Ares yawned and stretched as he woke up. When he finally pried his eyes open, the rest of the bed was empty, so he got up to go and take a look around. He found Enyo sitting peacefully on the doorstep leading outside with Appa on her lap, watching Allie play with Leo. Surprisingly, Enyo’s helmet was nowhere to be found, though that’s not to say she wouldn’t whip it out of her spatial ring at record breaking speed if she felt she needed it. He walked up behind them and started massaging Enyo’s shoulders. “Good morning.”


    “Good morning, Ares.”


    “Good morning dad!”


    “Allie seems like she’s in a fantastic mood.”


    Enyo grinned. “Well apparently, she and Aejaz kissed yesterday night.”


    “Seriously?”


    “Mhm. Allie actually asked me for some advice.”


    “Ha, so did Aejaz.”


    “And to think there was a time when they were trying to give us advice. Silly kids.”


    “I actually still need to get Aejaz to bow down, prostrate before me, and apologise like he said he would. Ha, and he thought I had no idea what I was doing!”


    “Did you though? I still feel like I was conned into falling in love with you.”


    “Honestly? No, but don’t tell him that.”


    Enyo snickered. “Well, you got me. Clearly you must have done something right.”


    “You had me from the second I met you, so I guess you did everything right.”


    Aejaz nudged Ares aside. “Ugh, get a room you two.”


    “Good morning Aejaz. A little birdy told me you smooched.”


    “...” Aejaz was embarrassed but smiling uncontrollably. “It was good!”


    “Good for you.” Ares smiled evilly. “I’m guessing you feel all motivated for the fights today?”


    Gulp


    “Relax, I’m joking. I actually don’t think you should even take part.”


    “Mhm, me too. We haven’t started training yet.”


    “It’s up to you either way. I’m sure I could turn you into something passable by the time the international rolls around if need be.”


    Enyo leant back onto Ares’ legs. Well, aren’t you sure of yourself? Already talking about the international.”


    “Isn’t it already a foregone conclusion we’ll win the whole thing? Between me and you I’m pretty sure we could sweep the entire competition on our own anyway.”


    “Ha, I love it when you’re confident.”


    “I’m always confident.”


    “Exactly.”


    Aejaz rolled his eyes as the happy couple teased each other. The PDAs were seriously getting out of hand with these two, even if they were a new couple!


    “You and I really are quite powerful compared to other cultivators though,” Enyo said. “I think Heaven’s Path will do good this year thanks to us, if not outright win.”


    “How does it usually fare?”


    “Middle of the pack, I guess? It’s usually fifty-fifty whether they make it to nationals, then there’s about a quarter chance of winning from there, and we’ve never been top 10 internationally. It’s not a horrible record considering how many teams compete globally, but it’s nothing to be proud about either. Then again, you and I have never competed, so we’ll have an edge this year that we were lacking in other years. I can’t speak on the inner court or core disciples though; I have no idea how strong they are comparatively. I always faked being out on a mission to avoid Trew so I never had a chance to watch their matches.”


    Ares laughed heartily. “Right, Trew. I almost forgot about him. You think he’s driven Bellona and the others insane yet?”


    “Do us all a favour and blow him up would you?”


    While they were talking, Teng arrived and shouted out to everyone who was still asleep to wake up and get ready. Teng wasn’t surprised to see Ares and Enyo getting along as Zhang the gossip had long since started spreading rumours.


    He wasn’t called Zhang the quick for his alchemy skills, no sir! … He was actually called that by his ex-wives, but he doesn’t talk about that.


    Zhang was actually still on good terms with his ex-wives, they’d split amiably. The reason they’d gone their separate ways was because of Allie as they weren’t ready to be parents, but Zhang couldn’t bear the thought of not taking Allie in after her parents were murdered.


    Onno, Li Li, Dirk, and the Lighter Duo emerged from their houses and waved at Ares and Aejaz to welcome them back to the sect. Unsurprisingly the Lighter Duo were sharing a house. Ares, out of curiosity, used Omniscience on the Lighter Duo and found out that their DNA was strikingly similar to one another. It wasn’t identical, and he could use that to identify them in the future, but it was eerie how close their genetic makeups were to one another. It was really quite unnatural.


