The barbarian was striding forward, a grimace of focus on his malformed, half-metal features. Those arms were tough. Xuejing's Artifact Blades were capable of cutting through iron when active, and she'd had some success against some barbarian tools and weapons. Others, like this, were made from some strange and unusually strong type of metal.

Xuejing had thought to see how she fared without the lightning—a part of her felt it to be a little like cheating—but against an enemy this fast it was necessary. If not for that, this would be a difficult match for her. Her entire setup was designed to force an enemy to engage her head-on in melee combat. Trained from birth in the use of her Blades, she was expected to win such encounters, but these barbarians were faster than they ought to be.

But that was why she had almost a dozen lightning Symbiotes. Not only did they speed her body, but all she needed was to deliver a quick kick or other form of touch, and she'd be able to stun any barbarian. Blue Lightning had proven very effective on the more heavily metal ones, in her clan's tests, and even if they were shielded she'd just need to poke a few holes in that shield with her Blades, after which it'd fall apart. Alas, with her current heavily defensive Symbiote setup she wasn't able to channel the lightning through her Blades. If she could, this fight would already be over.

The same nervousness as always was running through her. It took her time to relax, even when just sparring, and she never did her best at the beginning. It was her most hated weakness, which always reared its ugly head when she was fighting with true stakes. Her brother had told her the answer was just to spend less time sparring, and more time fighting with something on the line.

Xuejing readied herself, and the lightning roving over her intensified. She knew she could win. The barbarian was sloppy. Fast and strong, but his movements lacked true skill. There was a weird stiltedness to him, a noticeable lack of flow. It was as if his body knew all the right moves, but the timing was just slightly off.

She strode forward to meet him, determined to get past the jitteriness she felt. He came swinging, but now she made no effort to block the attacks. She embraced the moment, aware that a single mistake would see her out of the Tournament. Then that awareness fell from her mind as his movements consumed her whole focus.

She knew he was fast, tight and controlled, even with the jerkiness. But with the lightning now running through her he seemed slow and stupid, and she was amazed that she'd felt any worry. She slid around his blows with little effort. She realised she'd forgotten to counterattack, and shook her head ruefully, laughed at her own foolishness. She'd been concerned about this? Hearing her laugh his eyes narrowed with anger, and she saw him winding up for another big punch with his right.

She spun around the blow, a monstrous strike that stirred the air and would have separated her head from her body. But it had hit nothing and now she was outside the strike, he was overextended, and her training asserted itself. Without even thinking she executed a smooth, twinned stab into his midsection with both Blades.

The steel bit into him, though not as deep as it should've. She thought he might fall regardless, but he snarled, coming on faster now. She saw that blood was coming from a couple of the holes. The metal man could bleed after all. His chest and lower body were partly armoured in metal, but softer there, and she was able to pierce them as she couldn't his arms.

He exploded into motion, throwing punch after punch, each more desperate and angry than the last. That only made him more predictable, and his speed still didn't compare. Far from scary, now the barbarian seemed like some kind of clown, performing some silly dance. The nervousness had cracked and fallen away, and a smile poured over her features. She hoped her brother was watching.

It was child's play to draw the oaf into another overextension, giving her the chance to land a solid slice across his midsection. The man staggered, and she flowed past to resume her stance, slick and smooth like hot oil in a pan.

She could have landed a kick there, but in the moment she'd decided against it. She told herself it was useful to fight against someone like this—she was learning how these barbarians fought, lessons that would serve her well if she encountered a more dangerous enemy. And, the longer she fought the more her stupid nerves would leave her, and she would be able to fight at her best.

Yes, she told herself, this is just my warm-up. Xuejing allowed herself a faint, controlled smile as she noted the lines of blood spilling down the barbarian's shirt. If he kept letting her needle him like this, she wouldn't even need to use the lightning.

The barbarian glared at her with his beetle-eyes, the human parts of his face all red and veiny with anger, and suddenly she realised this was the perfect time to throw his line back at him.

'Didn't expect to encounter someone like me, did you?!' she blurted excitedly, tongue almost tripping with her eagerness to return his earlier insult. His ugly face somehow became even angrier. Ha!

The barbarian's reply was an inarticulate scream of rage, and Xuejing couldn't help an unladylike snort. What a moron! But her smirk became a frown when she felt something strange, catching at the edges of her Soul Sense—a pulse of energy, though it wasn't spiritual in nature. All signs of weakness vanished from the man. His eyes bulged, the few parts of him that weren't metal flushing an even darker red, swelling with blood. The metal parts hummed, rising to a higher pitch as though heavily charged.

When he charged, his speed was multiplied. Her eyes widened as she dodged, only to find his fists chasing her, coming from every angle. She had to block, and the jarring impact nearly knocked the Blades from her grip. She gained distance by flipping and rolling back, using a tree for cover.

His fist smashed through the trunk as he came after her. Her footwork grew wider, the lightning flaring brighter as she made use of all the speed it could lend her. Her steps were so perfect that to an onlooker she would've looked more like she was skating than stepping, and yet even with that and all her ducking and weaving, more than one of his blows came within inches of hitting her.

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It was as if he'd used a combat Symbiote for a burst of speed and strength—but there was no trace of one. Some strange barbarian method of achieving the same effect! As a savage left hook brushed the tip of her nose, and her teeth clenched tight in a grimace, she had to admit it was proving effective.

###

Nicolai continued to observe. The momentum of the fight had reversed.

Puncher Joe had triggered some kind of Berserk or Brawler augment—the kind that briefly sent the body, flesh and machine both, into overdrive. The result was a short burst of tremendous speed and strength, but it would be followed by weakness.

