Chapter 157

Kimberly nodded along as the healers finished reattaching her leg and tried not to show any weakness.

Ruby Wand wasn’t a weakling.

She clenched her fist as the helplessness tried to overwhelm her.

She wasn’t weak anymore.

Kimberly was a part of a team of top Pathers.

I. Am. Not. Weak.

As the healer did their job, she felt incredibly lonely. In a way, that hadn't happened since she had gotten her Tier 3 Talent.

After the fight, she had been forced to dispel her conjurations of Emerald Blade and Sapphire Shield. They had taken so much damage, it would be cheaper to resummon them, rather than heal them.

She had wanted to heal them anyway, but they had insisted.

When she was able to escape to her room, she pushed through her sore spirit and recreated her friends after pulling out a Tier 10 emerald and sapphire. They were unenchanted and unenhanced gems, but they would do until she built them better cores.

As they reformed around their gems and came back to her, she smiled. Emerald Blade started to rage and vent the helplessness she was feeling. In contrast, Sapphire Shield pulled her into the warmest embrace.

Her friends were everything she wished she could be.

Emerald Blade was confident, leaning towards brash, but he was unafraid to speak his mind, like she was. At the same time, Sapphire was the big sister she had always wanted to defend her from all the bullies. The wall between her and the world.

Seeing her friends back, she wept as they held her, letting out all the emotions she had bottled up in front of everyone else.

As she settled down, she frowned as she remembered how Quill had so easily defeated them.

The guard had admitted as he dropped her off that if they weren’t magical constructs, they would have been pulled out in the first exchange of blows. That same guard warned her that she needed to be careful about how she handled the repercussions of showing so much durability.

It was a good and kind warning that she took to heart.

Quill, for all his showboating, had shown her that she needed to improve herself and her teammates further if they were going to advance.

That was twice now that he had defeated her, and worse yet, on his own this time.

She wouldn't mind so much if he wasn’t such an arrogant ass about it, but his overbearing personality reminded her of her school tormentors far too much to be comfortable around him.

When Emerald Blade had seen him alone, she had allowed him to convince her that this was their opportunity to take him down a peg.

It just hadn’t gone the way any of them expected.

Kimberly pulled out three new gems and started to send her power into them as her friends watched. First, she recreated her friends' cores with these new gems, but put more power into them than the haphazard cores that were currently in use. She had reinforced the copies of their skills inside her while they had been alive. They were of no use to her while her gems were active, as she couldn’t use any skill that her friends possessed. She also took the time to round out their abilities more fully as she worked, putting in everything she had learned about swords and defending since she had last created them. She made them the best versions of themselves that they could possibly be.

She pulled out an unenchanted Tier 10 ruby. Looking at the final gem, she sighed as she reached into her chest and pulled out a smaller, weaker ruby.

Her power dipped a fraction, but the gem was old and weak. She had already kept it around for too long as it was. Sentiment had its place, but she wasn't strong enough yet to not rely on her Talent.

One day, she would be. But not today.

She had shown her bullies that she wasn’t to be messed with and proven her power. Now, she would just need to do the same to everyone here who looked down on her after her defeat.

A grinning black mask with a silver feather pen laughed at her as the wearer brutalized her friends.

Kimberly clenched her fist and pushed down the tears that threatened to fall.

She had cried once already, and that was enough. Any more would be another weakness for everyone to attack.

In the next fight, her team wouldn’t be recognizable.

She had always learned from her mistakes. She spent more than enough time in her own head to be intimately familiar with self-reflection. She had allowed it to fester into self-ridicule for too many years, but she had mastered that.

Once she was done with reinforcing her own ruby, she pulled out a Tier 10 onyx. She hadn’t wanted to create a new friend yet, even though she had unlocked a second empty slot, but maybe it was time. She could use a rogue to stab those pesky masked Pathers before they closed in.

But that felt like a dark step, and she knew it.

She pulled out a Tier 10 topaz and weighed it. This would be her team's healer, but she didn’t know if she deserved that yet. She had already spent a portion of her points to buy [Ranged Heal] for the healer, but she had regretted the purchase the instant she had bought it. She hadn’t proven herself enough yet to earn such a powerful upgrade.

She pushed the decision to the morning, and crawled into bed after seeing that Emerald Blade and Sapphire Shield weren’t feeling any lingering effects from dying or being upgraded.

She didn’t need outside help. Just her friends.

A gem shines brightest alone, after all.

Tomorrow, her team would be winners, and she would make all of them learn that she wasn’t to be trifled with.

