AA. 194

Selia struggled to focus on the fight. Her eyes kept drifting to Nil. He was the perfect partner but not a perfect fighter. His martial skills were excellent, but felt disjointed. Nil had developed several new constructs, weapons, and techniques over the past few months, but they didn’t always combine well with his default fighting style. He only displayed true fluidity with the knuckle daggers. But now, as he fought the scuttlers and the other Void entities, he seemed perfect, tireless, unstoppable.

Something felt off. Wrong. But she struggled to put her finger on it. The chaos of battle also made it impossible to focus on the matter. Selia had to simultaneously keep anyone from sneaking up on Zora and also take out the more annoying targets that stayed out of Nil’s reach. It was harrowing and tiring. 

If it were up to Selia, she would’ve hung back and targeted another team, but the party disagreed. They worried that waiting would’ve lost them their lead. It was possible, but they’d have one less opponent to face later. Selia personally believed that the secret to winning the competition was not in gathering as many points as possible but in getting rid of the competition.

Her attention once again drifted to Nil. The way he often glanced at Shawn instead of focusing on the enemy felt weird. Nil trusted his companions and usually concentrated on completing his role well, only letting himself get distracted to check on the team’s more vulnerable member—Zora. Meanwhile, Shawn was the most secure member of the party and well out of the way of the battle.

The tear in the sky had started to knit itself closed, and the monsters were struggling to break free. Nil’s Source weapons and Expend blasts reduced their numbers by the second. 

A giant scuttler leaped over Nil and charged at Zora. Heavy armor protected its front, and the mage's projectiles damaged it but failed to penetrate. The plateau didn't provide enough room to dodge, but Zora finally used her staff's mechanical grappling hook attachment. It helped her avoid the charge but not the tentacles that burst out of the monster's back and grabbed at her.

Selia came to the rescue. She only had to press her hand against the monster and phase shift. Both of them sunk into the ground. Once it was deep enough not to be a threat, she used Weave-taught techniques to push against the surrounding surface and move upwards. Then her Bronze Realm ability kicked in, and she picked up pace, using Energy Echo to gauge the threats above. When she exited the ground, Selia shot several meters into the air, her soul weapon ready to take out another opponent. Then, her eyes fell on Nil.

A giant circle of devastation lay around him. He looked more beast than human. It wasn't just because of the sludge and gore that covered him or the knuckle daggers that jutted away from his arms like a pair of scythes. He had sprouted a giant lizard tail made of the same crimson energy. The technique wasn't supposed to be ready. Nil hadn't planned on using the technique because of how energy-hungry it was. He squatted, pressed his tail against the ground, and then leaped using three appendages behind the jump. Nil didn't go for any of the Void entities. His target was Shawn.

“That's not Nil!” Selia screamed through the communication badges.

“What?!” Her teammates echoed.

Nil knew Selia would see through the deception. In the Glimmer’s credit, it put on an incredible act. Zora and Shawn would be fooled, but he trusted his girlfriend would figure it out given enough time. She seemed to have suspected it before they started the challenge, but it took her a few extra minutes to figure it out. Nil just hoped it wasn't too late.

It was like sitting in the cinema and watching himself wreak havoc live. Except he couldn't get up and leave. Seemingly endless blackness surrounded him, dotted by sections of Void lights. Solid silver violet—or an alien variation of the shade—tethered him in place. It was like being under the effects of Lucy’s gravity, except psychic constructs held him to the non-existent ground. The light that formed them was the same as that of the Glimmer that had captured him.

It took him by surprise as he exited the biomechanicals lair. Nil had paused to admire the lights. What he didn't realize was that the structure on which he stood was only stable because of the mech-hives' slithering chords supporting them. It collapsed, and he was too tired to react in time. He had settled for relying on Absorb to survive the fall and then setting off afterward. Unfortunately for Nil, he landed just within a Void light where the rules of time and space didn't seem to matter. He tried to retreat, but the ground stretched, and countless steps didn't get him to his destination. Neither Expend nor Toggled Supercharging did as he instructed. Somehow, he pushed to the edge and was almost out, but that was when the Glimmer found him. Since then, he had been a prisoner in the space within his mind, and it had puppeteers his every move and word.

Nothing Nil did since made a difference. He had screamed, yelled, and tried to tap into his abilities, but nothing worked. Questions like whether infusing more energy into supercharging psychic fortitude would've mattered, but none of them mattered. Only Energy Instinct seemed to function. He felt the energy coursing through his body and how the Glimmer used it more masterfully than him, even utilizing techniques he had practiced but didn't deem good enough for live combat. The surrounding creatures’ signatures and the pulsing tear above were also clear. 

