The barrier closed behind Mina and Loa like a guillotine. The crowd cheered, but for me, the sound dulled to a background noise.

  "Come on." I gestured to the others, and we moved as a group toward the Wait Zone proper.

  The space was carved into tiers around the dome, built to corral the non-fighters while giving them a clear vantage of the match. The stone here was polished, patterned with faint glowing veins of magic that flickered with a rhythm.

  Benches lined the levels, but no one sat. Everyone stood at the edge, watching, waiting, breathing in the bloodlust of the crowd.

  That's when I saw it.

  A crystal sphere sat on a pedestal near the center of our tier. Taller than a man's chest, its surface shimmered with a faint mist that seemed alive. Fighters from other factions were already clustered around it, peering into the depths like moths to a flame.

  I approached, cautious but curious. The moment I looked inside—

  —I wasn't just watching.

  The Combat Zone opened around me with impossible clarity. The crowd noise muffled to a hum, replaced by the wet slap of water on stone, the hiss of steam rising from mossy rocks, the guttural growl of Biscuit as she flexed her claws.

  Every detail was crisp, immediate. I could see the way Loa's feathers bristled against the damp air. I could see the ripple of water curling around Whirlkool's ankles as she prepared to lunge.

  It was like stepping into a perfectly optimized VR headset—except there was no headset, no lag, no barrier. My perspective hovered just above and between the fighters, moving as smoothly as thought.

  "Whoa…" Skadi's voice came from behind me. "It's like we're in there."

  She pressed closer, and her gasp told me she saw it too. Nex followed, frowning as he leaned in. "Tch. Surveillance crystal. Clever. Lets us study the fights with more detail than the naked eye."

  Gilbud shuddered, his heavy frame looming beside me. "Yo! Or lets them study us. Don't forget—what we see, they see. These things aren't just toys. They're eyes for the Sovereigns."

  That made my chest tighten. He wasn't wrong. If this crystal gave us a perfect view inside, then the Sovereigns above probably had a hundred more tuned just like it. Every movement, every strike, every hesitation—catalogued.

  I tore my eyes from the sphere long enough to glance back up toward the balcony where Crueltal sat. Even from this distance, I could swear she was smiling. I turned away as her eyes trailed toward my direction.

  The terrain of the swampy Combat Zone stretched beneath me again as I returned my gaze to the crystal. Mina planted her feet solidly on a rock slab, axe raised. Loa's wings spread wide, feathers dripping water, as she scouted above the marsh.

  Across from them, Biscuit and Whirlkool looked perfectly at home, prowling and splashing through their chosen battlefield. My gut twisted. This was no random terrain. The Sovereigns wanted a show, and they wanted Mina and Loa tested to the breaking point.

  "Then we watch," I murmured, my ribbons twitching as though ready to leap into the fight themselves. "And we remember. Every detail. Because if the game is rigged… we'll need to learn how to break it." The crystal swirled again, zooming closer, until I was practically face-to-face with Mina's determined snarl. The opening horn blared across the colosseum.

  The first match had begun.

  ??? ??? ??? [Perspective Switch: Mina]

  Loa continued to circle the sky above like an eager hawk ready to swoop. But Mina had to adjust her footing on the wet soiled surface. She didn't mind as she fought plenty times in such a terrain with Boggorc. Though thinking about him, the darn boar would've loved this marsh, feeling it suitable as a home.

  She brushed the thought off, remembering how much she hated her late mentor and comrade. He always kept her in check, to ensure she completed Jalkra's missions. Now she served another—Ki wasn't too bad of a boss. Though that unsettled her as the Merecritt-pretender felt like a boss that carried too much heart.

  "Mini-Mina, ya just gonna to stare or are we gonna get to the shredding each other part of this game!"

  Mina growled, glaring at the oversized ceramic cat before her. Biscuit. In the past, the damn pest would bat her around like a plaything. That would no longer be the case. She could fell that she had a slightly higher APeX than her former tormentor.

  The two of them began to make their first steps. Mina realized she'd needed to be careful with her footing—she would risk slipping or having her feet sinking into the wet dirt.

  She hated how the other one didn't have much of a problem maneuvering.

  Despite nearly being twice Mina's size. Biscuit bound from boulder to boulder with ease, never seeming to miss the timing. She was built for this terrain.

  Mina acknowledged the creature's stealth and agility would end up being a problem. However, that didn't end there. She recalled another thing that churned her apprehension.

  Biscuit's defenses.

