Most of the tournament was pretty boring.

Of course, this was expected. Statistically speaking, chances of John encountering someone who was a proper challenge were very low. Adding the realism aspect, the Small Lake Pact couldn’t produce someone like that out of nowhere, since their strongest guy hadn’t even been that hard to defeat for Aclysia. Indeed, the most difficult enemies around were those sent by the Amacat and the Lake Alliance.

That the Amacat was even participating was a bit of a surprise. Corith, a blonde martial artist, had sought out John in advance, however, so he didn’t need to worry about it. Basically, the Amacat wasn’t actually in the tournament. She, as a higher up in the security apparatus, had just asked to be sent over for the chance of owning an island in the area, even if it was for only one year. At level 91, she was pretty capable.

Still, the actual and only real threat around was Jeremiah. Level 212, he was a proper threat to John and guaranteed to have some sort of nasty ability beyond his capability to eat Artificial Spirits. ‘First I encounter Sigmund, who was a different flavour of my Achievements, and now this guy, who is a weaker version of Romulus’ god-eating,’ John thought.

Now, at first glance, being forty levels lower did put John squarely in the disadvantage. It was also likely that Jeremiah’s abilities could at least somewhat rival the bullshit that was John’s six elementals. The more elite his opponents became the more their unique abilities could keep up with John’s. It was logical, talented individuals often started with advantages.

On closer inspection, John’s situation looked a lot less dire. Said gap kept decreasing, but it was by no means non-existent. Six elementals and two Artificial Spirits that all scaled with him were still supremely above most people’s fighting power.

Then the level gap wasn’t even that terrible. For one, because the level system didn’t follow a standard RPG design idea where gaps above 3 could easily lead to defeats due to exponential formulas and steadily replaced gear. Instead, levels were just a short-cut to gauge rough strength. The real question was how Stats looked in relation to one another.

40 levels translated to 200 Stat Points for a normal person. Despite his high level, Jeremiah had not yet broken whatever ceiling increased that for him to 6 points. 200 Stat Points wasn’t nothing, but it wasn’t a massive advantage.

Especially since John wasn’t actually 200 Stat Points behind. He had himself unlocked the 6 and 7 point scaling at level 80 and 109 respectively. That gave him another 151 Stat Points (29 for the levels until the 7 points bonus, 122 afterwards), decreasing the gap by three fourths.

It would probably be worth calculating items into that as well, but John wasn’t naïve enough to assume that Jeremiah’s Base Stats would go unbuffed. If not All Stats, then at least the Stats that mattered. Best to plan with parity in that field in mind. If he was wrong, he would get a pleasantly easier fight. If he was horribly wrong, he would get wrecked. That was always a risk, sadly.

All of that planning was vastly more entertaining than the tournament brackets. Another thing of statistical nature. The closer they were to the beginning of the tournament, the more weak people were participating, lowering the chances to encounter anyone John couldn’t beat up on his lonesome. Most of the time, he didn’t even need magic.

Or he wouldn’t have needed, rather, if he hadn’t been fighting with his eyes open. Kickboxing, as it turned out, was a horribly inefficient way to fight if, halfway through a kick, his body suddenly compensated for a slant that wasn’t there and caused the Gamer to topple over like a domino. That didn’t make him lose, most people didn’t have the damage to chew through his Health Pool in a sensible time. The few he encountered in later stages of the tournament didn’t have the stamina to batter through both Mana Protection and John’s HP.

Stamina was also something Rave could have needed. “You doing fine?” he asked his girlfriend. The tournament had already progressed to the semi-finals. Fights had been going back to back since the morning, ever closer competitors grinding against each other, with minimal pauses in between. Everything was progressing as he had wanted, but he also hadn’t accounted for his girlfriend participating.

“Dunno,” she gave a bit of a worrisome answer, although her breathing was still controlled. Occasionally taking small sips of water, Rave wiped some sweat off her forehead. “Everything feels a bit fuzzy right now. In a good sense.” She gave him a light-headed smile “I like this.”

On one hand, seeing her like this was basically validation that his intentions when making the second phase of the tournament unnecessarily hasty were working exactly as he wanted. On the other, he couldn’t help but continue to be worried. “You got this though?”

“Oh, I got this,” Rave’s smile turned into a smirk and her name got called from the centre of the arena, echoing out of the scattered speakers. With surprisingly fluid motions, she rose and went up to the edge of the viewers’ area, only to then jump down before John could get anymore words in.

“Well, at least her enemy will be just as exhausted,” he thought out loud.

“There is no need to be worried, Master,” Aclysia attempted to calm him down, picking the water bottle Rave had left behind on the bench and putting it into her inventory. “I am certain Jane can handle some exhaustion. I have seen her more out of breath before.”

“Different kind of exhaustion,” John mused, knowing exactly what his maid was getting at. “I shouldn’t worry; Copernicus will keep an eye on her. I think I can trust him that much.” The suncat kept himself isolated at most times. Like every other feline out there, he preferred to only come about when he wanted something. The other way around went often ignored. Luckily, one of the things the light elemental seemed to want was for his summoner to remain victorious and largely unscathed.

There were other things to worry about. Largely the steps of the plan that would follow directly after this. Although he was following the fight between his girlfriend and Corith, his attention was also on the other side of the arena, where Siena was currently hanging about in the shadow of Zensie.

‘I have been here for two days,’ she complained, when recognizing her summoner’s mind. ‘I dislike being bound.’

‘Yes, yes, you much prefer doing the binding or doing the bound,’ John skipped past the innuendos. ‘That aside, it’s not even true, you took a break yesterday!’

