Rise of the Living Forge-Chapter 396: Dangerous

Olive charged Average. The roar of the crowd was nothing more than a muted rumble in her ears. Compared to the pounding blood pumping through her ears, it may as well have been nothing.

Shadows materialized in Average’s hands and formed into a pair of short swords. He crossed them before himself as Olive brought her sword down with all her might. Her blade connected with his without so much as a sound.

Average twisted his swords to the side and sent Olive’s strike sailing past him harmlessly. He lunged, hand blurring as he slashed one of the blades at her arm. It sliced into her armor, leaving a thin scar in the metal, but failed to fully penetrate.

He wasn’t done. His other sword was already blurring toward Olive’s arm, aimed at an exposed area in the joints of her armor. Average was trying to get a second attack off before she could ready her sword for a counter of her own.

So Olive didn’t try to ready her sword. She continued spinning with the momentum of her strike, letting Average’s sword slice across the armor on her back harmlessly, and she sent a wicked backhand directly into his cheek with her other hand.

Average staggered back with a hiss of pain. Instead of blood, shadows curled away from his face. It was like his body wasn’t even made up of flesh. He was just a bunch of dark gas trapped within skin.

Olive wasn’t perturbed. She pressed her momentary advantage and brought her sword slashing toward Average’s midsection. No matter what kind of magic he had, nobody was completely indestructible.

His shadows probably drew a pretty significant amount of magical power. She was willing to bet that, if she cut him enough times, he’d eventually run out.

But Olive’s sword never connected. It sliced clean through the air where Average should have been standing, but his body wasn’t there anymore. His flesh parted before the blade’s path, splitting apart into black streamers before it could touch him.

The smoke twisted past Olive, reforming directly behind her in a split second. Average had abandoned his twin blades in place of the broadsword he’d used in his previous attack. He swung the massive weapon in a dark blur.

Gritting her teeth, Olive brought her left arm up defensively. Average’s sword slammed into her, sending vibrations coursing through her armor and into the ground at her feet. It dug deep into the metal, but this time, it only managed to bite an inch into her skin.

Her armor was starting to adapt.

She slashed at Average with her sword. He leaned back, dodging the blow and leaving his sword lodged in her arm. The weapon dissipated, transforming into a black streamer of energy that flowed back to reform in Average’s hand.

“You’re durable,” he said. “I—”

A thunderous roar followed by a flash of light ripped through the arena, crushing the rest of Average’s sentence before it could even try to leave his mouth. Olive staggered, her ears ringing, as a metallic smell filled her nostrils.

She couldn’t keep herself from glancing toward the direction of the noise. The ground of the arena was blackened and scorched where what must have been a massive bolt of lightning had fallen from the sky to crash down on the arena.

Maeve stood several paces away from it, shimmers of faint light spinning around her like fragments of glass. She’d fallen to one knee, but she was still in the fight.

Several paces to her right, Elias and the bald monk were locked in a blur of blows. They spun around each other like a pair of dancers, each movement perfectly matched to the other — but even from the mere second of information she managed to draw in, it was clear that the monk was stronger than Elias.

Olive’s eyes snapped back to Average just in time to find his sword plummeting for her face, already just inches away from connecting. He hadn’t been taken by surprise at Spark’s magic in the slightest.

Shit!

Olive stumbled back, desperately trying to bring her hands up before herself. It wasn’t going to be fast enough. She’d let herself get distracted.

A loud crunch echoed out. Magical energy drained from her body as something pulsed in the back of her mind. Olive’s lips parted in surprise as she stared up at the word mere inches away from her face — locked in place by a thick wooden growth that had exploded out of her arm to intercept it.

Red sap dripped from the black wood, dripping onto her skin like blood. A deep, rumbling anger gripped at the roots of her mind.

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Let me out. You care too much about your friends’ fight. Allow me to feed and you can think about them all you want. This is not a fight you can win without my power.

“What is this magic?” Average demanded, jumping back as Olive kicked at his chest. His sword broke into strands of shadow that swirled back to reform in his hand once more “I’ve never seen anything of the like. Are you a mage or a warrior? How can you control a mere wooden prosthetic like this?”

“I’ve got a damn good armorer,” Olive replied.

Average dashed forward, bringing his blade down for Olive’s head. She raised her wooden arm, blocking the sword before it could cut into her. Another vibration ripped down her arm, but it was manageable. Her magical energy was starting to dwindle as her armor drew it away for its adaptations.