Nil could sense the Glimmer’s as it attacked Shawn. It had spent the entire fight looking for the perfect window. It had no intention of killing his friends. The entity wanted to welcome more of its kind into the world through the tear, possess everyone, and return to Earth to spread the Void’s influence.

A knuckle dagger sliced through Shawn's barrier like butter, destabilizing it and ensuring no explosions followed. The right arm blade went for a leg. Much to Nil’s relief, a sunmetal chain went around the puppet’s neck, and Selia yanked it backward. 

“It must be the Glimmer,” Zora said through the badge. “Contain him if you can, Selia. I’ll take out the stragglers.”

“Got it.”

Selia had long believed that Nil had surpassed the party. He was a perfectionist and only brought more powerful techniques into the battlefield if they met his standards or there was no other option. The crimson tail was evidence of such. Chaos Tail, he called it. Nil believed it was not stable enough to use as a weapon or tool, but Selia saw no diffusion, and Energy Echo deemed it absolutely perfect.

As Selia’s Glimmer-possessed boyfriend turned his attention to her, she couldn’t help but feel impressed and terrified. The tail acted as a perfect bludgeoning and grappling tool, nearly knocking off her feet or grabbing a limb. Crimson lightning also danced off the knuckle daggers, forcing her to retreat. Selia doubted phase shifting would keep her safe from the violent energy, and avoidance was her only option. With no care for life or hesitation holding him back, Nil was a fluid killing machine approaching like a murderous whirling dervish. He destroyed the Sunmetal chains, the terrain, and the obstacles.

“Wake up!” Selia screamed, drawing him away from Zora and the tear. It pained her, but when Nil tried to reorient and go for Shawn again, she slashed his back. The cut wasn’t deep enough to cause permanent or major injury but enough to draw his attention. “Please, wake up.”

The endless attacks only seemed to get faster the longer Nil focused on Selia. He slashed, stabbed, blasted, and whipped, using every tool in her arsenal. Every movement was precise and measured. The Glimmer wasn’t chaotic. It was careful. The entity was creating the perfect opportunity to strike. Unfortunately, it found one.

Unlike Nil, Selia wasn’t an endurance fighter. She practiced slipping in and out of combat, finding unaware foes or catching them off-guard. The constant bobbing and weaving drained Selia, pushing her endurance to her limits.

Finesse has progressed to Silver 7!

It wasn’t enough. Selia faltered. She tripped and staggered. In such situations, she’d usually drop into the floor or leap through a wall and flee, catch her breath, and attack from another angle, but that wasn’t an option. If she gave the Glimmer the opportunity, it would go for Shawn again. The entity’s intentions weren’t hard to figure out. It hoped to leave the rift open so more of its kind could enter the world. She suspected the entire team had become targets for possession. 

An Expend blast knocked the spear out of Selia’s hand. A lick caught her gut just as she was about to phase shift and knocked the air out of her lungs. The blow rattled her entire body, and she struggled to focus on her abilities. Phase shifting was instinctual, but her energy stores were drained, and her focus faltered. When a knuckle dagger came for her defensive outstretched arm, Selia was sure the limb was as good as lost. It flickered and went out. Nil completed the movement, but there was no blade to accomplish the dismemberment.

Selia failed to catch her breath but gathered her wits enough to drop through the floor and get a moment of respite.

“Yes!” Nil celebrated, and the bindings holding him in place seemed to weaken. He had done it. Energy Instinct was a potent tool and tied to his cultivation. In fact, the ability started him on the journey. “Take that, fucking photon brain.”

Nil had interrupted the flow of energy to the Chaos weapon just as it was about to strike Selia. Even though the Glimmer seemed better at using the fundamental energy techniques than him—or utilized them more instinctually since they were Source entities—it needed a moment to recreate the blade. Once a Chaos construct was destroyed, it took a moment to recreate, and he successfully gave Selia the opening she needed to retreat.

The Void Lights in the distance swirled. They seemed to move closer. Edges of the screen showing a third-person of the puppet attacking his friends rippled, and more tethers snaked their way toward Nil. He could feel the display trying to disappear altogether.

Nil screwed with the circulation of energy and pulled everything inward toward the core. The screen stabilized as an enemy force fought him. The Glimmer seemed to have a standard setup of its inner space. Nil imagined it liked to torment the captured psyche by showing the death, torture, or possession of companions, friends, and family. Deviating from it while also maintaining full control of a prisoner wasn't easy. The Glimmer needed to choose between maintaining control over Brutal Battery’s energy and the Source and denying Nil information.

The puppet tried to leap at Shawn next. A standard empowered leap would grant the height while the tail was essential for control. Nil failed to pull back the conjured appendage’s energy, but he successfully sorted the Balance encasing the Chaos and ruined the stable shape. The tail turned gelatinous and elastic, losing shape under the puppet's weight.

