Zephyr sat alone next to the dream tree, its trunk warped and twisted in odd ways. Zephyr’s body was unusually tense, an outcome of accumulated stress. He rolled his shoulders, hoping to release some tension but no relief was coming his way. The damned dominion boss was no longer hiding his hostility toward him and Zephyr could nothing but sneer at him for this.
On my way here, I’ve reinvented… reengineered myself. I have defied death itself, and a dumb sapient monster has the audacity to chastise me for my employed methods when it has slaughtered thousands in its forest.
Before the second global dominion, Zephyr was on his deathbed, dying of an incurable affliction inflicted by a stray dominion monster. Then the second dominion arrived and the Web was flooded with all sorts of information about miracles found inside the dominion forest, items, spells and potions. And allegedly some potions found there had affliction-cleansing effects. Zephyr knew that even though the Web was heavily censored by the World Government it still was full of shit. But when the information started reaching him from other avenues, he could no longer ignore it and wait for the life-saving potion on the Artefact Exchange. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to afford it anyway. Most items from rift reward chests were auction-only, reaching exorbitant prices. Furthermore, Untainted Paradise’s potion department deemed Zephyr’s potion too costly and refused further communication, sentencing him to death.
Zephyr craved vengeance. It had taken root when his family and friends had turned away from him, and grew stronger when ascenders with Talents that could fucking heal him deemed him not worthy their time, or big corporations found his request not profitable enough. After all, the Creeping Death affliction was unheard of with only a handful of other ascenders suffering from it on the planet.
The worst thing about the Creeping Death affliction was its effect on the body, it turned Zephyr into an old husk of a man, while he was still in his early 30s. What was worse, the potion which had removed the affliction didn’t restore his youthful look. He had spent all his time in the dominion searching for a way to reverse this but to no avail, then he met Sophia whose Talent allowed her to be nearly invisible to senses while near trees and given her abnormal spiritual powers, she was quite adept at hiding spiritually as well. But next to him, she was nothing, even at the peak of Level 6 at that time.
Zephyr had gone from Level 1 to Level 6 in less than three months with an unexpected ease. His Talent, once useless and ridiculed, now showed its true worth.
Zephyr’s Talent was called Master of Trees and allowed him to control trees in any way he saw fit. Inside the dominion filled with monster trees, Zephyr suddenly felt like a god. Nothing could stand in his way and survive.
He had considered killing Sophia on several occasions, she was insufferable and annoying, but she had made a good scout and assassin. Zephyr planned to keep her alive until they defeated the dominion boss and then he’d deal with the loose end on his path to retribution against those who had wronged him.
When they cracked the hidden key that led to the centre of the dominion and learned of the challenge, Zephyr had to adjust his plan. He’d win the competition then kill everyone in the competition and take their rewards.
***
Keynes contemplated the recent events.
Thoughts of his third challenge failure still hang over his head like an executioner’s scythe even though he had already accepted it as a boon rather than a failure. His other thoughts circled around his conversation with the Father. Keynes had an impression that the matter of the Children wasn’t finished despite his refusal to make a deal. The question was how far would the Father go to convince him?
Maybe he will let me win the whole competition in exchange for taking the Children?
Unlikely, Alice snorted, sounding as if she was eating something. Eating? Her? I am very sure that the System won’t allow the Father to cheat in the System-sanctioned event. If it could, the loophole would be dangerous to everyone involved and potentially create a precedent, which could be exploited by others in the future. So, don’t expect a free handout.
Alice’s assessment sobered his hopes, which also made him frustrated at how easily his expectations had shifted. He wasn’t a freeloader and such thinking didn’t suit him. He hadn’t been like this before he learned that only his Talent could open rifts, which made him unique.
Special.
Despite hardship and unfair treatment from the World Government, Keynes couldn’t deny that his position was nothing but privileged, which came with insane perks…
“I’ve finished with the battle plan.” Kora tore Keynes out of his thoughts.
“Already?” Keynes asked, surprised.
“Already?” Kora echoed the question, likewise surprised. “Keynes, it’s almost time.”
It seemed that the Technique of Focus wasn’t without its own dangers. Keynes would have to be more aware of time going forward or was risking zoning out and missing out on important moments.
“Sorry, I kinda got lost in my thoughts.”
Kora nodded.
“Would you like to hear the plan before we start?”she asked.
“Of course. What kind of a commander would I be if I didn’t know a battle plan?”
“A commander? I’m sorry but the position has been taken already,” Kora said softly, smiling.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“What? When?” Keynes asked playfully. They had already agreed that Kora would take the lead while Keyne would focus on field operations. The guardian suggested it to them. His argument was that Keynes’s trait would massively boost their field operations.
The guardian had helped them shape the overall campaign but he couldn’t participate in forming a battle plan. The only thing Keynes was unsure about was sacrificing their points in order to buy starting plants but the guardian assured him that this was a necessary step to guarantee their victory.
“Ready?” Kora asked, checking if was present.
“Always.”
“Ahem.”
Kora’s battle plan turned out to be a radical one. She opted for the plants that spread rapidly to gain ground in the beginning, which tied to the rules; each competitor had a core plant and losing it meant a loss and a kick out of the fourth challenge. Also, capturing a core plant of another contender gave a substantial boost to the capturer without empowering the enemies.
