My hands rested on my temples as I stared, sitting in the corner of the viewing area, watching the fight with Korbin over again. Each time it started so strong, combining Water Step into Lightning Strike, then using Flow Inverse on myself to change where the energy of my attack came from, it was beautiful. It even changed the skill description a bit, now with more range of utility as I read the notification I ignored.

SKILL UPGRADED

Flow Inverse (uncommon) —>

Flow Inverse (uncommon) - when activated, the user will respond to an attack with another, even their own, as water has no limit to where it can fill if it’s where it must go. User strikes a Flow point, reversing the Flow and movements completely. Effectiveness varies based on % advantage in agility to foes. +2 agility, +4 perception when active.

The notifications header said it was an upgrade, but the rarity didn’t change. Uncommon probably wasn’t something to complain about at my level, but it’s strange to know a skill upgrade can happen in increments. Breakthrough be damned though, because he popped right back up after I smashed my heel into his ribs at lightning speeds.

What the fuck, how did he tank that so easily?

Every time the sequence played, his glowing hands leaving light trails through the air kept stealing away my attention. Main reason being, it didn’t quite look like fire. The light felt more ethereal, it didn’t share the same dancing characteristics as fire. Yet, the heat was undeniable, remembering the smell of my burning arm and face hair as we clashed.

The sole bonus from having your ass beaten by your teacher and broadcasted for the multiverse to see was being able to look for places I’d slipped up. Thus far, it had been the only means of distracting myself from the soul shattering sense of failure that haunted my innermost thoughts. Meditation grew restless, I needed a direction to push my focus on in order to know why I lost.

The fight was quick, admittedly. We may have gone back and forth for longer, before his mystical orange hands became a full body flame, enhancing every fucking movement he made, that is.

“Son, that guy’s crazy strong.” The damage reflecting old man said, now standing beside me. He was never very far since I arrived here after the fight, though it’d only been 10 minutes. “Hold no shame in your heart, you fought bravely.”

“Thanks, but, I need to be more than brave, sir. Please, if I could have a moment.”

The old man smiled.

“Yeah, of course kid. Just know you did good, I’ve been watching you since our match. Don’t let the hatred that surrounds you taint your soul, son. You’re a good man, I see it.”

With that, he walked away, leaving me confused about all the hatred talk until I remembered the chained dagger psycho I put down.

No fights had happened yet, which was odd considering how fast our fight began after the blondes. Right, I forgot she was there.

Fuck, I got shit on right in front of her too.

Rage now mixed with embarrassing continued rising in my chest. The 20% chance I had to fight him first coming to fruition was absolutely fucking ridiculous. I knew I could handle each and every other one of those fighters, the fear they wore so openly at the sight of the blonde said everything I knew.

To them, failure was an option. Tapping out was on the table, they just never were faced with the decision. I had, on multiple occasions in this tournament alone. Yet of course, the guy who showed me how to even reach that point of discipline was my first big fucking fight. And I had him.

Struggling to compose myself internally once more, my mental tirade was interrupted by a notification dinging in my head.

Strange, I doubt I just unlocked a ‘man child tantrum state’ skill.

Intrigue at the wheel, I opened the message, to find I had been invited for a meeting with a God, Perunious. Accompanying his name was a series of titles, ‘God of Storm and Lightning’ or ‘Sovereign of the Sea’. ‘God of Wrath’ stood out the most.

Well shit, that sounds pretty cool.

Not thinking, my mind must’ve focused too heavily on accepting the invitation, because I found myself now surrounded by a massive ocean of water, with storm clouds cracking and thundering at all times overhead. Below me was a platform of what felt like pure water mana, and the air felt clean as it had at the water arena. Amplified ten fold by an electric charge that buzzed in the air, humming and making my insides flutter.

Wait, my stomach, it doesn’t hurt?

“Welcome to my domain, Tom.”

A deep, thundering voice that echoed across the vast oceanic plane rang out. Peering to the source, a large figure sat upon a deep grey throne that crackled with lightning that pulsated throughout its structure.

“Hi…hey I must say I absolutely love what you’ve done with the place. The view is immaculate.”

Typically I’d either be hunched over ignoring a potential patron, or making fun of them to get me out of there sooner. Truly, this place absolutely enamored me, and even if I had the splitting pain still, I may have tanked it out if it meant I got to come here more often.

The God chuckled, placing his massive hand on his exposed stomach as his deep, thunderous voice bellowed through the vibrating air.

