The horns and the drumbeats blasted my eardrums. The eerie sudden stop of the wind and rain suffocated me. I looked down at my feet and saw the endless drop below. I felt the vacuum of the space pulling at me. I swooned on my feet. The rope was so small. The man with the red eyes stood upon it effortlessly holding out his two swords beckoning me forward. The invisible drummers pounded on their drums ever faster and harder.

“Close your eyes.” Tootsie whispered sensually in my ear. I did. I had to. I wanted to block out the height just beyond my toes. I curled my toes into the soil trying to hold onto the last inch of ground I had before the rope. “Visit the tree,” she whispered again, “quickly now. Go there, see her.”

I breathed in deep through my nose and felt as if I fell upward. Mist surrounded me and I gasped. The darkness around me brightened into the ever dusk of the tree on the hill. She looked so beautiful now. With several branches blossoming little green buds. Her roots were so dark entering into the black soil. Moss grew around the trunk and the songs of invisible birds called down from her branches.

I rushed to her and knelt down at her base. I hugged her tight and thrust the anxiety of my soul into her mana. I showed her the image of the sandman on the rope. I showed her the great height just before me. I even revealed with my spirit my fault in the matter.

The spirit in the tree stirred and I felt it swirling within. I looked up as a flower formed into a fruit as big as a plum and as blue as the sun. It had rippling flesh like calm ocean waves. I reached out and gingerly touched the wonder. I felt a jolt of something from within. I quested with my spirit into the tree and felt it offering the fruit to me. So, I pulled the fruit and sank down against the trunk to bite into the soft juicy flesh. Sweet spray shot out both sides of my mouth and soaked my tusks.

It tasted tart and had a grit to it. It was hearty and chewy. I felt energy surging through my veins. I wondered if it had filled my mana, but the hunger overwhelmed my curiosity. I became like a ravenous wolf devouring the sweet spraying fruit. Wearing it on my face like a toddler with a bowl of spaghetti. I began to feel restless energy. I wanted to climb something. Run through fields. I could have done a backflip at the moment but as soon as I finished the last bite, I opened my eyes and I was standing at the end of the rope again drool dripping from my chin, head tilted down, glaring at the red-eyed Aurai.

Furious Feline D Grade unlocked

I was breathing heavily and my skin prickled. My biceps twitched involuntarily. I saw the gangster in my mind laughing. I saw his gun pointed at me. I saw the car overturned and the little girls’ scream as he grabbed her. I smelled the gasoline. I saw the gangster as my foe on the rope. Tootsie stung me on the side of my neck. I didn’t flinch at the sting. I didn’t take my eyes off of the swirling apparition of sand before me. My glowing yellow eyes bore into his red ones.

Furious Feline

I grinned as I felt liquid fire swell up my veins. My thighs twitched my four fists clasped shut and a low rumble climbed up out of my chest. I reached into my pouch and pulled out the dragon mask. It snapped on tight over the elephant skull helmet.

“Rage Orc.” Shia said.

I didn’t look I just felt the rhythm of the drums calling me to battle. I leaned forward about to pounce.

“Rage Orc.” Goar said from behind me. Then some of the men began to chant it. “Rage Orc, Rage Orc, Rage Orc.”

The man on the rope stepped back and raised his hands to the sky and a sharp cold wind began to blow against me. Lightning flashed but I could see by the surprise on the Aurai’s face that it only highlighted the hate within me. The anger in my eyes. I roared.

The drumming stopped as I charged the rope running toward the man. The horns stopped blasting. The Aurai on the other side of the canyon had all eyes on me. I saw Shia in the corner of my eye spreading out webs of terrible vines in the darkness as she sprinted across her rope. Mia looked like a squirrel running across a powerline closing the distance faster than both of us.

The falconites screeched and did a Lightfoot run that reminded me of the road runner. I heard the elves laughing as they ran across their silver daggers flashing with the lightning. Each of the Aurai stepped back another step and began to wave their arms. The wind tugged at me to the right, and I had to lean left. I was like a biker leaning into a turn. I felt the rope dig into the bottom of my foot as I leaned into the wind.

He turned his shoulders and held both hands out to the side and the wind died. I reached out with my upper arm and caught the rope before I fell into the canyon. I yanked myself forward, tossing my body back up onto the rope. I used the momentum to carry me back into a balanced run. He shifted the wind again and I watched for him to close off the gust again as I leaned into it. The second time he stopped the wind I recovered without falling.

