Akeya Kuusai's Secondary Magic Training [Private]

Akeya was sitting on the roof of the Blue Pegasus guild hall, from which she had a fantastic view of the surrounding land. Clover Town was located in the middle of the biggest lake in Fiore, but with the half dragon’s sharp eyes and this high a vantage point she could even see beyond the water, the land laid out below her like a god overlooking their own creation. Although Akeya was not so much looking at the land as that she was staring up at the sky, which she often flew in these days. It was night, the sun only just now having descended far enough that its rays no longer coloured the heavens. The darkness was deepening quickly, and the stars were coming out to sparkle and shine in the empty void that lay beyond this world. The moon was also out, a half moon. Some people would be disappointed that it wasn’t a new moon or a full moon: those were considered special and containing magic power. A half moon wasn’t considered much by most people.

Of course, most people did not mean all. There were those who saw the half moon as the most important phase of all that the moon cycled through. They would argue that a half moon was half darkness, and half light, meaning it was the moon which stood at the edge of things, a powerful and dangerous position to be in. Those people would argue that you didn’t find the most important things in the middle of the light or the middle of the darkness, not in the centre of the flame or the heart of winter. They would say that the most important, the most powerful, the most deadly and mysterious of forces were always found at the edge of things, were there would be conflict which gave birth to that which they talked about.

Akeya personally didn’t care that much. She wasn’t planning to try and take magic power from the moon, a rock floating high up in the sky, higher than she had ever flown, any time soon. If she had to say she would admit that her personal preference was the full moon, because the full moon was like a light which only served to make the shadows surrounding it stronger. The night was always dark, a heaven for somebody like the shadow half dragon, but the full moon would then manage to cast sharp shadows even in that darkness. It was the most Akeya could ever ask for from some miscellaneous object which she most likely would never actually interact with personally.

Ever since she had turned into a creature of darkness and shadows Akeya had become even more intrigued by the night sky than before, when she had already been plenty interested. She remembered that when she was young she would already sneak out to climb on top of the roof and stare up at the sky. Up in the mountains the night sky had been clearer than down here. It was as cold and clear as crystal, and the stars had been like jewels floating up there. Down here the large town known as Clover Town produced too much light, even at night, so the stars became harder to see because the light from down below got in the way. It made her somewhat disappointed that she had come down from her mountain village to live down here amongst all these humans who she honestly didn’t care about. She wasn’t from here, she had no relation to them, and now that she had stopped being human she didn’t even have that reason to feel a connection. She was a half dragon who saw humans as toys, prey, and sometimes pets. The only humans that escaped that were those who were strong enough to tell her otherwise personally.
Still, even down here the night sky was something she enjoyed looking at. However she wasn’t here to just be sightseeing. She had seen this sky hundreds of times already, because unlike most humans she preferred to live while it was dark, and sleep while it was light. But tonight she had business to take care of. She had no training or jobs planned for today, not studying magic or reading scrolls. Tonight she was making a little trip, one which could change her even more drastically than she already had been changed ever since she met that dragon hidden away deep underground, the dragon called himself Whedalsin the Night Sky. She hadn’t visited him even once after he had taught her the Shadow Dragon Slayer magic, but she doubted he cared much. He had been interested in her, a human who acted more like a dragon, but he didn’t seem the type to hold grudges just because you were too busy to make a detour towards some place hidden away miles below the surface.

Standing up Akeya stretched, her wings spreading to their fullest before she walked up to the edge of the roof and looked down. The guild hall was a very big one, big enough that it could just as well be called an artificial hill in terms of size. It was a testament to the pride and strength of the Blue Pegasus guild, at least the previous generations and the ones that were guiding the next. The new ones still had to prove themselves, including Akeya herself. She had already been named a Rising Star, a title the Magic Council gave to mages who had yet to prove themselves but who were showing themselves promising, and who also had shown themselves willing to use that talent for the good of Fiore, rather than furthering their own selfish needs. This amused Akeya greatly, since while she helped the people of Fiore she primarily did that out of selfish reasons. As long as she acted helpful the Magic Council wouldn’t send Rune Knights after her.

Without hesitation Akeya allowed herself to fall off that tall building, rapidly falling to meet the ground far below. She had her eyes closed, feeling the wind rush about her as she fell faster and faster. She had no intention of dying, and this wasn’t her tempting fate. This was her just showing off, even if there was nobody to watch. When she was about to hit the ground she suddenly opened both her eyes and her wings, the fall turning into a dive as she gritted her teeth and forced her momentum to become horizontal, shooting forwards like an arrow released from a longbow. Her wings protested, but she had trained them to be as strong as they needed to be. Now she could fly out without having to accelerate, and there was also some minor exhilaration to be found in the fall.

The guild hall was big, and whoever had built it had decided to build it on top of a hill. Or, knowing how powerful mages could become, they had created the hill and the entire island around it just for their own home. It would fit the arrogance of some mages, and Akeya knew of at least one person in Blue Pegasus who would do something similar given the chance… Either way, this meant that even after falling all the way to the floor of the guild hall she still was flying above the buildings that cluttered most of the island, watching Clover Town spread out below her as she shot through the darkness, for now keeping her wings fully spread as she relied on the speed gained from diving. At this time of the night there were only a few humans left out on the streets, primarily men who were returning home from a night out drinking. It was in the middle of the week, with no festivals, so those were rare as well.
Her business was not in Clover Town. It would take her a long time of flying to get where she needed to be, in Rose Garden. Time she did not have, so she would have to try and shave off as much of that time as she could. Clover Town was at the easternmost part of Fiore, whereas Rose Garden was straight north from the centre of the country. Fiore might not be a large land (in fact, it was quite small), but even so covering that distance was not something that could normally be considered doable in days, or even weeks.

Of course, normally people couldn’t ignore terrain because they could fly as naturally as a bird. And normally they weren’t so fast. And normally they weren’t even faster while it was night. Akeya wasn’t planning to take more than a couple of hours, and it was only because she had chosen a cold winter night like this that it was possible. In comparison to most living humanoids, who felt better when it was warm and cozy, Akeya performed rather well in cold areas, because she had grown up in the Phoenix Mountains, were summer could be as cold as the coldest weather the people on the plains of Fiore had ever seen. This wasn’t even freezing from her point of view, but in the winter the nights were longer. Long enough that Akeya could use the darkness to her own advantage for long enough to reach Rose Garden in time. For the trip back she’d probably have to wait until the next night.

As soon as she had cleared the town and was flying above the water Akeya turned into a shadow, accelerating as she abandoned the burdens of mass and flew true and fast. As a shadow she flickered above the water, as if a warning of a sea monster swimming just below the surface, heading for some unknowing prey. She would have to give her all just to go fast enough to make this trip in one night, which meant that she’d have to stay a shadow the entire time just to make sure she wouldn’t be slowed down by air resistance or her own mass. It was a good thing that she could accelerate using magic even as a shadow, otherwise even this wouldn’t be enough. It would be a slow process, but Akeya was a woman who had trained herself to have good mental discipline and the patience to make use of that discipline. So as she began her journey she kept using her bursts of speed to accelerate, using her shadow form to only become faster and never slow down.

Thanks to this approach her overall speed kept going up, so the longer the trip took the more distance she could travel in the same amount of time. It wasn’t too long before she was going across the landscape fast enough that most humans would most likely only be able to catch a glimpse of her before they lost track of her. And she wasn’t done accelerating yet. Sometimes she was moving just above the ground, sometimes she was high up in the sky. Most of the time she was high up in the sky, since even as a shadow she couldn’t just go right through a mountain. At least, not consistently. Once or twice was fine, provided she was fast enough. Luckily, she was.

The landscape drastically changed underneath her as she went from one corner of Fiore to another, a blur which even her sharp eyes had difficulty finding small details in. First she had traversed the waters surrounding Clover Town, then she covered the grasslands before entering the mountain range in the north of Fiore. Then she reached the coast, and from that point on it didn’t take much longer before she could see the lights of Rose Garden in the distance. Which meant that she only had several more minutes to go before she would entering the city and possibly leave it just as quickly if she didn’t slow down.

Turning back into her physical form Akeya was hit by a blast of wind as finally the air got an opportunity to tell her that she wasn’t allowed to go that fast. Once the initial forced deceleration was over with Akeya flew the rest of the way in her physical form, flying high above Rose Garden as she looked for a good place to land. She didn’t want to use the roads used by the humans, especially since her business for the night could be considered shady. It was better if she could find a good alley, from which she would… That one would do. Landing in one of the many alleys in the large human settlement Akeya folded her wings, looking around as she sniffed and felt the magic that filled the air here to near bursting. She wasn’t completely sure, but the air in Rose Garden was absolutely saturated with magic energy. For a magical creature like her who had trained to become sensitive to the flow of magic it was rather pleasant, although she had to make sure that it didn’t cloud her mind. She had to stay sharp and careful, especially tonight. She couldn’t hide her identity as a half dragon very well, which was something of a disgrace, but Akeya had to live with it as she walked deeper into Rose Garden.

In contrast to Clover Town, Rose Garden never really seemed to fall asleep. It might have been for the same reason that the air was filled to the brim with magic: this town was a place of attractions and wonders, not one where you simply lived. There were of course plenty of people who had made this place their home, but a large amount of the time was making full use of the fact that they had so much magic available. There were all kinds of shops which sold magic products, people who had learned magic for the sole sake of performing rather than doing jobs like most full-time mages, bars and taverns which attracted customers with spectacular magic trinkets and shows. Akeya liked the amount of magic in this place, but she found it too lively. And too light. Since this town never slept when it became light the humans would just activate the lachrima which illuminated the place with various lights, so the only way to see the stars from here was to fly high up. Something which Akeya couldn’t do right now, as she had business to attend to.

Rose Garden is perhaps the place in Fiore where magic is the most concentrated, not counting ancient ruins and lost sites. No other city or town, not even Era where the Magic Council resided, could equal the amount of magic that filled everything in Rose Garden. Which of course also meant that if you were looking for the less popular part of magic, you also had to be here. There were shops which sold all kinds of magic trinkets and baubles, but there were also people here who used all that magic to hide certain artefacts and other items which couldn’t be sold to the general public, and which the law wasn’t allowed to know of. Wherever trade was flourishing you could find the black market as well, using the legal trade as a cover and a tool to advance the exchange of goods less favourable. And it was the black market Akeya had need of. She was looking for a certain item which wouldn’t be revealed to the public, because it was too valuable for the average human and because if the government knew about it they would ask dangerous questions about how the traders got their hands on it.
Akeya wasn’t your average human, and she wasn’t your extraordinary human either. She was a half dragon who had no reason to follow the rules that humans created for themselves. She had heard about a certain object circulating on the black market, and she wanted it. So she would figure out where it was and get it for herself. She didn’t care if that was seen as illegal or shady: as long as the Magic Council couldn’t prove anything they couldn’t do anything, and Akeya wasn’t going to give them the opportunity to figure out whether she had been up to no good. But first of all she had to find a way to figure out where exactly that item had gone. It was a good thing that one of her specialties was finding people who didn’t want to be found.

