Chapter 160

Matt was strolling through the crowd with Liz as they made their way to Kyle's upcoming fight when he got a message from Emily through his AI.

“Where are you? Hurry the fuck up! Kyle had his opponent changed. Someone used their skip!”

Sharing the message with Liz, they stopped meandering and cut a more direct path to Kyle’s scheduled arena. There, he found a glaring Emily, sitting primarily next to a nervous-looking Tara.

To his surprise, both of the women had put on a little makeup and were out of their armor, dressed in more formal clothes than either usually wore to lounge around.

It seemed that Emily had finally gotten Tara to agree to a date, but his archer friend looked like Aster when she was surprised.

In fact, Melinda’s entire team had some variation of a worried or scared expression.

He shot Emily a raised eyebrow as they approached, and she pointed at the stage before saying, “Can you tell them that Kyle will be fine?”

Matt shrugged and parroted, “Kyle will be fine.” Pausing, he asked, “Why would Kyle not be fine?”

While he asked, he looked up Kyle's opponent to find out who they were.

At the same time, Melinda answered, “He’s fighting the lightning support mage from Diana’s team. Graham used his skip to change to Kyle.”

Matt frowned.

That was a bad matchup for a low Tier blademage.

Graham was an excellent support mage, and while support mages had weaknesses, they excelled at keeping range, boosting their allies, and occasionally blasting their opponents away. Graham in particular was a menace with his lightning attacks. To make matters worse, he had gotten an insane power boost from a legacy, adding debuffing skills to his repertoire. It gave him the ability to render all of the common Tier 14 anti-debuff skills less than half effective.

Apparently, Graham had been forced to use their solo tournament skip, as he had drawn a match against Nyx, a stupidly strong archer who wouldn't be countered by their new debuffing skills. Nyx had proven themselves strong enough to be a solo Pather, and earned a top spot in the team skip brackets.

Kyle might just end up losing this round.

Looking at the anxious Emily, Matt chewed his lip. She might have a reason to worry that her date was going to be ruined or canceled if Kyle lost his fight.

This was the first time any of them had been put up against a strong contender, and it was an awful matchup for him. Technically, Melinda had already been eliminated, but she had willingly surrendered, like most of the pure healers in the teams had.

Liz tried to be positive. “He has a chance to win. He’s been training hard on becoming a good blademage.” She paused before adding, “And even if he loses, he can fight his way through the losers bracket until the top one thousand, where he can earn his place back in.”

Matt nodded. When they finally whittled the hundreds of thousands of competitors down to the top one thousand teams and individuals for their respective tournaments, anyone in the losers bracket who hadn’t taken a loss would have the opportunity to challenge anyone in the top thousand for their place.

It wasn't ideal, but a single loss to a bad counter didn’t mean that Kyle would be completely screwed.

But Matt wasn't sure if Kyle could win this upcoming fight.

Even he would have an issue fighting Graham without [Cracked Phantom Armor] to tank the hits from the mage.

Annie arrived minutes before the start of the fight and threw herself into Conor's lap, pouting.

Her arrival caught everyone off guard, but her boyfriend was the first to speak. “How did the training go?”

Her sister didn’t let her get a word out before asking, “Why the hell do you have a mini tree?”

Annie bared her teeth at her sister, and then at the tree in her lap before growling, “My trainer said this would be all I need for making my Concept. It's useless, though. It's a stupid overgrown bonsai tree. I don't need this! I don’t think I need this…?”

Matt didn’t miss that she sounded a lot less confident by the end of her statement.

Liz carefully prodded, “What happened?”

Annie slumped over and fell into her own seat before saying, “So I bought the Concept help package, and I met with the teacher.” Annie paused at that and looked as if she swallowed a lemon, but she recovered. “Whatever. The teacher gave me some overly esoteric advice that was effectively useless. When I didn’t instantly create my Concept from her stupid ideas, she showed me her garden and peppered me with a bunch of questions to try and explain more obtuse shit. When I didn’t understand that nonsense, she kicked my ass out the door with this weird mini bonsai tree.”

She held up the two-inch tall tree before glowering at it.

Matt probed it with his spiritual perception to find that it was a simple Tier 1 tree of no real value.

