"Two hundred thousand credits," Wayne said.

Hector stared at the beaker full of clear liquid. It glowed with cosmic energy in his mental sense. He reached for the rubber stopper and Wayne blocked his hand.

"I know your first impulse is to test whether this smells like a silver elixir. Resist the urge. We can't predict how deadly this is to one of us. Mundane hydrogen cyanide kills unenhanced humans in minutes. This might possess a similar degree of lethality for us."

"You're charging me a lot. How do I know Jerry won't spit this out after his first sip?"

Wayne shrugged. "I added vegetable oil to simulate the mouth feel of a silver elixir. I also put in salt and aminos to simulate the flavors to some degree. No one you care about should consume or inhale this, Hector. We just have to cross our fingers."

Hector transferred the funds and took possession of his poison. Then he moved to a computer terminal to check his messages. Sure enough, a response from Chloe waited for him. She was willing to work for him as a tea detector. Her price, however, was half a million credits for a month of work. That was not in his budget. He shot back a message countering a quarter million credits for two weeks. It was the same rate, so he couldn't imagine she would pass on the opportunity. Unless the high price quote was her way of politely telling him to pound salt. He'd worry about that later.

Eva, somewhat grumpy from waiting on him for half the night, suddenly became interested when he reappeared. Her eyes spotted the bulge in his front pocket. Fortunately, she didn't make him pay to learn where Darius stayed. Hector suspected that was more due to her being exhausted from staying up all night than to any fondness for him.

Darius let him into his lavish room after a few minutes of knocking. "Did you run away from the party because of that One-Shot fool?"

"Hello to you too, Darius." Hector pulled out the two vials. "I had Wayne cook me up some poison from Tian materials and disguise them as elixirs. I plan to poison Jerry."

"The appearance is accurate, at least." The eunuch made to open one of the vials.

"Wayne told me not to smell them."

Darius pulled his hand back. "It is potent, then. Assuming we trust in Jinn magic."

"I trust it is a potent level four poison. Whether it will kill someone with peak level seven body enhancement is another question. Three whole levels is an eight-fold difference in potency. In theory, consuming eight times the lethal dose should still do the job. I'm not sure it actually works that way, but I can't imagine this poison will have no effect."

"We might be able to use this in the battle. Today is a recovery day. Tomorrow we are leaving by the east gate with the maidens. Prepare to fight this One-Shot character."

Hector tilted his head to get a better look at his friend. "Did you negotiate an alliance?"

"We have a common enemy. I agreed they could keep the man's core since they bring more warriors to the battle." Darius paused. "You should be ready with your transit sphere in case the two of us need to escape."

"Of course," Hector said.

"I will see you at the east gate tomorrow at sunrise." Darius gestured to the door in obvious dismissal. It appeared their friendship was still on the rocks.

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It was back to the hostel then. Rather than going straight to his room, he stopped by the main bay to ask Isabel to join him for a strategy discussion. The leader of the maidens, Mei, came along for the talk. Inside his room, Hector began immediately.

"I have a poison designed to look like an elixir." He brought out one of the vials.

Mei said something. A moment later, Isabel translated. "You are more cunning than we gave you credit for. How do you intend to deliver this poison?"

Hector outlined the best plan he'd been able to put together. "Outside the city tomorrow, we all pretend to fight over the elixir. Then we drop it as we flee Jerry's approach."

Mei seemed to understand his words well enough and gave a short response. Isabel translated once more. "We will follow your plan."

Perhaps he should be happy, but he felt like they agreed too quickly. "Should we rehearse?"

Isabel made a face. "Rehearse what? Trying to grab a vial?"

"I once spent hours rehearsing a change of seating."

Mei muttered something. Isabel cracked a smile. "Your humor is odd, Hector, and we suggest you do less of it."

It hadn't been a joke. Nevertheless, Hector let the women leave and sat down to cultivate. He also took the few chicken cores not used in the making of his false elixirs and threw them down his throat. The cores were each about the size of a grain of rice and their energy rapidly dissipated. Their potency was neither impressive nor long-lasting, but it was cosmic energy he didn't have to work for.

Then it was back to using his externality to draw on chaos. The task, which once required much of his attention, had grown increasingly automated. It was like chewing his food – he didn't have to dedicate any awareness to the process for its proper execution.

When he estimated his reserves to be fifty percent, Hector went out for dinner. After that, he tried to sleep. Having spent the entire previous evening awake due to his traveling, he was quite tired. That wasn't enough to overcome the nerves he felt at the prospect of facing an enemy's chaos bolt.

The tournament had left a permanent scar on his psyche. His ego had swollen a bit due to his third place finish during the round robin portion. He'd let himself believe his strength and durability gave him an enduring advantage in combat. Then he'd witnessed chaos bolts in action, learning that he was truly and permanently outclassed. He barely defeated a man with a spear externality.

It was hard to reconcile the two extremes. Hector could shrug off miasma and stand toe-to-toe with a level ten Ogre. Yet he was as vulnerable as anyone to chaos bolts and schism beams. More so than many because he didn't have an effective offensive weapon. All he had was his transit sphere….

His eyes grew large in the darkness of his room. As far as ideas went, it was pretty wild. Though wild didn't necessarily mean it wouldn't work. Every human externality touched the primordial. All of them formed a protective barrier between chaos and the soul. His was a little different in that regard. It consumed chaos. What, if anything, could a bolt of chaos do to his transit sphere? Only fuel his insight of chaotic emergence.

The challenge would be in timing and placement. Raising his sphere into reality wasn't instant. Not by a long shot. He was faster than most, but it still took a couple of minutes to reach full size. Hector didn't need full size, though. He just needed big enough to block a bolt. The initial growth of his sphere was fast – growth time seemed to be a function of volume and not surface area. So ten seconds would get him a serviceable shield.

One he wouldn't be able to move from where it was summoned, but still a shield that could – in theory – block any chaos bolt in existence. Hector almost felt giddy at the possibilities. This wasn't the key to victory by any means. If it worked, though, it would fundamentally change the game he was forced to play against opponents with the ultimate Xian weapon. Instead of desperately fleeing, he could strike back with his cables from behind cover.

For hours he visualized hypothetical battles where he hugged tight to his sphere, hovering to make sure his feet couldn't be sniped from beneath him, lashing cables at his opponent. The challenge would be seeing around his sphere to aim, or so his speculations led him to believe. His sphere's surface was a mirror, so he should be able to see a distorted version of his opponent to help him keep the obstruction between them. That wouldn't help him aim, though.

There was no use hoping for perfection, though. His makeshift shield would never be exactly what he wanted it to be. That just meant he had to work within the bounds of what it could do. For this first test, his best plan was to rely on his allies and hope the cyanide elixir worked.

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