Chapter 169 – Worthy
“Now wait a minute... You invited the Spirit Wardens,” Quillian said, feeling shocked. “I am an advisor, but I'm not a member, like a disciple!”
“You are a member; so is the foreigner,” Orzamar said, pointing at Vael, ending the discussion there.
“But..." Vael tried, and not because he was afraid of facing him, but because he didn't want to cause trouble to the others. In fact, he wanted to participate and finally let loose a little without any worry. "I am under disciplinary restrictions.”
The bracelet flashed the moment he finished speaking, and turned white from black.
“There. Permission granted,” Orzimar said, getting impatient.
Sensing the end of the discussion, Quillian’s eyes narrowed, and the frail old man’s look, with his bent posture, disappeared, his breathing technique kicking in. He raised his walking staff as a weapon, getting into a fighting position just a moment later.
“Oh?” Orzimar’s green eyes brightened. “You do still have some spirit... That's what I'm talking about! I hate when people like you give up just because of one failure. Those who wait for their death without trying are the worst. Go out in a blaze of glory if you have to go... Because whimpering like a wretch is an affront to everyone else who died in their tribulation.”
“...”
Without warning, Orzimar clapped, deciding to start the fight when everyone remained silent. They watched as a strangely transparent, quartz-like ring rose from the ground around him. It was made of glassy pillars, quickly growing into smooth, six-sided crystals taller than he was. As the morning light entered them, they were turned into rainbows, spraying the arena with blinding colors, clearly forming some kind of formation.
Siu's affinity tried to follow the patterns and found too many, as the entire terrace had become a formation. Feeling that the strange elder had an affinity for something along the lines of earth-based affinity was just one thing; understanding formations, especially at his level, was the real issue. He already knew that trying to copy anything Orzimar was doing was like trying to speak a language fluently, one he didn't even know existed. With another breath, he was nudging his affinity, as best as he could, to lock onto Arya, as she was the one he knew the best, and the easiest to copy.
While it was all happening, going down in a second, Quillian had already attacked, having the most experience and greatest power amongst the group. Using his own affinity, the old man vanished with the sound of an explosion as bright flames burst from beneath his feet, throwing him forward. Quillian knew that the elder was surely aware of his preference for attacking from afar... so, he decided to do something of the opposite.
He appeared before Orzimar with his cane drawn back like a spear, its tip wrapped in a sphere of compressed fire, and thrust it out with a silent yell. Before it could even reach Orzimar, the quartz-like things rose up in his way, meeting the attack, and the resulting explosion swallowed Orzimar and the rest of the surrounding quartz pillars, making the others shield their eyes from the blinding light accompanying it.
The blast wave reached them the next moment, being so violent that Ruben was forced to open his umbrella as water splashed out and a rounded veil spread around the group just as the force of the explosion struck them all. Steam erupted from it the next moment while everyone slid backward, even if Ruben blocked the brunt of the impact. Marly was blown from Siu’s head and barely caught herself with a gust, trying to ride it. Before anyone could catch their balance, Quillian shot backward out of the explosion, hurriedly retreating.
As expected, when the smoke cleared, Orzimar remained untouched. The compressed explosion had simply entered the transparent crystal that stood before him and was divided into hundreds of smaller traces of fire, which were diverted to all the other quartz-made objects, splitting and dissipating without cracking any of them. Orzimar just kept smiling, lifting a finger, and a moment later, every crystal flashed at once, and Quillian’s own explosion erupted upward in twenty separate pillars of fire, like harmless, celebratory sparkles.
Without saying anything, Vael moved next, right as Quillian was still retreating. Thick, blue lightning was running across his body, turning his outline white-blue before he disappeared. Then, turning himself into electricity, the ground between him and Orzimar exploded in a line of buzzing arcs of lightning. When Vael reappeared, he was coming at Orzimar from behind. His palm, covered in his affinity, came within half a step of Orzimar’s nape when a formation lit up between them. From there, a crystalline hand reached out, grabbed Vael, throwing him down like a rag doll.
Ruben flicked his umbrella just at that moment, banking on Orzimar's mind being occupied by Vael. From the tip of it, a rope made out of water snapped at Orzimar, but changed direction at the last moment, attacking the crystal hand holding Vael instead. It kind of worked, because Vael’s fall slowed for an instant, saving him from a painful landing.
