Percy couldn’t – for the life of him – understand how reading Kassorith’s shadows helped the plasma mage in this situation – especially since his host was constantly enveloped in a steel barrier that obscured his body’s movements. Were the rigid shadows of the metallic shield and the flying greatsword enough to improve the man’s predictions?

  ‘Well, it’s not just the shadow sense on its own – it’s the combination of all these separate streams of information…’

  Percy shook his concerns away, once again reminding himself that trying to understand the inner workings of someone’s bloodline was nothing but an exercise in futility. It was a fact that the plasma mage had gone out of his way to cast as many shadows onto the battlefield as he could, and that the accuracy of his spells had shot through the roof as a direct consequence of that.

  The rest was irrelevant.

  Kassorith responded to Percy’s discovery with a wave of confusion.

  ‘I’m not sure what you think you’ve figured out, but I’m going to need some actionable steps soon. We’re down to a third of our reserves.’

  Percy nodded grimly. Seeing through their opponent’s trick wouldn’t mean much if they failed to execute an effective counterattack. Not wasting a moment, he seized control of some of the discarded metal melting off the surface of his host’s barrier, shaping it into a couple of longswords. They were cruder than the ones Kassorith created, but Percy wasn’t planning to enter them into an art competition. Commanding the constructs to spin rapidly, he fanned away as much of the mist as he could, trying to create a gap in the clouds.

  Percy didn’t know what their opponent’s bloodline was called, but the name “Shadow Read” sounded apt.

  ‘Let’s see what happens when you have nothing left to read!’

  Obviously, the plasma mage wouldn’t just let them do as they pleased. The moment Percy’s plan became clear, the man targeted the swords, destroying them with a few well-placed shots. That only emboldened Percy further, however. Their opponent’s desperate move not only confirmed his suspicions, but also lifted some pressure off Kassorith.

  ‘Divert some mana from the barrier to the weapons and help me blow the clouds away!’ Percy yelled inwards.

  ‘Are you crazy? He’s going to turn us to cinders if we stop defending!’ Kassorith protested.

  ‘Just listen to me. We’ll never give him the chance. If I’m right, the domains will be more than enough to protect us. Besides, your life isn’t really at risk – at worst, the stadium’s enchantments will save you, so stop being a fucking chicken!’

  The Thess’kalan didn’t seem very pleased to be bossed around – and by a guest in his own body, no less – but he ultimately complied, helping Percy along. The fog around them thinned, despite the plasma user’s efforts to prevent that.

  Sadly for him, he no longer held the upper hand. He directed most of the flares toward the spinning constructs, but collecting and recycling the purple motes of mana into additional attacks was a lot harder than it was for Percy and Kassorith to reshape the molten blobs of metal into new longswords.

  Each affinity had its strengths and weaknesses, after all!

  The few attacks their opponent could spare toward Kassorith didn’t land nearly as often as before, giving Percy and his host plenty of time to rebuild and reinforce their barrier and produce even more swords. Just like that, the battle took a sudden turn, the plasma mage’s previously insurmountable advantage evaporating like a snowball beneath the summer sun.

  ‘What the hell’s a chicken anyway?’ Kassorith asked once his mana consumption dropped to a more manageable level, giving him and Percy a chance to catch their breath.

  Percy froze upon realizing his blunder.

  ‘Just a type of horned fish I saw on some aquatic world. It’s known for its cowardice,’ he lied through his fangs, sending Kassorith the image of a random fish scurrying away under the gaze of one of his previous hosts.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Not that he expected chickens – of all things – to be famous across the universe. Hell, even if he told the Blue that he was a human, Kassorith would probably have no idea what that meant. Still, Percy reminded himself that Kassorith wasn’t his friend. He was at best a temporary ally, but one that couldn’t be trusted outside their mutual goal of advancing through the tournament. If he ended up dooming all of Remior due to something this dumb, Percy wouldn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

  Even robbed of his secret weapon, the plasma user was still a difficult opponent to pin down. Fortunately, the skilful use of his affinity and his domain weren’t enough to give him the edge over Percy and Kassorith’s combined strength. The two continued to fight while keeping the area around them clear of clouds, slowly closing the gap to their opponent’s reserves.

