Percy and Kassorith didn't spend too long in the treasury after their second victory. In fact, they didn't even bother to check the new additions in the "Equipment" and "Property" chambers, heading straight to the small room labelled "Personal Improvement".

A few new affinity-changing treasures with longer durations and higher quotas had been added to the top shelf, but still nothing Percy would even consider bringing home. Taking over his host's body, he placed Kassorith's palm on an enchantment in front of one of the light-blue spheres glowing on the bottom shelf, next to the sickly green type that they had claimed before.

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Abyssal Moss

Description:

An extremely rare Yellow-grade plant with an ice affinity, harvested from the deepest trenches of the frozen sea near Thess'kala's north pole. It can be used in alchemy to brew Yellow-grade potions, but that is widely considered to be a waste of an otherwise priceless ingredient. It has been treated to delay its effects, allowing it to be absorbed gradually, lowering one's body temperature. If used in tandem with the correct ingredients, it can permanently raise one's resistance to both heat and cold, and sharpen their thermal perception. WARNING: Do not consume directly. The substance is only intended for use as part of the Ancestral Lineage Sect's ritual.

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And there it was – the first of the three ingredients Percy wanted to claim above everything else from the prize pool. If he and his host failed to win enough battles, he could do without the toxins, but the Abyssal Moss in particular was something he had a use for.

Outside of strengthening his body through the ritual – to hopefully improve his ability to withstand his boosting art and the trollsfury tattoos – Percy figured that raising his resistance to cold would serve him well if he could get it. He might not have a Thess'kalan's thermal sense, but the modification might allow him to better endure Micky's soul-freezing mana, possibly letting him use his Soul-crushing Needle more easily. Even an extra cast per battle could make a huge difference, given how powerful the Masterful Secret Art was.

'A spatial device hidden in your soul?' Kassorith asked as soon as Percy stored the vial containing the pale, snow-like moss into his seal.

Percy hadn't shown the artifact to his host before – though he had hinted at its existence. Revealing the seal was sadly unavoidable, since Percy would need to store multiple items by the end of this trip.

'Not a device. It's actually part of my bloodline,' he lied through their curved fangs.

Percy had no idea if his host bought his bullshit, but thankfully, Kassorith didn't press for more answers. Either way, the Blue had no way to examine the artifact directly. Even if he did, he had already failed to recognize the Vault's magiscript before, so Percy didn't think his involvement with Metatron was close to being exposed – not unless he was forced to use the titan's Decree in the middle of the arena, but he hoped it wouldn't come to that.

Back in the stadium, they had to wait for a match to finish before it was their turn again. Their third opponent was another female Thess'kalan – one that Kassorith found slightly more attractive than the last one, judging by the more frequent flickers of his forked tongue and his elevated heartrate. Personally, Percy struggled to even tell the two women apart. Either way, he wanted to believe that Kassorith was serious and experienced enough not to let something this stupid interfere with his ability to fight.

Luckily, that didn't happen, but that didn't make the battle any easier. In fact, it was their toughest one yet – and not by a small margin.

To nobody's surprise, the woman possessed a composite affinity, like most of the elite disciples in the tournament. This time, it was sound – the fusion of lightning and air. It was a mana type Percy had faced before, but not in a very long time. The mana blended seamlessly with the woman's domain, some of it penetrating Kassorith's. A deafening buzz filled the arena from the very start, rupturing Kassorith's eardrums within seconds, sticky trickles of blood warming both his hood and the sides of his neck.

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The insidious domain was more annoying than downright crippling. Still, it was much harder to block than even their first opponent's poisoned steam, forcing them to suffer its effect throughout the battle. If that wasn't enough, it seemed to accelerate the woman's already rapid attacks – a relentless barrage of concussive blasts constantly raining down on Kassorith with crushing force.

He dodged many of them, but most connected. Even his steel mana failed to stop them completely, the powerful shockwaves penetrating the metallic coating with ease. Luckily, the individual strikes didn't cause much damage, but Percy and his host quickly realized that they wouldn't last a minute unless they adapted.

With a heavy heart, Percy was forced to finally reveal his domain.

He knew that a few hidden runes and the occasional subtle injection of willpower wouldn't do this time. Unless he joined the fight properly, they wouldn't even be able to defend against the blasts. Of course, if it was just that, the crowd might misinterpret the nature of his contribution. Simply layering his willpower on top of Kassorith's could be attributed to him possessing a stronger domain than he had initially let on.

Unfortunately, Percy had to get more involved than that. They had to diversify their efforts – one focusing on defence while the other infused his domain into their attacks. Inevitably, both the spectators and their future opponents would learn that Kassorith possessed two separate domains that could be used concurrently and independently of one another.

'At least I doubt anyone will suspect you have an alien soul sharing your body,' Percy muttered, mostly to console himself than his host.

The good news was that their sacrifice yielded some immediate results. The woman was still nearly impossible to pin down, but Percy's domain massively reduced the damage he and his host took. At the same time, Kassorith was able to focus his willpower on the swords, letting them fly faster and pose a far greater threat to their opponent, while consuming only a fraction of the mana.

Even so, the battle was gruelling. The woman was impossibly fast, dodging nearly everything, while continuing to land her own blows. Despite Percy's efforts, he was horrified to watch his host's body gradually turn into a bloody mess – shattered scales, rattled organs and mounted internal damage.

'Please, don't let the stadium's enchantments activate…' he prayed silently to no gods in particular.

Healing their body after the fight would be trivial, thanks to Kassorith's bloodline. But that would only be acceptable if the enchantments didn't swoop in to disqualify them before then. Sadly, their opponent wasn't making things easy. It soon became clear that the woman had more than just her composite affinity to rely on. Watching the ambient mana flood her core, Percy creased his brow, initially thinking that their opponent possessed a boosting art similar to his own. Upon further examination, he realized that the effect wasn't the result of controlled, deliberate efforts, but rather something that she did passively.

'A bloodline…'

Unlike Kassorith's, this one could be used in combat. Thankfully, the effect seemed rather minor – weaker than even Circulation, let alone the full Dance. Still, it needlessly prolonged the fight, making Percy and Kassorith's efforts to whittle down the woman's reserves even more agonizing than they should have been.

In the end, the battle didn't last nearly as long as their first, but it was still the second longest of this tournament block so far. It wasn't until several hours later that the sound mage finally conceded – Percy's domain doing more to preserve his host's mana than the bloodline did for the woman.

The other contestants – the few remaining at least – didn't seem happy that they'd been forced to wait again, but the crowd didn't mind this time, having clearly found the fight exciting enough. Three victories were more than enough to raise Kassorith's status in the audience's eyes – especially since there weren't that many elite disciples left in this block for the crowd to root for.

But Percy didn't care much about his host's reputation. It was finally time to claim their first portion of the ritual's primary ingredient – and to figure out what to do with it. He hoped that Kassorith would be open to going through the incomplete ritual right away, to boost their strength as much as possible for the battles ahead. They'd already revealed their second domain, so they were running out of trump cards fast. The only thing left unused was the full extent of Percy's magiscript.

'I'm not sure that's enough to get us through another five rounds…' he thought grimly.