Avoiding the main streets Akeya found a dark and secluded alley with nobody else in it, then closed her eyes and focused. Her mind was slowly filled with more and more colours as she began to focus solely on the magic in this town. Black market traders either had magic themselves or had bodyguards capable of using magic. Their line of work was too risky to be without some magic techniques. So she just had to find a trace of magic which didn’t belong in the bright world of the legal side of Rose Garden. This was a tricky process since Rose Garden was so filled with magic, but Akeya persisted.

The first alley she duck into she couldn’t sense anything close enough. She had very good magic sensory, so she could distinguish between types of magics and discern their origins, but with so much magic there was a limit to how far she could sense before everything would become one blurry mess. Not giving up she changed location almost immediately, finding another empty and abandoned ally from which she searched for the right traces of magic. It took several attempts of this before she noticed something which wasn’t there before: somebody was using magic to hide something. It was a subtle type of magic, difficult to trace, but once Akeya realized what was happening she figured out where it came from. Most people didn’t have a reason to hide anything with magic. And even if they did, learning magic like that wasn’t something you did just because you didn’t want other children to find your favourite toy. That required dedication, and dedication required a pressing need.

Since it was a subtle magic Akeya was already very close by, not having to walk very far before she stood in the alley where the trace came from. Looking around Akeya once again closed her eyes to focus, then snapped them open when she felt two sources of magic approaching her from above at a high speed. Turning into a shadow she ducked into the nearest shadow, in time to see two men land where she had been standing just a moment ago, both crackling with magic. One of them was surrounded by shadows, whereas the other smelled of venom and poison. They both had an aura that made it clear that they weren’t jumping at her from above just to ask her whether she would like a drink. They had a job, and they wouldn’t hesitate to do that job regardless of how dirty it might be.

”Now where did she go... I know for sure we didn’t hit her.”

That was the one with the poisonous scent, looking around casually while holding both his hands in his pockets. He was lanky, clothed like a commoner, but Akeya was pretty sure he had some unpleasant things hidden inside those pockets. Like poisoned knives. His overall appearance was one that wouldn’t get you to look around at him twice. That had probably been part of the reason why he became part of this business. Somebody who wasn’t very interesting to look at was invaluable for people who want to do stuff nobody from the legal world is supposed to notice. He could act as their legal face, in case they needed something which they could only get from the legal part of Fiore.

The second was a bit less uninteresting. He had a broader build, and it was clear he worked out to get that set of muscles. However he wasn’t just some unintelligent mass of muscles: it was clear he was taking great care to make sure his body was strong, not just large. The way he stood was a bit more hostile than the one who was looking rather casual, and an experienced fighter could see that he had a perfect balance right now, preparing himself for an eventual attack so he wouldn’t be knocked off his feet even if he was caught by surprise. That might be a difficult opponent to deal with, although the fact that he was using shadow magic meant that Akeya most likely had the edge over him. Unless he was using the item she wanted, in which case she’d have to kill him for it…

”She obviously wasn’t normal. She managed to avoid our attack and is either running away or still around. Stay on your guard. We have no idea what she might pull.”

The poison man nodded, still looking fairly relaxed and uncaring even though he was also keeping a good balance. He must have put a lot of training into appearing uninteresting and unimportant to be able to combine a good fighting stance with looking harmless. Honestly his skills were wasted as a doorwatcher, which is what the half dragon was pretty sure was going on here. Somebody had come to their lair, which they had done their best to hide, so they were trying to get rid of her, either by chasing her away or by killing her. However that wasn’t how it was going to be. She had finally found somebody useful, which meant she was going to be using them to get into contact with somebody who could tell her more about what she wanted to obtain. Although the possibility of that muscular man having it was still there. Akeya had rather that wasn’t the case. If it was things might get messy.

As the men were still looking around Akeya positioned herself further inside the alley, so they were in between her and the exit. Mostly to make it clear that she didn’t care about where they were standing or what they were planning, she would come and go as she pleased. The one with the shadows might have been able to sense her, but he was either hiding that rather well or he wasn’t as good with shadows as he might want people to think. Either way after some careful observation and positioning Akeya finally stepped out of the shadows, standing several yards away from the two men with a swaying tail and her wings spread slightly, showing off her draconic features as she folded her arms.

”I’m right here. And I want to talk with you.”

The response of the two men was to immediately turn around to face her, the casual man looking focused for a moment before it faded back into his usual everyday expression, although his arms twitched for a moment as if he had been planning to pull his hands out of his pockets. He would be trying to keep up the facade that this was nothing interesting, or that he at least wasn’t somebody she should be paying attention to. And if she believed that he’d poison her and kill her no doubt. The other man was less subtle, the shadows gathering around him as he took a stance which could smoothly change into a dash followed by a strike. He was preparing himself to become the main fighter here, distracting Akeya if possible so the one with the poison had an easier time sneaking up on her and administrating some interesting concoctions. However Akeya wasn’t going to have any of that: they weren’t dealing with an average human or even an average mage. Akeya was a trained and professional assassin. She was used to keeping a careful eye on all possible threats, not just the biggest. She was an assassin who became stronger the more shadows and darkness there was around her, and one of her opponents was a shadow mage. This wasn’t something they could deal with on their own. They would still try though.

”I don’t know what you’re talking about lady. What would you want to talk to me and Herald here for?”

Akeya didn’t know if he was honestly hoping to convince her nothing shady was going on or if he was just making a last attempt just in case she was a fool. Either way she sent him her usual glare, making the man wince and mutter something about crazy ladies. Her stare was, like always, cold, and filled with a focus that bordered on madness. It was a stare which could win her a staring competition purely because if somebody looked into her eyes they would close their own just so they wouldn’t have to meet that sheer focus.

”You are hiding this place with magic, and you both look like you’re trained to take care of nuisances. I’m here to make a deal with a certain somebody, and you’ll help me find them. In case you need any more motivation, I am Akeya Kuusai from Blue Pegasus, and before you try it for yourself, you can’t kill me and you should be glad I’m not somebody who cares about whether something is legal or not. My guild members would already question me if they knew I was here.”

The two men looked at each other, considering the possibilities without talking with each other. Akeya was portraying confidence and certainty, enough so that they couldn’t even call it a bluff. This half dragon just knew that she could get out of here whenever she wanted, and that there was nothing that these two could do about it. It wasn’t some fake confidence, it wasn’t a bluff, it was a matter of fact as much as that gravity tried to pull you down. Eventually the muscular one said softly.

”Who is it you are looking for and why.”

Akeya raised an eyebrow underneath her blindfold and smirked lightly. Good to know that these men knew when to quit. She had already gauged the amount of magic power their bodies contained, and studied their movements as few as they were, and she was pretty sure that she could hide their bodies without much issue. As for turning them into bodies, that wouldn’t be a problem either. And unlike most legal mages she didn’t have any mental lashback for killing somebody who just happened to be in her way. Why should she care about a mere human’s life? Shifting her weight to one leg she opened her mouth to speak, revealing sharp canines even as her new position made it clear she wasn’t worried about the two men standing before her.

”I have heard that recently somebody found a certain object. An object which has some personal value to me.” She spread her wings to drive the point home, at the same time allowing the shadows behind her to take on various shapes before settling down. ”I need to speak to whoever happens to be possessing that item right now. I have no intention of stealing it unless I have to, but rest assured that if necessary I don’t care about how I get it, as long as I do.”

The two men weren’t stupid, as they quickly understood what Akeya was talking about, especially after she spread her wings. Draconic wings covered in scales the colour of midnight. An object with personal value. It was clear that Akeya had a single goal, and the way she acted made it clear the two of them couldn’t deter them. They could try to lie to her, keeping the location of that object safe, but if she checked and found the object to not be where they told her it would be… She did say she would do whatever was necessary to get that item. And she wasn’t talking about personal favours when she said that. Better to cooperate.

”I can’t tell you anything myself, but we can take you to somebody who can. Of course, you’ll have to trust us since we aren’t going to give you any guarantees for your safety.”

Akeya frowned then shrugged. She had hoped she could intimidate them enough that they themselves would want to ensure her safety out of fear what might happen otherwise, but that might be asking too much. Stepping towards the men she neglected to mention the fact that the shadow she was throwing was not her own shadow.

”It will do. Lead the way.”

The poison man nodded while the other turned around and walked over to one of the walls, where he touched several bricks which looked exactly the same as the others. It was only Akeya’s blindfold that allowed her to see that those specific bricks contained magic, magic which was activated when the bricks were touched and combined to create some kind of magic seal behind the wall. The seal then turned into a round hole in the wall, through which the two men stepped, Akeya following them while she folded her wings tightly against her body and her form turned into a shadow. The tunnel they were leading her into was dark, so turning into a shadow felt better in here. Outside the hole disappeared while in the alley, hidden amidst many shadows, a single shadow remained without there being any physical object to create it.

The tunnel quite quickly turned into a stair descending downwards, towards a hiding spot buried deep underground. As was expected of people who didn’t want to be found. It might work to hide in the open, but if you had good mages then you could also take the safest route and just make it so that nobody could find you. The only reason Akeya was allowed in this way was because she convinced the doorkeepers to let her in, which wouldn’t have worked if she wasn’t a powerful mage in her own right, and hadn’t given the very strong impression that there was nothing they could do but do as she wanted. It took several minutes, but eventually the tunnel resolved into a large room, large enough that it was clear this couldn’t be the only entrance. It was almost like a marketplace, except underground. And between the stalls there were doors leading to separated rooms, where one could discuss trades which had to be kept secret even down here. Akeya saw that there were plenty of things put on sale down here which would get a merchant in trouble if they offered it above ground. However the thing she was looking for was so valuable that even this was enough, so the two men led her to one of the doors, knocking on it and whispering something through it before opening it.

”You will have to go alone the rest of the way. We have other things to do.”

