The Shift wasn’t quite over when I returned, which naturally lent to a very tense atmosphere with the production staff and other noncombat Aspirants which I was now a part of. I was nervous as well but for an entirely different reason. Now that so many eyes were on me, Noe’s abilities to change my appearance were burning through more Luck Charges than I could regenerate, and with only 105 Charges to work with, I had a little over two, maybe three hours before I had to dip out of there, perhaps less if I had to actively use those Charges as well.
With so little time to work with, I had to choose my battles, which meant, for now, I should focus on whittling down their numbers a bit more. Four had died prior to my arrival, and if my counting wasn’t off, I had managed to snag twelve with that last stunt, and another four didn’t make it past that last assault. Several more were heavily injured, but the seemingly infinite supply of medical goodies meant that most of those Aspirants would be back in the fray within minutes, and only the worst off would remain on the sidelines for a while. Say what you want about the people here, but their planning was effective in minimizing losses due to attrition.
A quick glance with my Rookie Arbiter skill told me that the remaining twenty or so combat members were all hardened veterans, and they would be learning to adapt to this new Trial. Getting their numbers down further would be much more difficult, but with those treasure maps that I had distributed earlier, it should still be doable.
Eric had reorganized us quickly and was about to reassign our numbers to new squads when a scuffle broke out among the Aspirants. I frowned as their voices were oddly familiar.
“You fucking piece of shit!” a woman screamed, I scrambled past the onlookers and saw that it was Vivian. Half a dozen people were restraining her and the man she was shouting at. “I saw you! You fucking killed Nicole!”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” The man, Ben if I recall correctly, answered, “It was her fault for choosing to fight with us after just recovering. It’s not my fault she was too weak to contribute much. And plus, we were all here, did anyone see me assault that woman?”
Everyone else looked around, but no one answered.
“Exactly!” he exclaimed, “It’s a pity she passed, but I had nothing to do with it, you crazy psycho.”
“You saw that creature attack her,” Vivian spat, “And you chose to do nothing to stop it! It was an easy block, I saw your fucking smile as it cleaved her in two. You just… let her die because of your grudge against us, didn’t you?”
“What, you expect me to be some kind of god that I could deflect and block every attack all the time?” Ben rolled his eyes. “I’m glad you think so highly of me, but that kind of shit is impossible. She was sloppy, just as all of you were when we fought that doctor thing!”
Vivian struggled against the people holding her back, her anger palpable. “You goddamn-”
“Enough!” Eric shouted, putting an end to the infighting, “We will have Alexis examine what happened thoroughly once we are out of here, but I will not stand any more internal strife! We have lost four more men and women in that last assault, and I will not have any more casualties on my watch!”
“But-”
He gave Vivian a seething glare. “But nothing! I will not hear any more on this subject until after we are done with this Trial, or is it that you both wish us all dead because of a petty grudge?”
Vivian glared one last time at Benjamin, but ultimately relented. Ben, for his part, just shrugged and moved further away from the enraged woman.
“Fine,” he grumbled, “But I’d watch your back after we’re done, bitch.”
Well, that was something else. I knew that there would be some disagreements and arguments here, especially given the large number of strong individuals present, but I never imagined that it would lead to sabotage so quickly. Well, then again, maybe I should have anticipated this turn of events since I did give everyone a little nudge of negative emotions when they all came here. Still, with Nicole - that was the one that almost did me in - out of the picture, my job should be a lot easier. But if I wanted to ensure that I could cause as much mayhem as I could, then spending some charges to be placed in the most optimal new Squad would be inevitable.
Luck Charges: 99/1557
“We’ve lost close to a third of our fighting force,” Eric began, “With the last round of casualties, we’ll redistribute our forces. This means that some parties will be broken up, but that is inevitable and I apologize ahead of time. We’ll have six total Squads now…”
The leader proceeded to list off the names of the surviving Squad leaders, although he skipped over me. That made sense since we were going down from ten groups to six, but what was surprising was that the last two Squads were composed almost entirely of non-combatants. Surprisingly, I was placed within the same group as their leader and Ben. Vivian, smartly, was separated from us.
“What’s with the distributions?” One of the Squad leaders responsible for babysitting production Aspirants asked with a frown, “This group’s-”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Yes,” Eric interrupted, “Squads 5 and 6 will have four support staff each to maximize our fighting forces. Your job as leaders of those Squads is to ensure that your charges are safe from harm.”
“But-”
“Once again,” he continued, ignoring the growing protests, “I will hear no arguments or complaints. I will make sure to thoroughly compensate you for this extra task, so ensure you do your job well.” He glared at the two leaders, only stopping when the others looked away. “Good, now we can tackle the next problem. Has everyone read through the new instructions?”
Everyone nodded. I didn’t know what he was talking about, since the missions that the Trash Matrix gave out wouldn’t apply to me even if Noe wasn’t actively messing with its programming, but thankfully I could just go with the flow.