    When they gathered, Ares handed out some Shock Beads to everyone as they’d run out a while ago. The Lighter Duo were impressed Ares could tell them apart as no one else had been able to do so since they arrived here. Then again, the truly impressive thing here was that it took an almost literal God-given gift to differentiate them in the first place.


    Teng spoke up to explain what was going to happen today, “First, we’ll start with a tier ranking assessment. It will be the exact same as last time, but now you can all take part. It’s important to know that only fifth tier disciples can fight for one of the five tournament positions so, if that’s what you’re after, make sure to reach the fifth tier. You’re all strong enough to justify your presence there. I’m not going to tell you how the five will be chosen, as that will be revealed later but, after they’ve been chosen, they’ll be registered by an official. The sect’s new weapon department Elder has arrived and will be watching you all to look for promising disciples to train, so don’t disappoint us or them.”


    Ares was particularly interested in the weapons pillar expert as he wanted to learn about spears for Enyo and daggers for Aejaz. Of course he himself would benefit too.


    Appa wasn’t allowed to be chosen for the tournament as its cultivation was technically too high and Aejaz wasn’t going to take part willingly, but they still came along for the tier ranking test as they wanted to become fifth tiers anyway. They arrived and lined up in their respective tiers with Ares and Enyo going over to the fifth tier. Elaine winked at them knowingly.


    Ares’ eye twitched momentarily. That damn crooked old bastard seriously told absolutely everyone, didn’t he? He really didn’t mind people knowing, but there were definitely a large number of interested looks headed their way.


    Enyo wasn’t comfortable with her helmet perpetually off just yet, so she had it on and she was grateful she’d kept it that way because she was getting more than just a few curious glances. No one here, other than a few Elders, had ever seen her face, and now she was supposedly close with Ares. Everyone wanted to know what was under the helmet. Enyo also didn’t mind people being aware of her and Ares, if anything, she wanted them to know, but she really didn’t appreciate everyone staring at her. She could tell what people were thinking. Ares was some wild hooligan and she was some uptight fun-killer. They were trying to figure out and piece together how Ares and Enyo got along, but they didn’t need to know. They weren’t important.


    Teng clapped to get everyone’s attention. “Before we start, I’d like to welcome our new weapons pillar expert. She’s from the upper domain, and we’re lucky to have her here. She’ll be overseeing the events today as well as individual training for those she thinks are worth investing time into, so don’t pull your punches. Please welcome, Sadie.”


    A woman, fully kitted in white armour, stepped onto the stage.


    Ares'' jaw was wide open and he could tell Enyo was equally as dazed as he was. If that wasn’t the tell-tale signature armour of the Legion clan, then what was? It even had the cleansing engravings all over it just on the off-chance Ares had any doubts lingering in his mind.


    Enyo could tell Ares was getting a tad anxious, as he was a revenant and Sadie was a strong Legion clan member from the upper domain, so she shook the shock away and whispered to him, “Don’t worry. Sadie and my mother are the two people in our clan who are openly against the war. I’ve heard that she even sneaks off to the Umbra Wolf clan alongside my mother to go and meet a special someone there. My mum said Sadie gets along with the Umbra Wolf clan’s instructor ‘really well’, so you''re safe. I’m guessing she’s here because her job was to train the younger generation but, now that we’ve all left, she has no reason to be in the clan’s headquarters anymore. As for how she ended up here specifically, it’s likely just something to do with my mother sending her to check up on me.”


    Ares leaned over to her dramatically, took an unnecessarily deep breath, and whispered plainly back, “Oh.” He nonchalantly stood back up without a care in the world as Enyo chuckled quietly and called him an idiot.


    Sadie had just finished giving a speech about how she was happy to be here and blah blah blah when she looked over at Enyo who was talking with Ares. She hadn’t heard the rumours yet but could tell something was definitely afoot. The Enyo she knew from all those years ago would never have sneakily had a talk with someone while Sadie was speaking, let alone a man that wasn’t family. In truth, she had been sent here by Enyo’s mother as Rhea had been made aware that Enyo was the only child of hers that wasn’t with any other clan members. Rhea wasn’t worried for her safety but wanted to be sure her daughter was doing ok for herself.


    Sadie was going to keep an eye on this mysterious man.