Akeya nodded and stepped through the door, her tail pointing at the two men as a warning that they shouldn’t try to attack her from the back. Once the half dragon was in the room the door was shut behind her, followed by the sound of two pairs of feet walking away. Back to guarding that entrance most likely. Or they were reporting this intrusion to somebody else. Akeya wondered if this room was a trap, but she doubted it. Even if it was, she was pretty sure that she could deal with it.

This room looked more like a cafe, the old fashioned kind which could only be accessed by old customers or newcomers brought in by one of those familiar faces. Most of the ceiling was hidden by smoke, the entire place was made out of wood, and there was an indent in the middle of the room where several couches and lounge chairs had been placed, surrounding a circular table. A fair amount of these chairs and couches were occupied by men, with several women thrown into the mix. They all looked like they weren’t really focusing on trading right now, instead just making use of this lazy and relaxing room. Half of them turned around to look at the newcomer in the room, raising eyebrows when they didn’t recognize her. And Akeya wasn’t somebody who you just forget. A half dragon who wasn’t even trying to hide her lineage wasn’t a usual sight. Akeya stepped towards the gathering spot, standing at the edge of the indent with folded arms as she stated her case.

”I am here to retrieve the Shadow Dragon Slayer Lachrima which has recently begun to circulate through the black market. Either tell me how I can find it or tell me who can.”
The people sitting at the table all stared at her after she made that proclamation, then all looked at one man, who was wearing...well, not a lot. He was wearing pants and bracers, but other than that he was mostly naked. He had a tanned skin, his hair was dark brown, and his eyes a shade of grey as he looked at Akeya with both curiosity and amusement.

”That is a rather bold thing to claim. I could say that there is no such thing as a Shadow Dragon Slayer Lachrima to be found in these circles. However the fact that you’ve forced your way in here already, combined with that glare of yours, means you won’t take no for an answer. I have the feeling you wouldn’t accept it even if it was the truth.”

Akeya huffed at that, her tail lashing out behind her. The man raised an eyebrow, then shrugged and continued talking, his elbows leaning on his knees and his hands folded together.

”Stubbornness can also make you blind, you know. I’m just giving you the invaluable advice to not be too certain of yourself, and I’m not even charging you anything for it. Now, as for the Shadow Dragon Slayer Lachrima, yes one has showed up recently. We actually don’t know for sure how it turned up but it did. Several trustworthy people have inspected it and claimed that there’s nothing wrong with it. With something like that Lachrima I wouldn’t trust one or two, but there’s seven of them and I checked to make sure they aren’t being paid to say that or are working together. Which was one hell of a job, let me tell you.”

He unfolds his hands and spreads them while shrugging. The other people in the room were staying silent for now, although one or two were smirking at the speaker’s feigned exasperation.

”’Course, I could be lying to you as well. Up to you if you trust me or not, although I don’t want the Lachrima myself. Believe it or not, but everybody is as much of a fan of dragons as you apparently are.”

Akeya’s eyes opened wide at this and she hisses, opening her mouth and revealing her sharp teeth to speak as her wings spread out. She looks more draconic than before, her anger directly altering the way others see her. She actually is still the same, but when Akeya gets agitated she gives the impression of being a real dragon instead of a half dragon. However the man raised one hand and made a calming motion before she could actually get the words out, closing his eyes and sighing.

”Now, don’t take that the wrong way. What I’m saying is that while I can understand that dragons were powerful, I’d rather take my chances not including such things in my trade if I can help it. From the looks of you your goal is to get that Lachrima so it isn’t used by some humans. That’s exactly the kind of reason why I’m not bothering with the thing. Humans are already difficult enough to deal with, I’m not going to invite trouble by giving dragons a reason to come after me. In fact I’ll even help you get that Lachrima if it means avoiding trouble. You’re not stupid enough to start a fight in here, but if you did you might actually kill me, and I prefer to play the safe game.”
Akeya was getting the feeling this man was purposefully trying to make her angry, possibly so she wouldn’t have a clear head and become easier to trick than if she was still thinking logically. Exhaling heavily she glared at the man, who raised his hands as if to ward that gaze off. Except that he still didn’t look very impressed. He wasn’t just treating her like some insignificant person, but he clearly had the impression he was the smartest in the room and didn’t have to hide that fact. The half dragon had half a mind to teach him some more caution, but that would endanger her actual objective so instead she just nodded.

”So you would help me attain the Lachrima. The only thing you need to do to help me is tell me where I can find it and who possesses it, and I can do the rest myself.”

The man shook his head, scratching his cheek as he looked straight at her. He was too confident to actually look nervous, but it was clear that he was trying to tell her that he would be nervous if he wasn’t too confident for that.

”Ah, there’s the rub. Just because I know that the Lachrima is somewhere around here, and I’ve checked whether it’s a legitimate Lachrima and not a fraud, doesn’t mean I know where exactly it is right now. I knew where it was for a while, but that thing is going from one person to another at quite the impressive speed. Seeing how expensive it is that means there’s a lot of money going around as well, and I’m not sure who is benefiting from that…”

Now the man actually looked thoughtful now, hiding his mouth behind one hand as he looked at the table, tapping the wooden surface with his other hand as he fell silent for a couple of seconds. Akeya wanted to tap her foot, but she managed to keep herself from actually doing that as she waited. While she most certainly didn’t like this man he was at least telling her things she needed to know. She doubted everything he said was true, or even half, but even those lies could help her locate the actual Lachrima. That and at least he wasn’t making her jump through hoops to get all that information, so it didn’t hurt to stay and see what else he had to say. Although keeping her anger in check and making sure that she didn’t actually hurt him might make it a bit more difficult if he didn’t stop jerking her chain soon. After thinking for a while the man gestures to one of the couches which isn’t occupied by anybody.

”There’s no reason for me to have to crane my neck all the time, and you don’t need to stand. Why don’t you sit down before we continue.”

Akeya stared at the man, gritting her teeth, before nodding and sitting down, glancing at all the others in the group. They had only been spectators so far, but they didn’t look like underlings or unintelligent people. Why was that man the only one who was talking? Did they all possess the same knowledge regarding the subject and did they just decide they’d let this man deal with her? The man didn’t look like an underling either, and he was confident enough that she doubted he was being bullied into it. They were all watching her and her conversation partner carefully, not as if they were afraid of something but more as people who had to be careful with every conversation because a single slip-up could cost them a lot. She didn’t think she had said anything problematic yet, especially since she hadn’t said a lot at all. Yet around these people she didn’t think she could let her guard down. Not all of them looked highly intelligent, but they all looked cunning and willing to use that cunning.

The man she was talking to ran a hand through his hair and sighed before continuing, folding his hands underneath his chin and leaning on them as he looked at Akeya through the strands of hair that were now covering part of his forehead and eyes. It made him look rather dishevelled, although she doubted that he didn’t realize that.

”Now, usually when an item gets shuffled around like this there can be multiple reasons. I don’t know which one is happening here, but I can give you the most common. The first is that there’s a group of people working together to milk as much money out of the item as possible. It’s a bit of a complicated trick, but basically the idea is that in that chain of people who’ve owned the Lachrima there would be several who are part of that group, who buy it for a low price and sell it at a high price, then share the profits. It is a whole lot more complicated than that, but I won’t go into details. Trade secrets, you see. Only thing I can say is that there’s some pretty underhanded stuff involved, as you might expect.

Now, another one is that the item is actually just not working properly. I said that I know of seven people who I see as trustworthy who all have confirmed it’s the real deal, without being able to come to that conclusion together or through a common benefactor. However just because those seven people said it doesn’t mean it’s true. They could be lying, or there’s something wrong which all seven of them didn’t catch. In that case it’s just that somebody buys the Lachrima, realizes that the purchase was a mistake, and sells it to somebody else, the cycle constantly repeating.”

The man shook his head and placed one finger against the dark wood of the table, tracing a circle with it while looking Akeya straight in the eyes.

”The problem with that is that if that was the case by now we’d have heard something of it. And people would have become more hesitant to buy it, so it’d take longer to find a buyer. But the item is still going from one hand to another. Even as we speak it could be that the current owner, whoever they may be, is arranging a trade with another trader. The fact that we’re seeing such activity gives me the idea that somebody is forcing this to happen. The first idea, that there’s a group of people using the Lachrima to gather as much money as possible, would support this. However this is difficult to prove, since you’d have to learn about all the purchases, and how much money was given each time. As you can guess, most traders don’t want to share those details. And then there’s a third option: they’re being spooked.

This is hypothetical, but imagine if somebody wants that egg really badly. However they don’t have a lot of money right now, only manpower. If something like that Lachrima keeps circulating the price will naturally go down. Things are expensive when they are difficult to acquire, not when they’re freely being thrown from one person to another. Added to that is the fact that most traders aren’t going to trust a Lachrima which exchanges owners so frequently. It’s only natural, but it does mean that they become less willing to pay as much for it as the previous buyer. So what somebody who doesn’t want or can’t pay the original price can do is force the Lachrima to constantly change hands through threats and by applying pressure. There are a lot of ways to do that, but usually it’s just giving a warning and then causing as much trouble for the current owner as possible without leaving anything which can actually be traced back to the culprit. Since a Slayer Lachrima can be consumed or used they would have to act fast, but there’s ways to deal with that too.”

The man shrugged, rolling his eyes and looking up at the ceiling for a moment before returning his gaze to Akeya, who was watching him intently in silence. The half dragon was starting to get the feeling this was going to get complicated, especially if this latest theory the man gave her was the correct one. She’d have to get rid of whoever wanted that Lachrima so badly. Even if she could get her hands on it herself they’d most likely learn of that and then go after her, and one part of Akeya’s current lifestyle was making sure she wasn’t bothered by people chasing after her. She didn’t care what kind of reason that other person might have: that Lachrima was hers, and the only question was when she’d get it, not if. Any human who got in her way and didn’t know when to give up would just have to learn the hard way, even terminally if necessary.

”And what do you think is the most likely option?”

”As I said, the idea of a group doing this on purpose to make money out of it is difficult to prove because gaining access to all the transactions is difficult. However groups usually leave other trails, and I haven’t found any of those. The second theory that there is simply something wrong with the Lachrima is unlikely because there are so many people who have inspected it and declared it perfectly fine, people who are unlikely to be collaborating over this and who are usually trustworthy, or at least more trustworthy than most. And any rumours of there being a flaw in the Lachrima sound like the ones that crop up all the time with no basis. That leaves the third option. Somebody wants to get their hands on the Lachrima but either isn’t rich enough or simply thinks they can get it for less money if they force it to circulate a bit before they sell it. In which case I wish you good luck. There might not be any half dragons around here, but us humans can be quite difficult to deal with as well.

