Corrine visibly gritted her teeth.
He grinned at her. She was killing him easily, but the GOD’s shield pulling him out a moment before death guaranteed it to be painless. He was not suffering.
She narrowed her eyes. “I’m not sure you’re getting it.”
“I know how weak I am.” He told her reasonably. “There is nothing to be proven.”
More words appeared in front of him. He was getting sick of the repetition.
Corrine Hayley Roberts has challenged you to a duel to the death under a full GOD’s shield.
Terrain: Temperate, Mid-day, Ruins. Mode: Private. Time: 2 hours max.
Accept or Decline.
The slight changes in the wording were interesting, and he didn’t want to piss off a potential long-term ally. But nor was he willing to keep putting up with this silently. She had just beaten him to death with her fists. “For goodness’ sakes, Corrine, give it a rest.”
“Accept it.” She insisted.
For a moment, he considered saying no. The open competitors would support him. He had the right to reject her request. The question was whether that was the right call. She was someone he wanted information from in the short term and potentially more tangible support in the future. She was going to be powerful with a capital P, while he was just starting out - it would be stupid to alienate her.
“One more, please. I promise this is the last time.”
With a sigh, he clicked the button, and, a moment later, he was in the latest environment that he was going to have to fight in.
As always, Corrine was twenty metres away, and the usual ten-second countdown was in progress. He took the time to look around. If it wasn’t for the fact that he knew what was coming, the surroundings would have been pleasant. The two were perched on a small hilltop, and ancient remains of giant structures were surrounding them. It took him a moment to realise that the buildings had been constructed of wood instead of stone. He could see what had once been the frame and the cladding for the walls. The timber was in various states of disrepair. Some of it had been worn away by exposure to weather; then, in other spots, there was little visible aging. It was like the wood had been eroded away like stone rather than having been subjected to rot, and it wasn’t like it was dry. There was visible moisture on the areas that hadn’t yet been exposed to the sun.
The timber was clearly magical or unique, because it apparently was not subject to the aging cycles he was used to seeing. The remnants of the building were broken and splintered by age; only what looked like a particularly robust lichen grew upon it and even it was only present sporadically. Nothing else had touched it. Off down the hill, there was an almost intact structure. It was a single room the size of a basketball court, with extra-large wooden beams, just like those in the collapsed buildings near him, providing support.
The countdown ended, and Corrine raised her hands to ask him to relax. “We’re not here to fight.”
“You mean we’re just here for you to kill me again. Because I’m too pathetic to give you a fight.”
Her face softened. “No, Tom. I’ve made my point. That should have shown you how fucking weak you are.”
“You’re twice my age, Corrine, of course you can beat me. Especially when your build hard-counters mine.”
“Stop,” she yelled. “No. Fucking. No. Don’t be a weak shit and fall back on excuses.”
“It’s not an excuse, it’s just the truth.”
“Yeah, maybe. I might be older, but the competition is not fair. I’m weak, you’re worse. Do you realise that, in terms of raw power, I’m not even in the top fucking quarter of the children in your bucket?”
“Yes, I realised it,” he snapped back at her. “You didn’t have to kill me to demonstrate it. What are you, a psycho?”
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She looked a little hurt. “I was proving a point, and it didn’t actually hurt you. I know what an instant kill in training feels like, and I made sure you died quickly. I know it feels weird, but it’s harmless.”
“It was excessive and deranged.”
“It was necessary.”
“But why do it? You didn’t talk to me first. Or bother to ask what I thought. If you had, you would have understood that I agree with you. That I know I’m weak. I’ve learnt it when I fought a rank six.”
“A rank six? You fucking idiot. You did what? Without a GOD’s shield? Do you know how reckless that is?”
Tom glared at her until she stopped her rant.
She had the grace to look embarrassed.
“As I was saying, I fought a rank six in the second contest. Afterwards, I decided I couldn’t fight a six point five, so I sat out the final round.”
“Then how did you fucking qualify?” She stopped as her brain caught up with her words. Realisation blossomed on her face. Her anger vanished, replaced with pity, as she understood what must have happened. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. Forgive me, please. Sometimes I might be a little too impulsive and express my opinions before I should.” She chuckled. “No filter.”
