CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

Jason's first instinct was to expect treachery.

Forming a fake alliance was one of the easiest ways to defeat someone on the Tournament of Assassins.

On most maps, mentioning an alliance wouldn't mean anything. It was simply an informal agreement to work together.

However, the Tournament of Assassins map had an official Alliance option that caused players to share information on their Mechs, including parts data and map location. That information was invaluable when coordinating plans. It gave players tremendous amounts of data and eyes in multiple locations.

However, it was also perfect for plotting treachery. If you knew where a Mech was, you could easily sell out their position to a competitor.

His opponent's claim just seemed a little too convenient.

Jason glanced around him.

The other machines were all covered by shrouds.

How could Jason tell if they were on the same team or not?

Moreover, only a fool wouldn't consider the obvious material temptations to betray somebody.

The map itself offered large prizes and only ran once a month.

On top of that, OverManiacs had almost certainly encouraged other players to play through the mission. For an independent mapper like Jason, an expedited relationship with OverManiacs meant earning an extra three or four thousand dollars.

That was a massive sum of money.

In comparison, the other players were just random people online.

For the average player, betraying someone wouldn't even feel bad. It was just a natural part of playing through the Tournament of Assassins, which actively encouraged players to lie to each other.

However, Jason knew to look past his immediate thoughts.

It was important to think of the situation rationally without overweighing his gut instincts.

Allying with a player he'd just met was an obvious risk.

However, refusing the alliance also came with many prominent downsides.

Out of all the players in the lobby, Jason had the least information.

He was the very last person to enter the lobby.

Upon his entrance, the Nekra-class warship had taken off to ferry them to the battlefield. Before Jason's arrival, the players had plenty of time to talk amongst themselves.

Regardless of whether or not his opponents were participants from the same guild, it was statistically likely that many players had already formed alliances.

Everyone knew that teaming up with others - even if you planned on betraying them later on - was the quickest and easiest way to advance in the Tournament of Assassins.

Jason frowned.

Come to think of it...

The fact that none of the other players had bothered talking to him suggested that they were already playing together. Otherwise, at least one of them would have tried reaching out.

While some players - including Jason - were naturally suspicious, others were gregarious and cooperative. However, none of the other players had tried reaching out to him.

It was like they already knew they didn't need any more allies.

Jason knew from long experience that loading onto maps with friends made missions much easier. Fighting as a One Star Boss had already been extremely difficult. When multiple people ganged up on him at once, victory was almost impossible.

Jason could only count three or four victories where he'd managed to stave off a whole group of friends.

If the other players had teamed up, Jason would be in serious trouble if he didn't have any allies.

After considering all options, Jason decided to agree with the other pilot.

"Alright. Let's make an Alliance."

It was the best between two bad options.

Jason had no interest in working with a player he'd just met. However, he had even less interest in fighting a large group without any help.

The other pilot's response caught Jason off guard.

"Awesome! Okay! Great!"

Relief and eagerness flooded the other pilot's voice as he let out a loud exclamation of joy.

Earlier, he'd sounded quiet and secretive, just like he was whispering next to Jason.

Private voice calls couldn't be heard by other players. However, it was natural for players to follow the stage's ambiance.

When tightly packed alongside many other opponents in a dark room, real-life heuristics suggested whispering urgently instead of shouting loudly.

However, the other player was so relieved that he'd reverted to his usual self.

The happiness in the other pilot's voice made Jason feel like he'd made the right decision.

Working with random people meant making sure that there were no hurt feelings.

Offending somebody was a big mistake in the Tournament of Assassins.

It was easy for other players to ruin your tournament run by violently lashing out.

Of course, this didn't mean Jason trusted the other player.

He only agreed to work together because it was his best option.

He would continue treating his newfound ally with suspicion.

A window appeared on Jason's screen.

AGREE TO AN ALLIANCE?

Y/N

The official Alliance agreement, which let players communicate across the map and see through their ally's eyes, was a huge commitment.

However, Jason didn't hesitate at all to click Y.

He'd already carefully considered the options, and there was no time to waste.

