Will’s eyes narrowed as he took in the slightly built girl in front of him.“What better way to settle who’s the better Phantom thief once and for all than a tournament?” Bee said, gesturing to their surroundings where thousands of fans of violence were screaming bloody murder, hoping they would tear each other apart in the arena.

    “I could think of a couple ways,” Will said over the din before cocking his head. “How did you beat Mason anyway?”

    “After he hit me with an explosion I collapsed to the ground and started crying, then when he tried to console me I punched him so hard his ribs collapsed!” She made a tiny fist.

    “That’ll teach him to be nice to girls,” Will said, rolling his eyes.

    “Yeah!” she made a ‘take that’ gesture, shaking her fist.

    “You being here is very inconvenient for me,” Will mused.

    “I don’t care! We’re gonna settle this!”

    Will thought, glancing up at Frederick Wyrd, who was watching Will’s matches with animalistic hunger.

    His mind quickly blazed through the options, reviewing and discarding them at a rapid pace.

    The absolute best way to prevent the Wyrd family from learning about Bee, and by extention, Ria, Anna, and June, was to simply forfeit here.

    There were a couple problems with this: She would advance through the tournament, and the guy might draw more tricks out of her that could only be attributed to a Tangled.

    More importantly to Will’s immediate circumstances, he would immediately be enslaved, which was less than ideal.

    Thankfully her Class had some key exploitable weaknesses that didn’t out her as a Tangled immediately. These were weaknesses that Will needed to perform a test-run on if his suspicions about the attack on the city were correct.

    “Fighters,

    “Hey look at this!” Will said, pulling a cursed ball of brilliant blue yarn out of the container meant to keep the curse from unravelling. Every fiber of his being wanted to keep the amazing yarn for himself, seal himself away with it and play with it forever, but he separated himself from his desires and instead dangled it in front of Bee.

    “OOOH!” Bee gasped, her eyes going round.

    “Go get it!”

    Will tossed the yarn off the arena floor, watching as she broke into a sprint and dove for the yarn, catching it and curling around it before they both hit the ground.

    Will’s heart broke for an instant as someone else got hold of yarn, and his foot made a half step toward Bee with the intention of wrestling it away from her, before he was able to master himself.

    “And the winner is William Oh by ring-out. Because he won without a fight.”

    “DANGIT!” Bee shouted as the cursed yarn rapidly lost its whammy. “I love this yarn, though.”

    By design, Tangled were incredibly weak to mental manipulation, So Will figured that if there were going to be an outbreak, that would be the solution.

    Will went back inside, where the other competitors had formed a loose circle around Alicia Zodiac, drown in by her stunning looks and piercing eyes.

    The metallic monk glanced over his shoulder, spotting Will coming.

    “Shit,” he muttered, whispering to the others, who shied away as Will approached, creating a break in the encirclement, revealing Alicia with a polite smile drawn over her face.

    “How’d you lose?” Will asked.

    “I’m…not sure.” Alicia. “All my shots were blocked, and it switched Abilities faster than I could follow, I guess.”

    “Looking for insider information?” Carrie asked with a sly look as she arrived beside him.

    The frizzy-haired Eldritch Fashionista they’d met on the second floor and discovered Oilton with had arrived on the Fifth Floor, and was doing quite well for herself in the tournament.

    “That was a great fight, Ms. Zodiac,” the Eldritch Fashionista said, turning her attention to Alicia and giving her a gentle handshake.

    “Good to see you again, Carrie. And Summer, it looks like you’ve grown quite a bit.” Will said.

    “Oh, she has,” Carrie said, petting the black blob as it emerged above her shoulder.

    Will could see the parasitic being disappearing beneath Carrie’s collar, the thickness suggesting that the little blob of iridescent black had increased in size five-fold…at least.

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    “I spent an extra month on the second floor just feeding Summer Relics to grow her size before I went back to the Third and pushed on to the Fourth.”

    “I’m glad you survived.” Will said.

    “You and me both!” Carrie said with a crooked grin. “Thankfully, Summer can’t get lung-rot and she helped get me and my Party to Way Station in one piece.”

    “I’m sure if you’d been using your bow you would’ve beat me,” Carrie said, turning her attention back to Alicia, pointing down to her armlet that was inscribed with a shield made of blustery wind.

    “Summer was able to bend your shots using the Wind Shield, but anything stronger would’ve gone right through.”

    “I’m experimenting with the effects of new Abilities.” Alicia said by way of explanation. “There’s something to be said for handicapping yourself to verify the efficacy of your backup plans, rather than leave them untested.”

    “Well said,” Carrie said, before glancing back at Will, who was studying her Relics.

    “You like?” She asked, grabbing her amulet which was an intricate bone carving that appeared to be partially singed. “This one allows Summer to shoot little fireballs for free. Got it on the third floor.” Summer connected to the amulet and sputtered with flame.

