Lurona city [southern shores of Fuminao Legacy Kingdom], local time [1794.01.12]

Seeing her floating form, he quickly changed his mind and took out the scabbard from his belt instead of taking out the spear.

If she was this proficient with Telekinetic Spells, charging with a melee weapon would be a stupid mistake.

Noticing another sight of an attack as her arm moved, he immediately jumped to the left and started running. Something hit the ground behind him with enough force to create a small explosion of soil, but he ignored it. He was fully focused on aiming while pumping his Mana into the scabbard’s enchantment.

As expected, she veered upward and away from him, abandoning the offensive to dodge the invisible bullet he was preparing.

Just before the enchantment activated, he allowed the tip to drop slightly – changing aim to just below the woman’s body.

He knew how Telekinesis Spells worked – she had to have a construct connected to the ground to elevate her. He wasn’t sure what kind of Magicules she was using as the encasement and filling, but the general rule should be the same – Mana-constructed tubes working similarly to a hydraulic device. He just hoped that she was using the easier method and didn’t have them connected to her body from above. If she was that masterful with that Spell group, he would have to drop the act and start fighting for real.

Danette either didn’t notice the change of his aim, or couldn’t react in time. The drilling Spatial Beam flew true, achieving its goal in an unexpected way.

Zeph was sure that she had a lot stronger shielding construct placed in a direct trajectory between his weapon and her body. He also suspected that her construct could react to the external force – moving her away from the line of fire instantly.

What he didn’t expect, was the scale of mayhem a damage made to that system could cause. He missed slightly, causing the Spatial Beam to fly more to her lower right. Something important broke and she wasn’t prepared for it.

Danette’s body was flung with an unprecedented speed in the direction of the damaged part. Her Mana construct failed spectacularly; her body was barreling through the air like a ragdoll fired from a cannon.

This didn’t mean she was in a worse position now, though. Danette was gaining distance and still wasn’t harmed much.

Zeph followed her immediately. This time, he prepared a few smoke bombs – he would be able to see her Telekinetic constructs in the smoke if he managed to spread them around. Both of them brought simple filtering gas masks, so the stench wouldn’t do much. Also, he was quite sure that she could just repel the smoke to some extent. But if he could see what she was doing, the fight would become much easier.

It was clear that Danette planned to fight from a distance – as Aisha predicted – so it was a relief that he didn’t bring the monoxide pads and canisters. They would just slow him down.

But his expectations were soon crushed down.

The woman’s mad flight quickly changed into a hovering roll when her form neared the ground. It seemed that she reconfigured her construct to surround her body to cushion the fall.

Seeing that her speed was barely influenced, Zeph grimaced. She was already a good fifty meters away and still moving much faster than he could run.

He slowed down and put the smoke bombs back in the sack. Danette would have to decrease the distance to attack or scan him, either way. At this range, shooting any projectiles with the Telekinesis shouldn’t be possible. Not with any accuracy – not for a non-specialist like her. She was all but a Ranger type.

Turning around, he started trotting to the starting area to recover his crossbow. It was his only long-range weapon and it seemed that the fight would devolve into what Danette had planned.

He could almost feel the judging eyes of the audience on his back, though.

What do you take me for? A bloodthirsty hound? I know when to back off, he thought, shrugging internally.

After finding his weapon, he loaded it with an explosive bolt. Those should prove problematic for the woman because of the high-velocity shrapnel. Her Telekinesis could be advanced, but no Mana construct he knew of could fully stop something like that.

Turning back to the woman, he found himself at a loss. She was a healthy distance away and was slowly walking back, although with some problems. He had a lot of time on his hands.

Mana Rupture would do wonders… If she doesn’t have any more surprises, he mused, frowning. Hmmm, I should finish it as fast as possible, though. She is already wounded…

Sighing, he reached for the sack with the explosive beads.

I will deplete my Will further, but nobody should know that I can manipulate my Mana outside of my Veil. Aisha never mentioned something like that, so… I just need to make it look like a conditional activation.

The technique was very draining. He managed to do it involuntarily during the ambush at the Vermilla Islands and has been training with it since, but it never became easier.

He started to speed up the Mana flow inside of the ones he held in his hand, before throwing them all around like seeds on a farm field. They weren’t exactly at the cusp of exploding but were saturated with his Mana fully.

