THADDEUS MOBLEY

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I sucked up the last of my drink before heading onto the arena, chewing the straw. “It looks like we’re fighting, Christina.”

“There’s no Tina! Stop calling me that.” She turned to Ivan. “Can I please fight someone else? This kid is annoying!”

“If I’m annoying, shouldn’t you be happy that we’re fighting? It gives you a chance to beat me up, no? Or are you too scared, you stupid cat?”

“Why are you insulting me all of a sudden?” Chris took off the light jacket she wore. She was all skin except for her hot pants and bra. “I wish you luck, you’re going to need it. I know what you’re capable of, but not the other way around.”

I stretched my arms and stood straight.

“The first battle will be between Thaddeus Mobley and Chris Lalatina,” Ivan announced. “Begin!”

Chris began pacing left to right, studying me. I always saw her as a cat, but the way she was acting reminded me of a tiger. Her eyes were locked onto me, waiting for the perfect chance to strike. If this turned into a waiting game, the odds would be in her favour. She was a cat after all and I read somewhere that they can sit in the same position for hours.

I pushed out an open palm. “Rolling Stone!”

The boulder rolled straight at Chris, who disappeared behind it. Just as it was about to hit her, the boulder launched back at me at twice the speed. It wasn’t even spinning, just moving across the ground, leaving a path of scraped dirt.

I was barely able to summon Stone Free to make a wedge and split the boulder in half. The halved rocks flew by my body and destroyed a couple of trees bordering the arena behind me.

Chris shook her dusty hand. “That boulder is pretty tough.”

“You punched that?!”

“This is my ability. I call it Stray Cat Strut.”

“Wait, you’re ability gives you enhanced strength? That’s a broken ability! There should be limitations on that!”

“Good luck trying to find them.” She pointed at the sky between us. “Doom And Gloom!”

An orb flew from her hand and made its way to the sky. At the same time, she bent down and readied herself to pounce.

If I close my eyes or get blinded, she’ll take that opportunity to attack. If I try to shoot down her orb or not look at it, I’ll be distracted and she’ll attack me.

“Quagmire!”

The ground beneath me turned into liquid earth, swallowing me up right at my neck. Not a second later, Chris zoomed past above me. Her right leg was twice as big as her left and full of contracted muscles and popping veins.

I took this time to close my eyes and negate the effects of her Doom And Gloom before Stone Free lifted me out of the ground on a giant palm.

Chris spun around mid-air, crashing into the tree behind her with her feet and boosting off of it towards me.

“Stone Free!” I screamed, summoning all five hands from the ground and sending a blind barrage of punches at the incoming Chris. “Terarararararararara!”

She collided with the punches, scratching them with her elongated fingernails that had turned into claws. She managed to keep up with the five giant earth hands. “Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!” she cried as she blindly protected herself.

I turned the ground beneath her into quagmire, sinking her up until her neck and turning the ground solid to trap her.

She bared her teeth and managed to break free by jumping. She shot up about a hundred feet with her arms limp. As she fell back down, she brought down her muscled leg to chop me like an axe.

I wouldn’t have time to use Stone Free to pull me out of the way, so I had it punch me, knocking me aside. The ground I had been standing on exploded into a crater—in the middle of it was Chris.

“What the hell was that?” I questioned. “Are you trying to kill me?”

But she didn’t listen, turning on her heel and pouncing to me. I managed to catch her with Stone Free, but her mouth was gaped open. Her body was also limp and her eyes opaque.

Is she okay?

“Gotcha!” she said, as her ears twitched in my direction. Chris slapped me with her powerful tail, knocking me back at least twenty feet. “You fell for it.”

The tail hit stung, but luckily, Sandman managed to absorb most of its impact. The sand in the area that absorbed the most damage was gone, leaving it exposed. I quickly had all nearby sand climb onto my body and replace it.

Chris sniffed her tail before everything odd about her turned back to normal. “Sand armour thin enough to blend in with your skin, hair, and clothes, but strong enough to protect you, huh? So this is what you were hiding.”

“To enhance a part of your body, you must de-enhance something in exchange,” I said aloud. “That’s how Stray Cat Strut Works.”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Nyaaaaaa?!” she screamed in horror. “You figured it out that quick?!”

“You sniffed your tail and were able to know it was sand, but your eyes were opaque meaning you were blind. Your arms go limp whenever you pounce. Also, only one of your legs was flexing muscles.”

She bent down, bared her teeth, and pounced at me. She stopped right a few inches from my face, grinning and enhancing her arm. Her punch sent me flying back ten feet.

The sand that protected my jaw crumbled away. My gates were weakening and gathering sand was unnecessary. I simply spread out the remaining sand on my body thinner.

That attack was trying to knock me out. She’s getting serious, faster, and stronger. Chris was only playing with her food earlier, but now she intends on devouring me.

“Your sand armour can really take a hit, huh?”

I punched the air, aiming beneath her feet. “Nervous Shakedown!”

The sudden earthquake shifted Chris’ balance, making her constantly twist her body to stay upright. The shaking was so powerful that she couldn’t even take a few steps before finding herself back where she was.