Torvac was her first target. Given how few points he currently had, she didn’t expect him to spend any on the starting plants and he would be the easiest target to defeat.
The plan came with its drawbacks though, which worried Keynes. As they focused on offence, their defence would suffer and they needed to keep in mind that Keynes had antagonised Zephyr to the point that the other contender might target them out of the gates.
Kora took this into consideration and wanted to spend some more points on building a proper defence against whoever they would be close to.
In general, Kora wanted to use fast, unpredictable strikes to take over enemies before they figured out the fourth challenge, while Keynes’s role was going to be dealing with the spiritual world. He was unsure about prioritising enemies over POIs though.
As the guardian had explained, the POIs were various strategic resources that could unlock new varieties of plants and various AOE effects. Keynes liked the idea of capturing POIs more than core plants but in regards to the battle planning, Kora had the last word. Keynes respected that.
***
Torvac was breathing hard, his heart was hammering in his chest. He knew he was out of depth in this competition, and the loot and reward he had already gathered was more than satisfactory but he wanted to prove to Esme that he was better than this.
Before him was the location of the final challenge. The large depression with a pond in the middle and several points of interests like vents, patches of high grasses and bushes Torvac didn’t know, patches of uncultivated soil and even several streams with rapid currents. The basin was beautiful and at the same time unnaturally packed with all these enhancements his guardian had told him about.
Other contenders were taking their places next to their core plants at the rim of the basin. Each contender had two neighbours, although their starting territory wasn’t adjacent at this point.
The guardian said that neutral flora will separate contenders in the beginning, Torvac remembered. Given the appearance of some plants growing here and there, the neutral flora seemed quite intimidating.
The Trait of Nature gave him a mix of sensations. He didn’t try to comprehend it, its complexity was overwhelming, even though a part of it longed to do so. Torvac tore his gaze away from the basin and turned around. His core plant was about his height and thick as an arm but its stalk was lime green with heart-shaped leaves and a violet bulb at its top.
With a trepidation, Torvac extended his arm and touched the core plant.
Would you like to form a temporary symbiotic connection with Towering Heart Flower?
Y/N
Torvac paused at seeing a System message. It was the first time since entering the competition that the System directly acknowledged its presence other than the competition subsection in the dominion section of the System.
Also, Towering Heart Flower looked nothing like Heart Flower but Torvac didn’t much care about it as he accepted the connection.
His mind was flooded with spatial awareness from the point of view of Towering Heart Flower, gaining access to its abilities and resources. Torvac could stay like this and steer his ‘garden’ from here or he could go about the old fashioned way by taking care of plants within the sphere of influence of his Towering Heart Flower. Both methods had their advantages and disadvantages. Luckily, he was permitted to use both.
“CONTENDERS, BEGIN!” The Father’s voice boomed, sending a jolt of excitement down Torvac’s spine.
***
“CONTENDERS, BEGIN!”
Sophia’s didn’t wait and triggered rapid growth of 17 Archemis Flowers. They cost her nearly 300 points but they had immense durability mixed with paralysing effect on the surroundings. Any neutral or enemy plant would cease to function in the presence of Archemis Flowers, once she gained enough ground and with it important resources, her Towering Heart Flower would start producing more, expanding her war machine.
But the question remained, who was she going to target first? The weakest contender? Someone from the middle or Zephyr? It itched her to target that bitch Kora but she didn’t want to do any favours to Zephyr who most likely was going to attack her and Keynes.
It will be better to let them fight each other but… The rules of this competition were different from standard warfare. Capturing an enemy’s ground reinforced the capturer, making Sophia’s idea unappealing. So what other choices do I have? Should I go after Edward? He’s far above me in points but he is a rather careful man, so he would go into defence to protect his points, likely not wasting points on any extra starting plants as there is a neutral buffer between us.
The situation wasn’t as simple as Sophia made it sound though. The placement of contenders made it harder to target specific individuals. It was still possible but by doing so, it opened the attacker to aggression from others. Unfortunately for her, Edward was on the other side of the basin and she wasn’t going to stretch her territory to attack him, it would be a suicide.
Sophia considered her immediate neighbours: Esme and Evren. Both of them were ranked lower than her but she had a feeling that if she attacked Evren first, Esme would take advantage of Sophia’s disposition and invade her. Evren was harder to read. Sophia found very little about the man and she didn’t want to spend her favour points to gain more info as she considered him irrelevant unlike Keynes, Kora and Edward.
That left Esme.
Esme’s other neighbour was Syman. Another easy target for Sophia but attacking him would bring Sophia into an immediate neighbourhood with Zephyr. She didn’t believe the old man would act against her, unless she was severely weakened but she’d feel safer having another contender between them.
It also leaves me open on the other side… While she didn’t much care about Evren, his neighbour was none other but Keynes and bitch Kora. But will they attack me, especially after I offered them help? Maybe not. But Sophia didn’t like taking chances.
Her decision was taken away from her by immense spiritual pressure coming from Esme’s territory. Dozens of reddish, sharp-leaf plants shot out of the ground, their abominable aura invaded surrounding neutral plants, which withered leaving nothing but ashes.
Holy fuck! What’s this?