Rieren was certain she wasn’t supposed to survive that attack from the floating man. In the fraction of a second she got before impact, she sensed the sheer power behind that burning, blitzing spear of light shooting at them.

Nevertheless, Earthfall Blade was enough to prevent complete catastrophe. It was instinct. The motion of her arm just so, the activation of the skill, then deflection of the cannoning spear behind her, all such actions happened without Rieren’s conscious effort. A lifetime of battle had ingrained the muscle memory too deep for time reversal to snatch it away.

But simply because the spear didn’t strike her directly didn’t mean that all danger had been averted. Rieren was only able to deflect the attack about two dozen paces away from her.

The area covered by the spear’s subsequent detonation made that look utterly microscopic.

It was a good thing the initial use of Earthfall Blade had granted her some time to act, though. A mere heartbeat, broken into fractions by her advanced Mind. But it was enough.

Rieren twisted around, activating Earthfall Blade again and holding her sword in the right stance to block the shockwave. She had already pulled on the extra Essence from her past self’s elixir field to reconstruct her skin-tight concentrated Essence armour.

The blast hit her hard. Rieren’s skill had pushed away the worst of the shockwave, but that was only a small taste of the spear’s true power. Waves of concentrated Essence in wild colours slammed into her. The Essence armour protected her for a bit, but the intensity of the spear’s onslaught soon reduced it to nothing, and then Rieren herself was hit by it.

The pain was immense. A part of her robes was burned off, her skin following suit. Shrapnel from the blistering exploding ground was undoing her too.

It was a minor blessing that it didn’t last too long. Rieren’s quick use of her concentrated Essence armour had absorbed at least half of the eradicating spear’s enormous power. When the blast ended, she staggered in her spot, shoving down the rising gratitude at having come out of that alive to check her surroundings.

Far above, there was no sign of the man. For a second, it was as though he had never been there in the first place.

Then she heard the next explosion. It was unmistakable. Having just heard it, Rieren would recognize it anywhere. That man hadn’t disappeared. He simply had unshakeable faith in his attack, expecting it to fully annihilate his targets. No one, at least no one in the Trials of Ascendance, ought to be able to block it enough to survive.

As if Rieren needed more proof that he was far too powerful. And that spear was seemingly made of nothing but light. Could it be—?

“You saved me,” the Domain-user at her feet said, cutting through her thoughts. The man was positioned exactly behind her, such that everything he would have suffered had all struck Rieren instead. “All while putting yourself in danger…”

It was then that the pain burning through Rieren’s right side made itself known. She winced a little. “Do you know who that was?” Considering that these three had nearly been killed as well, this wasn’t setup. “Or what team or contingent he represents?”

He shook his head. “How in the Abyss did you survive?”

“It was nothing.” Divine Resilience was already healing her up. Besides, this pain didn’t even come close to what she had survived in the Abyss when she’d been transformed into a monster. “I asked a question.”

“I don’t know who that was,” he said.

Continuing to shake his head in disbelief, he looked around. Rieren kept him in her line of sight while doing the same. Her heart was slowly returning to its normal pace.

There was no sign of the others at first. A second later, two crows came flying with caws that sounded… bloated was the only way Rieren could think of it. Moments later, the crows dropped to the ground and opened their beaks impossibly wide. With a spurt of blood and other fluids, Morel and Stade crawled out from within the birds.

Interesting ability, if a little disgusting. She hadn’t gotten to see it in the battle. Rieren had to wonder which of those two was the crow-summoner. They were clearly Domain Summons of a kind, though the Domain itself had no visible imprint. Naturally, the birds had been torn apart.

Morel staggered upright. He had managed to bandage his torn-up hand, though his leg was still bleeding profusely. Behind him, Stade had tied up his stump, though it hadn’t stopped bleeding fully and looked like he was moments away from losing consciousness.

“Are you going to kill us now?” Morel asked. He tried to bring out his knife but it was clear that he wasn’t going to be offering any obstacle against Rieren.

“Why shouldn’t I?” Rieren asked. “Are you so desperate to save your comrade you would throw your life away? Do you value each other’s lives so much, yet fail to see the importance in that of others’?”

“We were charged with one thing, only,” Morel said. “To win the Trials of Ascendance and bring glory to the Ardent Stream Sect. If that required killing others, then so be it. Failure is not an option.”

Rieren frowned. The Ardent Stream Sect was one of the major Sects in the centre of the Elderlands. She had faced them in actual battle in the previous timeline. They’d been quite powerful, certainly stronger than these three she had just fought and defeated. So why hadn’t they sent their strongest representatives to the Trials of Ascendance?

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“I might consider letting you live,” Rieren said. “If you answer my questions truthfully.”

They didn’t agree immediately. Morel’s mouth twisted in the realization that he didn’t have any better options. It wasn’t just his life that rested in Rieren’s hands now. The fate of his success, and by extension, his team’s and his Sect’s, also depended on what Rieren decided. He had no chance but to comply.

“What would you ask?” Stade asked. Apparently, he had regained his bearings enough to converse now that his stump wasn’t bleeding out any longer.

“Why did your Sect send the three of you?” she asked.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Morel asked.

“You have more powerful disciples at your Sect. People who are stronger, more experienced, and more accomplished. Yet, the Ardent Stream Sect sends three unknowns who I am well aware are not the best that they could send.”

