Forty-Seven

The official start of this bracket of the tournament was much more structured than the honor duels had been. There was a referee of sorts, a D-Grade Teno mercenary that looked like she'd prefer to see everyone dead rather than having to deal with the crowds. Rough seating had been dragged from somewhere allowing everyone to see into the main pit as the first round of the tournament began with little fanfare.

Kon had found out that they'd been fighting for months already, bracket after bracket with the winners finding their ways topside to fight in the arena above them. The last bracket had apparently ended with a massive upset, a masked warrior crushing a series of favorites on her way topside. Kon was just glad he wouldn't have to face Diur in the pits as body cultivators in the lower grades had their own small circuit.

"What do you think?" Diur asked, leaning in to whisper to him. Both of them were in different disguises, having not wanted to be seen together. Her markings were covered with a layer of green skin that they'd grown and applied carefully while her hair was shoved under a skin cap, a crown of bones erupting instead from her skull.

Kon's had been an easier change than what Diur did, having simply put on nicer clothing and a mask to appear like a merchant rather than a wandering cultivator. He'd already had a few other vendors throw him dirty looks until he'd seated himself down in the stands, not trying to muscle into their territory.

"I think the short one," Kon said. They didn't have any money to bet, Turja's team having already moved to place the bets they needed before the official bouts began.

"You say that since they use a club," Diur said with a scoff. Kon shrugged. With the presence of all the cultivators his still undeveloped senses couldn't tell how strong people were with any confidence, but the heavy club the combatant was carrying looked like it packed a punch.

"They are on the other side of the bracket. I hope that there is better competition than this, though," Diur sounded positively glum about the fact that most of the people here seemed weak. Kon could empathize. After finding out that so many of the most promising cultivators had been lured away with promises of wealth, his first tournament was looking to be a let down.

"I agree though. His competitor wields a sword, but like a child holding a torch against the night. There is no fluidity of familiarity to it. A true disgrace to swordsmen," Diur grumbled. She'd had to leave her blade behind, using a set of long knives on her hips instead, and she'd been grumpy about it the entire time.

The Teno referee went through the rules quickly and succinctly before indicating them to enter the pit. It was a larger fighting pit than the ones that Kon and Diur had fought in, but wasn't that large. Enough room for a bit of maneuvering, but nothing fancy.

"Wonder if Benny will take us up to see one of the better fights," Kon said. Diur shrugged and then the fight had started. It ended nearly as quickly as the club wielder smacked the awkwardly held sword out of his opponents hand and proceeded to kick them hard enough in the chest that Kon could hear bones breaking from twenty meters away.

"That was…" Diur didn't finish her sentence, just shaking her head as the club fighter began to harangue his defeated opponent.

"That common? All the trash talk?" Kon asked.

"Yes, though it can be viewed as low-brow," Diur said. She had shifted a bit in her seat when he'd asked her though and Kon felt a wriggle of suspicion.

"Diur. Do you enjoy trash talking?" Kon whispered as if it was a secret. She blushed a bit, harder to see now under her disguise, but still possible.

"It is something my grandfather found distasteful. Beneath our station," Diur whispered back, allowing herself a momentary break in her stoic mask as she thought of the old man.

"But?" Kon egged her on. The fight in the arena was boring to say the least, little happening now besides a straight beating.

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"It's a good first step into intruding upon an opponent's mental space, disturbing them out of their rhythm," Diur hedged. Kon just waited, letting the moment drag on as they watched as the club wielder was declared the victor.

"It…it is also amusing to watch their faces mottle with rage, their tongue become clumsy as they try to find the correct words to battle me, to see them tremble in anger," Diur said in a rush. Kon barked a laugh and drew a few glares but he ignored them.

"When's your fight?" Kon said, allowing his friend a graceful exit of her unbecoming pastime.

"Tomorrow. I was hoping to see a better showing than this though," Diur said. A new pair of contestants had entered the arena. One of them was some type of tall, stately, tentacle monster in robes wielding six short swords in her tentacles. Her opponent was a squat, rock creature that had no apparent eyes and had a pair of heavy gauntlets on his wide wrists.

"Any word on the ingredients we need?" Diur asked him. Benny was their main point of contact with Turja and the old man had been working behind the scenes to locate what they needed, often disappearing for long periods of time.

"Some have been found. Benny said there's an alchemist of some note on the topside we can use, but we're still short of funds," Kon informed her.

"We used a built in system of currency at the sect, based upon work done for the sect for credit. I knew how much a monster core cost of course, but to really feel how much one costs is different," Diur said. Both of them had been struggling with how hard it was to earn cores.

"Really do miss the bag of cores that Alice managed to secure on Crucible. We'd be rich," Kon said. Diur shrugged a shoulder and then nodded.

"Many of the problems associated with these sects or clans on the outskirts are that they lack a good place to cultivate and harvest resources. Even if they can't directly consume them, they are powerful aids if properly distilled, which takes time and is costly. If we were on a more settled world or tournament some of these prices wouldn't be as extreme. Then again, some of the ingredients we need wouldn't be available," Diur speculated.

"Starting to get why so few people do this body cultivation if this is how hard it is to secure resources without having an entire planet to harvest," Kon grumbled.

"Yes, and most of the time the results are negligible or can be replicated by traditional means. Only in conjunction with both paths pushed to their fullest can one see truly impressive results," Diur said. She'd been spending more time reading the information her clan had provided her about body cultivation the last few days and had been growing excited about the process.

"Which is stupidly expensive and a strain on all but the most wealthy groups," Kon finished for her. She nodded.

"Makes you wonder about the Knights. I mean, you've seen how many cores I use for a single rune. Think about how many someone like Benny has to use, especially as you get stronger you need more and more," Kon said.

"Each Knight is a walking fortune," Diur said as the fight below them ended swiftly. The tentacle woman's swords parted through the rock creature's defenses with a bit of work, sparks lighting up the arena as she slowly whittled him down until he yielded.

"She seems scary. Don't think I could keep all six swords off me long enough to get close," Kon said.

"You don't have a ranged ability yet. She has poor defenses and relies on overwhelming her foe. Either slowly whittle her down or overwhelm her before she sets the tempo," Diur said.

"Benny would say just shoot her before she draws her swords," Kon said. Diur snorted and shook her head.

"And Alice would have thrown herself against her until she won, no matter how many times she lost a limb," Diur said. Both of them took a moment to think of their mentor and the brief time they'd had with her. The pain was still there in his chest as he thought about Alice's final stand, but it had begun to fade.

"There was nothing we could have done to aid her. The wolf was far beyond either of us," Kon said. Admitting the words out loud was a weight he hadn't realized he'd been carrying.

"It is still hard to accept. We have grown stronger and that's all she would have wanted from us. To be able to stand on our own," Diur said.

"Yeah. Wonder how she would have enjoyed this," Kon said, waving his hand at the crowds below them as a third duel began.

"She would have stayed in the arena and challenged everyone until she was the last one standing," Diur said with a laugh.

"That sounds like something she would do. Want to get out of here and check out the market? I don't think we are seeing much here," Kon said. Diur nodded in agreement and the two of them got out of the stands together and started toward the markets.

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