The Kotown arena was much larger and had a lot more events than the Kahaka arena. And since some were held simultaneously, John had to skip a few he knew he’d win.
The early events were the least popular and held as the audience slowly filled the stadium. The normalized matches, all manifestation free, garnered little interest, and were always held first.
Over the loudspeaker, the announcer greeted those early arrivals. “Welcome all to the Kotown arena of the city of Victor!
“The first event will be starting soon. Competitors, please make your way to the box. Normalized Weapon matches. First blood. We have sword, axe, spear, and staff. Just two entrants for the staff, so this will be the only showing and finale. One comp ironman for the rest. No Kren tonight. Sorry folks. We’re hoping she’s just running late.
“And, of course, we’d like to thank our gracious hosts – the Peerless Empire, Heiau Maka, Nani Victor-Fe An, and Nani Kliee!”
A light spattering of claps and cheers went up as John made his way to the box.
One comp ironman meant there’d be only one instance of each event with as many rounds as there were competitors minus one. The victor of the previous round would advance to the next. The winner of the last round won the finale and the pot, even if it was the competitor’s first and only round.
John was the only sword competitor that volunteered to fight in the first round. It only cost two clear crystals to enter the event. The arena would match the crystals the competitors paid to enter. There were five entrants so four rounds would be held in total, the last round being the finale. The winner of a round would win three clear-crystals, and the winner of the finale 11.
If John swept the event, he’d turn two clear crystals into 20. Pocket change. The real money came from betting. Thankfully, it seemed the arenas didn’t share information as John locked in great payouts for all his initial wagers.
After John bet so much on himself on so many events, including events for tiers much higher than his own, the organizers or bookmakers must have looked into him. After placing all his initial wagers, the payout for him sweeping the first event went from one crystal winning 12 all the way down to three crystals winning four.
Still, three winning four was a much better payout than what John had been getting in the Kahaka arena, which, at best, got him 11 crystals for every 10 wagered. Often it was 21 for 20, or even 51 for 50.
John had planned on placing all his winnings into new wagers for his subsequent events. His ability to make decent money in this way went out the window as his payouts dropped so dramatically. He’d still roll winnings over, but he expected far worse payouts for his future wagers.
The announcer started to introduce competitors. John ignored them all. Hardly anyone of note entered the scrub events. He made his way to the modified Trainers the arena used for normalized competitions and waited. His opponent looked as if it was a giant squirrel partially made of rocks. Though his opponent was a Salt, they both bowed at the waist equally. Tier meant nothing in normalized competitions.
John said, “Hello, Salt,” to the rock-squirrel and the greeting was returned. That’s another .1 energy cost discount for completing that gabber [Achievement] and speaking to ten aliens, thought John.
Both competitors would enter the modified Trainer. The competition would take place in the competitors’ minds, but a hologram would be projected between the opponents for the audience to view. Both competitors would have the body of a brute-type Peerless, and each would have the exact same [Stats], weight, reach, etcetera. This was a test of [Skill] only.
But John knew that wasn’t completely true. The [Stats] of each competitor were set to 50 with no efficiency increases. His [Swiftness] would be exactly the same as the rock-squirrel’s. Reaction was part of the [Swiftness] [Stat], but the normalization didn’t seem to be perfect.
In every Trainer John had ever used, including the same type of modified Trainer in the Kahaka arena, his avatar was able to react much faster than his opponent’s. And it wasn’t due to his [Skill] Mastery with the sword, as it held just as true for normalized unarmed matches too.
The announcer introduced John’s opponent and the rock-squirrel received some cheers and raised its hand in recognition.
“And the opponent is John of...Earth. Earth as in dirt? Is this...one second. Even the official name of the planet, Terra, translates as dirt. Planet Dirt. What a bunch of geniuses. Well, John Dirt is making its first appearance in the Kotown arena tonight. Wow, it entered into pretty much every event. Bet a fortune on itself too.
“Wait, is this...yes, this is the race from those new...all those amazing new playz and serials with the ‘what if there were no Tree of Life’ motif. It seems they’re a real race, and from our very own sector! And their race really is named dirts. Keep in mind, races name their own planet. And they named their planet Dirt, making themselves dirts. You can’t make this stuff up, huh, folks?
