The Lone Wanderer

Chapter 652 – Updated score

The crowd erupted in cheers upon the return of the participants, and Percy even heard his host’s name thrown around the stadium excitedly a couple of times.

At first, he was a little surprised that the spectators had observed the special event, though he probably shouldn’t be. Whether it had taken place on Marador Prime or a different planet, the cleansing contest had ultimately been just another part of the tournament. They’d even been teleported to Spiralis B-3 directly from the arena, so it would have been strange if the spectators had bought their tickets for nothing.

‘They probably watched us through those enchanted platforms that were floating in the sky,’ he realized.

Ignoring the civilians and his less-than-pleased rivals for now, Percy brushed a scaled hand over the amethyst badge to pull up the event’s scoreboard one final time. He had yet to check Kassorith’s rank, so he wasn’t sure whether they had managed to overtake Falanor in the end.

‘Kassorith: 8198 points,

Falanor: 8011 points,

Zurvanai: 5666 points,

Remlat: 3902 points,

Semleni: 3885 points,

…’

‘Thank the gods,’ Percy thought, despite not being the most pious person.

It had been a close one, which was largely his own fault. If he could wind the clock back to the start of the event, there were many things that he would do differently, such as leaving the central plains sooner, or preparing the cleansing formation and the puppets from the very beginning. Had he used everything at his disposal the whole time, his host’s score would have ended up well into five digits.

In Percy’s defence, they hadn’t been given any information about the contest beforehand, and this had been his first time actually possessing the means to push back against a demonic infestation. He hadn’t had many chances to explore the limits of his new Decree either, nor had he known what to expect from the other contestants, so the event had inevitably involved a lot of trial and error.

‘Well, we won in the end,’ Micky said with a mental shrug. ‘Isn’t that all that matters?’

Percy nodded internally, honestly feeling quite elated about that outcome. Not only had they earned the maximum number of points, but he had also gained some valuable experience in cleansing corrupted creatures.

He would obviously have to be a hundred times more careful before subjecting a sapient to the scorching beams produced by his formations, but at least he wouldn’t be completely powerless the next time he set foot on an infected world.

‘If I can get my hands on a blessing like Falanor’s at some point, I might actually stand a decent chance of at least refreshing my mark on Robari without much risk,’ he realized.

Finding the right Ring of Sacrilege within the next millennium would still be quite a challenge, yet he figured that it was a fine long-term objective to work towards as soon as he dealt with his immediate problems on Remior.

Leaving his ambitious plans aside for now, Percy scanned the other participants’ faces more carefully, a few of whom were still glaring at his host in anger. It was mostly Remlat and Azalotheen, really, who had apparently only just realized that Kassorith would pose a serious threat to their qualification for the elimination phase.

The others appeared more curious than irritated. Having won most of his previous matches, the Thess’kalan had already proven that he was likely to finish in the top half of the group regardless of his performance in the special event, meaning that this result wouldn’t affect the number of rewards that most of his rivals were going to get.

Even Zurvanai examined him with genuine interest, her usual impassive expression having given way to an undeterminable emotion for the first time since Percy met her. He doubted that she was concerned about losing her own spot in the next round, but Kassorith’s performance had clearly caught her attention.

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Thankfully, everyone eventually swallowed their anger or curiosity, not raising much of a fuss over the Thess’kalan’s success. There was no point in doing that, and they were all probably tired after having spent the past couple of days slaughtering corrupted beasts and resisting their insidious influence.

Flying leisurely back towards the inn, Kassorith tinkered with the amethyst badge some more, eventually figuring out how to switch back and forth between the temporary scoreboard and the main one for their group. Luckily, it soon became clear that he had finally reclaimed the top spot in that one as well.