    She stepped down, letting Rud take over the formalities, and Teng gave her a quick explanation as to what the tiers meant. After the explanation, she raised a question, “If that’s the case, then why is someone with such a low cultivation in the fifth tier?” she was referring to Ares. “He’s not currently at mental accumulation, shouldn’t he be placed lower?”


    Teng scratched his head. “Uh, Ares is a special one. He’s probably the strongest outer court disciple right now, so he’s where he belongs.”


    “Oh? Is that so? Is he really stronger than even Enyo?”


    “If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say he likely is, yes.”


    “Hm, interesting... They seem to get along really well.”


    “Oh, uh, there’s some rumours going around about them.”


    “... Do tell.”


    “Well, you see, they went on a mission together recently. When they left, they were bickering constantly. One of our Elders met them during their mission and, well, he caught them being… Hands on with each other. They were sharing a bed by the time they came back, and she even slept at his house last night… Sooo… You know.”


    “... Enyo… Did that?”


    “You''re from the same clan, right? Was she ever like this? We’ve only ever known her as a stoic woman with an immovable mind and unrelenting pride. She was definitely never the type, as far as we’re aware, to fool around with a man.”


    “No... I think I need to have a word with her and this… Ares fellow.” It was impossible to tell from her voice how she felt about the situation as her helmet hid her facial expressions.


    “Um, right. There should be some spare time after this ranking assessment for you to do that. This is a personal request… But could you not kill Ares? He’s kinda pivotal to our sect…”


    “Really!? Why?!”


    BOOOOOOMMMMMMM


    The assessment had already begun and Teng smiled bleakly. “That would be why.” He pointed out the Shock Beads that pretty much every disciple was carrying and explained the situation.


    “A unique pillar of all things. What a fascinating young man. Don’t worry, I won’t kill him. Enyo’s mother on the other hand… Well, we’ll worry about that when the time comes, I suppose.” Sadie went to take a seat and watch the tier assessment. Time passed and it was coming to a close, she’d noted a few names down after asking Rud about them. She came to learn that the people she had chosen were all part of the most recent entrance exam and that they’d come as a group of eight. “Then who was the eighth?”


    Rud sighed. “That little shit with the cape over there.” Rud disgruntledly pointed at Ares. “That one’s a right menace.”


    “I hear he’s strong, should I put his name down?”


    “You’ll get to see for yourself when we choose the tournament participants, but yes. For the record, he’s beaten a sensory enhancement cultivator without taking a single hit, killed another across the span of two interactions, and killed a Mecha-dryad at mental accumulation, 8th stage.”


    “... That’s completely absurd. I’m going to make a prediction and say you’re guaranteed to win the tournament with him around.”


    “That’s the hope, yes, but God is he insufferable. I think I’d rather spend thirty nights in a row tormented by buzzbladers than put up with him for an hour.”


    The assessment finished and every one of Ares’ neighbours made it comfortably into the fifth tier alongside Appa and Aejaz. They had all been training and their cultivation was higher than before. Dirk was at mental accumulation, 2nd stage, and Li Li was at mental accumulation, 4th stage. The Lighter Duo were each at 4th realm meridian expansion, 9th stage and Onno was at 4th realm skeletal structuring, 7th stage.


    Ares and Enyo were having a chat with the group one minute and were in a completely random part of the sect in another. It was obvious Sadie had moved them as they hadn’t even seen her and her cultivation was the only one ludicrously high enough to drag them this far away in an instant.


    “Hello Sadie, it’s good to see you again,” Enyo greeted Sadie.


    “It’s nice to meet you.” Ares greeted Sadie cordially.


    “It’s good to see you too, Enyo. And you, Ares, I’ve heard a lot about you.”


    “Not from Rud I hope.”


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    “Who it''s from doesn’t really matter, it’s what I’ve heard that interests me.”


    “That… really doesn’t narrow it down a whole lot.”


    “Your pillar and your accomplishments are one thing, but I think you know what I’m talking about.”


    “Just for the record, I consider somehow convincing Enyo to fall in love with me my greatest accomplishment to date.”


    Enyo snickered. “You really should’ve seen how he went about it. I can’t tell if he’s a genius or a madman.”


    Sadie was aghast. “E… E… Enyo? Did you just… Laugh?”


    “I do it all the time now.” Enyo took off her helmet and stuck her tongue out at Sadie who almost fainted on the spot.


