After the blue orbs had taken him and the others up to float above the arena, in view of the spectators, he found himself transported somewhere near.

It was a plain room for preparing, with a doorway out.

Experimentally, he opened the door and found himself able to emerge into the main area of the Duel Arena, where one could arrange fights or join events. His Mark informed him he was free to leave if he wished but that he would be automatically summoned when his round started.

He closed the door. Within the room there was a pane of light on the wall that showed the details of the coming rounds, with the next fight to start in ten minutes.

There would be four more rounds. Nicolai saw he was against someone called Xuan. Handily, there was a picture beside the man, showing his enemy. It wasn't the Cultivator with the anti-bullet Symbiotes, just some standard fare.

His own picture simply showed himself as he had appeared within the arena; face and body hidden by Skin Suit, holding the M99. However, he was annoyed to see his name listed: Nicolai. He'd have preferred to keep that private.

Glancing down, he spotted the one individual he was concerned about listed, recognising him from the picture. This man was called Jian, and Nicolai was pleased to see that they had started on opposite sides in the bracket.

They wouldn't meet until the final round. That was handy as it gave him the opportunity to watch his opponent's fights and work out a strategy; though of course the reverse was also true. He'd have to limit himself as much as possible.

It appeared the fights would be occurring in batches. His own first fight would be in the first batch.

After poking around a little more, he found a worn looking book. Flipping it open revealed it was an informational piece on the Duel Arena. It explained everything about how it worked. He flipped through it, taking pictures of each page, and set them to be digitised. Once it was held within his mind he began going through it all, as it seemed highly relevant to the current situation.

After a few minutes, the true first round began.

###

It was a disappointing first few rounds, though perhaps that shouldn't have surprised him.

His first opponent was a Cultivator not unlike those he'd scythed through earlier, and the arena was a forest. When the round started there'd been a quick process where the arena rolled gigantic dice in the air, and after they'd settled this forested arena was the result.

Nicolai found an angle then a quick spray of rounds from his assault rifle destroyed the man's Burst Shield before the Cultivator even closed into Soul Sense range. A second spray ended the fight.

His next fight was against an Earthborn. This man was a full Cyborg, similar to the four frog-legged Cyborg mercenaries who Vikrum had sent against him. He was pretty decent, but Nicolai had outfought a whole group of men like this and just one stood little chance.

This time they fought in a ragged and rocky area, plenty of easy cover and erratic sightlines. The man launched HK drones from too far away, so Nicolai simply shot them out of the air while creeping closer. Next the man tossed a grenade, set to a timer as Nicolai was denying him Local. Cyberwarfare had won a resounding and near-instantaneous victory against the Cyborg the moment this round started, and held complete domination of it.

Nicolai used the Repulsive Finger to punch the grenade backwards while it was midair. His enemy, shocked by the sudden reversal of his own grenade, had no time to react as it detonated in the air beside him.

Another victory.

He might have enjoyed himself more in these fights, let the dark a little more loose, but the situation put him on edge. He disliked fighting in front of an audience. He knew that every move he made was recorded by third parties. In such a situation, he didn't want to reveal too much.

Thus he kept himself under tight control, and won with simple and efficient moves.

During the breaks Nicolai observed his true opponent, the Cultivator called Jian, in his own battles. The man won his fights with similar ease as Nicolai, but not via a combination of tech and Cultivation. He won with pure overwhelming Symbiotic might. It looked to Nicolai that this individual was at the peak of what was possible for a Cultivator in Tier 1.

This gave him an advantage against any Earthborn, where the system worked a little differently. No one would invest so much in Level 1 augments, nor was there even that much to invest into. They would simply move up to Level 2. With the resources available to this individual, he must be able to reach Tier 2. For some reason he chose to remain at 1. Perhaps purely in expectation of Tournaments like this.

Nicolai saw that the Cultivator had movement based Symbiotes that worked on the premise of slightly boosting his movement, while also summoning vague leaf-forms which he could jump off of, with them throwing him quite powerfully. Once summoned, these phantom leafs stuck around for a while and the Cultivator was able to control them, using them as shields or to attack with.

He'd also worked out the exact Symbiote-collections the individual was using in his two arms. All of this knowledge had been available in the Memory Discs he had purchased, he'd merely had to delve into them.

The Silver Net was the one used to deflect bullets, and it worked on anything that wasn't guided by Soul Sense. The Spectral Claw was a versatile Soul Sense based method of attack and even movement, as the individual could use that claw to pull or push himself around, much like Nicolai's Grasping and Repulsive Fingers.

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In fact, those very fingers were amongst the Symbiotes this man was using to create the Spectral Claw. Both the Silver Net and Spectral Claw were aping the abilities of actual Tier 2 Symbiotes, formed in Tier 1 by the grouping of numerous different Symbiotes all working together. It was an expensive setup and Nicolai saw the man frequently reaching for Oma crystals.

In his head, Jian had a few more Symbiotes which provided a similar effect as Nicolai's Soul Snake, only better. With that the Cultivator's Soul Sense stretched far, thus empowering his Spectral Claw to attack from further away. A smart combination.

As to his shield, he had two. A top-tier Burst Shield followed by a top-tier (for Tier 1) Skin Shield.

Notably, Nicolai witnessed that the Silver Net also worked on drones such as hunter-killer drones.

He guessed that these were considered "unguided" based on Cultivator terminology, because guidance really meant if something was controlled directly by Soul Sense or not. In such a case, the Soul Sense could overpower the Silver Net. But in the case of a drone operating without Soul Sense to back it up, the Silver Net would work to redirect it whenever it came near.

