Grey-Out

The Dreamscape Pod felt alien around her Ascended body. Well, it had been a long time since she had been in any pod at all. Even her regular pod was bound to feel strange. 

But the sensation only lasted a moment before her consciousness faded.

"Enter Dreamscape?" 

"Yes," Noble focused on the appropriate answer. 

Her vision darkened as the duelist found herself in the starry void. Noble barely had time to double-check that her armor and Fraudulent Facade were in place before the voice of the Dreamscape invaded the darkness. 

"Welcome, Queen Bee!" The voice boomed. 

Noble resisted the urge to cover her ears. 

"Please, choose the dream of your liking." 

'Very interesting.'

Many of the options were greyed out, inaccessible to her except as a spectator.

There was only one reason that Noble could think of for this change.

The Dreamscape could tell she was an Ascended!

While the spelltech didn't give away her identity or location, it still needed to make a copy of her for the augmented reality. It replicated her Aspects, Abilities, and Memories. Of course, it mirrored her rank as well!

The grey options seemed like a challenge to her. She tilted up her chin defiantly.

'Hmph, after all my time as a Champion, they suddenly want to keep me out.'

Her pride almost got the better of her, but then the runes in front of her shimmered slightly.

The arenas weren't completely inaccessible then. It was just discouraged.

Noble suspected she could select the option and enter the arena as a combatant anyway, but she decided not to try.

There was no reason to anger the Saint of the Dreamscape by going against his recommendations. Somehow she didn't think he would feel kindly toward a Master who came in, slaughtered everyone without an ounce of effort, and then left when the arena was empty.

Anyway, she hadn't come here for herself but for her children. And they wanted to see Helios in action.

Searching through the options, Noble selected the area for Echo encounters.

The shimmering runes disappeared. Noble blinked.

"Select Echo."

"Oh…" For a moment Noble thought she had done something wrong, but it seemed she hadn't met the requirements to continue.

Beside her, Helios materialized in the endless void.

"Echo selected. Name Echo?"

Noble was suddenly glad her children had forced her to pick something before coming. While she could decline the option to name or simply call it a Symncus, it felt wrong. 

"Helios," she answered. 

"Helios is being added to the Dreamscape Echoes registry."

There was a long pause. 

"Registry updated. Name: Helios. Weight Class: Medium."

'Ah, so that's how it works.' Noble wasn't sure how they divided up Echoes or even if they did.

She suddenly felt like she should have done more research before diving in.

A second thought crossed her mind. 

'Wait, Medium Weight Class?' She glanced at the massive creature that could comfortably carry at least a couple of people. 'What size constitutes large?' 

Before she could muse for long, a whole new menu of choices that Noble had never seen was displayed before her vision.

Some of the arenas were duplicates of the human duelists, but others were completely new and foreign. 

Noble looked through all the options. 'Where is it...' 

For a moment she thought maybe Rain hadn't known about the weight classes and had chosen the wrong one. But then she spotted it. 

'There!'

The void around her faded. 

"Queen Bee and Helios have entered the Field of Flowers." 

All around Noble, a plain of lush grass formed for as far as the eye could see. There were no spectators to be seen, real or imaginary. If anyone was using their Dreamscape pod to watch the match, they were invisible to the naked eye. 

What was visible though, were the half-dozen duels already in progress. 

Each pair had their own grassy knoll with a thick patch of flowers surrounding it. If not for the carnage of the Echoes, the place would have been idyllic. 

"This is too pretty to be an arena. What's with the lovely poppies all over the place?" 

The blood-red flowers covered the landscape in a crimson blanket, looking like a royal robe.

To Noble's left, two Echoes were in the final throes of what must have been an epic clash. The large beetle with chitin armor was paired against a sand monster with particles like a razor's edge.

The beetle barreled through the sandy creature, but it dissipated and materialized behind its opponent, unaffected by the charge.

The beetle let out a hideous hiss and a small arc of electricity flew between its wiry antennae.

But before the insect coils make another strike, the sandman faded into the ground. Noble looked at the creature's handler with a keen eye. His confidence and cool demeanor suggested he had not decided to give up. Sure enough, his emotions spiked a moment later.

'Here it comes.'

The beetle looked confused, searching for its opponent with six prismatic eyes. But it was looking for the sand monster in all the wrong places. It should have been looking…

Down!

The beetle and its master came to this realization a moment too late. Like a spike, the sand monster shot up from the ground in an attempt to impale the armor of the other beast.

The beetle hissed, bringing the pincher of his frontmost arm down to snap at the attacker. The sand smashed against the armor with a deafening crash, but somehow the chitin held.

That didn't stop the force of the hit from taking its toll. The beetle was knocked into the air at frightening speed.

Which wouldn't have been a problem, but unlike other beetles, this one did not have wings.

It sailed in an arc and landed far outside the circle, compressing a large portion of the field of poppies.

'Interesting maneuver, but it would even leave a scratch.'

Noble felt Helios tense.

Then her own eyes opened wide.

The flowers did not simply cushion the Echo's fall. They released a fine mist of yellow pollen that clung to the smooth black surface. The beetle struggled against the yellow mist and then grew still. 

A strange sound like a snort came from the wild beast. No...it was a snore. 

The beetle was fast asleep!

"Tankmaster and Tanktastic have been eliminated. Gaspda and Sandslayer have won!" 

The beetle and its owner, Tankmaster, disappeared in a rain of sparks. 

"What just happened?" 

From the looks of it, being expelled from the ring here meant automatic elimination. It was a bit like the cloud arena that Noble had competed in with Fireshing long ago. 

'Stay in the ring,' Noble sent the mental note to Helios. He looked at her and nodded. 

Good. Noble hadn't actually tried to send a command to the creature before, so she was relieved to know that it did not need to be audible. That was helpful. 

The ring around Sandslayer and his master opened wide as the flowers seemed to run apart to create a wide path. The moving plants circled behind them, forcing the pair to rejoin the master ring.

Noble stared as the victor was ushered back from his match with a confident grin.

His eyes fell on Noble and one word escaped his lips. "You!"