Taha watched the Group 2 finals with a greedy glint in his bulging eyes. The match itself was little more than an appetizer for the intruders. They had toyed with the opposing candidates, torturing them in a show of their might.

This made Taha’s lust for blood even worse. A throbbing had begun deep in his perverted loins as he watched the intruders play with their food. He hopped around on all fours as he watched, mouth agape as he constantly sucked the saliva that threatened to leak. The rest of the Tu’i let him do his odd little dance. While the intruders did pose a credible threat to them, they weren’t the most dangerous candidates or the most important.

Nima sighed as he thought about having to talk to that woman. She was hard to get along with and expected way too much out of him.

“Rua, you’re first. ‘Ekolu will accept second. Wha will accept third. Taha will be fourth, with my support. And Nima will accept when he feels it’s best.”

Wanu read out the order of their acceptances. She still had her misgivings about Nima accepting without someone to vet the candidate but she wouldn’t bring that up in front of the other Tu’i. Something about the strange candidate gave her an odd feeling in her gut.

All the Tu’i nodded in acknowledgement, little else needed to be said.

From one of the amorphous walls a door opened and Fiti entered. None of the Tu’i acknowledged her entrance, there was no need to. She walked directly to Nima and sat next to him.

“Tamai.”

Nima nodded, jutting out his chin as he signaled her to continue.

“Hiku isn’t the only one here. Is she?”

Fiti hadn’t asked in a loud voice but all the other Tu’i heard her clearly. Their interest was immediately piqued. Wha shifted her body a bit, slightly uncomfortable at the mention of the candidate.

Nima let the question hang in the air as a smile crept onto his face. “Took you long enough.”

Fiti sighed, exasperated. Her father enjoyed making her figure things out on her own, even if it was information that could lead to the destruction of the island. “Who else came?”

“Her usual folks.” Nima answered as he cupped his cheek and rested his head in his propped up hand. His smile took on a sinister quality.

Fiti crumpled the hem of the black blouse she wore, trying not to let her frustration out. She knew that even she wasn’t exempt from his discipline.

“I’ll ready a room for them.”

She quickly pecked his exposed cheek before standing. “I’ll be back to watch your acceptance.”

As Fiti exited the rest of the Tu’i kept their attention on Nima, wondering what she was talking about. None dared to ask for clarification, not with the mood that Nima was in.

Noticing their questioning stares, Nima dismissed them as he tapped his temple lightly. “It’ll come to ya’ll soon.”

____________________________________

As announced, Rua was the first to accept.

The group finalists she was accepting had 10 members in all. Two had suffered near fatal attacks but were easily healed by the attending members.

Being that the group was mostly made up of foreigners, they weren’t entirely aware of who or what the Tu’i were. So when Rua stepped out of the shadows by herself they were all slightly thrown off. Not only was it a single person but it was a handsome, slightly built, short woman.

Some of the candidates sneered a bit. While they were used to facing off against women as combatants they felt that they were being mocked by the Conglomerate appearing to send out a single person against a large group of experienced combatants.

The leader, a tall tanned man, stepped forward. “Only one?”

Rua smiled softly, almost benignly, as she answered him. “I am enough.”

This served to further incense the group, some began talking amongst themselves in their native tongue. To their surprise, Rua addressed them in their native tongue. “I may be a woman, but your numbers mean nothing to me. Step in the middle.”

As she made her statement she activated the tatau on her throat. It glowed brilliantly, forcing some of the candidates to shield their eyes with their hands. Her minor display of power was enough to quiet those amongst them who had been complaining.

Without a word the leader stepped forward, motioning for the rest to follow. As they crossed the threshold the familiar chimes rang out. This time they were deeper, much more menacing, and none of the candidates noticed. They were too busy paying attention to the frightening woman who stood confidently before them.

Rua deactivated her tatau, feeling her light display was enough to assuage the group. While it would be a simple affair for her to crush the candidates, she had been instructed to take her time. Nima wanted all the Tu’i to put on a show this time. They were supposed to stretch things out as much as possible. But, for these beings, measurements of time and ‘putting on shows’ had lost all meaning.

“I will give you all 1 hit each. Hit me with whatever you like.” Rua announced. While her words bit at the pride of the hardened combatants she was facing, they lacked any actual enmity. It was a simple, straightforward statement.

The group began to protest, feeling that they were being mocked. The leader raised a hand and waited until they fell silent.

“Why should we agree?”

Rua sighed, slouching a bit as she waved her hands in exasperation. “Because I have to put on a show.”

Her answer didn’t make any sense to the group. They all just stared at her, confused and trying to suss out further meaning.

Chuckling, Rua shook her head. “Look, don’t over think it. You all get 1 free hit each. Doesn’t matter if you all pool your mana together, you’ll still get to go 10 times.”

This didn’t clear anything up for the group. If anything, they were even more confused.

“If you manage to knock me down with any one of your 10 hits, I will declare you all the winners and you’ll move on to the Advent round.”

This was the first they’d heard about an Advent round. It hadn’t been publicized because all the Tu’i knew that only one of the Group Finalists would make it. But the mention of another round piqued the interest of the foreigners.

Rua smirked at how easy it was to fool some people.

One of the Voice invokers spoke up, voice rising as he could barely contain the excitement. “So we knock you down once, we win? That easy?”

Rua nodded, letting the ripples of irritation stay just below the surface. “Mmhhmm. And you have 10 chances. So, do you accept?”

The group immediately huddled up, all speaking at once. The leader hadn’t bothered to join, he knew what the answer would be. It was just a matter of his group reaching the same answer. They continued to discuss for a couple more minutes before Rua spoke up again.