There was no longer a Crying Kimberly.

Only Ruby Wand.

***

Talous looked off into the distance as his team held a portion of the pillar of light.

His brother Malous called out from above and behind him. “Another team coming in from below and the right. Seven seconds.”

Oliver and Troy, their mage and tank, respectively, shifted their attention towards the encroaching enemies. Meanwhile, Talous kept a lookout around his teammates.

His brother's Talent gave them an advantage, but in the last six months, Talous had learned a lot. He knew it wasn’t infallible.

They were good. All of them earning a place in a legacy had proven that, but it also highlighted their weakness. They were all specialized in their roles, but that left them open to counter.

As a team, they were strong.

Their holding a portion of a pillar of light for so long had proven that.

As individuals…

Before he could go down that path more, the team his brother predicted had arrived. The first thing they did was launch a barrage of magical and mundane attacks to try and soften them up.

Troy cast the Tier 20 [Bulwark] and blocked most of the incoming fire, but Talous moved to cover Oliver and his brother in case anything got through.

They couldn't allow these free passes to elude them. Their team was strong together, but his brother especially wasn't great in single combat. Malous wasn’t so weak that he couldn't handle himself, but he could be countered easier than the rest of them.

That was the problem, though.

After they beat back the newest team that tried to enter the pillar, he took the time to see the nearby shadow pillar. Even now, he could see flames flicker out of the darkness every few seconds.

Torch was, as far as they could tell, holding a pillar on her own.

On her own.

Bodies fell out of the darkness, or teams retreated, scorched and abused.

His team was strong, but they were only good at their roles, and only competent at everything else.

The true top Pathers, he had come to learn, were all good at everything.

Even Matt, the man who had beaten him so badly, was only somewhat above average here. He only excelled in the endless rift that he perfectly countered, and the group rift.

People like Queen were a level above them. There was a qualitative difference between them that he wasn't sure how to bridge.

As he caught an arrow on his shield, he kicked the man trying to come up under his defenses and cut a furrow into his side. After a quick exchange of blows where Talous was the clear winner, the man and his team retreated to try and break into a different section of the light pillar.

Talous looked at his brother and caught his eye.

Malous closed his eyes for a second before pointing off to the side. “The next one will land there.”

As a team, they all moved in the direction Malous indicated, but after traveling a portion of the distance, they veered off and moved to the actual location, shaking off the people who had realized his brother was a seeker. They needed the misdirections to help throw off any countermeasures.

When the next pillar of light descended on top of them, they shifted to occupy a portion of light, but didn’t dare to hold the center.

A masked team with numbers on their masks came over, and after looking at them for a few seconds, left them alone.

Talous let out the breath he had been holding as they turned away.

They were only on the third pillar, and what he feared most was occupying one that the top Pathers wanted. If Talous’ team had to engage them, they would have little recourse if they weren't willing to take serious injuries.

As hundreds of other Pathers rushed to their pillar and tried to fight their way in, they were forced to cede ground on more than one occasion, but they were able to keep their position inside the pillar.

By the time they reached the fifth stage, when there were only ten pillars of light and darkness each, he knew they were starting to reach their limit.

Not a limit of their combat abilities, but the limit of their obscurity.

Everyone was being funneled into fewer and fewer pillars, and the competition was getting harsher with each passing round.

He had already watched as Queen single-handedly held a pillar by herself. If they wanted to beat those monsters, they needed to do something different.

“Should we join in and try attacking some of the top Pathers?” He asked his team over the AI comms, but even he wasn’t sure if it was a good idea.

There were a lot of risks with that plan, but the weaker and middling Pathers were being weeded out as each pillar fell. If the top people didn’t get ganged up on, the top five spots would be theirs.

Troy disagreed, but Oliver was on board with his idea.

“We need to do something, or else we won't earn more than a round or two of byes, even if we make it to the end.”

Malous nodded slowly. “We need to do something, but we need to be smart about it. I think a large attack is going to converge on Diana’s team. They’re a top ranked team, but not a masked team. If we join and nothing goes drastically wrong, we can ensure that we don't get taken out.”

Talous watched as his brother wipe at his face, and knew that he was trying to wipe away blood. His Talent took a toll on him that was more than spiritual, but they all knew that they were relying on him to keep them out of danger.

His brother would recover after a few hours of rest on his own, but if they lost in the solo competition early, they would all regret it.

Most people didn’t realize that the solo tournament gave better prizes if a team larger than two people did well together. The team tournament prizes were technically larger than the solo team's rewards, but combining a team’s worth of solo rewards paid larger dividends.

