16 Royal Disputes (2/2)
It sounded like some kind of battlefield, with both humans and spirits colliding in an epic struggle to destroy each other. Then a bush rustled to Darius' left. Another one to his right. His mouth immediately turned dry as he scanned his surroundings intently. The trees immediately began to rustle, Darius tried to look into the canopy but saw nothing.
Then with a wild howl three spirits jumped at him from the front and both sides. They had flat, hideous faces and each had four arms with two hind legs. Darius didn't have the time to be surprised at how far he had jumped or his reaction time. He was to be busy running for his life as three spirits became six which became twelve. They looked like hairless, eyeless monkeys as they chased Darius though the jungle. For a human they found themselves struggling to keep up with his incredible speed. But no matter, they were driving him straight into their trap.
Darius ran through the dense greenery, various thorny bushes cutting his arms and legs as he struggled to run from the spirits that pursued him diligently. He could hear more of them singing from treetop to treetop. Howling as a means of communication with each other. Although spirits didn't have eyes, they could see far better than any human. They could sense the world around them.
Finally they had Darius just where they wanted him. A large cliff with a drop of about two hundred meters or so. Darius saw this but it was too late. He only had one of two choices; turn and face the monkey spirits or be pushed off the cliff. Darius made his choice, as he reached the edge he stopped to turn around when one of the spirits sprung up, disappearing for a moment and then re-materializing on top of Darius. Staggering back he tripped and fell of the cliff face. The spirit clung on to him as it savagely attempted to bite his throat with its incredibly large canines.
Both plunged into the lukewarm water of the river, being swept away by the current. The spirit was relentless, Darius used the shaft of his hammer to keep it away from his throat as it did everything it could to bite and claw at him. The creature had been struggling and using its weight to try and drown Darius when it suddenly stopped.
It clearly knew something he didn't. Darius looked back for a moment and before he knew it he was falling incredibly fast of a waterfall. The spirit fell just after him. There was now some distance between the two of them and, seizing his chance, he twisted his body to begin spinning in the air, gaining momentum and with all the strength he could muster outstretched his hammer and hit the spirit with all he had.
A loud sound like thunder swept through the entire forest, causing all of the spirits and contenders to stop dead in their tacks. a single thought in their minds.
What was that?
The spirit's body was thrown up by the energy of the blow. While Darius' fall was only worsened. He fell into the water with a force that pulled him all the way to the bottom of the river bed, causing him to rather violently, hitting his head on the hard rocks below.
The Emperor leaned forward. ”Who...is this kid?” was all that came to mind for everyone who at that point was watching the screen intently. A much different thought went through Lionel's mind however as he kept repeating, ”Please be dead, please be dead, please be dead...” again and again to himself.
The feat of killing just one of the primate like spirits was nothing to be amazed by, in fact Darius having gone through so much trouble to defeat just one only went to show just how mediocre he was. What had piqued the Emperors interest in him was the way in which he did it. The amazing speed and agility he had displayed while fleeing from the spirits was incredible. Most people would have been quite easily caught. The boy was even able to outrun their short range teleportation, and even though Darius hadn't noticed this his lead had in fact been slowly increasing the distance between him and the primates, if it hadn't been for the cliff he would've easily outrun them all.
The next thing that had surprised them all was the power with which he had dispatched the spirit with as he fell from the waterfall. The shock-wave had been so powerful they could feel them from their room on the two-hundreth floor of the facility, through the formation used to create artificial jungle arena space. The brunt of the shock-wave was only felt by stronger characters, such as the Emperor himself. Little did the Emperor know that there was an old man who was also viewing the exam with much interest from far far away...