[MA] 284. I Wasn't Informed (Patreon)

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[Chapters this week: 1/3 (the counter was wrong in the last chapter, sorry!)

Next release: Thursday]

As promised, everyone was notified that they could kill each other.

| You're now participating in an official battle royale. Infighting won't be considered treason until the battle royale ends, no matter how much harm you may cause anyone.

Shen suspected things wouldn't be that simple. It would be foolish and counterproductive to let people go free after doing what they were supposed to be punished for. But if a scheme was running deeper than this, it was also not in the leadership book.

He never doubted that someone would act before Uya gave the word. He even felt thankful for the idiot, one of the living trees, because it showed how the freezing would go.

The living tree looked like a wooden human grown from a sprout. That was visible from how their bark looked. They also had thinner and slightly longer limbs than usual. Shen could see that the Laws in their brains were similar to a human's, meaning they likely had a flesh brain, but the Laws in their "blood" differed. They seemed a perfect blend of man and tree.

If they had different sexes, Shen couldn't detect any signs. The attacking tree wore the most common armor for their race, which looked like a ragtag of wooden and metal plates held together by something like slightly molten plastic. All such armor was brown, black, and green, suggesting they valued harmony with forests—or stealth.

Their gauntlets had openings from which they could grow wooden objects in an instant. The Junior Lieutenant had fought with a staff produced that way. It seemed to come with natural enchantments, and the weapon had even resisted a direct strike from Uya's sword. They hadn't pulled the staff back into their bodies after usage. Instead, it had disintegrated, and Shen had noticed their vitality increasing—though it hadn't decreased when they produced the staff. The trees clearly had something special going on.

This time, the attacker produced a weird wooden whip. Zyn didn't punish them. They pulled their arm back. Still nothing. They attacked.

An invisible blade made of a Law from the Axioms of the Saber instantly materialized inside the tree. Shen only felt a single slightly curved blade going straight from top to bottom within their soul, but his Law vision begged to differ. He saw the Saber Law bend and curve and split, going into all of the tree's limbs like some sort of stick man.

Shen had been subjected to the terror of Uya's mastered Law. Even from a distance, this felt worse. The terror made Shen want to step away. He couldn't imagine what the tree was going through.

Physical and psychological abuse was forbidden in the military, but as Shen had said, no one was there for a vacation. The hierarchy was more important than anyone's well-being. When people refused to obey those above them, they might get punished in ways considered abuse in a different situation. For instance, killing a fellow warrior was forbidden, but executing a traitor was par for the course. Applying terror on Shen until he fainted was banned during a test, but not when punishing people for trying to murder their allies.

The invisible Saber didn't injure the tree's soul, and their body didn't bleed. The Law of the Saber manifested itself without causing physical harm. Yet, their soul trembled under the overwhelming stress that Law caused.

Whatever was going on, it worked. The tree froze. And anyone with a modicum of analysis skill could tell the tree was feeling unbearable pain. Those without it could feel the terror spread from the invisible blade.

The display was sobering. Every D-rank instinctively got at least three hundred yards away from the tree, who was C-rank yet still frozen.

Being sobering wasn't the same as being effective. The D-ranks might've been cowed, but the C-rank tree hadn't mastered any Law. Those with a mastered Law in their Paths wondered if the Saber could stop them. Even those without a mastered Law weighed being frozen for ten seconds of pain and horror against successfully killing whoever they wanted.

Shen contemplated using it to train his willpower but ultimately decided against it.

Uya's Law had been bad enough, and evidence suggested she had held herself back. In this punishment, Zyn could go much further than Uya had gone. Zyn couldn't cripple anyone's rational ability, but making them forever afraid of him was allowed if it didn't interfere with their combat ability. Shen was confident, but the risks vastly outweighed the gains.

He even felt thankful to Uya. If he hadn't been affected by her Law, he might have gotten tempted enough to test Zyn's Law now. There was really no substitute for experience in some cases.

"You can start," Uya said after a very silent ten seconds.

Then came the chaos and the pain.

Everyone could see the best way to circumvent Zyn's protection was by attacking together and being as chaotic about it as possible. Short of discussing it with others—including one's targets—the best moment to do it was right when the battle royale started. Whoever attacked first also had a clear advantage because counter-attacking would cause their target to be frozen, and the attacker would unfreeze first. That was one of the punishment's traps to make people attack. It was obvious, but the best traps could make idiots willingly walk into them.

Most of the C-ranks and even some D-ranks attacked. The Republic's cultivators hadn't reacted to the Association's threats earlier, but it looked like they also wanted to settle some scores, and this was too good an opportunity to pass.

Some attacked huge areas. Qi and mana left their bodies—and disappeared as soon as it was about to touch someone else; Saber blades pierced them.

Others tried to be sneaky. They used area abilities but not attacks. At least a hundred people flooded the battlefield with mana and qi. Many gave birth to harmless fire, healing lightning, ambient-temperature ice, and terrifying hurricanes that didn't blow a single strand of anyone's hair. Some likely only wanted to cause chaos, while others wanted to turn their actions into attacks when they thought Zyn wouldn't notice.

