Alex moved steadily through the forest, his steps light, his presence nonexistent.
The tournament field was vast, stretching across an artificially created realm that mimicked a wild, untamed world. Towering trees clawed at the sky, their canopies forming an almost unbroken ceiling of green. Dense undergrowth made navigation difficult for most participants, but Alex walked as if he had lived there all his life.
There were exactly 13,463 contestants in this tournament. The number had bothered him earlier. At first, he had assumed that this meant there were only that many multiversal worlds participating. That conclusion had felt small. Limiting.