“I need an answer.”

The leader finally turned back and made eye contact with each and every member of the group. After doing so he nodded as he answered. “We agree.”

Rua smiled as she clapped. “Excellent.” The clap had produced a sound wave that was strong enough for the group to feel.

“Then I’m sure you’ve all decided who will go first?”

The leader nodded as he motioned one of their main attackers forward. The man hopped in place, a confused look on his face as he asked the group “Did someone already invoke? I feel really good.”

They all shook their heads, also confused at his question. The attacker shrugged it off as he approached Rua. His leader followed behind him, readying an invocation. Two more invokers from the group were also chanting in unison with the leader, strengthening his invocation.

Once the attacker was a few paces away from Rua she spoke up. “You’re in no rush. Take as much time as you need. Have them bless you as much as you can handle.”

There was nothing presumptuous about her statement. She was actually encouraging them to get prepared. And this planted a seed of fear and doubt in all the candidates.

In answer, the attacker called down his ancestral blessing and took on a slightly bestial form. His body became tightly knotted in muscle as he grew, arms and legs becoming covered in hair. The leader placed his hand on the attackers back and applied the group invocation. The attacker was suddenly filled with a surge of energy as heat flowed through his body. He felt the power coursing through his body and he let out a ferocious howl as he swung his right arm in an exaggerated, looping attack.

The group of candidates were only able to see the moment of impact, when the attack struck Rua’s unguarded face, before a whirlwind of dust was kicked up. All around the arena the sound of a solid haymaker making contact could be heard. All the candidates were completely silent as they waited for the results of their comrades attack.

As the dust finally settled they could hear a slight whimpering. To the group's astonishment the Tu’i was still standing, practically unscathed, over their comrade who was laying on the ground cradling his mangled right arm.

“4. Too brutish.”

Rua’s statement cut through the stunned silence as the group scrambled to comprehend what she was talking about.

“Next.”

The leader had retreated to the group after applying his invocation. His knees had weakened but he resolved himself to not show weakness in front of his men. Still reeling, the candidates waited for him to make a decision.

“Can we use our armaments?” The leader asked, holding out one of their specially modified rifles to show the Tu’i.

“Sure.”

This gave the group a slight boost of morale. They were much more confident in their weapons than they were in their hand to hand ability. And with the armaments they could pile on more invocations.

“Bring it up.” The leader announced as two of the men behind him laid two large cases down on the ground. They opened it and revealed the two specialized weapons that they hadn’t been forced to use in the earlier matches of the tournament.

One was a high powered sniper rifle, heavily modified to be able to shoot over vast distances after having various invocations loaded into it. Unlike lending invocations to a person, loading them into an inanimate object was a bit easier since the object had no sensory perception. Invoking a blessing onto a person would weigh them down much like the activation of a tatau, so it was dependent on the individual's ability to endure the loads. On an object it could be loaded up to a point and then used by an individual who can take on their own set of invocations.

The second weapon was a specially modified Handheld Propulsion System. Just like the modified sniper rifle, it was capable of being loaded with invocations. The difference in the two was in the area of effect. Where the high caliber rifle was much more effective against a single target the HPS was used for large groups.

“We’ll use both.” the leader said. “Start loading them all the way to capacity.”

The group set to loading the proper invocations, all 9 conscious candidates rotating through and adding their invocations. Once both were loaded they then focused on applying invocations to the two candidates who would be using the weapons.

Rua watched, feigning an air of patience. She was only ever truly patient when it came to doing anything for Nima. Outside of his requests she rarely gave anything the time of day. Especially not weak foreign candidates.

Finally the first candidate was ready. He had chosen to use the rifle and had just received a large group blessing from the leader. Rua stood in the spot she’d been in since entering the arena, waiting for the candidates demonstration.

Taking aim the candidate inhaled and exhaled a few times before exhaling 3 times in a row and holding his breath. He steadied his aim and set his sights on Rua’s forehead. The rest of the group had cleared out from around him, expecting a noticeable kickback from the amount of invocations they had applied. The candidate also expected a forceful recoil so he had forcefully dug his feet into the ground and had the invokers secure him in place so that he wouldn’t fly away from the shot.

A loud roar rang out as he took the shot, causing all the candidates to cover their ears. The recoil had been much greater than expected as the candidate had been flung back from where he had been laying, despite the measures taken to fasten him in place. He was flung back and thrown into the invisible barrier that surrounded the middle of the arena.

The shot itself had packed so much force that it left a visible indentation along the path it had travelled. Dust had been kicked up again and the candidates had to wait to see if the shot had reached the Tu’i. They all noticed a separate wake of destruction that had occurred at the same time as the shot ringing out which had bloomed away to their right.

As the dust settled they were shocked once again. Standing exactly where she had stood the whole match was Rua. She hadn’t moved to defend herself, she simply took the shot. As the invocation packed projectile made contact with her face she had calmly turned her head and redirected it, sending all the energy the shot had carried to her left.

“6. Not bad.” She casually swept a stray hair out of her face.

“Next.”

A few of the candidates collapsed. From having loaded so much energy into the weapons and from the nonchalance of the Tu’i. All of the candidates felt a quaking in their guts as their most recent meal threatened to exit out of the wrong orifice.

The leader fell to his knees, pushing the HPS away as he prostrated in front of the Tu’i. “We forfeit.”

“Well, that’s a bit disappointing. I wanted to see the other one too.” Rua mused as her form melded into the shadows of the arena.