A scream from one of the falconites made me turn my head. The Aurai to my right had run forward and sliced through him with the blue blade. The falconite fell slack and tumbled from the rope.

“Shia the respawn blade, now!” I screamed.

“There is no respawn from the Pneuma blade. Not for them.” Tootsie said. Her tone filled with angst. “Don’t let him get you with those.” She said as she flew to my side. I was only yards away from him now. He was grinning at me. I shot a glance at Shia on my left. She had more branches growing out from her sides with finger-long briars. She let out a battle cry and the Aurai before her tried to blow her off with a wind, but her feet vines sowed her to the rope. She stepped forward one step at a time, against the wind, a nightmare tree from a kid’s nightmares. Screaming like a banshee.

Mia was just beyond her leaping in and scratching wildly at her prey. She bounded off his head as he swung down his blue blade. I felt my toes curl around the rope as she was missed by inches. Cold rain and hail pelted my flesh again and I dropped the Shade Tail down at my side as I ran the last few steps.

The sky began to turn green overhead as the Aurai leaped up and raised both swords above his head. I lashed out with the blade at the end of the tail in a great arc. He curled into a ball and flipped over me. The blade grazed his back. He landed safe on the rope and glared at me. I blew and a bright flame rushed from my mouth. He flew backward from the flame his toes never touching the rope. He ran on air just inches above the rope.

I stopped blowing and jumped on the rope. He leaped backward and landed just inches from our side of the canyon. He looked back at the ground behind him then back at me. He was wary of our side of the canyon. What were the rules to this duel anyway? The don’t die part was obvious but what about crossing? I turned and ran for his side of the canyon. A look over my shoulder showed he was passionately following. I could see fear in his eyes.

I turned on him and blew once again. Flames bellowed out and heat licked up the rain between us. He twisted and fell to his left, but he did not fall from the rope he was attached to it somehow though his feet never actually touched. He was running on the bottom of the rope looking up at me as he crossed under me.

I whipped out the tail again and struck him in the ribs. The sand he was made of parted like the flesh of a man and blood spurted out just the same. He let out a cry of anguish as the blade struck what seemed to be bone. Then he pointed the blue blade at me, and lightning flashed out from it.

It was hot as glowing steel and bright, blinding. I stumbled back and teetered on the rope. I blinked and caught a glimpse of him. He was upright before me again. He slashed his blade, and I raised my arm in defense. I tripped backward as I raised my arm, and his blade barely caught my flesh as I fell back.

There was an other-worldly child scream in my head as the blade sliced a shallow wound in my flesh. I screamed with it. I could see its face. An Aurai baby, not even a toddler. Its scream was so terrible it made my skin crawl and my ears bleed. I landed on the rope with my back, and he landed between my legs about to slash down on me again. I was tipping from the rope to the side quickly loosing balance.

I blew out another hot blast of flame and he stepped back. He tipped to stand on the side of the rope. I slashed out with the Shade Tail again, this time I didn’t aim at him. I cut the rope between us. I reached back as the rope went slack and fell out from under me. I grabbed the rope and slammed ribs first into the wall. I still had my eyes on him as he swung away from me. The terror returned to his face again. I roared and climbed up the rope clutching the lip of the canyon with all four arms I launched my monstrous figure up onto their side and growled at the gaping faces. I was panting and drooling once again. A gust of sand whisked past that looked like a woman with a baby in her arms. Then the screaming and the running began.

I looked over to see both Shia and Mia step out onto the plateau. A glance behind me revealed the Elves cleaning blood from their blades. Their skin had grown darker. Their blue eyes were glowing. “Thank you for distracting them all,” Elridel said. “That one nearly had me.”

I looked across at my Aurai climbing the rope toward the men on the other side. What would he do for vengeance? I turned to the tower behind me and grabbed the nearest pole it stood on. With a grunt and throwing all my weight into it I tore the leg from the tower. I raised the heavy pole above my head and launched it with all my might. It was as if I turned a telephone pole into a spear. The blunt end of my spear struck him in the back of the head.

Auria Headwind killed 9432 exp

Level Up

His headless body tumbled from the cliff with a red splotch on the wall where his head had been. The screaming behind me intensified and Shia began to lash any that was near enough to reach with her long vines. Then she knelt and stabbed the respawn blade into the ground. I turned back to see Goar step up to the cliff first. He spread his arms wide and looked directly into my eyes as he fell forward off the cliff.