“That isn’t my problem. I made wagers for specific odds and payouts. I have slips. Have you no honor?”
The Gold-tier bookmaker crossed his arms and said, “Look, Bronze, if an event is canceled, we give refunds. We don’t roll bets over to completely new events with different competitors, half of which have dropped out already. You think I wanted this to happen? I’m taking a bath here. And you’re holding up the line. Make a bet or take a hike.”
“I made bets on me fighting in events I’m still fighting in. You’ll honor the bets you accepted from me at the odds and payouts stated on my slips.”
The bookmaker laughed and said, “No.” He poked John in the chest and added, “I won’t.”
The bookmaker stopped laughing as John’s fist smashed into his face, sending him flying backwards.
John was desperate. All his major bets had been invalidated. The new payouts for him winning weren’t terrible, but they weren’t nearly as favorable as his initial bets. And with the new mixed tiers, he now had to beat all the Platinums too.
Time was running short. There were only two events left before the Free-for-All started and John had three other bookmakers to visit and somehow convince to honor the old slips. It was the only way.
Tonight was the night. The anxiety John felt growing in him was almost palpable. He had to win big. He had to make enough to outfit himself. He didn’t even own a weapon. His whole reason for coming to the Kotown arena was being flushed down the drain. He wouldn’t tolerate it. He had to force the bookmakers to honor their original slips.
John went to kick the bookmaker and cursed as a brute appeared out of nowhere. The brute was only Platinum, but his tier didn’t matter. Peerless were obeyed without question. John held his kick and stood peacefully.
The brute, brows furrowed in anger as usual, asked, “What seems to be the problem here?”
Getting back on his feet, holding his bleeding face, the bookmaker pointed at John and said, “He broke the Empire’s Peace and assaulted me! Arrest him!”
When the dust settled, John wasn’t arrested. It made him feel little and like he couldn’t handle his own problems, but Alii Nani Victor interceded again. She made a deal all the bookmakers were happy with, even if John wasn’t.
If John won all his old wagers he held slips for, he stood to win two blue-green crystals and just under three dark-green crystals, worth about 456,000 clear crystals in total.
After being refunded, all of John’s wealth was split evenly between the bookmakers and went into a new bet. Just one bet. All or nothing. A bet that didn’t favor John at all.
If John won the Free-for-All and all the Duels for the Silver/Gold/Platinum grouping, he would receive 456,000 crystals. The four bookmakers would pay him a tenth of that amount each, totaling 40% of winnings. Nani Victor would cover the other 60%.
The bookmakers were all very happy. John wasn’t. He wanted to owe the Peerless nothing. Now he felt like he did. It wouldn’t bother him so much if the Alii hadn’t caused the situation requiring him to need her help. And now he was stuck with one all-or-nothing bet. He didn’t like his chances against those two Platinums at all. The Gold biosynth could be a problem too.
If the bookmaker had just honored the original slips, everything would’ve been fine. Now I’m indebted to one of my enemies and stuck with a bad bet. John added a new name to his vengeance list.
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The light was still black. It would turn orange for a minute before flashing green, indicating the event was about to begin. No buffs or any manifestations could be cast or in effect before the light turned white and the Free-for-All officially started.
John was in his battle-mind and had sent vital essence to enhance his speed. He was late to the event and missed the announcements. Or missed all of them but the late announcement stating he would be fighting in the Silver/Gold/Platinum grouping Free-for-All too.
The moon he was on, Fe En, had something called a retrograde orbit around its planet, Kliee.
There was an artificial day cycle for the city of Victor. Night had just cycled on and the pretend sky disappeared. John was able to see Kliee very clearly now. Seeing the giant planet so clearly and so close caused him a good deal of nervousness. He had never even imagined anything like his current view. He disliked it.
No Silvers had signed up for the new FFA. There were only two Golds, 12 Platinums, and John. Originally, there were way more entrants for each individual tier before they were merged.
John wished he had more time to study his opponents that were now evenly spaced out around the edge of the arena. The biosynths stood next to one another. He figured they’d be working together, and their proximity to each other proved him right.
After looking around at his opponents, John shook his head to clear it. He was suffering from information overload. He had learned too much too quickly and trying to keep it all straight in his head was making him lose focus.
The biosynths would be trouble. John believed another Platinum – a slim and graceful twig of a person he believed to be female wearing a hooded cloak that hid her face – would also be trouble. She was too cool, confident, and unworried. Her race was makan of the planet Maka. She had the [Forsaken] [Title] but also the [Favored] [Title].
