After meeting back up with him, Old Man Leng drove us to a section of the slums near his store, in the area the Bloodthirsters had once patrolled. Here, he said, would be where we would commence the first stage of our training for the preliminaries coming up soon.

"So, uh...what exactly will we be doing?

" I asked, looking around.

"A mock battle,

" Old Man Leng replied immediately with a chuckle.

"A mock battle?

" Feng Mian echoed, evidently confused.

"Yeah. I'm goin' to have ya fight one another in a paintball battle,

" Old Man Leng said, laughing.

"Oh man, this is goin' to be amusin'.

"

"Wait, didn't you say we could choose whichever method we wanted to use in the preliminaries? We don't have to use guns, do we?

" Yu An Yan inquired, slightly nervous. Her gun skill wasn't the best, compared to the rest of us - although still better than average.

"Uh-uh, that's for the actual tournament,

" Old Man Leng replied.

"In the preliminaries, usin' guns will be yer best bet. The reason? In the past years, the contest has been traversin' through various types of terrain - forests, icy mountains, ya name it. Range and precision beat outright power in this case. Usin' utility-type magic is perfectly fine, but I'd advise against usin' spells for offense. Not only would that give away yer position to other teams lookin' to eliminate as many other contestants as possible to minimize competition, it would also be useless in places with lots of cover, like a forest.

"

"What about an icy mountain, like you mentioned? There shouldn't be that much cover up there, no?

" Yu An Yan continued, not backing down.

"U-Uh, you'll trigger an avalanche...

" I murmured.

"What he said,

" Old Man Leng snickered.

"R-Right...

" she turned away, slightly embarrassed at having not realized that.

"Any more questions?

" Old Man Leng asked, looking around at us.

"This place is perfectly safe, since ya got rid of the Bloodthirsters. I've already made sure no other gangs moved in. So? What do ya say?

"

"Well...it would be a lie if I said I wasn't excited to test out my gun abilities against you guys,

" Xiang Peng said with a wink.

"Is this going to be a free for all or teams?

"

"Free for all,

" Old Man Leng replied.

"Even though the actual prelims will be in teams, there will be many other teams fighting against ya, not just one, so it's basically just a free for all, just in teams.

"

"Free for all...sounds interesting,

" Obsidia muttered, a sly grin on her face. It seemed this was one of the few times she actually showed emotion on her face and was genuinely interested in doing something with humans.

The girls all seemed to be okay with the idea, so Old Man Leng clapped his hands together in satisfaction and made a toothy grin.

"Alrighty. I'll let ya know when the fight begins via earpieces. Here,

" he said, handing us out the now-familiar ear pieces...along with special ammo packs, it seems like.

"What are these?

" Qing Yue asked curiously.

"Special bullets. They emit a colorful gas if you hit someone with it, and doesn't actually do any harm,

" Old Man Leng explained.

"Use these unless ya want to kill yer own friends.

"

After we each took one pack along with the earpieces, he continued.

"Now, split apart from each other. As far as possible.

"

We nodded in confirmation, and each went our separate ways. There were plenty of different paths in the slums, so we just each chose a separate one; wasn't too hard. After a good ten minutes, Old Man Leng finally said something through the comms.

"Alright. Y'all should be far away 'nuff from each other by now,

" he said.

"Now, the rules of this fight will be simple. Free-for-all - anythin' goes. The boundaries are these slums, so as long as ya don't leave 'em, runnin' anywhere is fair game. When ya get tagged by smoke, yer dead. Just stay where ya are, and I'll come get ya to come back to this starting place. Everyone ready?

"

"Yeah,

" we all replied through the comms.

"Good. Then...let's begin, shall we? 3...2...1. Go.

"

*****

(Obsidia's Perspective)

Go.

As soon as I heard that word, I began moving.

I ran quickly through the shadows. The first thing I needed to do was secure a good spot where I could snipe from and get a good view of the entire slums. The most optimal location to satisfy both these requirements was - given the circumstances - of course, the roof of a tall building. High ground is a sniper's favorite home.

Level One Sky Magic - Flight.

Activating Flight, I immediately flew upwards onto the roof of a nearby building. There weren't any rules against using magic to aid you, after all - only no offensive-type spells. However, that being said, I didn't want to just keep flying until I found a good spot. That would make me too much of a target. I couldn't use any invisibility magic since I didn't have a Shadow Element affinity, so that left me with only one option - jumping from roof to roof with my own two feet.

I would try to get to the highest rooftop possible, and after several minutes, I arrived at one that looked good. I jumped upwards from the rooftop I had been on, and just barely managed to reach the ledge of the roof I was aiming for. Pulling myself up with great difficulty, I took a deep breath, and relaxed just a little to get my strength back.

Tch...this human body is really tiresome. With my draconic strength, climbing a ledge like this would be easier than a cake walk. Unfortunately, shapeshifting into a human came with its disadvantages. My strength would be limited to that of an average human as well, until I reverted back into my original form. And since that's not an option here...ugh, whatever. I'll just have to deal with it.

With these complaints in my head, I looked around. This building seemed to be the highest one in these slums, and not only that, but I could also pretty much see the whole place since I was in the centre of the area. Satisfied, I gently took Whisper off my back, and laid it on the ground. It had a built-in bipod, so I just activated that by pulling on a tiny lever on the bottom of the gun. A metal beam swung out, and I pried it apart into three separate legs, forming a stand for my sniper.

I then moved the whole thing to one edge of the roof, and laid down on my belly. Looking through the scope, I adjusted the height of the bipod and position to fit my comfort. Despite how insignificant these actions may seem to the untrained eye, it was critical for a sniper to shoot a gun comfortably in order to achieve maximum accuracy and precision.

After a good minute of slight adjustments and tweaking, I suddenly heard a gunshot. It was coming from my north, quite distant - in otherwords...whoever just shot, and whoever that person was shooting at, were both coming towards me. I narrowed my gaze behind the scope of Whisper, and waited patiently for my pray.

All I had to was lay here in wait. Those foolish humans have no knowledge of tactics and strategies - they will never think to look for me in the high grounds.

Kuku...keep fighting, humans. And when you're done, I will pull the trigger.

*****

- Meanwhile, On That Same Roof -

(Xuan Kai's Perspective)

...

Was what I was seeing real?

Laying on her belly right in front of me was Obsidia, her elegant long black hair blending in with her black clothes. She was looking through her sniper, Whisper, appearing to be waiting for someone.

Is this the strategy known as...camping?

I also heard the gunshot from just now, which was why I immediately moved up to higher ground to get a view, but I never expected to run into someone so quickly. Moreover...Obsidia had no idea I was right behind her. Looking at her completely innocent and unknowing figure, I could only cringe and turn away.

Ah...ignorance is bliss, as they say.

Slowly, careful not to make any noise with my footsteps, I walked away, and leapt off the roof of the building before activating Flight mid-air to avoid falling to my death. But before that, I took out my phone from my pocket, and took a picture of her to use as proof later.

Kuku...can't wait to see her reaction when she finds out about this.

Yes, I could've eliminated her right then and there. But where would be the fun in that? All that would serve to do was getting Obsidia pissed off at me. Despite her being a dragon and all that, she was still pouty just like any of the other girls.

And besides...even if I don't make a move here, first blood will still be mine.

I grinned, and began taking the ground path towards the direction where I had heard the earlier gunshot from.