Magnet-Clamp.

Kieran quickly left the Kyara, holding the extracted micro-device and the examined bullet fragment with caution. He had the indisputable evidence they required to exact justifiable punishment on Treskan. He practically dashed back to the hospital, bounded through the door of Nora's recovery room without knocking, and exuberantly told the group what he had discovered.

 "We've got him!" Still a little out of breath from his hasty return, Kieran cried out. "By the ancestors, we absolutely have him!"

 Yan eagerly leaned forward. "What? What is it? What did you discover? Kieran held up the tiny bundle of circuitry and wires he had taken out with care.

 "This is a miniature hypersonic pulse emitter," Kieran clarified, his voice tight with restrained rage. It produces concentrated hypersonic vibrations within the projectile itself at a rate of thousands of cycles per second when remotely activated, most likely during firing. Because of these micro-vibrations, the bullet can 'phase' through armor that would otherwise stop it cold because they significantly lower the material resistance of whatever it strikes. Once penetration is made, Nora suffers the remaining catastrophic damage caused by the heavy caliber bullet's sheer kinetic energy. It's among the most pernicious and challenging cheating techniques available today. Without intense magnification and specialized diagnostic methods, the microwelds needed to embed the device are almost undetectable, and standard spectrographic and density scans won't detect it."

 At last, Luna, who had spent the previous conversation quietly sharpening the edge of one of her combat daggers in a corner chair, spoke, her voice dangerously low. "So," she said without raising her blade, "we have direct evidence. Fantastic. No overt threat could have chilled the bones more than the slow, deliberate scrape of stone on steel and the complete lack of emotion.

 After obtaining the proof, the five companions started talking about how to deal with Treskan in a practical way. The severity and inventiveness of the suggested approaches varied greatly. At first, Kieran preferred a quick, dramatic conclusion—possibly a focused force application that severed the spinal cord. In keeping with her predatory tendencies, Nayla proposed a more brutal course of action: giving Treskan a strong neurotoxin that would completely impair his motor control, leaving him completely conscious and aware but completely paralyzed—a living mind imprisoned for all time inside an immobile shell that would not even allow him to blink. In the end, the group rejected Nayla's suggestion as possibly too extreme, veering toward the kind of prolonged cruelty they hated in others, despite its dark appeal. However, they all agreed on two things: first, they would wait until Nora was well enough to actively take part in whatever form of retaliation was chosen, allowing her to personally get her revenge. Secondly, if they postponed their action, Treskan would feel reassured and think he had gotten away with his deceit. His inescapable arrogance, fueled by the time that passed while Nora recovered, would make their eventual retaliation all the more delightful and powerful. The reckoning of Treskan would wait. Meanwhile, Yan, Nayla, and Kieran still had their own tournament bouts to contend with. Naturally, Nora's injuries were so severe that she was permanently removed from the competition. Nora would not be able to recover in time for a possible rematch or continuation of the fight under supervision, even if they presented their evidence to the Directorate right away and demanded Treskan's disqualification. The wise strategic move was patience.

 Kieran was the next in line to compete out of the fighters still in their group. The Crejak, a powerful four-armed species known for their skill in battle, was his opponent. Crejaks were naturally skilled fighters, and their extra limbs made it clear that they could use more than one weapon or shield at once. Crejaks were known for their ability to withstand severe physical abuse, despite their generally small stature, which averaged five Terran feet. They had extraordinarily dense musculature and skeletal structure. Their natural resilience, strength, and endurance were remarkable, but they lacked much speed or skill at stealth. Kieran looked over his opponent's BattleWeb profile and saw that, aside from the obvious biological difference between having four arms versus two and the Crejak's lower overall speed rating, their listed stats were strikingly similar to his own preferred combat metrics. This matchup was sure to be intriguing. The declared loadout of his opponent was... extensive. In addition to a number of grenades and backup sidearms, the Crejak was described as carrying a heavy ballistic shield, a powered battleaxe, a broadsword, and a heavy machine gun spread across his four arms. This Crejak was a formidable opponent, especially when paired with heavy-plated armor that was said to be as protective as Kieran's own custom suit. Kieran briefly contemplated using the "Bio-Disparity Clause," a rarely applied tournament regulation that permits a fighter to request a different opponent in the event that their designated opponent had a significant, innate biological advantage (such as four arms versus two). He brushed the idea aside instantly. The draw would decide who he would face.

