Chapter 42 - Second Draft

Chapter 42 - LOT

“Why are they all so weak?” Jack muttered quietly under his breath, a feeling of mild irritation rising in him.

Everyone he faced, every warrior or fighter that he was up against in this battle royale… had proven far too weak to be interesting.

Jack slid his body downward as he skidded across the platform, bringing his wooden sword up to smash against a burly man welding a pair of wooden hammers. The man was sent flying, knocked to the floor, his eyes rolling up in the back of his head.

Jack then twisted himself and leapt upward, somersaulting over a tattoo covered man wielding a wooden spear. He casually knocked against the spearwielder’s head, rendering him unconscious.

Every movement he made was incredibly controlled, swift and exacting. He had almost no wasted movements, the years of practice he had slaved away at coming into play.

He felt a lull in the combat as he landed on his feat, his eyes darting around.

Around two thirds of the warriors in the fray had been eliminated, either by Jack or by other contestants.

Right now, however, all of the fighters had paused, looking at Jack in astonishment.

Such a reaction wasn’t actually unusual at all.

For the past several years, Jack had single-mindedly dedicated himself to growing as strong as physically possible. This dedication had seen him improve at an insane rate. Apart from possessing an incredible talent for cultivating Spirit, he also was extremely talented in swordplay, and in analyzing combat. When this combined with his fearsome ability to slow time, Jack had become something of an anomaly.

He may be ranked towards the bottom in the A Class of Hunters, but his true strength was far higher.

“Whatever.” He sighed, mentally shrugging. He was giving an outstanding performance, but if it was only against fighters of this level, it would be fine. This was about the level he’d need to show to be picked for the Magma Clan Tournament.

He smiled as he looked around at all the warriors staring at him. He decided to take a different approach.

“Come on, you lot! Come and meet your fate!”

..

Byron Gweld, the Overseer in charge of the 5th District for the Recruitment Drive looked around, watching the various fighters compete. He took a few mental notes of the strongest warrior in each division, marking them down.

Each Overseer was in charge of a different District, and their chief goal was to be sure all high level fighters entered the Magma Clan, while the useless ones didn’t.

“Hmm, not bad, not bad.” He muttered as he watched a brawny axe wielder with bright red hair clash on the 3rd stage, smashing enemies about with ease.

“Who is he?” Byron turned to the side, motioning for one of his several aides to step forward. Each aide was carrying a large sheath of paper, each one containing information on the participants competing, organized by stage.

When registering for the Recruitment Drive, each warrior had to leave behind some amount of information, enough to provide a stable identity. Upon completion of the Recruitment Drive, the Magma Clan would operate a full background check for each recruit.

The aide that stepped forward was a small, middle-aged man with a balding pate. He gave a nervous nod as he picked through several sheaths of paper before finally settling on one.

“A warrior from the coastal lowlands to the south, he’s known as Iron Axe Gorn. He is a Rank A Hunter, ranked towards the bottom. The cursory check revealed he fled the south after offending a Baron from the Yenett family.” After registering for the Recruitment Drive, the Magma Clan sent a mass information request on all recruits to the local Hunter Association base.

The information that could be gathered in such a short period of time would only be what the Association already had on hand, but it was still considered a useful tool to eliminate spies or enemies.

“What is his Natural Ability?” Bryon asked, after watching the warrior fight.

“A lesser one that enhances his sense of balance and eyesight, but only to a small degree. Enough to set him above average, but not enough to allow him to dominate.”

“Hmm, acceptable.” Byron nodded, his eyes glinting. Each Overseer was competing, in a manner, to present the strongest recruits to the Clan. If a candidate from their district scored well in the Magma Clan Tournament, they would be rewarded for securing a talented recruit. It was a way the Magma Clan managed the Recruitment Drive, encouraging the Overseers to not miss anyone.

In a similar manner, some Overseers would go out and directly recruit talents of their own for the Drive. Merely, it was very difficult to find powerful talents that hadn’t already joined the Clan and were also willing to participate in the Recruitment Drive.

CLASH

“Arrgh!”

“Stop him!”

THUD

The sounds of combat exploded particularly loudly from the south, over on the 5th stage. Byron turned around in surprise.

There, a single warrior was currently singlehandedly overwhelming several dozen other fighters.

His swordplay wasn’t pretty, or beautiful. It had no flashy movements or mesmerizing pulls. Instead, it was exact and precise, moving with extreme precision. The fighter had short brown hair and deep, dark blue eyes. He was wearing a simple set of black leather pants, and a loose white shirt.

His movements blurred as he slashed left and right, moving his body at precise and accurate angles to dodge attack after attack as everyone in the group swarmed him, seemingly forgetting that they were all competing with each other. The blue light of Spirit was particularly concentrated around him, giving him the look of a hero.

Byron’s face lit up as he saw this, pleased. A fighter like this was an excellent result, and would give him a chance at putting one over on the Overseer of the 1st District, Overseer Darrel. The 1st District was located in the wealthiest part of town, and was typically where the richer, and oftentimes more powerful, recruits would gather for testing.

“Who is he?” He asked once again. This time, a separate aide rushed forward, a young woman wearing a set of brown robes. She reached into a pile of examiner info, pulling out a small stack.

“A powerful swordsman and a Rank A Hunter, newly promoted. He has a perfect mission record, and has been active in the Magma Lands for the last several years. He offended the Duke of Snow, Cedric Bold, from the north several years ago, and fled here shortly after.”