  As it turned out, the man hadn’t been in a much better state than them to begin with. He might have dominated the first part of the battle, but it soon became apparent that he had only managed that by consuming his mana almost as rapidly as them. It didn’t take long for Percy and Kassorith to catch up and force their opponent on the backfoot – or back-tail? – leaving him no choice but to flee to the relative safety of the nearest clouds.

  ‘Now what? We can’t chase him there unless we waste more mana to clear the area, otherwise we’ll be back to square one,’ Kassorith groaned, a grimace marring his face.

  Percy shrugged, not nearly as worried. ‘We’ll wait for him to come out of his own volition,’ he replied, taking a deep breath after another to replenish their reserves.

  ‘He’ll recover too if we give him the chance! We’ll have to whittle his mana down all over again!’ Kassorith protested, clearly unconvinced.

  ‘It doesn’t matter. He only has two options: Either he fights us on our terms, or he can stay over there, floating in his little cloud for the next few days. Everyone in the tournament knows who the champion of attrition is. No matter what he chooses, this one’s in the bag.’

  Kassorith visibly relaxed upon listening to his explanation.

  Sure enough, the plasma user eventually understood the situation too, coming to terms with his inevitable loss. Perhaps he could have tried his chances with an all-out attack, but their earlier battle had made it clear that neither side was capable of ending things quickly.

  “I surrender,” he said a couple hours later, his voice soft and resigned.

  Next, he flew back to the stadium, Kassorith leisurely floating behind him.

  “Where did you even come from? I don’t remember seeing you in any of the previous tournaments,” the plasma mage asked once they were closer.

  “I didn’t feel confident in the past. I experienced a major breakthrough with the way I wield my domain recently, so I decided to try my luck this year,” Kassorith replied in half-truths.

  Percy knew his host wasn’t above lying outright, but the Thess’kalan had to be mindful of what he said, since people might have questions for him later.

  “I look forward to facing you again next year,” the plasma mage said with a sigh.

  “Ah, yes… me too. You fought well,” Kassorith awkwardly returned the man’s polite words as Percy struggled to stifle his laughter.

  ‘Good luck facing any of these people without my help. I hope they don’t strip your elite disciple status too soon!’

  ‘Screw you! They can’t force me to register again. Besides, even if they take my trim away, they can’t take my Greater Thess’kalan Physique! You should be more worried about yourself – you might kill yourself during the ritual!’

  Percy remained silent, knowing this was a real danger he had to watch out for. Still, the risk wasn’t going to deter him from trying – the priceless reward was way too alluring.

  Soon, they reached the stadium.

  Before they even entered the dome, they heard the crowd erupt with cheers, all of their adoration now aimed at Kassorith – a previously unknown contestant who had somehow emerged victorious from the preliminaries. Percy was in such a great mood that he didn’t even feel like saying anything snarky, giving his slimy host a few minutes to wave at his new fans and revel in his unexpected triumph.

  ‘How long is the break before the finals again?’ he asked once Kassorith slithered away from the arena.

  ‘Five days, I think? That’s more than enough time for me to take that bath if you’ve reconsidered lending me the moss,’ the Thess’kalan replied.

  ‘Dream on,’ Percy spat, not entertaining the idea for even a second.

  With the main ingredient, he would now have everything he needed to undergo the ritual himself – if only an incomplete version. He wasn’t going to throw all of that away on a gamble. Yet, there was something even more pressing on his mind than the Physique.

  ‘Do you have a way to contact your master?’ he asked again.

  This was it!

  Percy and Kassorith had made the top sixteen, as requested by Syrreneth! The elder now owed him one of the life-extending leaves that had elevated this entire planet into a greater spring. The only thing holding Percy back from taking the nearest teleportation platform to the Broken Fang Sect to demand his prize, was the fact that he wasn’t done with the tournament quite yet.

  ‘I do. The new spatial pin they gave me after my promotion functions as a communication device too. Let’s grab that after we leave the treasury,’ Kassorith said, his good mood making him a little more helpful than usual.

  Percy couldn’t help but rub his hands in anticipation. He just hoped the elder would uphold his end of the bargain…