    Sadie gathered her wits and gripped Ares'' shoulders threateningly. “What did you do to her!?”


    Ares smirked and looked ‘shyly’ to the side. “That’s quite an intimate question. There’s also a lot of different answers depending on which day you''re asking about. Yesterday? The night before that? The night before that? The night before that?”


    Sadie’s hands shook. “OK, I GET IT!”


    Enyo sighed. “Ignore him, we haven’t had sex yet.”


    “I’m surprised you''re even talking about and considering those things. Wait, then what was he talking about?”


    Enyo’s cheeks flushed. “We’ve been using our hands…”


    A perplexed Sadie looked at Enyo in disbelief. “What on Earth happened to you?”


    Enyo smiled radiantly. “I fell in love.”


    “Yeah… I noticed, but what about your father’s wishes? The person you were would never have prioritised love over those responsibilities.”


    “I had no choice. Like I said, I fell in love.”


    “What does that have to do with it?”


    “He’s a revenant.”


    Thud


    Ares stared at Sadie’s unconscious body in bewilderment. “She actually fainted!? I didn’t think that could even happen to cultivators after bloodline awakening!?”


    Enyo muttered, “And she’s in love with a revenant too. You’d think that wouldn’t have been such a grand revelation.”


    “Should we wake her up?”


    “Yes.” Enyo bent down and poked Sadie a few times who woke up with a gasp and looked straight at Ares.


    Ares shrugged and winked. “Life’s funny sometimes.”


    Sadie stood up shakily. “I can’t believe it. Of all of Rhea’s children to enter into a relationship first, and with a revenant no less, it ended up being you, Enyo. I’m staggered by how much you’ve changed; I’ve never seen such a drastic 180 in character. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for you, really, but this is mind-blowing. I still remember when you were a little girl with a perpetual frown on her face as she swung around a shield that was way too big for her.”


    Ares chuckled. “Sounds cute. Agh”


    Enyo pinched Ares. “Mhm, and I even have a beautiful daughter now!”


    Thud


    “That one I kinda understand. Still though, you’ve already told her that we haven’t had sex yet. Maybe she just faints a lot?”


    “I don’t remember that about her. Then again, I don''t know much about her other than her instructor persona.” Enyo poked Sadie awake again.


    Ares waved. “Morning’ sleepy head.”


    “Well at least you aren’t up your own ass and can crack a joke or two. If you were like Trew I’d be disappointed. Also, what the hell do you mean you have a daughter?”


    Enyo replied, “Do you remember seeing a shade earlier? That’s Appa, our adopted daughter. She’s truly the sweetest thing I’ve ever met, and I love her very dearly.”


    Sadie’s head was reeling. “This is insanity. I know you’ve been gone a few years, but this is absolute lunacy. Who else from the clan knows about any of this?”


    “Bellona, Charity, and Gladius are somewhat aware, just not up to date. Trew doesn’t know Ares is a revenant or about us, but has met him.”


    “That’s good, Trew’s as intolerant as he is intolerable. Enyo, you know your mother is going to freak out when I tell her this, right? She’ll probably rush down here immediately and investigate things herself, consequences be damned.”


    “Could you not tell her? I want to show her these things myself when she comes to the tournament.”


    “Ugh, your mother is not going to be pleased when she finds out I kept this from her, but fine. That aside, Ares! I’m going to drill you into a man worthy of Enyo!”


    Ares raised an eyebrow. “No offence, but I don’t think Enyo is into turtles.”


    Sadie laughed boisterously. “So, you figured it out?”


    “It’s either that, or you''re a God-awful instructor.”


    “I taught everyone defence-oriented combat and formations because, unlike you stubborn revenants, we can’t die and come back.”


    “Well, that aside, I’ll have you know I’m already worthy of Enyo as that decision is hers to make and hers alone.”


    “And if I say you aren’t?”


    “How would you know?”


    “Just a guess.”


    “Guess again.”


    “Ha, well, we’ll see. I’m gonna keep an eye on you so don’t talk big and then be useless.”


    “I’m not very good at being useless. On a side note, do you know how to use daggers and spears? There are some people I’d like to teach.”


    “There isn’t a single weapon I’m unfamiliar with, but you should probably leave the teaching to me.”


