A delighted laugh would have slipped free from Alex’s lips if the howl of the wind rushing past him hadn’t stolen it. He almost felt weightless. A swathe of writhing scales undulated beneath him as he raced through the clouds upon the back of an enormous dragon.
Claire stood at its head, her whip in her hand and a wide grin on her own lips as she beckoned him forward, and he didn’t want to keep her waiting.
It was exhilarating. The furious beat of his heart far outpaced his steps as he bounded across the dragon, his chainsword whirring at his side as he darted toward Claire. Every single part of him was completely focused on the fight. The arena gave them no other choice.
With the ground constantly moving beneath his feet and the furious winds tearing across the dragon’s back, even a slight misstep would spell the end. And this was far from the first time they’d fought in the past few days. Alex’s reserves were running dry.
Claire’s were too.
But they still had enough for a few more fights, and not every single battle they’d find themselves fighting in the future would occur when they had full tanks. Sure, the chances of being in a fight while standing on the back of a dragon hurtling through the air did feel like a slightly less likely scenario, but it sure as hell was fun.
The arena really could do anything.
“Get ready!” Alex yelled, the distance between him and Claire closing rapidly. His next step drove into the monster’s back with a loud crack. He launched himself into the air, lifting his chainsword high above his head as he hurtled down toward Claire.
She cracked her whip forward to strike him from the sky. Both of them knew that Princess’ magic had run its course and had largely exhausted itself, leaving him little healing left to call upon. But even still, one strike wouldn’t be enough to take him out.
So long as he got on top of Claire, there was little space on the dragon to dodge around. He’d have a huge advantage. His laughter echoed through the clouds as he plummeted.
And then, out of the corner of his eye, Alex caught sight of a shadow blurring through the air toward him.
The laughter died on his lips.
Is that a—
An immense force slammed into him.
The world went black.
—tail?
Alex stumbled, nearly tripping over himself. The blue sky and dragon were gone. He stood back at the gate of the arena, breathing heavily, his magic nearly completely spent. A moment passed as he stood in stunned silence.
“Are you kidding me?” Alex asked, pressing a hand to his pounding chest. “Seriously?”
Claire popped into existence before him, doubled over laughing before she’d even appeared.
“That was great,” she said through her mirth. “You should have seen the look on your face.”
“The dragon hit me!” Alex exclaimed. “What the hell was that about? That was favortism!”
“You stomped on it,” Claire pointed out. “Really, it was just defending itself. You can’t go stomping on living beings and expect them to not try and swat at you.”
“That’s a load of BS,” Alex grumbled, but he couldn’t keep a grin from crossing over his lips. “But I suppose it’s probably good to note. The arena can really simulate some pretty advanced shit, huh? I though the dragon was just going to kind of… I don’t know. Fly?”
“Me too,” Claire admitted, wiping the corners of her eyes, her smile still fighting to keep its place on her face. “But I’m glad it didn’t. Maybe don’t fling yourself into the air when you’re low on magic and have no good way to dodge a surprise attack, yeah? It leaves you pretty wide open.”
Alex grunted. “Yeah. That was a bit of a rookie mistake. I was just feeling very weightless at the moment. And I didn’t think you’d paid the damn dragon off.”
“It did make for a great show, though,” a female voice came from their side.
Both Alex and Claire turned toward its source. A tall woman seemingly somewhere in her late 20s stood beside them, clad in shimmering silver full plate armor. She’d pulled the visor of her helm back so that her face and a few strands of black hair that had slipped free to hang over her sharp features were visible.
“Us?” Alex asked.
“Yes.” The woman gave them a small nod. “I was watching that last one. You’ve been here the whole day, haven’t you? I came in during the morning and saw you near the gate, and you’re still here several hours later. I had to figure out what you were up to, sparring for a day straight.”
It’s been more than a day, actually. I’m pretty sure we’ve been at this for at least three.
The Empty Court had certainly made it easy to stick around and train constantly. As it turned out, there was some food available for free to members of the Empty Court. Teddy had just taken them to a fancier restaurant. There were lodgings as well — several houses near the base of the mountain that were available to anyone who wanted to stay in them.
Alex and Claire had cycled between the free restaurant, the arena, and the beds pretty much relentlessly since they’d gotten to the Empty Court. Both were all too aware that the cycle couldn’t go on forever. They’d have to head back to Mirrorwane pretty soon. There were still things that required their attention.