“I’m not stupidly reckless, Corrine. I know how important staying alive is. That’s the whole game - grow as fast as possible while not taking undue risk.”
“Still, teaching you how weak you were didn’t hurt.”
“I already knew. Plus, who leaps into consecutive death matches like that?”
“It’s because of Tan Ru and Sonamoni.” She almost cried out the words. “It’s because of them. They were good. They were fucking good. Sonamoni was better than me, and she died. You can’t do the same. I’ll make sure you won’t.”
“Corrine, I’m reincarnated. You know my background. I’m competent.”
“Fuck your background. If anything, it makes you more reckless - didn’t you die in the first year? And Sonamoni was ranked number one for months before she died. I watched for the whole first two years how quickly all of you at the top dropped off, as the risks you took became too much.”
Tom studied Corrine. The false bravo remained there. Her history from whatever disadvantaged suburb she had come from was unchanged. But while she was hard, most of what she was doing seemed to be driven by concern.
“I don’t know who Sonamoni is.”
“She was a short girl, and one as crazy as you.”
“I’m not crazy. I died because I was hunted.” The last, while technically true, was a lie. His arrogance and lack of preparation had been what had killed him, but it would be counterproductive to tell Corrine that now.
“You’re not getting it. It doesn’t fucking matter if you’re crazy or not. Whether you like it or not, Tom, I’m going to do my best to make sure you understand how the fucking place works and help you stay alive.”
“And is this part of that?” he raised his arms to indicate the arena.
“Yes.”
“How is your lecturing me worthwhile? Amkhael was in the process of inducting me, and he seemed a hell of a lot more professional than you.”
She looked slightly hurt at that accusation. “No. Amkhael’s a wanker, and Esedhuil is a bitch who has a stick so far up her arse I’m surprised it’s not coming out of her throat.”
Tom snorted in laughter before he could help himself. The mushroom priestess had definitely been uptight.
Corrine smiled, and, for the first time since she brought him here, he could see her relax slightly. “Tom, I’m being serious about teaching you and doing it properly. What Amkhael will give you is a lip service. I’ll do it better, because I don’t want to see anyone else die.”
He shrugged. “I’m not about to turn away help, but how does being here…” He stamped his foot for emphasis and glanced pointedly at the surroundings. “Why here? How does being here help?”
“Privacy, seats, and more pleasant surroundings.”
“No; I mean, back in the foyer we had access to the terminals. They had looked like they had some serious hard data for us to look at.”
“The information DEUS is collecting is great.” She agreed happily. “But that was the other reason I was extending the fights. I have a solution, but I needed time to download everything required for this session.” A screen appeared in her hands,. It looked suspiciously like one of the terminal screens from an isolation room. Specifically, the ones used in the status ritual check.
“And where did you get that?”
She smirked. “Where do you think? With the acids in the upper cupboards, it didn’t even require any strength. Ten minutes and it came off. Dim just laughed at me when I admitted it was me. I reckon he had already guessed. No harm, really. Everything in the orphanage is there for us to use.”
Tom could have said lots in that moment, but there was something more important troubling him. He pointed at the screen. “How does that work here?”
“Trading between individuals is heavily regulated. It has to be coins for objects, and the system gets involved and takes a large cut of the transaction, so I couldn’t give this to someone to just go and fix. However, the open section competitors are all hundreds of years old. There are no restrictions on knowledge. So, I brought this screen and various tools, and one of them helped me make the modifications. Listen, I would like to come over, but I don’t want this,” she waved the screen in her hands, “to get damaged, and I kind of want to get closer. And, um… I know you’re angry. And so, I guess, if you need to kill me, then… um… I guess I can…” she bit her lip. “I can put it away and let you get revenge, and we can come back. But, um, if you have to do that, can you try to make it quick?”
She appeared genuine. He sighed. He guessed it would be unfair to blindside her like he had planned. Especially as such an effort would likely damage the screen, which sounded valuable and hard to replace.
“That’s not necessary. I’ll behave.” He promised.