  That ceramic coat of hers had an uncanny resilience. Striking at it would be cumbersome, yet that was just one part of the problem that nagged at Mina. Biscuit was an unexpected tank that could both move fast and hit hard. Even if Mina landed hits, Biscuit fights with unpredictable and erratic movements.

  Whatever, she'd made her analysis to ground herself in preparation for the fight. Mina squared her shoulders and grinned feral.

  "Let's settle this, Kitten. You're no longer against an easy target… like me."

  As soon as Mina pointed her thumb at herself, Biscuit pounced. Mina felt the thrill of adrenaline rushing through her veins.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  She maneuvered with a jump before Biscuit reached her. The crowd's cheers resounded in her ears. It became further boisterous as she drove an elbow down to Biscuit's neck. The blow sent Biscuit face-planting into the earth with a thunderous thud. Even a crack could've been heard resounding through the field. That crack, however, meant something else. Mina knew this.

  She'd been successful in the first strike but that didn't mean she'd grace herself with the honor of a smirk. Not yet.

  Biscuit whipped around, pivoting, her movements a fluid blur that Mina herself struggled to react against. The darn cat's claws almost caught her chest. But it failed when Mina parried with her club. The force between their attacks was seismic and splattered dirt through the battlefield.

  It jarred her arm. Both she and Biscuit had been driven back. Fortunately for her, Biscuit's expression had soured. It became one of caution, and Mina fought back laughing then and there. The cat now saw her as a worthwhile menace and that satisfied her. Given the chance to sneer, her gaze locked in on Biscuit's face. There was a slight crack on it. Like glass that'd been chipped. For most that would have been seen as battle damage. However, that meant something else for Biscuit. Mina knew that only a layer had been marred.

  She only scratched a surface of the nine layers that granted Biscuit her "nine lives." Mina recalled her conversation with both Loa and KiAera back at base. They were talking about some mumble jumbo about this weird object from KiAera's old world. That thing was called… a Matryoshka doll… or something like that.

  However, she'd just call it its other term—the nesting doll sounded much easier to her. So, to make it simpler for herself. That was what Biscuit's nine-layers of defense was. Several layers of "shells" that fit inside each other. Destroy one, and she would resume to fight after shedding one set of shattered case of fur. Biscuit was simply a big, tortoishell maneki-neko—looked like one of those stupid beckoning cat figurines—that had the fortune of resetting all the damage inflicted upon her body nine times.

  That meant she'd needed to beat Biscuit nine times. Annoying. Frustrating. But that almost made her mouth drool at the sweet prospect of smashing her face in like digging into a delicious buffet.

  Mina spun her kanabo-club as she used her [Manifest] Dominion to make the blunt club studded with spikes. That was her unique ability in her dominion. She could manifest spikes and manipulate them. Even use them like projectiles if needed. Which was her favorite technique—the [Shrapnel Shower]. Additionally, if she were to pick up one of the sticks on the ground, she could turn them into a replacement club.

  Unfortunately, Biscuit wasn't the only one with special tricks under her sleeves.

  'Do not be careless, Mina.' That was Loa's telepathic voice in her head.

  'Nah, I'd keep those concerns for yourself. Just keep Whirlkool busy for me, so I can smack her across the head after annihilating this kitty!' She responded, then grinned with ferocious enthusiasm.

  Biscuit hissed, throwing off Mina's musing. "Quite with your disturbing grin! You know what? Scratch that! I'll tear your face off!"

  The nekomata's tails wrapped around the boulder beneath her. Her movements were fluid as the boulder was flung with startling speed. As it flew, Mina already posed herself in preparation for a swing. She swung and smashed the boulder into smithereens.

  The debris settled, but Biscuit was no longer in her original position. The thought clicked in Mina's skull; the boulder shards had been a distraction to allow Biscuit to vanish from Mina's line of sight.

  Mina tried to track the creature down, her gaze left not a single patch of grass or felled tree unturned. She failed to spot Biscuit in the dense marsh terrain.

  Suddenly a ripple in the water caught her attention. She didn't take Biscuit for a swimmer. And she had been right. A boulder skipped across the water's surface, forcing her to smash it as well. It was probably Biscuit's doing, throwing that boulder like it were a pebble.

  Mina was still in the middle of her swing, when another large figure hurled itself at her from behind. She realized that the darn cat had presented the boulder as a feint to have her engage it, while it left her back exposed.

  Biscuit's claws almost broke skin, piercing the surface—but Mina brute forced herself to twirl with an incredible twist, allowing her kanabo to slam against Biscuit's head.

