The fights against the Silvers went as John expected. His opponents were only looking to earn some quick and easy crystals. Most completely forsook manifestations and set submission as the terms. He did his best to ensure the battles lasted long enough and were entertaining enough that his enemies didn’t get hit with the poor performance penalty.

The Gold Duels went largely the same. John faced no one of note and easily beat every match. He had a suspicion the organizers kept him from fighting the Gold biosynth for as long as possible.

When it was finally time for them to face one another, the terms chosen by the biosynth were full use of manifestations and to the death, just as John expected.

“The next Duel is between the final Gold facing the only Bronze competitor,” said the announcer over the speakers. “Though not a finale…let’s face it folks, this is the Gold finale. You’ve seen plenty of him tonight – holder of two unique [Titles] proving his prowess, Nether-tainted, winner of the Silver through Platinum Free-for-All, it’s John of Dirt, peak Bronze!”

The crowd’s cheering was polite though subdued. John wasn’t a crowd favorite. They didn’t like an uppity Bronze doing so well for so long. He assumed they wanted to see him get his comeuppance. People might love an underdog, but no one liked a Bronze refusing to learn his place.

“His opponent, a visitor to this sector, a biosynth, has performed astoundingly well in the Free-for-All and Duels. And, same as its opponent, it has no clan, family, or surname – Thirteen of Yellow, mid-high Gold!”

The crowd cheered much more enthusiastically for John’s opponent, named Thirteen. The announcer screamed, “Full manifestations and to the death!” Hearing the terms caused the crowd to go wild.

Thirteen was smaller than the Platinum biosynth. John thought there was something a little feminine about the Gold. It moved more gracefully than its higher-tier kin, and stood slightly differently, but would look at its kin and adjust to match instead of doing what came naturally.

Since the two biosynths seemed to have the same powerset, John would try and figure out how to beat the Platinum during this fight. He hoped he’d be able to get some manifestations off, but he doubted his opponent would let him.

Thirteen certainly wouldn’t allow John the time to build up a powerful blade energy attack again. He would have to get in close and win the old-fashioned way. He had to find the biosynth’s weaknesses and some way to physically damage foes able to shrug off attacks that would gravely injure others.

The light flashed green. John slipped into his battle-mind and made adjustments to his breathing and cycling techniques. He sent vital essence to enhance his speed. He knew [Hide] and stealth wouldn’t help. The biosynth saw right through the spell and his [Skill]. He had a different strategy.

As soon as the light turned white, John tried casting [Multi-Enhancement] while darting forward. His opponent was over three hundred paces away. He assumed there was a better chance of Thirteen ignoring a buff than an attack, or he would’ve tried for [Glyph of Plasma Barrage]. Thirteen easily unbound his buff, its eyes glowing along with its raised hands.

To test the waters, as John ran forward, he attempted to unbind the manifestation of Thirteen. He failed terribly. Thirteen’s hands flared and eight orange lights streaked towards John.

John twisted as he jumped, batting a few of the lights away with his blade. One light nicked his back as he contorted around it. He landed and dove to the side and the other lights rammed into the ground. As he got his feet under him, he saw eight more orange lights streaking towards him.

John sprinted forward and jumped directly at the lights. Since the Duel started, Thirteen had been casually walking forward as it released manifestations, slowly closing the distance with John as he barreled towards his enemy.

Both the orange lights and John streaked towards each other.

While looking at himself from above, John twisted and contorted around the lights, performing a feat of agility the likes of which he never had, knowing if the makan watched, she was impressed. The lights curved around to track John. He landed and rolled, standing right in front of Thirteen, swinging his sword mightily at his enemy’s head only to have it blocked by a bracer on an extended arm.

Just as the orange lights were about to hit John’s back, he dove downwards, and the lights battered into his enemy’s essence-shield as John also swept its legs out from under it. Except Thirteen somehow ended its own manifestation. The lights petered out before reaching the shield and the biosynth casually jumped over John’s sweeping leg.

