My three opponents were fully-grown men. I stood a head taller than each of them. Furthermore, they'd clearly fought together in a group setting before. They naturally fell into a chevron as they began to move across the arena.

I didn't trust that I'd be able to win in a match of skill against any of them, let alone three. So, if I wanted a shot at victory, I'd need to play dirty.

"It's good to meet you all. Anyone wanna shake hands before our friendly bout?"

None of them responded. They circled me at a constant distance, moving in the same triangle formation.

"No? Okay."

A greatsword is harder to maneuver than a shortsword, which is why they aren't practical for most people. You make up for what you sacrifice in finesse in additional reach with the blade.

I exploded into movement, and as soon as I did, they responded. They moved fluidly through the arena and broke ranks for the first time to meet me as I charged them. My blade would get there first.

I sent an [Empowered] strike down toward the one who had been leading the triangle and was closest to me. He blocked it successfully, but that didn't matter. My sword was much, much bigger and I'd already proven I was able to bring to bear the force required to break wood.

His sword snapped at the hilt like a twig. He was left clutching a jagged handle. It wouldn't be enough to help him prevent what was coming next. I whipped my sword backward, and sent another [Empowered] strike towards his ribcage. I was more used to sparring with someone with the constitution of Delta, however, so when he took a blow that I thought would only bruise and crumpled like a ragdoll to the floor, I was surprised.

One of his friends took advantage of my shock and tried to hit me. I wasn't quick enough to block the blow, but, I was able to successfully raise my forearm to prevent the worst of it from landing. The wooden blade stung when it made contact. I dropped my sword.

As Delta always said, my size was my advantage. He'd needed to get close to land that strike. Dangerously close. With his blade still occupied in the air with my arm, I kicked him hard in the groin.

He let out a pained yelp. His face contorted, he took a few steps backward, and then he sat down, tapping out.

Suddenly it was no longer three-on-one. It was a duel. Only one of them remained. He was the one furthest from me.

He eyed me warily, his sword ready. My blade was still on the ground. If I went to grab it, it would mean an instant loss for me.

He took a step back, I took a step back.

"You're sure you don't want to shake hands?"

I needed to end this quickly. I'd lost the advantage of reach and I didn't want his buddies to collect themselves and decide it was a good idea to rejoin the fray. I had only the fists I'd been born with, and I hardly knew how to use them. I decided to go for broke.

I closed the distance between us in a few, long steps. I used the same trick, raising either arm in front of my head as I approached. He managed to land multiple blows on either of them and I knew later my limbs would resemble the color of grapes. It wasn't enough. He wasn't physically strong enough to stop me in my tracks. Once I was close enough, I moved my arms away and head-butted him. Hard.

He looked around for a few seconds, dazed. And in all honesty, so was I. Head-butting him was really, really stupid. It was the kind of move that took multiple seconds to recover from and I was still seeing stars. I made a mental note to never do that again.

Thank Zeus, then, that I recovered first. He was still reeling when I bonked him across the temple with my fist. He fell like a sack of potatoes.

I heard the sound of clapping ring out in the basement. It sounded like it was far away. Maybe I wasn't as recovered as I thought. I turned and saw Grady exchanging a small handful of Bolts with Delta.

"Nicely done, Ghul. Interesting strategy to drop the sword, but who am I to argue with results?"

It was over? I looked around. None of my opponents were left standing, or moving, on the ground. Huh. A wave of nausea crashed over me. I struggled to hold onto the contents of my stomach.

"I think I need to sit down."

* * *

I did vomit. I vomited multiple times, in fact. This only furthered my resolve that I was never, ever, again going to headbutt someone again. It was all risk, little-to-no reward. I wasn't sure how much of the sickness was the energy from before the fight wearing off and how much of it was from my own stupidity, but I didn't want to chance it. I returned after a short while to the basement where Delta and Grady waited.

My opponents were beginning to show signs of life. The one that'd been downed first with the blow to his ribs was up and moving around the room. He was putting away the training blades, excluding the one that was now irreparably destroyed. The one I headbutted was still out cold.

He saw me as I entered.

"Good fight. You're a big bastard, y'know that?"

I nodded.

"Good fight. It was close there at the end. Blunt weapons only really lend themselves to my strengths."

He grinned and shook his head,

"Don't be humble now, beat us fair and square. Can't wait to see what you become."

He left, going to help his comrade that I'd kicked down stand from the ground. I walked over to where Delta and the Commander stood waiting. They stopped whatever conversation they were having when I approached. Grady cracked his knuckles and asked me a question.

"How d'ya feel about getting wet?"

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

"I've got nothing against some water. I can't actually swim, though."

I had never learned how, much to my embarrassment. Lille was fairly far away from shore so I'd never had cause to learn. I'd never actually stepped foot in the ocean. I saw no appeal in a gargantuan body of water.

"That's fine. You won't need to swim. We'll be baiting the Spineback onto shore anyway. I'd be happy to have you along, especially now that I'm down at least one man."

He let out a sigh and looked over at where the final man was still out cold.

"Sorry about that."

"Don't be. Trevor knew what he signed up for. It'll be a good lesson for him," Trevor still lay unmoving, "whenever it is he wakes up."