John had been told he could often disregard the [Forsaken] [Title] when he felt it on someone. It was forced on too many people to be reliable. And the [Favored] [Title] was often a false flag.
The light turned orange. John prepared. He had to be quick. The light started flashing green. As soon as it turned white, he stepped into the arena while sending a ton of essence into manifesting his [Hide] spell. He was worried he’d be unbound and his best chance of winning spoiled, but he got the spell off without a hitch. He quickly began stealthing around the edge of the arena, close to the now active shield protecting the audience.
John hoped he’d be ignored. Most cultivators in the sector only saw four things as important factors – Tree, tier, grade of race, and tech. Four things John possessed little enough of. He was two tiers lower than the Golds, and three lower than the Platinums. He wore no tech and used an arena supplied weapon while everyone else was using their own weapons and equipment. Having some strange [Titles] wouldn’t save him.
As soon as the light had turned white, the Platinum biosynth took two steps into the arena while forming a shield-manifestation. The Gold biosynth stepped behind the Platinum, using him as a shield.
The female wearing the cloak disappeared from John’s senses and he couldn’t spare the attention to track her soul. He assumed she’d be going after the biosynth anyway.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
John felt a few Platinums have their manifestations unbound. Most stood in place and bombarded the biosynth. The biosynth ignored them all. He began casting his own manifestation, his eyes glowing orange as he raised one arm. The two arms of the Gold extended forward past either side of the Platinum’s torso, still using the Platinum’s body as a shield.
None of the manifestations that landed on the biosynth seemed to bother him in any way. Six orange lights flared out of his hand and four flared out of each of the Gold’s hands. At least one orange light streaked towards everyone in the arena, including John, even though he was hidden and stealthing.
John rolled forward behind the other Gold combatant, a member of a race called aomians. The orange lights began hitting the closer combatants, knocking them all off their feet and sending them tumbling backwards. Each light ended the competition of its target.
Two kaw’n combatants, the crab-hand race, jumped out of the arena before the orange light could reach them, using the arena’s shielding to protect themselves, but ending the contest for themselves too.
The Gold John hid behind took one orange light in the chest that knocked her backwards. As she was flying through the air, the light meant for John went directly into her open mouth.
Before the Gold landed, John knew she was dead.
The aomians controlled six worlds, and one of those worlds had been conquered by the Peerless not that long ago. John wondered if that aomian was a Kahaka. Then he realized female Kahaka wouldn’t be allowed to fight in the arena.
Accidents happened. The biosynths didn’t purposefully kill the aomian, but it meant they’d have to pay a hefty fine as a penalty for causing a death.
With a handful of unbinds and those orange lights, the biosynths took out nearly all their opposition in seconds.
For a moment, John thought only three combatants remained – the two biosynths and himself. He was still hidden in shadows and stealthing, so the biosynths shouldn’t have been able to target him. He hoped they just got lucky.
After quickly coming up with a desperate plan of attack, John felt a manifestation unbound in an area his orb-eye saw as empty. He turned his head and saw a soul rushing along the arena.
The soul turned into the makan, her cloak billowing behind her as she ran forward drawing two pistols and shooting essence so rapidly that John knew her [Swiftness] was higher than his own.
The biosynth didn’t flinch or budge. He tanked the pistol shots as if they were mosquito bites.
The makan, still charging forward, began deftly jumping over and dodging around a giant beam of orange light each biosynth channeled at her, avoiding it gracefully and by the skin of her teeth. The arena shook as those mighty beams hit the shield surrounding it. She flipped over a beam John was certain would get her and end the fight, and while in the air she threw a smoke grenade at the spot she’d land on and an essence-infused knife.
The knife thunked into the chest of the biosynth, ignored. The makan landed in a smoky area and jumped backwards, flipping high in the air while releasing a barrage of pistol shots. Every shot pinged harmlessly off the biosynth’s face. Orange light flared from all four hands of the two biosynths. Twenty lights streaked at the makan. She flipped and jumped and dodged around every one of them.
God Almighty, she’s amazing, thought John. How she so adroitly and gracefully avoided all 20 lights kind of made his heart flutter with the stirrings of love.
The whole time the makan had battled, she had been attempting to cast manifestations. The biosynths deftly unbound every one of them.
Then the makan’s luck ran out. A thick orange beam took her full in the face as she landed. Her face wasn’t pretty. What flesh could be seen was scarred horribly, and the rest was either covered by a metal mask, bioware, or cybernetics – John couldn’t tell which. Still, that beam couldn’t make her face uglier, though he thought her prowess and adroitness made her extremely appealing.