Next you’ll probably once again ask us whether we know where it is. As I said, I don’t know where it is right now. However I might have omitted something. Just because I don’t know where it is right now doesn’t mean I don’t know where it will be.”

The man looked at one of the other men and nodded. That man, wearing a more traditional outfit which reminded Akeya of the richer type of merchant around here, snapped his fingers and a piece of paper materialized in the air, floating there for about a second before the man grabbed it and placed it down on the table, shoving it towards Akeya so she could see the contents. Although before she got that opportunity the spokesman’s mouth opened again, leaving the half dragon to grab the paper and skim it even as her peculiar ears took in his words.
”Trade of goods not considered safe or otherwise legal by the people above is not the only thing the black market is part of. As you might expect, the underworld of Fiore has a tendency to come together and make our own rules, rules which may be more allowing in some ways, but just as strict as those of the legal side. But one thing that you can also find if you look around here is organized fights. There will be a tournament in two days, and the winner will get the Shadow Dragon Slayer Lachrima. Because this tournament is being organized by a group of people instead of a single person I haven’t been able to figure out which one actually is in possession of that Lachrima right now. However it’s unlikely such a price would be advertized if they couldn’t back it up. The people of this part of Fiore don’t like it when you offer them something and then refuse to give it to them. It could be a trap, but I don’t see why they would be trying one right now.

If you want that Lachrima your best bet is to enter that tournament and win it fair and square. Well, as fair and square as things get down here. Naturally there aren’t any limits on how you are allowed to fight, but that also counts for your opponents. Looking at you I can say that you have a good chance of winning, although I wouldn’t take it as a sure thing. There is quite a lot of people who are likely to attend the tournament who could make things difficult for you. I’ll wish you good luck, since as I said I have no interest in that Lachrima.”

Akeya raised her eyebrows as she read the details on the tournament, then looked back up at the man, feeling rather suspicious. She had arrived out of nowhere, demanding to be told where the Lachrima was, and this person just told her pretty much everything she needed to know except an exact plan on how to take the Lachrima from whoever possessed it. It would have been strange if she wasn’t suspicious about such a helpful person, who just sat there smirking at her as if he knew what she was thinking and found it cute. Which only served to annoy the half dragon as she put the piece of paper away, where she could procure it if necessary later on.

”I would feel more trusting if you didn’t just out of your own volition told me all of this without asking for anything in return, not even something to make sure I wouldn’t leak any information to others.”

The man shrugs again, this time laughing softly as the man who had procured the first paper summoned another one, placing it down in the middle of the table this time. It was thicker than the previous one, and Akeya realized that he had in fact just pulled a newspaper out of thin air. The spokesman pointed at the newspaper.

”One of the upsides of being part of the underworld of Fiore is that while we can’t let the authorities know of us, we aren’t forbidden to learn about the authorities and what they’ve been doing. You have only become a Rising Star recently, Akeya Kuusai, but news like that spreads fast. I don’t often meet a Rising Star who doesn’t look down upon the black market as something which shouldn’t exist, but at the same time doesn’t show any motivation to join the black market and profit from it themselves. People who are acknowledged by the government either despise us or are corrupt. You just look indifferent and are only down here to get what you want. And I expected you to want this. A half dragon who uses Shadow Dragon Slayer magic, hearing about a Shadow Dragon Slayer Lachrima circulating through the black market? It’s coincidences like these that make me unwilling to take that Lachrima for myself. You could cause a lot of trouble by using your status as a Rising Star, so I’ll be doing my best to give you no reason to move against the black market so life doesn’t get any more troublesome for us. If you still feel suspicious, which I won’t blame you for, let’s just say that once you’ve gotten that Lachrima and done what you want with it you can come back here and we can discuss payment.”

That actually didn’t make Akeya any less suspicious at all. It just gave her the idea that this man was being a lot more sneaky and cunning than she approved of in a mere human. However she wasn’t in the right position to start causing trouble over this. It shouldn’t be too difficult to find more of these papers advertising the tournament so she knows that isn’t fake, and honestly everything else that he said isn’t important. The half dragon had no desire to become any further involved in the underworld, simply because it didn’t have a lot to offer for her, and the more she interacted with it the bigger the chances the Rune Knight would catch wind of it. Even if she was a Rising Star now she wasn’t monitored, mostly because it was a bit difficult to monitor somebody whose skill set was so perfectly suited for evading watching eyes. That and she was supposed to be somebody the Magic Council could trust to be a good example for other aspiring legal mages.

However right now she had nothing left to do here. She now had a clear way of getting that Lachrima that she needed. The tournament would be in two days, so she would have to make sure she was ready to enter and win at that point. That meant ensuring that the details were correct, and making sure that she had a spot in the tournament. Although according to the scrap of paper as long as she showed up she could enter simply by proving herself dangerous enough to be a good contestant. That shouldn’t be too much of a problem for her, since even if her specialization was assassination she still had plenty of tricks which also worked just fine for straightforward fighting. Standing up Akeya nodded towards the man who had done all the talking.

”I will take your word for now. We might meet again.”

With that she walked out of the room, looking around at the central hub of this part of the black market which most likely covered the entirety of Fiore. She wasn’t sure where she should start preparing, but this was the place to be so far as she could see. It would be better if she stayed out of the legal world for now. There was no use being seen above, and if she finished this business she could show up and just proclaim that she found the Lachrima after she went on a journey. She’d have to make sure that the story she told made sense, and that it couldn’t be tracked down and verified, but that was not something she hadn’t done before. She preferred assassinations where she didn’t have to worry about those kind of things at all, but sometimes you had to do some work cleaning up afterwards to prevent things getting troublesome. The half dragon tapped her chin in thought before stepping forward, for now keeping her shadow hidden in the alleyway in the legal world just in case.

Akeya stood at the edge of her cage, leaning against the wall with folded arms and tapping one talon against the other arm. She was waiting to be let out, although honestly she was showing more impatience than was really necessary. It wasn’t like she was actually stuck in here. This cage was just the waiting room she had been waiting as she waited for her match to start. The half dragon was breathing slowly, making sure that she wasn’t caught by anything so stupid as a simple burst of panic or actual impatience. As a dragonkin one could argue that there was some merit in fighting with instinct and savagery, but Akeya was an assassin, and beyond that a perfectionist. As long as she stayed calm she could channel her less civilized size and gain all the benefits without the downsides. It might not grant her the advantages as fully as if she let herself be overtaken by the instinctive feelings, but smaller benefits over no downsides beats large benefits with downsides. Every downside was like a dagger which could be used to cut your own throat, a dagger which could be picked up by any enemy who actually had half a brain.

After she had finished that conversation which had earned her the information about the tournament Akeya had been busy confirming the information, and after that making sure she could enter the tournament. It seemed that if the people who were organizing this didn’t cough up the Shadow Dragon Slayer Lachrima at the end of this tournament, the reward for the winner, they would quickly find themselves on the bad side of the underworld of Fiore. The participants naturally all wanted to win (excepting those who were merely using this tournament for other purposes and plans), but if they were defeated in a fight and somebody else got their hands on the Lachrima that would be frustrating and infuriating but bearable. For most. But no matter how much these people would try to trick and cheat each other, offering such a prize without actually possessing it would be too risky. There were too many enemies to be had, and most of the time when somebody tried to trick another they weren’t planning to be caught. The only way for the organizers to not be caught here was if they placed some of their own in the tournament, strong enough that at least one of them should be able to win.

In which case they would be out of luck today, as nothing was going to stop Akeya. The cage finally opened, the half dragon inhaled and exhaled, then stepped into the arena. It was a grand construction, which apparently was formed with the help of a rather spectacular magic device. It was used quite often to organize the larger scale events in the underworld around these parts, and because Rose Garden was always filled to the brim with magic it was easy to hide it. They were still underground, but this device when controlled could create basically any scenery, and that scenery and every single detail of it would be real as long as the device got enough magic fuel. Akeya had been rather curious about the device and inquired further about it, and it looked like it was actually owned by somebody who had primarily gotten rich because of that item. They just hired it out to whomever who wanted to use it, and if paid extra they would ensure that it would have enough magic that it would last throughout the event. This was reassuring, since Akeya didn’t want to have to deal with an abrupt change in the environment in the middle of a fight.
The landscape given to her was that of ruins which had long since been abandoned, located in a valley. There was of course a limit to the size of the created landscape, which was made clear with a shimmering barrier which made a spherical dome with a radius of about a mile, much larger than the underground cavern in which it was located. Still, the world beyond the barrier looked real enough, enough so that Akeya wondered if it was possible to bypass that barrier. The ruins where treacherous, filled with traps, and easy to get lost in. Beyond that the constructions weren’t that stable either, so if you stepped in the wrong place or pushed against the wrong wall you could end up being in the middle of a collapse. Not only could that be dangerous, but it would also alert everybody else of your presence.

Yes, everybody else. There wasn’t just one enemy Akeya had to deal with. In an arena of this size there were over twenty of them, and only the last four remaining would be allowed to continue. The reason for this was to drastically cut down the time required to find the winner: there had been a lot of people who wanted to join in, so it was better to split them up into large groups where only a select few could succeed than only using one on one battles. That and some people did better if given more than just a flat expanse and one enemy. Of course for those who did prefer gladiatorial combat this was a disadvantage, but even in this grand melee it was still possible to win using only duels if you were good at picking your fights.

In Akeya’s case, she actually felt right at home with how this tournament was set up. Such a large area, made to be a realistic representation of ancient ruins, meant that it was a very good place for somebody like her, who was good at moving around without being detected, finding and hunting down targets, and who thanks to her shadowy nature didn’t have to worry about the state of the ruins. Her magic sensory was strong enough that even in this large spherical arena she could locate most of the enemies, at least the ones that possessed magic. And even the non-mages had magic items which she could use against them. Some of them were still too far away, and some were better at hiding than others, but she was pretty confident that she could locate and eliminate all without having to worry about her own elimination. Although it had been explicitly stated that killing wasn’t allowed. It looked like there were many who would take an opportunity like this to get rid of some old rivals, so even accidental killing wasn’t allowed. If somebody died, and it was clear that it wasn’t just them getting themselves killed without anybody’s help, the ones who had taken part in the death would be disqualified and would face other consequences.

