Despite what they had learned, there wasn’t much Caeden, and co could do about their new information. At least, immediately. After all, they couldn’t go charging up to the Ten Thousand Empires delegation complex screaming about a king that ordered them to be assassinated. Well, they could; it would just be very stupid and a waste of their advantage.

Assumedly, they now had the upper hand against this King Harmon character. They knew he was after them, while he still thought they were helpless kids. Caeden and Lily figured that the more they could get the man to underestimate them, the better. That meant pretending they had no idea someone was out to kill them. Luckily, that was actually simple. They’d just continue on, business as usual. After months on the dragon continent, surrounded by a race that would rather kill them and barely tolerated their presence, a king after their heads seemed almost…mundane.

It was a bit more pressure, but they’d already been told that they might very well be fighting for the future of their country and the lives of millions of their countrymen. Innocent people. The idea of a foreign power threatening them was a constant presence over the last month as they prepared for the Tournament.

“There’s one sticking point in the plan to get King Harmon to underestimate us.” Lily brought up. They’d been discussing scenarios for hours. What if the King attacked them directly? What if he sent more assassins, better equipped to fight through the Heathhome’s defenses? How could he interfere in the events they’d be in, and what should they look out for?

It had ended up being a relatively pointless bit of brainstorming. Realistically, the King presented no greater threat than they were already under. In fact, he was almost a lesser threat if not for his involvement with the Revolution. After all, Harmon was now known to them, a clear and present danger. They were more at risk against an unknown, hidden hand. Like the Revolution itself.

Harmon would be a fool to attack them directly, as their own leaders would counter. He couldn’t interfere with the events, no more heavily than anyone else, as the other countries wouldn’t stand for it. And he had no way of knowing the Hearthhome’s defensive measures, as it was hyper-advanced technology of a bygone era. Ultimately, the King was a man constrained by his position, far more than the Revolution was. If he wanted to keep being a King and not have every other nation knocking at his door to take his head, he couldn’t realistically do more than he’d already done.

Caeden could almost laugh. He knew, for a fact, that a King was gunning for his head, and the most ridiculous part of it all was how little that changed his current situation. How far he’d come from a hermit ethersmith, hiding from the world in the middle of nowhere.

“What’s the problem?” He asked.

“Well, we’re also trying to absolutely stomp all competition in every event. How are we supposed to do that while remaining low-key?” She asked.

Caeden contemplated that for a moment because it was a very good point. Standing out and hiding their power were basically antithetical. But if they wanted the King to underestimate them…Caeden’s mind drifted back to his recent thoughts. “...Do we need to?”

“Need to what?”

“Do we need to be underestimated? This conversation has gone in a loop for hours, with us just continually running into the wall of ‘he can’t do anything to us’ over and over again. I was just thinking about it, and it genuinely seems like this King Harmon is not the problem we need to be worrying about. I’m more concerned with the Revolution making moves on the magnitude of working with a foreign King. As far as I know, they’ve never expanded to other countries before.” Caeden explained.

Lily looked like Caeden had smacked her over the head with a brick. “I…I mean…But how?...It really feels like this should be more important than it is.”

“The knowledge is definitely valuable, but the most noteworthy part is the Revolution, not the King.”

Lily sighed, seeming to deflate. “It feels like a foreign power directly threatening our lives should be more impactful.”

Caeden shrugged. “We kinda came here knowing that in the first place. It was always a possibility. Now it's a reality. But we were always prepared for it, so it doesn’t really change much. The Revolution is far more concerning.”

Lily nodded thoughtfully. “It's convenient, honestly. I don’t know how much the Headmaster could help us with King Harmon, but he should be much more able to handle any Revolution interference. Though he can’t overplay his hand. After all, simply decrying a foreign King as working with a terrorist organization won’t just go over easily. He’d need a lot of proof. Especially considering how little weight other nations would put on the thought of an unshrouded rebellion. The only surefire way to get them on side would be to reveal how much damage they did to the CA. That’d definitely get them all against the Revolution, but it would likely also open them up to attacking the CA as well.”

“Yup. But if they’re here, we have an opportunity. We can show they’re a threat without putting the CA and, more importantly, its citizens in harm's way.”

