Chapter 77: New Blood

Will’s eyes narrowed as he took in the slightly built girl in front of him.

“What better way to settle who’s the better Phantom thief once and for all than a tournament?” Bee said, gesturing to their surroundings where thousands of fans of violence were screaming bloody murder, hoping they would tear each other apart in the arena.

“I could think of a couple ways,” Will said over the din before cocking his head. “How did you beat Mason anyway?”

“After he hit me with an explosion I collapsed to the ground and started crying, then when he tried to console me I punched him so hard his ribs collapsed!” She made a tiny fist.

“That’ll teach him to be nice to girls,” Will said, rolling his eyes.

“Yeah!” she made a ‘take that’ gesture, shaking her fist.

“You being here is very inconvenient for me,” Will mused.

“I don’t care! We’re gonna settle this!”

I mean, I already took out more mercs than she did sooo….I thought we had? Like Jean said, she’s just mad and doesn’t know why.

Now, how can I ring-out Bee without revealing her Class to the litany of Lords watching the match? Will thought, glancing up at Frederick Wyrd, who was watching Will’s matches with animalistic hunger.

His mind quickly blazed through the options, reviewing and discarding them at a rapid pace.

The absolute best way to prevent the Wyrd family from learning about Bee, and by extention, Ria, Anna, and June, was to simply forfeit here.

There were a couple problems with this: She would advance through the tournament, and the next guy might draw more tricks out of her that could only be attributed to a Tangled.

More importantly to Will’s immediate circumstances, he would immediately be enslaved, which was less than ideal.

Best just go with the original plan.

Thankfully her Class had some key exploitable weaknesses that didn’t out her as a Tangled immediately. These were weaknesses that Will needed to perform a test-run on if his suspicions about the attack on the city were correct.

For that, I suppose I should thank her for the opportunity.

“Fighters, Begin!”

Sourdough

47->46 Charge remaining

“Hey look at this!” Will said, pulling a cursed ball of brilliant blue yarn out of the container meant to keep the curse from unravelling. Every fiber of his being wanted to keep the amazing yarn for himself, seal himself away with it and play with it forever, but he separated himself from his desires and instead dangled it in front of Bee.

“OOOH!” Bee gasped, her eyes going round.

“Go get it!”

Will tossed the yarn off the arena floor, watching as she broke into a sprint and dove for the yarn, catching it and curling around it before they both hit the ground.

Will’s heart broke for an instant as someone else got hold of HIS yarn, and his foot made a half step toward Bee with the intention of wrestling it away from her, before he was able to master himself.

“And the winner is William Oh by ring-out. Because of course he won without a fight.”

“DANGIT!” Bee shouted as the cursed yarn rapidly lost its whammy. “I do love this yarn, though.”

By design, Tangled were incredibly weak to mental manipulation, So Will figured that if there were going to be an outbreak, that would be the solution.

No, maybe even the city’s salvation.

“And that’s the end of the semifinals! The healers have determined that the finalists are in good condition to fight again! There will be a short recess, and then we will crown the winner of this years 25 and under tournament!

Will went back inside, where the other competitors had formed a loose circle around Alicia Zodiac, drown in by her stunning looks and piercing eyes.

The metallic monk glanced over his shoulder, spotting Will coming.

“Shit,” he muttered, whispering to the others, who shied away as Will approached, creating a break in the encirclement, revealing Alicia with a polite smile drawn over her face.

“How’d you lose?” Will asked.

“I’m…not sure.” Alicia. “All my shots were blocked, and it switched Abilities faster than I could follow, I guess.”

“Looking for insider information?” Carrie asked with a sly look as she arrived beside him.

The frizzy-haired Eldritch Fashionista they’d met on the second floor and discovered Oilton with had arrived on the Fifth Floor, and was doing quite well for herself in the tournament.

“That was a great fight, Ms. Zodiac,” the Eldritch Fashionista said, turning her attention to Alicia and giving her a gentle handshake.

“Good to see you again, Carrie. And Summer, it looks like you’ve grown quite a bit.” Will said.

“Oh, she has,” Carrie said, petting the black blob as it emerged above her shoulder.

Will could see the parasitic being disappearing beneath Carrie’s collar, the thickness suggesting that the little blob of iridescent black had increased in size five-fold…at least.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I spent an extra month on the second floor just feeding Summer Relics to grow her size before I went back to the Third and pushed on to the Fourth.”

“I’m glad you survived.” Will said.

“You and me both!” Carrie said with a crooked grin. “Thankfully, Summer can’t get lung-rot and she helped get me and my Party to Way Station in one piece.”

“I’m sure if you’d been using your bow you would’ve beat me,” Carrie said, turning her attention back to Alicia, pointing down to her armlet that was inscribed with a shield made of blustery wind.

“Summer was able to bend your shots using the Wind Shield, but anything stronger would’ve gone right through.”

“I’m experimenting with the effects of new Abilities.” Alicia said by way of explanation. “There’s something to be said for handicapping yourself to verify the efficacy of your backup plans, rather than leave them untested.”

Well done, thinking about worst-case scenarios.

“Well said,” Carrie said, before glancing back at Will, who was studying her Relics.

“You like?” She asked, grabbing her amulet which was an intricate bone carving that appeared to be partially singed. “This one allows Summer to shoot little fireballs for free. Got it on the third floor.” Summer connected to the amulet and sputtered with flame.

“This one’s from the fourth Floor, and it allows Summer to drain blood to regenerate both of us.” She pointed at a blood-red ring. Summer connected to it and formed a needle-like siphoning appendage.

Summer made a few demonstrative jabs at the air, lashing out like a scorpion’s tail.