Well, even if she wasn’t allowed to kill, that shouldn’t stop somebody like Akeya, who had been given non-lethal missions before. She would just have to make sure to aim for their vital spots with attacks which weren’t quite powerful enough to take lives, and not use any edged weapons if she could help it. Not too much of a problem. Turning into a shadow Akeya disappeared inside the ruins, the cage from which she had entered the arena already having faded away as it was not a part of this fake world. There were plenty of shadows inside the ruins, speeding up Akeya’s progress as she headed for the nearest enemy she could sense. They didn’t appear to be very strong, but she had to stay sharp. One downside to a tournament mode like this was that it was that as easy as it was to assassinate, others could also assassinate you.
Luckily the first target wasn’t very difficult for her to take down at all. The man had been running through the ruins and frantically looking around for an opponent to beat down. Looking at his behaviour and his magic he had a skill set suited for brawling more than guerilla tactics, which meant he was one of those unlucky people who weren’t given an edge by this landscape. From the way that he smashed his way straight through both traps and walls he had probably been hoping that he could attract some other contenders and then take them down the easy way. For some people being noisy and flashy was an advantage, and this guy was one of them. If Akeya’s judgement was correct he could have done a lot of damage to other contestants had she not found him first without him spotting her. It was a damn shame, really. She kind of wanted to leave him alone so he could make her job easier, but that could result in him blindsiding her later on. So while he was once again smashing through a wall she had suddenly appeared behind him, grabbing one of the falling rocks and smashing it against the back of his head. Assassin or no, the dragon blood made her physical prowess nothing to scoff at. Even this tough man, who could ignore arrows and falling rocks, couldn’t hold up when suddenly out of nowhere a half dragon smashed a rock against that which protected his precious brains. He fell down like a log, Akeya once again fading into the shadows. One down.

The second one was a bit trickier, since like Akeya they were the sneaky type. Where she used the shadows this one was apparently an expert at camouflage, as the half dragon couldn’t see the difference between them and the surrounding ruins at all even if they were standing in the middle of a clearing. However that was only her normal sight. In this fight you were allowed to take magical items with you provided you could actually carry them (to ensure you didn’t just drag some huge weapon inside with which you could lay waste to the entire arena in one go), so Akeya still had her magic items. Her blindfold wasn’t fooled by this camouflage, so as soon as she actually got a good view of her target she bombarded them the man with Shadow Dragon’s Scales, checking whether he was actually unconscious before moving on.

After that was a woman, who was floating high up in the sky and seemed to have some magic which allowed her to shoot beams of pure energy with extreme precision from a long distance. A sniper. Unfortunately whatever flight spell she was using was not one which granted her enough mobility to compete with a half dragon who possessed a set of wings and a very flexible tail to help with steering. Since killing wasn’t allowed Akeya had to knock her out and then bring her to the ground to make sure she didn’t break her neck on the way down or something. The half dragon winced as she felt the burn wound on one of her legs. Thanks to her uncanny mobility, enhanced by the fact that she was flying, she could avoid most of the things shot at her, but she hadn’t been able to avoid everything. One shot had grazed her, and it made Akeya glad that the others had missed. Those beams had been dangerous even if the woman had been too confident that nobody could touch her if she flew high enough.

The fight continued like that, Akeya trying to avoid any other targets which flew up in the sky (she was pretty sure that at least one person on the ground must have seen the shadowy creature taking down the sniper beam mage), instead focusing on going after people in locations covered in shadows. As she had expected this first round was filled with easy targets, as she and the other strong ones weeded out all the ones who wouldn’t have a chance surviving in the second round anyway. In the end the half dragon had taken care of six targets before it was announced that only four contestants were left able to fight. The fake world quickly disappeared as Akeya and the others were returned to the cavern, where they would wait for the second round. Or for those who lost, to be tended to. The ones who were still standing weren’t allowed to receive any help. The idea was that the strongest would be the one who could go the longest without help. The strongest wasn’t somebody who could show one impressive burst of power, but after that was completely helpless. The strongest was the one who could keep winning and keeping damage taken and energy expended to a minimum. Akeya was quietly eating some shadows as she waited, looking at her leg. It shouldn’t get in the way, but if she was hit there again it might become a problem. At least as the Shadow Dragon Slayer it wasn’t too difficult to find enough food to regain all her energy. That already gave her a real advantage over most other contenders.

The first round took a bit longer as other groups had to finish their own special fights. Akeya and her group had been given a deathmatch scenario for twenty people, but there were also groups of other sizes with other scenarios. For example, one of the participants that Akeya felt more wary of returned victorious from a battle between ten were they all were in a volcano, and anybody who fell into the lava lost immediately. At least, that’s what she was told by some of the others who had been part of the fight. There hadn’t been many places to stand, and they had specifically chosen people who couldn’t just endlessly cling to the walls or fly. Further inquiry had revealed that the one that had drawn her attention had a magic which allowed him to execute short but very extreme bursts of speed, and beyond that apparently also could fire waves of force from short to medium range distances which moved just as fast. It had been easy for him to stay afloat as he used those force waves to push others into the lava.

At the end of the first round there were twenty contestants remaining, of which three dropped out because they didn’t feel like they could recover enough in the short break they had before the next round would start. That left the organizers with seventeen people to deal with, a rather unlucky number as it meant they had no choice but to create an extra match between two people to reduce the number to sixteen, after which they could divide the remaining people into brackets of four. Akeya hoped that she wasn’t one of those who would have to participate in that extra match. She wasn’t here to make things difficult or challenging. She had as only objective getting that Lachrima, and since there wasn’t such thing as getting style points or appealing to the crowd fighting another match had no use. Luckily she wasn’t one of the two, and she could watch the man with the bursts of speed and the force waves duke it out with a woman whose magic was...peculiar. Akeya’s blindfold allowed her to see it, but otherwise it would have been difficult for her to figure out what the idea behind it was. It seemed that the woman could change the location of events. That’s the best way Akeya could summarize it. She threw a knife at the floor, yet when it touched the ground it didn’t even pierce it. Instead the man grunted as suddenly a knife wound appeared on one of his arms.

It was an interesting fight to watch, as the woman was constantly making the man’s attacks to be nullified as she redirected the force of the attack to her surroundings, although seeing from the fact that she wasn’t nullifying everything there were limits to what she could do. Eventually the man won, although from what Akeya could see it was a close fight. The woman didn’t look like she was completely defeated either: she was still standing, and while she was breathing heavily and standing on shaky feet her magic energy hadn’t been empty yet. The reason the man won was that the woman had given up, most likely in the encounters with the man having realized that he would win and deciding that it wasn’t worth it to waste more energy and risking further injury for the low chances of victory she still possessed. A wise decision from Akeya’s point of view, although she doubted that she could do the same. She had a bit more to fight for here than usual.

Now that there were only sixteen participants left the elimination process could continue. Four groups of four. Or rather, eight groups of two of which two winners would then face each other. Fine with Akeya. She wasn’t really expecting to lose, since even though she had already seen several people who were worth taking note of none had given her the impression that she didn’t have a way to take care of them. Even that man who could execute those bursts of frightening speeds had flaws that Akeya was pretty sure she could exploit. He was fast enough that she couldn’t hope to keep up while he was using his magic, and his waves were just as fast so dodging them would be tricky. However while he could fire those waves with impunity it seemed he needed to first actually move a part of his body, like striking with a fist or lashing out with a foot, firing the wave from his limbs. As for those bursts of speed, it looked like an acceleration amplification technique as she had only ever seen him use it if he was in the position to move in that direction, and just used the magic to move much faster and farther than he would otherwise be capable of. That, and moving himself seemed to have a slight cooldown on it, so if she could dodge him and end up behind him she would have a chance.

Another participant who caught her eye was the poison man who had been there to greet her together with the shadow mage. He looked as unimportant and casual as ever, but for him to survive the previous round meant she couldn’t afford to dismiss him like that. It might have been pure like, but as somebody who worked on skill, subtlety and intelligence rather than sheer superior force Akeya wasn’t going to assume that of somebody who had a magic which was suitable for more elegant approaches, and who most likely was intelligent enough to make use of those approaches. It was a good thing that she wasn’t in the same bracket as him: poison, venom and toxic were all tricky things to deal with, and with some luck he would be eliminated before she would have to face him. That or he would be exhausted.

The opponent first given to Akeya in the second round was another woman, one who wore leather armour and looked determined. The half dragon didn’t find the woman outstandingly beautiful, but she did have a certain rough charm, especially with that wild dark green hair which framed her face and that fierce expression. Well, no matter. Akeya was going to beat her down and move on. It was a bit unfortunate that this time they would use a gladiator style arena, since it worked against Akeya’s skill set, but it would have to do. Standing on one side of the arena Akeya waited for the match to start, not taking her eyes off of the woman. Since she was wearing leather armour she was most likely a fighter type. Mages who relied on spellslinging usually wore lighter equipment which they had enchanted to help them avoid close combat. And the woman’s magic felt...rather heavy. It had a distinct impression of weight to it. That was both interesting and worrying. She would have to be careful with this one. Although she couldn’t be hesitant either. Take a short moment to observe the woman, then take her down as quickly as possible. A simple plan, but it would have to do.

As soon as the match started the woman raised both her hands, mumbling something as a clear spherical object was formed between her hands. The woman then ran towards Akeya, who had entered a crouch and was waiting for the woman. Her emerald eyes travelled across the arena, scanning it. There weren’t any irregularities in the floor except the ones she and her opponent might make, and no shadows on the ground. She would have to be a bit creative here. Although first of all she had to make sure she wasn’t flattened, because she was starting to get the feeling that her opponent had that as her main battle plan: that would certainly explain why her magic felt so heavy. And that pale green orb also looked heavy.

The woman wasn’t even in melee range when she suddenly threw the orb straight at Akeya, not stopping her own advance as she just ran straight after her own projectile. The orb was fast, fast enough that Akeya was about to catch it before her instincts screamed at her to dodge. Jumping to the side she saw the orb fly past her and smash into the wall behind her, leaving a deep dent in the stone. A really deep dent. That orb must have had some immense momentum to make a hole of that depth. And since it hadn’t moved that fast it must mean that it must also be quite heavy. As Akeya watched the orb disappeared, and the half dragon didn’t have any more time to look at it because at that point she had to duck to avoid an incoming big swing. The force behind the swing made her raven hair dance for a moment as the half dragon looked into the other woman’s green eyes from below, before she jumped past the woman, back into the open arena.

Thus the fight began, and it was quite the hectic one. The woman’s magic was quite impressive, all right: she could create those orbs which appeared to be sheer weight and momentum, which could drill holes into stone and which apparently didn’t care if Akeya was a shadow or not (she had tried evading one by turning into a shadow, and while it hadn’t broken her arm it felt as if it had, and beyond that it had sent her flying, followed by the doggedly persistent green weight girl). The woman could also make other things, including her own fists, very heavy. And more than that, it didn’t look the woman herself was actually slowed down by this. She could throw those orbs of hers as fast as most people could only throw a normal ball used by kids to play games, and her fists weren’t any slower than those of somebody who trained them day and night. This woman basically was just using sheer momentum as her weapon, and it was scarily effective. No wonder she had made it through the first round.