“How do you plan on pulling that off?” Lily asked.

Caeden shrugged. “Beats me. But it seems like a reasonable plan, don’t you think?”

Lily laughed. “Reasonable. You want to somehow undo the plans of a group that nearly toppled a nation in such a complete and public way that every other nation, who are bent on destroying us, decides to attack them instead. That’s what you want to do.” Her face was covered in a deeply skeptical, slightly amused expression.

“Well, when you put it like that-'' Caeden started to backtrack, feeling a bit embarrassed. But Lily interrupted before he could finish.

“Yeah, sure. I don’t see why not.” She smiled, skepticism gone. “We’ve already done it once. Frankly, our abilities fall so far outside what normal shrouded can do, we might have a shot. I mean, between Galaxy, Physical Enhancement, Age, Necromancy, Soul, Binding, and Healing, we have some of the most powerful domains I’ve ever heard of. And that’s not even talking about what we can do together. Cat and Erik cut off a man’s shroud, as ridiculous as that sounds. I have no idea what we could do if we truly put all our domains together.”

“Wha-” Caeden sputtered, thrown by her complete turn-around. “But you just said-”

Lily giggled. “I was joking. Honestly, Cae. We’ve done so many ridiculous and impossible things already; it's becoming a habit. What’s one more?”

Caeden started laughing along with her. “I wasn’t expecting that. Well, if you also think we have a shot, then I’d say we do. Now, let's get planning.”

{}

Looking at his competition, Caeden couldn’t keep a smile off his face. Altogether, Caeden and Lily had come up with the bones of a plan to draw out and deal with the Revolution. Unfortunately, they were lacking in information. The assassin sent after them had known a lot about his contractor but very little about the Revolution. He didn’t even know their name, believing them to be a simple weapon merchant, and a single man, at that.

That left their efforts in limbo, more or less. They couldn’t make any moves without knowing more, but they were working on that. In the meantime, they had to do what they’d come here to do in the first place. Crush all competition and embarrass every other country to the point where they wouldn’t think of starting a war with the CA.

And that’s where Caeden was, at his first event. After the opening ceremony, there was a surprising lack of fanfare associated with the first few events. The youth combat matches had started everything off, but Caeden wasn’t slotted until the next day, nor were any of his team. The main events, deprived of their combat tournament until much later on, started with even less impact. All of the generally more ‘exciting’ events had been held back in much the same way.

Asking Damon about it, Cat had found out that the country leaders held a series of meetings during the early parts of the tournaments, so the events they were more invested in were all set to take place after they were free. It left the opening few weeks as a rather anticlimactic series of side events.

And that was where Caeden was right now. Event: Bonded Monster Slaying Speed Trial. There were a lot of events associated with bonded or constructs created by shrouded. Constructs being manifestations created with a specific set of instructions, like Caeden’s thorns, but more complex. Cat’s spectral soldiers were a closer equivalent. The difference between a construct and a monster could border on semantics, depending on the complexity of the construct, but they were generally simpler than a bonded monster, which was very close to a living, independent creature.

Caeden had not entered any construct events. Although he used them often, they were more supplemental to his own attacks or extensions of himself more than autonomous entities. And while there were events involving them, he didn’t feel he’d placed enough focus on constructs as a whole to be confident in sweeping the events. He’d be playing his hand, showing his combat abilities, without a solid chance of winning.

By contrast, Caeden was quite confident in winning this one. Especially after he and Lily had looked over the CA’s records of previous version of the event. The Bonded Monster Slaying Speed Trial focused on a shrouded sending out a single bonded monster which would attempt to kill as many monsters as possible within a previously determined area and within a time limit.

Under those rules, the type of monster they’d be hunting would essentially define the event. And the record indicated that nine times out of ten, the monster chosen would be small, fast, and highly evasive. It fit the speed theme of the event, requiring the bonded to be equally fast.

The reason why Caeden was smiling at his competition was because all of them seemed to have struck on the same strategy that many previous generations had. A reasonable idea, copying what worked before was usually a quick route to victory.