He was in incredible shape, his glowing blue calf muscles looked larger than my torso, and he only wore boots, gauntlets, back and shoulder plating. That, and a crown made completely of lightning that danced in perpetuity, much like his exposed skin had.

“Thank you, but my wife is to thank for the beauty of this plane. I merely adopted hers after our Ceremony, how lovely it was, wasn’t it dear?”

He peered over his shoulder as a figure appeared from behind him.

“Yes, indeed it was my love.” She said, placing a hand on his shoulder. Her smile didn’t quite look genuine, but I didn’t want to assume her body language considering the differences in hers to a human woman’s.

Her body looked completely made from a deep blue water that swayed with her movement. Her eyes glowing a bright blue like my own, and her facial structure, albeit made of water, was perfect by all respects. Noticing her questioning eyes on me, I shifted mine back to her husband nervously.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you both. I assume you are Perunious?”

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The God grinned, “Indeed, I am. As you’ve read as well, I am the God of both Storm and Sea, but only the second with supremacy thanks too, once more my wonderful partner here. Why don’t you introduce yourself, love?”

His Wife seemed hesitant.

“It’s rude not to.” Perunious continued in a slightly more commanding tone. After an eye roll, she stepped forward.

“My name is Anutir, Goddess of Water, and all its sentient creatures. It is a pleasure to meet you, mortal.”

Alright, weird dynamics here but, not my place.

“Hi, Tom, the pleasure is mine.” I said with a smile and a bow. She appeared to get a kick out of me bowing to her first, turning to her husband with a snide smirk as she walked back behind him into seemingly nothingness.

“I intend on watching every finalist fight of this tournament, your planets especially. Your people have been particularly impressive, so I will keep this brief. I like you, kid.”

I felt my eyebrow raise at his statement.

“I just lost though, why bring me here now?”

Maybe after the first 90 fights I could understand his intrigue, but my neck got snapped while I was bent over having been spun and blinded by Korbin’s strikes right before I got here. Why now?

“I’ve been watching for some time now, Tom. You see, victory is the absolute decider of power in most cases, most notably in discerning who’s the very best at killing others. However, there are a few in which circumstances may muddy the ranks of everyone under, tarnishing its credibility if you ask me.”

Pondering a moment, I shook my head in agreement.

“After seeing you fight, it’s obvious to me you’re already very in touch with your natural affinities. You never left the water arena once, which so happened to be my wife’s arena.”

That made sense, considering the familiar feelings of elation the energy hanging all around this place.

“I saw what concepts were at play when you discovered your signature strike. Many Gods and their followers have taken notice too, whether in person or projections. You harnessed lightning to increase your speed and subsequent force of your strike. You used my affinity, and expertly for your level at that. I’ve yet to find another at your caliber on any other planets tournament in your galaxy. I wouldn’t want anyone else.”

Perunious was up from his throne now, making his way over to me at a steady walk. Now within 12 feet, I got a much better look at just how massive this God really was.

He had to be over 9 feet tall, his body like that of mythological Gods found in ancient scripture. Bright blue and white energy whipped and cracked all around him, with a dark grey aura exuding from his body. He truly looked like a massive sentient storm in humanoid form, and his voice thundered as he approached me.

“I’ve brought you here to propose an offer to you. Be my Chosen, and I will grant you with, not only the title and class options that comes with it, but power, freedom, and far, far more.”

Stood in front of me, he reached his massive arm out, touching my shoulder. Instantly, my vision warped from the beautiful ocean world crashing all around me to the vast nothingness of space. Looking down, a planet lay shattered with continental chunks of it floating a good distance from where the majority of the planet remained. The planet itself was covered in massive clouds that strobed with bright flashes of blue light.

Feeling a giant hand on my shoulder caused me to quickly twist my head to the side, revealing Perunious beside me.

“Relax, that is not what is important here. Merely a casualty of another God’s impudence. No, what is important to you is here.” He boomed, pointing behind him revealing what looked like the moon, only covered in massive structures and giant clear domes.

“This my Flodhest, one of many. Here, we host the greatest warriors, where they train under the strongest of my faction between conquests. Each with the same goal in mind; power.”

Before I could speak, stars became a tunnel of streaming light as space warped inward around me as my body sucked back suddenly, only to find myself back in his oceanic oasis of perfect energies.

“As my Chosen, you will need quick and easy means of progressing yourself, as a great many will not only look to you as a being of supreme strength and stature across the multiverse, but a target for a great many others who seek to upset the balance of our faction. I will provide your planet a Flodhest, and begin its terraforming after your tutorial, if you agree to become my Chosen.”