Emily rolled her eyes at her sister, “And she said nothing else? I swear you don't pay attention to shit people actually say. You just absorb every third word. What did she specifically tell you, stupid? She gave you a tree; that must mean something.”

Annie snarked right back, “She said something about the guards, but I was frustrated at that point, so I stopped paying attention.”

Emily snapped back, “Did you make it past her first few sentences before you zoned out?”

“Fuck you! I didn’t zone out, I just didn’t understand what she was getting at with her riddles and shit.”

“Fuck you right back! Those were our team points, and it seems like you squandered them. If you don’t understand, look at your AI. It records everything.”

Annie looked guilty and wilted like a flower.

Conor rubbed her back, “What did she say about the tree?”

Annie sighed. “She said it was a normal ass tree.”

Liz cocked her head to the side disbelievingly. “That's it? Really?”

“Yes, really. I asked like twenty times, and she just kept saying that it was a normal tree. And before that, she was just talking about gardening techniques. I listened, I really did. I just don’t really understand how it applies. I’m an assassin, not a florist. But there was something. It's like I can almost touch it, but I can't put my finger on it.”

Melinda tried to be encouraging, “Well, maybe you only need a normal tree?”

Before she could properly respond, Vinnie interrupted, “Also, aren't bonsai trees also usually more well-trimmed? To keep them healthy and all? That thing is a mess.”

Annie paused as she heard that, and then her face morphed into flabbergasted contemplation. Matt asked what just popped up into his head. “And when she said guards, did she mean the Gardeners? Tur'stal’s ‘gardener’ guards that she employs?”

Annie looked like he had just shocked her as she plopped down. Then Matt felt something in her pop and shift as her spirit flexed and grew.

Like a seedling sprouting from the earth, her true Concept broke apart the bottled one that she currently held in her spirit, and pushed through the cheap imitation to make room in her core.

***

Annie desperately wanted to curse at Matt and Vinnie's words, but it had given her the inspiration to finally finalize both her Phrase and Image.

She had resisted variations of brutal assassination-based Concepts for nearly two decades now, as she didn’t want to be the type of person that relished in killings like that. She knew that sometimes a good assassin was needed, but she didn’t want to only do wetwork.

She didn’t want to be defined by her Talent, no matter how much she enjoyed it.

When she had spent nearly all of her team's points for a Concept trainer, she had expected someone high Tier to help her. What she hadn’t expected was to see Tur'stal sipping at a glass of wine.

She was half-convinced that she had gone to the wrong room, but the royal had shut the door behind her with a wave of her hand and told Annie to sit down.

After that, Annie had been so flustered, she had missed most of what the royal said, and it was only when Tur'stal brought her out to look at her garden that she was given the bonsai tree and sent on her way.

It wasn’t every day that you meet a royal, and she hadn’t been prepared for such a big moment.

“Sit down, Annie. I’ve been impressed with how well you’ve been doing without your own Concept. You do more than just hold your own, in fact. That's impressive, and people have taken note.”

Annie swallowed at the implication, “So I’m one of the only people who don't have a Concept on The Path at this point?”

That was so embarrassing, she hoped it wasn't true.

“On the Path all together? No. At this tournament? One of a handful, and the only one who’s doing well in spite of that fact.”

Hearing that was too embarrassing for words, but Annie forced herself to listen to what Tur'stal said next. “A garden can represent a grander image than just plants in a greenhouse. They can represent life and growth. Hardship and triumph. Struggle and success. Life and death.”

Tur'stal flipped over her hand and a small flower grew, bloomed, and died before fading away to dust.

Annie felt like there were giant question marks hovering over her head, but she resisted the urge to say anything.

Tur'stal is a royal. She must have a point. Right?

“But you can look at nearly any Concept image and get the result you desire, if you’re clever enough. A flame image can be more about heat. It can be a representation of love and passion. It can even symbolize returning to your mothers embrace. It can be anger and rage, or it can represent whatever else truly fuels you. It’s your phrase that helps narrow down your image. Why do you feel a draw to gardens?”

