Reflections on the Warpath - [An Isekai Progression Fantasy]

The portal shut behind Amaya, leaving only a thin scar in the tree bark behind. The puppeteer's eyes remained shrouded by shadow, but Jay knew they were gloating beneath her hood, joining her twisted mouth in a smug sneer.

"I knew you were stupid," said Amaya, "but this is a new low. I honestly thought you better than this. Come on, did you seriously think we'd just sit there and let you murder us?"

Akira clenched both hands, pressing into the grips of his swords.

"Crystal bastard." he muttered, cursing Karis under his breath. "That diamond-eyed asshole doesn't even have any relics. He can't leave without us but he pulls this bullshit. I knew we couldn't trust him. What the hell man."

A flash of ruby red and flickering wings vanished into the jungle.

Jay flicked his attention back to Amaya and her troupe. He recognised a few of them as members of the Flaming Tomb. The rest were lower ranked gladiators that Jay recalled being picked late in the draft.

The bite in Amaya's voice didn't soften for her ally. "If you had only finished the job earlier Ezekiel, we'd have been free hours ago. Don't make the same mistake again."

Ezekiel pouted like a wounded dog as he took his first steps forward. The expression soon vanished, replaced by a forced grin. He squinted his eyes and ran his tongue along the length of his blade.

"I wanted to take my time, but I shall do as my lady commands."

Jay clenched his one working fist. He let the calmness of Eye of the storm wash over him and kept his eyes trained on Ezekiel.

"Short but sweet," said Ezekiel. He locked onto Lyra's stone grimace. "At least you'll get to see your sister soon."

Lyra ran forward, and the moment they'd all been waiting for finally began.

Amaya retreated into the treeline. Two gladiators joined her and Jay lost sight of them behind the jungle shade.

Ezekiel matched Lyra's charge, almost cackling as he swung his whip-like sword forward. The final three gladiators ignored the duel, leaving Lyra and Ezekiel alone before running towards Jay and Akira.

Two on three… the odds won't get better than this.

Jay loosely recognised two of the three gladiators. Since an immediate rush was his best chance of evening the numbers, he ran at the one he knew best.

Draeven the One Man Armoury was another fighter on the fringes of the E grade Advancement rankings. He'd joined the coliseum around a month before Jay and climbed the ranks with similar speed. His fights often started with hand to hand combat, but they never ended that way. Jay glanced at the gladiator's concentrated snarl, at the stress lines snaking across his forehead and the sun-weathered skin that had surely seen a thousand battles. He glanced at Draeven's long, greasy hair, resting against the shoulders of his well-worn leather armour.

But he only glanced, because within a second Eye of the storm stripped the useless detail from Jay's reality.

A prismatic, crystalline axe formed instantly within Draeven's grip.

He swiped down at Jay.

Ping batted it aside.

Jay stepped in closer.

He jumped forward, leading with his taped right fist and aiming for Draeven's neck.

It was a terrible attack, with terrible technique. But Jay wagered it was surprising enough, and more importantly fast enough, to land.

If they were fighting alone it would have been.

A crimson string lashed around Draeven's neck. It yanked him backwards, just outside Jay's range, before vanishing.

Draeven stumbled over his heels. His axe shattered into glass shards as he released his grip and clutched the bruised pink cuff-mark around his neck.

Jay pressed forward again. Draeven retreated. He formed a crystal spear in his hands and prodded at Jay while backpedalling.

A grey streak cut into Jay's view. He dove backwards. A lump of charcoal shot between him and Draeven, trailed by a streak of embers. It punched into the dirt and fired a burst of scorching ashes into the air.

Jay's eyes followed the trail to the treeline. Another smouldering coal shot out from the jungle, immediately followed by a fireball that shone an almost demonic red.

The two projectiles launched towards Akira, forcing him to abandon an attack. He deflected the lump of coal towards one of his opponents, letting the fireball soar past his shoulder.

Stolen novel; please report.

Another red string wrapped around his opponent's neck, yanking the gladiator away from the explosion.

Jay backed away from Draeven, who seemed reluctant to chase him after almost losing the fight within the opening exchange. He retreated towards Akira, dodging an oncoming fireball before returning to his friend's side.

"Back so soon?" said Akira. He grimaced, eyes darting between all the potential threats.

A streak of fire shot towards them. Ping intercepted it. Their three opponents closed in.

"Think you can hold them off for a minute?" asked Jay.

Draeven hurled a crystal spear towards Jay. He caught it with his working left hand, but it shattered in his grip before he had the chance to throw it back.

In the distance, Lyra clashed swords with a grinning Ezekiel. She deflected a whipping strike before an ethereal twin lunged towards the swordsman. His sword shrunk down to a dagger and sliced through the twin's neck. Instantly erasing her.

"I'm gonna rush the snipers," said Jay. "Hopefully I can take Amaya off your back too."

Akira nodded.

"Make it quick."

He spiked Jiki into the ground, closing his eyes before placing his palm atop the black sword.

"Push."

A wave of power erupted from the planted sword, launching Jay away from Akira. It propelled him towards the jungle, simultaneously pushing the three surrounding gladiators off balance and knocking a streaking coal from the air.

Damn, he's good.

