'What the hell is that?' said Pal, staring at the distant movement—the shifting and rising of earth, and the odd motion of a waterfall.

Zooming in with his bionic eye, Nicolai saw faint signs of Cultivators over there, though they were swiftly being covered. He noted the fleeing Cultivator was heading directly over there.

'They're making a fort,' he murmured, and smiled.

Pal cursed. 'These bastards got pretty clever. I thought they'd form into a team and come and fight us throughout the jungle. Instead, they fucked with our ability to team up properly, and now they're just sitting over in a fort while everyone kills each other.' He shook his head. 'Smart.'

Nicolai made a non-committal noise. To his mind, using a jammer and then moving together as a big team and eliminating everyone with a numerical advantage seemed smarter than simply hiding, using a jammer to hopefully make others attack each other, and then waiting for everyone else to grow weaker. It was quite a passive and reactive strategy, which gave them limited actual control of the outcome. However, he wouldn't deny that so far, things seemed to be falling in line with their plan.

The real question was how many Cultivators were behind that forming ball of rock and water. He voiced this to Pal. 'If they have more than thirty two there, then all they'll need to do is sit, wait, and kill any who come near them. They can ensure that only those within the barrier will go on to win this Tournament.'

If there were so many, it could also be quite difficult to assault that position. He didn't expand on this, but he knew that taking on large amounts of Soul Sense at close range was not wise, and with those barriers, it would be difficult to launch effective attacks from range. Even an anti-materiel rifle couldn't penetrate through a metre of earth and stone.

The pair of them observed the fleeing Cultivator. Pal took aim at him.

'Well,' he grunted, 'I can make sure there's one less, right now.'

But Nicolai stopped him once more.

'No. This will be a good way to tell. If there are more than thirty-two behind that barrier, then they have no need for any more people. In fact, less would be better. That being the case...' He trailed off, and they observed.

The Cultivator running across the bridges was waving as he grew closer. Now he was on the final bridge, heading straight towards the defences. From his gestures, Nicolai guessed he was telling them to open up—to make a path for him.

Instead, Nicolai saw—poking through numerous small holes in the wall of earth—some shapes that even from this distance were very familiar to him. Assault rifles.

All those rifles fired as one, and the Cultivator's eager run turned into a panicked skid as he abruptly tried to reverse momentum.

Nicolai's bionic eye was blessed with spiritual sight, and thus Nicolai was able to see everything that happened very clearly. The Cultivator's shield splintered, the high calibre rounds punching big cracked dents into it, and at the same time Soul Senses rose from behind the barrier of earth. They snapped forward like a gang of snakes striking as one, all eager to be the one that scored the kill.

In his opinion, that wasn't even necessary. The assault rifles had already broken through the Cultivator's shield. What precisely scored the killing blow and caused the Cultivator to vanish in a flare of blue light, he doubted even those who'd attacked would know. It didn't matter—what did matter was that the very fact they'd attacked someone who clearly believed himself allied with them strongly suggested that there were more than thirty-two behind those walls. They had no need for any more members.

'Guns?' burst out Pal, in a surprisingly offended tone. 'They've got a jammer and guns? What the fuck is going on? When the hell did they get so smart?'

Nicolai started chuckling, now he'd sorted through the ramifications and could just soak in what he'd witnessed, something which he considered undeniably wonderful. 'Glorious,' he managed between intensifying laughter, face stretching under his helmet. 'How wonderful, how beautiful.' He had never imagined such a thing as seeing a group of Cultivators shooting down another with massed fire.

They were integrating technology and magic. Of course, this was also happening with those from Earth. If anything, it was happening in a larger way, with the increasingly common application of Symbiotes. But for some reason just the mental image of a robe-wearing Cultivator walking around with an assault rifle slung over his back made Nicolai extraordinarily happy. So wrong and yet so right. He struggled to wrestle the laughter down, aware that it was wise to keep silent out here, but it kept leaking out in fitful spurts.

Pal gave him a confused look. 'What is so funny?' the man spat, voice low. 'This could be a real problem for us!'

Nicolai just waved a hand, grinning widely. Pal wouldn't understand, and it didn't matter. They needed to get out of this position before someone descended on them.

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Cyberwarfare pointed out something pertinent, and at last he regained control of himself. 'They most likely have the jammer over there behind that barrier,' he told Pal. 'That's why the jamming is so powerful up here—where its waves of interference are most easily able to reach us. If we descend to the valleys below, we should have less to worry about.'

'And what about them?' asked Pal, nodding at that distant fortification.

'For now, we can just ignore them. They want us to attack their strong point, but there's nothing forcing us to do so. They can stay up there, we can stay down here.' Nicolai snorted, experiencing a twinge of annoyance. There was an urge within him, now he was here, to rush through this place and kill, and kill, and kill… But this Tournament had been twisted. It was nothing like as simple and pure as the last. He had to restrain himself, take care.