‘Short breaks are important if you want to keep performance up,’ the shadow spirit giggled. ‘Long breaks can make things a lot more exciting.’

And they were right back to the innuendos. John really wanted to know what that break had been about, but Siena had firmly shut him out and told him to stay out for the duration of whatever she was doing. As a respectful gentleman, and a pervert that loved most surprises, he obeyed, having a hunch that it was somehow connected to his upcoming birthday. Although that may just have been wishful thinking.

All of that aside, he had to ask the question for which he originally shifted his attention. In the arena below, Rave and Corith began a wild exchange of blows. ’How are we coming along? Is he pissed enough yet?’

‘He is gathering the remaining disgruntled forces, yes,’ Siena responded. ‘While I delight in your ridicule of this shallow man, I do have to admit that I don’t get the reason for it. Aclysia already cleaned up around here, didn’t she?’

‘She cleaned up the idiots, yes,’ John responded quickly, having only waited for someone to finally ask that. The second Siena realized he was about to go onto a tangent, she regretted her question. It was too late though; John wouldn’t be stopped by her feeble mental resistance. ‘See, Aclysia’s approach was direct. She called for everyone who disliked the things she immediately implemented to step up and fight her. Effective at quelling any immediate resistance, for sure, but the second we are gone, the more intelligent dissenters will undermine Fusion’s authority in subtle ways. Don’t forget, we have learned that the second way around here to eliminate anti-culture takeovers in the past were assassinations.’

He was taking a pause, in order to let Siena make a follow-up question or a comment. Instead, the nightmare elemental said nothing, hoping that this whole thing would simply end there if she just didn’t engage with the topic further.

‘Master, may I ask how making Zensie angry with you will cause those dissenters to come out?’ Aclysia interjected into the mental conversation. Unlike Siena, she loved hearing John talk, particularly when he showed how he had once again outsmarted the opposition in some way. While the weaponized maid was also on team pride-watch, she did feel her own bit of satisfaction whenever her master proved he was one hell of a man.

Also, she liked that it annoyed Siena, who mentally groaned.

John’s answer was delayed as he was following the happenings in the arena. The centre had suddenly been consumed by a giant dust cloud. Only when Rave appeared again, skipping backwards in quick leaps, did he take a breath of relief. Siena, on the other hand, giggled when the Lightbearer stepped onto a pressure plate that activated a flamethrower. It wasn’t harmful, but it did look a bit silly.

Then the cloud of dust was suddenly pulled together into a glass spear that Corith chucked at Rave. Through firing up of her aura, John’s girlfriend dodged, using Shift, and consequently bombarded her opponent with laserbeams. ‘Huh, particle mage, haven’t seen that before,’ John thought, immediately recognizing the ability his girlfriend’s opponent possessed. ‘Wonder how long she could have controlled the spear for, considering it melted into a larger unit.’

‘Master, your answer, if you would be so kind,’ Aclysia nudged him along to keep him talking.

‘Right. Simply put, I am using the same strategy we used in New York. Bring the strongest or most likely leadership figure opposed to you to commit to adversarial action in order to have the rest of the enemy coalition gather around them. Difference this time being that I needed to give people a way to actually remove me.’

‘Given that they weren’t even able to murder Aclysia, it seems they aren’t naïve enough to try and assassinate you,’ Siena did come back to the conversation. ‘They should have simply approached me, I would have been really pleased to divorce your head from your shoulders.’

‘You don’t mean that, you adorable shadowlurker,’ John returned, half-mocking, half-flirting. ‘Anyway, this is where the Lake Alliance comes in. Of course, Zensie wouldn’t work with them without a reason. Before I came along, they were the great uniting enemy. I had to give him someone to hate. Granted, he made it pretty easy for me to piss him off.’

‘And what, Master, would you have done if he turned out to be a patient and pleasant fellow?’

‘Absolutely nothing,’ John couldn’t help but shrug, which would have looked pretty random to anyone watching. ‘It’s not like I lose anything if that plan fails. Would just be stuck in the same situation as before. See, the best plans are those where you don’t run into a risk of worsening your own lot in life.’

‘Very wise, Master.’

‘No,’ Siena disagreed in a raspy, still deeply sexy tone, ‘that is not very wise, that is about as basic as nail-ripping is to torture.’

In the fighting pit, Rave disappeared from sight again, this time by storming into a cloud of mist. That she voluntarily went in there made the thing a bit less tense. ‘Anyway,’ John continued on, ‘so far so good, I succeeded in making Zensie take the straw presented to him. Now, the question is which path he is going to take once the tournament concludes…’

‘Since he dropped out last round, he hasn’t been doing anything,’ Siena told him. ‘Just sat here brooding. So quiet. So… vulnerable.’

‘Probably mulling over his possibilities himself,’ John hypothesized as the fight below came to an end. Announced by a minor earthquake, which the Gamer felt pretty firmly in his buttocks, the mist cloud turned mud storm came to a sudden halt. A massive wave of golden light dispersed it further, and Rave came storming out a moment later.

The fight wasn’t decided by any great punch. Instead, Corith ran out of mana mid answer manoeuvre. Both women just stopped moving at that point, with the blonde representative of Amacat giving up willingly after a respectful handshake.

‘Well, whatever he chooses, I come out on top in some way, shape or form… as long as I win this tournament,’ John thought, this time to himself, as he rose from his seat. Both to greet his girlfriend and to get ready for his own fight.

Jeremiah rose on the other side of the arena.