It had been a while since I'd looked at the champion distances properly.

This time, when I tried to scroll down, I found that I was looking at the end of the list.

Time sure does fly by when you and your friends are on death's door... I'm glad I didn't say that out loud, that was terrible.

That thought was mercifully interrupted by Ayula calling out to me. "Andrew, can I speak with you for a moment?"

"Yeah, what's on your mind?"

She looked over her shoulder at the assortment of villagers near us chatting as they walked. "Privately please?"

"Sure okay." I signaled for everyone to stop. "Alright everybody, time for a rest! Second Squad has the floor!"

Juohen nodded and started forming a perimeter as we had practiced.

I followed Ayula as she lead the way to somewhere she considered private.

Even then, Ayula was hesitant to speak. "So Andrew... how do I put this? How- What should I-" She paused. "Let's just say for the sake of argument, someone you knew turned out to be... different than he- they lead on... what would you do?"

"This is about Hund isn't it?"

She was taken aback. "How did you know?"

I sighed. "Before you say anything, let me say everything I'm going to say."

She furrowed her brows at me. "O-Okay?"

"I knew he was part of The New Wave." Ayula was about to say something, but I held up a hand and she begrudgingly let me continue. "It was about when you told him you were a historian, he told me everything. I told him to tell you, and he said he would, but I guess the truth was forced out first."

Ayula stared at me blankly. "So you didn't know for very long then?"

"Not super long, no."

"Then it's all his fault then?"

I took a deep breath. "From what I heard, he sounded like a guy down on his luck that was a little too caught up in a dream to see the price of it. Don't get me wrong, some of those things he did are horrible... just because everyone around you does something doesn't mean it's right to do it yourself. Even despite all of that, I just don't see him that way."

Ayula squinted at me. "What does that mean?"

"I've only known him for so long, so that person he used to be is not the person I know him as. He's still the same dependable medic he's always been, he just has more to atone for than the average person."

Ayula was outraged. "I can't believe what I'm hearing, you're letting someone who's done such atrocities off the hook?! Just like that?!"

"I think with the fact that you asked me to speak with you means that that's what you wanted to do."

She flushed and looked to the side, but still grit her teeth. "No! He should be punished for what he did!"

"The problem is that any punishment we could give him would either be a slap on the wrist, or just about guarantee his death. For example: if we take away one meal, nobody is likely to feel like that would be enough; if we make him fast for a day and we're attacked by a champion, he'll probably die."

She looked at me, her eyes filled with shock. "There's got to be something!"

"Maybe there is, but we don't have the time to be that petty anymore, if I found this out while we still had the town. I could probably have issued a punishment, but now we all need to be together in the best shape possible, because anything less is death." I gestured toward the others' general direction. "Sydui almost died in front of me despite being in perfect shape beforehand, I bet she would have died if Hund was killed."

Ayula looked at the ground, dead quiet.

After a minute or so, I bent slightly to become eye-level with her. "Listen, we can always give him a punishment if we all survive this, it might even help ease his conscience too... but for now, it would be better to put it aside and just enjoy his company if you can." I shrugged. "Not that that's going to be easy to do; forgiveness tends to be really hard."

Ayula simply nodded.

I stood up straight again. "I figure you have a lot to think about so I'm going to let you ponder, even then, you should probably make sure to be within line of sight of everybody just in case."

"You're probably right." She replied quietly.

I made sure she had her space to think while also not being cut off from the group just in case.

This turned out to be a very good decision.

Several hours later, I looked at the list again and there were two things I noticed.

First, it was about half as long as the last time I checked this morning.

Second, there was a champion nearby me.

Suddenly, another distance plummeted.

"Incoming!"

Hund whipped around to see a small black object surging toward him.

It was about to impact, when Ayula deflected the attack, allowing us to see our aggressor.

They looked like a small black jellyfish with a blue wizard hat, wrapped in one of its tendrils was a knife with a gnarly and circuitous blade.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Despite everything, it was absolutely adorable.

