Chapter 35: Spark

Chapter 35: Chapter 35: Spark

Jared had expected ice.

It made sense. Ice was what the Ground Dragon did best when under him, what she’d done for him in the wilds, what she’d done almost a hundred times in the last 5 minutes.

A sweeping ring of frost, a wall of crystal, a spinning blizzard that would flatten everyone in the pit. He’d braced for it. He’d dug his boots into the dirt, crossed his armored arms over his chest, and waited for the cold.

Ice wasn’t what came.

The spinning dragon let out a roar that shook the chains from the walls, and a ring of white light burst from her body in every direction at once. For a heartbeat, the entire arena was silent. Then the sky cracked open.

Lightning.

Hundreds of streaks of it, thin and white and forked, whipped outward from the dragon like the spokes of a wheel. They tore across the dirt. They leapt through the air. They struck beasts and masters alike with a sound like a thousand whips.

A girl was flung backward, her braids standing straight up. The falcon dropped out of the sky like a stone. The twins went down together, still holding hands.

In a single sweep, it was over. To think it was with the same lightening he struggled to take days ago.

Everyone was down.

Bodies lay scattered across the arena, twitching, smoking, groaning. Beasts flickered and collapsed, forced back into their gems by the shock. Not a single person was standing.

Jared stood in the middle of it, still on his own feet.

The lightning had hit him. He’d felt it and yet the thick layers of wet root and damp bark swallowed the current, and let it drain harmlessly into the dirt. He felt a faint tingle in his teeth. That was all.

He let out a shaky breath.

[Well,That was a lot.]

’They’re all down.’

[Alive, I think. Mostly. It looks like a non lethal strike. Somebody has a bit of restraint.]

’Barely.’

[I guess top tier beast masters don’t have a good enough handle on what it means to hold back.]

Jared didn’t reply.

He stared across the pit at the spinning dragon. She was slowing now, her claws grinding to a halt, the ring of light fading from her scales. Her head lifted. Her eyes were cold and calm, and as they swept the arena, they paused for a moment, just a moment, on him.

’Whatever.’

His fists clenched.

’Some top tier. Had to steal my beast.’

The masters on that platform were supposed to be some of the best. The elite. The guild everyone wanted to join. And one of them had crept into the dark in the city wilds, snatched a gem out of the sky, and taken it for a prize.

He’d had a plan.When the test began, he had thought he might team up with the others. Pool their strengths. Combine their beasts, their attacks, their ideas.

The power of friendship wasn’t saving him today.

Thirty beast masters, working together, could have overwhelmed a single dragon. It would have been hard. It would have taken coordination. But it would have been possible.

None of that mattered anymore.

Not one of them was getting a shot. They were lying in the dirt, twitching, drooling, defeated before they’d started. No one was coming to help him. He was on his own.

[Rex.]

’What?’

[Zoey’s down too.]

Jared’s eyes flicked toward the far side of the arena. A small figure lay crumpled in the dirt near a ridge of rock, braids splayed, one hand outstretched. Jared sighed at the sight.

’Okay.’

[You’re not going to check on her?]

’No.’

[She’s your...]

’This is more important,’ Jared said, his voice flat. ’It’s not like she’s even my real...’

He stopped.

The word hung in his mind, half finished. His stomach turned. ’Real what?’

He couldn’t say it. He couldn’t even think it. He knew exactly how the sentence ended, and he knew it was wrong. It was rotten.

It was the kind of thing a person said when they wanted to stop feeling something.

’She carried me out of the forest. She held me while I cried. She tackled me in the dirt, begging me not to hurt myself.’

His throat closed.

’Real sister. Real family. Real everything. I’m the fake one.’

The regret hit him like a slap.

’What is wrong with me?’

[You said it, not me.]

[I’m not going to scold you.]

’Please don’t.’

He swallowed hard. He couldn’t fix it now. When this was over, he’d fix it.

’But first, I get her back.’

He lowered his head and charged.

His boots thundered across the dirt. The suit rattled with every step. He had planned to split from the gorilla when he got close, to fight as two bodies, but now he scrapped that plan.

It was a bad idea. He could see that clearly.