Serpents of indigo light reached Nil and added to his bindings. One went around the neck and squeezed. The weight on Nil's body, projection, mind—he didn't know what to call his current state—sharply increased. Hands and knees weren't enough to hold him up, and he fell flat on his stomach. However, his chin pushed against the ground, and he refused to look away from the screen.

Nil discovered not long after the possession that physical resistance was a waste of willpower. He only did enough to ensure he could watch the puppet's actions and interfere whenever necessary. The Glimmer's control seemed to be weakening. Nil didn't know whether it was his refusal to give up, cultivation prowess, and enormous Spark potential, or the specimen wasn't particularly good at its job, but breaking free felt possible.

Do I need to break free? The Glimmer is sentient Source. Right?

“He’s fighting it!” Selia exclaimed.

Nil had started strong, but his Source constructs were beginning to malfunction. Blades flickered and went out. The tail struggled to maintain its shape and rigidity. The Chaos sphere had refused to grow past the size of a ping-pong ball. The Glimmer’s control over Nil’s body hadn’t faltered. The barrage as attacks continued. They just weren’t deadly like when the fight first started. 

Selia wielded her soul weapon in its sword-length form. It allowed her to wield the Sunmetal Chain in her off-hand comfortably. She used it to tangle her opponent’s limbs. The lack of stable soul weapons meant she mostly needed to block physical blows and avoid Expend blasts. Fortunately, her phase shifting was effective against both. However, her energy stores were running low, and she needed to find a way to end the confrontation swiftly without inflicting permanent damage on Nil.

“Just knock him out or get the surrender tattoo!” Zora ordered. “The arena construct will purge the Glimmer. Nil’s Mind attribute is too low. He’ll never break out of it.”

“I’m not giving up on him! We’ve almost finished the challenge. We can do this!”

“You’re wasting time!”

Shawn closed the tear almost on cue. The team had already eliminated all the ranged attackers and spell casters. Only solitary giant scuttlers charged around. They were slow and easily avoided. Even Zora, the slowest member of the team, didn’t have trouble getting away or tripping them by conjuring weapons on the uneven ground and pushing weapons out of them.

“The challenge won’t end unless we take care of Nil,” Shawn stated. “I think. Let's see if knocking him out works.”

Angry alien words burst from Nil. He abandoned his attempts at taking down Selia and charged at the team’s guardian, fresh energy weapons forming. He didn’t just create a pair of knuckle daggers but sprouted similar curved weapons out of his elbows. The end of the lizard tail also sharpened into a spearhead. Crimson lightning danced from all but the last of them. 

The constructs flickered for a moment but then solidified. Nil seemed to have lost whatever ground he had gained. The Glimmer’s rage reinforced its control, and it rapidly sliced through all barriers Shawn threw up. The reinforced longsword struggled against the Chaos constructs. The translucent layers wrapped around the blade’s length cracked and suffered chips, but they seemed better suited for blocking Nil’s conjured weapons.

Selia couldn’t tell whether her boyfriend’s martial skills had always been better and his unwillingness to cause unnecessary injuries to other humans held him back or the GLimmer just made him better. Nil swiftly got the upper hand on Shawn. She returned to the fray after catching her breath. 

A powerful tale caught Selia’s midriff just as she was about to wrap her chain around Nil’s neck. She had hoped oxygen deprivation would knock him out and mark the challenge complete. Nil kicked Shawn in the gut after breaking through another barrier with an Expend blast from the foot, pushing him back. Then, Selia became the focus of all rage. After all, if not for her, the initial surprise attack would’ve put Shawn down and kept the tear open.

The Sunmetal Staff went flying out of Selia’s grip. Then, the conjured blades moved like scythes, attempting to remove the head. She phase-shifted, hoping the lightning wouldn’t do any damage, but Nil froze. Four blurry skeletal arms had emerged from Nil’s sides. The energy diffused rapidly, and they seemed to struggle to stay stable. They wrapped around the flesh's arms, binding them in place. What surprised Selia the most was that two of the arms were made of indigo instead of the standard red.

The color seeped into all of the Source constructs, and Nil’s eyes moved erratically. Jaw clenched, and fingers spasmed. His eyes flashed indigo, and then his body went limp. She caught Nil before he faceplanted.

Team Forge has completed the third gate challenge and may continue to the next section of the arena. The team has eight hours and fifty minutes of compulsory rest next.

Since Team Forge was the first to reach the gate and complete the second gate challenge, no subsequent sections will open until their rest ends.

All team members have earned 4 Schema Tokens and 100 Credits.