Meditation always felt like it was cut miserably short by a notification, this one pinging after fight 89. It was absolutely uncanny it took me 80+ to consider I’d yet to sleep, eat, or drink any water at all. The thought wrought a yearning for a gallon of ice cold water at my fingertips.

It was torturous, seeing the water dance just out of my reach. Yet mages of my affinity could bend the water in the air into larger pools, apparently using it to throw spells that usually pittered or acted as a means of defense. My love for water went beyond elemental fighting concepts. Quite frankly, I loved feeling hydrated.

Call it what you will, it was an unequivocal fact humans constantly needed to drink water to survive, and double the daily minimum if you wished to be active or develop your body well. So to say the overwhelming shame that flooded my very spirit at knowing I’d neglected life’s liquid so blatantly was momentarily suffocating. Only after a bit of self deprecation did I consider maybe they auto-fed and watered us after each fight. Beginning to forgive my gross negligence, I finally opened my new notification. The Gods were muted until further notice, so this had to be of much importance.

CONGRATULATIONS

You have made it to the Top 10 of your world’s greatest prospects! The following rewards will be available after the commencement of your tutorial:

10,000 Tutorial Points.

Title unlocked -> Of Earth’s Finest - You’ve proven yourself among the pinnacle of your worlds greatest warriors before even leveling up.

+5% to all stats.

Reveling in my hard work, I felt the prodding of annoyance reading the stipulations of when I’d receive my rewards. Thinking more on it, the likelihood of a top 5, 3, 2, and/or Champion of the whole tournament getting more prestigious Titles and rewards justified the wait. Besides, it would be strange to make the Top 10 fighters of your planet and not get some sort’ve recognition, level 1 be damned.

I was about to close my notifications when another one appeared, this one with a header that read, *click to join Earth’s finalists tournament*.

For a second, I thought I was getting the last of humanities spam emails funneled to my mind, but my intuition told me this was important given the timing. I clicked hoping for more information, only to find my notifications closed. Instead, I found myself in a smaller, far more minimalistic arena, surrounded by 9 other contestants with 2 I recognized immediately.

“Korbin? I figured I’d see you sooner or later.”

Hands were shaken. Not like old people.

“How was it over at the fire arena? You run into any monsters over there?”

Part of me hoped he found some kind of competition, many Gods know by now I’ve had my fair share of close calls, but they bore some of the sweetest of fruitful progr-

“Nah oh dude, that shit was boring. As. Fuck,” Korbin’s body physically deflated as he recalled his fights.

“Most of the fighters there just charged at me. I kind of had to make fun out of an overly repetitive situation. What about you, that light armor land you any close calls?”

Smirking as I responded, “Quite honestly, it served me well. Sure, I could’ve used some extra cushion for a few tumbles here and there, but I handled myself.”

He looked at me, squinting a moment, before smiling as he said inquisitively, “You didn’t answer my question.” His eyes darted down for a moment before widening in an act of elated realization I had indeed almost died at some point in this tournament.

“Aaahhh you totally almost died. Tell me about it, what happened?! Did you go to Water Step and trip onto a spearhead or something?”

He asked, but I knew he needed a moment to thoroughly enjoy his questioning as he cackled, his hand resting on my shoulder. After about 5-7 seconds of the giggles, he straightened up and looked at me expectantly once more.

“I have 4 skills.”

Fuck it, we’re bringing the petty guns.

Korbin proceeded to unpack his own artillery, by mocking me in a nasty voice while protruding his lower jaw down and outward.

“‘Meh meh meh, my name’s Tom. Meh meh meh, I have 4 skills. Meh meh meh, I almost died.’”

I couldn’t help bursting out in a hardy laugh. Sure, it was at my expense, but I got my licks in. Besides, he didn’t say how many skills he’s got yet.

“Just don’t use it as an excuse when I see you after this for why I finally beat you.”

Korbin grinned a toothy smile at the last part,

“Emphasis on ‘finally’.”

After a few more minutes of lightly insulting each other’s existence, I peered about the small crowd that remained. That’s when I saw the blonde once more, only I didn’t have to stare intently from hundreds of feet away to get a glance at her details.

She had a thin short sword on her side, and wore a leather armor set. I guess the system is a pig, because her bosom was covered by her undershirt better than the shoe strings that connected the leathers at her chest. I say this not knowing if they offered a variety of options in fashion myself, but Korbin already gave me shit about that. Her straight platinum blonde hair was up in a bun, and her eyes a deep baby blue. For the sake of respectfulness, she was in excellent shape.

For the sake of honesty, she was by far the hottest woman I’d ever seen in my life, and the internet existed for the entirety of it. She wore a determined look in her eye, but her face was currently in the shape of affability, stopping by each remaining contestant.

