“Hmm.” Caeden hummed. He had felt a crawling, creeping sensation run across his aura. It was unfamiliar, unlike anything he’d ever perceived. It had almost blended into the background, considering how much else he could feel. On the arena floor with the other countries’ delegations, those nations' leaders and founders weren’t shy with their auras.

Caeden could feel a dozen different auras roughly invading his own. They weren’t bringing out their full might, as that would have easily crushed him. But they were definitely putting their foot down on the necks of everyone in the arena.

Strangely, he found himself thinking that this should have been harder than it was. The amount of invasion pressure leaning on him should have been harder to resist. But it wasn’t. Maybe that had something to do with Sharp. He had managed to surpass 90% integration just before they arrived. Hopefully, he was now seeing the fruit of that improvement.

Caeden’s efforts to increase his shroud integration had been successful to an explosive degree. Just as lowering soul damage became harder to decrease the lower it got, it seemed increasing integration became easier the higher it was. He’d flown through the last 15%. He expected the next 10% would be a cakewalk. According to the extradimensional researcher, he’d receive a massive increase in power once one of his shrouds reached that critical threshold of 100% integration.

It was his newfound resistance to invasion that let him notice the creeping sensation rubbing along his aura. Interestingly enough, he felt it sweep over him and completely miss Noodle, who had decided to come along to the opening ceremony, only to fall asleep in Caeden’s robe. The little half-dragon was wrapped around his arm with his head on Caeden’s shoulder, all under his robe and out of sight.

Caeden was occupied thinking about the unsettling sensation and zoned out for the rest of the ceremony. It was mostly the One Shroud priest droning on and on. Representatives from each country talked for a minute, but nothing else happened. Lots of pomp and circumstance, but overall just a bunch of talking.

As one, every delegation left the way they had entered, the ceremony complete. Matches in non-combat competitions would begin tomorrow, and the youth combat tournaments would begin in a week. Those tournaments would be interspersed throughout the other events leading up to their finale, and the main combat tournament would follow after. Caeden and Lily assumed that the gaps for the youth tournaments were so large to keep the interest of the countries’ leadership.

“From here, all of you are allowed to act as you wish. Just know, those from other countries will be looking for any opportunity to find fault with you. I would strongly suggest being on your best behavior and only acting out when you know yourself to be stronger. Considering the majority of the shrouded here are stronger than you at your young age, assume that will never be the case.” Damon had pulled aside the Academy students, letting the main delegation members go and do as they pleased.

“There are exceptions. Caeden, Lily, Erik, Asherta, Cat, and Victor. Each of you has managed to close the gap between yourselves and the majority of unskilled shrouded in just a year. Those that are part of rival main delegations will be stronger than you, but most of the citizenry here to see the events are not your equal. The exception to that being anyone from the Fire Kingdom. Their people only allow warriors outside their borders, so anyone here from that country will likely be your better. You may act with slightly more confidence but remain cautious. The rest of you, I’d consider just staying in your rooms. You’ll be able to enjoy the Tournament of Powers another time when you can worry less about such things.”

Caeden already knew all of this. Lily’s studies had been thorough. Generally, the Tournament of Powers was a wonderful event where citizens of other countries could come together for a brief period without any conflict. Obviously, there were some tensions and fighting, as shrouded were prone to do. But for the average person who wasn’t a part of the military, it was calm.

That same mentality did not apply to participants. Literally. The rulers and leaders of sponsoring countries, those that had called for and paid to have the Tournament take place, were also responsible for the safety of the normal civilians that joined the event. For anyone to die would place them in a difficult position, calling into question their power and authority.

This protection didn’t extend to event participants. After all, they were supposed to be the strongest and most skilled of their nation. They should be able to protect themselves. Or so went the stated reasoning. Historically, Lily had found that the lack of protection was an open attempt to assassinate powerful members of other countries’ forces.

It was a gamble. All the rulers were betting that their warriors could survive other nations’ assassination attempts while their own would make it through. They bet on their warriors being stronger. No nation had ever challenged the policy because closing off attempts on their own people would also make attempts on enemies much harder.

Caeden and Lily had agreed that they were all stupid and more likely than not to get innocent civilians caught up in the crossfire. The Central Authority had mandatory military service for all shrouded and universal education. All of their citizens had at least a base level of competence, even if the vast majority of them hadn’t finished all five years at the Academy and done their military service in a logistical or support role.

That wasn’t true for other countries. The Ten Thousand Empires limited their fighting forces to specific casts of shrouded. Long lineages that fought while others pursued crafts and other activities. Many of their citizens had never been in a battle at all.

The CA's records of previous Tournaments focused on the events themselves. Still, even they contained multiple instances where participants were mentioned in a tournament only to never show up in their next match. No mention was made about what happened, but considering the context…

It didn’t seem too common. Or at least, successful assassinations didn’t seem to happen often. The main delegation of a country was their most powerful fighters, after all. Any potential assassin had to be around the same level for any modicum of success.

The youth division was, again, the exception. No one would expect a thousand-year-old shrouded to have trouble taking down what was essentially a child. Humans across the Starry Sea were considered adults once they hit 18, but that was nothing to a shrouded.

Hiding was the primary defense. No one said you couldn’t come to the defense of a fellow countryman if you saw they were under attack, and the lodgings they were being housed in was more of a complex containing all the dignitaries from the Central Authority. Including the Headmaster and the Central Council. So, basically, any assassin trying to sneak in was asking to die.

