Chapter 88: Chapter 87 - That hardly seems fair

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The sudden disappearance of the heaviest of the three Domains was jarring enough to cause the other two combatants to also briefly pause their fighting. They took furtive glances towards the other side of the platform where wounded Karna dodged another spirit that wandered a bit too close, though the spirits don’t seem all that interested in attacking her for some reason. “That’s…not what I expected to happen.” Valor commented simply.

“I did tell you.” The witch’s voice echoes from multiple directions. Both of them suddenly tilted their heads at the same time, as if listening to something.

At the same time, Karna was taking stock of her injury. Her left elbow and everything below it was just gone. She could rather easily prevent any bleeding or the injury from getting worse, but healing the damage would be a little challenging. Thanks to her phoenix heritage, this level of injury wasn't too difficult to fix, albeit it would take a bit of time. She'd healed a worse injury when Hou Yi had managed to surprise her with an arrow. That's why she had been willing to make the attack in the first place. The problem was that wounds caused by a Kensei were not as easy to deal with.

All Kensei were not equal of course. Some of them had made it further on their path to perfecting their skills. The best and the oldest Kensei could strike down even conceptual entities and get infinitely close to even damaging souls. That's where Karna had gotten her original idea from in the first place. She'd taken the techniques of the Kensei and adapted them further in a very particular direction. And she was pretty sure there were at least one or two Kensei who could do the same. Whether they had done it was another thing entirely.

Because of that, the wounds made by a Kensei were hard to heal because they did more than just damage your physical body. The very best of them could make such healing almost impossible by attacking the very concept of your body. On a fundamental level, healing magic worked on the principle of returning the patient to their normal state. But if a Kensei with enough skill attacked someone, they could change that normal. Healing magic wouldn’t work, because there was nothing to heal. Your body was already at its normal state. There were still ways around it, but it no longer fell under the purview of healing. At that point it became about changing your body to match what you had previously. It would be like trying to add another arm. It could be done, but it was much more complicated.

Luckily for Karna, there were several factors in her favor in this case. The first one was that the attack had been hasty and reflexive, without having the full intent of the Kensei behind the attack. It was simply an almost automatic strike she’d performed out of muscle memory due to performing the same action millions of times over her previous lives. The second advantage was that either the Kensei wasn't quite as old and skilled enough to fully harm the conceptual state of her body, or she hadn't wanted to do so. Thirdly, and most importantly, Karna was old and powerful, with a will stronger than anyone, at least as long as pillows were not involved, and as such, harming her concept of self permanently was almost impossible.

That didn’t mean there was no effect from the Kensei’s blade. She would be able to heal her hand, but it would take a bit of time and effort. Effort wasn't a problem. Time, on the other hand… "Well done young one. I was a little worried for you for a moment there." The Giantess' thundering voice boomed over the arena, as the giantess picked up her axe.

Karna rotated her shoulders a bit in preparation for the fight continuing, the gesture being mostly something she performed out of habit. "I get that I'm the youngest out of everyone still participating, but it's not like the rest of you are all that much older. Not to mention…" She didn't say anything about them all being reincarnators, but her implication could be read between the lines. Being called young didn't really bother her, but it was still a little out of place in her opinion.

“Ah, I believe it’s due to your appearance. You look younger than the rest of us.” The giantess stated after a moment of consideration. “That’s beside the point though. You did well against that monster of a swordswoman, and I feel a little bad about picking on someone who's obviously injured, but this is a competition, and you're clearly a dangerous competitor. Even if my team has already lost, I feel obligated to eliminate you. Otherwise, there'd be no point in me even taking part in this round." As she spoke, the giantess took long but slow strides towards Karna.

"Understandable, but I believe you're a few incorrect assumptions," Karna replied and pushed the matter of her hand out of her mind for now. Just because she'd lost a hand, that didn't mean she couldn't fight.

“And what would those be?” The giantess asked, seeming genuinely curious and a little amused.

“The first one is that I’m unable to beat you just because of this small scratch.” She lifted the stump of her arm a bit for emphasis. “And the second one…”

“The second one?” The giantess asked, now grinning as she’d gotten close enough to attack the smaller girl now in her normal form.

"There are two others still in this fight, and It doesn't seem they like the idea of you playing kingmaker," Karna said with a small smile of her own, just as a golden beam of holy power slammed into the back of the giantess while a wave of spirits assaulted from below. The spirits pushed the giantess into the air, while the beam threw the giantess outside the arena, as Karna and the Kensei had been fighting at the edge.

Unfortunately, this battle had no rules for ring-outs, so the giantess soon made her way back towards the arena. The smile on her face had not faded despite the surprise attack. "I have to admit that I did not expect that. I can see why our knight in shining armor might want to save the damsel in distress, but why do you join hands with your enemy to strike at a third party?” The giantess looked at where the witch was standing.