 Kieran went to the designated preparation area, also referred to as "the pits," to put on his armor when it was time for his match. He had a proprietary affection for his custom armor, perhaps more consistent in his care and respect for it than he did for most living things. Every plate, rivet, seal, hinge, and articulation joint had to be carefully inspected as part of his weekly maintenance regimen, which took almost three hours on average. Piece by interlocking piece, he started the methodical process of equipping the armor. The exact order needed for the intricate system to properly assemble and operate at its best was only fully understood by him. The suit itself weighed nearly fifty pounds before ammunition and integrated systems were added, even though it was primarily made of lightweight, advanced magnesium alloys that were allowed under tournament regulations. At least twenty pounds more was added by his usual weapon loadout. However, Kieran had never been particularly concerned about the total weight; his strength readily made up for it. He carefully inserted his ammunition into the appropriate slots: shotgun shells nestled in the right thigh carrier, pistol magazines fastened to his left thigh plate, a combat knife horizontally sheathed across his chest harness, and a single-edged sword snug in its scabbard across his back. Only the complex infrared and micro-motion sensor packages built into his helmet were outsourced; Kieran had personally supervised the construction of almost all of his armor and weaponry. If the micro-motion system detected sudden, minute movements that might indicate an impending threat within its detection radius, it was intended to sound an alert and produce a directional icon on his HUD. Only extremely sophisticated stealth systems, such as Nayla's complex active camouflage and thermal baffling suit, could consistently avoid detection; the thermal imaging offered by the infrared sensors proved invaluable in low-light or obscured visibility conditions. With his heavy combat shotgun ready, Kieran entered the arena through the gate, fully armed, weapons checked and loaded. Standing tall and commanding in the shadow of the artificial trees, he strode to his starting position in the forest-like setting selected for this match. He was overtaken by the deafening but unheeded roar of the crowd. He was not particularly interested in public opinion, and the possible profits from betting percentages were at best of secondary importance. The test of his abilities and determination was the reason he was here. The Crejak came through the other gate. Unpronounceable by normal human vocal cords, his registered name was a complicated string of clicks and guttural stops. At the very least, the language barrier would prevent any in-game taunting via the communication channels, which Kieran especially hated. The klaxon blared at the beginning.

 Kieran thumbed off the safety and racked the slide of his shotgun, chambering a heavy buckshot round. It was a live weapon. He jogged steadily into the made-up forest, shotgun at low ready, looking ahead at the treeline. His motion sensors ping-ed less than two minutes later. He felt movement on his left flank. His adversary, who was wearing thick, blue-green articulated plate armor with intricate tribal etchings, appeared from behind a thick tree bole. Remarkably silent for his size, the Crejak traveled perpendicular to Kieran's course, seemingly oblivious to Kieran's approach. Naturally, Kieran raised the shotgun. The distance, as shown by the built-in rangefinder, was 63 meters. Well within the heavy buckshot load's effective engagement range. Perhaps a fraction too quickly, he brought the weapon up to firing position. Right in front of him, a low-hanging branch was clipped by the shotgun's muzzle, and the loud crack reverberated through the forest's relative silence. At the same time, the Crejak turned, bringing the heavy machine gun in its upper right arm to bear, and reacted instantly, its multifaceted eyes snapping towards the sound. Before the machine gun exploded, repairing the area he had just occupied with a barrage of fast-moving slugs, Kieran had hardly time to dive sideways and crash behind the trunk of a huge simulated redwood. With his own shotgun back in firing position, Kieran took the blow, rolled smoothly, and came up kneeling behind the tree's thick cover. For a brief moment, the Crejak stopped shooting, its massive head spinning quickly as it scanned the trees in an effort to regain its target. Its own weapon's brilliant muzzle flash had probably momentarily clouded its vision, making it impossible to follow Kieran's dive for cover. Kieran took advantage of the brief advantage. He centered the sights of the shotgun on the wide upper torso of the Crejak, leaned cautiously around the edge of the redwood trunk, and squeezed the trigger. Kieran was immediately identified by the combat shotgun's characteristic, thunderous boom, but not before the full spread of heavy buckshot—nearly two hundred individual pellets—slammed into the chest plate of the Crejak. The heavily built alien was visibly rocked and slightly stunned by the sheer force of the impact, but its strong stance held. Kieran cycled the shotgun's action instantly and fired again, hitting the same spot with a nearly identical impact. The Crejak was violently knocked backward, spinning a full 180 degrees before crashing heavily onto its stomach due to the cumulative force of the third consecutive blast. Kieran leaped from his hiding place and charged at his fallen foe, drawing his long, single-edged sword and holstering the shotgun with ease on his back magnet-clamp.