Annie shrugged helplessly. “I don't know. I can tell that there’s something about my Concept and gardens that isn't just about stabbing things, but I can't figure it out. I even worked part time at a plant store for a few months, but I got absolutely nothing out of it.”

Tur'stal nodded and started to repeat things about life and nature, and how they link and mirror society, but Annie was lost. It all felt like pointless small talk that she would normally only half-listen to.

Eventually, Tur'stal had caught on that she was losing Annie's attention, and she brought her out to see said garden.

That had been impressive, but when Tur'stal started to talk about how she managed the place, Annie was lost again.

She was more interested in how the garden had a wild look, while also clearly having the touch of guidance. Annie just knew if she could get a shovel and start to dig around, she could discover something.

Her not stabbing things Concept was resonating with some ephemeral idea, but she couldn't put her spiritual finger on exactly what it was.

She flushed as she cringed at the memory of Tur'stal handing her the tree.

She asked, “What good is this? Am I supposed to meditate under it?” As her imagination ran wild, she asked, “Is the tree going to make a fruit that gives me powers?”

The woman was a royal, after all. Her gifts should be as magical as she herself was.

Instead, the woman had given her a flat look. “The tree is a little small to be sitting under, but you’re welcome to wear it like a hat if that helps.”

Annie must have given the tree a weird look because the royal quickly added, “That was a joke. It's a perfectly normal tree you could buy at any garden shop. If me hinting at what I believe your Concept is verbally isn't going to work, I hope this will work better.”

Annie just looked at the tree, “But how?”

Tur'stal must have finally lost her patience, as that was when she waved her hand and lifted Annie out of the room, calling out, “For fucks sake, girl. I can feel that you’re right there. Go think about what I said about gardening and keeping things healthy. I can drown a horse, but I can't make it drink.”

With that final statement, she had been teleported out.

It wasn’t like what Emily said, and she wasn’t air brained. She was really good at remembering things, but with this Concept stuff, she felt lost and out of her depth.

And she had believed Tur'stal was just idly chatting about gardening. Annie figured it was small talk. Tur'stal was the plant mage, after all. It would have been like anyone else talking about the weather.

Unimportant small talk.

It wasn't Annie’s fault that her not stabby Concept was actually about gardening.

Really it wasn't her fault.

And Tur'stal’s explanations had helped. Once she had calmed down, she was sure she would have figured it all out on her own. Tur'stal had even said that.

Her friends just gave her a little nudge that sped it up.

I prune the branches to keep the tree healthy.

Just like that, her Concept snapped into place.

It was just like her. Not completely peaceful, but it wasn't evil.

A tree needed pruning to keep it growing healthy. That was a simple, inescapable fact. Not every branch needed to be cut, but the sick and dead were just burdens to the tree. They were literal dead weight.

Society was no different. People and organizations that were nothing but dead, rotting weight needed to be pruned for the whole to be healthy.

Her Concept emphasized trimming where she needed to trim, but nothing more than that.

She now understood why Tur'stal gave her the bonsai.

The tree encompassed her Concept.

It needed pruning to stay healthy, but go too far and you kill the tree instead. You had to find the middle point, the balance.

Restraint.

Annie needed to carefully prune the tree that was The Empire with restraint and a light hand.

She would never take too much, but she wouldn’t leave any overgrown branches.

She felt her Concept wash over her with a new kind of power. She understood that sometimes she would need to lean into her assassin Talent, but she could do more good by refraining from killing everyone whenever she encountered a problem. That was exactly what her more stabby Concepts had been driving her towards, and it was why she refused to manifest them.

Annie hadn’t wanted to be that kind of person, and now, she saw a new way to progress.

While she knew she would need to practice with her new Concept before her next match, she wanted to finish watching Kyle's.

She glared at the small tree in her lap.

First, she needed to give this little shit a trim.

It was like nails on a chalkboard to her Concept to have something of hers so desperately in need of a trim.

***

Tur'stal swirled her wine before tipping back the glass.

Annie had irritated her beyond words.

The girl had been sitting on her Concept, but refused to change her mindset to see it.

Tur'stal could feel the girl's Pruning Concept begging to be realized, like a faint persistent ringing in the air, but the little blockhead was so fixated on not wanting to manifest her more bloody Concepts, she was blinded to it.

