"It's time," the loud voice of the guide yelled at Lone from the other side of the waiting room.

Gilbert had returned to the grandstands after his rather emotional chat with Lone, leaving the foxkin to meditate on his own.

Nodding slowly, Lone got up. He stretched lightly and checked his status as he walked towards the room's exit - the one that led to the colosseum's arena.

Status Name: Lone Immortus Sex: Male Age: 24 Level: 139 Species: Foxkin Rank: E Race: Golden Foxkin HP: 32,350/32,350 SP: 31,595/37,620 MP: 38,460/38,460 Basic Stats Strength: 2,413 Vigour: 3,235 Dexterity: 2,082 Agility: 2,399 Vitality: 3,762 Luck: 121 Secret Stats Charm: 80 Charisma: 49 Magic Power: 3,846

'Considering what I lost using Pierce and Momentum Shift against the prince, I only gained 50 SP, right? 10-minutes of meditation, huh?' Lone sighed very faintly. "Who's my opponent?" he asked the guide.

"Huh? Of course it's the hero," the guide said with disdain in his tone. "You're lucky to have a chance to fight him. Right now you should be feeding worms for what you did to the crown prince, not wondering who you're gonna be fighting."

"Right, of course," Lone answered very unenthusiastically. 'He just had to win his fight, didn't he? Well, now I need to lose to him without dying if that's possible. I don't even know if the king will keep up his end of the bargain. Will he really stop the match once it's clear that the scumbag pedo has won?'

Lone wasn't sure but he could only hope.

Before long he was stood on the magnificent stage once more and across the way was the well-dressed and armed but decisively less healthy-looking Daisuke Tamiko.

Lone couldn't help a grin from surfacing on his face. 'Haha, look at him. Fuckin' king must've been way more pissed off than he seemed when the fuckin' idiot used so many ruby-gold coins. Seeing him like this makes it all worth it... Well, not really considering my situation, but it sure is satisfying.'

Daisuke frowned as he juggled an ornate dagger from one hand to the other. "What are you laughing at?"

'I'm grinning, not laughing,' Lone retorted privately. "Nothing. I'm just taking in the atmosphere. We're in a grand tournament being watched by all of the influential persons of Milindo and even a few foreign nobles. What's there not to smile about?"

Daisuke narrowed his eyes, practically closing them given his Asian heritage. "Whatever. I may not be technically allowed to kill you today but I sure as hell can cripple you. However, you'd best watch yourself the second this tournament is over."

Lone took a double-take in shock. 'Is this guy serious? How dumb can you get? What sort of idiot just tells their target that they're going to try to kill them once the important eyes aren't watching anymore? Well, not that it matters since I'm out of this shithole the second I can sneak into an alley and teleport away with Soph, Kyuubi and Breena after this farce ends, but really... Does he have a low IQ or something?'

"Fighting in the finals today we have the royal hero, Daisuke Tamiko of Earth himself! He is hailed far and wide as magnanimous, sharp, charming and above all else, talented!" the announced proclaimed.

'Hah! I bet Gilbert's lie detector is going wild right now,' Lone chuckled.

"Without any further ado, you may begin the final battle of this years fighting tourney!" the announcer yelled as the crowd made noise alongside him.

'What? I don't get an intro? I know I fucked up the prince but you could at least pretend that I exist... Sheesh,' Lone thought as he readied his new swordspear.

His other one had been too badly damaged by all of the auras at the end of his fight with the crown prince. Thankfully, he had plenty of spares in his Dimensional Storage even if he couldn't use his MP to create a new one right now.

'Okay, so the plan here is to dodge a bunch, maybe hit him once or twice then let him stab me a lot. So long as I stop suppressing my passive healing when appropriate, I won't die. I can't boost it right now but it's a high enough level to fix up some simple stab wounds, I should think,' Lone thought.

He focused and looked at where Daisuke was stood only to see him instantly move like lightning. Lone then felt a stinging from his abdomen.

Grinning as he twisted the dagger into Lone's gut, Daisuke said, "What's with the shock? Didn't you know that I can apply my Agility? Good luck keeping up with me, little fox. And try not to bleed out, hmm? As much as I want to kill you, I don't want to get slaughtered by that scary guildmaster of yours, or even worse, by the king."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

'... Okay, a lot of simple stab wounds then,' Lone corrected himself as he quickly pushed himself away from Daisuke, resulting in a long trail of blood pouring out of him and staining the arena floor.

The crowd yelled and cheered as a result of seeing Lone get injured so viciously on just the first exchange.

Lone let Basic Regeneration do its thing and he made sure not to stay still for too long before he once again suppressed the skill, leaving his belly with only a long red scar that looked deep, but actually wasn't that serious anymore.

'This is gonna be a fuckin' pain of a battle,' Lone thought to himself.

----------------------------------------

Congratulations! the host's passive skill [Evasion Mastery] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 7.

'One level up in a single skill in exchange for getting stabbed about 40 times?' Lone would have laughed if he wasn't in the middle of dodging Daisuke's 3rd attempt to stab one of his eyes out.

'Christ, I know you're getting pissed off that I haven't collapsed yet but it's hardly my fault. I still have over half of my HP left. Honestly, Daisuke, you're at fault here for being so weak even if you can apply your Agility,' Lone teased mentally to help distract himself from the pain.

Granted, all of his injuries had been sealed up just enough to stop him from bleeding out but having so many small wounds hurt like something fierce.

'Such a shame it's not enough to level up Physical Pain Resistance. It's like having all of your teeth ache but not quite like being hit by a train and not instantly dying,' Lone thought.