The idea was for their opponents and the audience to misunderstand the functionality of the beads. They, as a Guild, had already shown enough inventive enchantments to plant the seeds of doubt, he just had to leverage that fact. From the point of view of their enemies, it should look like there was a complex mechanism causing them to explode in certain conditions.

He knew that such enchantments didn’t really exist in Lurona; maybe even on the whole stratum zero. Delays, manual activation, or impact activation – those were the height of the current technology if the charge was to stay small. Meanwhile, even his first, primitive enchantment alone was already sensitive to certain Mana conditions.

Heck, some people were sure to interpret what they saw using those—seemingly universal—limitations, arguing that things like a mass activation of explosives could be achieved with a specific Mana pulse. That would just cover the truth further.

Danette was approximately 100 meters away already, so he stopped spreading the beads and walked to the center of the improvised minefield. Going down on one knee, he took a shooting position, aiming carefully. He could use only one arm, so he placed his elbow on his right knee to better stabilize the weapon. It was a little awkward, but he could press the crossbow’s butt against his shoulder comfortably that way.

Then, he waited patiently for the woman to reach the effective range of his weapon – around the 70-meter mark.

He could aim from further away, but the explosive bolts were quite heavy, almost reaching the limit of what could be fired from the Earth’s military-grade design.

I need to upgrade it using better materials… he thought while activating the sequence of disrupting enchantments once again. Force Weave came live, too, but this time, he immediately spread it around the haze to keep it contained.

The lack of cover was concerning, but that was exactly why he wanted to stay on the offensive.

Finally, he armed the bolt’s enchantment and pulled the trigger. The explosion was set on a delay, so he stayed a moment longer in the position to see the effects.

The projectile flew true but, as expected, the woman deflected it easily. The explosion took place a few meters behind her, though.

He cursed internally. Setting up the activation correctly at such distances was always tricky. And he wasn’t accustomed to the P’pfel’s improved enchantment yet.

Zeph quickly started loading the crossbow, noticing in his peripheral vision that Danette started hovering once again to move faster. He imagined that even walking was painful for her at this moment, so there was no way she would start sprinting without a good reason.

He managed to fire two more bolts before she closed the distance to 30 meters. With his current strength, reloading was a matter of a second or two. He didn’t have enough time to aim precisely, though.

The first bolt missed completely, but despite that, the woman pushed it further away. The timing of the explosion was right, but the distance too much to cause damage.

The second bolt exploded too early, but with her current speed it was a blessing in disguise – something did manage to hit her, although he couldn’t be sure of the bolt’s effectiveness.

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That was when she reached the minefield.

He expected her to stop there, but she didn’t slow her advance at all. She was already flying at a high speed and it only continued to increase.

Charging forward like an angry bull, she produced a series of force waves that threw his beads and chunks of soil away.

He already discarded the crossbow and was in the process of extracting his spear when a series of three, heavy scans hit him – all in the rhythm of the expulsion of Force Magicules she produced. His Force Weave dented, then ruptured, then folded back. His disrupting cloud was pushed away along with his Veil.

In panic, he activated all beads closest to the woman while jumping forward and at an angle. At the same time, he disrupted the remnants of the Force Weave behind his back to produce a small air explosion – anything that could help him move faster.

What happened next was an absolute and unexpected chaos.

A mass destabilization of Force Magicules took place.

Whatever constructs Danette was using, they were all riddled with holes from the shrapnel flying all around, releasing the enclosed Force Magicules. Even Zeph was hit with a few projectiles, right before her attack brushed against his back as she was passing him. He was sent back to the ground, tumbling uncontrollably before a chain reaction started.

The Magicules released from his Force Weave were attuned to a slightly different scale of forces than Danette’s, and both of them were using at least two variants. One of Zeph’s variants – the one he used to keep the haze cloud in one place – started catching and transferring the velocity of the smallest particles of dust and shrapnel flying around as an aftermath of the initial clash. A similar thing took place on Danette’s side, as her shielding harbored Magicules meant to stop the shrapnel produced by his explosives and deflect the crossbow’s bolts.

A cascade reaction started occurring in the mix – the miniscule forces were being spread over a vast area, causing the scale of force reaction to change, even as a part of the responsible Magicules destabilized, releasing their energy in the process. Those forces were caught by other variants and spread once again with a release of their own energy. The abnormal amount of dust, soil, metal splinters, and even bigger objects in the air was a perfect medium for the force transfers to cycle back and feed the smaller-scale transfers, and a beautiful method to destabilize free-flying Force Magicules of incompatible properties.