Seeing the girl rendered clueless when she personally took her to her garden had only confirmed it again. That the girl stood half a breath away, but refused to see.

Similar Domains could resonate with each other, and Tur'stal’s had been nagging at her the entire conversation.

She had already decided that if the stubborn mule of a girl didn’t figure it out by the end of the tournament, she was going to snatch the dolt, bury her up to her neck in the garden, and water her like a tree.

Tur'stal was sure she would get results like that. Being too forceful wasn't ideal, as it could taint the flavor that each Concept had, but such extreme measures weren’t needed in the end.

The girl just needed to get crowdsourced opinions from her friends.

Tur'stal gulped down her glass of wine before pulling a better riesling out.

Being a Tier higher than all of her wine was fantastic, in so far as she could enjoy even the most complex flavors without ever getting drunk. However, at times like this, she wished she could get at least tipsy.

And she refused to drink that cursed swill Mara and Leon claimed was liquor.

Sure, it might be able to get her ‘drunk’ in a fashion, but the sludge tasted vile. A good alcohol was a piece of art. Simply taking the rare Tier 48 bosses' bodies and fermenting them was not anything resembling an art form. They didn’t even use proper yeast. The savages just mixed the corpses with water from a high Tier rift with a poison bog motif and let whatever bacteria were present just go wild.

At least the airhead finally figured out the obvious. To that, Tur'stal rose her glass into the air in Annie's direction before sipping at it.

She sighed and settled in to watch the star system.

***

Matt watched on as Annie solidified her Concept, and felt relief when she opened her eyes and then immediately pulled out a dagger to give the tiny tree in her lap a haircut.

Once the plant sported a cleaner bob of green, Annie seemed to be at ease, and returned everyone's good-natured ribbing.

The playfulness didn’t last, as Kyle and Graham moved to their respective platforms, where they were lowered into a barebones arena with only a few shrubs that couldn't seem to decide if they were trees or not.

The mood sombered instantly, but Matt hoped his friend would pull something clever out of his hat to eke out a victory with.

As soon as the fight started, Graham raised his hand, and an orb of purple shot out towards Kyle.

Their friend was fast enough despite the small ring, and slipped to the side of its path before trying to rush at the mage in a zigzag pattern.

Graham blasted Kyle with a much faster lighting blast, but Kyle took the hit without even slowing.

Matt caught his friend's armor glowing with magic, but was too far away to see exactly what it did. Still, it protected him from the lighting well enough that he could close the distance by nearly half.

Graham wasn’t sitting still though, as an experienced support mage. Before Kyle could close the distance, he cast an area of effect slowing spell that landed between him and Kyle, forcing their friend to detour.

Kyle aborted a lunge but paused, dodged the next slowing purple orb, and underhand threw a knife at Graham with his offhand. That interrupted the mage's cycle of attacks, and Kyle managed to get a [Mana Slash] off before he was forced to dodge another purple orb.

Graham dodged both attacks and quickly took to the air, while Kyle raced after him, sword at the ready.

Kyle was struck with a purple orb in the next exchange, and like with everyone else, his Tier 14 [Cleanse] only partially diminished the skill’s effect.

Matt and his friends were shouting and calling encouragement for Kyle as he evaded the purple orbs while also avoiding the larger, but weaker area slowing skills that Graham sent out.

After a few more ineffectual exchanges, Kyle was forced to reveal his own Legacy skill. His already large greatsword expanded to create a shield-like projection that blocked Graham's own purple legacy orbs.

When the Legacies clashed, Kyle was finally able to completely negate the slowing effect with [Cleanse].

Melinda groaned next to Matt. “Ugh! This hurts to watch. I'm usually our anti-debuffer. Kyle only has [Cleanse], and he can only use it so many times.”

Matt nodded. He didn’t have the skill himself, but he had looked it up. It cost 200 mana per cast, and Kyle was a fifty fifty mage fighter, so he had less mana than Graham would have.

It would come down to how much those legacy debuffs skills cost versus how much mana the two competitors had left.

Matt felt bad because if Kyle had a few physical magical skills, he could easily counter the more deadly slowing orbs by putting a physical object through them. It was a known counter to single target energy skills, after all.

