Reflections on the Warpath - [An Isekai Progression Fantasy]

The first licks of water had returned to the cave's underground air, yet each breath still leeched moisture from the roof of Jay's mouth. He sat, cross legged and eyes closed, silently resting his back against a rare unbroken stalagmite.

"Here, you should take these."

Jay cracked an eye open. Akira knelt beside him. He held out the ring and necklace he'd removed from his quiver earlier.

The Veinseer – Relic 2/3

This ring's wearer can locate the secret passages forged by the Emergent Bloom's former and current inhabitants allowing them to scythe through the jungle with ease. Once you use this relic, the rainforest's hidden paths shall be revealed to you.

Uses remaining 1/1

After this relic has been used, it will not count towards your relic count for leaving via the exit hub.

The Vigilant Chain – Relic 3/3

The Frontier harbours many dangers, most of them unseen. This relic grants the wearer knowledge of any being with intent to harm them within 10 metres. When activated, the radius is extended to 100m for the next hour.

Uses remaining 2/2

After this relic's uses have been depleted, it will not count towards your relic count for leaving via the exit hub.

"Why?" asked Jay.

Akira gave Karis half a glance before returning to Jay and setting the relics on his lap.

"These two relics and your dagger are the three least cumbersome relics we have. Turns out the relic finder was a relic itself. That makes six, plus the ring Karis has, enough for all of us to escape. You can take these three while I carry the orb, teapot, and the relic finder in the quiver. That way if something goes wrong you can make it out fine. You never know what might happen…"

Akira had a point. There was no way Jay could fight while holding the scrying orb beneath his arm, a necklace and ring were far less hindering.

"You don't trust him?" whispered Jay, gently flicking his head towards Karis.

"He's been fine so far, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. We can't rely on others forever."

You're not wrong… but what if we need to rely on others?

I'd be dead right now if you guys weren't here for me.

"Fine. I'll take them." said Jay, wondering why Akira seemed so nervous.

With one hand and one fist, Jay could barely slip on the ring, let alone clasp the necklace behind his neck. Akira helped him put them on before walking over to the discarded Conqueror's fist.

"You gonna use this?" he said.

Jay shook his head.

"Mind if I take it then?"

"Why?" asked Jay.

Akira shrugged before dropping the deformed hunk of steel into his quiver.

"It's good steel. Might be useful at some point."

Jay reached over to his ankle, pulling the exploding dagger out and tossing it towards Akira. He caught the flying blade with ease.

"Take that too," said Jay, "might be useful as well. I can't exactly use two daggers with one working hand."

Akira gave him a mock salute before walking off to another corner of the cave, leaving Jay alone once more.

Since he was the crux of their plan, the rest of the team were all awaiting Jay's signal to leave the cave. He took another deep breath and went over everything one final time.

His left had almost fully recovered, and somehow the bracer worked just fine. The clasp couldn't move as fast as before, but the rope mechanism was as functional as it was inside Pippin's shop.

He wasn't lying when he said this thing was durable.

Jay wiggled his bandaged fingers inside his enclosed right fist. They no longer hurt like before but Jay wasn't sure how well they'd actually healed.

The remaining Conqueror's fist sat snugly atop his once-broken fingers, jagged steel poking outwards.

Jay couldn't do much else than punch with his compromised right hand, but punching had rarely failed him before.

He wasn't sure about all the bells and whistles he'd acquired for his final fight. Sure, Jay probably wouldn't use the two relics Akira had just handed to him, but they still played on his mind.

Shit, he even had one of Pippin's toy soldiers left over.

Long way away from two gloves and a mouthguard…

Unease churned within Jay's stomach, yet the past two times he'd knelt by the lake's lapping shore his body had refused to throw up. Minutes away from the biggest fight of his life, Jay's subconscious denied him of his oldest pre-fight ritual.

Perhaps it was his body's way of telling him not to fight? He'd almost died twice within the last hour. Without Akira he'd be an underground corpse by now, without Ping he'd be an underwater one. But why? He'd been training all month for this fight; it was the sole reason he'd entered the Advancement tournament.

Perhaps it was his survival instincts taking over after two near-death experiences, but that still didn't feel right. He was a fighter, and although the essence of fighting didn't shine through in his style like electricity did, it was still an integral part of his Harmony.

So why am I hesitating?

Jay tried to bury his doubts. They couldn't help him.

He'd relied on his friends just to have a chance at staying alive this tournament. They'd already saved him from certain death once.