“Like the little one said. I don’t like someone playing kingmaker. And if I have to choose between first fighting against the knight and then fighting you after, or fighting the wounded girl and the knight at the same time…well, I’ll take my chances with her. I believe I have a decent to fair chance that she won’t even interfere with my duel with the knight. We might even work out a deal should I prevail against the knight.” The witch surprised both the giant and Valor with her suggestion, though Karna wasn’t all that shocked. She had expected something like this.

“What kind of deal?” Valor’s eyes narrowed a bit, though the gentle smile never slipped from his face.

“Well, there were no rules about changing teams as far as I know. I believe she would’ve taken my offer, considering that us two fighting until the end would’ve meant that even if she had won, she would’ve been too spent to do well in the last phase.” The witch pointed out.

“Would you have accepted the offer?” The giantess turned to Karna to ask the question.

"Depends a bit on how the fight between the two of them had gone. If the two of them had beaten each other to a pulp, then no. Otherwise, yes. She made a fair point." Karna replied with a small shrug. That was also the reason she had not brought her own Domain out. She could do it, but it would’ve left her entirely incapable of fighting afterwards. In which case there would’ve been no point, as she’d rather just concede and keep her ability a secret.

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“A sound strategic decision, even if one I can’t really approve for obvious reasons.” Valor confirmed.

“Look, the only reason I even bothered taking part in this last fight, despite my team already having lost, was the opportunity to switch teams. And she was always my best chance to do so. That’s why I can’t let you take her out.” The witch admitted to her motives. She had seen a potential path to victory, and she’d planned on going down that path.

“Seems we’re at a bit of an impasse then.” The giantess grunted and gestured towards Valor and the witch. “It seems the two of you aren’t willing to be on the same team, and the two of you aren’t going to finish your fight until I’m out, which means we can’t all jump into the blue team.”

Karna had to struggle to hide her smile. Now that the Kensei was out of the fight, they were back to finding alternative solutions to the situation, which meant this was all about politics. And when it came to politics, she had the upper hand for a couple of reasons. She was the most harmless out of the group, at least ostensibly, which made it so that the others were more willing to deal with her. She also didn’t have any grudges with those remaining, which meant there wasn’t anyone specifically gunning for her anymore. She didn’t want the scenario where all four of them made it through, because then this whole fight would’ve only accomplished the elimination of the Kensei at her expense, and luckily she wasn’t the only one with that opinion.

“I think the situation is quite clear actually.” Valor argued. “We’ll momentarily join forces against you, after which we’ll find a solution with the three of us.” He remembered the warning Karna had given before this third round about the giantess.

"Really? You three would join hands against me, even with the witch? That seems a little…" The giantess was thrown off by the situation, to say the least. Earlier she had been the fifth wheel that everyone was ignoring, and now she had three people allying against her. The situation had changed quite quickly.

“There’s a fundamental error in assumptions here. You think I and the witch are in some kind of a vendetta that requires the death of one of us. We’re not. I simply felt that our earlier fight was left unfinished.” Valor suddenly countered. In the giantess’ defense, everyone had assumed there was some grudge between the two.

“Well, now I’m tempted to fight to the bitter end, just so I can take at least one of you with me.” The giantess straightened out to her full height and slowly swung her weapon to point at the three others in a small arc. “However, I won’t. There’s no point risking injury or even death when there’s nothing left to win.” With a small yank, she used her other hand to tear away the necklace, which caused her to be teleported out of the arena.

“I…actually didn’t think that would work.” Valor admitted. “Somehow I expected that we wouldn’t be able to just talk someone who had already reached this point out of competing.”

“That was a pretty good plan, even if a bit risky.” The witch nodded as well. Both of them had gotten a message from Karna just after the Kensei had been sent out of the arena. They’d agreed to the plan, mostly because they had little to lose, and if they managed to eliminate one of the most dangerous contenders with just this, then why not give it a shot?

“It wasn't all that risky all things considered. None of us actually wants to die here, and the giantess knew she was already out of the competition, so why risk her life fighting us? She may have looked like a barbarian, but she clearly wasn't stupid." Karna simply shrugged, though grimaced a bit as the movement sent a jolt of pain through her arm because of the injury.

“So…about what I mentioned earlier…” The witch was hinting at her earlier words about switching teams.

Karna had expected the plan from the witch and had nothing against it, so she looked towards Valor. He thoughtfully leaned on his shield a bit before coming to a decision. “I think we’d win if we joined hands to fight you right now, but it would also leave both of us rather spent, and she’s already injured.” He gestured towards Karna. “Welcome to the team, I suppose.”

As soon as his words came out, the rest of the blue team was brought to the central platform, and the announcer’s voice could be heard again. “The Blue Team is the victor. You are free to come up with a way to find the final winner amongst yourselves.”

All six of them looked at each other for a while, and Valor was the first one to speak. “Is there any way this isn’t going to turn into a fight?”

"I kind of liked her idea of a dance-off, to be honest." Envy pointed towards Karna. "Or we could even turn it into a vote."

“Not when you’re holding Fluffy McSoftenstein a hostage." Karna shot the idea of a vote down. Everyone was just going to vote themselves, and with Envy holding the pillow hostage, she had Karna in an awkward position.

