Ethan was free-falling toward an uncertain fate, his mind racing as his body flailed. Just moments before he’d been buried deep under the magical sands of the arena. But rather than appearing inside the lush jungle it was meant to create, he’d found himself learning exactly what was meant by the ‘ground beneath us’ being the special hazard of the match.

  He was inside of a conjured monster, some kind of large worm that had formed around him, and he was now falling the short distance to the creature’s stomach. Deevee was there in an instant flying toward the beast’s closed mouth, and providing a rift anchor. Ethan appeared there a moment later, but with few options.

  He swiftly conjured the Many-Faced Blade as a chain-sickle, but it took two more rifts to manage to get it buried in the monster’s flesh. This left him hanging precariously over a few dozen rows of jagged teeth. He let out a long breath, looking down at the fate he’d narrowly avoided.

  Luckily the monster didn’t appear ‘active’, possibly due to it being a conjuration. Ethan doubted he’d have had such an easy time if he’d fallen in from above, something he might need to test soon. He wedged a longsword through a seam he found with his fingertips, and slowly pried open what passed for a mouth on the monster. A dagger followed, dimensionally charged, and a moment later Ethan felt sunlight for the first time that day.

  He’d appeared on top of a log where the dagger had wedged itself, thankfully alone, and quickly made his way up the closest tree. With a few moments of peace, Ethan was at last able to examine his surroundings.

  It was much as he’d expected, jungles on this world not being too far removed from what he’d seen back home. It was dense, as expected, with almost no visibility beyond a few dozen paces. There were no real paths, ferns and undergrowth filling the gaps between every tree. The trees were fairly large and tall, covered in thick vines and easily climbed. It was also strangely quiet, the noise of the crowd completely blocked by the magical dome.

  He knew the fighting pit in the arena was larger than a football field, meaning Thavin and Calevaro could be in almost any direction. He’d hidden as far as possible from where the combatants and announcer were likely to walk, in order to avoid detection, and finding the other men would be his next challenge.

  He looked down at the ground, which had sealed back up completely, leaving little indication of the tremendous mouth hiding within. The first challenge had taken him by surprise, and Ethan resolved not to be caught so easily again. He checked his armor–a perfect copy of Calevaro’s–as well as the borrowed twin longswords at his sides, then began to move out.

  There was less to the plan than he’d have liked, with disguising himself like the prince being one of the few parts they were sure of. It would provide some interesting opportunities in combat, as well as give them a small chance at hiding what they were doing–for a time at least. Thankfully the armor was a masterwork, and the prince was of a similar build, allowing Ethan to quickly navigate the jungle without missing his light leathers too badly.

  As much as he could, he moved from tree to tree, leaping easily with [Guardian’s Bound]. There were times he had to resort to dropping down, and carefully kept to stones and fallen logs to avoid more unexpected encounters with what he thought of as the ‘ground worms’.

  He discovered two more through exploration, occasionally tossing rocks or tree limbs at suspicious open spaces. He was frustrated to find that their size must vary widely, as one was even larger than what he’d already encountered, and the other would only be able to latch onto an unsuspecting leg. All in all it meant avoiding the ground as much as possible, though there were enough fallen trees to make that a reasonable concession.

  He continued moving, occasionally sending a spectral Deevee out to scout, but wary of the Familiar being spotted. Ethan would often become a Trick of the Light when approaching what he suspected to be a likely ambush spot, but after a quarter of an hour he’d still seen no sign of anyone. The announcer’s voice was such a shock that he nearly fell from the vine he was gripping.

  “We’ve given our duelists a chance to gather their wits, but it’s time for our first escalation! Look out duelists, monsters have entered the jungle!”

  Ethan shook his head. He’d expected something like this. While there shouldn’t be any more surprises as bad as the ground being entirely unsafe, additional elements would be expected as the duel went on. No one wanted to watch two princes wander through a jungle endlessly–although Ethan could only guess what the crowd was truly seeing. The fact that ‘two’ Calevaros hadn’t amounted to the duel already being called off suggested the Arinaens had indeed taken control of the dome.

  That meant that Thavin must certainly have something planned, but Ethan found himself unable to think about that when something else caught his eye. He knew that monsters had been unleashed, and he knew where, as brightness shone through the thick jungle like a beacon.

  The light…

  Something out there had power, and he felt himself drawn to it. He moved almost without thinking, part of him justifying the action, part of him not caring. He flew through the trees easily, a smoothness coming to his actions as he embraced the Hunter within, the part of himself that had come from communing so deeply in the Deep Cell.

  He had his prey, and no matter what else he might need to do, he knew that he wouldn’t stop until it was his.

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  The light grew brighter as he kept moving, until suddenly it was right before him. The monster was moving slowly, carefully, as if it knew it were being stalked. It looked a bit like Revan, being something akin to a large panther, although it was uniformly gray and had something almost like wings rising from its back.

  Ethan grinned. It wasn’t particularly large, and merely Dawn rank. He could make quick work of it if he struck fast. Without further hesitation he flew from the tree, borrowed longswords drawn and held ahead of him in imitation of Revan’s horns. He lanced into the monster’s side with terrible force, though its remarkable reflexes allowed it to turn aside at the last moment.