Time to pay them back. Jay wouldn't let a little self-doubt keep Lyra from her revenge. Their squad didn't enter the tournament just to leave when they'd collected the relics, they'd come here for vengeance. Jay had to fight, even if he was unsure about it.

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Sitting here ruminating was all well and good, but it couldn't last forever.

Jay stood up.

Everyone's head turned his way.

"Let's go."

Jay took point as their group of four emerged from the cave. The vine curtain barely covered the cave entrance anymore. Sliced up leaves and slash marks in the roots both evidence for Akira's hasty passage before.

As Jay retraced his path back towards the exit hub, he passed by the flattened tangle that marked the dinosaur's trail through the Emergent Bloom.

"What the heck happened here?" asked Akira, pointing at a red smear coating a nearby tree and ending in a jaguar carcass.

Jay explained what he'd seen before, and how his plan to distract the vampiric plant had started. He marvelled at the trail of destruction slicing through the jungle.

"They're not that dangerous if you know how to deal with them." said Karis. He hopped over a flattened jaguar beside Jay. "The thing you saw is sometimes called a Three Legger. It spends half its time walking on two legs and the other half running on four, hence the name. I saw a few when I lived with the hunting band. They're deadly, yes, but they have surprisingly weak skulls. Most people are too scared of the teeth to find that out though."

Jay gave Karis' diamond eyes a wary look. How did he know so much about the local wildlife? Jay highly doubted the Frontiersman could've killed a Three Legger himself.

Just what had gone on within their group to make Akira so distrusting? Karis seemed fine, if a little strange, to Jay.

Akira's words lingered, surfacing in Jay's mind in the lulls between louder thoughts.

'We can't rely on others forever'…

You wouldn't have said that yesterday.

They continued towards the exit hub without further conversation. After a few minutes of quiet pacing, Jay held his hand up and stopped. He turned back to his team and motioned them into a huddle. Even Ping joined in, hovering above their four heads.

"We're almost there," whispered Jay, "from now on we have to be silent. Once we get sight of the hub, we'll circle around it until Akira finds a spot he likes. Then it's go time. Everyone good?"

Three nods followed. Jay let Akira take the lead.

Prowling silently through the jungle had almost become second nature to Jay over the course of the advancement tournament, even though it hadn't even been a day. Every step he made silently caressed the dirt below, and his eyes subconsciously scanned the ground in front of him, hunting for anything that might expose him to the jungle.

Karis walked with the same silent fear as Jay, but his quiet was almost worthless travelling with Lyra and Akira. Being in a group of three, and one of the stronger groups of three at that, they had no reason to hide from anything inside the Emergent Bloom. Jay winced every time Lyra set her feet against the ground. She wasn't hammering each step, and was probably quiet enough, but every footfall might as well have been a thunderclap to Jay's ears.

Akira was a little better. He'd obviously done something to reduce his weight since his footfalls didn't shake the ground like Lyra's did. But that only made him sloppier. He constantly brushed his ankles against low-lying leaves, shaking them as he passed by.

Jay almost wanted to call their assault off, but they'd never get any quieter than they already were, so he let them continue.

Akira stopped. He turned his head, face expressionless, and pointed forward.

He can see them.

He turned right and kept walking. Jay followed. He saw them too.

Resting against the stone building without a care in the world, Amaya and Ezekiel sat almost exactly where Jay had seen them the last time he was here. He clenched his fists and forced himself into a silent exhalation as he trailed Akira.

Behind him, Lyra kept her eyes pointed straight forward, locked in focus.

Even if Jay heard his friends' footsteps crack like gunshots, the jungle din kept them concealed. Neither Amaya nor Ezekiel turned their heads towards them as they circled the clearing.

Jay's heart thumped within his chest, banging at his ribs from within. He forced out another breath he didn't know he was holding in.

This was it.

The entire purpose of the past month.

It all came down to this one fight. And he was the one kicking it off.

Snap.

Jay's hand shot upright. He squinted across the clearing.

His teammates scanned the trees until Jay pointed past the exit hub and calmed them down.

Three gladiators emerged from the treeline. Jay watched Amaya and Ezekiel stand up before stepping aside and pointing the gladiators to the exit hub's door.

The gladiators walked gingerly towards it but Jay's eyes were trained on Ezekiel and Amaya. He scoured their every move, hunting for anything that might give him an advantage.

Are they really just waiting for us to show up?