    “Not if what I’ve seen of the Legion clan is anything to go by. I don’t trust you as far as one of your hand-to-hand throws could throw you.”


    “Tsk, Rud was right, you really do have quite the mouth on you. Honestly, why did Enyo fall in love with you?”


    “Being trapped in a room with a guy like me for a week straight can really make a person go loco, I guess.”


    “Hmph, all you Umbra Wolf men are all the same.”


    “From what I’ve heard, you don’t necessarily hate that.”


    “Enyo! You little gossip!”


    Enyo just turned her head to the side and pretended she had nothing to do with this.


    “But in all seriousness, revenant men are really cocky and snarky. You’re all really similar to one another, maybe it’s that inner wolf of yours.”


    “Wait… Are we actually wolves!? I thought that was just the name of the clan? Am I… A doggo?”


    “How do you not know that?”


    Ares gave a brief explanation about his situation.


    “Huh, that’s really unfortunate, but yes, you are all literally wolves. When you reach bloodline awakening, a percentage of your body will change into that of a wolf. The higher the percentage, the weaker the wolf you are typically.”


    “That sounds backward?”


    “Ah, that’s because you get a werewolf-esque transformation. Revenants’ human forms are basically containers for their inner wolves with the quality of the container being tied to the quality of the wolf. The higher the quality, the more it can contain without leaking any of it out. It’s the most effective indicator for judging a revenant’s strength. Revenants are ranked based on the percentage of pre-transformation wolf parts on their body as well as their height after transformation, which are usually both related to one another anyway. If you have less than 5% wolf features, and a height of 7ft after transforming, you’re considered an alpha wolf. From there it goes: beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, and zeta, which typically translates to: Patriarch, Grand Elder, Elder, core disciple, inner court disciple, and outer court disciple. Of course it’s possible for people with high combat capacity to surpass their rank, but it’s usually quite accurate.”


    “Uh, which part of me is gonna turn into a wolf?”


    “Dunno.”


    Ares tilted his head downward and looked straight at his little friend downstairs. “It’s not the…”


    “NO! ... At least not as far as I’m aware… Anyway, it’s about time you two head back.” Sadie picked the two up and dropped them off at the site of the participant choosing event.


    Enyo elbowed Ares and glared at him. “It better not be that… Not that it wouldn’t be unworkable, I suppose.”


    They walked over and met up with the group again and looked around. There were a lot more spectators here now as the inner court disciples and the core disciples had come to watch. This was technically also relevant to the inner court disciples as the limit was mental accumulation, 8th stage, and you only needed to be at the 5th stage to be an inner court disciple. There were going to be inner court disciples competing which skewed the chances of success in their favour as they had a cultivation advantage and there were far more of them. In most years, the lower bracket participants would be made up exclusively of inner court disciples. They briefly looked over at the fifth-tier disciples from the outer court and paid them no more attention as they were convinced they weren’t going to be an issue for them. They went back to chatting amongst themselves until one of them spotted Ares and Aejaz. “BANDITS!” Her yelling directed everyone’s attention straight to the brothers.


    “Why do I feel like we’ve been in this exact situation before?” Aejaz gulped nervously. He wasn’t even going to take part and he was still being a coward as usual.


    “Because we have.” Ares grinned evilly as he proudly held his middle finger aloft as if his goal was to pierce the very heavens. Part of it was just to be antagonistic for the fun of it, but there was actually another reason for him to do it. He wanted attention. Not because he wanted a spotlight or anything, but because he wanted everyone to go after him when everything kicked off. He was confident he could handle them and he wanted the other fifth tier disciples from the outer court to have an easier time.


    One of the inner court disciples was about to lunge at Ares, but Teng passed by and cleared his throat while walking up onto a raised platform. “No fighting before we start the examination!” He turned around to face the group that would be competing. “Only five of you will be chosen to participate in the tournament! No matter who winds up on the team, we expect great things from you. Do not quarrel with one another, and if you have any grievances, grow up and sort them out yourselves. As for how those five will be chosen, we’ll be using a method similar to how you’ll be competing in the tournament. Put simply, you’ll be playing tag.”