As Zeph’s body was launched into the air suddenly, the inactive beads around started exploding one after another, powering the mayhem even more.

The forces intensified. He could see nothing but the sky and ground randomly flickering before his eyes. His spear, bandoliers, sacks – everything was stripped off as he fought to keep his appendages close to his body, with mixed success.

In a final act, just after he started feeling like he was free-falling, an unmistakable roar of an enormous implosion took place, sucking him back and almost making him blank out, before a consecutive explosion allowed his body to leave the area of the catastrophic event.

================ Alex PoV ================

He frowned at what he was seeing.

The tornado that formed shortly after Danette Gildafi’s charge shouldn’t have happened. None of them should have abilities capable of producing such effects.

If it even could be called a ‘tornado’. It reminded him more of the Scrubbing Spell, just scaled up to impossible proportions. For a moment there, everything just started following the familiar rolling movement pattern, although a vertical one. That didn’t change the effectiveness much – the ground lost at least two meters of soil in the event and every… object in the twister was polished to shine.

If it wasn’t disintegrated in the process, that is. Like Gildafi’s robes. Her bleeding form was left with reinforced strips that were barely covering her dignity.

“Do you think it was an intentional effect?” Alana asked from the side.

He didn’t spare her a glance, knowing well that she was just worried. “There is no way. Gildafi isn’t a fighter, and Zeph isn’t able to use Spells above Tier 1. It was an accident.”

“Someone will definitely ask about that, though.” Her dissatisfaction was clear in her voice.

Indeed, a Spell of that caliber would be worth more than a Manasolid farm. Learning about how the effect took place would be a priority for the Landlords and Towers from now on.

“It’s not our problem,” he said indifferently, glancing at Zeph’s sprawled body.

His old teammate was already trying to stand up. His armor was leaking some green fluid from many places, but he was conscious and able to move. Mostly unharmed, it seemed. Something that couldn’t be said about Danette Gildafi.

The countdown has already begun. She still didn’t move a muscle.

“I hope he will decline tomorrow’s fight…” Alana said. He could hear the wood squeaking as she heavily landed back on her chair.

“He won’t. You know him. He wasn’t handicapped in this fight, so he will at least try.” He turned around and started walking away from the window.

As he reached the door, a light show started playing out behind him, along with the proclamation of Zeph’s victory.

“We will proceed with plan alpha. It’s always better to leave some evidence for the government’s troops.”

Alana’s grumbling was all the confirmation he needed before he left.

