Azim was on his own. He had no weapon. He had no allies. And in this fight, he was not able to use any metalmancy, as the judges thought he had next to none. If he did, they would accuse him of cheating or somehow hiding his magic level, and would likely disqualify him. While in the Brick House, Azim would have to rely entirely on his own mechanical body and everything it was capable of.
Getting a sense of the lizardfolk’s attacks, the robot was starting to create some distance for himself. Dodging the incoming spikes was becoming easier, and the increased space between them he had secured gave the metal man more time to react.
The lizard man, on the other hand, was getting increasingly more exasperated. He did not mind so much that the metal-coated stranger in front of him was starting to evade his spells. That could be expected. The arena was filled with promising young rookies, those you would expect to be able to adapt quickly to an opponent’s attacks, especially if they were using the same one over and over. What was starting to get on his nerves, however, was how the metal man yet not yet turned into yellow dust. Sure, he was wearing a full suit of armor, likely iron or steel, which would absorb most of the lizard’s impacts. He considered that the metal stranger could even have some sort of endurance enchantment or boost in stamina, resulting in attacks not being as fatally wounding. However, if several puncture wounds were not enough to slay this man, how much more could he possibly endure before his charm would take effect?
Rushing in close, Azim ducked another pair of whooshing, pink spikes, vaulting over a third that followed closely behind. The approaching metal man was beginning to rattle the lizardfolk, who started to think switching to a more defensive strategy was a safe move. “Holo Shield!” the scaly man, incanted, wiping his reptilian hands apart from one another to reveal a pink screen in front of him.
Still, the silver stranger charged onward. The mage had no idea what his opponent’s plan was. He didn’t seem disturbed by the sudden obstacle, nor did he seem like he was changing whatever tactic he had come up with. The metal man was also not brandishing any weapons, nor was he seeming to prepare any kind of spell. Just what was this guy doing?
The answer to the lizardfolk’s question was a steel fist barreling into his Holo Shield. The impact from the stranger’s punch caused the rectangular barrier to crack and splinter like a mirror cursing someone with bad luck. Time seemed to still for a moment as the reptilian man stared at the sight before him.
He knew his barrier spell wasn’t as strong as his other one. He realized he could have spent more time practicing and improving the integrity of defenses instead of focusing solely on his spikes. But, he knew it was still tough. In his arsenal, the spell was level 11. While admittedly not the toughest defense in the world, a barrier at level 11 should still have been able to take a hit or two before showing signs of damage. The lizard mage could not help but wonder, What is this guy made of?
The second impact caused the lizardfolk mage to lose all hope. Throwing his other fist at the pink, translucent wall, Azim’s arm plowed through the spell, leaving it to shatter into hundreds of pieces before dissolving into the air entirely. The lizardfolk simply stared at the man in front of him, at a loss for words.
“What is your name?” Azim asked the scaly mage.
“L-Lirekke…” stumbled the lizardfolk, unsure what was happening.
“I do not usually favor excessive violence, Lirekke,” the android stated calmly. “If it can be avoided, I try to stray from killing and maintain a path of neutralization.”
Lirekke did not understand why the metal man was saying all of this to him. He had been so hostile to his opponent, trying to strike him down without a second thought. That, of course, was the nature of this match. There was nothing wrong with the way he battled. He just wanted to win before he lost. So why was this armor-covered stranger so sincere with him? “O-Okay…” he muttered.
“While I do not go out of my way to hurt others to the point of fatality, I understand that this is the only way for one to be eliminated from this battle. I also understand that those who are eliminated will not actually face death, and will merely be removed from the arena, perfectly safe. With that in mind, I wanted to make it clear that, despite no risk of death actually befalling you, I still apologize.”
Before Lirekke could say anything in response to the metal stranger, he witnessed a flash of shining silver coming toward him. The next thing he knew he was standing in the elimination hall, hunched over slightly as if he had just been punched. Had that thin-looking knight, or whatever he was, hit him? That fast? It was hard for Lirekke to believe, but here he was, sitting with all the other losers. And yet, he could not help but feel calm. He had lost. He had wanted to win so badly. He knew it was unlikely, that there were undoubtedly others stronger than him, but he had still been aiming to win. And yet, after losing to that strange, metal-coated brawler, he felt nothing. No sorrow, regret, or contempt. How strange, he thought, that losing could feel so unbothersome.
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As the match continued, Azim found himself getting more and more comfortable. Despite the number of combatants winding down one by one, proving who actually had a reason to be here, Azim did not ever feel an increase in seriousness was needed. The red knight from the locker room was parrying two attackers at once, the hunter with all the pouches was speeding between fighters and throwing out all sorts of items, but Azim was just taking it slow. He fought whoever came his way or fired spells at him, but other than that, the android just waited out the round.
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Throwing a gnome who had been climbing his back to the ground, Azim realized he was standing near the red knight as he finished off the two other combatants. “Well, hey, look who it is!” grinned the shining, red knight as he sent the second attacker back to the waiting room. “How are you holding up?”