Amaya's Arcane Knight didn't even leave the ground, its broadsword lay idle and unused in the dirt. The flaming tomb duo simply stood aside and watched the gladiators walk into the exit hub before sitting back down.

After another minute without movement, Akira started walking again. It didn't take him long to find a spot he wanted.

He turned, pointed towards the exit hub, looked back and gave a thumbs up.

No turning back now.

Jay walked just in front of Akira. Lyra moved beside him, while Karis stayed deeper within the jungle.

No more planning.

Akira pulled the diamond from his quiver. He held it between his palms, before closing his eyes. Gentle white light pulsed from within his fingers. After he opened his eyes and brought his hands down, the streams of light darted down the blade of his sword. He waved Jay closer. Jay leant towards him.

"When I nod, jump." whispered Akira.

They separated.

Akira silently pulled both his swords from the quiver. He held them out in front of him before reversing his grip on both, pointing the blunt edge forward. An ethereal set of arms unfurled from Akira's shoulders, they too held their swords in reverse.

Jay's heart rate accelerated.

Adrenaline surged through his veins.

He took in a big gulp of muggy, rainforest air before expelling it through his nostrils.

Eye of the storm calmed Jay's mind, but his body embraced the thirst for battle. Within his very essence, Jay merged the two mentalities. He balanced the push and pull between them, preparing to fight.

Akira nodded.

Jay jumped.

The blunt edge of four swords pressed into his back. They shunted him forward, propelling him into the clearing. Jay felt light as a feather as he whizzed past the trees. After only a second, he'd cleared five metres. After two, it was twenty.

It didn't stop there.

Jay pushed Eye of the storm to its limit as he emerged from the treeline. His barrelling charge slowed down to a crawl and only open air stood between Jay and his targets. He locked in on Amaya's face.

She was the bigger threat, but also the more fragile of Jay's targets. Ezekiel might be able to tank his first strike, Amaya stood no chance.

Detail vanished from Jay's surroundings. The exit hub faded into a splodge of tan against the deep green backdrop of the jungle.

This clearing was the one spot in the Emergent Bloom without treetops blocking out the sky. Sunlight shone down on Amaya, illuminating her face as she slowly turned towards Jay. Her eyes remained expressionless and her mouth unmoving. She had no time to react to Jay's charge.

She never would.

Jay shot closer. A few metres away. Still rocketing towards Amaya. Still accelerating.

He brought up his right fist. As long as he connected, momentum would drive his knuckles through Amaya's skull.

Jay's steel knuckles crunched into the puppeteer's temple, instantly shattering the thinnest part of her skull. The Conqueror's fist followed through. Its serrated blade caught on the broken-apart bone fragments, scraping against the metal plate covering half of Amaya's head.

Akira's shove still pushed Jay forward but he fought against it. He dug his heels into the dirt, forcing himself to slow down.

Upheaved soil burst into the air behind his heels. Jay spun around.

Amaya lay face down, unmoving. Her brutalised skull bloodless in the dirt.

No…

Ezekiel turned towards Jay, face emotionless as he raised his sword.

Ping shot out from the treeline, slamming into the swordsman's kneecap on her way to Jay's side.

It's too easy.

Akira came next.

He sliced Ezekiel's head off with the Soulsnatcher's old sword before slamming the decapitated corpse onto the grass.

Ezekiel's severed head lopped over to Jay. He stopped it rolling further, clasping his left hand around what appeared to be Ezekiel's forehead.

His skin felt cold and lifeless.

Jay rapped his steel knuckles against it.

PING!

Lyra joined them just in time to hear the ringing metal. Karis was nowhere to be seen.

Akira's smug grin faded as Jay tossed the fake head into the ground. It sank into the dirt.

"Puppets." said Jay.

Lyra spun around, eyes darting around the treeline.

"Ooh, he figured it out!" cried a shrill voice to Jay's right.

He turned towards it.

A line of pale green light shimmered within a gigantic tree trunk on the clearing's edge. The light widened, morphing into a doorway.

Jay and his friends stood in stunned silence as the doorway cracked open.

More light spilled out from the tree.

Seven silhouettes stood within.

One by one, they stepped out.

Jay faintly recognised the first five. The sixth was Ezekiel.

The seventh was Amaya.

"You figured it out!" she said. Her reedy voice pierced through Jay's ears, infuriating smugness clinging to every syllable "Well done! Unfortunately, you were just a smidge too late."