Escape Goat's Reveal

Pekra and I followed Six out a broken side door where we found a long flight of stairs. We moved up the stairs--Six in front, me in the middle, and Pekra behind—in an orderly manner. We reached the top relatively quickly where we found another broken door. After opening it, we found the non-summoned ones sitting on a glass like dome. The dome had a diameter of about 80 meters, with its circular shape. It kind of looked like a snow globe but the inside was a grassland. Five was sitting among the non-summoned ones and after inspecting the dome, I found the fighters standing in the dome—about 5 meters apart.

“Hey! Masayuki, what took you so long?”

“Hey man! What did take you so long?”

“Knowing him, he was probably asking many questions.”

“Or maybe he was talking to that girl.”

“Of course not--”

By then I had reached the center of the dome and sat down by Aoyama, who was on Hana’s left side. The dome had a soft bouncy touch, which must have been to protect any bye standers from the battle inside.

“—you weren’t right?”

After a brief silence.

“What?! I leave you alone for five minutes…”

“The three of you be silent. Competitors in the ring! Metaphorically speaking of course--”

“Yeah, we got that.”

“—don’t sound so smug, Begin trial!”

With that, the first battle began.

………………

…………

……

“Hey!”

“…”

“Hey you!”

“…”

“Hey, I’m talking to you!”

“…Sigh, what do you want?”

“Hey! Excuse me for trying to get your name before I kill you. And to think, I was considering sparing you.”

“…That’s why I don’t want to know you.”

“Huh? You’re that scared of me? Of course you should, I am a dragon kin after all.”

As Kell went on boasting of his heritage, Yume kept her steady expression while observing him. The stood across from each other, five meters apart, under a huge glass-like dome that seemed to stretch on forever. The dome had a foggy appearance, which prevented those inside from seeing the outside clearly. The two could barely make out the nine shapes on the dome.

“I wonder if I’ll have to kill that Masayuki guy, I like him. Sigh, I’ll have to deal with this proud idiot in front of me first.” She whispered to herself.

She already knew Kell was a dragon kin since he started bragging before they even reached the ‘Balance room’. She had seen him glaring at her when she spoke to Masayuki earlier and assumed he was a thirsty killer waiting to fight, but now she thought he was just jealous of the attention Masayuki was getting at the time.

Wait, are there ni-?

“You are awfully quiet! What, lost your will to fight? Or did you waste all your energy on that blue haired fool?”

When he mentioned Masayuki, he saw a little twitch on her face, which a normal human shouldn’t have been able to see from that distance, she tried to hide. Perhaps she didn’t know why she twitched herself, because she had a confused look on her face.

“Hahahahah, you in looove? Hahahahaha”

Why the hell did I feel anger when he mentioned that idiot? Why did I let him trip me up this early, I shouldn’t have let my emotions show. Now that I think about it, wasn’t there a spell cast on –

“COMPETITORS IN THE RING!”

--Huh? We’re starting now?

“BEGIN TRIAL!”

Yume sped off toward Kell at an incredible speed with a smile on her face. She had planned to face him close range even though her weapon was a bow and put Kell on the defensive.

Close the gap as quickly as possible.

“What the?!”

Kell jumped to the right as an arrow whipped past his face, readying his morningstar only to be intercepted by three shots coming for his head. He was struck in the right shoulder by one of the arrows.

No chance!

She jumped to the left while firing continuous shots at him.

“Dammit! Wait a minute!”

Kell couldn’t get breathing space as he dodged the arrows which were shot at near point blank range.

Oh! That’s her plan! She knows a morning star needs momentum to become deadly so she is not giving him time to swing it and since she uses a bow, she can attack as fast as she wants. The closer her range, the faster her shots. She could be underestimating Kell because he is arrogant, or overestimating him because he is arrogant.

“Hey Masayuki, that’s your ‘I know what’s going on’ face, so what’s going on?”

“Yeah tell us.”

“Oh, well I’m not sure yet so wait a little.”

“Okay, but who do you think might win?”

“My money’s on Kell, I mean he’s half dragon.”

“Well the girl is dominating the match so far so I think she’ll win, what do you think Masayuki?”

“As I said before, I’m not sure yet so wait a little. It could go either way.”

These guys are a bit distracting, I can’t focus on my strategy. I need to distract them somehow while I think…oh, I know!

“Hey, why don’t you guys ask the, you know, gods.”

“Oh, right!”

“I keep forgetting that they’re supposed to be gods.”

Five turned to us so fast that the wind pressure blew at us strongly. We barely managed to stay on the dome.

“First of all, we are gods and second, focus on the ongoing match.”

Inside the dome, Kell had leapt forward to close the distance but withdrew immediately when Yume swung her kunai at him. He couldn’t seem to catch a break. As the match went on, she shot her arrows faster, gathered the ones nearby and pressed the attack more ferociously. Then suddenly—

“I’ve had enough of this, {Dragonification}!”

Energy exploded out of him, healing his wound and transforming his skin into might scales on par with any low ranking dragon. In a flash, he appeared behind Yume and knocked her into the barrier. As she stood up, she still had a smile on her face. He rushed forward and slammed her head into the barrier, then he grabbed her by the ankle and slammed her into the ground. Still, her smile persisted.

“Whoa Masayuki, he’s going to kill her.”

“Yeah I know.”

“The both of you, shh!”

“Sorry Five.”

“Yeah, sorry.”

“What are you still smiling about? You can’t beat me in this form.”