Talous had full confidence that they could make it to the top five hundred as a team, and if they were just a little lucky, the top one hundred was a distinct possibility.

Malous shrugged. “It's now or never. I think if we beat Diana’s team, we can keep everyone together, and then try to roll over one of the other top teams.”

Talous shifted his grip on his sword and shield, readying himself amongst the hundred of other middling and high-level Pathers.

Diana’s team of three looked unruffled, facing down nearly seventy members of the various teams that had surrounded them.

How they managed that was beyond him; it only served to reaffirm his image of Diana’s team in his mind. They were truly different. He was afraid for his team, and they were the attacker.

He settled himself after a deep breath. This fight was where they could show off their skills to the watcher, and earn themselves a better manager. That could catapult their power to another level.

He just needed to protect his team while they threw themselves into the maw of a beast.

This was going to be a hectic battle…

***

Talous looked down at what used to be his legs.

Well, that was a mistake.

***

Light looked down at the kids fighting, and noted a few who showed potential that he felt were left out of the reports he had been given.

This little exercise had been more than a way to shake up the preliminary rounds of the tournament. It served as a way for the kids who weren't able to show off their abilities in pure rift delving to gather recognition from their prospective managers. And it shell shocked the ones who assumed structured fighting would be their only test.

He looked off to the side at East Flower as it hovered above them in the sky.

Once this second round ended, he and Shadow would be quickly leaving, while body doubles took their place for the celebratory dinner that would occur later.

They had already been briefed on everything that the multiple counter-espionage teams had found, and were ready to hunt. The spies had been left in place for exactly that reason, and they would soon find out that all of their escape routes had been shut off.

Perfect practice.

He smiled under his mask as he cracked his neck.

Seeing one of the kids fall into a dangerous situation with no guard around, he marked them and returned most of his attention to the fights.

This second half was interesting, but the kids he had been personally interested in had been carefully seeded in the first group.

The number generation had been anything but random, as Shadow had needed to prepare the teleport spell through her shadows days in advance to teleport everyone.

They were strong, but teleporting close to a quarter of a million randomly scattered people that were mixed amongst non-targets was a feat beyond either of them.

Light continued to scan the battlefield as he started to review the debriefing once again.

***

Matt blocked a blade with his own as he and Liz fought inside the pillar of light together.

The final battles of the second round had once again turned into a hectic hodgepodge of slung spells, as everyone was forced into fewer and fewer pillars.

Unlike the last round, where they were Quill and Torch, there was no centralized effort by the middle rankers to take out the top teams.

Even with the royals suppressing the news of those disastrous attempts, word had still spread.

The “deaths” of nearly a quarter of the total contestants had been shocking enough.

As Quill, he had only been attacked once by a casual probe of fifteen teams who decided that him and his endless talismans weren't worth the effort.

The attackers had learned the hard way that Torch wasn’t to be trifled with, even without his help. Thirty-seven teams tried to take her down, and only seventeen had escaped. The rest had been burnt or stabbed to death with her empowered physical might, thanks to her new blood alchemy.

He had still carved his way through teams who were foolish enough to try and take his pillars of light, but he hadn’t been able to win nearly as impressive of a show.

Instead, he, Queen, Diana’s team, Carlo’s Duo, and the tenth place team Matt didn’t have a name for but had numbers on their masks, had easily taken the five skips for the solo fights. The final pillar of light saw the final thirty thousand contestants trying to besiege them, but they had fought off the uncoordinated attacks long enough to secure their skips.

Torch had secured their team skip with Adam, Rewind, Nyx, and Sam, the summoner they had met as Shawn and Jules. Matt didn’t find it at all surprising that the solo Pathers had taken the team skips; it made sense, as they could be more easily countered by a team.

Queen was the only exception to that rule, but he assumed that she knew what she was doing.

The two of them as Quill and Torch had created a sensation, being the only team to take a pass in both sections. But knowing Luna's personality, and her intentions for their masked identities, they said that they had no intention using either, and just wanted to see how strong everyone else was.

That has caused a commotion throughout the news stations, and Paige and Diego were enamored with the soundbite they had gotten. In just the last few hours, Luna reported that they were the talk of the planet, garnering a larger following as each hour passed. All of whom seemed to have a greater belief that they would take the solo and team battles championships home. There was also a growing contingent of top Pathers who were upset that they took up a spot that could have gone to someone who could actually use it.

Still, despite knowing that it was good for their protection, and that they had to play everything safe to keep their identities protected, it ate at them to have to hold back in their real identities.

