Fuel for the Fire Within

[Tobias Stalt]

Closed to Cards of Fate

Bereft of a proper breeze, the room hung silent for two long heartbeats. Tobias reached up with a rigid arm and tore a blade free from the neck of a limp corpse. The body crumbled. "No good," he muttered. Blood gushed up from the wound like a fountain, and the room blossomed with extravagant light. "Too slow."

Before the cadaver touched the ground, Tobias dropped low and grunted. Both his arms shuddered beneath heavy impacts as two new enemies kicked at him. They had not been there a second before. "The spell on this room is faster than my response time." Despite his apparently flawless defense, he wore an expression of dissatisfaction.

Both his opponents came in perfect unison. Blows fired from any direction at random, but Tobias remained vigilant. "One..." he counted quietly as he took a slow step backward. The enemies halted for less than a second. "Two." His gaze perceived their timing, but they were on him before he could raise a blade. "...damn."

From his mouth, a rain of blood peppered the dirt. Tobias staggered away from the flurry of blows with a limp, but recovered quickly. "Tobias Stalt," the amorphous, deep voiced avatar intoned, "this setting is not advised for any of the Hierarchy's members, and absolutely inadvisable for non-Tarot personnel. We appreciate your tests of the system, but..."

He held up a hand. "Please," he responded softly, "I am not badly wounded. I can continue."

"This is the fifteen hundred and thirty eighth failed attempt on your part," the artificial entity retorted, "we would advise that you seek medical attention immediately, as no other member of personnel has attempting this training more than once."

"Fifteen hundred and thirty eighth?" he mouthed. "Well, I'm far from finished with this attempt," he stated flatly. "Until I am down, the simulation continues, correct?"

"Unless I freeze it, as I have currently, yes." The voice sounded almost hesitant, as though Tobias had caught it in a breach of protocol. "I thought it best for your well being, Mister Stalt. Mistress Stevvains expressed a great deal of concern about your dangerous proclivity toward unsafe acts."

"I understand," Tobias sighed with a nod, "and I appreciate the concern, but I fear that I cannot be held back by safety constraints. Continue the simulation until I am unable to complete it."

"...as you wish, mister Stalt." The toneless response did not betray any sort of emotion. Tobias stared toward the edge of the room, a soft sigh on his lips. "Refreshing latest checkpoint... ah... brace for penalty condition."

Tobias closed his eyes. A breath filled his lungs, and in the next instant, his world was pure heat. Arcs of lightning jumped across his flesh and his nerves jolted with intensity. Tobias clenched his fists and bit back the scream that threatened to empty his lungs.

Five seconds, he told himself. Four. Three...

The twin assailants shivered with anticipation as the spell began to lessen around Tobias, who twitched as his body acclimated to the pain. "Each time the simulation causes minor damage to you," the voice reminded Tobias, "it sends a burst of high intensity energy through your body. This amperage is..."

"Enough," Tobias whispered. He held tightly to both blades. "Continue."

"Very well."

[Cards of Fate]

Times were changing, and Vincent Cain was not sure he was ready.

The fallout from cleansing the Red Forest had been too much to process. The young man began to question his very place in the world. Nothing was normal anymore. Gone were the days of hiding in his library and studying for hours on end. His job longer required to only be the smartest man in the room, but also the most confident. Before people would only come to him for menial knowledge, but now the questions they asked held greater weight.

Before, nobody directly answered to him. Now everyone in the base was acting differently towards him. The moment he walked into the room people would stop what they were doing to address him. He was no longer the friendly scholar they could all approach, but their leader.

It drove him mad.

Leona was treating him seriously, his every action being scrutinized by her ever watchful eye. Every second slipped away from him before he could harness it. Hour upon hour marched into the gaping jaws of responsibility and duties. Lessons teaching Stella common had to be passed to a new teacher, his quarters had been changed, and his entire previous life he knew seemed to be tearing apart at the seams.

The only time he can spare for himself was in the darkest hours of the night. When candles burnt low, and everyone else slept carefree in their beds, the leader of the Hierarchy trained. However, with no partner to spar against the scholar was forced to compete solely with himself. He would go for midnight runs through the red forest, the scene of his worst injury, forcing himself to face the fear that his assailant was still lurking in the shadows. He was a stronger than before, and was looking for a rematch against the mysterious hunter in the woods who had crippled him once before. Afterwards he would descend to the training rooms under the base and begin his work-out regimen.

Today he was not alone.

Sitting in the center of the stadium sized cavern, one Tobias Stalt sat covered in his own blood, his ragged breaths sending convulsions through his chest and echoes through the room. The scholar, leaning on the entry portal simply raised an eyebrow and cocked his head to the side as he crossed the threshold.

“Having fun over there?” the scholar inquired smoothly as he closed the gap between the two. Tobias let out a loud snort before he lifted his amber gaze to match the scholars sapphire eyes.

“Tons.” He spat, a glob of blood flew from his lips, landing with a sickening splat before Vincent’s boots.

“I see…” Vincent muttered as he glanced around. “You were playing with the training module were you?” he paused. “Did you finally master the art of kung-fu?

“What the fuck is kung-fu, Vincent?” The mercenary growled as he struggled to his feet. Vincent offered a hand to his friend, and Tobias eyed it slightly before snatching it and letting the scholar pull him to his feet.

“Well you see…” Vincent began before shaking his head. “Never mind, you wouldn’t understand. Leona would have laughed her ass off at that one.”

Tobias an eyebrow at the scholar, “You sure about that one?”

The two both let out slight chuckles as Vincent glanced over his companions wounds. “Maybe we should both go take a dip in the hot spring…”

Tobias chuckled once more “I would be down for that, but you don’t come with the proper equipment to ride the S.S Stalt.”

“Stuff it, the water will help mend your wounds you shitfaced cockmongler.”

Tobias opened his mouth to say something, but was too stunned for anything to escape his agape lips.

“That’s what I fucking thought.”