Kyle just lacked a skill of that ilk, as he usually had Vinnie on his team to sling earth around.

And Matt knew that Kyle only carried four throwing knives on him for a fight, which meant that he needed to save those attacks.

Their friend threw out a [Mana Bolt], but was caught in the area of effect slowing skill, and was forced to take another purple orb on his legacy shield. Still, his newest power held up against both attacks. Now free, he tried to close the distance once again, but any time the faster melee fighter got close, Graham put the area of effect field in between them. It was as if he was daring Kyle to enter its slowing field.

Kyle was eventually forced to use his movement skill, [Rush], but it was a short range, straight line skill that made him vulnerable to Graham’s slowing skills. He only used it when he had no other choice.

Still, with the new variable, he could hit Graham with a [Mana Bolt] that blew a chunk off of the mage’s bicep.

The ensuing stalemate lasted for close to five minutes while Kyle chased the fleeing mage around the arena, but he could not land a hit or close the distance.

They were starting to find hope that Kyle could outlast the mage, when Graham brought out a new skill that no one had seen thus far in the tournament.

His back exploded with light, and soft white light started to rain on him, increasing his speed by twenty percent. Kyle also learned the hard way that the light burned his skin when he tried to push through it.

Still, their friend was strong, and with a roar, he [Rush]ed into the light. Once he closed the distance, he launched [Mana Slash]es at Graham, along with a [Mana Bolt] to where he believed the support mage would dodge to. Playing off that distraction, he threw another dagger, and this time, he caught Graham in the thigh. Sadly, the wound was too shallow to hit anything vital.

That momentary victory was for naught, as Graham was able to finally catch Kyle's leg with one of the purple orbs, and their friend's entire body started to move as if he was dropped in molasses.

Graham panted for a few seconds before he blasted Kyle once again with [Jolt]. But once again, Kyle was unhurt, as his armor blocked all of the damage from the lightning spell. Even without his legacy skill, Kyle was still a well armored, front line fighter.

Despite his bad situation, Kyle still had a chance to win if his armor could outlast the mage’s remaining mana pool.

As a group, they cheered while Graham tried three more times to zap their fledgling blade mage to no effect.

Graham then hit Kyle with another purple orb before asking, “Anti-lightning armor? Must have been expensive. Smart though, it's one of the harder-hitting elements, and it’s even harder to dodge.”

He pulled Kyle’s throwing dagger out of his thigh before examining it.

“Fucking ouch! I have to say, Kyle... I chose you because I didn’t think a simple melee fighter could do anything against me. I was proven wrong, but this comes to an end now, before you outlast me. Good fight, though.”

With that, he brandished the dagger that had been in his leg, and started to walk forward after hitting Kyle with a purple orb for a third time.

He paused halfway, as Kyle’s blade started to glow as if he was going to cast [Mana Slash].

Graham paused before saying, “Huh. Not a bad idea, but [Slowing Shot] lasts too long, and I don't have to wait till it ends to reapply it. Otherwise, that [Mana Slash] might’ve worked.”

Despite his words, he circled around Kyle to approach him from the side.

Matt smiled as he saw Kyle charging a [Mana Charge] in his blade. Outwardly, the skill was nigh identical to [Mana Slash], but Matt knew that his friend had both.

Most considered [Mana Charge] a mage’s skill, but after seeing how Matt abused it in close range, Kyle had also picked the skill up during their blademage training with Kurt.

Kyle slowly moved his blade to touch the ground as Graham neared him and leaned in to stab him.

Right when Graham was going to place the blade against his neck to claim the win, Kyle unleashed the stored energy into the arena, sending stones flying in every direction from the explosion.

Graham was sent tumbling back, but the immobilized Kyle was forced to take most of the damage without being able to roll to dissipate the energy. But despite the explosion shredding his armor, he had managed to break the debuffing skill.

Turning and charging, he was only inches away from skewering the mage when he was hit with a [Jolt], and without his armor, he seized up before falling to the ground, smoking.

He tried to lunge from the ground with a dagger, but Graham hit him with another [Slowing Shot] before throwing out another two [Jolt]s.