Besides, Jason considered himself the sort of man who always honored his verbal commitments.

Whoosh...

Wind blew into the hangar as the doors of the Nekra Mech carrier silently opened to reveal a huge expanse of lush vegetation.

Jason stared down at the dim scene of a beautiful forest in the middle of the night.

Moments later, the Red Minerva began falling through the air.

Jason's machine was still covered head to toe by the thick black cloak. He could only peek out from the very bottom. The large covering flapped wildly through the air as Jason fell and fell.

Thump.

Eventually, he landed in a silent clearing in the woods. Jason pulled off the cloak and cast it aside. There was a brief pause, and then the Red Minerva's eyes flashed a bright yellow and red.

Although it was the middle of the night, Jason could see as if it were the middle of the day.

As always, Hemoborn abilities varied in utility depending on the map. The Red Minerva lacked any special scouting prowess, but cave dragons were adapted to live in pitch darkness. A forest during the night was nothing for Jason's partner.

Jason looked up above him.

The silent Nekra continued circling the forest.

The machine moved with high-tech hover devices rather than rockets.

Unlike the Smoulderhulk's thrusters, these levitation devices combined speed, stealth, and reliability. The secret build recipe was the pride of the Illusionist guild, and no other organization had managed to crack the code.

Since the giant ship made no sound, it was best to track the enormous carrier with sight.

However, Jason had to concentrate just to see the machine.

The machine was mostly painted speckled black.

The coat of paint helped disguise the machine, whether for nighttime missions on planets or pitched battles in the middle of space. As always, the Illusionists guild wasn't afraid to use low-tech solutions.

However, the machine's stealth largely came from its high-tech cloaking field.

The high-powered device bent the light around the enormous ship, blocking off radar and making it exceptionally difficult to perceive.

The only reason Jason spotted the enemy machine was its tremendous size.

It was big enough that Jason could eventually piece together enough bending in the air.

If Jason got far enough in the competition, he knew he'd have to directly attack one of the carrier ships. The final mission involved tracking down a Nekra-class ship and killing its captain.

Whoosh...

Moments later, Jason spotted a second cloaked machine descending from the skies.

The Nekra dropped off every assassin at a separate part of the map.

Separating the players from the start helped balance the power of large alliances. If all the players launched together, it would be trivial for big groups to instantly kill all their competitors.

Jason glanced at his radar screen.

Per the blue light blinking on his screen, his ally was still in the air.

Jason shrugged.

His teammate would contact him when it was time to meet up.

For now, he should play the mission on his own.

Jason took another look at the trees, then nodded as a plan formed in his mind.

They were perfect.

Normally, the massive trees restricted flying and scouting.

Under normal circumstances, a highly mobile machine could swiftly soar into the skies to scout out the entire map.

High vantage points were overpowered on assassination missions - they helped players avoid guards and snipe the target from afar from an unexpected angle.

The trees blocked off all flying machines, but they had little effect on climbing Mechs.

Of course, the Red Minerva wasn't designed for climbing trees. Cave dragons were meant to burrow under the earth.

Snakes were a different story.

Jason pressed the bright blue button at the top of his control board, which activated special frame abilities.

A scarlet drop of light emerged from the Red Minerva's chest.

The tiny droplet rapidly expanded. Before long, the entire Mech was bright red.

The light flashed, and the Red Minerva transformed.

Her legs fused together.

The draconic head split apart and merged smoothly with the Red Minerva's shoulders.

A humanoid face with razor-sharp teeth emerged in its place.

The Red Minerva's already lithe and muscular limbs thinned and elongated.

In the span of three seconds, Jason's Red Minerva had transformed into the Red Lamia.

Due to species variation, Jason's version of the Red Lamia was swift and slender, focusing on mobility rather than defense.

However, both Jason's Mech and the original boss had enormous offensive firepower.

But for now, Jason was mostly interested in his machine's innate abilities.

The long arms grabbed onto a branch and pulled. The transformed Red Lamia's serpentine lower half embraced the tree's trunk, and soon, Jason was slithering forward.