Byron nodded. A background like that was typical. Strong warriors wouldn’t normally be free and open to joining a different organization unless they were fleeing from home, abandoned after offending a greater power.

“What is his Natural Ability?”

The aide paused for a moment, looking down at the paper in her hands.

“Enhanced speed and strength, apparently. He also has considerable talent with a sword. A new report states there is a chance he is a past student of one of the Seventeen, though whether or not he is an active disciple is in question.”

The Seventeen, as they were known, were the Seventeen Swordmasters that existed, spread across all three major and one minor continents. Until a few years ago they had been known as the Sixteen, till the newest Swordmaster, the Searing Swordmaster, made his appearance.

In actuality, only thirteen of the Seventeen actually used a sword. Of the other four, two had reached an equivalent level of mastery wielding the spear, one had reached a similar level of mastery with a staff, and the last had reached a similar level wielding a battle-axe.

Hence, they were referred to as the Seventeen. Each one was a very powerful peak figure with many disciples under them, with the exception of the newest member, the Searing Swordmaster.

“Excellent! Hehehe, most excellent!” Overseer Byron clapped his hands together happily, the heavy red plate armor he wore clanking.

He watched as Jack dealt blow after blow, easily defeating every fight he was up against.

“A recruit like this will greatly please his lordship Ayalda, and will give us an edge over the other districts. Commission an in-depth background check on him for after the Tournament.” Byron waved his hand imperiously at the clerk, a smile on his face as he turned, examining the other wooden platforms.

..

The Magma Lake stretched for hundreds of miles. It was a huge, boiling sea of flame and slag, a deathtrap to any normal warrior. Indeed, even fire attributed Spirit Beasts that called the Magma Lands their home would venture carefully around the Magma Lake.

The Forinth Stronghold of the Magma Clan was located on a small island that was centered close to the east side of the Magma Lake. Idgelbar City was located at the very eastern most point.

The entire lake was surrounded by the enormous mountains that made up most of the Magma Lands, many of them active volcanoes, as well as several large forests of the ashen trees that dotted the landscape.

Despite its barren appearance, vast pools of water could be found rather easily throughout the Magma Lands, as long as one had power. For reasons yet to be fully explained, many of the mountains that weren’t active volcanoes had massive caves full of crystal clear water within them, usually covered by a dozen or so meters of rocky stone.

Individual towns and cities relied upon these stores of water to survive, oftentimes being built near several large excavated pools.

Rainfall was a rare occurrence in the Magma Lands, and the water that fell from the sky was usually acidic.

On the western side of the Magma Lake, a particularly large forest, known as the Ashollow Forest, bordered right up to the edge of the massive pool of magma.

Currently, a pair of aged men stood facing a smiling, silver-haired warrior who looked to be in his mid 30s.

The silver-haired warrior was lean and muscular, wearing a black silt shirt, and brown silk pants. A long, brown leather belt strapped around his waist, wear a pair of immaculate sabers rested.

“As promised, my dearest allies!” The silver-haired man’s voice was charismatic and enthralling, full of energy as he spoke. He bowed flashily to the two elderly figures before him as he pulled a small book out of a Space Sealed Ring, and tossed it to the pair in front of him.

A heavyset elder with a long, majestic white beard and a short head of hair snatched the book out of the air, the pearly white robes he wore ruffling. He opened the book up, ruffling through its contents before handing it to the man next to him.

An aged, but lean and tough looking man with long flowing white hair, and a very short, sharp white beard took took the booklet, frowning as he read through it. The robes he wore were of a similar style of the heavyset elder, except light green in color. A long blade was strapped to his back, shifting slightly as he held the book before him.

“If the information you have here is true…” The lean elder began, his voice holding a slight tone of anger.

“Then it’s exactly as I said, is it not, Aron?” The heavyset elder broke in, his eyes gleaming.

“After they took the Polansk Volcano, they invaded the Lira Kingdom, and the Samier Collective, where their bastard spawn ran wild. If we had taken action then like I said, we wouldn’t have lost so many of our own.”

“Jirong that doesn’t mean we should have jus-“ The lean elder broke in, shaking his head,

“Your grandson would still be alive, if not for their brutal advances.” The heavyset elder cut him off, a cold light in his eyes.

The lean elder froze, his eyes freezing over as he glared at the heavyset elder.

Almost instantly, two overwhelming auras blasted out, pillars of golden fire ravaging the air as the two elders glared at each other. The nearby trees exploded due to the pressure, knocked backwards out into the air, many of them burning. An impending feeling of doom shuttered into existence as the air seemed to twist.

The silver-haired warrior stayed silent, seemingly unaffected by the miniature explosion of force.

After a moment, however, the tension died off, the two auras retracting. The impending feeling of doom vanished.

“You are correct, Jirong. It seems I was mistaken about this.” The lean elder’s voice was gruff.

The heavyset elder nodded, his face calm.

“Well, then!” The silver-haired warrior clapped his hands together, breaking the moment altogether.

“Lord Fifth Torch, Lord Second Torch, let me give you a warm welcome!” The man smiled, completely ignoring the previous tension and atmosphere. He took several steps forward, giving a cheerful smile to each powerful warrior.

“The O’Bald Pirates will not disappoint your desire for vengeance.”