    Ares nearly cackled like a hyena when he heard the type of competition it was. This was too perfect. No one could run like him and he also had his Shift. Even if the other people could teleport, he could stop that with the click of a finger. As if he wasn’t already a shoe-in to win! This was just comical at this point. They might as well not even bother with the tournament and just give him the prize now so everyone could go home and get on with their lives.


    Zhang explained further, “The rules of the competition will be explained in full by an official when the regionals kick-off, what we’ll be doing here is an off-shoot of those rules. Julio!”


    After his name was called, Julio clicked his fingers and switched on a runic formation he’d been working on for the last week, one that encompassed the entire area the participants were standing in. “This formation does three things because I’m three times as awesome as everyone else!”


    “JULIO!” Rud shouted.


    Ahem


    Julio continued fearfully, afraid for his precious wages. “First, when you’re ‘it’, you’ll have a giant marking on you.” He tapped the runic wall and a giant rune shaped like a star overlapped on the front of his clothes. “This is how you know if someone is ‘it’. If someone touches a person who’s ‘it’, the star will swap over to them.” Dabble walked over and tapped Julio on the leg, the star jumped to him. Julio then tugged on Dabble’s beard and the star returned to Julio. “The second thing it does is it keeps track of how long you’ve been ‘it’. A timer is constantly running whenever you have the star on you.” Julio summoned a runic, digital alarm clock that was ticking away. Dabble also had one that was currently sitting at 3 seconds and not moving. “Lastly, if you lose any limbs or die, you’ll regenerate outside the stage. Dabble, if you would be so kind!”


    Julio gestured to the stage, but Dabble wasn’t having any of it after the beard tug. Dabble snuck up behind Julio, which wasn’t hard considering his short stature, and kicked Julio into the formation. Dabble used the Embodiment art, like the axe-wielder Ares had fought in Baja Forest, and crushed Julio like an ant with a humongous ethereal hammer. Julio became a blood-splat on the floor but magically reappeared outside the formation looking incredibly peeved. The two started bickering but everyone ignored them and turned around to listen to Teng.


    Teng carried on with his explanation, “For this examination, five of you will be ‘it’ at any given time. You can work together or against each other, but whichever five of you have been ‘it’ for the longest period of time after five minutes will be chosen to participate in the tournament. If you die, you won’t be able to re-enter, but you may still win if your timer has a higher count than others. Any questions?”


    Esme waved from amidst the crowd and Zhang nodded to let her know she was free to speak. “How will this start? It would be unfair if five random people started with the stars already on them, no?”


    “You’re right, but that’s not what’s going to happen. You’re all going to start on the opposite side of the training ground. The five stars will start on the floor over here, so the five quickest amongst you will inevitably arrive here first. Tag is a game where speed is important. Of course this approach favours the nimble, but that’s the point. I’ll say it again, get the star, and don’t get touched. The five of you who do best will be chosen for the tournament. Go line up!”


    Everyone moved over to the other side of the training ground, which was roughly a twenty second walk. Some of the cockier disciples were sprinting, teleporting, or boosting themselves around with magic.


    Ares walked; he was too busy trying not to cry-laugh at how slow everyone else was compared to his top speeds. He could outrun everyone here with his hands tied behind his back, he wasn’t even going to have to fight if he didn’t want to. Enyo was also walking next to him and they were having a casual chat about what dinner was going to be. Ares knew that the second Enyo got a star, it would be more difficult to steal than a banana from a hungry gorilla using nothing but your pinky toe. She was near enough a walking tank and her magic would make it practically impossible for anyone else here to come even remotely close to her, especially if she got a chance to use her arts. “Do you want me to pick up a star for you when the round starts?”


    “Aw thanks, but no. I’ll get my own.” Enyo appreciated the thought, but there was really no need to rely on Ares for something so trivial. They were the last two to get in line and they received a few disapproving glances for taking so long, which they paid absolutely zero attention to.


    Teng began the countdown, “Five! Four! Three! Two! One! GO!”


    “AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!” roughly a third of the participants wailed as their teleports failed thanks to Ares crushing them in between the folds of reality. They weren’t dead, but they were spasming on the floor and leaking blood from every orifice. Even if they were still somehow able to get up and compete, they’d need to heal first and that would take precious time. It wasn’t exactly hard to figure out who was responsible as Ares had Shifted directly to the end. He’d prevented everyone but himself from appearing instantaneously at the goal.


