Alistair's mind raced as he observed the fight. Even with the System impeding his senses, Alistair could tell he was in for a rough time. He considered his skills and the available abilities, searching for anything that could give him an edge in the upcoming fight. Alistair hated to admit it, but Simon was visibly running on fumes and would soon go down unless he had some massive ace up his sleeve. As he watched the fight, he realized that his sister would be a much better matchup against Marilyn. If she were able to catch up in levels, she might even beat her.

Alistair could only think of two effective answers to the scenario he would be facing: his Battle Spheres skill, using flame streams to burn away the blood, and his Telekinesis trying to contain her main body as he burned and crushed her with disruption magic and other effective attacks. His mind attacks might work, but they would merely even the odds, as he was sure Marilyn was using mind attacks against Simon, too. Simon frequently stabbed himself before seemingly shaking off a mental assault from Marilyn. His Blaze Slash skill, while well-suited against a regenerating opponent like her, would merely allow his weapon not to be completely useless. He could not tell just how much blood reserves Marilyn had, but he was certain, unlike most opponents he faced, hers would be able to keep up with him, so outlasting her would be unlikely unless his flame streams proved more effective than expected.

He gritted his teeth as he saw a tendril of blood wrap around Simon's leg, hoisting him into the air and hurling him toward the wall of the arena. Simon's spear lashed out, cutting the tendrils, which almost immediately reformed and multiplied. Simon managed to erect a barrier that protected him from the fast-approaching wall. As soon as he caught himself, he teleported next to Marilyn. An array of obsidian spears erupted from the ground beneath her, impaling her, but she simply stepped out of the attack, quickly regenerating the wounds as the spears melted, burning off some of her blood.

Simon's spear arced out, but she caught it between her fingers. She leaned in, brushing her slightly wavy white hair to the side, and whispered something in Simon's ear before planting a kiss on his cheek. Simon tried to stab himself again but was impaled in turn by spears of blood, which then grew more spears, obliterating his body and leaving a thorny mass of blood where he had stood.

"Can you beat her?" Nessyra asked, aghast at the display.

"I have some things that could work, but I'd be lying if I said I was confident," Alistair replied grimly.

"Sure, glad im not your summon right about now," Dexter commented from Riseths arms. She had picked him up to give him a better view.

Alistair's lips twitched, but he frowned when he noticed Riseth's unrest over their resonance. "I'll be fine. Even if I lose, I'll receive second place and can fight in the Universe ladder, but I'll be damned if I let myself intimidated by that display." He said stoically.

This seemed to relax her a bit as they were forcefully teleported back into the Arena Dungeon. As soon as they arrived, he received a message from Simon. "Did you see my fight?" He asked hurriedly.

"Yes, I did. Are you alright?" Alistair inquired.

"Scratch that; that woman will tear you a new one, too, if you don't take this seriously," Simon said in an uncharacteristically serious tone.

Alistair straightened a little. "You're right. Any Suggestions before I get pulled into the arena?" Alistair asked.

"Yes, In case you missed it, she has a leech-like snake summon. Under no circumstances let it vomit blood. You must annihilate it as fast as possible, preferably without spilling its blood," Simon warned.

Alistair's eyes went wide. He had wondered how she had this much blood to work with at their tier. He had suspected she was able to reach a plane of blood. However this was a novel way of doing it without the heavy mana investment of exchanging mana for blood from a plane. While he could contain the summon in a sphere of force or with his Telekinesis skill, annihilating it in a non-bloody way would be a challenge. He could blow it up, but unlike Riseth, he did not have a suitable finisher. The best he could do was a highly charged, unstable blast. It would be incredibly dangerous, and if he made the explosion too weak, it would just splatter the monster, making the exercise pointless.

Riseth and Nessyra both looked at notifications only they could see, and both of them let out a Sigh of relief as they exchanged looks.

"We are both in the top 10 and, from the looks of it, aren't on the same ladder; good luck with your fight," Riseth said as she embraced him and kissed him.

"You too, go kick ass," Alistair told them with a confident smile before the two sisters vanished.

"Anything else? My timer just started," Alistair inquired as he received a notification.

"Use your music skill to drown out her voice. That should help against her mind attacks." After a short pause, Simon added. "Also, disruption and fire abilities work, but she has too much blood to make it worthwhile. You are better off targeting her core and just keeping the rest of her blood at bay."

Alistair watched the time tick down as he waited for Simon to mention any more details he could think of.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Pain can also shut down her charm abilities, though you might be more resistant to her than I am. Good luck, and kick her ass for me," Simon requested.

"Never thought I'd request you to beat up a woman for me," Simon jokingly added, a little embarrassed.

Alistair chuckled before being teleported into the arena again. Marilyn stood on the opposite side, a thoughtful expression on her face.

"Don't I know you from somewhere? Based on the information I have, we did not fight before," She questioned with a heavy Southern accent.

He kept a close eye on his armor for any warping as he chose to entertain her questions for now.

