That morning was the to be the last day of the tournament. Xander was already pleased with his performance so far, but he wanted to win. Having the tournament under his belt would be something he could point to as an achievement for picky employers. Hell, people might even come to him and his team for contracts specifically. There had been those rumors Gabrelle had mentioned about the tournament winner getting some kind of exclusive contract, after all. Xander was unsure of the veracity of those claims, but it wasn’t hard to believe that someone who acquitted themselves well in the tournament – even without winning, necessarily – might catch someone’s eye for a job.
Xander made his way to the arena as he had the past two days, though he opted to fly this time around. Taking a seat in the now mostly empty competitor’s area, he thought about how the day might go. There’s twelve people left, including me, Xander thought to himself. So that would be… twelve down to six, then six down to three… wait. How are they going to work that out? Xander wondered to himself about the logistics of the final match as the rest of the competitors trickled in. He’d arrived early compared to everyone else, except for the most dedicated fans. He’d wanted some time to let his mental jitters about being in what amounted to the semi-finals settle down.
He was going to have three, or maybe even four matches today, assuming he continued winning. And everyone else had to be thinking the same thing. That many matches meant that some of them at least might have to pace themselves, hold back on using abilities that had particularly long cooldowns in case they needed them later. There was also the factor of just plain old fatigue. One might find themselves more tired than their opponent in later matches if they had to go all out in their opening fight. Xander, however, did not need to pace himself much at all. His abilities, for the most part, were shorter cooldowns, and he often did not rely on them too heavily during a fight, and his body would not tire no matter how hard he pushed it. That might give him a leg up and allow him to overpower his opponents who would need to be more conservative with their energy.
As the stadium filled and the allotted time for the start of the matches came, the announcer from the previous day made an appearance once again. His voice boomed across the open space once more.
“Welcome back to the final day of our little tournament! These last three matches are going to show us who’s who here in Rock’s Bay. ‘But wait,’ some of you may be asking yourselves, ‘there’ll be three finalists!’ That’s right, folks! And you know what that means! A. Three. Man. Beat. Down! We’re going to toss ‘em all in the ring and let them sort out who the winner is!”
The crowd cheered for the news of a three-way fight as the final round. Xander hadn’t considered that as an option for the resolution of the final round, but it made about as much sense as anything else, he supposed. It would certainly be a crowd pleaser. He was going to have to make sure he was prioritizing the right fighter while also keeping himself from being ganged up on, assuming he made it to the final round, that is.
As the first fighters were called up, Xander settled back to wait his turn. He wondered who his opponent would be. At this point, only those who were high levels, very skilled, or like in Xander’s case, had some kind of combination of skills that made up for their lack of levels or skills were left. Surveying the nine other people currently in the stands, he tried to take in his potential competition. There were a few he recognized. Illanno, the elven duelist. The hulk of a man who’d thrown his opponent clear out of the ring earlier in the tournament. The mage who’d bound his foe in a stone tomb after knocking them to the ground. The others were less distinct to him. They all seemed to lean towards being melee fighters, with the exception of the lone mage. Xander supposed that made sense. In a tournament where you weren’t allowed to outright kill your opponent, things often were going to come down to being able to take more than your opponent could as you fought. Not exactly the specialty of most mages. There was a mix of armor amongst the remaining fighters, ranging from leather all the way to full plate like Xander’s own. While he might not be able to get much of an idea of their fighting style, he felt he could at least ascertain if they would be doing a lot of moving and dodging by how light their armor was.
Looking down at the arena and the two righters who were clashing, Xander saw that one was in a set of thick, heavy looking plate armor that featured decorative cogs on it and wielding a two-handed mace. The other was a man in leather and chainmail who was wielding a sword in one hand and a dagger in the other. Xander remembered the heavier armored fighter, somewhat, having noticed their armor before. But they played their cards close to their chest, and hadn’t used any abilities that had caught Xander’s eye during the tournament. Perhaps they relied more on their equipment or passive abilities than actives. Regardless, they seemed to have the upper hand in the fight, as the longer reach of the two-handed mace was keeping their opponent from reaching them. For their part, the dual wielding hopped back from a swing of the mace and pointed their sword at the plate armored fighter’s chest. A blue bolt discharged from the tip of the sword and struck true, rocking the heavier fighter backwards. The dual wielder used this opportunity to slip inside the guard of the mace wielder and plunge their dagger into the knee joint of their opponent, where it became lodged.