    No teleporting allowed! Only Shifting!


    Everyone else was dazed as they had no clue how one person managed to simultaneously ruin a third of the participants chances in less than a second flat, but they got over it quickly and began to run. Naturally, the outer court participants fell behind, but there were three outer court disciples who were bucking the trend. Esme was a cultivator who focused on the wind pillar so her speed was self-explanatory. As for the other two, who else would it be if not the Lighter Duo? In fact, they were currently travelling the quickest out of everyone not named Ares! Lightning Guy had used Coiling Draco while Water Guy used Aqua Anatomy to hide inside Lightning Guy’s art alongside him, all the while spraying a jet-stream of water behind them to boost their speed. Li Li wasn’t doing too bad for herself as her physical prowess was higher than most, but still she wasn’t happy. Not because she wasn’t further ahead, but because someone was hitching a ride. “Can you get off me, you damn leech!?”


    Dirk’s blood, hanging off Li Li’s shoulder, rumbled as his voice came directly into her ear, “Don’t be like that, I’m jus’ tryna help!”


    “How is this helping!?”


    “Well, it aint right now obviously, but I’mma help you get and keep a star.”


    “... What’s your angle? I’m not helping you get one.”


    “Sheesh, ye of little faith. Can’t I just be doing this out of the goodness of my wretched heart?”


    “Ha, good one. No. Come clean and I won’t wipe you clean off.”


    “Tsk, moody ain’t ya? Fine. I don’t want to compete in the tournament. There, are you happy now?”


    “No. Why not just sit out and not take the examination?”


    “‘Cos, I need someone else to enter in my place and talk to a certain someone who’ll likely be in the nationals.”


    “Why not do it yourself?”


    “Restraining order…”


    “You expect me to go along with this after what you just said!? Are you crazy!?”


    “Tsk, will you listen to me and let me finish!?”


    All five stars had already been picked up: one by Ares, one by Esme, two by the Lighter Duo, and one by a green-haired woman who could turn into a snake. Li Li chased the green-haired woman as Dirk convinced her to go along with his request. “So? I just want to know why she did what she did.”


    Li Li kissed her teeth. “Fine, but don’t blame me if things don’t work out for you the way you''re hoping. That woman sounds like a bitch.”


    “HEY! Could you not call her that!?”


    “I call ‘em as I see ‘em.”


    “Tsk, bitch.”


    “Do you wanna start a fight? ‘Cos I will fight you right here and now.”


    “What? Don’t get mad at me, I just call ‘em as I see ‘em.”


    “I will drown you in your own blood.”


    “That sounds quite pleasant, actually. That aside, just make that slithery serpent bleed and I’ll show you why brawlers love fighting alongside haemomancers.”


    Li Li had heard from other members of her clan that haemomancers really were their strongest ally, but she never understood why. It didn’t exactly seem like the best combination on paper, but she was really curious to find out what all the fuss was about. “Alright, but how am I supposed to make her bleed?”


    “The hell kinda question is that!? Hit her for Christ’s sake!”


    “In case you haven’t noticed, she’s real fuckin’ slippery. Got any suggestions?”


    “How the bloody hell should I know!? Become her friend and line up your menstrual cycles or something!”


    “So far, not impressed,” Li Li complained as there was no point to having support if she could hit the person, as then she wouldn’t even need it in the first place!


    “Tsk, fine. You’re gonna run me dry, I hope you know that. Cut yourself.”


    “...”


    “Just do it. I’m the one that’s going to have a hard time with things ‘cos of how early on you’re making me do this.” Li Li made a small cut which all of Dirk’s blood promptly flowed into. He rummaged around inside Li Li until he arrived at the heart.


    “Sanguine Stimulant!”


    The Transfusion aspect was a support-focused aspect under the haemomancy pillar. A few haemomancers took the parasite route and preferred providing aid rather than fighting directly. Dirk wasn’t one such haemomancer, but he had an incredible affiliation with the pillar and was more than capable of learning arts from all of its aspects. As for Sanguine Stimulant, it would send the heart into overdrive and provide the necessary blood for the body to function at levels it normally couldn’t reach. It cost a lot of mana to run the art continually, but the person receiving the boost would usually end up at least twice as strong physically as they were under normal circumstances and could effectively be considered a superhuman. Li Li didn’t really need the extra strength, but she did need the speed to chase the snake down. Dirk had been planning on saving this to run away with after she got the star but was forced to play one of the cards up his sleeve early.