They got moving again. First heading down the path, then they located a route into the valley below. That was where most of the shooting and sounds of combat were coming from, and Pal hoped that if he could contact the others down here where the Local functioned better, they might be able to reform the fractured group. Nicolai, now aware that this Free For All would be a longer and more involved matter than the last one, saw no reason to dissuade the man.

But alas, after twenty minutes Pal had had no luck. They'd moved with caution through the valleys and engaged in several quick fights—mostly ambushes and opportunistic attacks. It seemed that a lot of people were hiding at this point, and the sounds of combat were growing increasingly sparse. Attempting to communicate over Local received little, if any, reply. There was no trust, and any attempt at building something cohesive had collapsed.

However, Pal had successfully contacted his comrade, Jex, which Nicolai suspected had been his true aim in any case. Pal had, of course, chosen not to tell Nicolai about this, which was also fine with him.

The pair had communicated their locations, with Jex even sending an image. What really caught Nicolai's and the other Modules' attention about that image, was that they were able to see a little of the gun she was carrying. It wasn't the assault rifle she'd held in the lobby. It was a Smartgun, like Vikrum had once possessed. He and the others adjusted her threat rating to a more appropriate level. In this jungle where there was little truly solid cover, a gun like that was very dangerous.

Fortunately, it seemed that gun might not be turning on him, at least not yet. Pal was expressing uncertainty about attacking Nicolai.

'So what? The plan's not a go? You met up with the guy, right?' said Jex in reply.

'There's not much point us trying to take him down if he's not even going to get past this round—and neither are we. With those Cultivators all up there in a big mass...' Pal trailed off, chewed his thoughts for a moment. 'Something has to be done about that. We have to work together at least until they're gone. Presumably the Nara girl is up there too. Damn, I never anticipated this.'

'Don't worry, man,' said Jex easily. 'I think you're putting too much stock in those guys up there, working together and sticking through this all the way. Like our lot, they're a bunch of randoms who don't know one another. Longer that passes, the better the odds they have some kinda disagreement and start zeroing one other. If not... well, I mean, this tournament can't last forever, right? If it were me running this thing and people started just stacking up in random spots and refusing to move… I'd make some kind of a change. Force the rats out.'

Nicolai felt that Jex made a very good point. He would've said so, if he weren't spying on their communications. The Tournament was more than just a martial competition. It was also a spectator sport, and there were two more Tournaments slated to run today. This Free For All had to end, and soon.

The question was, what would they choose to do?

These thoughts running through his mind, he was far from surprised when his Mark flared with an announcement. A large notification sprang up before him, and to his side he saw Pal raising his head to read his own.

Tournament ruling update:

As Tournament One, Round 1: Free For All has reached the first time limit with no resolution, a zone compression protocol has been activated.

A single safe zone will remain active at all times. This zone will gradually shrink and shift in location.

Being outside of the safe zone will become increasingly hazardous. Participants are advised to relocate swiftly.

The system message changed things. It seemed to be specifically designed to prevent those Cultivators from setting up and hiding in one spot until the end. At first Nicolai and Pal had peered around warily, but there was no sign of immediate danger. They were quite far from the edges of the arena which were presumably where the shrinking would start.

'Those Cultivators won't be a problem,' he murmured to Pal, just to make conversation and acknowledge what they had both seen. He thought it would be suspicious if he failed to do so.

'Yes,' said Pal. 'We should move toward the centre.'

Nicolai judged that quite a lacking response. If he hadn't already been well aware of Pal's other communications, this would have tipped him off. The merc then focused on communicating with his partner, and Nicolai focused on listening to their communications.

'You see this?' Jex crowed. 'I fuckin' told you! Look at that! That's crazy, I literally was just sayin' they'd do something and there it is!' Her laughter spilled down the connection. 'Holy shit I'm good.'

'Yeah, yeah, calm down. Save the bragging for when we're out of this. What's important is we won't have to worry about those guys—they'll be forced out of their little fortress soon enough.'

'So…' said Jex, her tone leading.

'Yep,' confirmed Pal. 'The plan's back on. If them setting up a fortress isn't an issue, then our priority returns to removing Nicolai and that Nara girl.'

Nicolai and Pal continued slipping through the area. Jex was en route to link up with Pal, and getting closer every moment. Of course, the pair had no intention of telling him about that, and when he asked about Pal's companion, the man merely said that he still hadn't managed to establish contact with her.

As they went, they managed a few more takedowns on unwary Cultivators and Earthers. A couple of the Earthers had lasrguns, though Nicolai didn't see any Cultivators with a Silver Net. If there were any, they were most likely up in the fort. In truth, he didn't anticipate meeting anyone interesting out here, and since they took out their enemies in ambush, the lasrgun's didn't cause them any trouble.

But then, as if by fate, Nicolai spotted the other individual that Pal's little plan revolved around. The Nara Clan Cultivator.

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