The tournament officials called in another little meeting right before the actual first round restarted. It was nice of them to have different meetings, just as they had done the first time. Instead of jumbling together teams from all three contingents, they were holding separate briefing sessions for every contingent.

All Rieren could wonder about as she joined her fellow Shatterlands representatives was whether they were holding a meeting with the monsters too.

“Greetings, champions!” It was the same official who had explained the initial rules of the first round and handed them their tokens. The chain of events apparently hadn’t fazed him even a tiny bit. His smile was just as creepy as before, his posture almost elated. Cursed man even clapped as everyone gathered around. “Good, good, you’re all here!”

“Let’s get this over with,” someone said.

The official smiled overly pleasantly at them all. “All in good time. First, you must understand the new rules, new codes of conduct, and most importantly, the new expectations we have for each and every one of you.”

“Are you going through the same thing with the monsters?” Kalvia asked. Rieren smiled. Leave it to the Empress-to-be to voice the harder questions.

“We are indeed establishing ground rules and other expectations from our newest participants as vaunted challengers partaking in the Trails of Ascendance.”

“Could’ve just have said yes.”

The man’s smile grew wider. “Perhaps I should have. Regardless, it is now time for me to explain what you must perform going forward.”

They knew the gist already, of course. Someone might have even considered bandying words with the official so that he wouldn’t repeat all that they were already aware of. But the tournament official was too fast, starting the long list of new rules and running through them too quickly for anyone to get a chance to interrupt.

It was just as Rieren had been told in Avathene’s tent. Their new objective was to re-secure the tokens from the invading monsters. If even a single one of the Abyssals or Aetherians crossed to the brazier and submitted their token, then their entire team would qualify. Essentially, the same rules as had been in the first round, with the addition of monsters instead of just people.

The main difference appeared afterwards. In the previous iteration, there had been no true code of conduct regarding their interactions with other competitors.

While they had been counselled to not cause any more bloodshed than necessary—and to try not killing each other, if at all possible—such rules went out the window now that the tournament included non-humans.

Rieren was tempted to call it suspicious as well, but she understood they could only maintain a sense of decorum to a certain extent. Beyond that, their struggles were bound to get out of hand. In fact, there were several who had already died in the first round’s previous iteration. With the presence of monsters, that danger was only going to increase.

It was just noteworthy, in Rieren’s opinion, that the official chose to explicitly leave out matters regarding safety.

“Any questions?” the official asked after he was done. “There isn’t much time left, but I’ll answer as many as I can.”

“What if the monsters don’t participate the way they’re supposed to?” the green-robed woman asked.

“And how exactly are they expected to participate?”

“Well, what if they buried their tokens somewhere instead of carrying them around upon their person. That would be against the rules, wouldn’t it?”

“Hmm, have I mentioned anything against burying tokens?”

“No… but that cannot be allowed, can it? We weren’t allowed to—”

“You were allowed to do whatever you wished with your tokens. If you intended to shove it into any orifice that others would be too disgusted to pry open, there is no rule stopping you. The monsters will enjoy the same sorts of freedom.”

Rieren frowned. That was a good point. Monsters wouldn’t think the same way cultivators tended to, nor hold themselves to the same standards and expectations. They would have to be vigilant and careful.

“Any other queries?” the official asked.

There were no further questions. Their task was simple and straightforward. On paper, at least. Rieren and everyone else knew that simplicity would evaporate as soon as the actual battles began.

When the tournament official finally retreated, wishing them good luck, they all began heading out as the plan dictated. Oromin and the rest of them had already clarified where exactly the idea needed each and every single one of them to be.

Thankfully, Rieren’s position wasn’t too far. She was even more grateful that, as she headed to her location, she found Silomene not far from her.

“You seem a little sad,” Rieren said, joining her friend. “I hope everything is well.”

“Oh! Hello.” Silomene turned to Rieren with a small smile. “No, everything is alright. I’m just a little worried about being separated from Lord Mercion again. He has been rather stressed ever since the tournament began.”

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Rieren recalled Mercion’s appearance at the meeting. “What happened with your team? Were you able to get close to one of your braziers?”

Silomene placed a hand just above her chest, as though intent on touching something she kept there. Likely her team’s token. It wasn’t with her any longer. Mercion had taken it, ready to head out to his target destination.

“We had a rather terrible time of it, I won’t lie,” Silomene said. She even laughed a little as she spoke. Apparently, it hadn’t been so terrible that the memories of it prevented her from laughing about the incident. “The other contingents have sent in powerful participants.”

Rieren had to force herself not to touch the spot where she had been wounded. “That they have. I am pleasantly surprised that nothing worse happened to you and Mercion besides some minor wounds.”

“We met someone in the Ascendant realm, Rieren,” Silomene said, voice hushed. “Or near enough at least, going by her power. There was also someone who summoned a gigantic automaton…”

Her tales continued as they walked towards their positions. Silomene and her team had faced down several powerful opponents, a small number of whom Rieren recognized. They had eventually decided to maintain a low profile, however. Their goal was to reach the brazier location, nothing more beyond that.

One of their encounters Rieren was especially interested in was Essalina. Apparently, Silomene and Mercion had come across the northerner group and barely come out alive.

