If Sam strained himself, he could just about make out the audience sitting in the stands, but it looked like he was viewing it through a heat haze. He shook his head and took a good look around him, trying to find the other fighters. There was nothing there, save for the low moaning of the wind as it passed across the desolate sands. Then a noise came out of the distance, a cry of pain and fear.
A small flare of light blossomed to the north, and Sam immediately started to make his way away from it. All he had to do was survive, and trying to fight would just complicate matters. His hopes of doing so were squashed beneath the iron boot of reality as a knife skidded off a nearby ruin. He looked around and saw a figure rapidly loping across the sands. By the way that sun reflected off the man’s armor, it was Andrew Munro.
Sam started to run, not because he couldn't fight the man, but because he wanted to be fresh and ready in case the Overlord came calling. More knives shot through the air towards Sam, and he relied on his enhanced sense to hear their approach. He ran for a few minutes, outpacing his pursuer, and then saw a pair of fighters having at it next to a half collapsed pyramid. He headed straight for them, hoping to send Munro after them. It was Torchman and Harry King, and as soon as they saw Sam barreling towards them, they paled.
Sam ran straight through the middle of their fight, and as he kept on running, the two men looked at each other in confusion. Then Munro slammed into them with a sword in both hands, and sent them flying over the sands. Sam smiled, not feeling any guilt for his actions. Both of the other men were his enemies, and he was glad to take them out of the equation. A few moments later, two bolts of lightning struck the sands behind him and the voice of the System boomed over the landscape.
“Harry King and Torchman have been eliminated from the tournament.”
Andrew Munro had made quick work of the two fighters, who were both on the lower end of the top 16. Now there were only 14 fighters left, and six to go until the winners progressed. Sam decided to go look for his own allies, and perhaps help them if they were in trouble.
Closing his eyes, Sam tried to envision the links of reciprocity that he had formed with Lao. Perhaps the man’s Dao would allow for contact between them. Sam found a small spark of blue light off to the west, and he followed it.
As Lao came into sight, Sam was able to make out what he was doing. The man was desperately fighting against Reaper, who was coldly and efficiently dismantling Lao’s defenses. Reaper’s attacks, imbued with the Dao as they were, were somewhat resistant to Lao’s own techniques, and without them he was on the lower end of physical power compared to most others. Upon seeing Sam, Lao smiled. Reaper looked up and saw Sam rapidly approaching, with a bright aura starting to shine from his body. Reaper gave Eduardo one last look and ran off, propelling himself with jets of ectoplasm. Lao took a deep breath and started to heal his hand, which was withered and atrophied from Reaper’s attacks.
“What happened there?” Sam asked, concerned for Lao. Lao grunted as his hand healed and then turned to Sam.
“Reaper ambushed me from behind that ruin over there,” Las said, pointing at an ominous looking mausoleum. “He’s become far stronger than he should be. That man is like a monster, and despite the weakness that he was inflicted with because of his status as a loser, he was still a bit stronger than me.”
Sam nodded, and Lao let out a sigh.
“That fight took a lot out of me, but I’m recouping some of my energy now. I think that I’ll be fine in a few minutes.”
“Oh, alright. Do you have a plan for the rest of the match?”
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Lao nodded.
“I can sense the other fighters somewhat with my Dao, and I am planning to stay as far away from them as I can. There’s no point in fighting now.”
Sam nodded in agreement.
“I was going to go seek out our allies in case they needed help. Like Thomas said, the more people we have in the top positions, the more we stand to gain from this tournament.”
Sam ran off after waiting for Lao to say something, leaving when he realized that their conversation was over.
Another bolt of lightning struck the ground far ahead of Sam, and the booming voice of the System coldly announced the elimination of Starchild. Sam started running towards the lightning bolt, hoping to find more people. Now that he had realized that he could just flee if someone too strong came near him, Sam was less apprehensive about seeking out fights. There was little chance of any actual danger anyway, unless he came across the Overlord. That man would like nothing more than to eliminate Sam here, before he could become a problem.
As he neared the blackened and glassy patch of sand where the lightning had struck, Sam saw a flash of light off of scales, and turned towards it, seeing the figure of Drake pause as he aborted his impromptu ambush. Sam tilted his head at the man and opened his mouth to speak.
“Really? Did you seriously think that you could take me on?” Sam said, with a mocking tone in his voice. Drake colored and started to run, but Sam wasn't done with the man. He jumped forwards, clearing the distance between them, and crushed Drake into the ground with a single blow of his mace. It had been completely unenhanced, but it was enough to knock out Drake in one go. Sam raised his mace again, but apparently unconsciousness was enough for the System because the man was teleported away with a flash of lightning.
Sam shrugged and made his way off into the desert again. There were now only four more people who had to be eliminated. It was up to him to make sure that his allies were not among their number. Sam saw a cloud of dust to the south, and felt an overwhelming presence expand outwards, signaling that the Overlord was there. Sure enough, another elimination notice rang out, this time for Marina Talbot. Sam smiled, they were getting lucky with the eliminations. Now it was guaranteed that at least 3 of his faction members would make it to the quarterfinals.
There was nobody else near Sam, so he stopped and waited until he spotted something. A cry for help echoed from the east, and it sounded like the person in question had said the name ‘Sam'. It could be a trick, but the people who Sam was wary of, Rodney Kane and the Overlord, probably wouldn't stoop to such methods to trap him. Another elimination notice rang out, this time for one of Sam’s allies.
“Thomas Aquinas has been eliminated from the tournament.”
Sam cursed and started running toward the place where the lightning had struck, seeing Solitaire and the Bear trying to fend off Reaper. As the man spotted Sam, he started running, but this time Sam was not going to let him escape so easily. As he ran, Reaper looked back and started to speed up, rocket flares of dark light coursing out of his calves. Yet another elimination notice sounded out, and Sam was starting to get worried. If the event finished before he could beat Reaper, then the man would be able to continue fighting, which could end up giving him an advantage later on. Sam did not want such a man to be at large on Earth.
Reaper smirked, and launched a bolt of dark light backwards. Sam dodged it easily, but that had not been Reaper’s target. It struck Solitaire head on, and the man was teleported away. Sam let out a scream of rage, and threw his mace at Reaper, imbuing it with as much power as he could, but as the mace spun head over tail, everyone was teleported back into the waiting area.
Sam growled and glared at Reaper, who stood impassively to the side. Sam’s Dao raged within him, telling him to march over and rip the head of that damnable man off of his shoulder, but Sam ignored it. The part of his Dao that leaned towards justice approved of this, and he felt a pleasant chime within his Dao, both halves pleased with him. The righteous half for his decision, and his angry side for not caving into his base instincts. That showed strength, and strength was needed in order to carry out the demands of his own rage. This was a more sophisticated form of Anger than the basic Dao Mote, and it possessed a form of calculating intelligence to it, which ensured that revenge would be gained in the end no matter what. And rest assured, Reaper would be feeling that revenge soon.
As Sam took a look around him, he saw that there were only the eight remaining fighters left in the waiting area. He noticed that Anonymous had been the seventh fighter to have been eliminated, the one that he had been too distracted to register as he was chasing Reaper. The others had been immediately banished, cast aside by the System like suddenly disfavored toys. Perhaps that was all that they were to the System in the end. Toys.