"Stop moving so much! Are you a fox or a fucking rabbit?!" Daisuke yelled, all care for appearances in front of the crowd long since gone at this point.

Lone gave him a short smile as he narrowly avoided being skewered but still had some of the skin from his arm sliced off. "I don't really care what you call me, 'Mister Hero'. Well, just so long as you don't call me a child-rapist. That title belongs to you. It'd be rude of me to steal from you, now wouldn't it?"

That didn't exactly please Daisuke. "Haste!"

'Ah, shit. He actually knows some skills? I thought he could only run quick- Fuck me he's driving that dagger in deep!' Lone exclaimed internally as he coughed up a bit of blood, staining Daisuke's face.

The Japanese hero smirked as he withdrew the blade and plunged it into Lone's body once again. "Y'know, once I've killed you I have some plans..."

"Oh yeah?" Lone responded as he leaned back and then punched Daisuke right in the face, breaking his nose and forcing him to let him go. "Do tell."

The host has developed the passive skill: Unarmed Combat Mastery.

'Shocking that I don't have that already after almost a year of being on this planet,' Lone thought as he once again stopped blocking his Basic Regeneration around his new wounds to allow it heal to a sufficient degree.

"You're not gonna like my plans, Slave," Daisuke said softly so that only Lone could hear him. "Speaking of slaves, that's what I'll make her. That noble girl who owns you? I wonder how a collar would look wrapped around her thin little neck..."

All sense of amusement left Lone. His face took on a serious expression as he replied, "You'd need to do that, wouldn't you? Enslave her. That's the only chance you have of ever getting with anyone even moderately attractive. I mean, your face is just as hideous as your personality. Sorry about the nose. I think I made your... issue worse."

The black orb in his pocket thrummed in pleasure to the beat of Lone's anger. Also unbeknownst to him, the sphere was starting to gain a few small cracks, more of which were being created as his emotions grew more heated.

Daisuke slowly began walking towards the prepared Lone as he said, "If you think I'm ugly just wait until you see what I'll do to that little whore. Well, you won't be able to since you'll, y'know, not exactly be around..."

"You're starting to really annoy me," Lone said in a very low tone.

More and more cracks spread along the surface of the orb hidden in his pocket.

"Oh, really?" Daisuke asked, sarcasm overflowing from his voice. "Funny thing is you call me a child rapist but I've never once done it without consent, y'know? Well, not that slaves can willingly deny any advances from their master, hah. As for that noble bitch of yours... I have other plans."

"Are you going to attack me or just keep talking?" Lone asked, irritation clear in his body language. 'If he keeps talking I'm gonna skewer him on my tails and rip his fuckin' tongue out, the disgusting bastard.'

"Y'know, those 3 girls had a lot of life in them when I first bought them... What did they use to say again? 'No, Daisuke-sama, it hurts! Slower! I miss my family! Please don't hit me, I'll do whatever you want!' Hahaha! I'm looking forward to seeing how that blonde midget will beg as well..." He licked his lips as his body shivered slightly. "Fuck, just thinking about it is making me hard. I'm going to hurt her so much that the only thing she'll be able to even dream of is sexually pleasing me so that I leave her alone..."

Lone felt his entire soul shake in fury. Even imagining the picture Daisuke was painting made him sick to his core.

Even if he knew it was impossible for Daisuke to do the things he was saying Lone couldn't help but feel the force of an erupting volcano consume him as a single thought overtook his mind. 'He needs to die! He needs to die! He needs to die!'

And in response, like a balloon meeting a needle, the abyss-like orb in his pocket... popped. Shattering into a million pieces it changed form into a fog of deep black that quickly wrapped around Lone's entire body.

"W-What the..." Daisuke jumped back. "Magic?" was his only thought.

Almost no one had any idea what was going on. Almost no one.

Gilbert's face paled as he stood up, wide-eyed and stared at Lone. "He's awakening but... something's wrong. What Primal does that essence belong to? I've never seen anything like it before and why is there simply so much of it? What caused such a strong emotional reaction for the boy to awaken? What the hero said? Damn it! Why is the announcer so loud and why was the hero talking so quietly?! If I knew what he said I could make some guesses!"

Without warning the black fog surrounding Lone receded deeply into his body and there were some very clear physical changes to it.

All of his hair and fur had turned pitch black and his skin seemed slightly paler than normal.

With his eyes closed, he leaned his head back and took a deep breath in. "Ahhh... Freedom feels sooooo good after such a loooong time... 'He needs to die', was it?"

Lone opened his eyes to show a pair of pitch-black irises and his mouth opened into a wide grin when he lowered his head to stare at Daisuke. "Easily done, my friend, easily done."

Lone extended his hands and bones as black as sin grew out of them until his body was covered in his Bone Armour, only on top of its very pronounced colour change, its shape had seemingly morphed to better suit the nature of the black fog. It was now laden in spikes and sharp edges, as opposed to the usual smoothness and suit-of-armour look it normally held.

Lone jumped up and down lightly, seemingly to get a feel for his body. "I wonder what you did to piss him off so much... I wasn't expecting to break free for another 1 or 200,000-years. Oh well, not that I'm really complaining. An order's an order, right?"

The sound of stone being crushed filled the stadium as Lone kicked off the ground, completely destroying the section of the stage he was previously stood on.

The next thing everyone saw and heard was Daisuke being slammed into the wall of the colosseum's arena face first as one of Lone's heavily armoured hands could be seen holding the back of his head. "Might as well have a bit of fun while we're here, eh?"