Heroine was first to react to the unexpected attack, curling behind her shield as she tried to jump back as far as she could. Tiago soon after withdrew a mass of things from his spatial bag. But Wumei could only curl her arms and legs in front to shield herself insufficiently.

  The Bomber exploded, and all three targets were blasted away into the stone buildings. Heroine rose with a few streaks of blood running down her face and a damaged shield. Tiago emerged nearly unscathed from behind three tower shields, the last of which had held up against the blast.

  But Wumei had not gotten off so easily. All of her limbs aside from her right arm were mangled, and half of her body was badly burnt in the strange way only raw mana could inflict. Were it not for her distance from the Bomber, she would have surely died instantly.

  Wumei tried to rise back to her feet but that only pushed her closer to death. The old woman grit her teeth in bitter frustration but stubbornness did not surpass her rationality. She took out another glittering gemstone and broke it in her hand. Light wrapped around her body and carried her towards the bazaar in the blink of an eye.

  “Those stones again… That cannot be a mere Low Grade effect. Where did she get them?” Gilgamesh was deeply interested, but he did not lose sight of the priority.

  Tiago was low on mana and little threat to him alone, but Gilgamesh knew better at this point than to expect victory until victory had been confirmed. Two Boulder Apes barreled towards the bandit at his command.

  Seeing the state of his circumstances, Tiago simply turned and fled. Gilgamesh gave chase behind the pursuit of his Boulder Apes, carried by the back by his Forest Hand, and Heroine ran after them both with desperate confusion.

  The bandit was fast, but not quite as fast as his Boulder Apes. One of them slammed its fist down at him, but Tiago threw himself into the alley at his side. The Boulder Stone Ape almost gained on him because of that detour, but Tiago slipped through the windows of a building.

  Gilgamesh had his Boulder Ape barrel straight through the crude structure, but it was enough to slow it down just a little, and Tiago regained his distance. But Gilgamesh did not allow that so easily.

  He wielded his golem to grab the chunks of stone on the ground and hurl them after the bandit as it pursued. But Tiago darted around the other buildings as cover. The second Boulder Ape vaulted over the slum shanties and slammed two fists down to destroy another entirely.

  But Tiago dove away from the attack once again. The bandit was outnumbered and slower than his Boulder Apes in a footrace, but he was more adept at slipping away than Gilgamesh was at chasing.

  Gilgamesh glanced back at Heroine doing her best to just barely keep up. Then he glanced ahead to the fleeing Tiago, who deftly cut through the winding slum streets as though he knew them as well as the back of his hand.

  [ Gilgamesh ]

  Mana Capacity: 59/340

  "He's getting away.."

  The bandit was out of mana and out of tricks, but Gilgamesh's mana was also low and he had seen through his vaulting Boulder Ape’s Perception that they had almost reached the Bazaar. So he decided to take a risk.

  [ Clay Scout ]

  Mana Capacity: 250/250 -> 0/250

  [ Gilgamesh ]

  Mana Capacity: 51/340 -> 301/340

  Gilgamesh first drained one of his Clay Scout cores of all its mana. Then he wielded one of his Boulder Apes to carry him, and sent the Forest Hand on his back rushing towards Tiago. Wumei had destroyed one of his Forest Hands, so he only had this one left. It was faster than his Boulder Apes. Fast enough to catch Tiago in time. This act left Gilgamesh more vulnerable to attack, but he didn’t care. A lost opportunity to him, here in these Trials, was the same as death.

  Gilgamesh made his other Boulder Ape hurl stones and rubble with every step. Tiago was forced to dodge and seek cover, while his Forest Hand flew straight. Tiago darted through an alley and cut through another building. And the Forest Hand was waiting for him.

  The large wooden hand forced Tiago away from the Bazaar, and Gilgamesh finally had his chance. He reached out his hand and cast strands of serpentine rope from his Snakecord Ring.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  [ Gilgamesh ]

  Mana Capacity: 247/340

  The ropes slithered over the ground and wound around Tiago before he had time to evade them, and bound him tight. Just as a Boulder Ape lunged through the air with a hammering fist.

  And Tiago smiled.

  An iron ball the size of a man’s head slammed into the Boulder Ape’s arm to knock it off course. Tiago withdrew a dagger and cut through the snake rope, dispersing them back into the mana they were formed from, just in time to dodge the Boulder Ape’s second strike.

  At that same time, Gilgamesh wielded his other Boulder Ape to block an arrow aimed at him. He found the archer quickly, but a large man struck his golem in the back with a warhammer.

  His golem endured, but the blow was heavy. Another one and the stone might break open to its core. The large man raised his hammer again, and Gilgamesh willed his Boulder Ape to maul him away. The sheer power of 60 Strength killed the man on contact.