As for Akeya herself, she was mostly just evading and hoping she could maybe wear the woman down. She had already tried attacking a couple of times, but the woman was making it very clear that she was a trained fighter as she responded very fast, and very precise. She didn’t leave many openings, and half those openings appeared to be feints that as soon as Akeya tried to capitalize on them turned into a fist aimed straight for one of her more important body parts. This woman didn’t seem to be anything but a normal human, which meant that she was cornering a half dragon physically using naught but physical training, combat training, and some magic which allowed her to hit very hard and ignore intangibility. A true opponent.

Which was not what Akeya wanted. She didn’t come here for a good fight. She came for that Lachrima. So far she had avoided being hit, and had actually gotten in some hits herself, but the woman was durable, and didn’t look like she’d slow down or tire out anytime soon. And with those orbs Akeya couldn’t even stay at a safe distance: that woman most likely had realized that if she only used her ability on her fists and feet she would be bested by most ranged mages, so she had developed a special part of her magic that allowed her to express momentum as a ranged attack. The only solution she could think of so far was to fly up to the ceiling, but that wouldn’t really solve a lot. Akeya didn’t have a lot of ranged attacks, and the woman would just throw her momentum orbs at her. That wasn’t the solution.

Maybe she just had to accept that there wasn’t any quick solution here. Akeya grabbed the woman’s arm as it headed straight for her guts, grabbing it with both hands and turning around before trying to throw the woman over her head and smash her into the ground. However the woman caught herself on her two feet, twisted around and sent another punch flying at Akeya’s face, forcing the half dragon to let go and flip backwards. Coming down the half dragon took a fighting stance. Maybe there wasn’t a quick solution. This woman was obviously used to tricky opponents, and was both smart and well trained. With most of Akeya’s advantages denied one way or another maybe she just had to accept that this time around she would have to keep fighting in this straightforward manner. She was actually getting hits in, even if the woman didn’t seem to be caring too much. The woman had yet to actually do anything besides proving herself a serious threat. If this continued Akeya might win purely because her physical attacks weren’t weak, and even if the woman could take one or two eventually they would stack up and wear her down. If that was the only solution Akeya wasn’t happy with it, but she’d have to accept it.

So the fight continued, Akeya dodging and weaving as the woman kept on advancing. She was very offensive in her fighting style, apparently having trained to always be the one setting the pace by pressing the attack. Which wasn’t a bad idea, especially in matches like these. However Akeya was starting to return the hostility more and more as she began to become used to the heavy punches, or at least the way that the woman threw them. Instead of retreating Akeya was now standing her ground, instead of directly blocking punches grabbing them or redirecting them, allowing her to disperse the attacks without actually having to receive the force behind them. As for herself, she was starting to move smoother and smoother as she became more used to the battlefield. Her tail was a special weapon, allowing her to strike from unexpected angles and with surprising force, and her wings were actually quite strong. Besides of their strength she could also use them to move around and throw gusts of wind in the woman’s face.

Eventually Akeya saw an opportunity. The woman was still going, and her stamina appeared to be prodigious, but the half dragon was finally starting to see signs that she couldn’t keep this up forever. Akeya had taken only one hit so far, which still made her ribs ache, but she was tough enough to not be taken down or slowed by just one hit. Meanwhile she had already bruised a good part of the woman’s body underneath her clothing, having focused on trying to hit the ribcage as often as possible. She wanted to make the woman’s breathing as much of a challenge as possible. And it was working, as the woman winced and threw a punch just a bit too wide. Akeya’s eyes narrowed as she pushed the arm aside, making the woman go off balance, then jumped up, spun and kicked the woman straight against the side of her head, sending her flying and crashing onto the floor. The woman quickly stood up, but she was unsteady on her feet. The kick had dazed her. Time to finish this fight.

Turning into a shadow Akeya surged forward, intentionally making herself look reckless in an attempt to wrap things up so the woman would prepare and aim a counter punch. Once the punch was thrown Akeya materialized, ducked underneath it, then slammed both her open palms straight against the woman’s solar plexus. With Akeya’s strength such an attack would have an effect, even if her opponent was surprisingly durable. However this was too much for her trained endurance, enhanced by nothing but physical training and years of fighting. The woman’s eyes went wide as she gasped, coughing and trying to get some air in her lungs as she stumbled backwards, trying to keep her eyes on Akeya and failing as her legs were now quite visibly shaking. Akeya wasn’t going to just leave it at that, and chased the woman down. The woman threw a punch, but it was weak, and the half dragon jumped over it before spinning and smashing the heel of her foot into the back of the woman’s head, making the woman fall flat onto the floor. Akeya landed right on top of the woman, planting her feet on the small of the woman’s back with much force to ensure that the woman wouldn’t get up.

At this point the fight was pretty much decided. The persistent hits on the woman’s body had worn down her defences, the concentrated assault on her ribcage made every breath hurt, and now Akeya had knocked all the wind out of her will inflicting great pain before also kicking the woman in the back of the head heard and smashing her into the ground. The woman was out of air, trying to gather some more, and she could gather enough strength in her limbs any longer. Akeya observed her opponent for a bit before stamping her foot down on the woman’s head once more before jumping off of her and walking away. The woman struggled a bit longer, but ultimately was declared unable to fight any longer. They both left the arena (Akeya by herself, the woman carried), as Akeya waited for her next fight. Well, instead of waiting she was quickly finding some new shadows to eat as she regained her energy. She couldn’t remove the damage done to her body, however, and she winced as she once again felt the pain from her ribcage. That woman’s magic allowed her to hit ridiculously hard. The half dragon was pretty sure that even Akryn, a close combat fanatic who for some reason had superhuman strength, couldn’t punch this hard.

Sitting down Akeya tried her best to recover as much as possible, breathing slowly while doing as little as possible. Unfortunately for her the other fights didn’t last very long at all, so it was her turn again sooner than she wanted. However there was no use complaining. Akeya stood up, refusing to show weakness as she moved towards the next arena. The people who had organized this event must have spent a small fortune on it, the way they had prepared for nearly every single eventuality to ensure that things would go smoothly without any interruptions. They even had backup arenas in case some of the participants had particularly destructive tricks available. Akeya wondered briefly if they could also just have used that magic device here, but maybe it was cheaper to just get these arenas than paying for further use of the device if the only thing they wanted was something they could actually create. It wouldn’t surprise Akeya if the man who owned the magic device charged a lot for it.

Her next opponent was a lot less interesting than the woman she had just duelled with. This one was a more straightforward fire mage, but unlike the woman he wasn’t trained and experienced with close combat so he couldn’t keep up with the shadowy half dragon who danced around him, quickly knocking him out with a properly aimed chop at the neck. Akeya had been wanting to end this fight fast so she could rest longer, so she had put a lot of energy into moving as fast as possible. While the man was still throwing his initial ranged assault of flames she was already behind him, and by the time he realized what he should be doing right now his consciousness was already starting to fade. Akeya made sure that he had mentally left this world before leaving the arena, returning to her focus on recovery. She could afford to use that energy since there were always some shadows somewhere. Truly, being a mage who could gain energy just by eating shadows was one of the biggest examples of Shadow Dragon Slayer magic. While, all the other skills she got from it weren’t anything to sneeze at either, but being able to consistently recover like that.

This time Akeya actually got enough time to recover, seeing how most of the other matches lasted longer. Her match had only ended so quickly because Akeya had forced the issue, betting that the man wouldn’t be able to keep up with her speed and turning out to be right. If the man had been a bit fast she could have been the one to be knocked out, as he could have surrounded himself with flames and then slowly corner her with more and more flames. He probably had won his previous match by just throwing enough flames: his magic power had actually been quite high. The half dragon had really been lucky that he wasn’t used to somebody as fast as herself when she was really putting everything into it. There weren’t many people who could match her speed and mobility, which had worked in her favour just now.

Eventually the other matches also ended, leaving four contenders for the main prize: the Shadow Dragon Slayer Lachrima. The ones that were still standing were Akeya, the poison man (Akeya was starting to get the feeling she had actually been underestimating him even when she thought that she was already taking him seriously. Getting this far couldn’t just be luck), the man with the bursts of movement and the force waves, and a woman who was apparently a geomancer. Which would explain why she was doing so well. This was underground, after all. Looking at the remaining contestants Akeya noted that they all seemed to be fighter types. The man who used acceleration was quite clearly a fighter, the geomancer looked like the type who trained her magic by smashing rocks with her bare fists, and the poison man, while looking so mundane and unimpressive, was still keeping a perfect balance, and wasn’t even showing any signs of having been wounded or exhausted on his way here. A dangerous specimen, to be sure.

The next round began, and it was Akeya versus the acceleration mage, while the poison man would have to face the geomancer. The half dragon got the feeling that the poison man was just unlucky there: earth and stone didn’t care about what kind of chemicals you threw at them. But if he had come so far he could surprise her. The geomancer didn’t look weak either: besides her physical build, which was imposing, she also handled herself with confidence and a gait which betrayed her skill. As for her own fight, Akeya wasn’t entirely sure how it would work out, but she had the feeling that she should be able to win this if she just focused and wasn’t caught off guard. Thanks to that match to get rid of the seventeenth survivor she had been able to catch some of her opponent’s weaknesses (she wondered why the other participants had been allowed to see that match). His force waves required him to first make a physical strike, and he could only move so fast if he could move anyway. That and there was a short cooldown between bursts, so if you caught him after he just used one he would have to do without. She’d have to be careful, but this fight should theoretically be easier than the one against the girl who had used weight as her weapon (the memory made Akeya’s ribs ache. She might only have sustained that one hit, but it had been a real struggle to not get any more hits, and actually taking the woman down had eventually come down to Akeya just having more stamina and being able to stack blows).

Stepping into the arena Akeya waited for the signal for the fight to begin with. When the signal came she waited for the man to take a step before immediately moving to the side, which turned out to be a smart move as the man immediately appeared right before her previous location, striking with a fist to unleash a force wave which only hit the wall. Akeya immediately went on the offensive, dancing behind the man as a shadow before trying to sweep his legs out from underneath him. It was a bit unfortunate that he was wearing such a long cloak, so she couldn’t see much of his figure from this angle. However the man apparently realized what she was trying and jumped to avoid her attack, once he landed immediately turning around and launching another attack, forcing Akeya to turn into a shadow and immediately surge to the side to avoid.