There was an aura of decisiveness in her people-hopping ,and I kept getting the feeling I was having lasers burned into the back of my head whenever I turned back to Korbin. Of course, when I turned to look for her, Korbin let me hear it if I couldn’t feel his disapproving glare.

A schemer. Great, now there’s 2 here.

A prompt expanded before my vision automatically, and an audio played in my head but, everyone else seemed to react as surprised as I did when the unnaturally soothing female voice began speaking.

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“Welcome. You have reached the Finalists Tournament for your planet. Congratulations.”

Through my peripherals, I noticed everyone’s reactions being fairly similar; apathy. We were all here because we wanted to win it all, not to reach some self servicing ‘first in your heart’ rank and call it a day. It had to have been at least 3 days now, and no one’s slept. Didn’t need to, I guess, but I knew I missed it.

“The tournament will proceed as prior for the next round, only you will not receive any passive boosts for being in an arena in alignment with your affinity. This also means there will be no inherent mana of any one affinity, but a mixture of them all at once. Each fight will be viewed one by one, until Earth has its 29th Universe’s top prospect. Good luck contestants, we’re ALL watching!”

Okay, eerie way to end that.

Sure we all knew everyone was watching everywhere there is a place to apparently, but reminding us like that was super off putting. Not to mention she explicitly said this was only the rules for this round. Feelings 70 something fights-old of being a rat in a maze for whatever put us here creeped back into my mind, but I pushed them aside.

I’ll soon have plenty of time to ruminate on the bullshit morality of ‘The System’ later, right now it was time to win. Even if I did miss being surrounded by the crashing waves, the smell of fresh water dancing along the rocky walls surrounding the arena.

It felt so pure, the air even tasted good. Now I can feel the same familiar feeling hanging in the air, but it was far less potent, and in constant battle with a plethora of other energies for marginal supremacy. A grandiose old clock ticking-sound echoed through the arena, rumbling the organs in my body with each passing second.

After a countdown of 6, I figured this was a 10 count. How fun. The ticks hit 8, and I turned over to Korbin, and for the first time I thought I saw a glint of worry. Tick number 9 sounded, and right before I could put up a reassuring ‘fist bump’ gesture, his fist beat mine, only with his middle finger extended in front of a devious grin. His cackle was interrupted by the 10th tick, followed by a long silence.

Everyone surveyed the room, poised for something to happen, someone to move, anything.

The ambient sound of heartbeats was barely audible, when a short high pitch beep sounded. Just as quickly as the silence broke, 7 other contestants breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of seeing a skinny man in a big black cloth outfit that looked strikingly like mourning clothes had been blipped in the ring. Directly opposite to him was the blonde.

Korbin leaned forward for a better view. “Not gonna lie, I see why you missed the introduction hologram. Try not to let it distract you too bad.” Korbin said, slapping my chest with the back of his hand after finishing his unsolicited words of wisdom. My attention was clung far tighter to why she’s here. I’d heard one horror story so far of her turning someone at the metal arena into ‘red mist’ but I’d done that before fight 40.

“Hey, blonde lady! My buddy thinks you’re hot!”

Thank you, Korbin.

Anyways, odds were favorable that everyone had at some point won in dominating fashion very early on. The last 30-ish had yielded notably stiffer competition, and were exponentially more brutal in nature. In fairness, I hadn’t seen how it went in any other fight arenas though. For all I know, some Pacifist God found their Chosen 5 hours ago. They may even dwarf our power levels with sheer bullshit, like the old Healer I had to…help die.

The other guy in the Nun's attire carried with him a big scythe, and I suddenly felt like this guy's cosplay was a little on the nose.

“Hello, young lady. My name is Haden.” Whispered the oddball, in a guttural tone.

“I will be sure to treat you with the utmost care, even if I don’t get to keep you after, yet.”

Ookay…

“Ugh, why do I always get the socially awkward creeps?” The blonde sighed, disparagingly.

“Hold your tongue, harlot.” Snapped back the creepy dork. Korbin through his hands up in adopted disappointment,

“‘Harlot’ who the fuck..?”, he exclaimed with a furrowed brow, looking around the room for confirmation this guy was in fact a weirdo.

Blonde apparently had enough creeper energy already, as she skipped any further dialogue options and went straight to weapons drawn.

Haden, God of the Socially Inept followed in kind, only he clearly wasn’t nearly as chivalrous as he pretended, because he swung first. His blade cut through the air at a sideways angle, his hands sliding along the pole arm to extend its range, though he still wasn’t quite close enough to hit. Still, he followed his swing, with a deep-red blade of energy projecting out of his Scythe at the blonde prodigy.

