CHAPTER NINETY TWO

The two friends stared at the white portal for a moment. Jason was totally lost in his thoughts, and he suspected that Danny felt the same way. There was no way they could make a smart decision without knowing more - Danny and the BAG Guild had never made it this far in the tournament. From this point onward, they were acting on their own.

Jason activated his scanner and received additional information.

Bonus Portal

Description: This item will automatically teleport you to the contestant who is closest to a Paranoid Parachuter.

Jason frowned.

What an interesting game mechanic...

It offered a great risk in exchange for the potential of winning the match right away.

A portal that directly teleported someone to a target would be pretty unfair. Instead, this portal would allow them to teleport to an opponent closest to a target. That distinction made things much more difficult.

It was impossible to say what would happen.

They'd probably get a jump on the other contestant, who wouldn't expect someone to appear out of a thin air. However, neither Jason nor Danny had any idea of the situation they'd be walking into. For example, the portal could take them to the middle of a giant battle. After all, the Illusionists had many Grunts defending each of the targets. The closer a player was to a target, the more likely it was that they were in danger.

Jason turned to Danny. This wasn't a decision he wanted to make himself. The portal was too much of a mixed bag. It might be safer for them to double back and play things slowly. There were still two other corridors for them to check. The one Castor passed through didn't seem very promising, but the scorched tunnel wouldn't be too bad.

"What do you think?"

Danny groaned.

"Man, I was just about to ask you."

Danny paused for a moment, then nodded.

"I think we should do it. Our strategy was to avoid enemies, but if the enemies are right next to the target, we got to go for it. Think of it this way - we have no idea how long we'll be wandering around if we double back. In fact, we probably will run into enemies either way."

Jason nodded. Danny's logic was pretty good. It was a risk to rush straight toward an enemy, but it was also a risk to play too safely.

The two machines stepped into the portal together and promptly found themselves falling through the air.

Jason had been warped roughly a thousand feet above the water. He'd crash and hit the sea in just a couple of minutes.

"What the hell?"

They'd been teleported right out of the castle. Jason's eyes widened as his Mech started falling like a brick.

A hungry killer whale Hemoborn repositioned itself so that it was right beneath him. The giant Mech's mouth opened wide, revealing a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth.

Jason couldn't fly, but fortunately, Danny could. The Angry Duck streaked towards him.

"Grab my legs! Grab my legs!"

Danny's Mech had built-in weapons on both arms, so he couldn't grab Jason. Jason had to grab hold on his own.

Metal creaked loudly and the Angry Duck briefly swerved downwards. Unfortunately, the armor meant that the Red Minerva was too heavy for Danny's machine to carry comfortably. The Angry Duck was an offensive machine rather than a transport like Steven's bulky Mech.

The two machines were still steadily falling. Jason activated his thrusters, and the move gave their pairing just enough thrust to stop falling.

Danny turned back to the castle, but Jason shook his head.

"No. We can end things here."

A pair of squid Hemoborn emerged from the sea. The tentacles slid out with barely a ripple. The twisting appendages each had a large rifle at the tip, and countless bullets streaked towards Jason. The blasts clanged against his Antigone armor, sending him jerking through the air.

However, Jason ignored the enemies. In fact, he actively shifted so his Mech would stop every attack from hitting the Lucky Duck. His armor could hold out against attacks like these. That was the great benefit of upgrading his machine.

The squid's attacks weren't going to kill him. He'd been much more worried about falling into the sea, and now that Danny had grabbed onto him, that wouldn't happen.

By now, Jason realized what was happening. Their team could win the match on the spot if he played correctly.

The portal had promised to take him to the closest enemy machine near a parachuter. However, that also included players who failed to kill their targets. It seemed like one of the players had spooked his target into jumping. Normally, the Parachuter would safely descend into the sea. Due to the risk of pursuing, most players would give up.

This player had done differently.

Instead of giving up, they'd leapt out of the castle in order to chase the Parachuter. That reckless attack had inadvertently dragged Jason and Danny along with him, but the chaos was also an opportunity.

Jason quickly searched the seas, then found what he was looking for.

"There! There!"

Danny nodded as soon as he saw them. It seemed like the portal hadn't brought them directly to the enemy. They'd only been launched into the vicinity.

Just around the corner of the cliff, two Mechs were engaged in a furious battle.