  The giant cat yowled in pain, the shock wave of the force shattering her head into fragments. Mina sought to not finish it there. She pressed into the swing, creating devastating ripples to sweep across the marsh's surface. She wanted to send Biscuit flying across the field, and she did. The cat plummeted with a thunderous crash; the crowd's roar was momentous, almost equal to the dreadful thud.

  Mina's stared in satisfaction as her strike had left half of Biscuit's head mangled. But that meant "one-life" had been taken. There were eight to go. She was thrilled to take them all.

  However, she couldn't because the tournament's rules dictated that no participant could kill. So she had to settle for a knockout.

  She watched as the nekomata got back up shakily, while cursing under her breath, insulting Mina. Mina tuned the noise out, knowing they were meaningless.

  Biscuit hissed, lips peeling back to bare jagged fangs as her cracked ceramic face shifted like a mask. The first "life" had been scratched—one down, eight to go. The swampwater hissed around her claws as she flexed, tails snapping like whips.

  Good. Mina wanted her mad. Wanted her rattled.

  Because the moment Biscuit lost rhythm, Mina would own the tempo.

  She stomped down, legs braced in the sucking mud, kanabo spinning in her grip. Her [Manifest] spikes gleamed wet in the torchlight, hungry for flesh—or ceramic. The swamp air was thick, cloying, and Mina's horns steamed faintly from the heat of her body.

  The crowd was screaming, but Mina had learned to tune them out. She fought by feel, not by spectacle. Every twitch of Biscuit's tails, every shift of her paws, told Mina what came next.

  And what came next was scattering her particles.

  Her stance shifted when Biscuit darted right—faster than most eyes could follow—then feinted left and blurred into a zigzag dash. Mina didn't chase. Chasing speed was how you got baited. Instead, she shifted her stance, dragging her kanabo low through the muck. She felt the swamp's pull, calculated it, let it drag her weapon heavier than normal. Timing mattered more than swing speed here.

  The Nekomata lunged, claws flaring with green ore-light. Mina grinned wide, teeth flashing, and instead of meeting the blow head-on she pivoted. Her kanabo came up not as a strike, but a wall.

  CLANG!

  Claws met studded steel. The shockwave slapped the swampwater into geysers.

  Biscuit snarled, pushing harder, but Mina was already grinding her spikes outward. With a thought, the blunt iron rod sprouted a sudden row of barbs, catching and hooking Biscuit's paw.

  "You forgot," Mina roared over the clash, "I make my own weapons dirty!"

  She twisted, dragging Biscuit off-balance and slamming her forehead horn-first into the cat's jaw. Ceramic cracked again, a spiderweb fracture running along one cheek.

  The crowd lost its mind at the headbutt.

  But Mina didn't bask. She knew better. She rolled back a step, freeing her kanabo, and that was when she saw the water rippling unnaturally to her left.

  Whirlkool.

  Loa dove from above in a burst of feathers and shadow, just barely intercepting the torrent of pressurized water that would've gutted Mina. Her wings flared, cutting the stream apart into harmless spray.

  'Stay sharp,' Loa's voice cut in again, sharper now and strained. 'She's trying to split us.'

  Mina spat, eyes never leaving Biscuit as the cat's fur began to shed. The cracked outer shell flaked away in glowing fragments, revealing a fresher, flawless ceramic hide beneath.

  Second layer. Eight lives left.

  "Split us, huh?" Mina muttered aloud, spinning her kanabo into a reverse grip. "Then I'll just kill faster than they can coordinate."

  She dashed forward before Biscuit could reset her footing, spikes elongating like jagged lances. She didn't aim for the torso—too thick. She aimed for the joints, the hips, the shoulders. Places ceramic needed flexibility.

  Her first spike drove into Biscuit's knee, staggering her. The second whistled free, a projectile this time, hurling into the cat's flank.

  Biscuit howled, swiping wildly, her claws catching Mina's bicep. Flesh tore, hot particles streaking down her arm. Pain flared bright, but Mina welcomed it. Pain was proof she was in it to win!

  She planted her foot in Biscuit's stomach and shoved her back across a slick of mud, chest heaving.

  "C'mon, kitty. Eight more cracks to go. Let's see if you've got the stamina to keep up with me."

  Biscuit's tails lashed in fury. Meanwhile, Whirlkool moved closer, water coiling up her arms. She prepared to fire a round from her shell-pistol.

  Mina only grinned, her kanabo dripping with swampwater and particles, ready to make the whole arena remember why the Chimera Crew picked her as Captain.