The plastic face of the biosynth showed no emotion as it landed back on its feet. John tried casting [Glyph of Plasma Barrage]. The manifestation was unbound the moment it was initiated.

A sword blurred towards the waist of Thirteen. Both of the biosynth’s arms exited its essence-shield to trap the blade between its bracers, twisted, and shattered the blade.

John began to batter the essence-shield with his fists enhanced with blunt energy, an act that seemed to take Thirteen by surprise, as it did nothing to prevent his punches from landing. Throwing blunt energy so quickly meant it was extremely weak and did very little extra damage, but in this fight, every bit would count.

The essence-shield shattered. John’s fists began landing on metal bracers. His kicks were caught harmlessly, sometimes painfully, on Thirteen’s blocking legs, the blunt energy doing nothing to his enemy. For a solid couple of minutes, the combatants fought in unarmed combat as the crowd cheered, limbs flying so quickly only blurs could be seen.

Not once did Thirteen attack. It only defended itself while toying with its prey. John was fine with that. He set up for a flying armbar. His left hand went over Thirteen’s right elbow, his right hand went behind the head, his leg wrapped around her thigh, and he flung the deceptively heavy biosynth around, landing on his back, his legs over Thirteen’s torso, the biosynth’s right arm extended straight over his chest, his hands holding its wrist and forearm, and he began to squeeze as hard as he could.

While squeezing and trying to break the elbow, John tried his fangs against the hard plastic-like skin of his enemy’s hand with no luck at all. Plan A, draining Thirteen of vital essence, went out the window and he squeezed harder, knowing he could at least take one of his enemy’s arms out of play.

Thirteen’s hand was touching his upper chest. When John was at the house of the three witches in Canada, the Silver demon named Morgoros overwhelmed his energy system and meridians by sending his own essence into John’s, causing paralysis. It could only be done when there was a big tier difference, such as a Silver and Wood, as far as he knew.

John, being far more powerful than others of his tier, assumed he was now immune to that trick. All attempts to overwhelm his energy system in that way had failed since he had ascended to Copper.

But John wasn’t immune. Thirteen forced its essence into him and overwhelmed his energy system. His body stopped working.

Thirteen rolled off John and took its time getting to its feet, its red, plastic face blank of all emotion. He struggled to regain control of his body as he watched the biosynth stand behind him. Unlike when Morgoros did this to him before and he could feel nothing at all, he felt tingling throughout his body. He wiggled his fingers.

The thick beam manifestation felt very different than the streaking lights. John knew the hand pointed at him would release a thick beam, the same that took out the makan during the Free-for-All.

John tried unbinding the manifestation but failed miserably. He felt into the biosynth. The thing had plenty of something like blood. Thirteen rejected John’s presence inside of it. He struggled to roll out of the way but failed badly at that too.

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That was it. There was nothing left for John to try. There was nothing else he could do. There was no way to stop or avoid the manifestation. It was going to hit him.

Thirteen, standing a few paces behind John, its hand angled downward at his chest, released the beam.

With a titanic effort, John forced his neck upwards and took the powerful beam on his head.

During the first battle John had ever fought in, he took a mighty blow to the head, and that blow failed to buckle him. Like a nut, his head was tough to crack. His tribe called him Nut from that day onward.

If the beam hit his chest, John thought he’d live, remain conscious, but be too injured to continue fighting effectively. His head was hard bone, and if his head wasn’t able to withstand the beam, he wouldn’t be conscious or alive to feel the shame of defeat or worry about all his lost wealth. It was a risk, but a calculated one.

And the risk paid off. The name John’s tribe gave him proved true, but his head hurt terribly. A message flashed in his eyes stating [Emergency Heal] was on cooldown, but he was alive, conscious, and still able to fight.

The tremendous pain that racked John’s head also removed the numbness and tingling from the rest of his body. He rolled and dove away from the next beam, a beam that was channeled and continuously required him to dive, roll, and jump away and over it for what felt like an eternity.

