The air above the arena bent like heat over a furnace.
Austin stood beside the mound of black glass sand. A familiar rumble rolled through his dantian.
The force of his tap had traveled back through the wrench, down his arms, and into the White Dwarf Seed. The pearl-sized core tightened. Its First Epoch containment field sang with cold, steady power.
DING.
An amber-and-blue screen opened before him.
The seed shrank another twelve percent, packing its immense mass into a smaller space. Its surface heat climbed to two hundred thousand degrees. Released without protection, it could boil away a mountain range.
The containment field held back almost all of it.
The tiny fraction that leaked out was enough.
CRACK-THUD!
Invisible weight slammed down across a fifty-meter circle. The air grew thick and smelled of ozone and hot copper. Loose sand was driven downward so hard that the arena floor settled two inches. Its surface fused into a hard, glassy sheet.
Twenty paces away, Huo Yun was still staring at the ruined pillar with his mouth open.
SPLAT!
He dropped as if a freight car had landed on his back. His knees flew outward. His ribs hit the ground, and blood spurted from his nose.
His Blazing Dragon Sword suddenly weighed nearly three hundred pounds.
SNAP.
The prized Earth-Grade blade broke into three pieces. The fire-dragon phantom above it flattened and went out in a puff of gray smoke.
Arbiter Ruan fell to all fours. The Peak Golden Core veteran dug his gauntlets into the ground and fought to keep his chest off the sand. His eyes bulged. Spit ran from the corner of his mouth.
Eight times normal gravity! My Golden Core is groaning. What kind of ancient titan is this?
In the royal gallery, Governor Zhao’s jade teacup crumbled between his fingers. Cracks raced through the white-jade railing. Several councilmen clutched their stomachs as the shifting gravity made them sick.
Austin lifted one boot and took a step.
Clomp.
His leg felt slow and heavy. He stopped and scowled at his thighs.
“Terrific. Movement lag. Every time a developer hosts a festival with ten thousand players in one zone, the physics tick rate goes out the window. Feels like walking through wet cement in hip waders.”
He opened his rucksack and searched through his hardware bins. His fingers found a round brass tin containing sixteen heavy lead washers and four threaded steel fittings. He had made them to balance the turbine at Sunset Peak.
Austin put eight washers in his left front pocket and eight in his right. Then he patted both thighs.
Clack, clack.
“Counterweights. That should smooth out the pull. Always balance your moving parts, boys.”
He tested his balance with a few heel drops, put the pipe wrench back on his shoulder, and walked over to Ruan. His pace was steady again.
The judge remained pinned to the ground, trembling. Blood dripped from his nose onto his iron collar.
Austin took the yellow grease pencil from behind his ear and tapped Ruan’s shoulder plate.
“Excuse me, sir. About the preliminary. Does turning the tester into gravel get me into the bracket, or do you have another one in storage?”
Ruan stared at him in terror.
The pebbles and pine needles around Austin’s boots now spun so fast that they whistled like tiny saw blades.
“Q-QUALIFIED!” Ruan wheezed. “FIRST SEED! TOURNAMENT SEED NUMBER ONE! YOU PASS! MERCY!”
Austin nodded and put the pencil away.
“Much obliged. Good to keep the records straight. Let me know when the first round starts. I’m going back to finish my tea.”
He turned and climbed out of the pit. The eight-gravity field moved with him, releasing the arena floor.
Ruan collapsed onto his belly and gasped like a landed fish.
Huo Yun peeled his bloody face from the stone. He looked at the three pieces of his sword, then at Austin’s denim-clad back.
Humiliation burned in his eyes.
He didn’t even look at me. He destroyed the sacred pillar, crushed me without drawing a weapon, and only cared about passing!
He reached inside his robe. His fingers closed around a cold black bone charm carved with three weeping skulls.
In our duel, I’ll burn my dragon marrow. I’ll tear that stupid hat off his head and reduce his soul to ash.
In the royal gallery, Xiaoyao rushed forward with a damp cloth.
“Ruan entered you as the first seed,” Xiaoyao said. He had checked the bracket himself instead of waiting for an official to announce it. “Your first duel is in thirty minutes. I also asked the arena crew to fence off the glass sand.”
“It wasn’t magic, Xiaoyao. It was vibration in stressed glass. Hit a brittle thing at the right frequency and it tears itself apart. That’s why we heat-treat every pressure vessel on Sunset Peak. Skip that step, and a cold morning can split your boiler.”
Xiaoyao wrote down every word.
Austin sank into his rosewood chair and put his boots back on the stool. Pug opened one eye, snorted warmly at his knee, and went back to sleep.
“Bracket’s set. First duel in thirty minutes,” Austin said, checking his quest log. “Just enough time for more tea and a look at those pump-seal measurements.”