That was fine. She couldn’t let this fight go on for much longer anyway. The others needed her.

I’m not giving you control. Nobody here deserves to die. The others had it coming. These guys don’t.

I’ll only kill them a little.

No.

Average slashed at Olive again and she jumped back, narrowly managing to avoid the attack. He barely even lost his momentum as his sword disappeared and re-formed, already thrusting straight at her stomach.

She stumbled back, barely managing to keep her footing. The sheer force of Average’s strikes were far more dangerous than his ability to cut through her armor. It had already managed to adapt to much of his abilities, but there was only so much energy she had to work with. He was going to overwhelm her if something didn’t change soon.

Shit. What do I do? I can only take a few more hits like this before I completely run out of energy. Then my armor will go back to normal and Average will just finish me off.

Another brilliant crash tore through the arena, this one joined by the furious crackling of electricity. Olive knew Maeve had survived the hit by the sound of humming song filtering through the air. If she was honest, she had no idea how. Maeve had never demonstrated such immense magical defenses before.

Olive couldn’t risk looking back at her or Elias, but deep down, she could tell they were losing the fight. All of them were on the backfoot. They were losing the fight. Her teeth gritted.

Going out like this… so close to the finish line… it sat wrong. She wouldn’t allow it. It was one thing if the fight was so close that it came down to the last blow, but losing like this? With all three of Setting Sun’s members claiming victory over them?

Perhaps it was egotistical, but Olive couldn’t allow that. Not while there was still more she could do.

Hey. If you think you can hold back enough for me to give you a little control… I’ll do it. One chance. Do anything but kill. Fuck this up and I’m never letting you out again unless I’ve got no other choice.

There was a moment of silence as her arm pondered her words. Then a prickle of warmth pressed against her shoulder, where the wooden arm connected to her skin.

Very well. The first taste is always the cheapest.

We have a deal.

This chapter is updat𝙚d by freeweɓnovel.cøm.

***

Eleven watched the fight play out, her features unreadable. The ceiling of the viewing room rumbled with the cheers of the crowd. Her fingers drummed against her side. The Secret Eye had certainly succeeded in getting an interesting fight for the finals.

She couldn’t help but be a little impressed. It was little surprise to see how strong One’s choices for the team were — though their spy had blundered his role completely. He was more than a competent fighter, but giving away all the information he’d gathered, not to mention getting completely tricked by Reya and failing to verify his information… it stung of unearned arrogance.

One would be hearing of that.

But despite the failiure of the spy, all three of the prospective guild members had mastered an aspect of their class completely. They were strong. She’d known that, which is why she was even more impressed by the fact that Arwin’s team could hold their own this well.

Olive is one hell of a warrior. She thinks way too much during fights, though. She needs to get faster at making her decisions. That hesitation is going to end up getting her killed. And that arm of hers…

Eleven tilted her head to the side. Olive’s eyes had gone red — but it was something else that had caught her attention. Her augmented senses prickled as power exploded out from Olive, visible only to those who could see beyond the veil covering most eyes.

Jagged lines of thick, red aura bloomed from Olive’s back like the jagged branches of a tree. They stretched out to claw into the air around her. The back of Eleven’s neck prickled. There was bloodlust in that aura. The hunger of an unsated monster.

That wooden arm of hers really was something else. Eleven had seen a number of cursed weapons in her lifetime, this one’s aura was up there among some of the stronger ones. It probably wasn’t going to set about trying to end the world yet… but she doubted the thought hadn’t passed through the arm’s mind at least once.

But it wasn’t Olive that Eleven was studying. Eleven already knew all she wanted to of Olive. She knew the girl’s flaws and strengths, and as interesting as she was, there was someone else that Eleven’s eyes lingered on.

It was the bandaged man losing more and more ground to a flurry of blows. He’d just barely managed to keep himself in the fight, seemingly through sheer luck alone. Elias took no advantage of the openings, few they may have been, to turn the fight in his favor.

All he did was back up. He made no offensive moves. No attempts to turn the tides of the battle in his teams’ favor. He may as well have been a reed swaying in the water, content to let it take him wherever it wanted to.

Eleven leaned forward. She’d been dragged all the way out here to observe, so the least her subjects could do was try to make the dreadful task at least a little interesting.

“I wonder…” Eleven mused, dragging the word out as she let her head tilt to the side. Her eyes bore down on Elias. Then the corners of her lips twitched up in a small smile. “When will he reveal that he’s the most dangerous person on that arena floor?”