John couldn’t even spare a moment to use his orb-eye to check his head injury. Thirteen was no longer toying with her prey. It was out for blood and released everything it had at him. Even small movements caused pain to throb through his injured head. He knew some tendon necessary to move the head correctly was gone, and he was never more thankful for having his orb-eye to look around with.

For what seemed like hours to John, he was completely on defense. Every ounce of his concentration went towards just staying alive. He was forced back, down, and across the arena as he held onto life by the skin of his teeth. One wrong move would spell his doom.

At some point, Thirteen recast its essence-shield and some other buffs. The only two offensive manifestations the biosynth had cast were the streaking lights and the thick beam that could be channeled. As a chain made of bright light tethered John to a spot, he learned his enemy had at least one more trick in its repertoire.

The brightly glowing chain stretched from John’s ankle to the arena floor. At first, he had about ten paces of slack, but that slack lessened as the chain shrunk. He dove around streaking orange lights with less and less room to do so.

John was panicking. He knew that was the worst and least helpful thing he could do. He needed time to think. He tightened up his battle-mind and time seemed to slow a little. He wished he could also attain the clarity and added detachment his [Multi-Enhancement] buff provided. As he twisted and contorted around streaking lights, narrowly avoiding them in the increasingly small area he had to maneuver around in, he attempted to cast that buff.

And instead of the buff being unbound, John was finally able to finish a manifestation. He became stronger and faster, his mind cleared, his emotions dulled, and time seemed to slow a little more as [Multi-Enhancement] applied its effects to him.

For years, John’s [Unbind Defense] [Skill] was stuck at 28. That not only kept him in the realm of being a body cultivator, but it also prevented him from forming [Synergies]. [Unbind Defense] wasn’t a required [Skill] to form [Synergies], but for him it was. Nothing was more frustrating than having so many mighty manifestations and his enemies always preventing him from using them.

But that [Skill] had to be at 31, Journeyman Mastery, before John could include it and finally form his [Synergies], or he would’ve formed them long ago.

Unbinding manifestations and protecting against unbinds worked delicately, like quickly solving puzzles while dodging around blocks and trying not to touch anything else. It couldn’t be brute forced. It was done softly, strategically, and deftly. Experienced practitioners could work so softly and adroitly that it felt more violent instead of skillful, but seeming so didn’t mean it was so.

John trained diligently with both [Unbind Manifestation] and [Unbind Defense]. He knew all the theories and rules. For years he had been stuck. Avatar couldn’t understand and had no idea why it wasn’t clicking for him. He just couldn’t progress. He was doing something wrong neither he nor Avatar could isolate.

They both hoped as he improved with [Unbind Manifestation], something would click or become apparent, finally ending what was preventing his [Skill] from increasing. But nothing ever clicked. The issue never ended. Instead, [Unbind Manifestation] also became stuck, but at 30 instead of 28.

Both unbinds and protecting against unbinds had to be done in a certain way. The rules were old and well known. Like hurdling, the best and only competitive way to perform that task was established long ago and proven true ever since. Minor adjustments could be made, but every hurdler followed the same script, the winner decided by the individual athlete and not the basic technique.

John had witnessed the rules of both [Unbind Manifestation] and [Unbind Defense] ignored before. A different script followed. Completely different rules applied. And to devastating effect. He had been on the receiving end of that devastating effect.

Ridge-head, one of the abnormal dark ones John fought in New York City, was not deft in his unbinds. That monster would smash John’s manifestation apart while it was forming, causing pain to resound throughout John’s meridians. That monster had no skill or strategy at all. The only rule that beast followed was brute force.

But John didn’t think of Ridge-head until after manifesting [Multi-Enhancement]. While Thirteen was attempting to unbind his spell, John was panicking. Going against all his training and everything he had been taught, he kept a part of his mind on his spell while lashing out like a wild beast at the presence he felt near his lower dantian. It somehow worked. He smashed that presence, ejecting it. [Multi-Enhancement] continued to cast and completed successfully.