He'd never used a snakelike machine before, but there'd been plenty of times when he'd been forced to crawl on the Red Minerva's stomach to avoid heavy gunfire.

The veteran pilot found that the controls were extremely similar.

The Red Lamia climbed higher and higher, and before long, Jason was lopping around the top of the tree branches.

Jason used his Mech's keen eyes to keep a close eye on the ground beneath him.

Due to its cave dragon biological base, the Red Lamia had the exact same night vision abilities as the Red Minerva.

To Jason's surprise, his ally still hadn't moved from their starting position.

The other pilot's Mech had simply remained in place since airdropping from the sky.

A loudly apologetic voice echoed through Jason's headset.

"Hey! Hey! I'm here! Sorry! I'll get a move on soon. My machine takes a while to get fired up."

Jason pulled up the other player's statistical profile and quickly looked through the machine.

The Mech had rather low statistics, but Jason knew better than anyone not to disrespect a seemingly weak machine.

Perhaps the other player's Mech had a built-in ability or Finisher that allowed them to dramatically increase their strength over time.

Although Jason had access to the other player's stat profile and list of weapons, ultimate moves and hidden frame gimmicks were still kept hidden.

For what it was worth, the other player certainly sounded earnest.

His emotions were suffused throughout his voice.

"Go on without me. I'll catch up as soon as I'm ready. I don't want to hold you back!"

Jason shrugged.

"Alright. Sounds good."

Even though the other pilot sounded honest, Jason was bad at reading people.

His best bet was to approach the situation rationally.

His behavior would be the same regardless of whether or not the other player was lying to him.

The Tournament of Assassins automatically identified and dismissed alliance freeloaders.

Not every member of the winning alliance moved on to the next round.

Alliance members only qualified if they participated in the kill, defined as standing within two hundred feet of the King of Thieves when a teammate destroyed it.

If his teammate wanted to bum around, that wasn't Jason's problem.

Jason quickly put together a plan.

Right now, there was no guarantee that Jason could easily find his opponents.

The forest was massive, and combing through every inch would take enormous time.

His best bet was to try and track enemy Grunt Mech parties.

While a veteran guildmember piloted the King of Thieves, the Grunts were controlled by beginners.

There was a good chance that a Grunt would inadvertently reveal their boss's location.

The key was remaining aggressive and proactive.

Most players hide if confronted by multiple search parties, but playing to stay alive would result in disqualification.

Even though there was no time limit, the other competing players put plenty of pressure on Jason to find his opponent as soon as possible.

On top of that, moving aggressively forward also allowed Jason to gather more information about the map. All players were given a map of the forest before entering.

However, the map provided no information on enemy encampments. Clearing as much area as possible would help Jason whittle down the possibilities.

Jason continued marking down areas on the map as blank as he moved.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

The sound was extremely faint, but it sounded loud as thunder to Jason's extremely alert mind.

The Red Lamia's keen eyes instantly identified his new opponents.

It was a simple pair - a Guard Dog Hemoborn and a Bandit Mech.

Jason wasn't worried.

He was already very high in the air.

From the peaks of the trees, he was already out of the dog's effective range.

Jason could spy on them without any repercussions unless either Mech looked up above them.

Jason's primary goal was determining which direction his opponents were going.

If these two machines were heading back to camp, Jason could follow them and kill the enemy boss right at the start. Backtracking them would be much more complicated if they were simply on patrol.

Jason was impressed to see how difficult it would be to backtrack his opponent's movements.

The Guard Dog Hemoborn's feet were padded, so they didn't leave footsteps.

On top of that, the Bandit Mechs hovered slightly above the air. They didn't leave any tracks.

Jason frowned and glanced at the massive watchdog's head.

Snick.

Snick.

Snick.

His eyes narrowed.

He watched for a bit longer, then nodded as his suspicions were confirmed.

The bandits and watchdogs both had impressive designs.

However, they still left subtle clues in their wake.

Mechs were too large to move with complete impunity.

If players paid close attention, they'd notice a subtle strain in the bark of every tree that Jason's Red Lamia had crawled past.