I feel amazing, like I’m indestructible. At least now I believe what they were saying. I should spend my time toying with her, that’ll teach her to act that way toward me.

Yume had no more arrows and her left arm was broken. Her situation was difficult to escape at best. She could barely even stand as blood ran down her face.

“Hahahahaa, I’m goi--”

“If you were going to say, ’I’m going to enjoy breaking you’ or ‘I’m going to spend my time toying with you’, then you should know that you’ve already lost.”

“How did you--?”

“Eight…seven…six…”

“Hey! What are you counting down for?!”

“Two…one…Time!”

With that, Kell’s {Dragonification} was over and his scales turned back to skin. How accurately she timed that led everyone, with the exception of the gods, to believe she had negated Kell’s skill. Kell believed she was toying with him and angrily rushed toward her, swinging his morningstar wildly.

“What did you do to me you crazy woman?! I’ll kill you!”

“Hehe… so foolish, {Spirit Walk}!”

In an instant, Yume fired off three consecutive shots into Kell’s throat. They moved too fast to be seen but the after image looked like a concentrated light stick. The glowing arrows, as it seems, were conjured from the atmosphere. With a look of fear and surprise, Kell fell down face first, dead. He barely had a chance to react, let alone dodge.

“Spirit walk? I’m assuming that’s a skill she used right now.”

“That is correct, Petra. {Spirit Walk} is a race skill accessible only to those with spirit genes. It is a great skill which increases battle senses immensely, but…every skill has a downside.”

“Which is?” I asked Six.

“Well, it changes the user’s personality to a somewhat unstable one. The girl down there, Yume I mean, has experience with the skill by the looks of it.”

“Perhaps too much control. By her outfit, we could surmise that she’s had training. By her movements, we know that she’s no low level fighter. By her-”

“Yeah, we get it.”

“Hmph…such insolence.” Five grumbled to himself as he turned away from us.

“The first trial is over, winner…that girl!”

“As if he stood a chance against her.”

“What do you mean by that?” I asked.

“Now you want my help? Ask Six you doltz.”

“Hm? Oh, their skills were a horrible disadvantage for the dragon kin. The girl’s best skill right now is {Time Temperance}. The skill should let her have power over certain aspects of time but, for now, she can only use it to look a few minutes into the future.”

So that’s how she predicted his transformation’s cool down time. It’s kind of cheating, but it’s a skill so it should be fair. Kind of makes me wonder which skills my opponent will have.

“You get the rest right? She knew when his {Dragonification} would run out, so she waited for him to use his trump card before using hers.”

Kind of makes me glad I didn’t have to face her. Her skill could be my death three times over.

“Hey Six, we did tell them about the name thing so it’s alright to say ‘that girl’ for now.”

“… I… don’t know what to say to that. Five, why don’t you go get that girl while I clear the ‘Balance room’ for the next one.”

“Right!”

With that, the first trial was officially over. One of the eight summoned ones was killed in an instant, the concept of death felt more real than ever. As the gods finished with their tasks and ascended to the top of the dome with Yume-who Five had healed, I got ready to fight to the death against Pekra.

Why didn’t Petra agree to face me with her brother? It would have given them a better chance at winning, even though they already had the advantage since Masayuki had no weapon of his own. My skill is useless against a single opponent, but I’ll have to rely on my other skill.

“That means my match is next.”, I turned toward my opponent’s twin as I stood up. “What happens to you if I kill your brother?”

She looked at me with a smile of amusement, as if she were looking at an insect.

“Fear not, my brother will make your death swift so you won’t feel any intense pain. In the extremely unlikely event that you best my brother, I shall take you as my-”

“Whoa, whoa, I just wanted to know whether I should kill you or let you go. Your arrogance will be your downfall. Well? Six? Five?”

“If you kill him, you may do with the sister as you wish.”

“As if this puny-”

“Well sure, I may need a squire or someone to carry my things.”

“Stop ignoring me you-”

“Oh that’s good, for a minute there I thought you were going to ask for some indecent favors.”

“Come on Hana, do you really think I’m that depraved? Wait, do you think I’m depraved at all?!”

“Heyy! I know you can-”

“Come on bro, you’ve got to be. You’re a growing man, you shoud think of ‘that’ stuff every once in a while.”

“They can hear me right, Pekra, or are they just-”

“Masayuki, Pekra, both of you should be ready now, of you go.”

“Huh?”

The dome caved in, or at least I thought so. I dropped for some seconds then landed with a painful-thud. I fell on my back so I felt the pain throughout my whole body. A few seconds later, my bag and box were dropped. I turned to check on how Pekra was doing, but he was standing at a relaxed pace a few meters away from me. I was surprised to find him unharmed so I took a closer look at him to be sure. I saw him, subtly, trembling as he stood.

Ha! Dumbass is trying to look cool, hahaha. Oh right, serious fight coming up. He does look pretty funny though, when you notice it.

“Whoo” I exhaled, “Are you ready?!”

He nodded to my question as he looked me up and down a couple times. I knew he was evaluating me or something but since I never saw or heard him speak, I figured asking him would bare no fruits. I got up and started some stretches, to loosen me up a bit.

“COMPETITORS IN THE RING!”

I heard a booming female voice, which I assumed was Six’s, calling to us. It was rather loud even though she was so far from us.

Must be magic or something, maybe speakers? Naa, that’s unlikely. Sigh… let’s get this over with already.

“BEGIN TRIAL!”