Surprisingly, the mace wielding fighter reacted very little to having a knife shoved into their knee, as they swung a fist at their opponent, forcing them to back off once again. They experimentally flexed their knee, and then, with force, bent both knees, dropping their weight into it. As they did so, there was a resounding crack of breaking metal as the dagger, now in two pieces, was ejected from the knee joint of their armor. The fight was over shortly after that, the dual wielding warrior unable to significantly injure his opponent through their armor plating. All it took was one hit from the two-handed mace to finally connect in a moment of distraction, and he was on the ground with a broken arm and shoulder.
Xander decided he’d have to watch out for the heavily armored fighter. The amount of protection they fielded might even allow them to shrug off his elemental weapon no matter where he struck them. As he was thinking about how someone might move wearing that much armor, as well as completely ignore a deep stab into a joint, his name was called, breaking his line of thought.
“Up next, we have our mysterious Xander Jones, no longer so mysterious! You see, I had myself a trip down to the Mercenary’s Guild yesterday and had a look-see at our friend’s file! And would you believe it? He’s been with us for less than five years! That’s right, we’ve got a genuine [Godsmarked] here, folks! And not only that, but a distinguished soldier! Fought in the war between Thrask and Dardin, and helped take Ilbek! Hell, they thought he was dead until he turned up after the war three years later! Guess you can’t take all the mystery from a man like him! I give you… The Wraith of Ilbek!”
A portion of the crowd quickly took on a cheer of “Wraith! Wraith! Wraith!” While Xander made his way from the stands and onto the field and the announcer finished his introduction of Xander. Xander wasn’t sure how much he liked being known as ‘The Wraith of Ilbek,’ but he supposed there could be worse monikers to have. At least the announcer hadn’t given away his status as a [Revenant] to the masses. That was something he’d prefer to keep private, with the exception of his teammates and friends. As the cheers died down, the announcer continued.
“And up against our Wraith is Soldek Tringum! A master of the shield, Soldek has consistently placed highly in our humble yearly tournament! Will this year be the year he finally takes it all the way? They say he’s never failed a bodyguard contract, and that nobles and merchants alike seek him out as their first choice for protection. I present to you, the fabled Dwarven Shield of the Bay!”
Another portion of the crowd stomped as they cried out “Soldek,” stomping at each syllable. Soldek, a barrel-chested dwarf clad in bright green enameled plate armor made his way down to the arena opposite Xander. In his hands were a shield, similarly enameled green and with a depiction of a figure bearing a shield as its heraldry, trimmed in gold, and a double hammer headed warhammer.
Soldek gave Xander a form of salute, crossing his hammer over his shield for a moment and nodding his head. Xander, wanting to return the gesture, did his best to stand at attention and snap a salute of his own at the dwarf. The two separated after the exchange of salutes and the gong rang as they reached the appointed distance from each other.
Soldek immediately took up a defensive posture, raising his shield and holding his hammer at the ready. Xander similarly readied his weapon, spinning it to bring up its momentum. The two stared at each other across the field, and Xander could tell that Soldek was ready for a long haul. The dwarf made no effort to move from his spot, save to turn to face Xander as he circled Soldek. And why would he, Xander realized. He was facing off against a dwarf that was dubbed the ‘Dwarven Shield of the Bay.’ Clearly, he must excel in defense and counterattack rather than offense. He was going to force Xander to come to him and then try to take him down during an opening.
Xander wasn’t sure what exactly the dwarf could do at a fifteen-foot distance, though. He’d have to bite the bullet, find out, and roll with whatever punches his opponent threw. He launched his ball and chain at the dwarf’s shield, wanting to find out if the electricity of the weapon’s enchantment would be able to make its way to the dwarf. Soldek took the blow on his shield as expected, and unfortunately for Xander, seemed to suffer no ill effects from the elemental enchantment. That wasn’t unsurprising, though. What was surprising was that Soldek’s shield seemed to drain all of the inertia out of Xander’s weapon, to the point where even the sound of the clank of the metal ball striking the shield was weakened. It fell to the ground rather than bouncing off the shield as it should have, leaving Soldek no worse for wear as Xander quickly reeled the weapon back in with his hands and [Ferrokinesis].
This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
Soldek made no attempt to move from his spot, still, as Xander cautiously continued circling the dwarf. Xander briefly considered attempting to use his rifle, since Soldek was so kindly holding still, but he wasn’t sure if even that would make it through the dwarf’s impressive shielding abilities. He threw out another attack with his weapon, and found it expertly blocked by Soldek’s shield once again.
