Published at 4th of December 2025 9:22 am

Chapter 302: Scratches in the Walls

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

The crowd roared and chanted, and for once everyone in it seemed happy. Those from Shenra cried out Xuejings name, and those from Earth bellowed Nicolais. Both felt theyd an able representative.

Apart from those whod bet on Zixiao or one of those with him, of course. And Pal.

Sneaky fucker, he muttered, sat tense and leaning forward in his seat. Well done Jex. He snorted. She was right about those toes. Would probably tell him exactly that when she saw him.

With luck, that would be coming after she won this thing. Truth was, he knew what her trump was, though hed pretended otherwise, seeing how much she enjoyed the idea of surprising him.

It was perfectly suited to let her win against either of them, Nicolai or the Nara girl. Things hadnt gone at all how theyd planned, but they still had a good chance.

###

So thats how I lost my Symbiote of Change to that fucker. Basically hes a sneaky piece of shit. Sure you can bet on him, but I wouldnt recommend working with him, Vikrum finished. Hed hoped to see in Gregory a changed mind, after his story. Had even taken care to put a little extra spin on it. Now he sat and acted relaxed, watching to see how his words landed.

Inteeeresting! Ill keep that in mind but, it seems to me that if he was working for me I could rely on him to be effective. Just so long as I dont give him a reason to turn on me, eh? Gregory grinned, and his grin widened when he saw Vikrum roll his eyes. Loyalty is one thing, he continued, but it can be a little unpredictable, unreliable. Self-interest, on the other hand Well, Id hazard its amongst the most reliable motivators there is!

So youre still considering him? grumbled Vikrum.

Gregory smirked. More than ever. He leaned suddenly forward. This is a new world, my friend. My family and yours? Theyre back on Earth, holding onto all that power theyve accumulated, along with all the other big players. Theyll be coming over, of course, and when they do Im sure well be happy to see them. But for now this is our chance to seize at power for ourselves! A chance that may never come again. And if you want power you need the proper tools. He nodded down at the arena, still flickering as it shuffled around in preparation for the next round. A tool like that man, wielded properly, could be leveraged for significant benefits.

Vikrum stared at him, and though he kept his expression sour he couldnt deny a little interest in what Gregory was saying. The other Tier 3 slapped him on the shoulder, grinning.

It sounds to me, like all this that happened wasnt personal. Probably if youre willing to put it behind you, so will he. Thats the thing about people who are out for self-interest above all. Theres no profit in holding grudges. Eh? Like I say, reliable!

He smiled, let out his own laugh. You know what, maybe youve a point. These plans of yours Id be interested in working with you on them. If youll have me, anyway.

Of course! enthused Gregory, seat squeaking as he lurched forward again. I knew I could count on you! And youll be willing to work with us, put all the past behind you?

Of course, he echoed, nodding his head. No need to tell Gregory about how hed handed the mans favourite arena Champions polearm over to the Scoundrels, and collected a couple hundred thousand points in return.

###

Youre looking a little pale there, friend Hanwei, said Jian, leaning to see past his father and aim a smirk at the Nara Cultivator.

Do I? murmured Hanwei, not even glancing over. His distant eyes were fixed on the arena.

Worried about how your sister will perform?

Not anymore. Shes past the difficult part.

Jian frowned. So you think shell beat him?

Hanwei shrugged. That doesnt concern me.

Jian exchanged a confused glance with his father.

To forge good steel you need heat, and pressure, spoke Hanwei. Nothing strong comes easily. That is what she has been lacking. His eyes glimmered as he smiled down into the arena. This Tournament is turning out even better than Id thought.

People are not made of metal, murmured Jians father, with a significant glance at Jian, one that made him scowl. Too much pressure and they break. What then?

I would be disappointed. But there are always others.

###

His next round was against one of those Cultivators from the fort, an earth user. They appeared across from one another and he barely had time to see his opponent before the guy started getting dug in.

The arena seemed to be a slice of mountain, one ragged slope encrusted in jagged rock and sharp ridges. His opponent immediately caused the rock around him to shift and grow, rising to close around him.

As the ten second timer ticked down, and the crowd did their typical shrieking, Nicolai watched as his opponent surrounded himself with a shell of ever-thickening stone, one eyebrow raised.

Not his idea of a good strategy, all things considered, but he supposed that at least there was a strategy.

The timer ended and he skipped over the shattered ground, coming quickly into his opponents Soul Sense range. Predictably, the mans Soul Sense lunged at him. From how it crackled with a pale green energy, he knew it would be best not to let that touch his body.

The Spectral Claw tore the tendril apart. Then it reached on, talons stabbing and scratching at the rocky prison his enemy had locked himself in. Tough to break. Though the Claw was effective in physical attack, it wasnt hugely so and made slow progress.