"You already named the thing?" Envy asked incredulously.

“More importantly, that’s the name you went with?” The witch seemed almost offended by the naming.

"I stand by my decision, and I have no regrets, other than the fact that Fluffy is still held prisoner by a cruel and malicious creator." The whole thing was turning silly for some reason, but Karna decided to just dive in with both feet.

“Malicious? I resent the accusation.” Envy protested.

“But the cruel part is fine?” Valor now interjected.

“I mean, that part is accurate, and I’m proud of it.” Envy admitted shamelessly.

“Could ve get on vith zis?” It was obvious the vampire was fighting the urge to facepalm rather heavily. “If zere is a fight to be had, then ve can start.”

"Actually, I do have a proposition." Karna got more serious. "Is there any reason why there must be a single winner? I mean, if either I or Qydrys win, then we’re going to share this world anyway.” She gestured towards the dragon. “So, is there a reason we can’t share the place six ways? It’s a big and rich world, and it would be easier to defend as well, in case the Sentinels end up being less useful than we assume.”

“That’s…not out of the question.” Envy slowly nodded. “My people need a new home. We just got out from under the thumb of a larger power, and we need a place rich with resources. That said, we aren’t numerous enough to need an entire world. Or even a large continent really.”

“I’m with Lady Karna on this.” The dragon nodded as well.

“Zis is…not ideal, but something ve can work vith. Depends on ze details.” Tremere also slowly nodded, and all heads turned towards Valor and the witch.

"My people will be fine with this. Actually, this might be better. My order would rather settle inside other empires instead of building our own. As long as we won't face religious persecution and get our fair share of the resources, we can agree to this general outline. We'll…or to be more precise, the representatives of the groups we are here for, need to hammer out the details, but…" Valor was happy with this choice. The only reason his order had sent him to take part was the fact that the Sentinels would help defend this world. They needed resources and a new home, but trying to defend a world rich enough for their needs would be difficult.

“I’ll obviously agree.” The witch said hastily.

“Obviously?” Valor asked with slight suspicion.

“You’ll find out. Maybe. Kakakaka.” The witch brought back the annoying cackle.

“Right. Now we’ll just need to run this by the Sentinels. Even if they don’t agree though, we can just declare one of us the winner and go through with the deal anyway.” Karna declared happily.

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“Is this fine master?” A mechanical voice asked.

Hou Yi watched as the tiny Cobra Dragon that led the forces that had captured him considered the question. He and his friends had been allowed to watch the tournament as a way to entertain themselves, and he just happened to be the one the Faerie Dragon had been questioning for details on the various factions involved when the tournament had come to an end.

“Yes, this will serve our purposes just fine.” The diminutive but extremely powerful dragon decided quickly. “It’s not the ending I expected, but I think this might actually be better. Agree to their solution.”

Hou Yi knew that these ‘Sentinels’ had been created by the dragon and her subordinates, though not their purpose, or the purpose of this tournament. “Why are you doing this?” He decided to just ask. Their captors had not released them, but he and his companions had been treated well and had even been allowed to cultivate in relative peace, only occasionally questioned on information related to the various groups of the universe.

“I thought you would’ve figured out at least a part of it by now.” The dragon took a small glance at him, clearly amused by his question. “But I suppose I’ll oblige. There are many reasons, but I can tell you three of them. First of all, we need allies. Not those that we force to serve us by force, but proper allies that have a position in the hierarchy of this universe.”

“Wouldn’t these allies be too weak? I mean, if they need these Sentinels of yours for protection, then wouldn’t the Sentinels be enough as it is?” Hou Yi questioned.

“Ah but you’re making a rather large mistake here. We don’t need allies to get more power. We need them for various other reasons, not the least of which is for legitimacy. Everyone we deal with knows we are outsiders. They’ll treat us as such and make deals with us with that as the basis. We need a third party to act as the middleman, and not one we’ve subordinated because they’ll be treated with just as much suspicion as us. There are other reasons you don’t need to know about as well. Secondly, we need a trade partner. Not for resources, but for information and diplomacy. The same concept as before.” Despite what the dragon said, Hou Yi knew she wasn’t telling him the real reasons, even if the ones she’d mentioned were true.

“And the third reason?” He asked.

“Because of her.” The tiny dragon pointed at the holographic display where Karna was shown in the middle of the other contenders. “I knew we could draw her out with a tournament like this. I think you’re already familiar with her, aren’t you?”

"What do you want with Karna?" Hou Yi asked, suddenly feeling wary.

“No need to get defensive, although your reaction is interesting. No, we’re old allies like I’ve told you before. She likely knows why we’re here, and even if she doesn’t, she can find out. And most importantly, she can help me fix this mess. Afterall, she helped me build Crossroads in the first place, and I’ll need her in order to fix things. She might not have the power now, but she will eventually. And until then, I can keep an eye on her.” The dragon’s face split into a toothy grin.