CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

After transforming his partner back into its new Red Lamia form, Jason slithered through the trees towards the final meeting point.

He'd already dealt with both minor teams.

It was time to intercept the major team as it relayed information to its subordinates.

Unlike before, there was no need to move at top speed.

Before meeting up with the two minor squads, the major team first needed to meet with their replacements to confirm the location of the new camp.

For Jason's plan to work, it was critical to wait until the major team received that all-important information.

The experienced pilot smiled to himself as he maneuvered into position.

His earlier ambush had been brilliantly executed. His advance knowledge of his opponents' plans was invaluable.

Now that he knew where the major team was arriving, he could use a similarly elegant plan of attack. He could plan and execute another perfect killing.

The key difference was the larger group.

He couldn't simply replicate his earlier attack.

He could only kill two machines at a time with the Pestilent Snipe. He couldn't kill four.

The time required to charge up a second bullet or get into melee range would allow the other team to call for help.

Jason needed to control all of his opponents at once.

For that...

Jason clapped his partner's hands together.

The Red Minerva and the Red Lamia could use the other machine's respective abilities. However, there would be a thirty percent damage debuff.

The Red Lamia's lengthened and rifled throat allowed the creature to compress its stomach acid into a far more powerful Pestilent Snipe.

Similarly, the Red Minerva's larger muscles and humanoid form were more suited to the Blazing Avarice's striking attacks.

But this time, Jason was using a pure utility item.

The lowered damage wouldn't pose any issues.

BLAZING AVARICE: GORGON FLAIL

When he pulled his hands back apart again, the Gorgon Flail had emerged in his right hand.

A blazing gorgon's head with smoldering eyes swung on a tiny chain around a stick of pure flame.

The Gorgon Flail looked more like a talisman than a real weapon in the Red Lamia's long arm.

Of course, that was exactly how Jason planned on using it.

Next, he descended from the treetops, moving until he was just barely outside the dog's perspective range.

After that, he simply waited until he heard the telltale padded footsteps.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

The dogs were here again, and this time, there were two pairs of four footsteps, not just a single set.

Jason carefully wrapped his tail around a vine.

Then, he leaned forward and ordered his partner to bite a lower branch as hard as it could.

Chomp.

Thwack.

The tree branch fell to the ground, landing right in front of the enemy squadron.

The group of four acted instinctively.

All of them looked up towards the source of the noise, right as Jason fell towards them with the blazing Gorgon Flail held before him.

The Gorgon Flail was a very powerful item.

However, it was limited by several key factors.

The range was short, and victims had to look directly at the item for it to have any effect.

But in this case, Jason had guaranteed that everyone would look at him.

In addition, the Gorgon Flail's temporary stun effect blocked the enemy Mechs from taking any actions, including calling for help.

Jason dismissed the Gorgon Flail, and the burning item dissipated into smoke.

He jiggered the Red Lamia's arm, and the trusty Ghostfire Dagger emerged from his wristband.

Slash!

Jason's first move was a simple direct attack at the first frozen watchdog. He needed to prioritize killing the animals due to their loud barking.

The stunned Hemoborn was helpless against Jason's direct blow.

The dagger went straight through the machine's eye, passing straight through and obliterating the brain cockpit.

Stab!

Jason's next move was a fluid continuation of his forward movement.

He reared up, pulling himself back into the air with the Red Lamia's serpentine tail. Then he descended again, allowing gravity to aid his strike as he slammed the Ghostfire Dagger straight through the second dog's back.

This time, he wasn't aiming for the cockpit.

Once again, he wanted to keep a Mech relatively intact. After all, Jason needed to gather the new headquarters's coordinates.

Just like before, the dog died after the direct attack to its heart. The reverberating backlash obliterated the pilot in the brain cockpit.

Next, Jason had to deal with the Kingbreakers.

Jason allowed his partner to fall completely from the trees.

The great snake wrapped itself around the first Kingbreaker Bandit, and Jason jabbed ferociously at the machine's cockpit.

Clang.

To his shock, the Ghostfire Dagger failed to pierce his opponent's chest.

He cursed.

That was a Kingbreaker for you.

Their defenses were stellar. The Mech was frozen in place, but it still had its powerful armor. Normally, a simple Grunt Mech would die in a single hit from the Ghostfire Dagger.

On top of that, the Red Lamia was weaker at physical strikes than the Red Minerva.

Jason had only used the snake mode because it was far more adept at ambushing opponents from above.

The Red Minerva couldn't hold onto the tree branches while activating the Gorgon Flail.

However, Jason had no time to shift back into a more suitable form. The three-second shift would give his opponents time to call for reinforcements.

He had to make do with what he had.

The Gorgon Flail was powerful, but the locking effect was limited.

His foes wouldn't be sitting ducks for much longer.