While they had to use limited skills in their masks, they still had the ability to go all out, while their real identities were hobbled to only show a fraction of their power.

The smart play was starting to grow irritating, and both of them were more than happy to have the second round of battles end.

They had earned themselves a decent placing as Matt and Liz, but were far from earning a skip.

When the battle ended, the two of them were happy to fade into obscurity and hang out with their friends during the banquet.

Matt did enjoy watching Kurt use the prepared lines he had recorded to speak as Quill.

When he didn’t have to personally say such antagonizing and sometimes corny stuff, he enjoyed the show.

Knowing that Luna was speaking for Kurt when he wasn’t able to pull together a prepared line made it all the funnier. Thinking about the always sour and dour Luna shit talking Tier 10s gave him endless entertainment.

Melinda's team did well in the first round of fights themselves, and were prouder than a group of peacocks at their placing.

It wasn't until the end of the dinner that they would be told their final placement, but everyone was able to make guesses based on how long they lasted.

When the banquet came to an end, and the tables were whisked away, Tur'stal stood up from her place at the head of the table and raised a glass of wine in a toast to everyone present.

“I wish to congratulate everyone who fought on this day. You have shown that you have what it takes to handle adversity and strife, what it takes to fight in a chaotic battle. For those who are happy with their placement, congratulations. For everyone who feels they could have done better if they had done something differently, or if they had fought better, I encourage you not to wallow in self-pity. Instead, take what you learned and work to fix those mistakes. The end of the training period ends soon for you all. Tier 15 is when the training wheels come off, and there are fewer protections for each and every one of you. You may fight in wars where there are no referees to pull you out of dangerous situations. You may find yourself delving rifts that become ever more dangerous as the gaps between Tiers become larger, and your advantages become less effective. Maybe you’ll find yourselves traveling the distant stars through chaotic space, exploring the frontiers. All of these avenues will be dangerous. I don't say this to discourage you. I say it because I want you to look at myself and my fellow royals. None of us were exceptional Pathers in our youth. I myself was considered weak and useless. Discarded by my parents and seen as a waste. I couldn't fight for my life until well after Tier 15, and I purchased or exchanged my Talent for people carrying me through rifts.”

The crowd started to murmur, and Matt heard more than a few people questioning the validity of those claims. Tur'stal didn’t stop them, and let everyone speculate about her story.

Matt had actually asked Mara and Leon about Tur'stal, and found out that her official biography was accurate enough. While some information had been tweaked, the general information was correct as a whole.

Tur'stal smiled and sipped at her wine before speaking over the crowd. “Yes, my biography is correct. I was thrown away and discarded. That isn't a fabrication. Eventually, through long effort I earned my immortality, then languished for nearly a century before I got off my ass and started to address my weaknesses. I wasn't good at combat? I learned. I joined a class of children and got slapped around when I suppressed my Tier. I learned. I grew, just like my plants. I looked at what I needed and wanted, and then addressed those issues. I did so much later in life than you all. Even the weakest of you are in a better position than I was back then. Don’t take a poor placement or a loss today to heart. Pick yourself up. Wipe away the blood and take one step. That is all you need to do. One step at a time, and you never know where you will end up.”

There was a small moment when everyone applauded, but some people looked more contemplative than their table mates.

Someone Matt couldn't see called out, “Then how did you become a noble?”

Tur'stal seemed unbothered by the question and chuckled slightly before asking, “How do you think?”

The person who asked the initial question clearly didn't expect a question in return as they stuttered out, “Marriage? A fight where you took over a title?”

The Tier 47 laughed, “Nothing so fun. I punched the people I had to, when I needed to. I even got married, yes, but I never took their title or lands. Instead, I used my political savvy and my Talent to expand my influence. Easy and free terraforming is valuable on its own. But I earned my title by playing the game. I started as an advisor to a baron, and when a new, lower Tier world was found, the Duke who controlled it gave me a title for my insight and governing skills. I was then Viscountess Tur'stal.”

There was a spreading murmur of disbelief that Tur'stal laughed at. “I know that most of you aren't noble, and aren't a part of the hereditary nobility like I am now. You’re probably surprised at my lack of nobility, and that I clawed my way to the top.”

At the sounds of agreement, Tur'stal continued. “Before Tier 15, everyone is treated like children, at least when power and position is taken into consideration. The hereditary nobility factions aren’t like most of you probably believe. I’m not saying it's some paradise where anyone can make it, but the Empire is always expanding, and there are places for new blood… If you work for it. It's not just how hard you can punch, as it can sometimes be in the fiefdoms, where inheritance is more fluid. We aren't the same nobility that the stories of the old dynasty would have you believe. But I'm not here to try and recruit anyone. Only to congratulate you, and wish you the best of luck in the upcoming tournament. Those who earned themselves byes through their placement, enjoy the show. Those who didn’t, prepare yourselves.”