The user could even expand the radius of the Silver Net, pushing it in a given direction, to have it work from further away. Nicolai saw the Cultivator do so, stymieing an attempted drone assault from one Earthborn until he'd been able to destroy all the drones with his Spectral Claw. It was an odd sight, seeing the drones run at the Cultivator over and over, only to veer away before entering effective range. The Modules pitied the poor drones' targeting AI's and their simplistic programming.

The Silver Net obviously presented a significant problem to Nicolai, but after considering all that he knew, he'd come up with a fairly simple solution. One that was so obvious that he was a little concerned that the Cultivator might already have a counter for it—he was hoping the man had simply never encountered what he intended.

He'd need to wait until after his next fight to implement it, as that fight was moments from beginning. Following that there would be another ten minute break, as the Duel Arena's guide explained was standard between rounds.

The call for the next round came, and Nicolai accepted.

The roll of dice chose an arena that was similar as the streets of the free-for-all, only smaller in scale. He started in the middle of the street, and looking down it he saw his opponent in the distance.

She was a Cultivator, and she had a straight sword on her hip. The countdown began and she drew her sword, while Nicolai sighted down his M99.

When the countdown ended, he fired. But at the same moment there came a flare of gold, and a shield hummed into life around her. The bullet deflected off.

It was a Golden Feather Shield, and he knew it would be able to take a couple more hits from the M99.

He streaked backwards, reloading, but she didn't charge straight at him. Instead she dove to the side, gestured and a thunder of red flame blew a hole in the building beside her, which she dove within.

What followed was a deeply enjoyable cat-and-mouse battle as she pursued him through the small street area, keeping walls between her and him. She sought to close and kill him with the sword, he sought to break her shield from a distance then end her.

Ultimately the game just came to a sudden end. She made a singular mistake, one so obvious that at first he thought it must be some kind of trick, that she was baiting him. It was only after double and triple checking he realised it wasn't, and she wasn't even aware she'd of what she'd done—gotten out of position in a place he could hit her, if he only moved a bit over… here. One of his rounds caught her clean.

And just like that, his third round was won. The next would see him face against the only one he considered capable of beating him: Jian.

###

As soon as he appeared in the waiting room, Nicolai summoned his portal. It shimmered into existence and he dove through it.

Back in his base he rapidly changed his outfit, leaving his Blade and equipping himself with different weapons.

When he returned and then left the private waiting room, he wore a ragged survivalist getup. His old combat and run-down tactical gear, a combat helmet with a mask and goggles, and on top of it all a large piece of cloth acting as a kind of cloak. These were simply items he'd accrued over time, stuck in his storage in case his skinsuit failed him.

He made his way rapidly through the Phantom City, seeking out the Trade Link. There he had to pay a fee to some undead guards—a mere 250 points—after which he was allowed through.

This Trade Link was very large and very busy, but it resembled the one he had seen at the castle in every other way—except without the littering of collapsed stonework.

He spent 100,000 points on a new weapon, taking his stock back down to 50,000 points-tags, then immediately called up his portal and put the new purchase in his cave. Following that he returned to the private waiting room, and once inside the private area he re-opened his portal, re-equipped his standard equipment and retrieved the new weapon, stowing it in his storage. He had already tested that he could retrieve things from storage in the 10 seconds countdown before a fight started.

With that, his time was up. The prompt appeared and he accepted it.

Light flashed, the world lurched, and Nicolai appeared in the arena. The chosen battleground was a simple circular expanse of sand. Surrounding it were the stands. The shouts and cries those above reached down to him, and Nicolai took a moment to slowly turn his head, taking it all in. The bright blue sky above. The white stone of the stands and seating. The yellow sand at his feet. The colourful, clamouring crowd.

This was the final, and it felt as though everyone in the city had come to watch. Nicolai's gaze settled onto his opponent.

Jian looked very confident, wearing green robes and a broad smile. The man had reason to be confident, with the powerful Symbiote setups he had. If Nicolai's new purchase didn't work as planned, he would most likely lose here—unless he pulled the Blade, which would give him an edge that might let him win. Doing so would be problematic. The last thing he wished was to broadcast that he carried something so valuable to the many hungry eyes that were watching.

Not to mention, the Blade's use was limited. He did not have any actual risk of dying in this fight, Heaven assured it. Back out in the jungle, being able to use the Blade was the only reason he'd managed to defeat Hao and his lackeys. Without it, he would most likely be dead.

He'd used 20% of its charge and only 80% remained. In this fight, where he was starting at a distance from Hao—who would obviously work to keep him at the tip of the Spectral Claw, out of melee range—if he opted to use the Blade he likely wouldn't be able to win instantly. He would need it to fight back against the claw.

How much charge would he have used, when the fight was done?

Was it worthwhile to expose the Blade, to use more charge, so as to come first in this Tournament? Even if he lost here—even if he yielded the moment the fight started—he would still get the token he needed to join the Slayers Guild.

Difficult. He wasn't sure which route would be best. With luck, the surprise he'd prepared would do the job… but he didn't like to rely on luck.

He could always simply fight, and do his best to win. The idea was appealing. It would be difficult, very difficult. The M99 would be of no use, nor any of his other guns. He would have to fight with his Cultivation—Soul Sense, and the Imbued rapier, the Blue Hornet and Fingers. Discounting the Blade, he had no truly powerful spiritual weapon.

He gazed into his opponent's eyes, seeing what he might read from them, and the Cultivator gazed back.

However, a frown creased the man's brow, and Nicolai's own, as the distracting clamour from above pressed down.

To his shock he made out his own name, cried by a distant voice.

'Kill him, Nicolai!'

His head rose and he took in the crowded stands above. Listening more closely, now, he made out his name—and Jian's—repeated numerous times. Of course, the names of the combatants were publicly available.

The shouts and cheers washed over him like a great wave, and he felt the regard of hundreds of eyes.

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