Keeping his arms up in a guard just in case, the metal man replied, “I have not sustained any serious damage, though I believe my lack of magic use is starting to show.”
“What? You haven’t been using any magic this whole time?!” uttered the knight, astonished. “Well, I gotta’ say, if you’re still here, I think that says more positive things than it does negative. So what if anybody else realizes? It’s not like it’ll change anything, from the sound of things. You’ve already taken on, what, 5 or 6 fighters? You’re showing that, even without magic, you can keep up with those with it! That’s a serious testament. So hang in there, and I’ll see you at the end, okay? If anybody’s going to beat you in this ring, it’s going to be me!”
Without another word, the man in shining red armor ran off apart from Azim to take on some terram witch. As the robot watched the knight run off, he barely noticed another challenger coming his way. Only a moment before it was too late, Azim ducked away from a flying dagger that was aiming straight for his neck. Regaining his balance, he looked over to see the pouch-covered hunter stopping in her tracks, staring back at him.
She had been running by as she had thrown the dagger, expecting it to stab into the metal man’s armored neck and turn him into yellow light. She didn’t think much of it and kept running on to her next target. However, when she looked back and noticed the robot was still standing, she took a pause.
Azim took an assessment of where at him she had thrown the blade. She must have seen how durable he had proven to be through the fight, and “knew” that it would take something as drastic as severing the metal man’s head from his body to send him back into the waiting room. What she didn’t know, however, was that no matter how much damage was done to Azim, he would never be sent there, because the wide-area spell that had been cast on all the fighters had not actually left a charm on him, and no wound would trigger an immediate escape. While this technically meant he could outlast all of the other participants, it also meant he was the only one in real danger, and if someone was lucky enough to bisect his neck, it would have real-world consequences.
Turning to fully face Azim, the hunter pulled out two glass bottles from the pouches at her waist. Azim recognized the look of them. Spell bottles. Though he had no way of knowing what exact spells could be in them. All he had to go off of was their color, bright red and murky blue.
Yelling overtook both the robot and the hunter’s senses as a feliome berserker charged toward the pouch-covered woman with a giant morningstar. Azim took note of the fact that this was not the berserker who warranted any semblance of worry, and ascertained that the hunter would likely take him out without much effort. Not to his surprise, the android observed stoically as the hunter through the red glass bottle to her side and at the feliome. Knowing what kind of danger was inside of the glass bottle, the furry berserker tried to stop his momentum and lurch out of the way. However, the hunter was ready.
With a snap of her fingers, the woman’s flung bottle, despite flying past the feliome, burst open, releasing the spell that was contained inside. A large flame sprayed out from the broken glass, catching onto the feliome’s fur and engulfing him in flames a moment later. Dropping his spiked weapon, the feliome screamed out in agony, dropping to the floor to try and extinguish the flames. He was too late, for the fire swiftly got past his first layer of skin and reached a burning point that would be fatal. As a result the cat man’s charm activated, turning him into a shining glow of light before disappearing, leaving the fire with nothing to burn and quickly fizzle away.
Everyone else around who had watched the scene felt a chill go down their spine. Sure, the furry berserker had been in no real danger. He was taken back to the room of those eliminated, and any wounds that still remained would be taken care of by the event team. However, there was still the fact that if there was no spell active, or even if somehow the charm had failed, being set on fire like that would have been a horrible way to go. From then on, everyone stayed their distance from the hunter. Even if several others could have taken her, nobody wanted to deal with someone so uncaring about leaving someone suffering like that until finally being eliminated.
“Hey…” the woman’s wispy voice mumbled. “Don’t let that shake you. You’ve still got yourself to worry about.”
The woman wound back her other arm, prepaying to throw the murky blue bottle. Azim stood ready for whatever it may be, and wherever she might throw it. The last thing he expected… was for her to throw it at the ground.
Only about a meter in front of him, the woman sent the bottle shattering in front of the android, releasing a giant, blue, amorphous mass. Before Azim could react or properly counter, he found himself trapped in what he now realized the bottle had contained. A bubble.
The metal man floated helplessly in the swollen bubble, swaying around awkwardly and turning in ways he did not mean to. While the bubble was filled with water, it was also unnaturally thick, making it difficult for the robot to swim inside it or position himself properly. He was truly stuck at the mercy of the hunter standing before him, safely outside of the spell’s range.
She smiled a low grin, satisfied to have caught her prey. It would not be long now, she figured, until her opponent ran out of air and drowned, leaving the charm to trigger and pull him out. Proud of her “kill”, the hunter ran off to ambush another poor combatant, leaving Azim alone, trapped in his watery prison. The robot watched as she flung a dagger similar to the one she had thrown at him, nailing an elf in the back of the head before he could even react, who disappeared a moment later. Azim had been right to be wary of the woman, though now he was not sure what he could do.
While he was in no actual danger of drowning, there was still the fact that any of the other combatants, or even the woman with the pouches herself, could come to finish him off. And once again, because he had no charm active, any serious assault on his trapped self was a genuine threat. He had to find a way out of the woman’s bubble before he was destroyed. The only question was… how?