If he didn't kill them soon...

Jason immediately went for his next option - flame breath.

A cave dragon's breath weakened substances so they could climb through the earth. The Red Lamia's breath had the exact same properties.

Jason doused his opponent with a concentrated blast of corrosive flame, then swung his Ghostfire Dagger again.

This time, the blade passed through.

The Bandit Kingbreaker spasmed as the double hit reverberated through the Mech, then it collapsed senselessly to the ground.

However, Jason wasn't out of the woods yet.

The last machine was steadily returning to life, and Jason couldn't kill it in time before it could call for help.

The veteran pilot frantically pieced together a plan, then struck.

Instead of going for the cockpit, he wrapped around the enemy machine and bit off its communications system.

The vulnerable megaphone and transmitter crunched in the Red Lamia's jaws, and then the cave dragon's iron stomach promptly dissolved the items into an acidic puddle.

The Bandit Mech stumbled forward and shoved Jason backward.

It'd regained movement.

As for Jason, he promptly yanked off the relatively intact guard dog's head before retreating to the safety of the trees.

As he stared from the branches, he pressed down on both his triggers to charge up the Pestilent Snipe as he waited for his opponent's next move.

For a brief moment, the other pilot still seemed dazed.

Jason had a bit of sympathy for him.

After all, Jason had just put him into an utterly bizarre situation.

In the span of mere minutes, Jason had dropped from the trees before killing three members of the major team.

The other pilot had gone from total safety to total danger in a single instant.

Anyone would be surprised.

However, the Grunt pilot's training quickly returned to him.

The Bandit Mech began dashing away at top speed.

It couldn't call for help with its megaphone.

The pilot's only option was to warn an ally in person.

Jason hurried after his opponent, lopping from branch to branch as he charged his Pestilent Snipe to full strength.

After about forty-five seconds of pursuit, Jason fired at his opponent's back.

Thunk.

The other Mech crashed senselessly to the floor. The shot had blasted cleanly through the pilot's torso, leaving an enormous hole where the cockpit had once been.

The pilot had died instantly from the sheer concussive force of ultra-compressed stomach acid.

Excellent.

It'd been a little messier than expected, but Jason had eliminated an entire patrol group.

Of course, that three-team group had been only one of several patrol groups.

The enemy bandits still had plenty of additional troops.

In the grand scheme of things, there were four groups sent out each rotation.

Each monitored a single cardinal direction - north, south, east, and west.

Presumably, those bandits had run into the other players.

Jason hadn't found a single enemy player in his area. He'd only run into the maps Grunts.

As Jason started downloading the dog's data with another neural upload, he checked his radar screen.

His ally was still steadily making his way towards Jason.

Despite the Mech's greatly increased striking power, it was still slow. On top of that, the need for stealth cut its speed even further.

Jason shrugged.

The other player was of no concern to him.

Jason had done all the work himself, and he wouldn't feel guilty about killing the King of Thieves alone and leaving his partner of convenience behind.

The most important thing was killing the target as soon as possible.

Kill stealing was extremely common in the Tournament of Assassins.

Players only advanced if a member of their alliance killed the enemy Mech.

There were plenty of stories about players who'd brought the target down to one percent health only to see victory vanish before their very eyes.

Ding!

Jason's board lit up.

NEURAL UPLINK COMPLETE

Jason quickly pulled open his map and synced it up with the enemy data. He double-checked the results one last time, then nodded.

The new bandit camp was located in the center of the northern quadrant of the map.

Jason once again shifted back to his Red Minerva form, then dove into the dirt.

Like before, he was careful to cover up his tracks the best he could.

Although he had killed all the other guards, a new rotation had already replaced them.

The new rotation would find the corpses before long.

Jason's best bet was to reach the enemy as soon as possible.

Intelligently mixing his awakened cave dragon's two forms was the key to maximizing his combat potential.

The two Mechs had the same foundational strengths, but it was up to Jason to maximize their specific niche strengths.

Jason dug faster and faster, streaking through the earth just like before.

He glanced at the slowly moving dot on his radar screen, which had changed direction to match Jason's new movements.

Come to think of it...

Now that Jason was underground without any enemies nearby, he had time to think strategically again.

As far as Jason could tell, the other player had dealt with him honestly.

He'd even openly revealed a critical weakness of his machine - the fact that it had a long start-up time.

However, that didn't mean that Jason would go out of his way to protect his ally. The other player hadn't actually done anything for him. So far, he'd only provided excuses for standing around.

In the end, only a single player could win the Tournament of Assassins - members of the winning alliance were forced to fight each other for the tournament prize at the end of the match.

Jason didn't understand the other player's ability to dramatically increase their strength, and he didn't like battling against opponents with mysterious powers.

Considering the other player's inexplicable strength, moving onto the next round without him was Jason's best option.