“Rolling Stone!” I screamed, sending a large boulder towards her before swiping the ground and having Stone Free raise me. “Rock Bust!”

The earthen spikes descended at her from a higher angle.

If she focuses on Rock Bust, Rolling Stone will crush her.

If she focuses on Rolling Stone, Rock Bust will impale her.

As she balanced herself, she slapped away all the spikes using her tail.

Damn, that tail acts as an extra arm. She’s using it to protect herself while using her actual arms for balance.

By the time Nervous Shakedown ran its course, Chris had regained her balance and deflected the last earth spike into the boulder, embedding it into the rock. She then enhanced her arm and punched the boulder, hammering the earth spike like a nail.

The massive boulder shattered like glass.

No way… she broke it.

The only thing able to break those boulders were Stone Free’s hands.

“Aha!” she cheered. “Nothing is indestructible. I just have to focus all of my power into a singular point. I bet your sand armour has the same weakness. I have to stab you to get through the sand.”

I quickly turned all the earth spikes from Rock Bust into regular dust.

My gates are being exhausted, I’ll have to end this quickly.

“I don’t need your earth spikes,” she said as she protracted her sharp and pointed claws.

“If you kill me, you’ll fail.”

“I won’t kill you. I’ll just heal and hurt you again and again and again until you surrender. It’s your choice, my friend. And if you die, I can always retake the exam.”

“If I die with a hole in my chest, then so be it. At least I can die the same way my great great uncle did.”

Chris bent down, baring her teeth and enhancing her legs. As she sprang towards me, I summoned the largest boulder I could as a last sort of defence, making sure she couldn’t see me.

She pressed all of her claws together and focused her attack on a single point, shattering the boulder with ease. She landed on the ground and pounced again, stabbing me right in the chest and piercing completely through my sand armour.

“Wait,” she wondered. “Why are you so hollow?”

I got her.

My hollow image crumbled into sand, travelling up Chris’ neck and forming a muzzle on her mouth. Stone Free emerged from the ground, each hand grabbing a limb and stretching her.

“Nya!”

“Now you’re completely powerless, Christina! I figured you out. You can only enhance a certain body part by making your mouth do different things. Your arms get enhanced when you grin and your legs get enhanced when you bare your teeth. I figured you out.”

Chris turned her head chaotically, trying to find me.

“Down here you damn cat,” I said, emerging from the ground behind her and spitting the wooden straw aside.

While she was focused on the Rolling Stone, I left my sand armour and swam into the ground behind me that I turned into quagmire. Using the straw to breathe, I swam through the earth, making a long connected hole before emerging behind Chris.

Like any armour, I was able to leave my sand one and have it retain my shape. However, it was just an empty suit that couldn’t talk nor move.

I had one of the Stone Free arms hold onto my lower body and head towards the sky before doing a u-turn right into Chris. I got my hand ready to punch. With the combination of gravity and the speed I was going, Chris would get pummeled.

“You’re next line will be: wait, please no! I surrender!” I stated before making the sand surrounding Chris’ mouth fall to the ground.

“Wait, please no! I surrender!” she cried.

I stopped right before my fist connected with her face. She had her eyes closed, ready to absorb my hit. Her hands were opened as if she was offering me her palms. She was even pointing her stomach at me.

Aren’t these signs that a cat is backing down?

I lightly slapped her on the cheek. “I win.”

The earth hands set her on the ground just where the other participants were. She stared openly before dropping to the ground with a sigh.

“Thaddeus Mobley wins!” Ivan announced.

The people on the bleachers cheered before throwing each other pouches of coins.

Did they put wagers on us? Of course they did. Why wouldn’t they?

“Unfortunately, Chris, you’ve been eliminated. But you did well,” Ivan congratulated.

“Do I still get a pass anyway?”

“You don’t.”

“Then I didn’t.” She got up. “So how does this work? Do I leave or do I stick around?”

“If you want to leave, you can take Gluttony’s portal. It’ll take you to the tavern that started all this. But you can stay and watch the other two fights.”

“I’ll stay.” She pointed at Asher. “I want to see what his abilities are.”

Ivan produced a box of six fruits. “Both of you, take one and eat it.”

“What is this?” I asked as I shoved one in my mouth. The taste was rather neutral.

“It’s a Gympie fruit—It’ll completely heal your deteriorated gates.”

“If it’s rare, why are you giving it to us?”

“You ought to be honoured. There are so few of you that the king brought it as a gift for each. But His Grace wants you to eat them here and make sure they’re used during the exam.”

“Nya!” Chris bowed. “I’m honoured!”

The king waved his hand. “No need to be so thankful. I just didn’t know what to do with those fruits.”

It took a moment for the effects to settle, but the strain on my body had simply ceased. “My gods. Chris, eat it. My body feels so refreshed.”

She ate hers and it took a moment for her pupils to dilate. “You’re right.”

Both of us returned to the lineup.

Ivan elevated himself again. “With that battle concluded, let us go ahead with the next one.”

All of our attention went to King Arthureus.

“So much attention and pressure.” He reached into the bucket and pulled out two numbers. “603 and 44.”