Ruben wasn't the only one who was already in action as Seloryn lifted her flute and released a sharp note, like a falcon's cry, as the sound struck the formation that was controlling the crystalline hand, doing her best to cancel it. At the same time, Joren and Nokoh seized the water-made whip and pulled together. Their teamwork had its effect as the hand broke while Vael twisted in midair, lightning exploding from his back, and shot free just before crashing, gathering distance in the very last second before impact.
"Mhm," Orzimar nodded, simply watching and letting their effort play out, “Good team response... Did you fight many battles together?”
In answer, Cho’Wa lunged at him, making the elder tilt his head, watching Nokoh instead of the wolf. His partner rushed directly through the gaps between the quartz pillars, as Nokoh circled towards Orzimar, black smoke spilling from his hands and forearms, preparing a spell. Orzimar was unsure what it was, so he just raised one finger and another batch of quartz spikes erupted from the grass. Cho’Wa twisted between the first two that appeared, but the third scraped his side. At the same time, Nokoh slid beneath a crystal projectile that came at him from nowhere, and struck one of the pillars with his palm. The black smoke spread across it, and to everyone's surprise, its surface blackened and the next moment its internal formation, hidden somewhere within it, was disturbed, causing it to fall apart.
"Wanting to distract me while trying to disturb my main pillars, huh?" Orzimar chuckled as he tapped one foot against the ground. "Good thinking."
While Nokoh's black smoke spread across the surface of another pillar... suddenly it disappeared, returning the crystal to its clear form. Right then, four new ones erupted from the ground around him, trapping him in an energy field, immobilizing Nokoh completely. Cho’Wa turned instantly, rushing towards his master as he charged the prison, and if not for Joren, the wolf would have been skewered, missing the fact that it was a trap to get him too.
At the last moment, Joren knocked into Cho'Wa, forcing the wolf to dodge the trap while he twisted around the spikes. Without losing any momentum, Cho’Wa and Joren rushed forward, and the two of them struck Nokoh’s prison, but those pillars didn't budge at all. Joining them, Seloryn blew her flute, going through a dozen notes at once, finding one that finally resonated with the quartz pillars, holding Nokoh. When she did so, hairline cracks appeared along their surface, but the crystals immediately began repairing themselves.
“Again!” she called in a singing voice, blowing her flute with even more power as they kept hitting it, finally breaking one. The moment one pillar was destroyed, the whole prison exploded, and Nokoh fell forward, catching himself on one hand and pushing himself into a roll to gain distance.
Without making a move on them, Orzimar watched them with open interest, holding his chin and tapping it in rhythm, a half-smile visible on his face. Naturally, watching him being distracted, Quillian raised his cane again, as six spheres of compressed fireballs formed around him. At the same time, Vael stood beside him, electricity gathering through his limbs, preparing an attack himself.
When Quillian fired them off, the spheres took different paths, curving around the quartz pillars like homing missiles while Vael moved with them, following their direction. Seeing them come at him, Orzimar raised both hands for the first time, and formation circles appeared in the air, numbering the same number as the projectiles, each of them rotating at a different speed. The moment the first fireball entered a circle, it vanished, but only for it to reemerge right behind Quillian.
Even though surprised, he struck it aside with his cane, detonating it harmlessly above the field, while the second was sent to surprise Ruben, who, with a slight panic, caught it in a sphere of water, the explosion soaking him and throwing him a few meters back. While everyone was dealing with Orzimar teleporting Quillian's attack randomly, Siu saw Vael caught by one of the formations, which displaced him too. Now he was falling downwards, headfirst towards the ground, his speed still the same as before. If he landed, he would either crack his skull open or break his neck. Maybe both.
Siu finally moved without thinking as he accelerated to his maximum and reached Vael’s path of impact, shifting into the Iron Ox's form, catching him. The impact struck his arms, and that alone was like trying to stop a meteor with both hands. Still, he managed it as both of them tumbled across the grass.
“Thanks,” Vael said, feeling dizzy, "Dam it... That is the second time he is toying with me like this..."
“I have been watching,” Siu groaned, as he was trying to get a read on Orzimar, but it was way too much. "He is toying with all of us."
"Then let's give him all, Master!" Arya snorted as she rushed him, and ten, flashing, bright, and blinding copies split from her body, doubling once again, as they too separated, becoming twenty.
The entire field was now filled with fox girls darting between the quartz pillars, her light getting absorbed, amplified by Orzimar's own spell. Her golden sparks were now almost countless, glittering in the air, becoming thousands of motes of light, making it hard to focus, hurting everyone's eyes.
“Interesting...” Orzimar muttered to himself, slightly tilting his head.
“Golden Shower!” Arya yelled the name of her technique, and finally, Orzimar felt as if the Wardens had landed a square hit in his stomach as he visibly flinched.