The Paranoid Parachuter was descending very slowly. The jet-black machine was thin and spindly to the point that it almost looked like a stick figure. The Mech's entire purpose was escaping, so there was no need for it to hold any weapons. All of its credits were placed on defensive items. The parachute at its back was built out of very thin metal rather than fabric. Instead of free-falling, the machine could control its descent with the built-in thrusters. On top of that, the Mech's defenses were stellar despite its thin frame. The parachute also created a powerful spherical barrier that deflected all attacks.

The other player was doggedly attacking the durable machine but to no avail. The loud whirring sound clashed against the waves. The machine's shape was totally surprising and unlike anything Jason had ever seen before.

He immediately understood the whirring he'd heard earlier on the map.

The other contestant was using a machine that looked like a giant top. The machine's attacks inevitably reminded Jason of the Beyblade series. It simply rammed its opponent over and over again, spinning rapidly as it ground away at the Paranoid Parachute's barrier. Just like the Parachuter, this machine had no problem flying through the sky.

Jason had never seen a build like this before. The jet black mech was a perfect sphere and no arms or legs. A single blade rotated rapidly around the machine, spinning at an absurd speed. The gleaming blade shone bright pink every few seconds. The circular blade was built out of a special Eternium-steel alloy. The combination of magical and mundane materials created one of the hardest substances on the Overdrive barrier. However, it was also linked to an internal generator inside the Mech. Whenever the top mech struck the Parachuter's shield, the blade was instantly surrounded by a layer of beam particles. The compounded effect led to significantly increased damage, but it still wasn't enough to break the barrier.

However, the top Mech was strong enough to keep the Parachuter from escaping into the sea. It hounded the Parachuter, refusing to give it any opportunity to escape. Although the barrier blocked attacks, the skinny Parachuter was still affected by the momentum of its opponent's blows. The top would simply bump the other machine back into the sky if it ever got too close to the sea.

Jason turned to Danny.

"Alright. Let's get going."

As the two friends slowly flew toward the two clashing opponents, they gradually put a plan together. The combined strategy would use both of their Mech's strengths.

Jason detached both beam rifles from his Antigone Armor and held them in his hands instead. He raised and aimed them, then charged up his Pestilent Snipe. Although he'd readied his weapons, he didn't fire.

Meanwhile, Danny raised his Angry Duck's broadsword. He still hadn't gotten the perfect roll this match, but his reforged machine had better options now. The two of them calculated the maximum amount of burst damage they could inflict, then waited.

They needed to wait for the perfect time. If he attacked now, they'd draw too much undue attention. If they revealed themselves, the top Mech would account for their attacks. The pilot would fight to get the last hit after the shield expired. If Jason and Danny stayed calm, they could just let the top Mech do all the work for them.

Kill stealing was undeniably a scumbag move, but sneaky tactics were encouraged in the Tournament of Assassins.

They gradually worked into range, then waited a moment. When the first gaps and sparks started appearing in the barrier, Jason and Danny knew it was time to strike.

First, Jason detached the Antigone Armor, firing it out in a wide arc. Instead of using the heavy plates of metal as a weapon, he simply self-destructed the pieces as soon as they fell off of him. Jason waited until the vulnerable base Red Minerva frame was outside of the explosion, but the flames seared the Angry Duck and knocked it forward.

The explosions served two key purposes.

Firstly, the self-detonation stopped Jason from losing the valuable parts to the Salvage Rule. The items simply reappeared in his inventory. In addition, the close-range explosions charged up the Angry Duck's searing sword.

The Parachuter tried to flee as soon as it heard the explosion, but to the pilto of the top Mech's credit, they remained doggedly on the attack. It knew that the ambush was coming, but it also saw the best line of play.

It bumped the other machine high in the air, then waited.

The top Mech wanted to bait Jason and Danny into striking first so they could finish the machine off.

Unfortunately, the two friends had enough to kill the Parachuter in a single blow. Jason fired his Pestilent Snipe right as Danny slashed with his charged-up blade. The Angry Duck's ability was identical to the original Searing Anger. As soon as the broadsword landed on the barrier, it blasted out an enormous wave of crimson energy.

The shield cracked just in time for Jason's hyper-compressed bullet to shatter the Paranoid Parachuter's cockpit. Without the powerful shield, the base frame had no durability whatsoever. There was nothing the top Mech could do. Jason could almost imagine the pilot gnashing their teeth in frustration before returning to the castle.

The machine exploded and a notification appeared on Jason's screen.

Congratulations! Your alliance has qualified for the final round!