“My life-partner harassed me into watching one of the serials. I’ll tell you what, folks, the one I purchased was well worth the energy cost. I can’t recommend watching ‘The A-Team’ enough. Every episode made me laugh so much I’d nearly excrete waste into my anal stylus. God Almighty, I love monkey races. So cute! Let’s give this cutey John Dirt a nice Kotown welcome!”
A spattering of claps and cheers went up including some loud whistling by Hux. The light on the Trainer went from black to orange so John entered the machine. He tested a few rapiers and took the longest, noticing the [Stats] weren’t normalized at 50 as he swung it around. He would guess they were set to about 100, still much lower than his own, but better than 50.
The light turned from orange to a blinking green. John set himself in a silly stance taught to him by a man named Gabin, a fencing expert born and raised in Mexico, though his parents were French.
Fencing was what modern sword competition had devolved into. The rules and stances seemed very silly to John’s mind, but they worked extremely well in the Normalized Sword event.
John held the rapier extended out in the massive right hand of his far too long brute arm. He bent his right knee way too far forward, and his left leg extended back in a steep angle behind him. As soon as the blinking green light turned white, he performed a thrust called a flunge high and outside at his right-handed opponent’s sword shoulder.
Nearly every time John did this, his opponent would try to beat or parry the attack down and outward. And due to John’s [Skill] and advanced knowledge of wristwork, regardless of how his opponent beat or parried, he could slide his blade along theirs, keep the angle, and score a hit on the arm, shoulder, or upper-right chest.
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And the same held true against the rock-squirrel and all three opponents he faced after, as John swept the event through the finale.
The next event was the Normalized Unarmed, a popular event with many entrants, netting 41 competitors in total. The buy in was the same, but there’d be multiple matches going at once. One lucky competitor would only fight in the finale.
John didn’t enter the unarmed event. The advanced tactics and moves used by Marbrouk and Hux were still beyond him.
The strongest of men had always been multiple times stronger than the average man. Before the Tree of Life returned, John was easily twice as strong as the strongest of men, and more than twice as fast as the fastest of men. He had never had a reason to train much in unarmed combat.
Hux or Marbrouk sweeping the event was a near certainty. Normalized [Stats] and no manifestations meant his friends had a significant advantage. No other culture evolved outside the Tree of Life, so all fighting styles revolved around cultivation and manifestations.
John had planned on rolling the 20 crystals he won from the sword event, as well as the eight thousand and change he won betting on himself, mostly from his bet to sweep, into a new wager for the next event he was competing in, the Normalized Melee FFA. But the payout for him winning that event went down to four crystals winning five.
John figured the payouts would start going down, but he hadn’t assumed by so much so quickly. He was very thankful he had been able to bet all his wealth on important events before the payouts crashed.
One event still had a decent payout of one crystal winning three, so John put all his winnings into a new bet for that event, the Gold tier Free-for-All.
The Platinum tier Free-for-All and Duel now had one crystal winning 12 or 19 if John won, respectively. He didn’t want to risk his winnings on that tier. He had already bet a decent amount on both of those events while the odds on him had much better payouts. If he lost, he wouldn’t lose too much, but if he won, he’d win a fortune.
The Free-for-Alls were the most dangerous events, but the Duels, one-on-one ladders for each tier, were the most important and prestigious events. Duels could be to the death, but hardly ever were. They were, or could be, very dangerous even when to submission or first blood. Someone was accidently killed during a Diamond tier Duel to submission at the Kahaka arena, but that was an exception and not the rule. Accidental deaths were much more likely in the Free-for-All.
John had no idea who was competing in the Duels. If some Peerless were, he wouldn’t be able to overcome their tech. Betting big on the Platinum FFA or Duels was just too risky.
Tech is just as much a blight as the filthy Peerless. All tech should be made illegal, thought John, half-seriously. Many of his human friends called him a Luddite. He wasn’t certain, but from context, he believed a Luddite was someone that disliked tech. If so, he thought Luddites were sensible people.
Both Hux and Marbrouk volunteered for round one of the Normalized Unarmed comp. Both went undefeated until the fifth round where Hux faced Marbrouk and beat him. John bet 100 clear crystals on each of his friends sweeping as a show of support. The odds of either man winning were similarly poor and he’d make almost nine thousand crystals either way. Hux swept the whole thing.
In the Kahaka arena, due to how Hux fought, the competitors and attendees had all complained until the rules were changed. It wasn’t exciting to watch Hux fight. Two brute holograms holding each other tightly and rolling on the ground sensually was not what people wanted to see, regardless of the proven effectiveness of the techniques Hux employed.
