“As Master Sumerio mentioned,” Sunie said as we walked. “The elves of Cryim are one of the youngest Factions in the Nexus. The Sunrise Formation ran into some…,” Sunie paused, glancing at me before continuing. Looked like my elf allies had some secrets. That was fine with me. I had my own as well. We were new allies, made sense that we were still keeping things from each other. “Issues,” he continued. “We learned that some of the older and more powerful Factions aren’t the nicest to the new ones. They look to dominate and control, to take and use for their own growth. Too many younger Factions are really nothing more than vassals to the larger.”

  “The Anura are one of those?”

  “They are worse,” Sunie said, shaking his head. “The Goritoihic Pride claim to be mercenaries but they really aren’t.” He looked up at me. “They work almost exclusively for some of the older and larger Factions. Mostly grunt work.”

  “Someone paid that idiot to provoke me to get this?” I asked, motioning at the Arena around us.

  Sunie laughed.

  “Ah, good to know you figured it out,” Sunie said. “Yes, you were set up. It’s your own fault you know.”

  “Oh?”

  “If you hadn’t made some rumbles with your solo rankings in the Tower, the older Factions wouldn’t be curious and send their servants to aggravate you.”

  I laughed.

  “I’ll try to be more discreet next time.”

  Sunie laughed.

  “Don’t,” he said. “I like making waves, so keep it up.” He quieted down for a bit before continuing, not having the same energy he usually had. “Truthfully, the politics in the Nexus are a mess. The older and more powerful Factions do everything they can to maintain that standing. They use that power to lord it over the smaller Factions, send them to do their dirty work.”

  “Outside the Nexus?”I asked, actually surprised by that. I figured the only interaction between the races was in the Nexus.

  “Yeah. You’ll find that Crossroads gives you access to a lot more than just the Infinite Tower. The Multiverse is huge but the actual worlds that have evolved to such a point that they can sustain life? Much smaller number of those. Which leaves a lot of worlds out there that are nothing but Resources for the Factions. They set up Colonies and such but..”

  “They fight over the unclaimed ones?”

  “Yep. Factions like the Anura’s Goritoihic Pride are sent to the unclaimed worlds to set up outposts and fight over the planets, hoping to Claim it for their masters.”

  “Great,” I said with a sigh. “So much for just getting to punch things.”

  Sunie laughed.

  He brought me to a stop, pointing at a window in the wall between two obelisks. Behind the glass was a strange looking human. He had gray skin, long black hair tied up in a ponytail and was the only visible hair he had, and wore a fancy uniform. His eyes were wide, yellow with black irises, that stared at us, waiting impatiently. He didn’t say anything but I could tell he was waiting for us to approach the window and bother him.

  I walked over to the window.

  “Yes?” the man behind the window said, looking up at me, his gaze slightly above my head.

  “Nicholas Marcus Howell of Clan Howell,” he continued, eye raising a bit at noticing the matching names. “You are scheduled to duel Boritonioloro of the Goritoihic Pride in an hour.”

  He didn’t stumble over the name, which was very impressive. I sounded it out in my head and couldn’t make it work.

  “Your duel will be in Arena 15,” the man behind the window continued. His voice had a strange hollow quality to it. He lifted a hand to point to my right, his left. As he moved, I noticed he had four arms. “As you are new to the Multiversal Nexus, I will assume you do not know the rules?”

  “Nope,” I said.

  “Yes, well, the rules are quite simple. No killing. The duel goes until the other side gives up. You, of course, have access to your Essence Abilities but you are limited to the equipment that you carry in with you. Nothing can be brought from your inventory during the duel.”

  “That’s it?”

  “Yes.”

  “Seems simple enough.”

  And with a lot of gray areas to work around those rules. Which was no doubt on purpose.

  “There is a room to prepare yourself attached to the Arena for you and your second,” he said, looking past me at Sunie, who waved, making the four-armed, gray skinned human’s impassive face flash with annoyance.

  Sunie and I were going to get along great. And we were going to give Jeriyan and Kat major headaches. It was going to be fun.

  “Thanks,” I said, stepping away from the window, rejoining Sunie.

  We started walking, doors appearing between obelisks. They were labeled in strange symbols that got translated as numbers. That took a bit of getting used to, seeing the weird symbol and just knowing what it meant.

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  “What did you think of the Haric?”

  “The four-armed guy? He seemed okay. Pretty stiff and formal.”

  “Yeah, they’re all like that. Harics are probably the oldest race in the Nexus.”

  “Really?” I asked, glancing back at the window. The guy wasn’t paying attention to us. I wondered why there even needed to be a person, couldn’t it have all been handled by System Notifications? He looked kind of like Stylo, but my guide only had two arms. Was there a connection? “Is that how his Faction came to run this place?”

