Tournament arc! Tournament arc! Tournament arc!

Zarian’s thoughts ran rampant with the same thing on repeat. His Fractured Mind was no help when every segment was overrun. He wanted to join the tournament. He wanted to do it within the next year or two. If not, he might ascend from Corma and miss out.

Unless he waited for it.

“Gah! There’s nothing I can do about that right now.” Zarian lay back.

He had the wagon’s tarp cover folded under him. Para folded up behind his back and head as an extra cushion that was a little spongy and bumpy in some places, but still comfortable.

Obviously, he could use Tranquil Mind to settle down his thoughts. But he didn’t want to do that. He wasn’t even using Adrenaline Jolt right now. He was just naturally hyped up.

Who could blame him? He had the best fight of his life so far.

The walls of Central Bramblevale were fading into the distance behind the caravan. Above his head, the morning suns crossed closer to the peak of the sky where blocky clouds drifted lazily.

There was a nice autumn breeze blowing in from the east, from Bramble Wolf Forest and the Grimrock Castle Mountains, the latter being home to his goblin friend, Foodie. Thinking of her enslaved situation and the fragility behind her indomitable act cooled Zarian’s excitement, but the embers still smoldered in his chest.

I’ve done a lot, honestly.

Zarian glanced down at his damaged suit and remembered he needed to hand this over to Hannah. He didn’t get to it right away as he recollected all that had happened so far. And a lot had happened.

Zarian and ten others fell into the subterranean floors of Castle Grimrock, fought off corrupted koi fish, fought off corrupted goblins, and had some deaths because of disagreements and the pressure of their dangerous new environment.

After getting sent off by Foodie with loads of new information, they’d crawled the White Spider Dungeon multiple times, took Reiki and her core, reached the surface of Corma, the World of Castles and Caverns, found a golem, received a major side quest for the Forgotten Kingdom, met up with Roland’s young and misguided sacrificial company of soldiers, ran into gnolls, and entered Bramblevale where they ran multiple operations within a short time.

They’d slaughtered gangsters and bandits. They’d dominated the local guards and soldiers while earning the trust and aid of a good friend, Arnold of Ambrose. They’d taken the crooked Bramblevale Lord down a few pegs, Zarian had become a gnoll elder, and then they dominated the Hemlock Family and turned them into vassals after conquering their Devouring Library Dungeon.

Now they were on their way to North Crown Peak after Zarian and his friends took out the best fighters of the kingdom. There were a lot of other little details in between all of that, but, for the most part, they’d achieved a lot.

Zarian let all of his feats in the past few months sink in. It was kind of hard to believe while watching the blocky clouds crawl by slowly.

He felt like he should take a minor break. Maybe he deserved a nap before he shifted gears. But then his heart rate picked up. His mind flashed through memories of the last couple of weeks.

“Did I really sing that song?” Zarian asked.

Maybe it was best he let that fade from memory.

“What was the song?” Bianca’s head popped over the wagon side.

For this once, she actually caught Zarian off guard. He’d let his awareness drop while thinking back on everything that happened. Plus, Bianca could be sneaky when she shifted the light to hide herself.

Zarian didn’t let himself react much. He merely shifted a little and turned his head to her. “A song in your imagination.”

“Hm. I think you sang a song and I want to hear it.”

“You’re in a chipper mood. I figured you’d lose steam after killing other good aligned folks.”

“I didn’t like their way of doing good or keeping order. They were going to kill our new friends from last night, like Gilbert’s girl.”

Zarian straightened up. “Gilbert’s girl?”

Bianca giggled mischievously with a manicured hand held in front of her smile. “I’m still pumped after the fight, so how about we do some sparring to help with that? Then maybe I can tell you about Gilbert slipping away last night with a mysterious woman.”

Zarian squinted at the Light Princess. He should be above this nonsense.

Gilbert’s business was his business. Even though it was well known that the guy had desperately wanted some action for a while.

Thinking back to last night, he remembered seeing Bianca and Gilbert hanging out while wandering off the compound. But after that, he’d lost track of them. He hadn’t made a big deal of it since he knew they were alive and well, and they returned just fine this morning.

“You helped him,” Zarian accused.

“Dale! Let’s spar,” Bianca demanded.

Jumping over the side, Zarian hit the ground with a quiet thump. The Parasite Cloak flapped behind him dramatically while shifting forms from bony quills, jagged teeth, veiny hands, lashing tongues, reaching scythes, and many more.

Nearby soldiers and acolytes cowered or watched in frightened awe as the Madness Wizard and the Light Princess walked off the road and entered the field nearby. They moved in the same direction and at the same pace as the caravan.

“Can I use my Field Stride enchantment? I love that one the most with the dress,” Bianca asked.