This fight was a lot faster than the one with the woman, mostly because now both of the fighters were more about overwhelming the opponent with speed than dragging it out with sheer persistence and endurance. Akeya had to take several hits when the man read her movements properly before using his burst of speed, but his hits didn’t have enough weight to them even when reinforced by those waves of force. They might be enough to make people fly backwards and help him control the pace, but they weren’t particularly destructive. Looking at his magic Akeya got the impression he usually would use his magic to smash opponents against objects, the force waves being more about pushing the target around than actually dealing the damage (although since Akeya’s toughness as a half dragon was notably higher than that of most people, so for most those force enhanced punches would be quite painful anyway), but in this case his opponent ignored the impact damage by turning into a shadow. The match ended after the man executed a burst, but Akeya had seen it coming and ducked so the man’s strike went over her head, after which she could grab him by his collar and smash him against the ground before punching him repeatedly until he went limp. The half dragon herself judged this as another result of a poor matchup. She could avoid the damage of being smashed against the walls and the floor, and beyond that she had eyes which could see him, even if she could exactly keep up with his speed. Beyond that she was tough and could hit harder than him, or just use brute force if necessary.

This meant that the only fight left for Akeya was the finals, which would either be against the geomancer or the poison man. Sitting down Akeya once again returned to trying to recuperate as fast as possible. The man hadn’t been able to deal enough damage to overwhelm her, but he had done a good job of wearing her down. The ending had been a result of her reacting properly, but he could actually have beaten her if she hadn’t been able to anticipate his movements correctly. Her shadow form didn’t allow her to avoid the damage from being hit by those force waves, and while they didn’t do a lot they could still break her if there were enough of them. A good thing she managed to create that opportunity to end it before she began to slow down. Now she had to prepare herself for whatever else might happen next.

The other match ended in favour of the geomancer. The poison man still didn’t look particularly worn down even after having lost the fight, making the half dragon stand up and walk over to him, halting him before he could leave the place where the contestants could rest in between matches.

”How did you lose?”

The man looked at her, looking rather annoyed, before shrugging with feigned indifference. It looked like he wasn’t happy about his defeat, which was understandable. However he still answered her question.

”Her defences were too strong. Getting through all that would have taken too much energy and I wouldn’t have been much of an opponent for either you or the other one. Going any further would just make things difficult for me afterwards since I have other things to do as well. Exhausting myself when I can’t win anyway would have been foolish.”

Akeya nodded thoughtfully. So the geomancer was one who used the earth to protect herself. At least, that’s what the half dragon was thinking of here. The poison man excused himself and left, apparently not wanting to watch the last match (there were of course spectators, but they were all in another large cavern where they had Lachrima which allowed them to see what was going on inside the arenas. Participants who lost could enter that room for free to see the rest of the tournament run its course). Akeya stretched as she prepped herself for the last match before she would finally have her hands on that Lachrima. It hadn’t even been that long (By now about three days since she left Clover Town), but she wanted to be done with it. She didn’t think the geomancer would be very tired if she had made the poison man surrender just by being too difficult to actually hit. Meanwhile Akeya herself was at full energy thanks to the shadows, but her body was certainly affected by the fights before. The burn on her leg was still there even if she barely felt it at this point, she had to be careful with her breathing because her ribs could become a problem if she became too exhausted and started panting, and various parts of her body were sending signals of a slow insistent throbbing ache to her brain. But that wasn’t enough to stop her. The biggest problem the geomancer would have is that the earth can’t hurt Akeya unless the geomancer’s magic specifically in infused her attacks with enough magic that she could hit the intangible. The woman with her fists and the man with his force waves had both been able to, but both of those had more reason to have that kind of effect in their magic. Geomancers usually didn’t.

Stepping into the last arena Akeya looked at her opponent. She was fairly large, imposing, and looked ready to fight. She had a somewhat tribal appearance, wearing fur armour and having dark green tattoos decorating her exposed skin, both simple and complex at the same time. Her hair was as raven black as Akeya’s own, even if it only reached to her shoulders whereas the half dragon’s hair came all the way past her waist. Akeya entered a low crouch. Like with the fire mage she would have to rely on speed here. If the woman entrenched herself with stone barriers accessing her would become difficult. As for the woman she held her hands outstretched, her fingers forming strange symbols as she prepared her magic.

As soon as the match started the geomancer lifted one hand and lowered the other, and Akeya realized that this might become really tricky. The entire arena was lifted upside down, the woman firmly attached to what was now the ceiling while Akeya had to spread her wings and fly, heading straight for the woman. Another movement of her hands and a pillar erupted from below, which would collide with Akeya if she kept her current travel path. Well, time to see if this earth magic could hit the shadows. Slowing down Akeya waited for the pillar to fly right past her, then turned her hand into a shadow and punched the rock. She then cursed mentally. This geomancer was prepared for people who tried to avoid physical combat. Only the most difficult opponents survived for long here apparently.

Akeya didn’t have much time to think further about what to do, as the entire arena became alive. From all directions rocks flew at her, pillars rose up, and every time Akeya moved walls would be created to block her advance towards the woman. She wondered how the poison man had dealt with this. The biggest problem was that everything was upside down, and the geomancer looked comfortable standing on the ceiling. Maybe the poison man had been lying, but if he was Akeya hadn’t been able to detect a single hint of it. Maybe he had more tricks than just poison. But that wasn’t going to help the half dragon right now. She had to take care of this last enemy. Luckily there was one upside to this opponent, which most likely would turn into her downfall: she was constantly reshaping the battlefield, but that also resulted in lots of shadows as the source of light, a series of light Lachrima installed around the edge of what was usually the edge of the ceiling (to ensure that everything was always well-lit) couldn’t deal with all these new obstacles.

Akeya danced between the rocks and the earth as she went from shadow to shadow, constantly inching closer to the woman. The geomancer hid everything behind a thick dust cloud, but Akeya could sense the magic from both the mage and the earth she was controlling so she moved onwards. Since Akeya could fly she couldn’t be troubled by just shaking the ground or other tricks which required the target to be affected by gravity and standing on the ground, and other avenues of attack were also avoided or dodged. If necessary Akeya could also punch her way through the smaller attacks, and she was slowly getting closer even if it took a lot longer than she would have liked. The geomancer was apparently a patient woman, as she never tried to rush things and just kept up her pattern, although her attacks were coming faster and faster as Akeya got closer to her. But that was more likely to be because the geomancer had an easier time controlling the earth close by than that she was rushing.

Racing past a pillar which went all the way from the ceiling to smash into the floor Akeya dashed towards the geomancer, who was hidden behind a spherical barrier of stone. It must be nice, being able to attack while being completely shut off and actually have any kind of accuracy left. The amount of magic power that the woman had was certainly impressive, seeing how she had been changing the structure of the entire cavern for several minutes now with no sign of becoming tired. But now Akeya was going to be the one to finish this.

Or so she thought. Once she was close enough the barrier around the geomancer suddenly turned into a barrage of stones, too numerous and fast for Akeya to evade them all. And they were infused with magic so shadow form didn’t make them harmlessly phase through her. The half dragon grimaced as she was barraged. The attack wasn’t too strong, but she couldn’t dodge it. And then another pillar actually hit her, smashing her against one of the walls making Akeya gap. That hurt. A lot. Before she could do anything else more stone wrapped itself around her limbs, infused with magic so she couldn’t escape. She had been trapped. The half dragon struggled, but the stone grew bigger and tougher whenever she came close to breaking free.

The geomancer then began to relentlessly pummel Akeya with boulders and rocks and pillars, smashing against her over and over. The half dragon grimaced and grunted as she tried to figure a way out, her body quickly becoming bruised and bloodied by this torture. The only reason she hadn’t lost consciousness yet was because she was extraordinarily tough due to her draconic nature, and even then she realized that her consciousness was getting shady, spots floating in front of her eyes. This wasn’t going to kill her, but if she was knocked out cold the geomancer would win. And the Lachrima would be lost. Which Akeya absolutely wouldn’t allow. It wasn’t even like she wanted the Lachrima to keep it out of the hands of humans. The Lachrima was a source of power for anybody who could use it, and it was by far not the only one out there. It wasn’t a noble reason, or a respect for her heritage, that made Akeya so determined to get it.

The reason she wouldn’t let anybody else have it is because she herself wanted it, and that was the only reason she needed. She wanted it, so she would get it. It was hers because she had decided that it was hers. She was as possessive as any dragon was of their hoard, and this Lachrima. Was. Hers.

The half dragon’s eyes opened as she growled, a growl which wasn’t properly human. It was a threatening growl given by dragons when they know there’s something in the area which had better make itself scarce before said dragon decided to have a light snack. Anger flowed through Akeya’s veins, no, raw fury. For anybody watching the fight it would appear as if the dragon woman trapped and beaten suddenly turned into a giant shadow dragon, growling and snarling. This inspired fear in many, and made the geomancer stop her relentless assault as she tried to figure out what was going on. She could still feel the dragon woman trapped, but she couldn’t deny the fact that she was pretty sure that there was now an actual dragon. This instinctual feeling wasn’t something she could deny or doubt. But the conflicting information confused her, so she became wary as she prepared herself for what might happen next.

What happened next is that Akeya snapped, and as she snapped so did her restraints. The stone shattered as shadows gathered around her hands and feet and formed into claws which ripped right through the stone, and after that Akeya surged forwards like an arrow released from the bow. The geomancer quickly prepared more barriers, but the half dragon smashed right through them with the shadow claws and her mighty tail. She still moved around them whenever possible, but if the geomancer forced her hand she would just tear the rock and the earth to pieces. The geomancer now became alarmed as she prepared another large assault, but suddenly her opponent became considerably faster, so fast that the geomancer couldn’t keep up as suddenly the spherical barrier surrounding her was ripped apart and the beaten and bloodied dragon was there, tearing open the geomancer’s flesh and breaking her bones in retaliation.

The fight didn’t last much longer than that, both the participants heavily injured. Honestly the only reason Akeya was still capable of fighting was because her pride, arrogance and fury were making it impossible for her to lose consciousness right now. She had only shown a single opening to the geomancer and it had already turned into this. It was an embarrassment and a disgrace, even if she eventually won. Several of her bones were broken, and she was in no state to do anything else at this point. If the poison man really had only given up because he had thought breaking through the geomancer’s defences would take too much energy he was quite the dangerous fellow.