  But he was being forced to wield this Boulder Ape for his own defense, so Gilgamesh had no choice but to use the other as well. He wielded the Boulder Ape sent up ahead to kill Tiago to instead hurl a stone to kill the archer who threatened his life.

  Tiago did not let that opening pass by. He lunged towards the Bazaar and threw a dagger into the center of the Forest Hand’s palm. Gilgamesh felt his connection break, and saw the wooden golem crumble into vanishing splinters. He pursued Tiago at once with everything he had, but the bandit was getting away.

  “No… I can’t lose this opportunity. I must succeed!”

  Gilgamesh threw out another core. But it wasn't his Bolt Viper or a Clay Salamander or even a Bomber. It was his other Clay Scout. Clay Scout was near useless in a fight, but it was the only golem he had that was fast enough to catch up.

  Tiago glanced behind at the gaining clay golem, but his calm smile didn’t change. The Bazaar was right ahead. He would escape in time.

  Just then, Heroine lunged out of the alley at his side with her mace raised high. Tiago looked at her in slight surprise. Admittedly, he had forgotten all about her. Or rather, it was more accurate to say that he hadn’t considered her at all.

  Heroine swung down her mace with desperate zeal. Her attack had more power than he could manage. Enough power to kill him. But he wasn’t threatened, or even particularly concerned. He only saw it as it was.

  Tiago suddenly lunged in for a headbutt, which triggered Heroine’s trait to jerk her body back. Then he struck with his dagger. Heroine was startled but shock did not stunt her reaction. She was off balance and leaning back, so she adapted and kicked at his groin.

  Tiago jumped away from it and threw two daggers at just the right spots so her own shield would obstruct her vision when she blocked them. And then he fled. A brief exchange from an enemy’s ambush into a clean getaway. But the Clay Scout stepped right beside him.

  The Clay Scout moved to strike and Tiago reacted, but that strike never came. Instead, the Clay Scout snatched the spatial bag from the bandit and lunged towards Heroine. Tiago threw a dagger after it, right towards its core, but Gilgamesh expected that. He wielded the golem to lurch to the side at just the right moment, and the dagger sank harmlessly into the side of its clay torso.

  Heroine moved her shield and shock struck her once again as the clay golem charged towards her. The Clay Scout was careless and reckless. No part of it wasn’t open in its attack, and Heroine swung her mace towards its core.

  But just then, the golem’s movements sharpened. Gilgamesh took control and snatched the cloth pouch from her belt. Heroine thrashed her shield in a panic and pummeled off one of its legs.

  The Clay Scout stumbled over as Heroine aimed to finish it off, and Tiago lunged to retrieve his spatial bag. But to both of their surprise, the Clay Scout just threw the bags into the air.

  Heroine reacted first and jumped for them. Tiago jumped second and was the faster of the two. But both of them could only watch as bandaged hands grabbed both.

  Gilgamesh hurled past them through the air, thrown by his own Stone Ape. He slammed onto the paved stone ground without a trace of dexterity and rolled over it. Agony wracked his body from the impact, but he lifted it all the same and rose to his feet within the Bazaar.

  As he did, he turned a gaze of composed hostility towards Tiago, who had jumped into the Bazaar right after him. But the Slumleader merely gave back the same casual smile as ever.

  "Lighten up, man. It's just a game." Tiago said as walked on further into the market without much of a care in the world.

  Gilgamesh checked his spatial bag and it did not disappoint. A staggering 1,841 jadestones, along with a small assortment of various Low Grade items. Combined with the roughly 600 jadestone each in Heroine’s pouch and his own, he now had over 3,000.

  He had made it seem to others at any available point that he would remain in the slums, but he had no such intention. The halfway point of the trials was already approaching, and his goal was always training.

  [ Some gods delight in your treachery. ]

  [ Some gods think more poorly of you. ]

  [ Loathsome Stag ] laughs.

  Heroine stared at him from the other side with an anxious stillness. Stress and desperation mounted as the betrayal finally registered, and her expression fell distraught.

  “Liar!”

  Gilgamesh did not say anything. He only returned a callous gaze and turned towards the Bazaar. Jadestones of this amount would allow him to buy everything he needed and more.

  It was as precious as his own blood, were that still what flowed through his veins. It was not enough to do almost enough. He needed to do all that was within his power to attain victory.

  Golden arms suddenly pushed him back into the slums. Gilgamesh jolted to his feet at the shock of such an unexpected attack, then his expression fell still at the source of it. A man with copper skin, golden hair, and golden eyes who stepped into the slums before he could be captured by Puppet Guards.

  “There you are, brother.” Marduk stood above him with an infallible gaze.

  [ Many gods are watching. ]

  “We have a ritual to complete.”