Filn watched the fight from the stands. The attack was launched by Leonid, who was all excited about the fight. He struck the Knight, who then armed himself with a glowing sword and swung at Leonid. Leonid remained mobile and struck his fist into the armor at every opportunity. He heard the sound of metal squeezing as well.
Dai also started to move against Armadillo, who looked somewhat less impressive. He started shooting red orbs at her, and Dai had to start ducking. Filn's heart raced with excitement at the sight of the fight. He's never seen anything like it. Mostly he just lived, worked, and rested. He didn't do anything too exciting. Now that he saw them fighting, he clenched his fists and wanted to too. Filn had never been a very confrontational person and hadn't gotten into fights even as a child. Now he wished... that he... could...
He stood up abruptly when he heard the scream of Dai, who had been hit by the steam the Armadillo had released. He paled in horror as he saw her crayfish-red face and the white glop that ran down her cheek. Her eyes cooked and burst, and he became sick.
So when Dai suddenly disappeared and appeared unharmed outside the fighting ring, he was surprised he didn't collapse back into his seat in relief. True. It wasn't real. Still, he couldn't stop shaking with nausea. He raised his hand and touched his face. In his mind, he began to mock himself. How could he fight? Just looking at the pain of someone else made him feel sick. Could he even bear his pain? He remembered the dream he had before he woke up healed. The strange, twisted man had asked him about the pain and sounded disappointed as Filn crawled before him, crying like a small child.
He looked towards Dai, who sat down on the floor outside the ring and watched Leonidas fight while looking stubborn. She wasn't afraid. Not that she liked pain, but it wasn't something she feared like he did. He could see it in her expression as she thought about what to do to do better and wanted to go there again.
Filn had long admired her. Dai had gone out, and put herself in danger, often coming back with minor injuries, but proudly showing him the things she had gotten. What did it matter if they were things that weren't worth much? She got them through her strength. Filn had wished many times that Dai could find a steady job and not have to go out into the wilderness anymore.
He had to chuckle at the thought. But he couldn't really imagine Dai being bossed around.
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Leonid flinched when he heard Dai's scream and looked in her direction, but she had just disappeared and appeared outside the ring unharmed. Her opponent had also disappeared, the Training Circle setting seemed to keep things fair.
He aimed again at the Knight, who stabbed him with a sword with an extended blade to reach Leonid. He quickly dodged it and kept moving, already knowing that Knight could manipulate the energy weapon however he wanted. Good thing he did, because the blade curled in his direction again, but failed to hit him.
His opponent was really tough. He was slower than Leonid, but the trouble was that even when he pounded on the armor and made dents in it, the Knight smoothed them out again and didn't seem to care about the injuries. He was very resilient.
He could have used his Life Providence ability, but he didn't want to. He wanted to fight, to feel the thrill, the heartbeat, the youth of his body, and he wanted to win!
He slammed his fists together and let out a battle cry, he couldn't keep the tension in, so he had to let it out and lunge forward. The knight struck again with his sword in an attempt to cut Leonid in half. Leonid sidestepped but still aimed for Knight's body.
*BANG*
The sound of a punch rang through the air. Leonid began to move his hands, punching Knight in rapid sequence.
*bang bang bang bang*
He didn't stop hitting, the speed of his hands increased and so did the force. He activated the Final Push ability of his Combat Gloves of Origin. His hands turned into blurry smudges. One dent after another appeared at the impact sites. The knight lost his stability and could only step back with each blow, and his armor became more and more dented. Leonid was beginning to sweat, the glove's ability draining much more of his spiritual energy than he thought. He could see that the armor had been weakened by his wounds, but it didn't seem to be hurt in any way. He probably would have tried to stab Leonidas anyway, if he had given him a moment to do so. That wasn't going to work. Where's the thing's weakness?
Leonid has so far only attacked the body, which is constantly being repaired. He'll probably have to try a different approach. He held back his attack and immediately moved away from the Knight. The armor stood crookedly for a moment before it began to straighten again to the sound of screeching metal.
Leonid didn't want to give it any time to recover. He bounced and leaped into the air, focusing on the one thing that was a different color than the rest of the armor. The golden plume on top of the helmet.
It's hard to say if it was really a weak spot, but since it was so obvious there was a good chance.
He kicked Knight in the shoulder with his foot while he grabbed the plume with both hands, jumped over him, and pulled him with all his strength. He felt the plume crack between his fingers. He jerked his shoulders in an attempt to outweigh the Knight, but even with his strength it wasn't easy.
* crunch*
He felt a crunch and the resistance disappeared. He fell to the ground, a broken plume left in his hands. He turned to Knight who straightened up and just when Leonid thought it would not affect him blue electric bolts began to flash from the stump on his head.
The knight began to turn confusedly on his axis, swinging his sword wildly, but aiming at nothing in particular. Leonid stepped back to avoid being hit by a random blow and thought of a way to finish the bastard off.
But the Knight suddenly began to disappear and a screen appeared in the air.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
On it were portraits of Dai and Leonidas. Under Dai was written 'Loss' and the time was 1:42. Under Leonid, it said 'Win' and the time was 5:25.
Leonid did not feel satisfied. "What? Why is it over?! I could have finished it!"
Dai stood up and walked over to him.
"Then make your difficulty higher next time. You seem like you could do it." Leonid gets out of the ring, his injury vanishing. Even his clothes were repaired.
"You didn't even make it to the Easy level." He said grumpily.
Dai grinned sourly at his words. "Ouch." But then she shook her head. "Actually, I don't think I did that bad. It was my first fight. I normally run and hide."
Leonid frowned at her before raising his voice. "Wasn't that bad!? You didn't even last three minutes! If it was real you're dead or horribly crippled! Are you satisfied with that? You're going out and who knows how far! You can't be okay with that damn result!"