"..." He wasn't the only one, as everyone else had the same thought, but...
It was indeed the perfect distraction because Arya's palm flashed and sunlight burst toward the back of Orzimar’s head, appearing behind him without warning, copying what she had seen from Vael.
Naturally, it had no effect, as just as in Vael's try, a narrow quartz shard rose out of nowhere, absorbing Arya's spell, then reflecting it, making her yelp as she got blinded by her own light.
“Damn you!” she shouted, squinting, trying to see through the light, but then got slapped away like a fly, thrown into the air without Orzimar ever looking at her.
Half of Arya’s copies had vanished when she got hurt, while the remaining ones stopped moving, clearly losing her control over them. As it was happening, Siu still didn't make a move besides saving Vael, and the reason was simple... He could sense all of the chaos. All these affinities, fighting and clashing at once, made his own confused. Who to copy? Even if he wanted to copy Arya, Seloryn's appearance interfered with it, then Ruben's or Vael's... or Quillian's. He couldn't keep his focus, and it was starting to get way too messy. There was simply too much noise. His affinity felt strained, stretching from person to person while Orzimar’s formations covered everything beneath them... it actually made Siu freeze up.
Inhaling, he was doing his best to calm down, and just then, a formation appeared beneath Marly, and she cried out as she got frozen midair. She remained suspended above the field, eyes wide, a half-chewed nut hanging before her mouth. Worse, there was a quartz pillar starting to poke out from below, as if trying to skewer her.
Maybe it was what finally broke Siu's inability to decide what to do as he just lowered his body into the Snake's form while Quillian’s explosive fire was copied in a snap as it quickly compressed beneath one foot. When he launched, it was accompanied by his own double sonic boom, reaching beneath Marly just as the pillar shot out of the ground. With another draw of breath, Quillian's fire disappeared, slowing him down, but, instead, Seloryn’s resonance began humming in his fist, which was drawn back to a punch. The switch was almost seamless, just as he learned how to switch between the different forms he mastered, releasing the frequency as his fist met the pillar.
It got shattered at once, and Marly could move again, but another quartz-made hand was reaching towards the squirrel. Snorting, Siu's body flashed with Arya's golden light, as two other versions of him appeared, as all three snatched Marly, even creating copies of her, making it impossible to tell which of them was the real one, dodging the attack.
As it happened, Orzimar watched Siu with raised eyebrows, his eyes flashing more than ever before, licking his lips.
"What the fuck was that?" Ruben looked between the different Sius, asking himself, just as all the others who were in the dark about Siu's affinity. Those switches... How could he display different abilities? That... That was not a simple case of having a dual affinity or something similarly rare...
“Later!” Siu shouted, knowing what some of them were thinking, but he was right. There was no time as a dozen or more quartz projectiles filled the sky all of a sudden. In just a breath, there were hundreds of them.
Worse than that, as if answering Siu's weird affinity, tiny formation circles opened behind each projectile, covering them with fire, frost, wind, lightning, and much more. Unlike Siu, a formation master had a different way of interacting with the world's energies. With enough preparation, they were the only cultivators capable of summoning different elements by previously prepared formations, using them up like overexpensive talismans. Siu didn't have time to think about how everyone was dealing with the sudden rain of death as he hurriedly shifted between forms, only focusing on getting out of the way of the differently coated needles.
"Master!" Arya's cry for help came just then, and feeling her situation, water gathered around Siu's hand as a whip shot out, wrapping around her waist, pulling her towards him, helping her dodge.
“That was my—”
Ruben yelled but was cut short, having to refocus on his own defense while Siu’s body flashed in blue, using lightning to speed up and dodge once again, but he did not have enough control, causing the sudden boost to tear some of the muscles in his leg.
“What are you...?” Vael hissed, unable not to look and notice.
There was no time to answer, because all of a sudden, now that the projectiles were gone and embedded into the ground, the rainbow light that never dissipated flashed and, for one chaotic moment, the gravity they were used to was gone. They began floating helplessly, then, drawn to one point in the air as the entire Spirit Wardens association crashed into a single mass of limbs and cries of pain.
"Stop touching, you are not my Master!" Arya yelled, but then the group was slammed to the ground together, knocking everyone breathless, the previously fallen needles piercing their bodies, making them hurt all over.
Lying beneath everyone, Siu felt them stab deep, almost reaching his bones, just as he managed to look up at the sky. He forgot the pain at once as he was horror-struck when he saw a gigantic quartz hammer form, poised to come down on the group as a whole.
