The pain coursing through my body abruptly ended. My muscles relaxed, and I let out an involuntary sigh of relief. I opened my eyes to the stadium's bright lights, causing me to nearly shut them again.

"How are you feeling?"

I looked over to the person speaking. It was one of the medics I had seen rush up to others after they lost a fight.

"What happened?" I asked.

"If you can sit up, you can see the replay," chuckled the medic. "I have to say, it was pretty amazing. I thought you were about to win."

I sat up with a bit of assistance from the medic. I could have done it on my own, but I didn't mind the help. Once I was up, he pointed to the large screen above the arena where the end of the fight was playing on a loop.

The loop started with my dodge and slide. I watched as it transitioned to my attack and then how I tripped Hadrian. I saw what happened then.

Hadrian had lifted his arms high to strike down just as I tripped him. He fell backward and let go of his hammer to catch himself. I sat up right into the line of the falling hammer.

It was terrible luck that lost me the fight.

I watched the replay of my loss one more time so it could truly sink in. Afterward, I was feeling better, so I got to my feet. Hadrian was still being interviewed by the announcer. The crowd was deafening in the arena, and I wondered how they could hear what the other was saying. Of course, I was in that same position not too long ago. I didn't recall noticing it that much then.

I walked off the stage, heading back to get my spear and then to the locker. I wasn't too upset at the loss. I felt that I had a good chance at winning, and it was dumb luck that I lost. Additionally, I was still highly ranked. That was enough to earn a trip to the capital, which was what I wanted.

At the upper edge of my vision, I suddenly saw a silver shimmer. My eyes immediately zeroed in on the source, and my head followed suit. In nearly the same place I had seen her before was the beautiful silver-haired girl from my first fight.

She yelled at me with her hands cupped around her mouth, not that it helped me hear her above all the other noise. When I noticed her, she caught me looking and stopped yelling. She waved her arm in large arcs a few times, then gave me two thumbs up.

I smiled but then realized I was in Symbiotic mode and she wouldn't be able to see, so I waved to her. I noticed that a lot of other people were yelling and waving too. So, I did the polite thing and briefly waved to everyone in the area.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much I could do about the girl. Her position in the stands was too high for me to start a conversation, and I needed to decompress after losing the fight. Furthermore, I was only going to be in Crescent City a little while longer, so even meeting with her would have zero outcomes if I got the chance.

I didn't want to be distracted from my mission anyway. These were all the myriad of things I told myself to help me cope.

I switched to Companion Mode, secured my spear from inside the arena, and started to head back through the halls toward the locker room. I absently wondered what the exact next steps were and started playing different scenarios in my head. I turned a few corners through the hallway, not even considering that one of the ever-present attendants failed to be there. It didn't matter to me anyway. I knew the way back to the lockers. I just figured they wouldn't treat me so poorly because I lost.

"Hey!" a voice called out.

I spun around in the direction of the sound. My mind immediately shifted in how I thought about the situation. I was alone in a secluded hallway with no witnesses and was suddenly being yelled at.

Standing at the end of the cavernous hallway was the opponent I had just recently faced in the arena. Hadrian's large frame nearly filled the entire hallway, even as it seemed to grow as he barreled toward me. His large robotic hammer was gripped tightly in his hand. He must have run from his side to catch me there alone.

He was no longer as armored as he had been, having changed out of his symbiotic mode, but he was no less stocky. Without his armor, I could see his features much more clearly. He looked to be in his mid-twenties and had reddish-brown skin. His other features were dark as his face was locked onto me in concentration. He quickly stalked forward in the low light of the arena's hallways.

I prepared my spear to attack and braced myself to defend.

I could see his face change as I prepared to meet his assault. Just before he reached me, he abruptly stopped. A smile spread across his face, and he briefly chuckled.

"Orbs, that fight was excellent," he said, holding up his free hand. "Sorry if I scared you there."

I didn't move from my position, taken aback by the sudden change in demeanor.

"Oh, come on, relax. I'm not going to hurt you. Orbs!" He motioned his hands in front of his face. "Say, is that all your robot can do? A mask and goggles? I've never heard of a robot like that. My name's Hadrian; by the Orbs, it's good to officially meet you." He held out his hand to shake.

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It dawned on me then that perhaps I wasn't too good at communicating. Maybe he was just very open, but I was having trouble responding to him either way. I managed to shake his hand and introduce myself.

"Matt," I said simply.

Growing up, I had friends in town until my mother left. Afterward, all the kids started to be mean to me. Since my father and I lived so far out of town, I was never able to repair the rift, and I just stopped associating with them until the day I left. Living with my father didn't help much since he was a man of few words. Following all that up with my weeks in the mountains and then my solo monster-hunting mission, I was seriously out of practice with communicating.

"Listen, Orbs, I'm bad at this," he scratched his head. "I also wanted to apologize for asking you about being able to read. I thought it was a good question to ask, but I guess the situation was wrong. Sometimes I can speak without thinking."

"It's okay," I said. "Honestly, I had forgotten about it." Hadrian nodded but failed to say anything else. "So, anyway…I was just headed back to the locker room," I pointed behind me.