For a melee attack, he was completely out of range. For a ranged attack, however, he was at the equivalent of pressing your forehead on the barrel of a 12 gauge, because there was no way she had time to dodg-…

…

…so after she avoided his red energy blade, leaping from a stationary position but 5 feet from Haden, her body contorted sideways as his attack that initially came at her head had curved now from the trajectory his Scythe released it, only to pass by her spinning body now horizontal in air. Of course, she capped it off with the hero pose landing.

Laughing in elation and holding his head, Korbin couldn’t help but blurt out, “Ho-hoooly shit that was cool.” Stunned, Haden gathered himself, and began a barrage of ranged energy bolts as he spun his Scythe almost like a bo staff. He perpetually moved forward while his Scythe spun at unnatural speed across and around his body, marching towards the blonde. All the while firing his dark red energy blades at scary speeds.

His form was honestly incredible, and had he just cut his own tongue out before he got up there, I may have harbored a newfound respect for him. Unfortunately, he proved himself insidious to human progress with his outfit alone.

Death? That’s your gimmick? Fucking ‘edgy’ dude.

My gaze panned back to the blonde’s side of the arena, where she was moving in all kinds of directions with ease, dodging each attack narrowly.

One shot in particular had been stacked closely behind two that had been aimed at her legs. She proceeded to leap up and out of the path of the first two energy blades. Simultaneously spinning her shoulders and hips while exploding her leg outward, she kicked a freaking laser.

Watching intently, I noticed a fraction of a moment before the blondes boot made contact with the strange red energy an explosion triggered, causing my ears to once again ring, singing in the forbidden frequencies of disorientation. A second explosion sounded, prompting my eyes to lock back on to where she was, only to find her flying towards Haden with her non-kicking foot facing away.

She hurled her sword forward, aiming for Haden’s head. Before it could reach its deathly destination, sand formed beside Haden. With an inward gesture of her other hand, the sand flung up into Haden’s face. Haden cringed, grasping his eyes, only for the sword to pierce into his hand and skull. The moment her feet landed however, his body dissipated into a fine black powder that moved in what looked like dark sand whisking around a few feet away, forming the outline of a humanoid shadow.

“That…was uncalled for, you bitch.”

A voice sounding like a mixture between Haden’s already off-putting voice and a demonic entity echoed through the arena, causing a few contestants to tremble a little.

“Don’t be fooled, I fought a teleporting tank at the water arena. This guy’s all bravado.” I told Korbin, leaning forward as the fight now moved a bit further from our immediate view. Blonde’s body language hinted restlessness at the sight.

“Okay okay, now reform already. You’re wasting our time, and I bet you can’t afford to lose any right now.” The blonde said through a smirk and squinted eyes.

“Heheh, hahaHAHAHAHA!”

With a genuinely terrifying cackle that shook the pit of my stomach, the Dark Sand Formation collapsed into a pile, slithering along the arena.

It split into 4 piles, erecting 4 arms out of each. As if in concert, each hand formed 18 inch blades at their palms, and fired them towards the blonde. They traveled with a rounded darkness at its front, but as it passed my view the thin, razor sharp dark blade hid behind its parachute shaped hue.

The blonde dodged the first 3, but the 4th grazed her shoulder. Yet, she let out a restrained yelp as it connected regardless, and her flesh around the cut was dark.

Haden’s eerie voice echoed from multiple directions.

“Yes, let death have its claim on you.”

The blonde’s face had looked defeated, crushed, as if this small wound completely incapacitated her.

Almost like she was infected with some super poison as it breached her skin. He mentioned letting ‘death’ have a claim to her, and I hoped death wasn’t an affinity. That’s a bit much.

The dark sand piles performed their greatest feat yet; reading the room. They came together from four angles, creating an ‘X’ shape as Haden’s dark shape formed again. As soon as the entire pile came together as one, the blonde’s face shot up from her downed position, revealing her shoulder being completely fine with a bit of sand dribbling off of it.

That’s when she launched her open hand into his chest-shaped mass, followed by an explosion of flames bursting out of the figures back. The hole in its midsection had been completely circular nearly a foot wide. You could see straight through him.

The embers of the fiery attack reignited within the charred remains of the sandy figure, before spreading out across the rest of its body and sands resting where feet would stand.

Then, Haden was gone, and the blonde blipped about 8 feet to my left. I peered over, and noticed for the first time she had accepted eye-contact. More than that, she held it, before winking with a grin and turning away to presumably meditate. I don’t know, I figured everyone had to ponder their work, at the least. One thing was certain though.

She was dangerous.