Nothing ever clicked for John. He never figured out what he was doing wrong. He just made his own rules, and his natural instinct towards brute force had, luckily, worked. And worked well.

Next, John surrounded himself with [Multi-Shield]. An orange light battered into it and as he dodged around the other lights, he cast it again. The second shield broke just as he finished infusing [Glyph of Plasma Barrage] with essence.

Seven yellowish meteorites with an orange glow formed about fifteen paces in the air above Thirteen. As the balls streaked down towards the biosynth, the chain binding John disappeared, giving him the room needed to avoid the last few of the lights targeting him.

John had defended his manifestations the same way when Thirteen tried unbinding [Multi-Shield] and [Glyph of Plasma Barrage]. Thirteen’s touch was far more cautious for the second and third unbind attempts. He hoped that was due to his enemy’s meridians resounding with pain.

Ever since John could remember, he had wanted nothing more than to have fire billow forth from his hand, setting his enemies ablaze, seeing them run around while alit, screaming in agony as they burned to a crisp.

John had achieved that dream. Fire could billow forth from his hands with his mighty [Least Glyph of Darkflame Jet].

It was said plasma was a type of fire and fire itself was a plasma too. And it was also said that plasma was a state of matter, and there were two kinds of it – hot and cold.

John didn’t fully understand the science of it, but he knew the plasma of his [Glyph of Plasma Barrage] burned hot.

When John cast the glyph on virtual targets while training in his [Mind’s Eye], those virtual targets would burn wonderfully and in a way that made his heart sing and lighten. All his troubles and pain would disappear for a moment, and, for that moment, he’d be gladdened and unburdened.

Thirteen tried diving out of the way of the yellow meteorites that barreled towards it, but the streaking balls tracked and homed in on targets, the same as Thirteen’s own orange lights did.

The biosynth managed to dodge a couple of the meteorites. Two yellow balls hit its essence-shield and shattered it.

Three meteorites of plasma battered into and knocked Thirteen off its feet, sending it flying backwards over ten paces. Red bubbled up like boiling water as the plasma ate its way through the body of the biosynth.

Thirteen’s face finally showed real emotion as it screamed out in agony. John’s heart sang and became lighter. For a moment, he was gladdened and unburdened.

The face of the Platinum biosynth also showed real emotion as it contorted in rage. It yelled out, “No! Princess! Your Highness! No!” It beat on and cast manifestations at the field surrounding the arena as it screamed and watched Thirteen die.

A Transcendent brute appeared next to the Platinum biosynth and tried to restrain it. Overly enraged, the biosynth attacked the brute. A new Transcendent appeared. Dark cords completely bound its body and the Transcendents flew the biosynth away.

The Platinum stared at John until it was out of sight, its usual emotionless face filled with hate and murderous intent.

Thirteen picked the terms. She decided our battle would be to the death. I can’t be blamed for the choices she made herself, thought John.

John looked away. He finally had the opportunity to look at and address his head injury. It was pretty bad. His head hurt terribly. He went to collect the three light-green crystals his dead enemy dropped. Those were worth a thousand clear crystals each. He needed every bit of wealth he could get his hands on. He only wished he could take the helmet, bracers, and any other possessions too.

With the biosynths out of the Duels, a bunch of new Platinums were now lined up to pay the fee and enter.

John had finally, finally passed a bottleneck that had been infuriating him for years. He took time to celebrate and appreciate that feat.

Finally, John thought. Finally.

John also just won a battle against a mighty foe. He would soon battle many other powerful enemies, including the makan. If he ended up winning the all-or-nothing bet, he’d have some wealth again. He needed new gear, so he had to win. He couldn’t allow himself to lose.

John was alive, and as long as he was alive, he was creeping ever closer to his goal of destroying the Peerless Empire. He had a lot to be happy about.

While looking around for the makan, a thought of Amber entered John’s mind and his mood soured.