Just then, one of the usually ever-present attendants came hustling around the corner, sweat beading on his brow. When he saw us standing there, I could see a relief spread across the same brow. When he reached our position, he bowed low.

"I apologize for not making it to the entrance in time, sir. A slight emergency had to be dealt with, and it caused me to be tardy in meeting you at the entrance. If you will allow me to escort you the rest of the way?" He waited for my response, and I simply nodded.

Hadrian's beefy hand landed on my shoulder. "Good luck with your next match. I hope you make it to the top three. I'll be expecting a rematch when you do." He turned and walked away without another word.

I thought about the interaction while I walked back to the locker room. I may have almost won the fight, but I wasn't looking forward to a rematch. It was something I hadn't even considered before.

The tournament was merely my way of getting to the capital. I was one step closer to not making it with my first loss. Still, I didn't feel bad about it. It was the opposite. It was a loss, but I gave the fight my all. I would be fine with my other matches if I kept up the intensity.

When I returned to the locker room, I focused on cultivating and learning from my previous fights. By cultivating, I mean just manipulating my body's internal energies since I couldn't bring any in. I also watched the other fights to learn more about my opponents before facing them. I still had five fights left, and I didn't want to lose again.

I gathered some more information, but I missed seeing the fight from my next opponent. Fortunately, it was John Smith, and I had already seen how he fought. I split the rest of the time until my next fight between meditation and watching the other opponents.

Before long, I found myself once again walking up the arena to face my next opponent. Based on the time, I felt this would probably be my last fight of the day. I was surprised that I even had another one.

The crowd didn't mind the late hour. When I walked out, there was a booming sound of praise and jeers. I ignored them all and walked to the stage.

I still had a small amount of trepidation that I wouldn't be able to manifest my spear, but when it appeared, I was relieved. I walked to my corner of the fighting stage and waited for my opponent to enter. I knew when he entered based on the crowd's increased noise. That and I could see him on the giant screen.

There was nothing different about him from when he faced Hadrian, but it did seem that he had a smug air about him. It could have just been me, but I let the feeling fuel my desire to beat him.

When the fighter manifested his sword, and the timer counted down, he immediately moved toward me to close the distance. I, in turn, prepared my spear. As he moved forward, an odd thought popped into my head.

Would this tournament allow projectile weapons?

It was a useless thought at the moment, but I made a note to research it in the future. Projectile weapons were rarely used due to the increased defenses of people and De mutated monsters. They weren't unheard of, though.

I struck forward with my spear as soon as Smith was in range. I used short, easy stabs to keep him at the distance I wanted. I wanted to avoid letting the fight move into a position where he would have the advantage.

I didn't have much trouble completing the task. I thought it might have been my analysis of my own fights that helped me the most. Sure, my fighting experience helped, but going over the fights in my head helped me understand where I went wrong, even when I didn't have a spear.

The fight went much like the one I saw Smith had against Hadrian. When Smith came closer with a swing of his short sword, I either batted it away or stabbed out with my spear to force him into altering his strikes. I didn't leave him any room to rest or slow down.

He constantly tried to block my attacks while maneuvering to find a different position. I moved with him every time he did that, applying more pressure than he could handle. It wasn't long before my attacks started to pierce his defense.

Even then, I didn't try to overexert my advantage. I was like the robots we controlled. Systematic and exact in my drive to win the fight.

My final thrust embedded into his chest as he was a bit too slow to turn it away. A red film of Augmented Reality sped around his body to lock up all his muscles. He briefly fell to his knees as I stood back and waited for the match to end. Before it could, he fell flat to the floor.

It wasn't too bad of a fall, and the medics were already rushing toward him, so I stepped to the other side of the ring to wait for the inevitable encounter with the ring's announcer. My visage flashed across the screen, declaring me the winner. Then, a replay of the fight's last few seconds started to play.

I watched over it as I waited for the announcer. When he arrived, the conversation went similar to the last time. I told him how I used my superior spear techniques to keep him at bay and move the fight in the direction I wanted. I was completely humble in my response.

As I moved back to the arena's bowels, I became fatigued from the multiple fights. I hoped I was right in that the matches would continue the next day. I met my attendant inside the arena, and to my relief, I wasn't led to the small locker room but the larger one which led to the entrance.

I didn't see any other contestants, but I was met by the lead tournament official and told when to arrive the next day. He handed me a small envelope, which I quickly secured before leaving. He said it was instructions for the next day and a few other incentives, whatever that meant. I was too tired to look through it right then.

The next day was set to be even more grueling, and I longed for a hot shower and the hotel bed. I was glad I still had the funds to rent it. When I got back, I requested the room for another night. However, with my limited amount of money, I couldn't get another.

The next day I would either be sleeping on a train or spending the night under the stars. I hoped it was the former, but I could handle the latter. I went back to my room and got ready to sleep. After showering and other personal hygiene needs, I sat on the bed and looked at the envelope I was given.

I didn't want to miss anything important, so I looked through it before sleeping.