How was he supposed to defeat an opponent who could weather his every blow? He wondered if this was how some of his opponents had felt, watching their abilities fail to penetrate his armor. He went over the tools available to him in his mind as he continued to launch unsuccessful attacks against Soldek. For his part, Soldek seemed content to block every attack and either wait for Xander to tire, or force him to come closer to attack, whereupon Xander would then be on Soldek’s playing ground. He’d already considered his gun, which he was uncertain of penetrating the dwarf’s shield. Glue bomb? Soldek would likely catch it against his shield. Poison? He’d have to get in close, and that was exactly what his opponent wanted. Flamethrower? It would either be entirely useless against the dwarf’s shielding skills or be too lethal if it was effective. What abilities did he have that could work?
He could use [Brand] to begin draining the dwarf of his vitality. That was a definite start, and it would force Soldek to do… something. What else could he… oh. Underneath his helm, a smile began to form on Xander’s face. It was so simple, it was something he’d done before in the heat of combat, yet it was something he’d nearly failed to consider at all. He could just… pick up his opponent with [Improved Ferrokinesis], and there was likely little that the dwarf could do. Drawing closer, though still out of reach of Soldek, Xander tested his theory out as he flexed his ability.
Soldek was lifted off the ground by his chest piece, flailing as he tried to escape the invisible grasp on him. Making sure that he was still out of range of the dwarf’s flailing, Xander began marching his squirming opponent to the edge of the field, ignoring the indignant shouts of anger coming from the dwarf as they neared the walls that denoted the out of bounds marker. Soldek was gently deposited on the ground just past the wall and released from Xanders ability. The gong rang as Soldek touched down on the ground.
“Well… I guess that’s the match,” the announcer said, awkwardly. “It was, ah… truly something to behold,” he said to the crowd, who had grown bored watching a fight that consisted of nothing but blocked probing attacks and then cleanly levitating one of the fighters out of the ring. Not exactly the most exciting match of the day by any metric. “Xander Jones wins this one. Let’s hope the next fight has a little more oomph, eh?” He said, attempting to get the crowd riled back up.
Soldek, feeling somewhat humiliated by the method of his elimination from the tournament, stalked away from the field. Xander hoped the dwarf didn’t take it too hard. An ability like [Ferrokinesis] in a world where so many things were made of metal, especially armor, was almost unfair to have. Though, he could feel that the dwarf had been at the upper limit of what he could lift with the skill. He could use it for a surprisingly powerful extra burst of force – he should really test out pushing his opponents around or away with the ability – but when it came to sustained force generation such as lifting an object, there was only so much the skill could manage. If his opponent had been a similarly proportioned human in plate armor, Xander wasn’t sure that he’d have been able to manage lifting them. Regardless, it had won him this match handily, and that was what he was concerned about in the short term.
Taking up his seat again, Xander watched the rest of the matches in the round. They were all significantly more enjoyable for the crowd than his had been. He sarcastically wondered if his reputation in the area would be forever sullied by a boring match. The remaining four matches of the round went slower than the previous days’ matches as the contestants were trying to pace themselves, but despite the slowness, there were still only six total matches in the round, so it was over in a short amount of time.
Now there were only six hopefuls for the title of champion. Xander, Valteria, the clockwork themed knight from the first match, Illanno the elven duelist, Eltrox, the earthen mage who entombed his opponents in stone, a lightly armored fighter named Kariel who wielded a single longsword, and another fighter named Bral who took Kariel’s dedication to a single weapon to the opposite extreme – the man had axes, maces, at least one sword, and many daggers strapped to what seemed like every inch of his body. Xander wasn’t sure how Bral could even move properly with all those weapons mounted to his armor, but his effectiveness was undeniable considering he’d made it this far into the tournament.
The semifinal round was about to start, and the announcer launched into another speech. Mercifully, for Xander at least, it was a short one.
“Just two more rounds to go! Every single fighter left in those stands has proven their skill, but after this, only three will be left! I hope they saved some energy for their next fights… because we aren’t taking any breaks here! Let’s go on ahead and get everybody’s favorite [Duelist], Illanno, out here! Facing up against the masterful elven duelist will be… Bral! Let’s see how an elf of one weapon fares against a man of many!”
