I extracted the spear from the ground and launched it towards the guard, as a measure to try and make him more well-disposed towards us. He readily grabbed it and stood up, this time maintaining the tip pointed towards the sky.

“Anyway, my original intent does not vary. Would it be possible to still participate in the tournament?”

The guard took a couple of minutes to gather his thoughts before answering.

“Man, I feel for you, I really do. Those damned things out there really mess with a poor man’s brain. I’ve seen so many like you come and go and get themselves ruined. Anyway, I do not know what to do in this kind of situation, please, stay here and I’ll go get my supervisor…”

“That won’t be necessary. Let the child compete”

A new clear voice resounded. I took a step back and instinctively raised my arms and got into guard. Between a blink and another, a person had manifested in front of myself.

“Oh, s**t! Excuse me, sir, but you cannot...”

The startled guard was immediately shut up by the newly appeared man placing a hand on his shoulder, after which the guard immediately froze.

From all points of view, he was an unremarkable man no taller than Faye. He appeared to be well in his fifties, with greying hair and a well groomed beard. His complexion was healthy and his physique was fit but not particularly developed. He donned a simple attire, consisting of a pair of jeans, a flannel shirt and sneakers, all black in colour.

Even his presence appeared to be remarkably weak, but this didn’t stop me from getting goosebumps all over my body. My heartbeat had accelerated to abnormal rhythms and my field of vision had closed in on him. Both my conscious and unconscious self knew that the man who had appeared from nowhere and was capable of masking his true strength was incredibly dangerous.

His eyes seemed to dig right through me unimpeded, revealing every single secret of my self. I had a hunch of who this mysterious man was, and if I was correct I needed to be careful. For this reason, I composed myself and lowered my hands.

An amiable smile appeared on the otherwise unreadable face of the man.

“Still unripe, but you got good instincts, child”.

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His voice, although almost imperceptibly, made the surroundings vibrate. His words carried great strength within themselves.

The man waved his hand and turned around.

“Child, follow the border to the right until you find the arena. If someone stops you, tell them this old-timer sent you. And you, young lady, feel free to explore the Perimeter”, he said as he walked away.

After a couple of steps, he turned around and addressed the guard, before leaving for real.

“Oh, and you, young man. Escort the lady and the wagon”.

“Yes, sir! Definitely, sir!”, the guard exclaimed, standing at attention.

The mysterious man walked away at an apparently leisurely pace, but quickly disappeared between the buildings.

“Ma’am, let me guide you”, the guard addressed Faye with an overly polite tone.

From my point of view, the young guard wasn’t particularly reliable. Normally, I would have been hesitant to entrust Faye to him, but I was certain the aged man would keep an eye on the situation from afar. Even now that he wasn’t anymore in sight, I felt like he was keeping an eye on me.

“Faye, it would be better for you to let the guard accompany you, while I explore the tournament location”, I invited her to follow the guard.

Several minutes passed, yet Faye didn’t utter a single word. Her eyes were unfocused and she sat incredibly still. This kind behaviour was to be expected. After all, she had just discovered her home had been destroyed. With everything that had happened these last few days, this news had to be the last straw.

The shock had been too much and she had closed in on herself. Nevertheless, I had faith she would readily recover from it. She may not have been as physically gifted as other denizens of this world, but she had a different type of strength.

I then turned to the guard.

“Keep her safe”

“You have my word, man! Nobody will touch her!”

While the guard loaded on his body the chains of the wagon, I circled around it and retrieved my mace left inside. Seeing it in my hands, I reminisced about it. During our travels, I had asked Faye about the weapon's origin. She had explained to me it was a piece of custom-made etherized weaponry that Marnie had requested for me a couple of months ago, as a graduation gift for her pupil. It wasn’t moulded, but it was the best the Gamma could offer. After our falling apart, Faye had taken the liberty to take it with her when she had decided to follow me on my journey.

Waving Faye my goodbyes, I pushed the wagon from the back to help the struggling guard put it into motion and then watched the two of them slowly drive away. Once they had crossed the border, I stopped paying attention to the wagon and turned to my right. I started to walk along the outer edge of the Perimeter following its circumference. Every time I passed in the vicinity of one of the pillars I experienced the usual unease connected to the abnormally high mana density. I solved the problem by quickly skipping past them.

After some time, I emerged from behind one of the pillars and a big crowd appeared into the distance. There had to be at least a few hundred people, spread across a large region and gathered in smaller groups around circular or rectangular spaces delimited by pickets of various materials. Further from the centre of the crowd and to my left, just behind the edge of the Perimeter, there were a series of stalls offering food and drinks to the constant coming and going of the public.