His opponents Soul Sense remained inside. Nicolai came closer, and he dismissed the Claw. Then he shoved his Soul Sense tendril into the rock, began to press it through the stone.

Now the Cultivator was fighting back, a spiritual war conducted within the rock. Nicolai could feel the mans astonishment when his Soul Sense easily forced the Cultivators own back. The Dark flowing always through him lent his spirit a solidness and sharpness that always surprised his enemies. He spun through Soul Sense forms, finding that spiritual battles worked just the same inside solid objects as outside, and broke the opposing Soul Sense apart.

After only moments his tendril emerged on the other side. He could feel the Cultivators hand there, trying to plug the hole through which he came like one might plug a water leak. Even with the weight of his Soul against Nicolais Soul Sense tendril, even with Nicolai having had to push all the way through this rock, he was still unable to hold.

And having his hand pressed tight against the tendril turned out to be a very bad idea when Nicolai activated the Spectral Claw.

Dust rained from the rock as the Claw thrashed around inside, and the round ended.

Nicolai found his lip had risen in a faint sneer. He pulled it back down. It wasnt that he was upset with his opponent, not exactly, even if their strategy had been so pathetic. Everyone had the right to fight as they wished, and in general he enjoyed variety.

But there was something missing. The Dark moved through him, feeling like spiked thorns all through his veins, and he understood.

This fight had lacked blood and death, pain and fear. It craved them in the same way he craved oxygen. Felt deeply wronged that right now the rocky prison was not a rocky grave, filled with broken bones and bursts of blood. In the Free For All, fighting against so many, the constant, frenetic activity had been enough to sate it even though, when he let himself dwell on it, the fact that no one really died made it all feel somehow washed out, pointless.

But this? It seemed somehow wrong that the rock-hiding idiot still breathed air. The Dark pulsed through him. He wanted to kill someone and this competition was ntirely failing to sate that urge.

All of a sudden it felt so pointless, so fake and stupid.

As he rose away, floating in a bubble of blue, he tried to imagine it was a bubble of clean air rising from the depths of the ocean up toward the surface, and he within that bubble. Cool and calm. Soon, soon he would have his fight with Xuejing. Even if he couldnt kill her, it would be better than this. It would be worthwhile. She would give him a true fight. The Thrill lit up a little at that, as it at least didnt mind the lack of blood. All it needed was combat, fast and vicious and balanced on the edge.

The hungry pulse of the Dark still wasnt calming, and he drew on the Angelic energies of the Blade. Just like that the whispering that had begun to rise through his mind was calmed, at last relaxing. It almost felt unfair, that he was able to deal with it so simply. Self-control and sanity with a mere effort of will.

###

Think itll be easy, do you?! Not so, Xuejing! You see, I know all about you, and I know that right now youre afraid! Zixiao spread his arms wide, grinning, but she took note of the redness of his face, the way that vein bulged on his forehead. It reminded her of Puncher Joe, and she knew that he was concealing anger. Wouldnt do to lose, in front of all these people, hmm? Which is just whats going to happen! He flicked his hands, green glows shimmering around them. Im going to take you apart, Xuejing!

He kept on going but the words faded from her attention. Xuejing felt a smile pulling at her lips and let it out, let him see it.

Normally, hed be right. She wasnt sure how hed learned of her weakness, and that was a little concerning. But she wasnt worried about actually fighting him.

She raised her hand and held it level before her eyes. Not a tremble.

Something had changed within her, ever since shed faced Nicolai. Was changing.

Why would she fear Zixiao, this well-frog, when she had a fight with a dragon soon to come?

Her Blades sprang from their sheaths, the countdown ended, and she strode briskly forward. She let Zixiaos chatter break over her like waves on a rock, and had the pleasure of seeing fear creep into his expression as, inexorably, she closed the distance.

###

Hovering over one of the Infiltrator bot's spindly manipulators, a new yin-yang rotation orb completed with a click of energy. Legal regarded it carefully. It was good. The orb was absorbed into the Symbiote, and Legal started on a new one.

It enjoyed the process in its own way. It was interesting to control a body. A proper body, made of metal and components. It supposed it was good, too, to have a Soul, to experience riding it. To see it move to the Modules will. Its only regret was that there had yet to be a need for its true skills. It was starting to worry that this new world might be entirely lawless. But, the presence of a city, and the functions of Heavens itself, were reassuring. If only it could have been around back when Human Resources was making those Contracts, items which it had found extremely interesting.

Still, Human Resources was always pushing, always looking for more. That was good, that meant that there must be a need for Legals skills soon. In a way, it might even be better than back on Earth, under GRECKON. Legal had been a master of the laws of Earth, but after centuries it couldnt deny it had become a little bored. Legal issues were encountered less often here, but when they did crop up they promised to be especially novel and interesting.