All things considered, I really hadn't expected this fight to go as it had. I'd handily dealt with three, more experienced opponents. I was definitely worse for wear, but, there was no question that I'd won. It had all come down to my ability to shrug off blows. If they had been using actual blades, I doubted that I'd still be standing. They were definitely better Swordsmen than I was.

Grady and his men cleared out of the basement shortly thereafter, with two of them carrying the third up the stairs. I hoped he woke up soon. I felt a twinge of guilt over knocking him out. That left just Delta and me.

The blonde man fiddled with one of his braids as he spoke.

"So, let's talk about what you did right, and where you could improve."

He took a deep swig from a waterskin.

"Your breaking of the sword was excellent. I might've seen the beginnings of [Shatter], which is one of the more combat-specific evolutions of [Empower]. It was brief, so it was hard to tell. Once your Might is high enough, I wouldn't be surprised if you're able to achieve much the same effect on metal weapons. Probably sooner than most would. Your opponent nearly shat kine when he saw it come apart in his hands."

He paused. I wasn't sure what 'shat kine' meant, but I assumed it was a good thing.

"But, was it worth the blow that was landed on you in exchange? If those blades had been sharp, I wouldn't be shocked if the blow you blocked with your arm would've hit bone. Still, it made you drop your weapon. That's like pulling your pants down."

I loathed to admit it, but he was right. The fight had gotten a lot harder without a weapon. The way my arms ached proved that much.

"The kick was scrappy but effective. You'll need to integrate more of that physicality into our training bouts from now on. If you're going to use it, you need to know how you're going to get punished for it by anyone worth their salt."

"Were these men not worth their salt?"

"Don't get all high and mighty after your first victory. The caliber of these men was fine for a foot soldier, but, nothing as you'd see among the System-blessed of New Rome. They'd wipe the floor with you, oversized or not."

I'd never heard the term System-blessed before.

"Like you do?"

Delta smiled slyly and shook his head. He was amused.

"No, not quite the way I do."

He knocked softly on my temple.

"The trick you used to finish the bout, the headbutt. Those kinds of tricks are only justifiable if they are going to cause a complete end to the fighting. You were a sitting duck. If the fighting wasn't over, you'd be dead right now. A flashy finish serves to make a statement. That doesn't mean it's practical."

I had already come to a similar conclusion on my own.

"All things considered, you did fine. Not good, because you still would've died, but fine. More than well enough to get Alexander to sign off on your participation."

Oh, right. The prize for my winning the fight was being allowed to go into another, more dangerous, fight. I wasn't sure if excited was the appropriate way to describe how I felt.

"Why do I care about getting to fight a Horror?"

"For as advanced as your [Status] is, and how young you are, I often forget how much you don't know."

I raised my eyebrows at him. I was sure my [Status] was nothing compared to his.

"The Horrors are the natural world's equivalent to the System-blessed. Whilst every living person might have a System, only a few have the affinity, or circumstance, required to grow strong and truly powerful through its blessing. The same is true for most life. Or most animals. Still, more often than not they leave people well enough alone."

"So why do we kill them?" Something wasn't making sense to me.

"Nanites."

"The hell's a nanite?"

Delta sighed. "Just full of questions today, aren't you?"

He picked up a weapon from the rack, this time a hammer. I hadn't touched one since my first evening at Alewife.

"If we're going to be here awhile, you can at least be practicing your [Empowerment] whilst we talk."

That reminded me, I called up my [Status] for the first time since the fight:

Ghul

Vestige: The Behemoth

Might: III

Arcana: -

Intellect: II

Dexterity: II

Authority: - Overridden

Traits:

Abilities: Empower I (34.61%)

I'd made a jump in Intellect earlier in the week during a lecture from Delta, but beyond that, my progress had been slow. My [Empower] had gone up a few percentage points, but, the eventual goal of 100% that would trigger the ability to evolve was still far out of reach. Delta insisted that there was no way to make it happen faster beyond lots of mindless, boring repetition.

My dexterity was a weak point. I was able to see a blow coming and think of how I would respond, but entirely unable to move quickly enough to execute. I knew I was still faster than most, but in the world of System enhanced combat that Delta seemed to expect from me, that wasn't good enough.

The System seemed to follow a scale where the first value of an attribute was your baseline, but from that point on any increase meant different things for different people. For example, Might: III for me was more powerful than Might: III for a much smaller person.

I closed out of my system. Delta was waiting.

"You probably aren't aware that the System is not infinite. The essence of the System, known as nanites, are stolen from a living thing upon their expiration. The more nanites you have, the more powerful of a User you can become."

It made sense. It explained how I'd gotten more powerful when I'd killed Oleander.

"Can you tell me what the problem with this is?"

I rubbed my hand against the back of my neck. "I'm not sure. Is the System going to eventually run out?"

"If that were going to happen, it would've happened already. No, the problem is that it incentivizes killing in order to become more powerful. Remember, every living thing has a System, and thus nanites."

I nodded. I prepared to strike a practice dummy with an [Empowered] hammer. My bruised arms screamed with the exertion.

"So what's the solution, Ghul?"

"I'm not sure." I thought about it, but there wasn't one that came readily to mind.

Delta hummed in response. "When you figure it out, let me know."

That particular piece of tutelage concluded I resumed practicing my ability to whack things extra good via the System. The question kicked about in my mind for the next few hours and then was promptly forgotten about in sleep's soft embrace.