicking a long, sturdy tail
behind him. Bluish-green scales glimmered along his triangular head and muscular
body. An unnatural number of razor-sharp teeth were exposed as his reptilian jaws
opened.
"Hello there, Saffron."
Saffron nodded back to his opponent. "Greetings."
"Okay, you two..." Trunculo called out. "Don't get any
funny ideas now! We want it fast, furious, and most of all, bloody!"
"With pleasure," Saffron said, grinning proudly.
*************
"They both look really weird," Frank said, studying the two
competitors from above. "Maybe they’ll be a good match for each other."
Phileas chuckled. "It's a shame you can't sense psynergy, Frank.
Your opinion would surely change."
"And why is that?"
"You'll just have to trust me on this one," Phileas said with
glee.
"I...see..." Frank murmured, then turned to face his friend.
"You holding up alright, Ed?"
Edward let out a sigh. "I dunno. Today's been pretty overwhelming
so far."
"Yeah." Frank leaned back and stared up at the sky, which was
overcast and filled with puffy grey clouds. "It sure has. I doubt much will
ever surprise me again after this is all said and done."
"Oh, perfect timing!" Dr. Phileas called out. "Frank, Edward,
face this way, please! A fellow colleague of mine has just stopped by, and I'd
like to introduce you to him."
Frank turned around slowly, preparing to face another thick-bearded, possibly
cannibalistic physician. What he saw instead was far worse.
Standing in the aisle between the seats wearing a grey pin-striped suit,
a white-and-gold tie, with coarse blond hair tied into a single braid, was none
other than the Grayson Lee.
"Hello, gentlemen," he said, outstretching a hand to Frank and
Edward with a warm smile. "How have you been enjoying the tournament?"
Next: A Detestable Effort