"We met at one of Sol's gatherings," Alistair said while doing his best to reinforce his aura and use Identify on her, which spat out [Marilyn Dixon - lvl 103], but what irritated him more was that she did not at all feel more powerful than him. He wasn't sure if her aura manipulation was so much better than his or if she relied on auxiliary items and summons to bring forth the power she had displayed against Simon.

"Right, you were that cutie who resisted my charm," Marilyn said, snapping her fingers and pointing at him as a look of realization crossed her face.

Her deep red lips curled into a smile. "What a shame. So you were also a pig before all this? Personally, I prefer bulls," she added flirtatiously.

Alistair's armor warped, but her attempt felt lackluster as it held no appeal to him. Realizing she had started the fight, he unleashed his Bloodcurdling Presence, glaring at her as he pressed down on her spirit. Her red eyes went wide, and she recoiled at the display of bloodlust. Alistair realized she did not even possess the Primal Revelation title.

"Sweety, you are pretty much hard countered by me. You can still give up with your dignity intact." She tried, and Alistair felt her attempt to manipulate him scratch at his Mental Fortress to no avail where, as he could tell she was struggling against his intimidation skill. Based on what he knew of charm abilities, unlike Simon, he was a terrible target since he had plenty of exposure to Riseth, a high-tier Succubus, and no interest in the Vampire or her body. Coupled with his other innate resistance and the Mental Fortress skill, he might not even need to spend his focus on the music aspect of his Akashic Soundboard to drown out her words. He activated his boosting skills as he got ready to engage her.

Alistair laughed mockingly, adding his vicious mockery to his bloodlust. "And here I was, worried I found my match, but it was just a little girl with a flair for twilight."

This seemed to rile her up as he sensed her reaching for the summoning planes. Next to her, a large white snake with a lamprey mouth and six shining red eyes circling its body appeared. He identified it and revealed it to be a [Blood Asp - lvl 100]. He immediately stretched out his right arm with a grasping motion as he restrained the monster with his telekinesis, pulling it towards him as he rapidly charged an unstable blast within his other hand. Marilyn, unaware of this skill, reacted with shock and by rushing at him with flash steps, tendrils of blood lashing out toward him. He chose to evade and block them with his automatic barrier intercepting some of them before shattering. The unstable blast quickly grew uncontrollable and threatened to explode before he could make use of the skill.

Alistair cursed and teleported next to his approaching attackers as he felt Marilyn's desperation and worry spike. She impaled her own summon with a lance of blood to drain its blood as the Blood Asp's floating and restrained form could not provide her with the blood she so desperately needed. Alistair would have none of that as he pushed as much energy as he could into the unstable blast, unleashing it at point-blank range just as tendrils of blood pierced his chest. None of them managed to avoid the blinding, earth-shattering explosion that obliterated the Blood Asp. Alistair absorbed as much of the kinetic energy as he could, letting himself be flung away by the blast. He pushed his Arcane Energy Manipulation into overdrive, converting the kinetic energy into life energy to heal himself as his body's kinetic storage filled almost instantly. A chime rang out, signaling that his Arcane Energy Manipulation skill had upgraded under the intense strain.

His body was wracked with pain long before he crashed into the arena wall. He tried to stand, feeling the agony of shattered bones and the kinetic energy from his ribs slowly leaking and dispersing. Gritting his teeth, he spat out silver blood onto the arena floor. As he looked up, he saw Marilyn reforming her body, seemingly unscathed. However, he could tell it was just an act; she had expended a lot of energy to shield herself from the attack. He quickly checked his newly upgraded skill.

Skills:

Tier: Name: Description: [Epic] Arcane Energy Manipulation

Increases the efficiency and speed at which the user converts and transfers energies such as Mana into Qi by a large degree using arcane means. The user may rapidly convert one energy into another at a slight loss of efficiency. Reduces overall energy loss from transferring and converting energies within the user's body by a large amount. The user's augmented physiology optimizes the conversion process within their body, albeit at a slightly reduced rate outside the body compared to internal conversion.

Alistair turned his attention back to Marilyn as he wiped the blood from his mouth and stood up straight, continuing to press his bloodcurdling presence down on her. She visibly shook as she approached him with determined steps. He would need to play for some time to recover from some of his worse internal wounds before he felt confident facing her. His ribcage, in particular, needed fixing. He had put in some safety measures so they would not explode inside of him again, but with enough stress or damage, it could still happen. The stored kinetic energy within his spheres and intact ribs was continuously diverted to healing, and he knew he could convert it into power to lash out if she chose to press him too hard.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Marilyn cried out in her Southern accent. "Suicidal fucker, how dare you blow yourself up next to me!"

Alistair chuckled, noting they were both playing for time to heal themselves. "Sorry about that," he said mockingly, "I'll be sure to think of a more elegant finisher to kill your blood bank next time."

"Fuck!" she cursed, rushing at him, clearly noticing how he was also healing himself.