Marbrouk went undefeated in the Kahaka arena after the rule changes. John knew if they were allowed to travel to the Kotown arena regularly, the rules would eventually be changed to favor Marbrouk and his striking style.
After the Normalized Unarmed comp was the Normalized Melee FFA, a free-for-all event favoring longer reach weapons.
John used a buckler and short sword, the same as pike-breakers of old did, fully utilizing his higher reaction and mobility. Using a massive two-hander to lop off the heads of the pikes and bills he faced would’ve hampered his maneuverability too much, and bows and slings and other ranged weapons weren’t allowed. John easily won.
Eventually, if John was allowed to return to this arena often, he knew the event would turn from a free-for-all into an alliance against him. The same would be true for the lower tiers of the actual Free-for-All event. He looked forward to the challenge. Until then, he could safely bet large sums on himself winning.
After checking the odds and rolling his winnings into a new bet for the Gold Free-for-All, John became a little worried. It maintained its three-for-one payout. He wondered if that was due to the bookmakers knowing he’d face tech he couldn’t overcome. Going by all the names listed as competitors, it didn’t look like a Peerless was competing.
Tech wasn’t much of an issue in the Kahaka arena. None of the Kahaka had tech close to that of the Peerless. If they did, they probably wouldn’t be Kahaka.
John had no idea what he’d be facing in the Kotown arena, but he knew he couldn’t afford to lose either the Gold tier FFA or Duels. Most of his wealth was sunk into those two events. He absolutely had to win both.
After the normalized melee matches came three normalized comps for ranged weaponry. John knew he could sweep them all regardless of which weapon he chose to compete with. He would’ve used a bow if there was a chance of increasing his [Skill], but he knew it wouldn’t budge in these competitions.
The aim-assist the Tech 4 NCS provided was almost like cheating. John selected a fully automatic essence-fueled rifle. He could keep his shot groupings amazingly tight, and he knew he’d see some [Skill] gain. He swept all three events easily, and his [Skill] level with [Essence-Infused Projectile Weapons] was only 34.
No wonder the Peerless are rolling up this sector. These Kahako suck, thought John. Then he browbeat himself for using the Peerless word.
For the Normalized Ranged FFA, John used an essence-pistol and a giant tower-shield large enough to provide cover for the massive bulk of his brute avatar. Essence-infused firearms didn’t require separate ammunition or reloading, but they could overheat. He leaned on his faster reaction time to avoid what attacks he could, blocked the rest with his tower shield, and ran around with his back towards the stadium, picking opponents off until he was the victor.
John’s winnings were rolled into a new bet for the Gold Free-for-All which still had a three-to-one payout. The stadium had filled during the normalized events. He noticed a couple aliens with hard shell for skin and crab-like hands.
While waiting in the box for the next competition to start, John flashed on the info function of his NCS. Those aliens were named kaw’ns. He entered his Mind’s Eye and made a note of it on his vengeance list. He was almost certain the Exalted that killed all his kin, including Thomas and Maria, was of that race.
With the stadium filled and all the normalized matches over, the better events were about to commence.
Manifestations wouldn’t be allowed in a few other competitions. John could still enhance himself with vital essence in those matches. Once in a while, someone with life-sight would snitch on him, but since no one could feel him manifest anything when he enhanced himself that way, nothing ever came of it.
The most popular arena events absolutely required heavy usage of manifestations, and those events had payouts that made the large expenditure of essence worth it. Even losers were paid out plenty of crystals in compensation.
The weapon energy competition, by its nature, had no essence expenditure, but wasn’t a popular event.
The next slew of competitions were team events. To entice more people to compete, these events didn’t really require the use of, or much use of, manifestations. Marbrouk and Hux signed up for the three matches it was guaranteed they’d be on the same team as John, banking on him carrying their team to victory.
With the more interesting events finally starting, John expected to feel a little more anxiety. He didn’t feel much of it at all. He had to end this night with enough crystals to reoutfit himself. He had to win. Defeat wasn’t an option, so he wouldn’t allow defeat.
John ran his eyes over the packed stadium. He no longer had to hold back and hide his strength in such a setting. When the important matches began, he knew all these strange aliens would be on their feet cheering for him, cheering on the Bronze defying the odds and fighting much higher tier enemies. I truly was born for this.