“That is just unfair.”

Victor heard someone said that and he had to agree. However, that was nothing new. The Game was never fair. Fairness was a lie the old told the young, to give them hope for the future. This was real life. Real life was never fair, and it was time for them to be unfair!

“Don’t let up! Gang up on it. Give it everything you got. Kill it!”

Victor screamed as he fired several lasers at the Rat King. Lasers that were soon followed by a barrage of beams, rays, and projectiles. Everyone piled on the pressure as the Rat King tried to leap away. However, its injury was clearly slowing it and the Rat King suffered several hits as its size was now a disadvantage. The shooting continued and Victor could see that the Rat King realized it was losing as it could not escape the barrage. It was smart enough to understand it had no real way to fight back.

It made a decision.

Victor felt a great pressure. The Rat King had a core and Victor realized it was now tapping into it. The Rat King was using its Qi for something. Victor was about to shout a warning when he saw a cloud of purple smoke spreading out from the Rat King.

Without a word, everyone retreated. No one wanted to touch the sickly-looking smoke, and the smoke quickly covered the Rat King from view. Victor heard a squeak. A squeak that became two, that quickly turned to a thousand!

As Victor wondered what was going on, hundreds of rats streamed out of the purple smoke, running towards the gap in the wall. Everyone looked on in surprise and Victor quickly realized what the rats was doing.

They were running!

The rats had enough. The Rat King was formed by the assimilation of thousands of rats, an incredible technique that the Rat King had now released. The rats headed towards the men guarding the gap, and Victor saw the Old Man giving an order. The men opened a gap, and let the rats run past them.

It made sense. They were the Protection Detail, their job was to protect the base, and now that both the Ape Monster and Rat King had been driven off, the battle was over.

Now came the aftermath. Victor ran.

He rushed to the fallen body of Crimson Fighter. The villain support was still alive, but one look told Victor how bad it was. The Rat King’s tails had went straight through Crimson Fighter, and Victor knew the villain support would not last long. He had lost too much blood and even if there was someone with a healing power on site, it would be a close thing. Without that…

Crimson Fighter saw Victor, and his eyes shone with tears.

“Master Fist, tell my father I did it. I was in The Game.”

Victor frowned. Crimson Fighter sounded afraid, and relieved. Like his life finally meant something. In a way, Victor understood. To be in The Game was the ambition of all young kids on Nexus. It was what they live for. It was what they were willing to die for. It was all they ever wanted. Victor understood. He was once just like that, but Victor was older now. Wiser perhaps, more powerful, and definitely more knowledge.

“You sure did,” Victor told Crimson Fighter, “but you can tell him that yourself.”

Victor opened his storage ring and brought out a monster core. It was one of the cores he collected from the monsters that attacked Velocity City. Victor wasn’t sure it would work, but it was Crimson Fighter’s only chance.

He put the core on one of the open wounds of Crimson Fighter and called up his core. Victor started to circulate his Qi and directed the Qi into the monster core. According to Reunion, he had to transfer the Qi slowly and steadily, or he would risk overwhelming either the monster core or Crimson Fighter’s body.

Either case would be fatal.

“Master Fist, what are you doing?”

Victor recognized the Old Man’s voice. His actions had gained him an audience, but Victor ignored everyone around him. Right now, there was only his Qi and the monster core. Minutes? Hours? Victor did not know how long it took, but just as he was feeling the strain, he felt it.

Another core. A core within another cultivator, within another monster. Victor’s eyes widened as he heard gasps around him. Crimson Fighter was now glowing. A faint green light was now surrounding his minion support and there were green lines on his body. They look like…veins, spreading from the monster core Victor had placed on the wound. Victor’s heart leapt.

It was working!

Victor quickly steadied himself. He did not want to screw it up. Victor maintained the steady circulation of his Qi, and the faint green light slowly brightened. The light gave Victor a soothing feeling as he maintained the supply of Qi. He maintained the supply till he felt a blockage.

A wall that was actively fighting against his Qi.

Victor was waiting for this. If Reunion was right, this meant that Crimson Fighter now had his own Qi and his core was fighting against the foreign Qi of Victor’s. Victor immediately cut off the Qi supply and the light surrounding Crimson Fighter began to fade. Victor stood up, stepped back and waited to see the result of his work.

Moments later, the bright green light fully faded, and Victor could finally see Crimson Fighter’s body clearly. The villain support’s wounds had healed, there were small patches of scales on his face, and his hair had a touch of green that wasn’t there before. His breath was steady, but his eyes were closed.

Victor waited.

Everyone waited.

Slowly, Crimson Fighter opened his eyes. Slit-like pupils looked at Victor in shock.

“Masster Fisst?”

Crimson Fighter’s voice sounded strange, but Victor barely registered the oddity. According to Reunion, the process of Monster Cultivation changed the body structure of the cultivator, and Victor figured it could save Crimson Fighter’s life.

He was right.

Victor smiled as everyone, including the Old Man, looked at him in shock. Victor released a deep breath as he wondered if Crimson Fighter should pick a new villain name. Crimson Fighter was no longer a good fit. The name was no longer enough. After today, his former minion support was no longer just a fighter. He had just become something more.

He had just become Nexus’ third mystic warrior.