“Sure. Let’s go semi hard. Maybe a little less than that until we find a good range. Dull edges for close quarters combat and soft blasts for range.”

“Are you going to use spells?”

“Mm. No. Para might jump in, however. Light versus dark, okay?”

“Okay!”

Bianca raised her hands and formed two sabers made from hard light. She conjured them faster and with a more crisp design than before.

Interestingly enough, one saber was much shorter than the other. She noticed Zarian’s attention to the quirky design.

“Two swords of the same length get in the way of each other,” Bianca explained. “I read that in the training manuals given to us by Senor Ambrose. I didn’t take it seriously until I had some issues with the Royal Guards.”

“You seemed mostly fine to me.” Zarian reached down into the shadow under him.

He darkened the shadow with a flex of his mystical will. The straight handle of a sword rose from the darkness and into his grip.

Stolen novel; please report.

Zarian pulled up a nodachi with an upward rise and flick forward since it was a ridiculously long weapon.

Bianca smirked. “You do know seven feet is too long for a sword. It’s too long for me, and I’m taller than you.”

Zarian looked around at the idyllic location and blocky clouds in the blue sky. He spotted two of the daytime moons passing over while the two suns continued their arc toward the western horizon.

“I’m in a fantasy land, Bianca. Shut up and spar with me.” Zarian paused and rethought that last statement. “Actually, spar and give me the deets.”

“We’ll see!”

Bianca took one step to the side and zipped across the field. She took another step and zipped toward Zarian’s side fast enough to blur her outline.

Her longer sword swung up for a cut at his shoulder. She missed by a hairbreadth as Zarian dodged away, propelled by mini jets of darkness shooting across the ground from his feet. He scooted hard in the other direction and created enough space to spiral around his overly long nodachi at Bianca’s waist.

The attack didn’t stick, which Zarian knew would happen before Bianca burst into a frenzy of lights. The lights recombined into her on the other side of Zarian’s sword. She slashed her shorter blade at his ribcage.

Instead of scoring a hit, she found resistance, Para flicking out a dull scythe from over Zarian’s shoulder. The scythe hacked at Bianca’s head at the cost of Zarian taking a blow to the ribs, which would’ve been a good trade.

Unfortunately, Bianca canceled her own attack. She used her longer saber to defend against Para’s scythe. Then Bianca held her ground, not backing off very much even as Zarian swung around his nodachi with a powerful windmill strike.

Beaming a smile, Bianca performed a slick micro shift back and to the side with her dress’s Field Stride enchantment. The nodachi missed. Zarian and Para couldn’t adjust in time, and Zarian took a solid hit on the shoulder.

Because of their supernatural vitality, a round wouldn’t end until the victor landed several severe strikes or a critical one that would normally kill them in a real fight.

The high caliber prowess at display wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for the Star System. Regardless of their lack of experience and short time in Infinita, having stats and abilities was a huge game changer.

In fact, it would’ve normally taken years of training to master sword fighting. But having enough points and abilities that boost Agility or Wonder could effectively cut that down.

Bianca was obviously making good use of her stat points in Agility and Wonder. She also had a talent for moving gracefully and striking with swords.

She should get a sword fighting trait eventually. Maybe she would get a very special version with enough time and practice. As of now, Bianca was a great sword-fighting partner.

Zarian hunkered down and ignored the shoulder hit, since he was technically a tough-as-hell wizard. He rushed Bianca with a shoulder check. Para unleashed a quick flurry of scythe attacks.

Bianca danced her way out and around quickly, her bare feet sliding fast around the grass as she sought a different opening. That was something Zarian was hoping for as he pivoted and swung his nodachi with deceptive speed and technique.

He definitely wasn’t Bianca’s equal in sword fighting, but he could lean on his evil alignment to out-think her. In this exchange, he had her if she tried to back off.

Bianca did the opposite and leaned into the powerful swing, using her longer blade to intercept Zarian’s power cut while thrusting her shorter sword into Zarian’s face.

The time it took for Zarian’s sword to smash into her sword was equal to how long it took for Bianca to put her blade into the side of Zarian’s head before Para stopped her.

The blow wasn’t actually lethal. Their blades were dull. But that would count as Bianca’s victory, although it wouldn’t look like it from an outsider’s perspective.

Zarian still had momentum in his swing. He smashed Bianca off her feet and sent her tumbling back. That drew gasps and shouts of shock from the crowd as they watched a princess get forced to the ground.

That didn’t phase Bianca much as she popped back to her feet with renewed grace and tried to walk it off. She rotated her hand, the same one she’d used to block Zarian’s heavy attack with her sword.

“I think we make for a good show,” Zarian said, nodding toward the wide-eyed audience.