[Swen The Incanter]

Danger Level: High Threat

Hund, who'd just been saved as previously mentioned, smiled at Ayula. "Ayula, you..."

Before Hund had time to finish his thought, Ayula interrupted him. "I haven't decided your punishment yet." She then looked him directly in the eye. "And I won't let you die until you've received it."

Hund gulped.

Then I heard something from the other side of me, probably from the champion who was close by.

"[Summon Material], [Quickshape], [Puppeteer]!"

Suddenly a number of clumps of material spawned out of nowhere, and then became a bunch of random shapes.

I didn't understand what the purpose was until the third [Skill] was used and all of the pieces suddenly flew together into what I could only describe as a mech.

"[Photon Absorption], [Energy Transfer]!"

The mech then started to have a strange fluid that resembled lightning, flow over its entire surface; then mech began to move, raising a massive spear.

I clapped. "Ah come on, that's so cool! I wish I could do that!"

The mech bowed dramatically, as if to an audience.

I tried the obvious tactic first.

"Hole Puncher, max power!"

The mech planted its feet, managing to take the full brunt of the attack without even toppling over, let alone taking any serious harm.

Everyone gawked at it for a moment.

No damage?! Nothing?!

Swen brought us back to the real world with some manner of strange sing-songy mumbling.

I yelled over the noise, trying to get everyone's attention. "Gank the mage!"

Juohen called back. "What does that mean?!"

"Right I forgot, kill Swen before he does something bad!"

It ended up being a bit late for that though...

Suddenly, I got a massive headache.

And from the look of how the mech doubled over, so did he.

I wheeled about and saw the non-Nemeses curled up in balls while the others fought poorly against Swen.

I aimed at him and fired.

An instant before the project was to hit him, he disappeared and reappeared about four feet away from where he was.

The Gamemasters seem to really enjoy their projectile-countering [Skills].

On the bright side, the headache was released.

"Everyone who's not a Nemeses, get out of here, we'll meet back up with you later!"

Some were a bit hesitant, but everyone cleared out as instructed.

I looked forward just in time to see the mech making a massive swing with its spear.

I dropped into a roll, looking up at Swen to see what he did.

The answer was that he reappeared behind the arc of the spear as it swung past.

So whatever that is isn't just anti-projectile then, good to know.

It was then that Swen completed whatever nonsense he was chanting and created a large ball of fire between everyone.

"Leonidas!"

The fireball then exploded, lighting everything around us on fire and uprooting the ground directly below it.

Luckily, Leonidas completed the barrier just in the nick of time, so neither I nor any of the Fifskae were more than superficially harmed.

However, while I was distracted by the blast, Swen managed to get behind me and was moments from sinking his knife into me.

The mech's spear thrusted toward us both, forcing Swen to stop his attack, and allowing me a much easier thing to dodge.

The mech changed its stance and let loose a flurry of spear-thrusts in both of our direction.

Swen chanted the same sing-song from earlier and caused everyone headaches again.

The mech paused its onslaught for just long enough for us to get out of the way.

I threw Stabbinsky at Swen, causing him to relocate and ending the headache.

Sydui and Hund ganged up on Swen, trying to suppress him with needles and then deliver a hammerfist or two.

I then heard a yelp from behind me, causing me to turn and see Juohen with a smoking fist over next to the mech.

"Andrew watch out!" Polyu called.

"In what direction?!"

"Swen!"

I looked back at Swen and saw him with a knife outstretched, plummet toward the ground, relocate higher, and then hit the ground.

"Thanks for the save Polyu!"

"Thank me later, pay attention now!"

It was then that I realized Insight had been deactivated at some point, probably when I got the first headache if I had to guess.

I turned it back on, and did my best to burn it into my mind to check on it every once in a while.

"Alright! Hund and Sydui keep harrying Swen while I try to hit him with Shreddy! Everyone else be careful and distract the mech- the metal thing- while we do it!"

"Right!"