Anger flared in Morel’s eyes. Rieren had clearly hit a sore spot. But there was also resignation there, a begrudging acceptance that she wasn’t wrong. There were stronger disciples his Sect could have sent, but had opted against doing so.

“They didn’t want to send in people who would be recognized,” Stade said. “It would be better if unknown quantities participated, because that way, it would be more difficult for others to use the knowledge of the past against us. We wouldn’t need to worry about what others have learned from the previous timeline because, as you so kindly pointed out, no one knows us.”

Rieren could see that being true. It made logical sense. But whether it was the entire truth was the real question. “And there were no other motivations behind this decision?”

“If there are, we’re not privy to them. Does that satisfy your curiosity?”

“Do you know if the rest of your side is acting thus? Sending in lesser-known members and cultivators so that those who were most prominent in the previous timeline would not be beaten easily?”

“I cannot say. We’re only privy to matters regarding us.”

Fair enough. After all, they didn’t even know everything about their own Sect’s motivations. For Rieren was certain there was more to it than simply preventing the advantage of knowledge from the past coming into play.

“Is that enough?” Morel asked. “You’ll let us go now?”

“I learned nothing that was useful to me,” Rieren said.

“That’s not our fault!”

“Nevertheless, it does not justify sparing your lives. You may simply end up being a thorn in my side later on. Safer for me to end your threat here and now.”

“Wait!” the Domain-user said. He had risen enough so that he was on his knees, almost pleading with Rieren. “Morel, give her the tokens.”

“What? Have you lost your mind, Forys?”

“Just give them to her.”

Rieren blinked. More tokens would be a better way to end this, now that she thought about it. Of course, she had been intending to take the runic formation pieces as soon as she had killed them off. But maybe she didn’t have to take the tokens by themselves.

Maybe she could make use of their owners as well.

“I agree,” she said. “Hand them over.”

Morel took a step back from Rieren. He looked like he was caught at the edge of a cliff.

“I promise not to harm you if you hand over all your tokens,” Rieren said.

She tried to relax her posture to seem less threatening, though she couldn’t make herself act as diplomatic as might have been ideal. After all, she wasn’t negotiating with them. Not really. All the power still lay with her.

“In fact, I have a proposal,” she continued. “Give me all your tokens and I will spare your lives. But besides that, I will return one token so that your team can progress to the next round so long as you follow my commands and assist me in reaching our destination smoke signal.”

“You want to ally with us?” Stade asked.

“More like coercing us to obey whatever you say,” Morel said. “How can we trust you?”

Rieren looked between the three of them, trying to impress upon them with just her unrelenting posture that they really had no better choice. “You cannot. You will need to make a choice. Do you wish to have some chance of making it to the next round, or do you wish to die by my hands now?”

That was truly no choice at all. It seemed they recognized that fact well enough. Morel still looked conflicted, but after receiving no backing for his recalcitrance from his companions, he eventually put his hand within his robes and pulled out three tokens. They looked exactly like the one Rieren’s team had received.

She took the tokens from Morel. When she tried to place them inside her robes, with the token she already had, she found there wasn’t enough space with the way she had placed the original token. Rieren had to pull it out, then arrange it in a flatter manner so that it fit with the three new ones she had.

“Hold on,” Morel said, eyes widening. “You already have a token of your own?”

Rieren raised an eyebrow. “Yes? What of it?”

“Your companions. They ran off. I thought one of them had your team’s token. You all even said something like that.”

Rieren smiled. “Well, it would seem our little trickery was quite effective. We made it seem as though the ones of us running away would hold onto and safeguard our token, when in truth, it was the one remaining behind who possessed it.”

Morel looked like he wanted to bury his head in the ground like a frightened ostrich, though his would be more out of shame.

Rieren looked over her three new… compatriots? No, she would care more about comrades. Servant had a terrible taste. Hireling. That would work.

New Achievement!

You have recruited your first underlings! Every commander starts small. One day, you will lead an entire nation’s worth of people.

Rewards

* 1 Level

* 1 Skill point

* 10 Credits

* 1 Ingredient: Flightless Fortrick Feather

Rieren glanced down at the strange shimmering feather. With no spatial rings allowed in the tournament, she had to store it somewhere in her robe like with the tokens.

Strange thing to be getting as a reward. Fortrick Feathers were excellent for controlling corrupted Essence. She might have some sealed off inside her head, but it wasn’t like she was using it.

Her three hirelings all had wounds severe enough to reduce how useful they would be to her. A missing leg, a torn hand, several deep cuts and gashes, large loss of blood. Rieren had not been anticipating recruiting them under her, so she hadn’t had any reason not to hold back. It was only their own skill that had kept them alive.

“Heal yourselves up as best as you can,” Rieren said. “We must be off as soon as possible. There is no telling how many may have already reached the target locations. You should have enough Credits to purchase quick healing supplies from the System Shop. I suggest you do so.”

“I thought they would give us periodic notices as the barrier was built up,” Strade said. “So we would know if we really needed to hurry.”

Rieren frowned. So the competition officials had mentioned that to the southerners’ and the imperial courts’ teams, but not to Rieren’s side. Very likely, the northerners had no idea either. A clear presentation of bias. Well, that was another good reason to recruit these three into her team. They should be able to tell her how the barrier was coming along, then.

Still. Rieren couldn’t relax. She looked up, seeing the purple smoke signal climbing high into the heavens. Was it her imagination, or did it look thinner than before? Rieren frowned. This was a race, and in races, the steady ones never truly won.