Kai eyed the ruins of tall buildings and domed halls from afar, hidden within the black and green shadows of the jungle as if he was a part of it.
He had arrived here an hour ago. Since then, he had seen one or two Candidates darting out of the wilderness and heading to the ruins, thinking no one could see them. Kai wasn't just any no one.
11, Kai recalled the count. 3 are still spying on the ruins like me from the outskirts, waiting to see a hint of a trap.
He leaned back and slumped down on the branch with his backpack on his lap and swords on his side, standing like three sentinels with the brown, flaky wall of the trunk behind them. Even then there was enough space left for many to sit leisurely on either side, such was the thickness of the branches of this humongous tree.
Kai took out his Tablet and tapped on the Points Tally.
1. Tablet-89: 67 points
2. Tablet-55: 33 points
3. Tablet-47: 31 points
77. Tablet-3: 1 point
33 Candidates are already dead or gone, Kai analyzed. Haha! Not everyone can handle bad Luck like mine. And those who have yet to get 10 points would soon leave the Tournament as well.
Kai liked the idea of using their Tablets' numbers for ranking, but not so much as his top ranking itself.
After killing the Yautja, he recalled, he had used Pokedex to store their data. The only thing was that, unlike Pokemon, he couldn't see their Stats other than their name. One such name had surprised him then.
Facehugger, Kai remembered. The Systems didn't mentioned it. Nor is it present in the list of species.
But it didn't take a scientist's brain to conclude what this thing was —
It has come from the egg, Ovomorph, Kai had reflected. So it must be some in-between stage of evolution from the egg to the Warrior Xenomorph.
The only question that had troubled him was how many such stages there were that gave no points on killing them. Not to mention, he couldn't even get to operate on it, as it had exploded, splattering acidic blood everywhere.
Kai had also noticed how the Pokemon had been forced to remain in the outside world, despite the obvious death of its trainer. Then, after careful deliberation, Kai had tested the potency of this acidic blood using the metal shuriken, which the Yautja had thrown at him and he had fended it off with Murasame.
He hadn't liked the results then, he didn't like them now.
If the swords were to remain in that blood's contact, Kai reasoned, then they wouldn't remain swords for long.
But Kai needed blood. Not for him, but for his sword, Afro's Tachi.
He needed to bathe the sword in his enemies' blood after killing them using the sword to enhance its Base Damage. These were the conditions of Sword's Skill Ruthless Ritual.
For the same reason, he couldn't have used the blood of the Young-Blood Yautja, as it was Murasame that had planted the last kiss on that creature, not Afro's Tachi.
After noting his findings on the Tablet as drafts and taking pictures, a thing he had decided to make a habit of from now on, he had continued with his journey with the grotesque corpse on his shoulders, trying to distance himself from the battle site as far as he could.
Grotesque it was, Kai thought, smiling, but it wasn't unappetizing at all. If only I had taken out my box of spices from the MRB before coming out of the Pod, then I could've truly enjoyed that fucking lizard's roasted arm.
The single arm had invigorated him profusely, but other than that, it had brought him nothing.
Selene, though, was a different matter altogether. He had chopped up the vast reptilian body of the Yautja and had thrown the pieces in different directions to hide the existence of his Ghost Basilisk. If he could afford it, then he would rather not let his audience know about her.
After devouring her food, she had gone into a false hibernation. He could feel her squirming inside him like a lazy child refusing to get off the bed well past the afternoon.
One strong simulation and it would push her grade up, Kai reflected. Blooded Yautja. Yes, I must have its corpse. Without knowing how hazardous Xenomorphs' acidic blood is for her, I rather not feed her entities of that species.
In contrast to the existence of his magical creature, Kai hadn't hidden his swords and fighting style to lure bigger fishes from the top floors. He just hoped he would garner some attention from Contestants of the 9th to 12th floor.
Loner and demon as he was, even Kai didn't think that he could manipulate empty air for his benefit. For that, he needed men and women; strong Contestants, who were interested in him or his Items.
Otherwise, what was the point of the Tournament of Worth?
Unlike his counterparts in this Tournament, he was one of the few who knew that there was no Glitch award waiting for him at the end. The individual stages' rewards were well and good, but on a greater scale, they weren't enough.
Kai sighed. His eyes again fell onto the Tablet and his 67 points.
He had encountered 37 more of those Ovomorphs from his dinner site to here.
Every single one of them had been cut in half before the Facehuggers could have come out and lunged at him.
Kai had been extremely curious to just sit and experiment on those things, but time and place weren't in his favor. Then there were eyes on him, watching his every move from the Primordial Tower.
He'd rather not show every weapon in his arsenal to them other than his raw, ruthless fighting capabilities.
So here he was, and it was now time to make a move.
As he sensed the last three Contestants heading towards the ruins from three different directions, Kai noted the time, climbed down, and leisurely walked on a straight path, just hoping for his bad luck to make him encounter another Yautja.
When Kai entered the boundary of the ruins, his Perception picked up blatant signs of murderous threats from his surroundings. Surely there were Contestants watching all the incomers and were spying on them.
None had come like Kai, though. That was plain.
Kai's every step spoke one word — Careless.
Yet, it was this carelessness that baffled the watchers, sweating their backs. These were hard Contestants, and their uncalled misfortune of 3 Luck had made them harder.
To see a fellow unlucky Candidate coming as if he was walking in a park brought out their fury.
Kai chuckled, feeling quite amused.
He didn't need directions to know where he needed to go. The Tablet's map had such precision that it had shown him even the interior of the building from where Tablet-47 had shared his location.
He climbed up the stairs of a multistory building covered in vines and rotten shrubs and entered a hall with broken stone columns.
14 Candidates were already in the chilly hall with its gray and red walls, and as he crossed the threshold of the entrance, 2 more entered through the window, bringing the total count to 17.
"Time's up," a soft voice called, hidden within the crowd. "Thank you for coming here, friends."
Kai saw a tall woman coming forward from a corner.
She was hiding it, but such subtle hints weren't difficult to be noticed by trained eyes and brilliant minds. Kai surely noticed it, his narrowing as he realized the truth behind her presence.
A Contestant from the 5th floor!