It was only after that third shot the referee intervened, calling the end of the match.

As Kyle was pulled out and all of them got out of their seats to visit him in the hospital, Matt saw the blood running down Graham's face. While it hadn't been a vital hit, he had a deep wound that cut to his skull. It was large enough it left a flap of hair and skin falling down, covering one eye.

Kyle might have lost the fight, but he had surprised his opponent, and taken his own pound of flesh.

To their surprise, Kyle was in good spirits when they were finally allowed to see him, just half an hour later.

He was actually listening to the announcer's recap of his fight and smiling along.

His first words to them surprised Matt. “Ha! I kicked ass out there. I didn’t expect it to work at all, and I almost got him. I’m awesome!”

Seeing their friend in a good mood, everyone relaxed, despite Melinda trying to mother him. She fussed even after personally healing him, despite the official healers already doing their job.

Once he was cleared, Kyle pulled them all to meet up with Diana’s team and Graham, who had messaged him after the fight and offered to get him a drink.

It turned into a good celebration, despite the loss.

Annie had created her Concept, and Kyle had made a fantastic showing. He even came away with a new friend in Graham.

Later on, Emily and Tara snuck away to a dark corner, and have a more private dinner between the two of them.

Matt considered that win too.

***

The next day, the fights continued, and everyone gathered themselves for their own matches. In the fourth month, Quill was finally pitted against a decently strong opponent.

As they were lowered into the arena, he nodded to his counterpart as he mentally organized his talismans, planning for how he would take out his newest opponent.

His current opposition was something of a dark horse in the competition, and favored a rare sound-based blademage style.

Or rather, fistmage.

Surely, Rusty was observing the other fist-fighter with anticipation.

Quill was just wondering how he’d deal with the sound-based attacks. If he was able to use [Cracked Phantom Armor] as Matt, he could easily counter the man, but he didn’t have an easy counter ready as Quill.

Seth stood stock still as they were lowered into the arena, but Quill didn’t miss the throwing knife he had preemptively palmed before walking out.

He hadn’t been able to hide that tactic for all of his fights, as he had been pushed to show more of his power.

When the countdown reached zero, Quill instantly prepared half a dozen [Air Barrier] talismans as his counter to the inevitable sound-based attacks, but also braced to have his eardrums ruptured. The earplugs he brought would be as useless as they had been for everyone else who fought Seth before him.

Still, it was worth a try with the quick-and-dirty sound repelling enchantment he had put on them.

Seth bullrushed forward with a speed that belied the fact he wore heavy armor, and Quill threw out a few probing [Fireball] talismans to little effect.

The man let out little yips, which popped each of the fireballs mid flight.

They were thirty feet away from each other when Seth unleashed his signature screech, [Banshee’s Wail]. It was so loud and fast that it created a layer of compressed air as it smashed into Quill’s [Wind Barrier] talisman.

Even with that defense, the earplugs were overloaded and the enchantment was disrupted.

But the [Wind Barrier] had done its job, and blunted most of the attack.

Seth tried to close the distance, but Quill threw out a pair of [Earth Wall] talismans to create a small trap around the sound mage, hoping to buy a little space to retreat with before flanking the man.

To his surprise, he forced Seth to use a thus far unseen skill. The man screamed into the wall, causing it to shake and collapse like it was made of blocks.

Seth punched out as Quill launched two of the stronger [Fire Bolt] talismans, but his opponent’s punch cracked the air, sending a pulse of sound in a projectile. The two attacks canceled each other out, but Quill thought he saw a glimmer of a solution in the pattern of attacks.

Letting Seth approach, he threw out a [Create Water] talisman, and used [Earth Manipulation] to mix the two quickly. With some mud between them, he watched as Seth stepped into the slippery mess.

Not one to sit still, Seth launched a preemptive [Banshee’s Wail], but Quill cast [Air Burst] at the same time.

The two attacks canceled each other out, which let Quill cast a [Jolt] at Seth as he rolled out of the mud.

His attack landed on Seth’s armor and caused him to jerk a little, but it didn’t take the man out of the fight.

On his knees, Seth punched out and caught Quill in the chest with a [Sonic Punch].