All the other competitors, five in all, had fast, mobile, small, bonded with them. Essentially, matching the challenge at the same level. A fast and small bonded for fast and small opponents. Again, a fair strategy. Often, the zone set up for the challenge included lots of rough terrain and small hiding places, things, and a slow or large bonded monster would struggle to navigate as they hunted.

Caeden wanted to laugh. This really wasn’t fair to any of the people here, and he would feel bad if securing a win wasn’t so important.

“Are you ready, buddy?” Caeden asked, extending his arm to look at the red-maned, golden-scaled half-dragon wrapped around his arm. Noodle had exploded in growth, and Caeden was glad he’d worked with his uncle to sell some Grandmaster-level items and buy a literal mountain of monster corpses before they’d left for the Tournament. He was equally lucky that Cat was willing to shove them all into her Shadow Storage spell. Noodle’s appetite had grown in lockstep with his transformation, assimilating some of Caeden’s domains.

The dragon, now over three feet long and wound around his bicep, over his robes. His tail, with its brilliant tuft of crimson fur, whipped through the air, matching the excitement and raw hunger streaming in from the half-dragon through their bond. He was more than ready. He was practically salivating.

Moving forward, Caeden joined the limited assortment of other participants lining the railing. Past it, the green orichalcum of the Tournament city dropped off, revealing the black stone that Baserock was originally formed of. It dove until reaching a new level, a dense forest covered in a deep mist sitting in the bottom of the pit, hundreds of feet down and several miles across.

The proctor moved forward. “Everyone present?” He looked down the line with a lazy eye before letting out a jaw-cracking yawn. It was very early in the morning, the Pillar’s light barely returning from the dull glow of the night. “Looks good. OK, go.”

He waved his hand and walked away. Caeden was thrown for a moment, as were several others. Though most were fast to recover, three sending out their bonded with only a second of hesitation. Caeden watched, amused, as the rest followed, leaving only him with Noodle still curled around his arm.

The dragon watched the other bonded go with longing in his eyes, looking rapidly back and forth between Caeden and the first below, his four-toed paws tap dancing across Caeden’s arm in anticipation. His forked tongue flickered out, licking his scaly lips.

“Ok, ok. I get it.” Caeden laughed. Thrusting his arm out, he simply said. “Eat.”

Noodle needed no further encouragement.

Exploding off his arm, the dragon’s scales pulsed and glowed with purple light. Suddenly, the three foot Noodle was a gargantuan dragon over twenty feet in diameter. He spanned more than two hundred feet in length, rocketing down toward the forest below, flying at unbelievable speeds for a creature his size and letting out a roar that shook Caeden’s bones.

Every other participant whipped around to stare at Caeden’s, admittedly impressive looking, bonded. There was a flash of fear before one of the others, a man covered in black from head to toe and wearing far too many belts in nonsensical locations that denoted him as a member of the Dread Federation, snorted.

“Nice, but that giant monster is going to struggle getting the Pixieflies. They can slip through the branches with ease, while your behemoth will have to break his way through. Good luck.”

Caeden resisted rolling his eyes. “You did see him grow to that size from about three feet long, right? My bonded can freely adjust his size.”

The man paled, his confidence crushed.

“Besides,” Caeden looked down into the pit. “That won’t be necessary.”

Everyone immediately turned to watch as Noodle opened his cavernous jaws just before reaching the forest. A brilliant blast of crimson, a dense breath of blades blasted out, scouring the forest to the roots and pre-dicing everything as Noodle flew in, sweeping up the debris in his jaws and swallowing it down.

The proctor squawked in indignation, all signs of sleepiness leaving in moments. “What is that thing doing?!”

“Killing the monsters,” Caeden stated calmly as Noodle carved another path of devastation through the forest.

“He’s destroying the stage!” The proctor cried.

“I know. It's not against the rules. I checked.” Caeden didn’t even bother looking at the man. He’d triple-checked the rule book before deciding on this strategy. It played into Noodle’s newly developed skills and showed overwhelming force. Two birds, one stone, and all that.

The man spluttered indignantly before stomping off to get a rule book. He shouldn’t have bothered. Noodle would be done clearing the entire stage in only a few minutes.