Whoever could make their spells not interact with others did it, but many people entered a willpower combat that ended with both parties frozen. Whoever hindered a fellow warrior's senses beyond a certain threshold learned it was also considered an attack. Countless elements, especially dark spheres and blinding flashes, blinked out of existence literally in the same instant as they appeared. Even when one ability wasn't enough to hinder anyone's senses, like transparent fire everywhere, it was still considered an attack if it went past the threshold when mixed with someone else's ability, like some light steam. Both parties were frozen then.

At least ninety percent of the C-ranks and a third of the D-ranks acted as soon as Uya gave the word. A fifth of the C-rank attackers and over half of the D-ranks—who trusted their schemes more than their power—went for chaos. They immediately learned how painful the Saber felt.

Everyone else learned it shortly after, when they found their targets and attacked.

It felt to Shen like it was raining Sabers, except they appeared out of nowhere. No one could resist it. Shen could see and feel they all trying, but Zyn was a force to be reckoned with. He had only one Law, but it was mastered, and he was good at using it. The versatility anyone gained with more than one mastered Law couldn't resist that one overwhelmingly more powerful Law.

The scene resonated with Shen. It was similar to the omnipotence he sought.

Ten seconds later, the first offenders were released. Everyone's eyes were filled with different levels of horror. The souls of over half of them were visibly exhausted, yet they had been left precisely at the point where they wouldn't faint. Zyn wanted everyone conscious to see what came of the battle royale.

Over ninety percent of the affected C-ranks and every single D-rank just sat down to recover and wait for their doom—the extra ten seconds of terror when no one won the battle royale.

The more persistent C-ranks went on to attack their targets. There were a lot of fancy moves, and Shen watched with fascination as many things Liya had taught him were displayed. A hidden rule quickly became clear: no torture allowed. Whoever focused on causing pain instead of killing their target or beating them to a reasonable point was frozen until the end of the battle royale. Shen felt it was right; those assholes deserved it.

Zyn did precisely as he had promised. Those about to die were protected by blue bubbles, a masterful usage of qi and Saber Law, just like the black dome Zyn had created earlier. At the same time, another invisible Saber blade pinned the attacker and moved them a hundred yards away. The victim was instantly healed with mana—system help for the battle royale—and forced to stay floating between the fortress and the Staff Lieutenants. They couldn't leave their bubbles.

Some battles lasted a while but none more than a few minutes. There weren't many variables that could affect one-on-ones. A few people used well-timed sneak attacks against those they had previously attacked, but five minutes later, there were only people inside bubbles, sitting down in defeat after tasting the Saber, or waiting in place.

At that point, a few C-ranks with mastered Laws decided to challenge Uya, Xun, and Karlov. Shen watched with interest. Uya and Xun fought similarly to each other except for their chosen weapon, which added slight changes. Still, even the strongest C-rank was defeated within seven moves.

Karlov was a fistfighter. He was slower and weaker than the Staff Lieutenants. Or maybe more merciful. Or perhaps, he wanted to appear weak for his undercover identity. He took at least twenty moves to defeat anyone. He still didn't lose, though.

When there were only three minutes until the end of the battle royale, a human C-rank cultivator approached Shen.

The man looked to be in his early thirties and had long black hair and black eyes. On Earth, he would be mistaken as being of mixed black, Asian, and white descent. He wore a red robe with a yellow flame logo—Shen didn't recognize the clan—and was as tall and muscular as Shen.

He was one of the few cultivators with more than three Laws, four, and Shen felt a sense of kinship when he recognized one of them came from the Axioms of the Spear. The other was likely Fire because it felt similar to Alicia's Concept of Destruction, but Shen couldn't place the other two.

He had mastered Fire and another of his Laws and held himself confidently. Everyone from the Republic wearing a robe like his and many with different robes were deferential, respectful, or jealous of the man.

"Greetings, Field Commander," the man said while cupping his hands and nodding. Not a bow, a nod. Shen could tell what was coming as he replied with a nod exactly as low as the man's. "I'm Huo Ming, First Among Equals in the High Senatorial Huo Clan."

High Senatorial Clans were big shots in the Republic. Shen had never heard the term "first among equals" but could guess it meant he was the Huo Clan's most valued C-rank cultivator.

"I'm Shen," was all Shen replied.

Shen had no identity in the Republic. He also wasn't part of any clan. He was a nobody.

Hence, Ming's following question, "May I inquire as to what qualifications you have to be appointed La'sing's Field Commander?"

"You probably may," Shen replied. "Ask whoever made it so. I wasn't informed."

Shen could deal with this situation more subtly but wasn't in the mood. He was almost sure the outcome wouldn't change no matter what he said, so he would rather not let anyone assume he would let them waste his time.

Indeed, as expected, Ming immediately said, "I challenge you for command."

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