’If I split, I’m vulnerable. I could get hit just like all of them.’

If he dropped the armor and the dragon unleashed another burst of lightning, he’d be down in a second. And if he didn’t sustain the attack, if he couldn’t keep up the pressure, then even he would be out.

’Stay in the suit.’

He kept running.

The Ground Dragon had finished her spin. She stood tall now and then her throat began to glow. A tongue of orange fire licked from between her teeth.

’Here it comes.’

A stream of flame shot out of her mouth and flashed across the dirt. Jared threw himself sideways. The fire sailed past his shoulder, close enough that he felt its heat through the armor.

It struck the wall behind him, and instantly, the flames turned white, then blue, then froze solid, leaving a spiky sculpture of ice clinging to the stone.

Another blast. Another dodge. This time he rolled, came up on one knee, and sprang forward again. The fire hit the ground, and the dirt crackled and turned to frost.

Each time the flames touched something, it froze.

’This isn’t how I’m going to win,’ he thought. ’Is it?’

[Not at the moment.]

He was dodging, and that was all. He couldn’t get close. The dragon’s attacks came in rapid streaks, forcing him to weave and jump and duck.

Every time he edged forward, another blast drove him back. He had barely gained 10 yards in 2 minutes. The invisible line was still there, thirty yards from her feet, and he couldn’t breach it.

’I can’t keep this up forever.’

His breath rasped in his helm. Sweat ran down his neck.

’I need something else. I need something new.’

"This is the time to be spontaneous," he said out loud.

[Spontaneity you? Ha. That’s a risky philosophy.]

"I’ve got to release those gases somehow."

[Don’t say it like that]

It was the one thing he hadn’t been able to do. The SwampGorilla could generate gases, he knew that. Combustive. Freezing. Laxative, even. Some of them could change a fight in an instant. But every time he tried to push one out through the armor, nothing happened.

He thought back, fast.

He thought about how easily he’d learned to command the Ground Dragon. It had been strangely simple. Point, think, fire. She obeyed him almost before he finished the thought. What had come harder was the transmutation. Turning the flames into something else had taken hours, and countless failures.

’But with the gorilla, it’s the opposite.’

Punching came easily. The armor made him strong. He could crush stone. He could charge through a wall. But the gases wouldn’t move. They stayed locked in the beast, no matter how hard he focused.

’I’ve been concentrating. And it doesn’t work.’

He skidded to a halt yet he couldn’t sit still. He couldn’t stop and meditate. Every second he stood in place, something exploded near his head. So he stayed in motion, flipping and darting, his mind running at full speed.

’Concentrating isn’t helping.’

[Obviously.]

’There has to be another way.’

He lunged left, dodged right, and in the half second it took to catch his balance, a memory flashed through his mind. The yard. The night. The dark. A boy, sweating, gagging, shoving two fingers down his own throat. A burst of freezing air that shot out of his mouth, white and sharp.

’I did that myself.’

He’d used his own body. His own throat. His own breath. Not the dragon’s. Not a beast’s. Just him.

His eyes widened.

’That’s it.’

It hit him all at once.

’The gorilla is basically a suit. I’m wearing it. It’s wrapped around me like a second skin. So what if I stop trying to push the gases out through the suit?’

[What do you mean?]

’What if I use myself as the medium? Use the beast’s ability, like I’d use any beast’s ability as a beast master. But do it from inside the beast.’

The idea was strange. It was backwards. Instead of the gorilla releasing gas, Jared would channel its power from within, through his own body, and let the suit carry it outward.

’I’m a beast master. I can use their abilities in my regular state. So why can’t I use it while I’m wearing the beast?’

A bolt of fire screamed past his face. He barely noticed.

The system was silent for a moment.

[Would that even work?]

’I don’t know.’

[It sounds insane.]

’It does.’

[It’s also kind of brilliant.]

’Thanks.’

[It’s also very likely to blow up in your face.]

Jared grinned.

He planted his feet in the dirt, squared his shoulders, and looked straight at the Ground Dragon across the arena. She stared back with a flicker of orange glowed brewing in her throat. She was gathering for another attack.

"Only one way to find out," he said.