While he wouldn't kill the other player on purpose, Jason didn't want to hold his hand to the next round either.

After reaching the northern quadrant, Jason began slowly climbing back to the surface.

Unlike before, he moved slowly and steadily instead of allowing the Red Minerva to ravenously devour the dirt.

If Jason had to guess, the caution was likely unneeded.

The ground was very firm.

There was hardly any chance that the Grunts would sense Jason's reverberations.

In fact, most players probably didn't even know that it was possible to dig through the forest. Few Mechs had the tunneling abilities of the Red Minerva.

However, Jason didn't want to take any risks.

Jason had acted very efficiently so far. He'd gathered information from the major and minor groups at an extremely effective rate.

The key to this map was balancing the speed of the other assassins with the need to remain stealthy. Jason's speed had been excellent. As a result, he was willing to spend a little bit more time on secrecy.

He proceeded to the surface as conservatively as possible.

He listened carefully for any approaching footsteps before popping out.

Once he did, he ducked for cover behind a tree before transforming back into the Red Lamia.

The cyborg snake woman leapt high into the trees.

Mere seconds later, Jason heard something that made his heart stop.

Footsteps thundered through the forests.

The watchdogs barked and barked, screaming at the top of their lungs.

Jason's first instinct was that he'd been discovered.

He clapped his hands together.

BLAZING AVARICE INITIATED

Then he clenched his teeth and cancelled his attack.

Activating the Blazing Avarice would be one of the biggest mistakes possible.

The flame-based weapons system would instantly give away his location. The spark of flame would illuminate the Red Lamia hidden in the trees.

Under normal circumstances, activating the Blazing Avarice wasn't much of a risk.

Most players wouldn't look up and see him.

However, the sheer number of enemy players meant at least somebody would notice.

Once one member of the approaching army saw Jason, all of them would know he was there.

His only chance was to keep hidden.

He entwined the Red Lamia tightly against the tree, hugging onto it with both hands.

The Red Lamia was a dark burnt red instead of brown, but Jason could only hope that the colors were indistinguishable in the dark of night.

Thump!

Thump!

Thump!

Thump!

The sheer sound of the enemy group had been scary enough.

Actually seeing them in person was terrifying.

The Tournament of Assassins was a truly difficult stage.

Initially, Jason had expected a total of sixty-four Grunts on the stage.

Each scouting party had eight members, with four in the major team and two in each minor team.

Four scouting parties were sent out during each rotation, making a total of thirty-two.

Jason had assumed that the scouting bands rotated every time, meaning that a group worked every other shift.

Instead, over a hundred Mechs stormed past Jason.

Jason's keen eyes quickly counted at least sixty dogs. There was the same number of bandits.

The Illusionists were a truly illustrious guild, and plenty of new players wanted to join their ranks.

The infamous tricksters were throwing everyone available at the challengers.

Jason cursed.

What the hell was going on?

How had they found him?

His first thought was to blame his ally, but then he glanced at the map.

The blinking dot was still making its way towards Jason.

The pilot had even sent several text messages.

"I'm coming!"

"Wait up!"

"Didn't want to shout in case you were doing something!"

Jason frowned.

It didn't seem like it was him...

It had to be something else.

The enemy team might have found the corpses by now, but the army shouldn't have known that Jason was already here.

Jason had been careful to hide the fact that his Mech could burrow through the ground. On top of that, nobody should have anticipated the Red Minerva's extreme speed.

But then, the massed force stormed clear past Jason, and his suspicions were answered when gunfire blazed through the forest.

The mass of bandits and dogs had found their enemies.

From the sound of it, they were fighting a medium-sized group of at least three machines, likely more.

The furious exchange of beam arrows and heavy gunfire continued for a moment longer before being replaced by the sound of crashing footsteps as the far smaller group broke and ran.

Jason let out a sigh of relief.

Every attacker on this map had a guilty conscience. They were always worried that the guards were coming for them.

That fear had almost baited Jason into making a terrible mistake.

Fortunately, the posse had been going after somebody else entirely.

Jason smiled.

He'd been wondering what had happened to the other group.

Evidently, they'd been a little too confident in their large numbers. They'd gotten sloppy hiding their tracks, and now it was their turn to be overwhelmed.

Jason knew that such mistakes were often fairly common in the early rounds.

The situation had worked out perfectly for Jason.

The competition had gotten eliminated without him needing to lift a finger.

Even better, their demise had given Jason valuable information.

The enemy team was simply too large for him to try and fight them head-on. He had already prioritized stealth, but now he knew that operating in the dark was absolutely mandatory.

Of course, the biggest benefit of seeing the army leave was that Jason knew that the King of Thieves was now largely undefended.

And so, lopping from tree to tree, Jason began to descend on his recently abandoned target.