Reaper appeared back in the waiting room, gasping for air as his chest agonizingly moved in and out. Sam gave him a supercilious look, glad that he had not completely humiliated Eduardo. The audience outside cheered loudly, and the arena rumbled as it began to shift and change. A rocky spike rose out of the ground, and torrents of water rushed into the arena from all sides, creating a small lake around the spike. In the middle of the dry area, a small pedestal with a button stood. Creatures swam into the water from hidden entry points, and a few ominous noises came from the water.
“This arena is one that requires more than just fighting capability. Both fighters will be teleported to opposite ends of the arena, and they will have to fight each other while dealing with the monsters in the water below. However,if the button on the top of the spire is pressed, then the water and the monsters will recede.” The System paused to make sure that everyone understood that and then continued.
“For this unique arena, our fighters are Profound Visionary and Rodney Kane!”
Sam bit his lip upon hearing that, and Lao sighed. The man looked a bit put out by the announcement but then he shrugged. He knew that he was going to lose here, so what better way to do so than by fighting the third most powerful man in the world? Lao stood up quickly and gave his opponent a grin. Rodney Kane had a look of dark glee on his face, and he was clearly enjoying the thought of fighting Lao.
Both men were teleported away, and the camera panned out to show them both landing on the far ends of the arena. Lao immediately started swimming for the central area, but Rodney delayed, summoning his armor. The water boiled around him as the profane suit of earth and darkness came into being, and the few monsters that were moving towards him turned tail and fled. Rodney roared, and kicked so hard that he was tossed up and out of the water, Then he did something that nobody had expected. As he landed on the water, his legs started to move at inhuman speeds, and he started to run on the water. For Sam, who had once been edified by a video of a motorcycle doing something similar, this was not that impressive, but judging by the reactions of most of the people in the stand, they must have thought that he was Jesus reborn. Possibly quite literally, given the way that he was moving.
He made his way across the water far more quickly than Lao, and he jumped up onto the platform, hitting the button rapidly. The water and the monsters vanished, as if they had never been there, and Lao was dropped onto the sands of the arena. He seemed unperturbed, and he summoned blue light to his hands, getting ready to fight.
Rodney ran forward, and summoned his sword to his hands, imbuing it with mana. Lao slid one foot back and waited for Rodney to arrive. As the man neared Lao, he sped up and caught the older man by surprise, slamming his sword into his raised fists. The blue light mitigated the damage a bit, but Lao was still lifted off of his feet and tossed into the wall. He grimaced and spat out blood before sending a bolt of blue light at Rodney. The man tilted his sword to deflect it, but as the bolt hit it, it sunk into the sword and blue bolts started ricocheting off of it, hitting Rodney. They seemed to be little more than annoyances for the man, but soon they grew to such a number that Rodney found it hard to see. The man growled and batted at the projectiles, finding that they were stubbornly hard to catch.
Lao came in with his fist cocked back, projecting a spike of energy forwards as he punched. All of the energy ricocheted back and forth within the confines of the spike, and when it touched Rodney, it detonated, blowing a small hole in his armor. The man grabbed at Lao, but the older man danced backwards, eluding his grip. Rodney lashed out with his free hand, transitioning to a one handed grip with his greatsword, and sent a pulse of mana towards Lao that was colored with darkness. Lao tried to dodge, but the projectile had a homing effect on it, and it latched onto his path, hunting him down.
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Lao raised a shield of Dao energy, and the ball of darkness splattered against it, spreading tendrils towards Lao. He quickly banished the shield, and the ball reformed, inexorably heading towards him. Lao sighed and coated his fist in power, punching at the dark orb. His fist landed, and the orb tried to split around it, but it was forced to stay still by Lao’s Dao. The man shattered the suddenly fragile orb like it was made out of glass, and a rain of mundane dirt pattered against the ground underneath it. All that it had been in the end was an accumulation of sand mixed with elemental energy.
Rodney laughed and summoned two of the balls, sending them towards Lao at the same time. The older man summoned his Dao to both hands this time, shattering the balls again. Sam could see where this was going, and before long Rodney had created three balls that hovered in front of him. They streaked forwards, and Lao tried to dodge the third one, but it struck home nonetheless. It spread out around his body, and his flesh started to burn where it touched, the darkness leeching the life out of it. The power was expended soon, but as the sand discorporated, Lao was revealed, and he was not a pretty sight. The skin where the orb of darkness had struck was bone dry, and it looked like the skin of a mummy. The rest of his body had a yellow, jaundiced hue, and he seemed to be in great pain.
Rodney ran forwards with his sword raised, and brought it down, cleaving through the air. As the tip of the sword hit the sand, a semicircle of dark energy shot out in a vertical wave from the weapon, slicing towards Lao. Lao gurgled something, his vocal cords damaged from the energy ball, and he slammed his fists together. His body started to rapidly age, as if the mummifying effects of the ball had been multiplied, and a small ball of bright blue power formed in front of him. The Bear smiled and so did Sam. Lao was using his Dao to reflect the damage that he had taken back at Rodney, at the cost of even more damage dealt to himself. This would be the final move of the match, no matter what happened, but at least Lao had been able to put up a decent fight. The small speck of light shot forward and impacted the wave of darkness.
There was a sudden silence and then a low pitched humming noise started to grow. A small shockwave shot out from where the two attacks had struck, and then another one followed, this one larger. The waves started to build and resonate with each other, probably an effect of Lao’s Dao.
Rodney gritted his teeth, pushing at his attack with his willpower, and Lao did the same. In a game of Dao and mental energy, Lao was supreme, and his attack started to push back Rodney’s one. The dark blade buckled and tore where it was in contact with the blue light and eventually it shattered, sending a wave of pure chaotic energy back at Rodney. His eyes widened, but that was all that he had time to do. The power crashed into him like a tidal wave against a fishing boat, and he was propelled backwards into the central spire. The rock cracked and shattered around him, and he was carried all the way through the spire by his sheer momentum.
Rodney struck the far wall with a pathetically quiet noise, and he slumped forward. He was not out of the fight however, and even as his armor crumbled to pieces, he got to his feet, still clutching his sword. Lao took a step forward and then fell to one knee, panting heavily. Rodney’s eyes lit up and he started to walk across the sand, limping on his right leg. A piece of bone protruded out of it, and every time that he put weight on it, he winced. Lao tried to force himself to his feet, but he fell over again, and when he attempted to summon his Dao, the energy flickered out. Lao closed his eyes and waited for Rodney’s sword to descend. However, the other man did not kill him immediately, instead pulling out a small knife from somewhere and suddenly slicing Lao’s cheek open.
“If I can’t get to that bastard Arbiter, I can at least get to you.”
Sam got up and started gesticulating at the screen, and the Bear got up as well.
“Stop this now!” Sam screamed, addressing the System. The voice reappeared and then transmitted the mental equivalent of shrugging into their minds.
“I cannot. The match is not over until one fighter suffers fatal damage. Until then, Profound Visionary will have to endure this. Besides, there would be no reason to do so anyway. Rodney Kane has earned the right to this by defeating his opponent. This is your first and only warning, Arbiter. Do not dare to command me again.”
Sam doubled over in pain as what felt like a spike of red hot metal was hammered into his head. It was all illusory of course but it felt very real. The pain vanished after a moment and Sam sat down. He couldn't bear to watch this, but he needed to do so for the sake of Lao.