    “This one’s from the fourth Floor, and it allows Summer to drain blood to regenerate both of us.” She pointed at a blood-red ring. Summer connected to it and formed a needle-like siphoning appendage.

    Summer made a few demonstrative jabs at the air, lashing out like a scorpion’s tail.

    “Second floor, movement speed,” She pointed at her shoes. Summer went down to her and bound to the Relic. A moment later, oil-slick iridescent black spider-leg appendages emerged from Carrie’s feet, causing her to slide back and forth without moving her legs.

    “Focus boost,” She tapped her headband. “Teamwork boost,” She said, tapping her other ring, a simple gold band. “We technically count as two people in a party, so we get bonuses from that.”

    “And of course, an archetype boosting torso piece,” She said, popping the collar on her ostentatious vest.

    Will thought to himself.

    The way her Build changed drastically depending on her Relics reminded Will of himself.

    “William Oh, Carrie Envar, go to your corners.” An official said, arriving beside the two of them. Sёar?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    “Good luck, Will, I hope I give you a better fight than the others,” She said, offering him a hand.

    Will glanced down at her hand, then back up at her. “I’ll shake your hand afterwards. Nothing against you, just-“

    “No, I get it,” she said with a shrug, withdrawing her hand and wiggling all six of her fingers before Summer withdrew back into her sleeve.

    Will went to his side of the arena and waited behind the door for the official to motion for him to enter. A minute later, the official motioned for him to enter the arena.

    Having done this five times now, the sudden light of noon and the roar of the crowd didn’t disorient him like it had before, allowing him to calmly climb the stairs onto the large stone arena, freshly repaired after it’d been torn up the day before.

    Opposite him was Carrie, the Eldritch Fashionista…wearing an entirely different set of Relics.

    Will chuckled, his expectations for ‘trickery’ already fulfilled, and he hadn’t seen the half of it yet. In many ways, her class performed similarly to his own.

    “That was my Alicia outfit.” She said, seemingly reading his thoughts as she motioned to herself and did a little twirl, showcasing her new torso, glove and shoe slots. Presumably under the gloves were new rings as well. The amulet was tucked under her new robe so it could be anything.

    Headband was the same, though.

    “This is my William Oh outfit. You like it?” She asked sweetly.

    Carrie was wearing an oversized robe with ostentatious beading and large sleeves, and a wide neck that seemed to not make contact with her skin, creating a shadowed area inside.

    The bottom of the robe hid her boots in a pool of shadow that seemed darker than it should’ve been.

    “I’m sure I won’t,” Will said, shaking his head.

    The instant the Announcer spoke, Will dodged to the side, unleashing a cannonball towards the back of Carrie’s head.

    Summer interposed itself and caught the ball of iron, seemingly shrugging off the outrageous force without visible effort.

    Will just let the ball drop, abandoning the strategy entirely. There was no visual indicator to tell him whether or not he was making any progress against her defenses, like Nephir Akul’s shields, so it was best to assume she could block more shots than he could deliver.

    As he was dodging to the side, an extension of Summer whipped out from Carrie’s oversized sleeve and cracked through the air where he’d just been standing.

    Will thought, scrambling to the side and leaping over a sweeping strike from the amorphous black tar-creature, keeping his speed up with nudges from Phantom hand.

    While Will was frantically dodging, Carrie was pulling out a jagged blade whose handle seemed to be carved from bone into an image of suffering faces. That did not look good to Will.

    Stevie seemed to agree as he leapt out of the floor of the arena and yanked the blade out of her hand.

    An instant later, the spirit butler exploded into…whatever spirit butlers were made of as a black tendril whipped through his form at incredible speeds. Will was sure that he was one of the few Climbers in the arena who could even perceive it.

    Billy-bob kicked the blade the rest of the way out of the arena before ducking under-

    A thin line of the arena exploded outward as a razor-thin tendril of Summer went the earth to tag Billy-bob out.

    Will thought, unleashing the Aetherhawk from his glove and instructing it to go high and wait for an opportunity to assist.

    The way Carrie’s expression soured as the ominous blade landed outside the ring, Will could only assume it had been worth it.

    Her rings were hidden under her gloves, each finger bearing the lump of a ‘ring’. Which one was the magical Relic and which were decoys was anyone’s guess.

    Her amulet was covered, shoes hidden by the hem of the robe.

    Only her headband was prominently displayed.

    Will was fairly sure that was a trap.

    Will thought as he watched Carrie draw her spare weapon, the deadly tendrils hidden inside her ostentatious robe.

    Magnus the Aetherhawk was kind of smart, but he wasn’t as quick-thinking as the butlers, so will counted him as more of a tool or distraction than a teammate.

    Will cocked his head.

    Will grabbed the Clay Idol off his waist and shattered it against his knee. An instant later, all he could see was snake.