Chapter Two-Hundred-and-Four
Natalia frowned. “Why me?” she asked as they were going back towards the arena.
Diwa and Chien shared a glance.
“Do we need to state the obvious?” Chien replied.
“Couldn’t Adam just pretend to be a non-magical fighter?” Natalia suggested.
“They would absolutely figure it out,” Adam replied. “Not to mention, the collector knew I was a blood mage just by looking at me. If we get disqualified, then we lose our chance to take out the intruder, and we’ll have to do something horrible for Alexander.”
“What?” Chien asked.
“He’ll want us to snuff out the true flame on the wall and in the Old Town church,” Adam said. “It has something to do with him believing the Forlorn King won’t kill him, because he’s been helping his power grow. Also, I’m fairly sure he’s the one who’s responsible for the forlorn intruder getting into Gothershall in the first place, but I don’t know how.”
“Shouldn’t we just kill him then?” Natalia suggested.
“It would be a great way to fuck everything up, since he’s one of the most important people in the city,” Adam replied. “It doesn’t matter though, because you’ll be able to defeat his champion. Just make sure you kill him. The tournament format is first blood, but Alexander will bribe the announcer to ignore if his champion gets hit. For the other fights, you only need to draw blood, so it can be grazing strikes. We want to keep as many of the other fighters alive as possible, since they’ll help take down the intruder.”