===============================

~~~

Zeph was lying on the surgery table, waiting for Pavail to finish his final health check.

It took almost an hour to collect Zeph’s equipment from the arena. Some of his beads and plates were thrown all the way to the surrounding terrains, and the arbiters were adamant about gathering every last of them before proceeding. Not only to prevent cheating, but also to keep their enchantment technology away from the competition.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to do it himself. The members of his Guild took that upon themselves – he just had to state the numbers. His beads still contained his Mana, so he just had to focus and count them while giving directions. As for the plates – P’pfel knew exactly how many he gave him. His smoke bombs were shredded, as was all leather equipment, so not much else was left to search for.

The results of the fight were quite serious. Ghrughah would have to fix most of his equipment, his armor included. Worse – because of the time constrictions, the giant could only return them to a working condition. Full maintenance could be done only after the Tournament.

His body wasn’t in the best state, too, but he couldn’t complain. They managed to avoid the stadium’s medical team, so the gig with his malfunctioning Will was still in the play. Gru was able to locate and consume or displace most of the metallic fragments that penetrated his body, so Pavail didn’t have to do much. His armor helped splendidly, even if it suffered serious damage in the process. It blocked most of the shrapnel and—thanks to the presence of Phleya—prevented the Force Magicules from penetrating his body.

Danette suffered much more serious wounds, from what he heard. The Magicules got through her skin and caused mass bruising and internal bleeding all over her body. Her skull was cracked in a few places – the bone severely weakened – putting her into a coma.

He decided to visit her after the Tournament because, in his opinion, she was the first of the representatives who tried to fight fair and square. And she wasn’t even a warrior. He found himself liking her straightforward, stubborn, and genuine attitude. Especially because she had to have to deal with a lot of political pressure.

“All good,” Pavail stated, making him focus on his surroundings again. “You should eat more for the next few days, but I don’t see any more problems.” She turned away to wash her hands. Some blood still found its way to mark her fingers when she was examining his wounds.

“The rate at which you are adapting to… the conditions inside my body is a little scary,” he said, sitting up.

He quickly reached for his toga lying on the nearby stool. He wasn’t naked but didn’t feel comfortable staying in his underwear any longer.

“It comes with experience,” she shrugged. “And I have a lot of opportunities to gain more lately,” she said, smirking.

Aisha and Makani walked to them as he was putting on the clothes. Their faces were serious, which wasn’t a good sign.

“If you are finished, we want to know what happened at the end there,” Aisha started, handing him a plate with some greasy meat. “I hope you are aware that you will be harassed from now on?”

He frowned, taking the plate. “What harassment? I don’t remember most of what happened, I just saw the crater. Is that some kind of forbidden move or something?”

“So, it wasn’t intentional on your part?” Makani asked, moving closer.

“Leave me some personal space, you geek,” he said, stepping back defensively and grabbing a leg of an unknown bird to chew on. “I think I know what happened, and it definitely wasn’t intentional if I’m right. But you didn’t answer my question!” he accused them before taking a bite.

Aisha put a hand on Makani’s shoulder and pulled him back. But the Manacaster continued to look at him like an especially tasty-looking piece of meat. “Going by Tower’s standards, that was a Tier 1 Spell showing the power of a Tier 2 or Tier 3 Spell… depending on the details you are yet to provide!” he exclaimed with enthusiasm. His eyes were shining with a dangerous, fanatical glint… at least from Zeph’s perspective.

He took another step back.

“Which means,” Aisha interjected, “that both you and Danette Gildafi will be fervently interviewed by the representatives from the Towers AND the Landlords. You have created a cheap version of advanced effect back there,” she said, sounding somewhat angrily.

“How’, wa’t,” he tried to say while making a placating gesture. He fought hard to swallow the meat without choking.

“Calm down, both of you!” he finally managed to voice. “Okay, listen. If it was as easy as I think it was, you should have a ton of similar occurrences. Every Spellwielder has access to the Scrubbing Spell, after all. Why don’t we… I don’t know… move to a more secure area before talking about it?”

Aisha and Makani exchanged glances, then nodded at once.

It seemed that they didn’t care much about the rest of the Duels.

Under Kwan’s approval, P’pfel led them to his room. It was the same style – full of Ancient Egypt. The Gremling already set up a second layer of defenses there. Ghrughah should have even better ones, but was busy at the moment.

In between bites taken from the freshly prepared dishes, Zeph narrated what he suspected had happened. He experimented enough with the Force-Magicules to know what the remnants of his Veil registered at the time.

He told them about the chain reaction that most probably happened. About differently-attuned Force-Magicules and how he learned about them. Although, Aisha already knew about the latter. He also noted that most of his beads exploded in the ensuing chaos – clearly adding fuel to the reaction, as Force-Mana was present in them from the very beginning. Not to mention, Metal-Mana and Space-Mana were also involved – both of which had a very good synergy with the Force variant.

Aisha’s worried face started transforming into a disappointed one as he continued his explanations. Similarly, Makani’s enthusiasm was replaced with a deepening frown.

“So, that’s why I was surprised you never encountered such a phenomenon. If you mix those Magicules in a space filled with explosives… rather – with more fuel. Then it should be easy to recreate. Knowing Corora, that happens dozens of times each day,” he finished, shrugging innocently.

“Something doesn’t add up,” Makani immediately said. He started to scratch his goatee a while ago, looking at the ground. “You were right to assume that we have conducted experiments in similar conditions. Of course, we already know about the Force-Magicule variants, too. But we never observed a similar effect… Your explanation has to be wrong somewhere…”

Aisha facepalmed. “Makani… you poor lad…”

He turned to glare at her. “What?” he asked, offended much.

“His Spells, his full-body enhancement, the basic Magicule that allows it to work… what do they have in common?” she asked, shaking her head slightly while dramatically covering her eyes with the fingers of one hand.

Makani’s opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Instead, his jaw continued to move downward slowly as he started connecting the dots.

“Zeph,” she said, dropping her hand to look at his oblivious face, “how much Will did you use just before the chain reaction took effect?”

It was Zeph’s turn to be astounded. His hand stopped midway to his mouth as his eyes widened.

Oh… Oh shit…