Even so, Nicolai knew this wasn't going to last. Joe had realised he was outmatched and this was his last-ditch attempt, a desperate method of holding off his end.

The Nara Cultivator was simply too good, to the extent she'd been playing with the man prior to this. Joe's sudden speed had surprised her initially, but now she slipped around him with increasing ease, confidence returning as her lightning-charged movements carried her almost as fast as he could move, but with far greater skill and agility. Tree after tree slid between them as she used them to break his line of attack, forcing him to keep chasing. He noted her smile returning. She looked like a young girl baiting a bull.

Joe's initial rush was already losing steam. Once his speed dropped, she would either resume playing or end him.

'Perfect, look, he's got her on the ropes,' hissed Pal, which was such an astonishing misread that Nicolai was unable to stop himself turning to shoot an incredulous look at the man. He understood when he realised Pal was barely looking at the fight. He was more focused on Nicolai. 'Listen, you creep around behind her while she's busy with him, then go in close and take her out! I'll cover you from over here.'

'How are you going to cover me when you have no way of harming her from range?' Nicolai asked absently, returning his focus to the fight. He was wondering he'd stack up against this Cultivator. Thinking he'd like to find out.

'I'll be watching out for anything else, of course. Hey, my focus is on sneaking around and shooting stuff from a distance. I leave the close combat to others. Based on how easily you handled me up close, I figure you can take her. Especially in ambush.' When he didn't immediately reply, Pal shuffled closer. 'Come on,' in an eager whisper, 'this is the best chance!'

He let Pal hang for a moment, sitting there as though thinking deeply. He nodded. 'Alright. I'm going in. Watch my back.'

'I'm on it!' Pal gave him a thumbs up. Under his helmet Nicolai rolled his eyes. In his private chat, the guy was pinging messages back and forth rapid-fire with his friend.

'It's happening. He's taken the bait. How far are you?'

'Roughly two minutes. I'm having to navigate around a pretty big dust-up,' replied Jex.

'It'll take him a bit to sneak up on her, I think you'll have time. Get here quick as you can.'

Nicolai wondered how they'd react if he broke in and spoke up on their private line. 'Who are we ambushing?' he imagined asking, then he'd smash Pal's face apart.

Later, he whispered, feeling the Dark stirring and working to knead it back to a state of calm. He wrapped his shimmer poncho tight, engaged the Lurker Symbiote, and got moving.

###

Pal watched, tight to his scope, as Nicolai crept around. He'd sent a pair of drones after the man and they followed unobtrusively, making sure he maintained vision. Keeping eyes on him was complicated by the shimmer poncho, but he was able to keep track via the various tells such tech gave out.

He didn't have direct vision through the scope; there was a bush in the way. But he didn't need that—with his augments, he could link up what he was seeing with the drones' view. It wasn't 100% accurate, but at this distance it was plenty good enough. He watched as the tell-tale shimmer slithered up behind the Nara girl. He could imagine the man waiting there. Like a big black spider.

He raised his head from the scope, observing the fight. Puncher Joe didn't have long left. The Cyborg was stumbling around, snarling furious gibberish and calling the Nara girl a coward. His extreme speed and strength were about out, and she'd caught him a few more times with those twin swords of hers. Quite the reversal. She actually looked like she was playing with the guy, now. Dangerous girl, that. But with this move, he'd hopefully be getting rid of both her and Nicolai. After that, this thing'd be a free win.

'I'm in position,' spoke Jex into his ear. 'Your six o'clock.' He turned and peered through the foliage, zoomed with his eyes 'til he saw her poking around a tree a couple hundred metres distant, Smartgun ready.

'Roger. Wait until he makes his move. With luck he can strike her a finishing blow. If so, we'll both nail him the moment she disappears. If he fails, then at least he might injure her or force her to burn that lightning.'

Jex gave an affirmative, and he continued. 'If he can at least get that out the way, me and you together ought to be able to rush her. You still sure you can take her?'

'I've got the perfect counter.'

'I'll trust you on that. Here, check my feed.' He sent a stream of his drone feeds over to her, sharing vision. Down here the jammer was barely reaching and the connection was pretty good.

In that feed he saw the faint shimmer that betrayed Nicolai's form slipping forward. Pal breathed out slow, relaxing the organic parts of himself as he reseated himself in position behind the scope, fixing his eye to it.

The assault rifle was set to full-auto. His Combat Drive could control the recoil and keep on target for a whole magazine, from this range. With Jex doing the same with her smartie and the scant cover—these trees weren't large enough to slow 7.62 down by much—Nicolai wouldn't last.

He noted that the Nara Cultivator was moving in for her own strike, while Nicolai crept up behind her. Focused on landing the blow she'd been angling for this whole time, she'd never see him coming. Perfect timing, Pal reflected. Guy knew his business, no denying that.

Only…

'He's froze up,' spoke Jex, confused. 'What's he doing?'

'Your guess is as good as mine.' Pal growled, frustrated. He frowned through his scope, the targeting reticle right over the outline his drone-linked software had drawn for him. He snorted. 'Maybe he's just pussied out. Fuck it, if he doesn't make a move let's just nail him anyway, make ourselves scarce be—'

His Burst Shield popped. His eyes shot wide. He lurched into motion, tried to turn, but as the energies of the shield dissipated he knew he was too slow.

Something hit him. The world spun, empty and dark, pure disorientation. With a sudden pop there was light and sound. Snarling, he kept spinning, planted his feet and wrenched his rifle into position.

Then he froze, his finger flinching from the trigger as he realised the danger of firing. He was staring at the crowd that filled this place. Back in the lobby of the Duel Arena.

A large hologram projected out from his Mark, floated before him.

GAME OVER.

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