The next thing to deal with was all the stat points that I had achieved, considering those now seemingly needed to be added to my stats manually instead of automatically through the system. 

I'd managed to grab 7 new stat points in total, though considering things like Strength and Speed were already at 750 apiece, it didn't really feel like that amount of stats would really do much to improve my abilities.

Nevertheless, I decided to plug four points into strength, and three into speed. Any increase in ability was a positive one, even if it only seemed to be slight. 

With that taken care of, I walked back over to where Akash was still sitting. 

"So, just you and me left then," I said, plonking myself down next to the tree-like alien. 

"Indeed," Akash grumbled in return, not even turning to regard me. He was clearly deep in thought, worried about the fight that was yet to come. 

I couldn't blame him. If our assumptions were correct, Lara would want to make the biggest splash possible. That would mean taking out the two people who had made it to the top of the tournament, the two strongest contenders currently trying out to become members of the Guard. 

Take them out then who do the people have to rally behind? Who do they have to believe in? Who do they have to hope to save them?

That was Lara's master plan here, I was sure of it. She was going to announce her return and then send a new hybrid, or an army of spider-hybrids to come and finish Akash and me off. If she managed to do both of those things at once she would totally and utterly crush the morale of the entire Guard stationed on the planet, and the morale of the people too. 

The Null-Space invaders would swarm over this world as if it were nothing, even though it was supposedly one of the best-defended worlds in the entirety of the galaxy. 

"Worried?" I asked. 

"Are you not?" Akash countered. 

"Of course I am, I'm honestly terrified," I said. "The chances of us actually coming out of this, of us actually managing to defeat not just Lara but also her army of Null Space Invaders, and probably Human backup as well is close to none. But despite that, I'm going to give it my all out there. I'm going to believe in you, and I'm hoping you're going to believe in me too."

"I am not Yr'Arl, I will not be placing my faith in you," Akash dismissed, turning away once again. "But yes, I will… believe… in your abilities to hold Lara off." 

Akash must have been more nervous than I was giving him credit for. He wasn't attempting to insult me, and he wasn't attempting to big me up, he was just somewhere in the middle barely even reacting to what I was saying. Considering what he had told us about what he had been through on Lara's ship, as part of her experiments, I wasn't surprised. She had utterly destroyed him then, and chances were she had only gotten stronger since. 

I clenched my fists, I wasn't going to let that happen to him again. We were going to defeat her, if it was the last thing we did. 

<It probably will be the last thing you do… or attempt to do, anyway,> BB said, forcing a cocky lightheartedness into his tone. I didn't need to remind him that if I died he'd be dying too. 

I wasn't even sure if I'd end up being reincarnated again if I died at this point. Would trying to stop a maniacal murderer on a planetary scale be considered living a worthwhile life, even if I ended up failing? It might be just enough to tip my worthiness over the edge, and I wasn't sure I liked the idea of passing on to whatever the true afterlife was so quickly. 

My thoughts were cut off by the familiar white light of Squadron Leader Belana's teleportation whisking us away. I let out a deep breath as we rematerialised in the battle arena. This was it. The moment we had been building up to for the entire day. The battle against Lara was about to begin. 

"Ladies and gentlemen at home and in the audience, we've finally made it to the finals! Will the human Jacob Lyre, the only one of his kind make it through to be our victor in this tournament, or will the victory go to the last of his kind, Akash the Eldrani?" His voice rang out. "It's going to be a majo-"

And then Squadron Leader Belana's voice was cut off in a bloody gurgle. She'd gone for him first, taking him out before he could teleport anyone away. No one would be getting to safety so easily. 

"Sorry for the break in your scheduled programming," Lara's voice rang out across the stadium, "I'm afraid to say the reports of my death have been greatly overstated, the Squadron Leader's though, not so much." 

There was a sudden tinkling of smashed glass, and then the thud of a body as the remains of Squadron leader Belana hit the floor, his throat cut. 

"Basically, I'm still alive… and basically… well, start running." 

There was another thud, this time from Lara herself. The green-eyed elf-eared alien crashed down in between myself and Akash, wearing the same shadowy robe that Akash had described when he had told us about what he had been through. 

Screams started up in the audience of the stadium, as in a series of flickering white flashes Null Space Invaders were teleported into the stands, their claws slashing anyone they could get close to. I didn't think they could be teleported due to their manna absorption, but clearly Lara had done something to facilitate it. 

"Why are you doing this?" I yelled out at her. "What could possibly be the reason for all this killing?"

"Oh poor naive little Jacob, still completely out of the loop," Lara taunted, her eyes mad and wide. 

In the end, it didn't really matter why she was doing it. All that mattered was the fact we were going to stop her.