Before she turned and left, someone else in the crowd called out and asked, “What's your favorite color?”

Tur'stal snorted at that. “Blue. It's such a rare color in nature, but has some of the prettiest results.”

With that, she vanished, and someone else called out, “What kind of question was that?”

That sent off a round of shouting and bickering before Shadow stood and interjected. “Light and I are about to leave as well, but as lady Tur'stal entertained some of your questions, we will take one each before we leave.”

Light stood and added, “While I normally love chaos, we will have everyone submit their question to our AI, where you can all vote for the questions you want asked. We are fair, after all.”

Considering they had created a battlefield where solo Pathers were put at a disadvantage, Matt wasn't sure that was a true statement. But he was still eager to hear the elusive duo speak.

It took nearly ten minutes for the crowd to come up with two questions, but eventually, they settled on a question for each of them.

“At Tier 10, what did you wish you knew back then, that you know now? And what would you have done differently with that knowledge?”

While Matt considered it two questions, tying them together had allowed them to slip it through, and it took an easy first place.

The second question was more personal.

“How did you remain so strong and competitive on the Path that was designed to kick you off?”

Light took the second question first.

“How did we remain so strong on The Path? We found our strengths and leaned into them as much as possible, while helping each other when we could. Shadow has her Talent, and I helped her with that by taking more light skills, and incorporating light abilities into otherwise neutral skills. She helps me by scouting and taking out the largest and hardest to kill monsters. Together, we cover each other's weaknesses and boost each other's strengths.”

Light then shrugged. “I know it's an obvious answer, but it’s the truth. Alone, we probably wouldn't be able to complete the Path, with all its restrictions and time limits. Together, we are more than the sum of our individual powers. If you want to improve your combat prowess as a team, see where you can bolster your teammates' power with either better tactics or synergistic skills. For the lone Pathers? You all have it harder; you need to do everything yourselves. You need to cover every weakness, and still have the strength to punch above your Tier. That isn't impossible by any means, but it is harder, and will only get harder as you advance. There is a reason that more teams get to Tier 22 or so when compared to solo Pathers.”

He paused for a second before adding, “I will add that the rate between solo Ascenders and team Ascenders are nearly even when looked at over a large historical average. Make of that what you will.”

Shadow took up the first question.

“I wish I knew how hard the rifts would become. You hear about it, but when monsters are mostly limited to one to three skills, things are manageable. But after Tier 14, things ramp up in difficulty. A lot. That happens again at Tier 20, and again at both Tier 25 and Tier 26, with monsters getting their Intents. Then there’s a new batch of skills directly after.”

Shadow sighed. “If you aren't punching up at least three Tiers after this tournament, especially with all the goodies you’re getting here, you need to evaluate what you’ll do when you fall off. Because you will fall off. A good manager will help you, but they can't do everything. Place well in the tournament, and a good manager can push you further than you thought. If you have untapped potential, they might even be able to get you into the running of the best, the pseudo ascenders and true Ascenders. But you’ll need to work hard for it. Look at Duke Waters. He doesn't need his Talent to be good. While that's not a reasonable expectation for most of us, he proves that it's a possibility.”

The famous duo were about to leave when someone tried their luck and shouted, “How do you make enough money to sustain yourselves?”

Light turned and held out a hand, saying, “Give me a Tier 45 mana stone, and I'll tell you.”

That brazen answer shocked everyone before they started to laugh.

Matt felt incredibly tempted to say. “Just give me a few centuries.”

In fact, he was so tempted, he sent the message to Liz and Melinda’s team, Mara and Leon, and even the rest of the family with a clip of Light’s statement. He had to ask Mara and Leon to forward the comment to the rest of the family, Aunt Helen, and Aster, as he couldn't risk it getting read by the people keeping communication on lockdown. But it was too funny to resist.

Liz and his friends burst out laughing, with Kyle choking on his drink to the point he was red in the face as he pounded the table, trying to stop laughing while trying to breathe.

Liz laughed into his chest while he got a pointed message from Luna. She didn’t reprimand him, but he could feel her displeasure from here.

He sent the grumpy cat a laughing face and enjoyed his time with his friends.

When they met tomorrow, it could be as enemies, and they needed time to reinforce their bonds before they stressed them.