The answer to that question was quickly settled. A man of many weapons, or perhaps just Bral, fared poorly against Illanno. No matter what weapon he used, he was outfenced, outparried, or just plain outskilled against Illanno. The elf, in a classic fencing pose, seemed capable of baffling any attack with his delicate looking rapier. He gracefully parried Bral’s longblades and expertly deflected or dodged heavier attacks by maces and axes. Soon, the field was littered with scattered weaponry that Illanno had finessed from Bral’s hands, and Bral was left with only daggers. Though Bral never stopped fighting, wielding a dagger in each hand, it was only a matter of time as Illanno scored more and more hits with his own weapon. In the end, a battered, bloody Bral collapsed on the ground from the blood loss of the multitudes of cuts and stabs that he’d suffered at the hands of his opponent, too weak to continue standing.
The crowd had been waiting, almost in awe of the skill of Illanno, remaining quiet in anticipation. Once Bral collapsed, however, a rousing cry was raised as the duelist’s supporters cheered and whistled for his victory. As the crowd finally settled down, the announcer called up the next two semifinalists: Xander and Eltrox.
“Up next, we’ve got Eltrox the Tombmaker and Xander the Wraith! Let’s hope this match is a little more exciting, eh?” The announcer said, ribbing Xander’s previous performance. The crowd chuckled along with his sentiment.
Xander was happy with this match up. Unless Eltrox had some tricks up the sleeves of his robes other than pummeling his opponents and then trapping them with hardened soil and stone in a sort of makeshift cairn, Xander felt his ability to take hits and his material manipulation abilities would see him through the day. As the two of them faced off in the center of the field, Eltrox stared grimly at Xander. Xander offered a small nod to the man, which was returned, and then they separated from the center.
Xander expected Eltrox to open up strong, as he had in every other match Xander had seen. As the gong range, Xander activated [Improved Reactive Armor] in anticipation of this and Eltrox proved him right as he used one of his skills to conjure a series of medium sized stones and blast them at Xander like some kind of giant rock shotgun. With such a wide area of attack, it was impossible to fully dodge, though Xander did try. Xander was still caught by two of the stones, one being blown away from him by [Improved Reactive Armor], and the other shattering itself against his waist on his armor. Fortunately, the impact didn’t throw him off balance, the force dampened by his runic arrays and the foam padding on the inside of the armor. Xander retaliated by launching the ball and chain at Eltrox, forgoing spinning it to gain momentum and instead exclusively using [Ferrokinesis] in a bid to startle the man.
Eltrox reacted quickly, however, and whipped his hands up high above him. As his arms rose, so too did a wall of stone, which Xander’s weapon impacted against harmlessly. Taking advantage of the barrier between them, Xander moved to get closer to Eltrox. As he walked, however, he noticed more and more resistance against his feet. Alarmed, he looked down to see that his feet were sinking into the ground as he ran, as if the soil were turning to a shallow pit of quicksand. Slowed as he was, it gave Eltrox time to lean out from his stone wall and launch a single, larger stone at Xander. Fortunately, Xander was able to activate [Improved Reactive Armor] again before the stone projectile impacted, and it was blown to the side by his defensive skill, broken into smaller pieces.
He was faced with a similar dilemma to his fight with Urtel the Ice King: fighting a mage that could shift the terrain to their advantage and then pelt him with their abilities at their leisure. At least this time he wasn’t sliding around on his face while being impacted by icicles. He needed to be able to get to Eltrox to end the match. The mage had already proven he could erect a barrier capable of blocking his weapon at range. He just needed a method of transport that was less susceptible to the drag of the quicksand-like mire that the arena had become. Fortunately, he had just the thing.
Xander’s spider legs once again sprang from this back, briefly displacing his cloak before it settled back into place. Hoisting himself up on the mechanical legs and ripping his feet from the sucking grasp of the skill altered earth, he began moving forward again, the sleek, pointed legs of his backpack suffering none of the drag that his feet had been.
Eltrox backpedaled from Xander, unimpeded by his own skill, casting volleys of stone in a vain attempt to knock Xander to the ground which were deflected by [Improved Reactive Armor] and mitigated by his physical armor. Just as it had with Urtel, the match was decided as soon as Xander reached the mage. Unable to stop Xander from reaching him, Eltrox fell to a single touch of the lighting enhanced chain, body seizing up at the electricity raced through his musculature. The gong was rung, and Xander removed the man from the shocking grasp of his chain weapon.
“Good fight,” Eltrox grumbled as he dusted himself off, before making his way off the field.
“You too!” Xander called out after the man before heading back to the stands.