Since these machines couldn't slither high in the air, their disruptions were a little more obvious.

The bandit Mech avoided most of the branches by moving its arms.

However, the guard dog was much less mobile.

As it walked forward, its enormous head and shoulders occasionally brushed against the lower portions of the trees.

The dogs were still over thirty feet tall - tall enough to hit some of the lower branches of these grand trees.

The bark and branches would scrape off, causing the dogs to suffer from minor cuts and bruises.

For a Hemoborn, such tiny bits of damage wasn't a problem.

The machine's innate regeneration rate automatically undid the damage, sealing the wounds and leaving nothing more than tiny scars.

Once the Mechs returned to base, healing fluid and a regeneration tank would remove even the tiny little marks.

The damage was essentially negligible.

However...

The scars helped Jason realize how long his opponents had been on watch. The dogs would brush up against the thicket of trees every few moments.

A handful of scars indicated that they'd only recently left the base.

Many scars meant a long patrol.

Based on the trivial amount of scarring, the pair had not been on guard for a long time.

They'd left to patrol rather recently.

Therefore, Jason had little to gain by following them around. They wouldn't return to base for a long while.

A better bet was killing them quietly.

Capturing an enemy frame intact was invaluable.

Their computer systems likely contained additional information on the group's plans.

On top of that, Jason could safely examine his prey from high up in the treetops, where no animal or enemy player could see him.

Jason raised his hand, then cursed.

He'd made a mistake.

He should have purchased some silenced pistols before playing through the mission.

Silenced pistols were never wholly silent - they were more accurately described as suppressed pistols.

However, they were still an enormous improvement.

The sheer noise of firing his enormous magnums would bring all the bandits down on him.

Well, that was no issue.

He'd rectify the mistake by purchasing stealth-purpose weapons before the next round.

For now...

The supply bands at his machine's wrists hissed as the Ghostfire Dagger fell into Jason's hands.

As it did, Jason once again pressed the blue button at the top of the screen, transforming the Red Lamia back into the Red Minerva.

Jason wanted to rely on his partner's familiar form for a throw like this.

He aimed carefully, then threw the Ghostfire Dagger.

The phantom-like blade darted through the air before emerging dead center in the Hemoborn dog's heart.

It was a perfect strike.

Normally, throwing knives were a gimmicky weapon only experienced experts could use well.

However, the Ghostfire Dagger's properties were perfect for throwing.

The weapon was near-weightless, and its phantom-like properties meant the knife was also largely immune to air resistance.

All that mattered was lining up the shot.

The guard dog went stock-still, then trembled as the shock of the second attack reverberated through its body, instantly killing it and evaporating the pilot inside the brain cockpit.

The beast slumped to the floor.

Save for the wound in its chest, the Hemoborn dog looked like it was sleeping.

Jason fell from the trees, clapping his hands together to summon the Valorous Ji.

The notification flashed across his screen.

BLAZING AVARICE: VALOROUS JI

The bandit barely had time to look up before Jason stabbed the flaming spear straight through the enemy Kingbreaker.

Although the Grunt was a highly reliable build, it was still a Grunt facing off against an S-tier weapon.

On top of that, Jason had dive-bombed his opponent from over two hundred feet from the air.

The sheer added momentum increased the force of Jason's blow far beyond what was normally possible.

Unlike its largely intact companion, the Kingbreaker was instantly reduced to scrap metal by the ridiculous force of Jason's ambush attack.

Jason quickly shoveled dirt over the bandit with the Red Minerva's shovel-like hands. He had no interest in burying the other machine - that would take far too long.

Instead, he was just trying to put out the fire.

The Blazing Avarice's bonus flame damage pushed its weapons beyond their normal limits. But in this case, the fire damage also came with a dangerous disadvantage.

A forest fire would instantly draw everyone's attention to him.

With the fire quelled, Jason transformed back into his Red Lamia form.

He sliced off the dead dog's perfectly intact head, which contained the unit's cockpit and database, then slithered back up into the trees.