I had never been much of a fighter before the system. I’d never gotten into a fist fight or anything like that, even as a kid. When the system came around, I had learned pretty quick and got to what I thought was a pretty decent level of skill, even if it wasn’t great.
Standing in front of the King, seeing the smoothness of every motion he made and the ease with which he swung his over six foot long staff, I felt utterly outclassed in every way imaginable.
I dumped mana into my mana barrier, using one of it’s less memorable functions to focus all of it’s defensive power on blocking magical attacks. I fired of several bolts of mana towards the King, each one of them harmlessly fizzling away upon coming into contact with his metal armor. His staff traced a large arc in front of him, and a thin blade of mana rocketed towards me. I only barely had enough time to duck under it as it soared past, leaving a deep cut in the stone wall across the room.
My eyes widen as I feel mana drain from my aura, despite the attack not having even hit me. I look back to the King, immediately activating empower at full burn as I sprint towards him. I couldn’t afford to hold back if I wanted to put up any kind of noteworthy fight.
A sword of mana appears in my left hand as my bone dagger appears in my right. I dodge out of the way of several more arcs of mana, each one still draining a bit of mana from me. My weapons clash against the Kings staff, every attack getting blocked effortlessly. My resolves harden as I redouble my efforts, trying to get something past his defense. He didn’t even need a mana shield like I did, as his reflexes were quick enough to block everything I tried to throw his way.
After half a minute of me attacking him relentlessly, the wind gets knocked out of my lungs as his staff slams into my sternum. I go flying back, only having a moment to see the new pattern of mana he had traced in the air. He must have done it while he was blocking my attacks. How could he even be fast enough to do that?
That entire array of mana lights up, and a beam of mana almost half a meter thick shoots towards me, grazing my mana barrier as I get out of its way. It had been extremely expensive to block, and I was certain I would have lost several kilograms of body mass had that beam hit me.
I decide to switch up my strategy, tossing my mana made sword up into the air above me. The weapon bursts apart into a dozen mana bolts, each one flying towards the King. It wasn’t unlike when I’d made a mana firework, but this time it was with the intent of firing as many smaller attacks at him as I could.
With all of the bolts arriving simultaneously, he was unable to block every single one with his staff. Four of them were blocked by his weapon. Another two were swatted away by his hand. Three more fizzled out against his armor.
The last three managed to finally do some noticeable damage. One of them had hit the crook in his elbow, right where the material was softer to allow easier movement. It had left a light burn on the black material used for the joint. The second left a small but noticeable dent on one of the shoulder plates of his armor. The last of the three had managed to nail him directly on the cheek, turning the skin red and drawing a small amount of blood.
Despite the red liquid now running down his cheek, the King smirks. “Not bad. I would have tried to have all of those target my face, but it was still impressive nonetheless.”
His words are followed by two dozen orbs of mana appearing in the air all around him, each one instantly recognizable as a mana bolt. From the looks of it, they were about as strong as mine were.
“My turn.” The King says, pointing his staff towards me as all of the bolts fly in my direction.
The bombardment of spells is effective to say the least. More than half of them hit me directly, draining a chunk of mana with each impact. A few of them had been blocked by my dagger and gloves, and a good handful of them had missed thanks to me dodging out of the way.
Despite these not being concussive mana bolts, the sheer amount of them that hit me managed to knock me off my feet and throw me back even farther. I gritted my teeth, knowing trying to get in close would just result in me getting blocked and knocked back again.
I summon bolt after bolt of mana, rapid firing them as quickly as I could as I zig zagged around the room to avoid the hail of attacks also coming after me. Beams of mana, bolts of mana, arcs of it, walls of it, there really didn’t seem to be anything he couldn’t make with it. The display of control made me marvel at just how good a spell could get, and I wondered what the rarity of his mana manipulation skill was.
I could feel my resources wearing thin, and I knew that I would once more have to change my tactics if I wanted any hope of getting a good evaluation from the King. I sprinted towards him again, and his eyes widened in surprise. He clearly didn’t expect me to retry a strategy that had already proved hopeless.
He stopped casting spells, probably to preserve mana as he already knew dealing with me at close range was no problem for him. He was right, in a sword to staff fight, I would lose every time. That wasn’t what I was going for though.
When I got close enough, my hand stretched out and I cast a concussive mana blast. It knocked his staff away enough for me to dodge it easily, casting another concussive mana blast.
The spell leaves my hands several more times, putting more and more pressure on the King as he is finally forced to take a step back, his first time moving his legs since the start of this fight. That one single movement gives me enough confidence to give my last ditch plan a shot.
I stop the bombardment of mana blasts for a moment, pouring all of my concentration and most of my remaining mana into what I was about to do. The King could sense that the majority of my mana was now building up in my palms, and he raised a barrier of mana between the two of us to block what I was doing.
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I grin when he does that. It was exactly what I had been hoping he would do. The mana fires out of my hand as ten separate casts of mana bolt are sent out all at once. A split second later, the two casts of the spell stored in my gloves are also released.
All the remaining mana in my aura disappears almost instantly, leaving me with nothing but the few drops that remained of the mana within my body. All around the King, small points of blue light appeared as a dozen casts of mana blast are unleashed all at once all around him. He tried to muster a defense to block them, but it was already too late to react.
A loud boom echoed through the room as every single attack hit its mark, and the resulting flash of light prevents me from seeing the results for a moment. The wall of mana he had erected between the two of us suddenly fires forward, slamming into me harder than any of his previous attacks. I am sent flying backwards, slamming into the wall on the opposite end of the room. What little mana I had left worked to lessen the damage of the impact as my mana shield finally shattered.