Hund continued spraying needles, and Sydui did her best to grapple the slippery jellyfish, all the while I did my best to get in close.

Hund fired, expending Swen's first relocation, Sydui then got a lucky hammerfist, exhausting a second one, I then threw The Great Stabbinsky, forcing him to use a third.

Then Shreddy jumped from Stabbinsky's blade and landed directly on Swen's hat.

Shreddy cut at Swen, who rapidly disappeared and reappeared for a moment.

We all thought it was over until the hat didn't teleport with him once.

[Swen The Impostor]

Danger Level: High Threat

We all stared at him uncomprehendingly for a moment.

He then created a small fireball next to Sydui which detonated and knocked her to the ground, and something out of her pocket.

"Sydui! Are you okay?!"

"I'm fine, it wasn't that bad!"

Swen surged forward and we all put up our guard.

Except he didn't attack any of us, he went between us and picked up a disk.

He then put it on his 'head' and it expanded to fit.

[Swen The Deforester]

Danger Level: High Threat

I raised Hole Puncher, but I never got the chance to fire.

A massive spear punched through Swen, took him past all of us, and pinned his disintegrating corpse to a tree.

Our eyes then followed the spear as it was pulled back to the mech's hands.

The mech reeled back and threw the spear with all of its might.

As I dodged the massive hunk of metal, I yelled out to the Fifskae. "Everyone who fought the mech, what'd you learn?!"

Juohen went first. "It's exterior is super hot and basically indestructible!"

Polyu was next. "It's stupidly heavy!"

Rahyu replied third. "My [Photon Gaze] does less than nothing!"

Ayula was last. "I'm not very good at fighting large things!"

That last one was kind of depressing.

Wait a minute, [Photon Gaze]?

"Rahyu, blast it with your [Photon Gaze] for a moment please!"

"Uh... okay?!"

He fired at the mech and it was absorbed without causing any damage.

Kickass!

"Polyu! As soon as you get the boost, let me know what it did!"

"What boost?!"

"[Ascend, Echo]!"

[Nemesis Promoted Nearby]

[Nemesis Promoted Nearby]

After the initial shock wore off, Polyu spoke. "I can lift more and from a farther distance, also I can make objects three times heavier for a minute."

I dodged under another spear strike, and leapt out of range of the followup.

"Oh, that's super cool, congratulations!"

"Okay, but what do I do?!" Polyu asked, slightly panicked.

I smacked myself internally for getting distracted. "Right! Grab a clump of ground, as wide as you can, and hold it above the mech for as long as possible!"

"That's all?! I don't even get to use one of my new abilities?!"

"Sorry, not much I can do about that!"

Polyu lifted a chunk out of the ground and started to float it over to the mech.

The mech stopped its attack and aimed a spear throw at the chunk.

"Leonidas!"

I put a shield in front of the spear's head about halfway through the toss, forcing it out of the mech's hand awkwardly.

The mech recalled the spear and tried to make another throw, but it was too late.

The chunk of ground blocked out the sun for the mech, and that 'liquid lightning' stuff dispersed.

"Checkmate!"

I fired at center of mass, the most likely place the the cockpit to be.

A hole the size of my body was punched through the mech.

Moments later, the pieces of it fell to the ground and disintegrated.

"Ah man, I didn't even get to see what his name was..."

[Congratulations on your survival thus far champion!]

[New acquired title: Finalist]

----------------------------------------

Uluriq

"[Damnation Impact, zero, rapid-fire]."

Three more champions died as they were riddled with holes.

The champions have been swarming me constantly, it was getting quite annoying actually.

It made my final preparations much slower for no good reason.

I took the champion that had been feebly struggling against my grip and finally crushed their head in my hand.

I exhaled.

At least I didn't have to clean up all the bodies.

[Congratulations on your survival thus far champion!]

[New acquired title: Finalist]

Oh is that right?

I suppose my fight with The Unorthodox draws near then.

I sat on the rock in the middle of my prepared battlefield.

All that's left is to wait.