And since Absolution was apparently already part of the Empty Court, there was no guarantee that he’d be willing to take them back anymore. It was a bit odd that they hadn’t seen him around, but it was Absolution they were talking about. He was probably off brooding somewhere.
They had mutually decided that the problem of finding a way home could wait a tad longer. The gains they’d both gotten in the arena over the past few days had just been too immense. Teddy and Samuel had been proven right a dozen times over. Training here was far, far more effective than just about anywhere else.
The only drawback was that they didn’t get any magical energy for the fights. But even without it, the battle experience was completely irreplaceable. It was just limited. They’d already fought against each other enough times to start to begin feeling the diminishing returns.
There was only so much that could be learned from fighting the same person over and over. Unfortunately, pretty much everyone else in the Empty Court had been here longer than them — and neither were willing to spend their tokens yet.
Alex suddenly realized that the woman was staring at him, waiting for a response to something.
“What was that?” he asked. “Sorry. Been a long few days.”
“I was asking what you were preparing for,” the woman said with a small laugh. “Are you really expecting to be battling on the back of an irate dragon?”
“It wasn’t irate until he stomped on it,” Claire said.
“And you never know,” Alex said with a small shrug. “Best to be ready for it than not, right? Now I know not to step on it. But I don’t think we’ve met yet.”
“No. We haven’t,” the woman said. She extended both of her hands, one to Alex and one to Claire. “I’m Evelyn.”
I’ve never seen someone shake two hands at once. Efficient. Slightly cursed, but efficient.
Alex and Claire both took her hands and shook.
“Alex.”
“Claire.”
“Pleasure,” Evelyn said, letting go and allowing her hands to drop back to her sides. “You’re new, right?”
“We are,” Alex said. “Just joined a few days ago.”
“And you’re already locked in at the arena?” Evelyn let out a small laugh and shook her head. “Well, I think I did something similar when I first joined. It’s really something else, isn’t it?”
Alex and Claire both nodded. There was really no need to even bother denying her words. The arena was insane. But a part of Alex couldn’t help but wonder what everyone else had to work with. The Empty Court definitely weren’t the only ones with an advantage like this. And that meant the Great Families probably had their own versions of something like the arena.
“It almost feels unfair,” Alex said.
“It’s a huge advantage,” Evelyn agreed. “But we’re far from the only ones with one, and the expression on your face is telling me that you’ve already thought as much. That’s not what I flagged you down to talk about, though. I wanted to check if you two were interested in joining in a quick group match — maybe after you’ve recovered a bit?”
“A group match?” Alex asked. “What, against you and someone else?”
Evelyn nodded. “Yeah. I only joined the Empty Court a little while ago. A few months or so. That makes us fellow newbies. Who better to try a fight out against?”
Alex and Claire exchanged a glance. They really did have to start thinking about getting back to Mirrorwane soon… but one more fight couldn’t hurt. Especially when it was against someone else.
“No stakes?” Alex asked.
“Well, that would be a bit lame,” Evelyn said. The corners of her mouth pulled up. “One Denari for each team.”
That’s not too bad. And if Claire and I are fighting together, I’m normally pretty optimistic about our chances. But Evelyn has been here for a few months. That means she’s got a hell of a lot more experience in the arena than we do. We’d be at a disadvantage.
Alex’s lips pursed.
But if we don’t take risks, how are we meant to get better?
“What stage are you and your ally?” Claire asked. “And I assume it’s only one other person on your team?”
Evelyn nodded. “Expert. But we can have the arena limit everyone to Adept. That’s where the two of you are, right?”
“Yeah,” Alex said. “How long do we have to rest? Both of us are pretty spent. We’d need at least two hours.”
“We can wait that long,” Evelyn said with a shrug. “If you’re down to fight, that is. If not, no worries. We’ll find someone else.”
Claire nodded slowly. “I think we’re both willing, then. So long as we can agree on a fair set of rules.”
“That’ll be no problem. We can have the arena auto-set them along with the adept restrictions,” Evelyn said. One corner of her mouth pulled upward. “And we’ll have a normal battle area instead of the back of a dragon, so long as you’re okay with it.”
“I think fighting on top of one dragon is enough for the day,” Alex said with a chuckle. “We’ll take you up, then. Two hours.”
“Great,” Evelyn said, giving them a nod. Then she flicked her visor, sending it clanging down to cover her features once more. “Two hours. Rest up, make sure you’re at 100%. I’ll be looking forward to seeing what you’re capable of.”