‘Kassorith: 34 points,

Zurvanai: 34 points,

Remlat: 33 points,

Azalotheen: 30 points,

Falanor: 27 points,

…’

Okay… Percy’s host technically hadn’t hogged first place by himself. He was tied with Zurvanai, and that would change as soon as she wiped the floor with him, but at least she would probably do the same to Remlat and Azalotheen, leaving their relative positions mostly unchanged.

‘It seems that we were awarded anywhere between one and eighteen points, in reverse order of our placement in the event,’ Percy summarized after cross-referencing the scores of a handful of other participants that he was following.

It was a simple yet practical way to do things. Azalotheen had fallen further behind the other front-runners after his relatively poor performance – he’d barely made it to seventh place in the event. Falanor was still below the two-cored Maradorian, despite having ranked second earlier, his anti-infestation blessing having clearly not helped him much in his previous battles.

The rest weren’t a threat either – provided that Kassorith managed to beat them all. Right now, it looked like the second ticket to the elimination phase would be decided between him and Remlat. However, the two had already fought, so the outcome would actually be determined by their fights against Zurvanai and Azalotheen, as well as the second special event.

‘Better make them count then,’ Percy concluded, though that was a problem for another day.

Reaching their room, Kassorith sat atop his coiled tail in silent meditation, joined by his spectral guests. They might not need to sleep like the other participants, but they could still use some rest after their tiring performance. Percy and Micky were in an even worse state than their host, as the two droplets of spiritual blood that they had invested into the Thess’kalan’s puppets had cost them a good chunk of their already-tiny wisp.

Unlike Kassorith – who could recover rapidly in body and soul – the clone was unable to mend his own spectral injuries, so he wouldn’t be able to produce more spiritual blood in the tournament. Unfortunately, the teleportation device had extracted them from Spiralis B-3 before they had the chance to retrieve the blood from the puppets. Not that they could have done that without arousing suspicion.

‘It is what it is. Hopefully, we won’t need any in the second event,’ Micky muttered.

‘I’m more worried about whether somebody saw us use it this time around,’ Percy replied. ‘I suppose that we were as careful as we could have been, but who knows what these people are even capable of?’

The good news was that the void tournament was frequented by talented mages with extremely powerful bloodlines, so the organizers were probably used to seeing all sorts of ridiculous feats that stretched the limits of what a mortal should be capable of.

So long as Percy and his companions maintained plausible deniability, nobody should bother them. All things considered, he didn’t regret taking the risk for that extra point. It might make the difference between earning the Void Decree or not.

Over the next three days, the trio meditated without chatting much, taking none but the most necessary breaks – which apparently included Kassorith picking a few grains of golden sand that had remained lodged between his scales. Had this been Percy’s early days in the Fungal Spire, he might have bothered to collect them all, as he could have exchanged them for a few doses of elixir back home. Nowadays, he didn’t place such a pitiful amount of money in his eyes.

By the time they felt ready to resume spying on their opponents’ matches, Percy and his companions had already missed a couple of fights. He didn’t want this to turn into a habit, but his host had already defeated three of the four contestants, so Percy’s absence hadn’t cost him too much useful information.

With every victory, the Thess’kalan’s remaining opponents would continue to decrease, allowing Percy to start skipping more matches and using that time to learn about the Void Hand’s most valuable planets. This was something that he had been planning to do since the start of the second phase, though he hadn’t had much free time until now.

About a week later, it was Kassorith’s turn to fight again.

His opponent was Semleni, one of the Inimits that had done fairly well in the special event, though Percy wasn’t very worried. He’d already watched several of the bird-woman’s previous matches and prepared a comprehensive strategy for this battle months ago.

The fight wasn’t exactly an easy one, but Kassorith eventually won by sticking to Percy’s plan and leveraging his superior enchantments. The Thess’kalan’s eleventh match a few weeks after that didn’t hold much suspense either.

However, there was another match of great importance taking place between Kassorith’s eleventh and twelfth fights – one that Percy wouldn’t miss for the world, since it was bound to be a major turning point for the entire group phase:

Remlat was up against Zurvanai.