Game’s Dogma

‘I’ve found the way to escape!’

Val stood up, waved its arms merrily, and howled in a cheerful tone. Drako Yau pointed at the crater he just smashed on the ground and said, ‘Look.’

Val had to kneel to see the craters. Still, no matter how hard it looked at them, it had no clue what Drako Yau was trying to say. Val shrugged at him to show its confusion.

Drako Yau smiled. ‘Right, it’s normal that you can’t tell the difference. If my guess isn’t too far off, this place is a weird world. Simply put, the laws of the ordinary world don’t apply here.

‘No hunger, endless energy, limitless stamina, auto-repairing ground… This is an independent space, disconnected from the outer world—an enclosed chamber!’

Drako Yau’s eyes glowed as he spoke.

‘But this chamber also has its limits. I struck the ground twice, once using thirty per cent strength and eighty per cent for the other. The ground took longer to repair itself for the latter.’

Val the Balrog thought for a moment before suddenly growling while making signs with its arms. Drako Yau shook his head and said, ‘No. Of course it’s going to take longer to repair because the ground’s more damaged, but it’s more than just that.

‘Apart from the degree and area of damage dealt, the time it took for the space to gather energy for repairs is also longer. In other words, the greater the damage, the more difficult it is to repair. Then there’s only one way to escape.’ He gripped his spear tightly and continued, ‘Sheer force! We’ll shatter this space with sheer force so it cannot repair itself and break out of it!’

Val rolled its eyes and shrugged, seemingly unmoved, to which Drako Yau laughed bitterly.

‘At least there’s something to aim for. There’s hope and a chance now.’

He knew why Val wasn’t too thrilled. Breaking through with force sounded simple, but not so much when put into action. Just how much force would it take to shatter and break apart the space’s equilibrium?

Still, there was hope. The most terrifying thing was despair and the thought of being trapped there in all eternity. Even without fighting to death, he’d probably die from loneliness.

The Balrog, still somewhat distressed, chatted with Drako Yau.

It turned out that the Balrogs awakened to their powers over time, using centuries as a unit. The strongest Balrog clan would awaken once every century until they reached the ‘Tenth Awakening’, which was their limit. Upon their ‘Eleventh Awakening’, in other words, a millennium, they’d die and become a soul before reincarnating into a new Balrog after a century. As such, the Balrogs were few in numbers but were extremely powerful beings.

Val had only reached its First Awakening. There wasn’t any shortcut for them to become stronger apart from waiting for their awakening either.

Suddenly, Drako Yau asked, ‘Val, how well do you think I am at fighting?’

Val made a hmph, growled and bared its teeth, then turned silent. In terms of power and speed, Drako Yau was ten times worse than it was. Even so, he had been able to fight toe-to-toe with Val for an entire year; apart from the limitless usage of his internal forces, combat technique also played a major role.

The Balrogs had always been blessed with innate powers, thus they had no need for techniques. As the saying went, immense strength trumped great technique. A Balrog at its Tenth Awakening could shatter any of Gandalf’s great magic with a single punch.

However, that saying only applied when one party had utterly overwhelming strength. Flame Form had greatly enhanced Drako Yau’s body, covering for a part of their large disparity in physical capabilities, and that brought technique into play.

Drako Yau had inherited the old geezer’s three secret teachings: spearmanship, Dragon Seeker, and Empyreal Dragon Step. Whenever he used Empyreal Dragon Step, Val couldn’t hit him with its whips no matter how it changed their trajectories mid-flight.

‘Hey, what about I teach you combat techniques so you can become stronger?’

Val was surprised; this would never happen among Balrogs because they were all independent entities. Though they’d elect a king among themselves, even the king didn’t have the authority to seize another Balrog’s secret techniques, nor would it teach others its skills because it lowered its chances of succeeding as king.

Before Val could answer, Drako Yau already said in excitement, ‘Alright! Come, follow me!’

Just like that, Drako Yau started teaching Val the Balrog his skill, Dragon Seeker. It was an arm-oriented skill well-suited for Val.

Every day, Val got exhausted from the training—not physically, but mentally. For the Balrogs who had always fought instinctively, such ancient oriental technique was way too complicated.

Dragon Seeker was a secret technique the old geezer created after gathering and integrating various palm, punching, claw and finger techniques from different schools and styles. Even Drako Yau had difficulty comprehending it at first.

Two months went by, and Val finally had a brief grasp of Dragon Seeker’s basic forms. However, Drako Yau interrupted its thoughts and made it forget the forms just when it memorised them.

‘What we should learn aren’t rigid techniques, but the idea behind them. It should become part of your mindset, your instinct, so that you can use the right techniques smoothly when the enemy strikes. There’s no need to remember skillsets.’

Drako Yau then started sparring with Val. They sparred according to an ancient ruleset, ‘Inch Stoppage’. During the spar, they couldn’t contact one another and must stop their attacks one inch from their opponent. It not only tested one’s strength and speed, but also proficiency and control.

Val only started getting a hang of the ruleset after a month. Before that, there were several occasions when it couldn’t pull back in time and smashed its fist right into Drako Yau, which was a rather painful experience. Still, Inch Stoppage was the only way for them to practice Dragon Seeker because Val was simply too large. Drako Yau couldn’t practice as he had with the old geezer.

Another year went by, making it the second year they were trapped within the weird space.

Whoosh!

A gush of air brushed past Drako Yau’s face. He swept the unimportant thoughts out of his head and quickly turned around to evade Val’s punch. The punch reached its end and turned into a fiery claw.

The man and demon duo exchanged blow after blow. They gave it their all albeit not touching one another. The great difference in size also didn’t stop them from sparring thanks to the ruleset. After a year, they both could determine when an attack landed and would end the round whenever they knew they were hit.

This was their only form of entertainment, their only game.

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