  Ethan was left with one sword buried deep in the monster’s ribs, with the other only leaving a long slash. The beast swung, causing Ethan to lose his grip on the first sword, and he found himself backing up across a fallen log as the beast counterattacked. Its wing-like appendages were darting forward, stabbing viciously.

  Still, the creature was outmatched, and with a few deceptive slashes Ethan managed to force the monster to look away–a deadly mistake against an Assassin. He was a Trick of the Light a heartbeat later, and his second sword joined the first in a brutal downward stab.

  [Knife in the Dark] lent the power of ruin to the attack, and the creature fell still, collapsing against a tree. Ethan greedily pounced on the monster, a tug from Deevee revealing that there was a touch of dimensional essence to it. The Familiar emerged a moment later, and began the process of using the dying beast’s energy to unlock its final ability.

  Ethan felt his heartbeat slow, and the light gratefully fading. As usual, coming down from seeing the light left him feeling like he was sobering after a night of too much drinking. He shook his head, knowing he needed to focus back on the duel, angry at himself for losing it at such an important moment. Still, he couldn’t help but feel some excitement as he felt one of his final abilities growing within him.

  Deevee disappeared back inside him, its job complete, and Ethan straightened. He resisted the urge to look at the system description, his intuitive sense for the ability being enough until he was in better circumstances. For now it was time to get back to what he was meant to be doing. He turned and–

  Ethan dove backward by instinct, barely dodging the sweep of a blade. He had to roll and heave himself away to avoid the follow up strike, the polearm possessing considerable range. He managed to draw his longsword, the other still lodged in the monster now disappearing into sparkles of light, but his opponent had yet to advance on him.

  Thavin stood tall in blood-red armor, though without a helmet. Beneath the coppery hair the pale man was smiling wickedly at him, as if he’d already won. He didn’t speak as he stalked slowly forward, his weapon leveled, which surprised Ethan. The prince had seemed like the kind of man to want to get in a few jibes before going for the kill. Perhaps he was seeing Thavin’s more serious side.

  Ethan backed away, eyeing the polearm warily. It was as long as the prince was tall, with both a spear-point and an axehead, marking it as a halberd. Not an ideal weapon for the dense jungle, but the prince had found him in an open area. Not knowing the man’s skills, Ethan had to plot a potential retreat, knowing it would be safer to face him among the trees where his own smaller weapons would have the advantage.

  Still…he had an opportunity, and likely only one chance to make use of it. The prince appeared more than confident, and no doubt had backup weapons ready, given he’d been aware of the environment they’d be fighting in. Ethan could attack, but he knew the man had tricks prepared, and if he was going to face this powerful opponent in open combat, he’d be vastly better off doing so with Calevaro beside him.

  But Ethan was an Assassin, something the man couldn’t be prepared for. As far as Thavin knew, he was staring down Prince Calevaro, someone who would have been waiting for the opportunity for a head to head fight. It shouldn’t be too hard to use the element of surprise to attack in the way that Ethan was most familiar, and if he was lucky, he might even end this duel before it really began.

  He grinned within his helmet, knowing he had to try. With a sudden lunge he knocked Thavin’s weapon aside, only to leap backward instead of following up on the attack. The man seemed confused by the tactic, until [Hydra’s Reflection] stabbed into him from behind. The blade managed to slide between two pieces of armor on the prince’s side, and though it did little damage, it forced the man to turn in shock.

  Ethan didn’t waste the opportunity. He was a Trick of the Light the moment the man turned, and already calling on the dark energy of Ruin. Unfortunately the angle was wrong to strike at the man’s unprotected head, as Ethan had retreated to lower ground, but he was confident that the power gathered in his blade would be enough to tear through the man’s armor.

  His longsword, forged for Calevaro and of remarkable quality, cut through the air with deadly purpose. It seemed to move in slow motion as Ethan put all his strength into the attack. He watched as Thavin reacted in confusion, trying to bring his weapon to bear on an opponent that had disappeared before his eyes. The man wouldn’t have time to turn back before the blade connected, and Ethan felt grim satisfaction as he watched the blade move.

  “Stop!” Tomo’s voice called out, but it was too late.

  The blade tore through the armor like paper, and bit deeply into the flesh beneath. The ruinous black energy erupted from the wound like a hungry explosion, causing even more damage as Thavin stumbled forward, arching his back in unexpected pain. Ethan registered Tomo’s warning then, and looked at the Spectral form of his Familiar in confusion, as the demon appeared next to him.

  “Dimensional Mantle!” he called, and Ethan cycled as quickly as he could, not understanding, but trusting. It wasn’t fast enough.

  Thavin exploded. His body ruptured outward in every direction, power tearing and slicing into everything it touched–Ethan included. His mantle came up, the swirling rifts running over his body to absorb some of the attacks, but there were hundreds, and Ethan was thrown back as he felt countless lacerations over his body. The masterwork armor was all that kept him alive, and he looked up from the jungle floor in confusion, staring at the place Thavin had been.

  “What the hell just happened?” he said, pain suddenly biting into him from all over his body.

  “An ability you know well,” Tomo explained. “I am sorry I couldn’t sense it sooner, but the prince is more powerful than we thought.” He turned from the section of jungle that looked like it had been hacked with a machete a thousand times. “That was a Ghost Among the Reeds.”

  “What? You’re saying…”

  “Yes. Prince Thavin has the Mystic Affinity. He is Bonded to a demon.”