Caeden and his friends would be taking a slightly different tact. After all, the Hearthhome was docked overhead. It was far more spacious and comfortable than the rooms afforded to them at the CA complex., which wasn’t to downplay how luxurious those rooms were. They had stopped by to take a peek, and they were nice. But the Hearthhome was still better, considering all the amenities offered by the ancient technology within. Plus, it was equally well-defended. Caeden and Lily had gone over the protective measures the old ship offered. It was truly impressive.

With all that in mind, they decided their personal vessel was a better resting place. Though Erik and Cat were a bit bummed about missing out on all the festivities. Cat’s plans on mixing and mingling would have to wait for another time.

Once they were back on the ship, Caeden questioned his friends about the strange sensation he’d felt.

“Yes, I felt it too.”

“Nahh, but I’m terrible at that.”

“Yes, definitely. Super pervy vibes the whole time. It was creepy as hell.”

Cat and Lily both had, so Caeden assumed Erik had undergone something similar, but didn’t notice. “What do you think it is?”

“Some form of more advanced observation, likely from a domain. I can’t imagine normal aura senses feeling like that. It seemed to reach past what a normal investigative sense could derive.” Lily answered, as he’d been looking at her.

“I don’t know.” Cat hummed, almost talking to herself. “If it was a domain, I think I would have picked up on it.”

“Why’s that?” Caeden asked.

“Well, whenever someone activates their domain, I can feel it on the soul plane. Since all my aura senses are routed through Soul, I can feel stuff most can’t, and using a domain kinda lights up a shrouded’s soul in a way that basic infusion or aurora skills don’t. And I didn’t get a lick of anything the whole time.”

“So, someone with incredibly advanced investigative sense?” Lily confirmed.

“I mean, I could be wrong.” Cat hedged. “But that’s what I’d guess.”

“Predator eyes.” Asserta jumped in, surprising everyone. “Gaze filled with harm. Wanted to test, see if we eat.”

“Eat?” Lily asked.

“Less than him.”

“Oh, I think you mean weak.”

“Yes!” Asherta clapped her hands. “Weak! Predator wanted to see if we weak. Looking at everyone, could feel it lots. But we more than predator expect, look more at us. Surprise. Fear. Cabbage.”

“Cabbage?” Lily asked again.

“Very, very angry.”

“Um. Rage?”

“That!”

“How do you get cabbage and rage confused?” Caeden muttered.

“Angry plant, very gross. Makes me mad.” Asherta, with her excellent hearing, picked up his whispered comment. “Cabbage and rage, same thing, kinda same words.”

“I guess I can see it.” Erik nodded.

“Only you would clearly understand the link between a food you don’t like and blind rage.” Caeden rolled his eyes. “So, someone, likely someone important, took a look at us and didn’t like what they saw. Sound about right?”

“Big, strong predator. Very angry eyes.” Asherta nodded rapidly.

“Well, that’s unfortunate. We’ll have to be even more careful than we thought.” Caeden sighed.

{}

Jonas chuckled under his breath. His king had assigned an easy task, paying far more than it was worth. Of course, circumstances had bent more than a little in his favor. His king had placed him in contact with a weapon merchant who held very useful items. One of which was a device that neutralized his aura, making it invisible to other shrouded.

Another was the cloaks he was wearing. It did not render him completely invisible, but it camouflaged him. If he moved slowly, it was very close to true invisibility. Together, no one would be able to see him, not without a modification domain that granted great powers of observation. A rare skill.

His greatest stroke of luck came from the fact that his targets had foolishly chosen to stray outside their country's complex. Jonas was a skilled assassin, specializing in the kind of single-target, high-damage attacks necessary to instantly kill a shrouded. But even he would have struggled to kill four, even semi-competent shrouded, without being noticed by the titans residing in that complex. Damon Vestigious was a feared name; one Jonas had no interest in messing with.

But his targets, five youth division representatives from the CA, had foolishly chosen to stay in a small personal ethership. Maybe under normal circumstances, they would have been fine. The etherships were valuable and relatively well guarded because of it. In most cases, the cost of hiring someone of a high enough caliber to pass those defenses would have not been worth their lives.

Somehow, these five had managed to warrant that cost from his king. Jonas didn’t know why, nor did he care. Those in his field understood the phrase ‘ignorance is bliss.’ Learning too much was liable to piss off his client. So, Jonas learned as little as possible. It had been a policy that saw him surviving over 5,000 years in one of the most dangerous industries on the Starry Sea. He’d say it was a good one.

Approaching the ship, Jonas noted that it was not a design he was familiar with. Then again, these kids were from the CA, home of the ethership. A custom model would be much more affordable there than anywhere else. However, it did provide some uncertainty, as he wasn’t familiar with the vessel nor any defensive measures it might have.

Jonas leaned on his investigative sense, honed over millennia specifically for trap-seeking. Surprisingly, it came up blank. He would have expected something. Most ethership had a certain level of defenses against unwanted boarders. Then again, it looked to be a small luxury vessel rather than a military ship.

He shrugged. Well, an easier time for him.

Stepping up onto the ship, Jonas’s aura sense lit up like the Pillar right before billions of volts of electricity surged through his body. His shroud tried to push back the unexpected attack, but it was overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude.

Jonas blacked out.