Taking the hit, Quill felt the sound vibrations rupture his ears, and the world went silent as he felt the hit land on his chest.

It was less effective than a more traditional [Mana Punch], or any of the elemental variations, but it bypassed more of his armor to strike at his fleshly insides.

Quill cast [Jolt] once again while loading a five talisman array into his staff.

The attack was traded with a silent clap of Seth’s hands that caused a wave of visible sound to slam into Quill.

Even as he slid across the arena, he cast the talisman array, and the area turned slightly dark as storm clouds started to form, and the wind started to pick up.

A miniature tornado reached the arena floor despite Seth’s attempts at clapping it away.

Seth turned to him and said something, but Quill was deafened, and didn’t bother asking his AI to read the man's lips.

He just snarked, “Not nice to deafen a man then try to hold a conversation.”

Throwing out two [Wind Blade]s, he cast [Air Manipulation] to guide the tornado, and used some of the energy in the array to send out some [Wind Blade]s from the cyclone of wind. Quill had tried to make a talisman array that would suck all the air out of an area for this fight, but he hadn't managed to make it stable enough to be broken down into a few talismans. It was a shame, because it would have ended this fight instantly.

It was when his attack landed and Seth exploded into dark smoke that Quill knew something was wrong, and he rolled to the side on instinct.

Seth had never used illusions before, and it wasn’t a good sign that he was using them now.

Coming out of his roll, Quill jerkily scanned the arena.

It only took a second to see the misshapen blob of shadow fluttering around the edges of the dark cloud.

Quill launched a [Wind Blade] at the darkness and directed his tornado at the location, blowing the smoke away.

Seth was revealed, and Quill saw that he had taken his time in concealment to drink a healing potion, if the bottle rolling around on the floor was anything to go off of.

Still, Quill didn’t let up, and sent another wave of attacks at Seth to hopefully keep him at bay long enough to whittle him and his heavy armor down.

Seth rushed Quill and either dissipated the attacks he sent at him, or took them on his heavy armor.

Just as the wind array was ending, Seth threw a ball of black, exploding smoke and concealed the battlefield once again. Except this time, Quill was inside the darkness.

Cursing, he readied an [Air Burst], but a punch landed on his shoulder and sent him tumbling to the ground, as his armor failed to absorb the damage.

Spinning, Quill caught Seth’s legs and tripped the heavily armored man, sending the both of them to the ground. Rolling the two of them over during the struggle for grappling position, Quill was finally able to get into a guard, taking two hits to his kidneys as Seth tried to get him out of the advantageous spot.

Seth tried to buck Quill, but he was a second too slow, and Quill got the [Air Burst] off.

The explosion of air was at point-blank range, and Quill heard the crack as his head slammed into the ground behind him.

As the fight wasn’t interrupted by the referee, he slapped an explosion talisman on Seth's chest for good measure, before rolling off and activating a [Mana Barrier].

That finally ended the fight, in contrast to his fight against the gems four months ago.

The fights were getting harder as the tournament progressed, but slapping a dazed opponent with 5,000 mana set to explode was usually a good way to ensure someone's defeat. The fight might have only lasted a few minutes, but it had been a hard won victory.

With the smoke cleared, Quill staggered to his feet before waving off the referee who had been about to teleport him out of the arena.

Cracking his neck, he walked over to his fallen staff and picked it up before walking to the podium that lowered him into the arena.

As he exited the enspelled arena, Quill looked around to the crowd and put his hand to his ear, calling out, “I can't hear you!”

Despite his reputation being both good and bad, people loved a victor, and he could feel the screams of the crowd.

Waving to the flying drones, he hopped off the stage and walked over to the healer's station, where he sat down and kicked his feet up on an adjacent chair as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

It was all an act; he hurt all over from the sound-based attacks, but he needed to put on a good show.

As Luna beat into him over and over, Ascenders were more than human. They could not be allowed to show weakness. They were meant to be near mythical cultivators, not humans who hurt after a fight. No matter how false that idea was.

An Ascender was a sign of hope for the Empire, and Quill tried to project that invincibility to the watching crowds.

No matter how bad the damage, he would always be ready for another round. When things got hard, they could look to Quill and Torch for comfort.

For hope.