I could already feel blood running down the back of my neck from where my head had hit the wall, and I hiss in pain. Something in my left arm felt like it was where it shouldn’t be, and looking down at it confirmed that my shoulder had popped out of its socket. I look back at the King with determination. If I couldn’t cast any more spells, perhaps I could at least stay in the fight a little longer with my dagger.
The dust around the King clears, and my mouth drops open when I see that his armor has been dented all over. Blood is running down the side of his head where his ear had been blown off, and his staff had been wrenched from his hand and sent across the room. My heart sank, seeing that despite throwing absolutely everything I had at him, the only thing I had actually accomplished was giving the King a glorified flesh wound. Despite all of this, he stood tall and proud, a wide smile on his face.
“You did far better than I could have ever anticipated.” He says, raising his hand towards me. It glows with a yellow light, and the pain in my arm intensifies for a brief moment before dissapearing entirely. I move my left arm back and forth a bit, feeling that my shoulder had been put back in place. The wound on my head had disappeared as well, and my entire body was healed.
“Thanks.” I say, trying to catch my breath. The fight had clearly ended, and it was alright now to let the exhaustion roll in. The lack of mana in my body made me feel a little weak, but it was slowly regenerating. “So, how’d I do?”
“All things considered, you did quite well.” He says, walking towards his staff to pick it up. “It has been a long time since I have bled, even longer since somebody below level 50 has made me bleed.”
“Yeah, well I am just amazing like that.” I joke. “Thanks for at least going easy on me though.”
“Well it wouldn’t have been a very good sparring match if I had just launched you through the nearest wall, now would it?”
“You nearly did.” I say, motioning to the crater in the wall behind me that I had just climbed out of.
The King finally loses his smile for a moment, looking... embarrassed?
“Sorry about that.” He says. “My surprise at your little stunt there kind of got the better of me. I’d meant to simply push you away, not leave a dent in my wall with your outline.”
“Don’t worry about it. You had the decency to heal me at least.” I say. “On the note of that attack though, I am just blown away by the magic you can bring to bear. No pun intended. I hope to be able to compare to it sometime in the future.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. Your magic is quite impressive for your level. If you and I were the same level, I can’t say for sure which of us would come out victorious.”
“What level are you?”
The King smirks. “Wanna take a guess? I’ll give you a hint.”
The room fills with a pressure as the King takes a deep breath out. I instinctively know his aura is filling the room, showcasing just how much larger it was than mine. It wasn’t just a quantitative difference though, as the quality felt like it was just on another level. The only logical explanation I could think of was that he had reached the next evolution.
“Level... 60?” I guess.
“Close, level 63.”
“Damn. Either way, I really didn’t stand a chance did I? How much of what you could do were you really holding back?”
“Most of it. I restricted myself to not using more than half of my mana pool, as well as not using any of my passive defensive skills. I didn’t use any spells either. Everything I threw at you was simply freeform magic.”
I just shake my head in disbelief. “No wonder you are the King.”
“That’s just how it is. The strong stand on top.” My expression drops for a moment, but the King quickly amends his statement. “Let me rephrase that. The strong lead and protect the weak.”
“Better, I guess. So, did I do well enough to earn your approval to go to the next floor?”
“As I said, moving to the next floor was already a given for you. This sparing match was simply to truly give you a challenge within my city. As for your performance, I think you have earned a reward.” He walks towards me, holding his staff out in front of him. It shrinks down to only be a little shorter than me. “Take it.”
I stare at the staff for a moment, stunned. “Really? I didn’t even win the fight.”
The King looks around as he is trying to hide something, before leaning in close. “Listen. I am rooting for you to reach the top of the tower. It has been a good while since that has happened, and I truly miss the excitement of something new. This is the best way I can help you that the system will allow. So just take it.”
I gently grab the staff, not identifying it yet. I look at him. “So... you know we are in a tower? In a tutorial even?”
“I know all of that. I’m not the only one either. You will encounter more who are aware of this fact.”
“So how do you know? How many floors are there?”
The King pauses for a second before waving his hand. “Well that's about all I can tell you. I’d receive punishment for revealing any more. Goodbye now.”
The floor beneath me shifts, and suddenly I am falling down a staircase just as Flynn had not long ago. As I tumble down the staircase, I shout up to him. “I will find out eventually!”
“I’m sure you will.” He says, and the floor closes up behind me as a screen appears before me.
You are now level 38
You have completed floor 10!
Due to the nature of chain floors, you will be unable to return to floors 6 through 10.
Would you like to proceed to floor 11?
“That cheeky bastard.” I mutter, opting to just return to the first floor instead. I appear within the staircase on floor one, identifying the staff in my hands to at least find out if this had all been worth it.
Kings Royal Staff (Legendary)(Soul bound)
A staff bound to it’s wielder. The staff can be transferred to a new owner or taken after the owners death, but never stolen. The staff can be stored within the wielders aura and recalled from any distance. Increases the potency and reduces the cost of all spells channeled through this staff. The staff automatically adjusts itself to the proper size of it’s wielder. Allows the wielder to store three charges of any spell to cast later. Each charge is significantly more potent than a standard cast, and if all three charges are used at once the spell will be further empowered. Wielder must be level 50 to effectively use.
“That glorious, generous bastard.” I say, suddenly gaining a bit more pep in my step as I store the staff away in my aura, a smile on my face as I went to go find Ben.