Just as it began to work on another Orb, it sensed something. A vibration in the earth. There were many vibrations coming from the mining bots and their constant activities, but this was different. It didnt fit. Had a different sensation, a different texture, one that was passed to Legal through the sensors of the form it rode, and the Locally connected mining bots.

Legal cancelled the creation of the orb, and it turned into a small puff of Oma. It tried to absorb that Oma, as Human Resources did, but it didn't quite possess the skills.

It passed through the cloud, rubber toes pattering silently, reached the edge of the desk and passed seamlessly onto the wall, its manipulators becoming sticky to allow it to grip. Reaching the ground it wove through the base, cameras tracking the world around it.

Legal, like all the Modules, enjoyed new experiences. Being so small was surprisingly interesting. It felt as though it was moving through a world built for giants. The steel bulk of the Assembler reminded it of the greater tower-buildings of Earth. If it tried very hard, it was able to sort-of imagine it was within Zero-Twelve again.

The vibrations it felt grew a little stronger as it rounded the Assembler and stopped before the security door to the mine. It issued a command so the door slid open, and it gave another command to stop the automated cart that was approaching. It passed into the airlock and waited a beat as the internal door closed behind it, then the external opened.

Human Resources measures to prevent ripples from entering or exiting the baseall doors were lined with Rituals. Entering the mines it sped up, struggling a little with the movement of its four legs as it started into a canter. Movement, or Human Resources, were better at this kind of thing. But though Legal had a fairly narrow and typically non-combat focus, that didnt mean it was incompetent. It remained a killbot Module, and had the same generalised level of skill and experience as all the others, just without the addition of the specific combat skills that another like Aiming or Simulations could provide.

The vibrations were increasing in strength, and not just because it was getting closer to the source. What could be making them? Nothing good. If it wasn't a mining bot, then it was something else. And if it was something else, then it probably wasn't friendly. That was what Threat Analysis would say.

Legal arrived at the centre of the mine. Roughly eighty square metres of naked rock, from its low point of view, it seemed like a great echoing cavern. Two mining bots, steadily clawing material from the walls, looked like giants. There were two more further afield. Down one of the bot-sized tunnelsof which there were quite a few branching off from this central chamberwhere a large deposit of Oma had been found.

Now here and feeling the tremors more closely, it rethought the wisdom of going and investigating itself. Instead it focused on its Local connection to the bots in that tunnel, and in a moment had identified the one closest to the source of vibrations. It had that one pause, turn away from the Oma it was tearing from the rock and face the other side of the tunnel. The bot held its sensors to the source.

There was something, some distance on the other side of the rock. No, not somethingsome things. Not robotic. The vibrations were too irregular. And too changeable. Something biological. Something which was digging through the stone, coming right towards them.

Legal didnt need to consult Threat Analysis to know that this was not good.

If an enemy broke through, what did it have to work with? Human Resources and all the others were not here. Legal did not know when they would return. Perhaps these biological miners would not make it through the wall, but Legal wouldnt trust to luck. It ordered the mining bots to halt all activities, because it knew that whatever was making the vibrations it felt might be able to feel the vibrations of the miners in turn. Might even be tracking those vibrations.

Legal thought for six seconds. It only needed one, but, aware that combat wasnt its typical focus, it wanted to make absolutely sure it chose the correct course of action. It knew that if this did turn out to be more than a false alarm, the others would nitpick these decisions later. They were always so quick to treatits thoughtful contributions with derision, even though it offered nothing but top-tier legal counsel. No appreciation, it tutted.

Finished thinking, it ordered all miners to climb up to the Assembler Room, and all constructors to cease work. It ordered them to begin slotting themselves into new forms. All except the two mining bots next to the disturbance. It had them position themselves either side of the strongest vibrations. There weren't enough combat top-halves for all of them, and whatever was coming might be getting here quite soon.

As the two mining bots in the main chamber crab-walked up the ledge, and the construction bots began to swap out their construction top-halves for combat bot top-halves, Legal scuttled on its own path. It wove between the mining bots climbing the path, reached the security door and passed through it, waited impatiently in the airlock for the external door to close while the internal opened, then pressed into the main base.

It headed directly for the mostly-finished mech-suit. Scurried like a spider over the heavy construction, opened the pilot port, and slipped itself in. It connected through wires and interfaces and became aware, extending artificial senses through its now significantly enlarged form. It raised heavy weaponry.

Typically Legal used word and argument as its weapon. But it wouldnt deny that.50 cal and 7.62 held their own undeniable charm, and could be just as capable in swaying a courtroom.

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