Jay sprinted towards the trees. Akira might be a monster, but he couldn't fight forever, especially against three gladiators. Even without the snipers peppering him from afar, Akira wouldn't last long alone against three opponents.

Jay knew that Akira's life relied on him eliminating the snipers and coming back in time. With his friend's life on the line, Jay couldn't let him down.

Make it quick indeed.

Jay reached down to his waist as he neared the first trees. The trailing streaks of smoke and fire told him roughly where the two sharpshooters were but he needed more if he wanted to find them.

He ducked behind the gigantic, splayed roots of a nearby tree and tossed Pippin's final toy soldier forward. After half a second, Jay raised his head. He hunted for any clue to the snipers' locations, keeping an eye on his clone's back.

A spear of billowing ash shot towards Jay's clone. It slammed into its temple and knocked it to the ground.

To my right. Perpendicular to the clone. Maybe twenty metres further in. Ground level.

Jay broke cover, racing towards the sniper's position. Ping flew past his head, leading the charge as he hurdled over another root.

Again, Jay kept an eye on his shield as he sprinted through the brush.

Another coal crashed into Jay's shield. It detonated on impact, launching her into the canopy behind a plume of ash.

Found you.

Jay made no effort to disguise his advance. Speed outweighed stealth here, especially with Akira holding off three people alone. He rounded the final tree and caught sight of his opponent.

The Ashwraith was the Flaming Tomb's third ranked E grader. He looked like a halfway cremated corpse dragged from the kiln and forced to fight. The man's cracked skin was as grey as the ash he hurled at his enemies and flaked off with every sudden movement. He stared up at Ping with glowing orange eyes that burned like smouldering coals, they glowered at the shield before widening in shock as they noticed Jay.

While he stared eye to eye with Jay, the Ashwraith's spindly limbs wouldn't do much to hurt him in a close range brawl.

The sniper dove backwards leaving an ashen afterimage floating in the air.

Jay charged through it, ripping the cloud into spirals.

PING!

Jay ignored Ping's defence. Pressing the pace was more important and he trusted her to protect him.

The Ashwraith fired a scatter of glowing cinders at Jay.

They peppered his chest, pushing him back a step, but his Orivian steel dulled most of the blow. Jay didn't have time to feel pain.

The Ashwraith stumbled. Glowing eyes wide with shock.

Jay leapt forward.

Electricity rose up inside his body. He probably couldn't end it with one punch, but a jolt of electricity would crack the fight wide open.

He just needed to land.

The Ashwraith jerked his arms wide, backpedalling over the jungle roots. Jay leapt. He flung his left arm forward, stretching his fingertips as far as he possibly could.

They inched closer.

They weren't fast enough.

A burning crimson string spat out from the distant jungle, knotting itself around the Ashwraith's flailing wrist.

It tugged backwards, pulling his arm out of harm's way. Dragging the gladiator off his feet and deeper into the rainforest.

PING!

Another block. Closer this time.

Jay whipped around.

A suit of battle-scared metal armour, held up by flaming strings, shoved Ping aside with a shield of its own. It charged past her. Directly at Jay.

Jay willed the berserker's bite forwards and raised his guard.

The Arcane Knight hacked its broadsword downwards. Jay matched it.

The sword bounced off his bracer as Jay lunged past the knight's range and entered the ultra close range battlefield.

Jay could ragdoll most opponents from this position. He could grapple, fire off a body shot, or even try to attack with pure electricity.

He couldn't do those most of things against a puppeteering suit of armour.

But he also didn't need to.

Jay rammed the dagger in the crevasse between the chest and shoulder plates. It sliced through thin air before poking through the rear seam. Jay jerked his elbow outwards, using the relic like a crowbar to pry apart the two segments of armour.

The metal arm clanged over the roots as it fell, red strings vanishing from within before it hit the ground.

But the battle wasn't over yet.

The Arcane Knight countered Jay with his shield arm, leaving its flank exposed to gain a grip on Jay's right.

The metal gauntlet clamped around Jay's bicep.

Jay's left shot across his body. Too late.

Searing pain engulfed Jay's right arm. His nerves screamed. His muscles seized up. The knight's iron grip burned like a hot poker branding Jay's flesh.

The metal blazed bright red, sinking its fangs of pure heat into Jay's arm.

Jay bit down and forced his left across the knight's body. He jammed the berserker's bite into its elbow joint.

It didn't take much to force the armour open. One quick snap pried the knight's gauntlet off, snapping it from Amaya's control and releasing its grip. Jay jumped backwards, separating him from the maimed Arcane Knight.

He pushed out a heavy sigh as the gauntlet dropped onto the ground, ripping off shreds of seared skin that clung to its fingertips.

Ping descended from above knocking out the armour's right kneecap before returning to Jay's side.

The Arcane Knight wouldn't land that attack again, but the damage had already been done. Jay checked his arm. A blistering red welt rose in the shape of a hand on his bicep.

Of course, it was probably just a burn. But as Jay stared up at the crippled suit of armour in front of him, he couldn't help but remember Vega's last dance. He couldn't help but think about the red markings that had spelled the beginning of the end for his friend, before she even knew it.

Speed isn't everything.

Can't help Akira if I die here.