Mordred’s senses drifted through the arenas. There were no shortage of interesting mages in the second round of the melees, but there was one in particular he was interested in.

Fist had informed him that Spider was participating in this round.

Mordred still did a sweep of all the arenas to take note of anyone that might have been worth paying attention to, but his real goal was to find Spider.

That proved to be far harder than it should have been. Even with Aqua Terra’s oppressive atmosphere bearing down on him, Mordred was a skilled tracker. Finding a mage whom he had already met once before should have been a very simple task.

But, strangely enough, his first few passes through the arenas all proved fruitless. He’d never have even known that Spider was participating if Fist hadn’t told him otherwise.

He must be a master at soul shaping. I don’t think some of the stronger Rank 7s that I’ve met have had this degree of control over their presence.

It took Mordred several minutes of concentrated searching just to pick up on the faintest traces of the man’s magic. They were so distant and muted that he might have dismissed them had he not been looking so intently. He followed the path over to one of the arenas—

And then he lost the traces of the magic again.

It was like trying to scoop up oil with a sieve. Befuddlement wracked Mordred’s mind. Spider was impossibly slippery. He’d catch onto a flicker of the man’s magic, only for all traces of it to vanish an instant later as if it had never been there in the first place.

Mordred was forced to scan the arena with his mental gaze rather than relying on his senses. It didn’t seem like there would be any other way to locate Spider before the round was over. But Spider hadn’t exactly dressed to blend into the crowd. He should have stuck out like a sore thumb with that fancy black and silver coat of his. Finding him shouldn’t have been that difficult.

Even still, it was several minutes into the round when Mordred finally managed to locate Spider. And it wasn’t even Spider that caught Mordred’s attention. It was a dozen different beams of golden-yellow light crashing down from the sky in rapid succession to swallow nearly an entire group of mages at once.

A flicker of surprise passed through him. The large groups tended to lose few mages at the start. There were certain advantages that came with numbers, after all. One or two of them getting picked off or caught by a stray spell was one thing. But an entire group getting wiped in just seconds was abnormal.

His senses drifted over to the scene. And only then did Mordred find his target. Impossibly, Spider was simply… standing there. He wasn’t hiding, nor was he attempting to conceal his presence at all. Spider was just there, as if he’d always been.

He held a violin in one hand and its bow in the other, though it didn’t look like he was even playing anything. A droplet of blood had beaded up on the edge of the bow’s string, making it clear that it was more than just some mere musical instrument.

Mordred might have been able to convince himself that nothing at all was wrong if not for the fact that he still couldn’t sense Spider’s presence for more than a moment at a time. It was distant and murky. Even staring straight at him, it felt hard to determine if Spider was actually there or if this was just a shadow of his passing.

“What manner of magic is this?” Mordred breathed, his head tilting to the side.

But over the course of the next few minutes, Mordred’s confusion only grew. It quickly became clear that Mordred wasn’t the only one struggling to keep track of Spider. He passed right by a number of solo or mages in small groups that he easily could have dispatched had he chosen to.

But he didn’t even glance in their direction twice.

And then, as a group of mages were bearing down upon a duo that were clearly about to be eliminated, Spider suddenly turned toward them, raising his hand. Magic twisted through the air, manifesting into a craggy meteor crackling with molten red flame.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The group of mages barely even recognized the danger until it was too late. One of them turned, calling out a warning, but the meteor was already hurtling toward them. Several spun toward it, summoning up various magical shields. The meteor shattered against them with a deafening crash that sent fragments of molten material flying in every direction.

Mordred’s gaze snapped back to Spider, only to find that the man was gone.

A pillar of golden light crashing down from the sky drew his attention right back to the large group. Spider stood in their center, his bow string wetted with new blood. He then flicked his wrist. A sharp blast of astral energy tore free from him, carving straight into the one of the mages in the large group.

A pillar of light swallowed the man before he could even fall to the ground. The blow hadn’t been instantly fatal, but it was close.

The group broke.

Mages teleported or dashed away, aided by their magic, abandoning their former comrades at the drop of a hat. But Spider didn’t give pursuit. He could have taken several more out quite easily. Their retreat was far from organized. But instead, Spider just watched them run. Only once they had broken did he turn to the duo that had been about to be eliminated. The two of them stared at Spider with pale faces.

Neither of them would have put up much of a fight. They weren’t the weakest mages that Mordred had ever seen, but Spider had sliced through far stronger ones just a moment ago. Removing them would have been easy. It certainly would have been the smart move. The point of the melee was to get rid of as many competitors as possible to avoid running into a powerful opponent or getting jumped by a bunch of waker ones.

But Spider didn’t even give the two weaker mages a second glance. He just turned and strode back off into the melee.

Mordred’s brow furrowed until deep creases had formed across his features.

He cut through their domains like nothing. Even if those mages weren’t the most skilled… his magic sliced through their defenses so easily. That’s some seriously concentrated magic. His runes must be incredibly well-formed. Probably mid Rank 6 as well. I’d have to see him go up against someone more powerful to make a more conclusive conclusion.

The only thing that’s really throwing me off is how well he’s shaping his soul. He’s using magic and I can still barely feel his presence. Just what exactly is he aiming for? His actions don’t make any sense. Why would he intentionally leave some of the mages alone?

Mordred drifted to follow after Spider. But the other man’s strategy didn’t change at all. He just kept interfering in other mages’ fights, taking out the large groups and then leaving without actually capitalizing on any of the advantages of his efforts.

There was a chance that Spider was betting on the — admittedly likely — chance that no powerful mage would waste their time throwing in with a large group. That didn’t explain why he wasn’t finishing off more of his opponents, though. And more than that… if Mordred hadn’t known better, he might have thought that Spider was actually protecting some of the mages.

Wait.

Mordred blinked.

Then his eyes narrowed.

That… that’s it, isn’t it?

Spider didn’t just seem like he was protecting the mages.

He was.

For some reason, he was actively seeking out anyone who was grouping up on weaker mages and intentionally taking them out. It wasn’t that Spider gave a shit about how powerful his opponents were. He hadn’t been going for the big groups because they were more likely to have weaker mages.

Is… he just going after anyone that’s targeting a mage much weaker than them?

Mordred nearly burst into disbelieving laughter. That thought was ludicrous. There was no way it could have been right. The whole point of a melee was to remove the weaker mages. These were all his opponents. Spider gained nothing at all by protecting them.

But his amusement fell away as he watched Spider slip through the arena like a shadow. It was getting harder to see this for anything but what it was. Spider wasn’t just taking out the large groups. He was interfering in attacks, blocking spells that would have taken other mages by surprise and surgically picking away at anyone that dared violate his self-ordained rules.

And it was working.

The biggest groups had disbanded. They fought each other instead of targeting the solo mages that hadn’t managed to make alliances. Combatants would notice someone caught in a fight with another mage, their back wide open — and they wouldn’t take advantage of the opening to attack.

Even if they hadn’t been attacked by Spider himself, they’d noticed what was happening. The strategy to survival had changed.

Mordred watched on in disbelief. Spider had singlehandedly changed the rules of engagement for this arena… for no reward whatsoever. It wasn’t like he got anything out of this. There was no benefit. No advantage in future rounds. It wasn’t even earning him any goodwill. Powerful mages were going to need Spider’s help.

Is he trying to make a statement?

The crowd had realized something was up by now, and the mustached announcer blathering on overhead had started to catch on as well. Mordred paid them little mind. He’d never cared for the thoughts of others. But it seemed Spider saw things differently.

For whatever reason, he wanted people talking about him.

And it was working.