“We’ve failed the first mission, and we’ll have to find the missing pearls before the next moon cycle. I don’t know what the consequences of failing again will be, but assume the absolute worst. We will cooperate fully, is that clear?”
“Yes, sir!”
“I don’t have to remind everyone that we are in a state of extreme danger,” he continued, “But without knowing how long we have, we cannot afford to be overly cautious. There are three pearls remaining, I want Squads 2 and 3 to search for the one in the southeast, and Squads 4, 5, and 6 to search the western one.” He turned to look at that last group. “The noncombatants need to pitch in where they can from now on, you don’t all have to fight, but at least look out for yourselves.”
Those Aspirants nodded nervously.
“Lastly, I will take my own team to the north, where Ben and Victor fought that creature,” Eric finished, “We gather back in this square once you have completed the tasks. I want this done in two hours, maximum.” He stopped to see that everyone had gotten the message. “If you are done early and no one else is back, go to one of the other two locations immediately to help out. We cannot afford any errors now.” He took a deep breath. “And finally, if something is to happen to my Squad, Orlov is the next in command, is that clear?”
“Yes, sir!” everyone said at once.
We were all making final preparations when someone else pulled Eric to the side to whisper something in his ear. Even with my enhanced hearing, I couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, only catching stray snippets of words like “map” or “quest”, but that was enough to know that my little trap had been sprung successfully. A sliver of a smile crept into the leader’s face as he sent the other man away and made his way back to rejoin the group.
He addressed the people once more. “Distribute any remaining potions and talismans among the new Squads. We depart in 10 minutes.”
Eric began to turn away when someone else approached him, his face a mask of confusion and concern.
“Yes, Aaron?” the leader questioned.
“Sorry, but um…” he started, eyes darting around the six assembled Squads, “I think there’s something wrong.”
Eric frowned. “What do you mean?”
“There’s 30 survivors now, right?”
“Yes, everyone can see that through the system.”
Wait, their interface shows them how many survivors there were? Shit, I should have accounted for that, but since I was alone in this Trial, that particular function probably didn’t exist on my end.
“It does exist, my Host,” Noe chimed in, “It is the ‘1/1’ displayed on the main mission page.”
Ah… Noe was right. I stopped looking at that shit after entering this place; I’d grown so used to the Trash Matrix’s messages being nothing but worthless junk or were simply corrupted that I’d neglected that part of things. That’s something I’ll need to work on going forth, especially if I’m to face off against other Aspirants going forth. I got careless, damn.
Aaron nodded, looking more nervous than ever. “And we have six equal teams of 5, right?”
Eric rolled his eyes. “Five times six is 30, last time I checked, what’s your point?”
Noe, what are the chances that we can mess up their perception enough to not be fucked?
“With 95 charges and decreasing, the likelihood is none, my Host.”
Well shit… I tensed up, my mind working in overdrive to see what would be the best way out of this situation.
Aaron pointed at one of the Squads. “Sir, um, Beckie’s group has six members, and everyone else already has five…”
That made everyone else pause as they all did their counts of the people present. Sure enough, anyone with eyes would realize that there was one extra individual among the gathered Aspirants, and it wouldn’t be long before they deduce who’s the most likely imposter among them. I mean, I was the only one who arrived at the scene by myself, and the likelihood of my escape from the “doctor creature” was dubious at best.
“It’s Victor!” Ben shouted, “He’s the only one who came back by himself!”
Vivian started to protest, but now that the seeds of doubt had been implanted, there was no good way out of this situation, not with so few Luck Charges to work with. I could perhaps stall for a little bit of time, but what would that accomplish? I didn't retain Victor's memories so I'd fall under any kind of scrutiny, which meant that my normal method of bullshitting my way through things would just drain more of my already limited resources. Well, I had wanted to infiltrate this group for a bit longer and guide them towards Greta’s hut, or at the very least assess the combat strength of the Aspirants here, but that’s out of the question now. I took one last moment to think things through before making up my mind.
Noe, we’re making an escape, and we’re using all of our remaining Charges to do so. I’ll trust you on how we manage it.
“Acknowledged, my Host.”
But we're doing as much damage as we can going out!
I tensed up, gave the increasingly suspicious Aspirants my most genuine smile, and raised my hands in surrender. “Hey, let’s not jump to conclusions now. There’s clearly something wrong here, but let’s assess the situation logically first…”
I used my improved Xollon anatomy to borrow some of my feelers into the ground through the soles of my feet. I just hoped that the darkness obscured the process. In my Human form, I had 4 feet feelers to work with, and I had to make sure that my first surprise strike was effective. I glanced around and picked out the four strongest fighters here, at least according to level, and hurriedly readied my feelers under their feet.
“I would advise you to act now, my Host,” Noe added, “Multiple powers are scanning your body right as we speak, and it is draining your available charges dramatically.”
Luck Charges: 55/1557
I gave the gathered crowd one final dose of apathy, hoping to lower their guard as much as I could afford, before acting.
Noe, activate my Secondary Form.