'Like I said, if you want me to go through the ritual early, you'd better lend me the moss you claimed,' Kassorith said with a smirk.

Percy suppressed the urge to curse the greedy Thess'kalan.

In theory, his host's demand wasn't all that unreasonable. Percy's reward would be useless until they won the fourth round and earned his own portion of the primary ingredient anyway. Their best bet – as a team – would be to raise Kassorith's strength as much as possible, to increase their odds of making it deeper into the tournament.

Not that the Greater Thess'kalan Physique would have that big of an impact on them. Kassorith had no access to the Carnival or the Soul-crushing Needle, so the ritual's effects would be subtle. Still, sharpening his thermal sense might help, as would strengthening his body – enough to endure more punishment without yielding – especially if their last fight was anything to go by.

Luckily, the arena's enchantments had done a great job assessing the severity of Kassorith's wounds this time, not activating to protect him before necessary. Percy suspected that the organizers had tweaked the mechanism slightly to account for his host's life-saving bloodline – which he had disclosed when signing up for the tournament. That said, Percy would feel a lot better about his odds in a tougher vessel.

Sadly, there was a problem with giving the Abyssal Moss to his host.

Percy couldn't trust the Thess'kalan farther than he could throw him. If Kassorith amassed all the ingredients for the ritual this early, he might stop trying to get through the tournament. Five more rounds might be too much effort for just a single additional reward. Even if he kept trying, there was a chance they would get eliminated early regardless, costing Percy everything.

In the end, it appeared that he was overthinking the situation, however.

The guide informed them that there wouldn't be a break until after the fourth round, so there wasn't enough time for them to go through the ritual anyway right now. If Percy wanted both the primary ingredient and the life-extending leaf that Syrreneth had promised him, he had no choice but to make it through at least one more round relying solely on their current means.

'For your sake, I hope you don't quit on me before this is over,' Percy warned the Blue.

'Sure, sure…' Kassorith shrugged. 'You don't need to threaten me. It's true I've already gained most of the good things, but who would say no to more? Besides, it's not like your leaf is coming out of my pocket. I couldn't care less about whatever deal you've struck with my master.'

Neither of them said anything else as Kassorith claimed his prize from the "Personal Improvement" chamber and listened to its description one last time.

___

Greater Thess'kalan Heartblood

Description:

The lifeblood harvested from the heart of a deceased demigod of the Ancestral Lineage Sect. After being passed down from master to disciple for 3,912 generations, Ancestor Rassaheth's physique had become one of the most developed in modern Thess'kalan history. Given the demigod's high grade, his body was likely even stronger than the most powerful of our beast ancestors' – none of whom is estimated to have evolved beyond Blue until after they attained sapience and discarded their original affinity. That said, there is a lot of room for improvement before our bodies reach the level of beasts on our grade, so the inheritor of this vial of Heartblood is advised to sire as many offspring as possible, to spread this gift to the rest of our world. The ritual merely involves adding the Heartblood – and any of the optional ingredients – to a bath of cold water, and soaking in it for two full days and nights.

___

The instructions were simple enough, the bloodline of the dead ancestor likely doing all the heavy lifting in this inheritance. Percy wasn't sure how long Thess'kalan days were exactly, but they felt slightly shorter than those on Remior, so it would probably be fine if he spent a couple of days and nights in the bath back home.

Stolen novel; please report.

He was tempted to snatch the gemstone vial from Kassorith. It would only take a thought to store the Heartblood in his seal and leave Thess'kala – his host wouldn't be able to stop him. Even without the toxins, Percy might be able to get most of the benefits from the ritual. However, he wasn't in a rush to cut all ties with the slimy Blue.

'Enjoy your reward,' he muttered with a forced smile. 'For now,' he added, though he kept that part to himself.

Before leaving the treasury, Kassorith took his trimmed tunic off, activating his bloodline. The change in perspective was disorienting, and the experience of crawling through their own throat as their old body crumbled and rotted rapidly around them was even more disturbing now that Percy knew what was happening.

Still, the relief that discarding their injured flesh brought them made the discomfort worthwhile.

Kassorith didn't have any corpses other than his own to consume this time, so their new body only grew to the size of an adolescent before running out of nutrients. They were still missing a few centimetres of height and several kilograms of bone and muscle compared to an adult Thess'kalan, which wasn't ideal. But it was better than starting their next match all battered up. If they made it through the fourth round, they could find something to eat during the intermission.

Returning to the arena, they found their opponent waiting for them.

There were only four participants left in this block, including Kassorith. And only two would move on to the next round. Percy guessed the same would happen in the remaining seven blocks – a total of sixteen contestants getting reshuffled for the second phase of the regional tournament.

Either way, they had to win first, before they worried about what came next.

Percy recognized their current opponent – a toned but lean, male Thess'kalan. He was the same man who had stood on the sidelines unfazed during most of the previous battles, not even bothering to protect himself from any stray projectiles the participants had fired.

All the other contestants had shielded themselves with all sorts of barriers of mana or willpower. But not him – he had somehow felt at ease, seemingly knowing that he hadn't been in any danger even as blobs of magma and frozen javelins had whizzed mere centimetres from his face.

'His affinity was pretty troublesome too if I'm not mistaken. What was it again? Fire, with a weird blessing?' Percy asked.

Kassorith shook his head.

'It's a plasma affinity, not a blessing,' the Blue explained.

Percy nodded in understanding. He'd heard of it, but he'd never seen it before this tournament. Connecting the few glimpses of the man's spells with information that he had heard in the past, he reminded himself that the purple plumes of plasma were supposedly hotter than regular flames, while travelling faster than lightning bolts. Of all the composite affinities, plasma was widely regarded as the one with the greatest offensive power – more destructive than even light, though not quite as fast.

'Why couldn't they have matched us with either of the other two?' Kassorith wondered, clicking his tongue.

Based on what they'd seen so far – and on the crowd's enthusiastic reaction – the plasma mage was not only the strongest participant from their block, but likely one of the favourites for the entire tournament. It wouldn't be surprising if he made the top four – or even the finals.

'It doesn't matter,' Percy said with a shrug. 'We're here to win the whole thing, remember? We'd have to face him – or somebody even stronger – sooner or later anyway.'

Of course, beneath his outer nonchalance, Percy also felt a pang of anxiety over the challenging battle that loomed ahead. Even so, he stood by his words.

Kassorith sighed. 'Alright. What's the plan?'

'Let's focus on defence for now. We'll have both domains protecting our body at all times – along with as much mana as we deem necessary. I don't know about you, but I'd rather not let any of this guy's attacks touch us like the sound user's did, and I'm not sure we'll be able to dodge them all.'

'Not saying you're wrong, but we won't be able to exhaust his reserves like that,' Kassorith pointed out.

Outlasting their opponent would inevitably require some back and forth. If the plasma mage was the only one attacking, he could easily slow down his assault whenever his core was about to dry up. The only way for Percy and Kassorith to win would be to put some pressure on their opponent by counterattacking, which would sadly expose them to the man's deadly affinity.

'It's not a permanent solution. No matter how good he is, he's still a Blue like us. Once we figure him out, our second domain should allow us to outlast him. But we need to understand how his other trick works too, before committing to an attack – otherwise we'll just be wasting mana.'

Percy would have loved another minute or two to discuss strategy with his host, and he didn't doubt that Kassorith felt the same way. Alas, the time for talking was over, the White announcer's booming voice cutting it short.

"Let the first match of the fourth round… begin!"

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