“This is going to be interesting!” Jen exclaimed to Sam, as Tamako walked out onto the arena floor, paired up with Captain Gru from Venezia City as her teammate. Their opponents were Marbles, a fighter with the Stone Guild, and Lt. Rowe with the Arc Guild.

Jen and Sam had pulled their hoods even lower over their faces, and Sam said, “What do you think brought them to Bot Battle City? The winnings alone can’t be enough to justify them coming here to fight in this tournament.”

“Yea, I don’t know. Something else must be up.”

Sam continued asking, “This doesn’t make sense. They’re with the Arc Guild, and they also have a policy of not fighting in the recall tournaments.”

Jen’s mouth dropped open as she remembered something, making an ‘oh,’ sound as she said, “Wait, I just remembered, a few weeks ago, I heard that The City Lord changed the first-place prize. Instead of 50 gold from The System and 50 gold from the City Lord. The City Lord substituted a five-party token to enter the City’s dungeon instead of gold.”

“So, you think they came all this way to compete for the dungeon token?” asked Sam.

“Exactly. The wait cost and the waiting period to get a dungeon token is ridiculous. I’m guessing that even with Bellagio, they think it’s worth trying for. Of course, they could be here for some other reason… just guessing here.”

“Bellagio’s the big armored woman that likes to toy with her opponents before killing them right?” Sam asked.

“That’s the one. She sucks up to the crowd for their quests, and they love watching her torture her opponents.”

Sam replied, “At least Tamako hasn’t had to fight her yet. Do you think anyone has figured out Tamako’s identity, or associated her with “Tiny” from Bot Battle Day?”

“No, I’ve been intercepting soundwave signals coming from the fighters in the arena all evening, and no one has any idea who she is.”

“That’s good. Heard anything else that might be concerning?”

“Not really. Whoever wins the next three matches wins the tournament. The remaining fighters are all hoping to face the anonymous ‘over-leveled, but unskilled’ little fighter next.”

Captain Gru grimaced when he watched the small fighter exit the tunnel and walk over to his side of the arena. He understood the matching was logical. He was a higher level than Rowe and Marbles, and the small fighter was just one level less than Marbles. Gru was stream of conscious thinking, “should I attack Rowe or Marbles, will the little fighter be able to hold the other off long enough for me to kill my opponent, and then would she be any help in teaming up against the one that’s left. It would be best if the little fighter could hold off Rowe just for a minute or two, but that’s probably not likely. Oh well, it’s going to take me longer to take out Rowe. I hope she can keep Marbles occupied long enough.”

Captain Gru looked over at the small lady and said, “You keep Marbles occupied. Give me enough time to take out Rowe, and then we will finish Marbles together. Got it?”

The little woman just nodded silently in response, and Gru groaned inwardly at his bad luck.

Tamako heard the loudmouth noble again, when he commented, “Dammit! Gru and Rowe are on opposite teams. They won’t accept any kind of quest that’ll make the match more exciting.”

A richly dressed fat man also complained, “They’re so boring! Why did they have to enter the tournament?”

Tamako waited for an arena quest, but apparently everyone thought the same thing as the noble, and a moment later the match began.

Marbles was a skilled fighter, and Tamako wouldn’t be able to defend for too long, without displaying a much higher fighting skill-level than she had shown so far in the tournament.

Soon, everyone realized Rowe’s strategy. He was fighting purely defensively against Gru, waiting for Marbles to finish the little woman off.

The two sets of fighters were about 10 feet apart when Tamako feinted a wild attack, causing Marbles to flinch for barely a second, but it was just enough time for her to run over behind Rowe and stab him deep in the leg. Unfortunately, even with her AI, in order to get the strike on Rowe’s leg, she had to leave herself open, and Marbles was on her thrusting his blade into her back left shoulder. Tamako had known Marble’s strike was coming, and she took a diving roll forward even as the blade was piercing her shoulder. She came up out of the dive just in time to bring up her sword and block another strike from Marbles. However, her left arm was useless.

Sam asked Jen, “What’s he doing?”

“I think he activated some kind of berserker skill,” replied Jen as she watched Marbles go into a fit of rage, striking down repeatedly, trying to break through Tamako’s one-handed defense.

It wasn’t taking much skill, but it was taking every bit of Tamako’s strength to stop Marble’s attacks from breaking through, and her strength was running out.

Tamako collapsed under Marble’s onslaught, and just as she was falling to the ground expecting Marble’s next strike to deliver a killing blow, she saw Gru’s sword pierce through Marble’s chest from behind. Tamako knew if Gru had taken even one more second, Marbles Berserker attacks would have killed her.

Tamako just lay there as Gru pulled his sword out of Marble’s chest, letting the dead body fall to the ground. The crowd cheered wildly. Tamako didn’t know if they were cheering because of their victory, or if they were cheering because she was badly injured. “Probably both,” she thought.

As Gru reached down to give her a hand up off the ground, Gru said, “Good work. I’m not sure how much further you’ll go, but you’ve made it to the semi-finals. I would help you with that wound, but you know the rules. You’re on your own.” Gru hoped the fighter would say something, but she just nodded and started heading out of the arena. The silent treatment frustrated him, but before heading towards his exit tunnel, he hollered, “Good luck!”

As soon as Gru helped her up, Tamako was taking bandages out of her storage device to slow the flow of blood from her shoulder. She nodded politely at Gru, but she needed to get out of the arena, and alone as quickly as possible. She was getting light-headed from blood loss. By the time she was finally by herself, she fell to the ground unconscious.

As Jen relayed to Sam what was happening to Tamako, he was getting up, saying, “We’ve got to help her!”

Jen replied, “It’s against the rules. All non-participants can do is talk with the fighters between matches. Besides, even though she is unconscious, her AI is not. Right now, her AI is activating her body healing tattoo to fix her shoulder.”

A few minutes later, Jen and Sam ‘heard’ Tamako through their AIs, “My AI healed me, even though I was unconscious, that’s just… I don’t know what to think!”

Sam’s eyes were wide open and his mouth was slightly open at the realization of what Jen’s app could do, and he asked, “Why didn’t it heal her in the arena?”

Jen replied, “Because the AI takes directions from you. It knows what you want. Tamako’s AI knew she didn’t want her self-healing ability to be seen by the crowd or other contestants.”

Tamako cut into the conversation and said, “You’re amazing, Jen! You’ve made us so much stronger, but now, I’ve got to mute you both and start preparing for my next fight.”

Tamako examined her shoulder and tested its flexibility and strength before taking the blood-soaked bandages and wrapping her now non-existent wound.

When she heard Captain Gru get called for his semi-final match against Diamond Jack, she knew she would fight Bellagio next. Her AI already analyzed all the woman’s fights, and Tamako knew she had little chance of winning without using her enchanted armor and shield, but there was no way she was going to use it in this tournament. A few minutes later, she learned Captain Gru won his match and would be in the finals.