But that was all over now. Akeya limped towards the cavern in which she would get her reward. And so would the others, although for some of them it would have to wait until they woke up and recovered from their last fights. The ceremony wasn’t one that Akeya really cared for, standing there waiting for it to be over. By now every part of her body hurt, and she should see a healer for her wounds. But first she would take that Lachrima and finally use it. When the thing was offered to her Akeya nearly snatched it out of the offering hands, looking at it and inspecting it with suspicion. It was a rather small object, spherical but actually consisting of many, many facets. It was dark, but like a dark crystal, the only reason that it wasn’t reflecting the light being the fact that around it the air seemed darker. The magic inside felt familiar to Akeya, attractive even. It was the same as her own magic, and it called for her. The tournament had been a true challenge, especially the last fight, but now she finally had what she came for.

Without any further ado, or listening to what others might still be saying, Akeya threw the Shadow Dragon Slayer Lachrima inside her mouth and swallowed it, feeling the stone begin to dissolve almost as soon as it touched her tongue.

The effects were nearly instants. Akeya blinked as suddenly her body was overflowing with magic power, her wounds healing at a ridiculous pace as she felt omnipotent for just a moment. And then the moment was gone, but she still felt incredibly powerful. Shadows poured from her entire body, and when she looked at her body she saw that the midnight blue scales which normally only covered part of her were rapidly multiplying to cover her entire body. Further inspection revealed that her body was rapidly becoming more draconic, until what was standing there was a humanoid dragon with midnight blue scales and emerald eyes, looking at her own claw in wonder. She had never realized that this was to be the result of becoming a Third Generation Dragon Slayer, even if she was already a somewhat unique case. The magic was overflowing and she actually wasn’t sure if she could control it. However all her wounds and exhaustion had been removed, so she was in a good condition to experiment.

Although first she’d have to do something about the fact that everybody in the room was panicking. And showing her plenty of hostility. Apparently her turning into an anthropomorphic dragon all of a sudden was enough cause for them to see her as a monster, as even the people who had organized the event were alerting the guards. Akeya scoffed at that. Those people wouldn’t be able to get in her way. She doubted anybody here could do anything. The amount of sheer power she was feeling was making her somewhat giddy, or at least enthusiastic and eager to try it out. And there were the first people for her to try it out on, the guards which ran towards her with anti-magic seals and chains. That might have worked better if making it impossible for Akeya to use her magic would get rid of the effects the magic was having on her body.

Akeya disappeared, reappearing next to a guard. Without any hesitation or ceremony she kicked him hard enough to make him smash into the other guards, toppling all of them. After that the dragon disappeared again, appearing right behind several people in the cavern and tapping them before disappearing again. She wasn’t going to kill anybody, but anybody who looked ready to fight would find that suddenly their arms were broken, or they were quickly knocked out, or they were overwhelmed with darkness so they could see, feel, hear, smell or taste anything as they floated in endless oblivion… Akeya kept going, nearly grinning as she was being fully controlled by the magic right now. No matter how much she did, no matter how much she jumped from one shadow to another, no matter how often she turned the shadows into equipment and other objects with which to subdue the masses she didn’t feel her magic power go down even a bit. This couldn’t possibly be a permanent effect. If it was then Shuhei would be even more of a monster than he already was. Maybe this was what they called Dragon Force? Akeya had actually never entered it before, but it was described as a status in which you had nearly endless power and never felt tired until it ended.

Wait, if she felt tired at the end she might have to leave before it ended. She didn’t know how long that would take, so she didn’t waste any more time. Flowing into a nearby shadow Akeya disappeared, leaving the award ceremony a mess with no real culprit to target. One of the few there who wasn’t either fleeing or showing hostility towards the winner of the tournament, which was how he managed to avoid being affected by this turn of events, was a man who wore only pants, had tanned skin, dark brown hair and pale eyes. And he was smirking as he saw what had happened. Honestly he hadn’t expected exactly that, but he was very glad that instead of trying to take the Lachrima for himself he had helped that half dragon get it. Letting any of his enemies have it would give them a lot of fighting power, and if he had it himself the half dragon most likely would have made things difficult for him. It had been worth keeping the Lachrima from finding a permanent owner before the new Rising Star came along and took it with him. She had assimilated it pretty much immediately, which meant that he no longer had to worry about it unless she was captured and it was forcibly extracted. Somehow he doubted that would happen any time soon.

A shadow flitted across the landscape, heading towards the East faster than any public vehicle could possibly hope to keep up with. It only became faster and faster, until it was already moving across the glittering lake which surrounded one of the biggest human settlements in Fiore, Clover Town. It still wasn’t known if the hill that the guild hall was located on had always been there, or if some mighty mage had pulled the hill, or possibly even the entire island, from the bottom of the lake to serve as his new home. The shadow turned into an anthropomorphic dragon the colour of midnight, with glowing emerald eyes which were by now only partially hidden behind a blindfold. She flew over the town and landed on the roof of the guild hall, staring up at the sky. The moon was becoming thinner. It could no longer be called a half moon.

Akeya had become a bit calmer as she travelled back to Clover Town. It was once again night, luckily enough, although she had the feeling that right now whether it was day or night didn’t matter that much. The Dragon Force was slowly ending, she could feel it ending, her body slowly returning to normal. She would have to reveal what she had done at some point though. In hindsight she had acted very sloppily and clumsily at the end there. There was now quite a large portion of the Fiore underground which wouldn’t have fond memories of her. She would have to go back and make sure that didn’t become an issue. However right now she had more pressing matters.

The Dragon Force was ending, but the magic was still overflowing. It was rather tough to control, as whenever she tried to turn the shadows into a claw the claw became a lot bigger and rougher than she wanted it to be. She would have to make sure that she made the powers of the Lachrima her own, and that she had as absolute control over them as she had control over her own body and her own magic. Crossing her legs Akeya began to meditate, trying to take hold of all that magic and stabilizing it, refining it and returning it to become a natural part of her body. As it was it was too rough, too difficult to control.

It was a difficult task, as there was just so much raw power flowing out. Her body felt somewhat strange now that she had taken in the Lachrima. She really couldn’t continue like this. Akeya frowned as she closed her eyes and focused even more, studying all the changes to herself and her magic and then working on refining them. She had to keep the magic from just escaping her body, forcing it to follow the usual pathways that her magic should follow in her body. The magic was too rough, so she had to do the mental equivalent of combing it, sieving it, pulling it apart, removing the knots, repeating this over and over. Refine, improve, control, refine, improve, control… A tedious task, but an important task as well. This magic as it was she couldn’t control, and since it was part of her body that meant she couldn’t use magic at all until she solved this. It was probably a good thing that she had already been quite dedicated towards absolute control over herself and training towards that end, because otherwise this could have turned into a bigger problem. As it was it was still hours before Akeya felt that the magic had become stable enough for her to use it, and even then it was still nowhere near what it needed to be.

On that rooftop Akeya sat the entire night, cultivating her newfound powers and refining them. The Lachrima was now a part of her as sure as her arm or her tail, or her unusual focus. Like any body part she had to train it. She couldn’t just do this in one night. However she could make a good start. As she refined and cultivated she thought about what this meant. So far as she could see she was now the closest to being a dragon out of anybody. No other Dragon Slayer was as close to being a dragon as her. Shuhei had already been a Third Generation White Dragon Slayer for pretty long, but he was still a lot more human than she was. But her blood was that of a dragon, from her family and their ancient past. Her soul was that of a dragon, and the reason why she had never been able to figure out. She had just grown up, and suddenly it turned out that her soul was a dragon soul, instead of a human one. It hadn’t ever really done much besides make her mindset distinctly different from that of a human. Well, that and set her on this road of becoming a dragon. Her mind was that of a dragon. Her magic was that of a dragon, even if the humans called it Dragon Slayer magic because they all thought that it was magic created to allow humans to fight dragons, instead of being magic created by dragons and taught to humans. And now her body had become even more like that of a dragon than it had already been. Akeya believed that Dragon Slayer Lachrima were a natural part of any dragon. Any dragon was always a Third Generation Dragon Slayer. By making that Lachrima a part of herself she had taken the next step.

And it was the first step she had taken which had absolutely no way back. Whedalsin had told her that if she continued down this road she would turn into a dragon, and that at some point there would be no going back. And Akeya had said that she was fine with it. And now she was at that point. There was no going back. Akeya’s fate was now completely sealed: she would become a dragon. The Lachrima had been the last part. Without the Lachrima she could possibly still have taken a different part if she stopped using her current magic, found something else. Now that was no longer an option. The magic was now a part of her. A permanent part. She couldn’t let go of it any longer. As she trained and continued to become stronger her magic would develop, her body would develop, her mind would develop, her blood would develop, her soul would develop. And that would all develop towards becoming a dragon, slowly making her lose every single piece of her that used to make her human.

There was no way back.

But Akeya didn’t feel sad about this. She wasn’t one of those people who was inclined to be sad about decisions made. She wasn’t forced into this. She might have been given the nudge by how she was born and how she grew up, but she had never in any way been forced. This had been her own decision. She had seen the possibilities, carefully considered them, and this was the path she had set herself on. She had no reason to feel sad about this. It might have been interesting to know what her other possibilities could have been like, but that was always a curiosity no matter what you did. And it wasn’t like she didn’t still have a lot of possibilities and opportunities in the future. She could no longer turn away from becoming a shadow dragon. A shadow dragon like Whedalsin, the one who had warned her but at the same time had offered her the opportunity. But that just meant that all her possible futures were ones that she would travel down being a dragonkin and eventually a full dragon. There were still many things which could happen in the future.

There was no way back. But there was no reason for there to be one.

Akeya stood up, seeing that the sun was rising. She pulled her blindfold down so it covered her eyes properly once again, then hesitated and pulled it back up. She watched as the night was washed away by the day, the dark blue sky turning pink, orange, and then back to bright blue as the day began to make itself comfortable. It was a beautiful sight to behold. She wasn’t yet done making the powers gained from the Lachrima settle down, but it would do for now. She could continue training from now on, and it would work out. She firmly believed that. It wasn’t optimism with no basis. It wasn’t false hope. It was her confidence. She knew that she could and would do it. It was part of her path in life. But right now she wanted to do something else. She could call it a desire to celebrate, although not everybody would agree with her method.

Jumping down Akeya closed her eyes before spreading her ways and slowing her fall, landing in front of the guild hall. Stepping inside Akeya slipped inside a shadow and headed for the living quarters, immediately heading for one in particular. Once in front of it she turned back into her physical form, opened the door, and shut it behind her as she stepped inside.

”Hello.”