That orange beam ended the makan’s battle.
John, having crept closer to the biosynths while they fought the makan, was gripping the sword he borrowed from the arena in a tail stance pointed behind him. He had crept closer, but not nearly close enough to physically attack his foes. He wasn’t even certain his physical attacks could hurt the Platinum after seeing him tank everything else that was thrown at him without even blinking.
The biosynths easily unbound the manifestations of Platinums. They had kept the powerful makan shut down the whole fight. John knew he’d never get a manifestation off. He was still hidden in shadows. Nevertheless, three hands began to rise in his direction, but half lazily, as if they had already won and he was no risk to them at all.
John knew he stood little chance against the two remaining combatants, but little chance wasn’t no chance, and he was already on the very last steps of performing a powerful blade energy attack.
As the biosynths’ manifestations were releasing, a line of blue light cut deep into the chest of the Platinum, bowling the man backwards into the Gold, and knocking both combatants out of the arena.
Then it was John’s turn to dodge the streaks of orange light, thankful his energy attack interrupted his enemy’s manifestations and he only faced eight lights in total. He swatted two aside with his borrowed sword and managed to dodge most of the others. A few nicked him. One got him pretty good, but not good enough to matter.
John became the winner as soon as the biosynths were knocked out of the arena.
The stadium erupted in cheers. While casting his [Heal] manifestation, John sent the vital essence enhancing his speed to heal his badly injured calf. He was very surprised [Emergency Heal] hadn’t activated. He continued working on the injury with [Heal] again until he could put weight on his leg. He knew he’d be fine before the Duels began. He’d have a little time to meditate too.
While winning the Free-for-All was great, especially against foes like the makan and the biosynth, John knew the night was far from over. Many Golds and Platinums that didn’t enter the Free-for-All signed up for the Duels. Both the makan and the two biosynths were signed up for that event too.
The biosynths didn’t see John as a threat before. He won the Free-for-All due to that. A blade energy attack by a Bronze was a ridiculous notion. Blade energy attacks traveling the fifteen paces his had was a task most Diamonds would struggle with. Blade energy attacks traveling the fifteen paces his had while also being powerful enough to travel even further and still damage so much was ridiculous to consider. An absolutely impossible feat for a Bronze to accomplish.
John knew the biosynths would be gunning for him now.
The Platinum biosynth rose to its feet, a red welt across its chest, its emotionless face still somehow conveyed it wanted to murder John badly.
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Being the lowest tier to join the Duels, John was fighting first. There were many Silvers participating. As long as combatants put in an honest effort, even if they lost, they’d get a crystal reward much larger than the entrance fee, making the risk worth it.
Even with the tiers being grouped, the Duels would proceed as they usually did, starting with the Silver matches, then Golds, then Platinums.
Both combatants were given a card with two questions setting the terms of their duel.
The first question asked what winning condition was preferred – to the death, first blood, or submission.
The second question asked what method was preferred – full use of manifestations, self-manifestations and gear only, or no manifestations, including that from gear.
If one combatant selected to the death and another submission, the choice would be split, and first blood would be the term set.
In cases where one combatant selected first blood and another selected submission, seniority ruled and the choice of the combatant with the higher rank, or, if both combatants were the same rank, the first to achieve the rank, would be the term set.
If the combatants were at different tiers, the higher tier would dictate both terms. Participants could bow out if they found terms unacceptable.
The fine imposed on the biosynth for the accidental killing in the Free-for-All flashed over and over on the screen. Twenty thousand crystals. Four times the value of the crystals dropped by the victim. The organizers didn’t want accidents.
Not having cards to fill out, John was meditating to help heal his calf as the Platinum biosynth approached and interrupted him. The man, or thing, stood a couple heads higher than John, possessed a lithe build, and moved very gracefully despite his stationary performance in the Free-for-All. He was wearing a tight white skinsuit that covered everything from neck to toe, including the hands. It looked as if even his belt and pouches were part of the same skinsuit.
The man’s face was humanoid but was a deep red and looked plastic. He had completely yellow eyes. A thick helmet and massive bracers were the only pieces of armor he wore.
If the biosynth had a weapon, it was either hidden or in a storage device. The skinsuit had been repaired and there was no sign of the large welt across his chest. The thing’s lips barely moved as it said, “Withdraw or forfeit. If you stand against my ward, you will die. You have been warned.”
The man spun and briskly walked off before a reply could be given. John was just going to repeat the exact same thing he was told back to the biosynth, so he thought it was better he had no chance to reply. He noticed the makan looking at him and waved at her. She scowled and turned away.