“I am guessing Essalina Arteroth was one of the powerful ones,” Rieren said.

Silomene laughed again, though it wasn’t quite cheerful. “We were lucky to come out of it alive. Essalina almost wanted us taken hostage, but thankfully, one of her other team members advised against it. That is the only reason we got away, beaten and bloodied though we were.”

With her side of the story done, Silomene dutifully enquired after Rieren’s experiences. She didn’t hold anything back, explaining her scuffle with her recruits, the subsequent encounters, and then ultimate success. All taken away by the arrival of the monsters.

“Incredible,” Silomene said, eyes wide as small saucers. “You created your own little coalition. Something like that would be tremendously useful here.”

She was right. It got Rieren thinking about what Morel and his team might be doing, what Olis and her team were performing at the same time.

“And what about Lord Mercion?” Rieren asked. “He seems as driven as ever.”

Silomene sighed. “He is. More so than before, if you can believe it. At the rate he’s pushing himself, I don’t know how long he can maintain it.”

“It is a good thing he has you to keep an eye on him.”

“I don’t mind.” Silomene crossed her arms. “I simply hope he isn’t pulling on that accursed Abyssal somehow…”

Rieren frowned. That was certainly a possibility. She had forgotten that Mercion could be the link between the monsters’ presence and the Gravemark Puppeteer. He might not even be aware of the Abyssal’s manipulation. Rieren opened her mouth, but then snapped it close. No. There was no point in relaying her suspicions to Silomene overtly. Poor woman already looked too worried.

“Keep an eye on him, if you can,” Rieren said.

“Always.”

“Regardless of what he might be doing, whether he is actually being manipulated by the Gravemark Puppeteer or not, we do not wish the others to find out and start poking around.”

A warbling gong rolled across the half-destroyed forest. The signal to begin the first round again.

It was time to win for good this time.

Wishing Silomene fair fortune in the upcoming battle, Rieren left her friend alone to get into her position. Silomene would have her own duties to attend to.

As a final check, Oromin quickly went over the plan with the rest of them. The strongest members of the contingent were to stick together in one location, concentrating their powers to deliver singular, fatal blows. The rest of their contingents’ duty would amount to funneling all the monsters towards their most powerful location. Their enemies would stand no chance.

Still. It wasn’t a foolproof plan by any means. All too many parts of it could fall apart, not least of which the monsters’ autonomy proving too difficult to manipulate in the direction they needed.

But it was worth a shot anyway. If it succeeded, they would be making their lives much easier.

As much as Rieren saw the sense in the idea, she wasn’t overly fond of it simply because it required her to wait. She wasn’t the kind to stab her sword into the ground and wait for her objectives to materialize before herself. Steady progress towards her work was how she did things.

Nevertheless, she understood the importance of being flexible. If the correct path required her to wait, then she would exercise her patience. She wasn’t a cultivator for nothing.

“Are we all prepared?” Oromin asked the remainder of the strongest members of the Shatterlands’ contingent after everyone else had left.

Rieren nodded. “My skin itches to battle, but I will wait as needed.”

The large cultivator—Marzdel, that was his name—agreed with a vigorous nod. “I do not envy the others their task of corralling the monsters instead of fighting them directly, but I do envy that they are about to engage the enemy while I… ponder life and its meaning.”

Oromin snorted. “I understand your impatience, believe me. I would like nothing better than to show these upstart monsters that they were gravely mistaken to interrupt our tournament. But we must wait and conduct things in the best manner. And sometimes, that means not doing anything.”

“Well, we are not doing nothing,” Rieren said. “It only feels that way for now.”

They were positioning themselves in the right formation and location. After all, there was no set location for the others to draw the Abyssals and Aetherians too, especially since different monsters might head in different directions. Rieren and the others would need to keep in constant contact and be ready to move at a moment’s notice.

“I always appreciate your forthrightness, Rieren,” Oromin said.

They moved about thirty paces further, listening in on the distant sounds of battle. It sounded like the first monsters and cultivators had met.

Though, the call they received soon put that into some doubt.

“What?” Oromin asked.

Rieren frowned as she heard the message. They had configured their Comm Shells so that they were all connected across one channel, so that one person would be talking to everyone who had a communication device on hand. It posed some risks, but the benefit of not needing to waste time relaying messages constantly outweighed the potential risks.

They would just have to be extra circumspect about not letting any of the Comm Shells fall into enemy hands.

“They’re attacking the rear.” It was Silomene. She and a few others had accompanied their reserve team, the ones who held their tokens and would go over to the braziers for submission if things went awry with the monsters. “They predicted our plan, uncle. They know.”

Oromin looked like he was moments away from crushing the shell in his hands, but he mastered himself quickly. “Well, we predicted that they would predict. Move on to the third plan. We’ll make them regret wasting time attacking fellow cultivators instead of taking on the monsters.”

“Understood.”

Silomene cut off the call. There was no need for any of them to converse further. The third plan had already been discussed beforehand. Everyone else would know what things they’d have to shift to make it work.

“They’re here,” Marzdel said.

Rieren turned to face the front. A faint noise was emanating from the tree-shrouded distance, like giant footsteps bursting through a constricted path. She hefted her sword.

It was nearly time to fight.