  “Not exactly. The Haric are the only Factionless race in the Nexus. Everyone else, belongs to either one planetwide Faction or multiple from the same planets. And like there are a lot of planets in the Multiverse with humans, elves, and all the other races; there is only one planet with Harics and they never expanded beyond that one planet.”

  “Are they powerful? If they only have one planet…”

  “Very powerful. No one messes with them. There are some that think the Haric are the ones that created the Nexus, which would include the Infinite Tower,” Sunie said.

  I nodded, understanding what he was getting at. If these Haric had created the Nexus, or were just the first ones here, that meant some deep connection to the Challenge System. Not a race to mess with. At the very least, judging by what I was reading between the lines, the Haric were some at least some kind of System administrator, or had that kind of access.

  I made a mental note to pass all that on to Kat, Tammy and Fields.

  And Fred, if he hadn’t already learned it already.

  But not Subetai. Screw that guy.

  We stopped in front of a wooden door, the rune above a bunch of squiggles that meant Fifteen. I took a step forward, reaching for the handle but Sunie stopped me, hand on my arm.

  “Wait,” he said, looking serious. “You don’t have to duel the Anura.”

  I looked at him, processing what he’d said about the Anura earlier and what else I was starting to know about the politics of the Nexus and Crossroads. One of the older Factions was interested in learning more about me and instead of sending someone from that Faction, they employed the local equivalent of hired thugs to test me. How I fared, that could have broad and far reaching implications beyond just the fight.

  If I backed down, I was just a newbie to the Nexus who had gotten in over his head and when learned more, did the smart thing. Clan Howell might take a bit of a hit to the ol’ reputation, but nothing that we couldn’t recover from. If I won, that opened up a whole lot of cans o’ worms. Good and bad. All depended on how I played it.

  I knew all this going into it, of course. Not my first rodeo. I know I came off as a political neophyte not wanting to play the game. And it wasn’t all an act. I hated politics and hated playing the game. But I could play it, and play it well, when I needed to.

  I felt like this was one of those times.

  Sunie knew it too, and was just trying to warn me. Looking at him, I could sense there was a little more to it.

  “The Haric said there was no killing,” I stared, figuring it out. “But the Anura will try and kill me won’t he?”

  “Yes,” Sunie said. “Borito… by the trees, why is that name so hard to say.” I laughed. “When he confronted you, he most likely thought you would back down. What new arrival in the Nexus would accept a duel so soon?” he asked, shaking his head at my fake ‘who me’ expression. “His masters wanted him to duel you, of course, but he’s smart enough to know the corner that would put him in.”

  “But he and his people had no choice but to do as they were told.”

  “Yes. Boro is Level 106 and has been in the Nexus for a couple of months. You are new to the Nexus and from a newly integrated world. You are also a couple Levels lower.”

  “And if Boro, I like that name, thanks, was to lose to me that would see his rep with his Faction and whoever bought him take a significant slide.”

  Sunie tilted his head, working out the translation of what I’d said.

  “Yes,” he finally said, my slang getting translated to his language’s equivalent, if there was one. “He has only one course to come out of this looking good.”

  “And that is to win.”

  Sunie nodded.

  “The Goritoihic Pride will not want Clan Howell to have a good showing,” Sunie said.

  “Because they don’t want to get replaced. So Boro will do his best to accidentally kill me because even though technically there is no killing, accidents do happen.”

  Sunie nodded, looking at me, waiting to see what I was going to decide.

  I did think it all over. I knew that I wasn’t just representing myself but all of Clan Howell. I was the leader of the Clan, or at least the figurehead, and that meant more in the Nexus than it did on Earth where everyone knew Kat was the real power. But here in the Nexus, my status wasn’t just that of a figurehead. I was going to have to be the real deal.

  So all my actions would have ramifications beyond just me. It could affect generations of Clan Howell. If I pissed off this Goritoihic Pride, which if I won then I probably would make some nice new enemies, that would mean any of Clan Howell coming to the Multiversal Nexus would have enemies. It could sour any potential dealings we had with these older Factions.

  I knew what Kat would want me to do. On Earth, Clan Howell had a reputation and she’d want me to maintain that reputation.

  “So the question is to duel or not duel?” I said, looking at Sunie, who nodded.

  I didn’t know him well, but I had a good feeling of what he wanted me to decide. Luckily it aligned with what I was going to do. I smiled.

  “I don’t like when people try to play with me,” I said, seeing Sunie smile. “Let’s go make a statement.”

  I opened the door, Sunie following me into the room.

  “Hopefully he or his second cheat so you can have some fun too.”