The nearest soldiers were watching with amazement. The acolytes cheered or talked loudly in excitement from the spar.

They’d missed out on the nitty gritty details of the White Rose fight because of the mist and chaos. But now that Zarian and Bianca were safely sparring, it was easier to display their prowess.

Zarian also imagined that he and Bianca must’ve looked incredibly fast and powerful to the audience, especially to the low level acolytes.

Bianca smiled and waved. Many of the acolytes waved back. One swooned at the Light Princess’s attention. The soldiers had their eyes on Zarian, but they were still hesitant to show their favor to the evil Madness Wizard.

“So, last night, Gilbert was very drunk. And he wanted my help.” Bianca prepared for the next round.

Zarian raised his sword while Para arched one dull scythe threateningly. “Go on.”

“He was in need. But the acolytes are too young. And he couldn’t see himself with any of the women at the party since they were too weak. He asked me to do my thing and help him slip away into the city because he thought it would be embarrassing if you watched the whole time.”

Zarian chuckled as the both of them crossed blades. Dark versus light. Good versus evil. They clashed and moved at speeds that were superhuman.

Bianca maneuvered with the utmost grace as her glimmering, colorful dress fluttered in the wake of her enchanted bare-foot strides. Zarian held his ground with a confident sturdiness until he released explosive bursts of darkness that jetted him across the field.

Zarian swung his sword with heavy and wide movements while Para’s scythe slashed around to cover his backside. Bianca used her sabers to cover different distances while targeting small openings, throwing in the occasional Light Step to mix up her movements.

From an outsider’s perspective, the spar between dark and light, between a wizard and a princess, was the stuff of legends, rising beyond the imaginations of the audience. The soldiers and acolytes cheered, while Zarian and Bianca gossipped, which led to a conclusion that was both horrific and hilarious.

“I know who that woman is,” Zarian blurted out between sword exchanges.

“She’s so evil, but Gilbert kept flirting anyway. And she kept taking it and flirting back. I was just there to make sure nothing bad happened. She mentioned how you spared her life. Then one thing led to another, and I just waited outside and then Gilbert came out happier…”

“Gilbert slept with the Infernal Witch,” Zarian said, almost in disbelief. “Gilbert slept with a witch.”

“Si, he slept with a witch.”

“Oh. My. Christian God.”

Several rounds had passed at this point with Bianca winning most of them. Zarian managed to improve his techniques against a fast and natural swordswoman like Bianca.

“Thanks for this most wonderful gift, Bianca,” Zarian said with a hint of evil in his voice.

“I had to tell somebody. Hannah and Naomi don’t know, so I figured it’ll be you. If you want to return the favor, you can tell me if you did anything more interesting than talking last night.” Bianca grinned widely.

“Okay, you’ve won most of the close quarter spars. Time to switch to long range sparring.”

“Oh, yeah, that.” Bianca lost her smile.

Zarian stopped losing and went back to dominating. While Bianca was a sharp shooter with her lasers. She couldn’t outdo Zarian’s overwhelming volleys of dark bolts, dark javelins, dark beams, and dark bullets.

Her best bet was to keep maneuvering around and picking her shots when she had an opening. But she wouldn’t get much of an easy opportunity to set up accurate shots when Zarian kept the pressure on her.

Still, it was a good practice session for her, making her better prepared against overwhelming projectiles. She didn’t even bother using her Searing Flash Array as an actual flash, which meant she wanted the challenge.

As for Zarian’s growth in close quarters, he figured he had plenty of tricks to combine with his sword play, so it wasn’t necessary for him to be good at it.

Still, he enjoyed practicing with Bianca just to take advantage of how quickly they could learn because of their growing stats and abilities.

Once they finished sparring and gossiping, Zarian took Bianca to the side for a more serious conversation. He kept his voice down as he passed along a warning.

“Do not do too much good anymore, Bianca.”

“Zarian, you know I like doing good things.”

Zarian shook his head. “You have to hold off until Level 100. Lovewar told me the other good gods are conspiring except for Serveserf. If you do too much good, they might push you over the edge.”

“I’ll control myself. I won’t let it take over me. But please understand if bad things happen in front of me, I’m going to respond.”

Zarian looked at her for a long while. Was that the good +3 talking? Or was that Bianca talking? Was there a difference now? Bianca had to be in control if she could tolerate Gilbert sleeping with an evil witch last night.

Maybe she can overcome whatever the good gods try to do.

“Alright, well, you have my warning.” Zarian turned away. “But if you fail, don’t worry. I’ll think of something.”

“I won’t fail you,” Bianca said resolutely.

Perhaps you won’t. But I’m evil, and I need to plan for the worst-case scenarios just in case.