Dai was startled, not expecting Leonid to be angry with her. She put her hands on her hips and huffed. "And since when did you become a combat expert? You may be strong now, but before you were just a regular old geezer!"
Filn approached them, looking hesitantly from one to the other as they argued.
Leonid slammed his fist into his breast muscle. "I may have been an old geezer, but I've been through and survived a lot more than you, you brat! Do you know how many Rift Beast attacks I've survived?! You think living to old age is a common thing?"
Dai couldn't answer that. She hadn't really thought about this. She was trying to remember how many old people she had actually seen. And there weren't many...
"I mean... Leonid...." she began conciliatorily, but Leonid cut her off. "I don't know if you remember, you must have been very young, but many years ago Shelter 22 was attacked by the worst Rift Beast yet. It was huge, looking like a giant mushroom with many holes in its head from which it spat out strong acid. The acid ate away at every surface it touched. All the clans fought against it and many people died a death I wouldn't wish on anyone. And I saw three powerful cultivators die with my own eyes. Those arrogant bastards were so full of themselves, thinking they had everything under control. They killed Rift Beast and then posed smugly in front of its corpse. Ordinary people came to watch and praise their power." Leonid narrated, anger in his voice. Both Dai and Filn were silent, listening to the story. They had heard something about it, but they had never really heard the whole story.
"And what do you think happened? They underestimated the beast! And they underestimated their powers! All it took was one poke and the damn mushroom exploded and the whole area was awash in its acid blood! The cultivators and all the nearby people were dissolved alive into stinking pools and many people were crippled." He frowned fiercely at the two young people in front of him.
"That's why... Just because I haven't been fighting before doesn't mean I don't know what needs to be done! Now get off your ass, you spoiled brat, and get in the arena or I'm not letting you go anywhere!"
This time Dai had to back away from the power of his voice. Literally.
"A-All right!" She agreed obediently, running back to the training circle. Leonid folded his arms across his chest, then fixed his gaze on Filn.
Filn felt he would have done better to stay in the stands, now he was the victim of Leonid's intense temper.
"And you! You need to do something with yourself real quick!"
Filn broke out in a cold sweat. "Ah?"
"Ugh! Don't try your doe eyes on me! I'm a man! That doesn't work for me!"
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Dai spent many hours wrecking herself in the Training Ring. She had intended to use it, but Leonid always verbally smacked her when she wanted to take a break. Filn was not spared. He was forced to run laps around Dimension or have him do crunches until he was shaking with exhaustion to the point of falling asleep in the grass. Only then did Leonid give him a break. Leonid seemed to have come to some sort of decision to start driving them with such intensiveness.
Dai has repeatedly fought and died with the many kinds of beasts that Leonid has chosen for her. He rarely chose the same beast twice. But at least he kept the difficulty level low.
Dai was getting better though, she was able to stay in the ring for longer and longer periods, even if she couldn't kill any of the beasts. She bought the rest of the weapons, which she constantly rotated to learn the Hidden Weapons Technique. Still, she did best with Court and Sentence when it came to fighting.
After many rounds, she was suddenly facing the fiery Armadillo again. Dai was already exhausted, but seeing the Armadillo brought the energy back into her veins. The one who caused her first death and especially this Leonid fighting frenzy!
"You asshole, I'm going to get you this time...." she bitched through her teeth.
The armadillo began to approach her, just as before. Dai was going to use everything she'd learned this time.
She crouched, immobilized herself, and used her Camouflage ability on herself. She felt a tingling sensation run through her body and didn't take her eyes off her enemy.
He stopped a moment later and began to turn his head from side to side in confusion. Thankfully, it wasn't such a bright beast.
The armadillo slowly began to roll around. Dai waited for an opportunity. The armadillo didn't get too close to her, but that didn't matter because his back was turned to her, so Dai moved to get closer. When the armadillo started to turn again, she used Camouflage again. This brought her close enough to the armored beast that she was only two meters away from it.
She held her breath, and when his back was to her again, she lunged forward. She raised Court and Sentence and aimed for the gap between the plates behind his neck. Even if she wasn't going to kill him with the first shot, she at least wanted to inflict as much damage as possible.
She stabbed Court, which only plunged about a third of the way into the gap, but she still felt it pierce the flesh and blood began to flow around the blade. At that moment, her other hand moved of its own accord with Sentence as the weapons ability activated.
"Íííííkkkk!" The armadillo let out a scream and turned its head sharply in her direction, at that moment Sentence stabbed into the beast's eye.
The beast roared again, and when Dai saw the glow of red between the joints, she immediately retreated. She wasn't going to make the same mistake again. This, moreover, was exactly what Leonid had described in his story. Just because she might feel a sense of accomplishment she shouldn't lower her guard.
A cloud of boiling steam shot out, but it only lasted for a moment before subsiding again. Dai attacked again, this time no longer hiding, but that was because she didn't have to. She took advantage of the blind spot she had created and made quick strikes at it. Sometimes the blade only hit the plates, but when it did, Sentence was seeking her revenge and stabbed into the beast's body.
After a while, Dai was breathing heavily, but she finally managed to subdue the beast! The armadillo shuddered one last time before falling dead to the ground.
Dai let out a shaky breath and sat down on the ground. She was too exhausted to do anything else.
The screen popped up and on it was a picture of her labeled 'Win' and the time 11:12. It took a hell of a long time, but so what! She made it!
"Hey. You made it." She heard Leonid's voice, but her eyes were closing. She felt like she could rest now, and that even Leonid would now allow it.
"Hmm..." She only murmured.
"At least now I won't have to worry too much, you stupid girl." She heard him say before she felt him take her in his arms. He hadn't even held her properly before she fell asleep.