    Li Li felt her blood surging and a welling power in her veins. It felt good. Maybe having a leech around wasn’t so bad if she could fight like this all the time. With her doubled speed, she chased the snake down effortlessly. She swung and missed, but followed up by chewing on her gum and spitting out a magma-bullet the snake could just barely avoid. The bullet grazed the snake and, although it wasn’t much, the snake was now bleeding.


    “Tsk, couldn’t you have made her bleed more!? You’re really working me to the bone here!” Dirk was straining himself as the mana consumption was getting out of hand. Still, he had enough for now, and if worse came to worst, he could always steal some of Li Li’s blood to regenerate his mana pool as that was a trick available exclusively to heamomancers. Dirk concentrated on the graze and used magic on the blood that was dripping out of it. It wasn’t an art he used next, just an application of Coagulation aspect magic, but it was still highly beneficial to brawlers. To put it simply, it was a tether. It attached itself to Li Li and the snake could no longer run away if Li Li didn’t want it to. If there was one thing scarier than being tethered to a brawler at close range, it was being tethered to a brawler under the effects of Sanguine Stimulant. This combination alone would have probably enabled Li Li to fight even a sensory enhancement, 7th, or even 8th, stage cultivator and still come out on top with only somewhat of a struggle.


    The snake was hissing and spitting venom at Li Li, trying to use its bizarre movement to dodge as many of Li Li’s excruciatingly painful attacks as possible. “Let me go you sssstupid man!”


    Li Li froze.


    She was pissed off, big time.


    “I’M NOT A MAN!” Li Li lunged carelessly at the snake and left a giant opening despite having a massive advantage.


    The snake was aghast that Li Li was, in fact, a woman. It put that strange fact to the back of its mind, however, and hissed excitedly. She assumed Li Li had made an error in judgement, as her mind was clouded by rage, and left herself open accidentally. She swayed under Li Li’s fist and opened her maw as she thrust her head at Li Li’s heart, ready to chew it into oblivion.


    Dirk’s bloody hand shot out of Li Li’s chest and grabbed the snake’s head, shutting its mouth tight. His head popped out, followed by a second hand holding a knife with which he slashed the snake’s neck. “SSSSURPRISE BITCH!”


    Dirk had told Li Li when she froze to intentionally leave a gap for the snake to attack so he could hop out and catch it off-guard.


    The snake transformed back into a human and choked for air as it bled out. Li Li tapped Dirk to take the star off him as he sank back inside her. “Not bad. I could get used to this. You’re like a handy little pocket vampire.”


    “Yeah, well, this pocket vampire is going to suck some of your blood now.”


    “What? I didn’t agree to that!”


    “I need it, consider it tax. Apparently it feels good anyway, so quit whining.” Dirk did as he said he would and started absorbing some of Li Li’s blood. Just as he mentioned, it was an oddly satisfying feeling for Li Li. It was like a hot funnel of rushing liquid. He didn’t take much as haemomancers typically had lower mana pools and could fill it up quickly with minimal amounts of blood. That was part of why fighting against robos sucked, no blood meant they’d run out of mana fast with no way to get it back. Robos were a known counter to heamomancers. “Mm, your blood is good.”


    “Ok creep, calm down.”


    “What? It’s a compliment. Your blood is smooth and velvety with a strong taste. 10/10.” With Dirk’s assistance, no-one could catch Li Li and she was near enough guaranteed to get a spot so long as Ares didn’t interfere, but Ares looked like he was having the time of his life and couldn’t care less about impeding people he was familiar with.


    Li Li securing one star meant there were only four other stars left that were realistically up for grabs. One with Ares, one with Esme, and two with the Lighter Duo. Currently, Esme was running away from a pack of inner court disciples. The Lighter Duo, however, was holding their ground in quite the spectacular fashion. Onno was one of the people trying to steal a star from the Duo, but there was another, bigger, threat heading their way.


    Enyo had no intention of fighting Esme for her star as she was friendly with her, and Ares’ star was a thought she briefly entertained for the fun of it but, in the end, she decided to fight this strange Duo for one of theirs.