“Oh.” Quillian noticed it too, lying on top of everyone, scrambling to his feet just as the hammer struck.
The entire parcel shook from the impact, while everyone tried to untangle themselves and roll away, choosing to become a pincushion rather than a flattened pancake. They could only do it because Quillian somehow stood straight, his walking stick touching the hammer, stopping its momentum, like trying to hold an elephant's leg with a toothpick. His knees were bent already, and clearly, his arms were trembling while the cane was splintering loudly, but somehow, it was held together by his sheer will for just enough time for everyone to get out of the way.
“Get away,” he growled, his essence gathering as everyone scattered.
When they were out, Quillian released everything, and the explosion was no longer contained. With a roaring sound, it became a rising column of white fire that shattered the hammer. The flames climbed so high that they were visible from even the sect below. When it died down, Quillian emerged from the blast, still standing but panting heavily; however, he wasn't done. Looking young for a brief moment, he struck out towards Orzimar, releasing another massive explosion. Although his spell never reached the reclusive elder, it shattered two dozen pillars before they managed to dissipate his spell.
"Third time the charm..." Vael whispered as he abandoned his physical shape entirely for one instant, becoming a branching line of lightning that passed around Quillian's explosive spell as he reformed, this time, right before Orzimar.
When his hand landed, the spreading quartz had already covered Orzimar’s body like transparent armor, and all the lightning flooded the crystal clothing, redirecting it all around himself. Then, he just raised a finger and tapped Vael's chest, and the absorbed lightning returned to him, blasting him back like a meteor, making Vael disappear into the endless field, right out of view.
"One is down." Orzimar muttered, sweeping the others with his eyes, "Come on, show me what else you can do."
Within seconds, music filled every part of the terrace; even if there was no clear source, it was easy to tell it was Seloryn's work, who somehow was nowhere to be seen. With an interested look, Orzimar watched his crystals begin to vibrate.
"He is the center of the formation; attack him now, and it will land when it's disturbed like this!" Siu yelled, realizing that Seloryn was temporarily managing to interfere with the entire formation that was laid down on the empty parcel. It was their clearest chance.
None of them held back, as everyone attacked Orzimar at once; there was even a rumble of thunder as Vael rushed back from the distance. Nobody could see the outcome of their attack as fire, explosions, lightning, bright lights, wind, water, and black mist all struck Orzimar at once. The last thing they saw was the reclusive elder smile, as the forming of new quartz was way more sluggish and clearly unable to cover him in time.
Or so it seemed before they all hit him.
"Ah!"
Seloryn's music stopped, replaced by a cry, as she suddenly reappeared, and when they all looked, she was dangling upside down, held by her ankle, gripped by Orzimar's hand. The man was holding his other hand behind his back, standing there smiling, looking at the others.
"Let me—" he began speaking, but stopped as Siu appeared above him, still flashing with electricity while dropping from the sky, his elbow changing and resonating the same way as Seloryn's music did, aiming at his outstretched hand.
Orzimar just let Seloryn go, pulling his arm back, watching as Siu's attack passed by, cutting through empty air, only for him to land in a handstand, twirling his body to divert his momentum into a kick. The elder simply took it, without flinching once, his arms stretched out, one grabbing Vael's incoming finger-strike, which was buzzing with electricity, the other holding Joren by the throat, who was trying to stab him in the side.
"Ow!" Marly yelped painfully as she landed on Orzimar's head, biting into his skull, but it was so hard that it cracked her teeth.
"Master!" Arya arrived, flying into Orzimar's back with two legs, bouncing off him as if she hit a wall, making the elder chuckle.
"As I was saying." He spoke, letting go of the others, looking around them, "Let me ask again. Have you fought many battles together?"
"First time," Siu said, wiping his mouth, helping Seloryn up, while his leg felt cracked and broken by just that one kick, unable to support his body with it.
"..." Orzimar slowly glanced at them all one more time, breaking into a truly happy smile, making everyone feel weirded out, "This was your first time fighting as a group... Really...?"
"Yeah?" Siu hissed, but everyone was now surrounding Orzimar, who was no longer in the middle of his quartz-made formation.
"If so," Orzimar said slowly, looking directly into Siu's eyes, "You are worthy."
And with that, his face cracked, and his whole body fell into sparkling pieces, disappearing, as the spatial formation returned to normal, and the Wardens were simply standing on the empty parcel, facing each other. All the marks of their fight were gone, along with Orzimar, leaving them there... confused... but as the owners of their new land.