Fighting my hardest to dial back my overwhelming excitement at all that had been offered to me, I forced myself to slow my thoughts and consider this proposal seriously.

“You said this would be given to me after the tutorial, right? Is there anything I could get for the tutorial instead?”

Practically speaking, priority number one should be making it out of the tutorial, as I hadn’t a clue what was to follow anyway.

“Your upper-grade Chosen brothers and sisters will keep a close eye on you to ensure you don’t die. Who you align yourself with during the tutorial are on their own however. I will not waste the resources on possible future enemies.”

Honestly, that makes sense.

“Of course, your status will be public knowledge among Chosen’s of other Gods in your people’s Tutorial, and I assure you their Patrons will know better than to anger me. Make no mistake, if you die in combat to someone in your grade, I will feel nothing for you. Clearly, that would mean I was wrong about you from the beginning, but something tells me you got the makings of a real fucking monster.” He proclaimed, his brow furrowed as he squeezing his fist closed at the end of his highly implication-packed compliment.

“You really got a lot of pull in the multiverse like that?” I said, a smile creeping on my face.

The Gods eyebrow rose, and an air of seriousness filled his incredibly baritone voice.

“I am one of the Aboriginals, Tom. The fifth to ever achieve Godhood, and the first to kill another. My faction has spread across the multiverse for hundreds of millions of years. Countless civilizations built and buried in its wake. Most of all though Tom, I don’t take kindly to being fucked with. The faction, especially my Chosen, are all extensions of me. Now, do you understand?”

This is it. This has to be the fit for me. There’s no way I could possibly get a better offer, and if I let this pass now, he may pick whoever actually wins this competition. Of course, fear of missing out can’t be the single only reason I picked this God, and it wouldn’t be.

He’s crazy powerful, at least according to him, and speaks very confidently of my eventual growth in strength. Above all, a single thought served as the final push to accept his offer.

What if Korbin won the tournament?

“I humbly accept you as my Patron, Perunius.” I said with a smirk and a bow, earning another chuckle out of him.

“Excellent. Now, come here.”

I walked the few steps away that he stood, where he raised his hand, gesturing for a handshake. A real handshake. Being sure to look my new boss in the eye as I shook his hand, I felt a rush of energy firing into my body through it like a million jets were blasting underwater, only it was my blood, bones and organs. Oddly, the pressure didn’t hurt, but instead felt like it supercharged every cell in my body for a moment.

You have been offered to become the Chosen (H) of: Perunious, Wrath God of Storm and Sea. Do you wish to accept?

Fucking duh.

My vision clouded a moment, before a wave of relief came over me as fast as the energy had entered my body. What followed was feeling stronger, faster, more ready than ever before to just move, when a notification rang.

NEW TITLE UNLOCKED

->Chosen of the Wrathful God - One of the multiverse’s most ancient and mightiest forces of nature has struck far more than interest in you, naming you his Champion of your grade across the multiverse. Let all who oppose you feel the rumbling of his presence wherever you strike.

+10% potential to all stats through killing enemies with higher stats in a category. Rewarded the difference maximum +10%.

Earn additional bonus experience points for enemies stronger than you.

Holy shit. This is so broken.

Based on the description, so long as I beat enemies who have a higher stat score in any category, I’ll get the difference in my own stats up to +10%.Hypothetically, say I slay a beast with 2 more points in agility than me today, I’d get all two added to my own stat sheet. Clearly, this deity had his priorities on birthing powerful warriors with such a reward system. Weirdly, I felt honored.

“Now that that’s settled, my newest champion, come. Let us view your competition for the tutorial to come.”

With a snap of his fingers, the world zoomed out into a massive fisheye effect, this time refocusing in a giant room which I only assumed to be his. The roof was illuminated by giant streaks of blue and white energy looming high above. Blue marble with artwork of an incredibly strong storm ravaging the sea decorated the floor. Pillars of pure energy radiating down the walkway to the exit of the overly large chamber.

Perunious sat in a large tub, his water bubbling with steam rising from the surface. He motioned to a leather chair beside him with an ottoman in front of it.

“Please, join me. The next match is about to begin.”

This guy’s living like a fucking King.

Feeling thoroughly flexed on, I obliged, and sat beside my new Patron. In front of us, a giant projection of the arena I had just died at was displayed onto an equally massive wall. This time, however, there was a visible timer, and it had just hit ’2’ when I sat down.

Fuck it, time to do some scouting.