Lao screamed weakly as Rodney cut into his body with his knife. He was purposefully dragging it out in order to maximize the pain. Finally, Lao suddenly shot out his hand and dragged the knife into his throat. He was teleported away and Rodney was left there, blinking at the space where the man had just been. Then he roared his wrath at being cheated from his prey and then he got up, blasting his aura out at full force. The audience shivered in their seats, and only stopped after Rodney exited the arena.

As soon as he entered, Rodney fell to his knees. Sam walked forwards slowly, a red haze of energy surrounding his body. Every ounce of his auric power was directed solely at Rodney, and the full force of his Dao was in it. Sam’s face was so tense that he looked like a statue, one made as some sort of allegory for the dangers of unfettered rage. He pressed Rodney into the floor with the force of his anger, and soon blood started leaking out of the man’s ears and nose. Sam was tossed back with a surge of power and he screamed as a jolt of electricity ran through him.

“Enough! Arbiter, you have been disqualified from the tournament!”

A sudden and overwhelming force locked down around Sam’ body, trying to tear him through space and out of the arena. Sam gritted his teeth and pushed back with all of his might. His body started to fade away piece by piece, as the power succeeded in moving him, and then it stopped. Sam’s Dao exploded out of him, shattering the constraints. It had recognized a great injustice being perpetrated and, for the briefest of moments, it had lent Sam enough power to let himself be heard.

“How can you justify torture on the level that this man perpetrated? How can such evil be allowed to compete in this tournament that will determine the fate of a planet? It defies belief.”

“You filth! You will not deny my will!”

The force redoubled, and this time Sam had no power left to resist it. Then a strong voice interjected.

“If you disqualify that man, I will leave as well.”

Sam looked over at the Overlord, who had spoken. He stepped forward and looked at Sam.

“This man is a vacillating, idealistic fool who has difficulty regulating his emotions, but he is a far more worthy opponent than any of the others here. Without his presence, there is no reason to fight.”

All of Sam’s allies stepped forward as well and stood behind the Overlord. Soon, all that was left were Andrew Munro and Reaper. Reaper sighed and took a step forward as well, and then Andrew did so as well, moving strangely as if he was fighting against some basic instinct. Some small shard of his mind that was still his own recognized the problems that Sam could cause for his enslavers later on, and he forced himself to resist the urges of the AI that controlled him.

“You,” Sam choked out, "cannot run a tournament with only one fighter.”

The System let out a noise of exasperation and then banished the force that was constraining Sam. He fell forward and caught himself, grunting as he did so.

“Fine. This is your planet after all, and I will respect your desires. There will be no repeat performances of this insolence however, or else I will simply kill the troublemaker.”

Sam got to his feet, dusting himself off, and glared in the direction that the System’s voice had come from. It ignored him, and began to create the next arena. The sand was transported away, and a vast pit was revealed, extending into the depths of the earth. At the very bottom, magma glowed, and everyone in the arena could feel the heat from here. Small boulders appeared out of nowhere, and started to form a latticework of interconnected platforms, with small rope bridges crossing the gaps. The motion came to a halt mere moments after it had started, and the arena was ready. The System announced the fighters a second later.

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“In this arena of treacherous pathways and supreme danger, our two combatants will be the Arbiter, and the Bear of the Motherland!”

The Bear grimaced at this, and gave Sam a nod. He took that to mean that his opponent knew that he was going to lose, but he was going to at least put up a semblance of a fight. They were both teleported to opposite ends of the arena and Sam started running towards his opponent immediately.

The Bear began to form his heavy stone armor, but stopped as he heard a creak come from underneath himself. The ropes that connected the rocks were groaning underneath his weight. With a growl, the man banished his armor and started running towards Sam.

Sam leaped over a gap, trusting in his enhanced dexterity to allow him to land safely. It didn't fail him, and he touched down, barely stumbling on the next rock. Sam didn't have any sort of projectile skills, so it was up to the Bear to make the first move in that regard.

What the man did next was crude, but effective. He summoned a large boulder to his right hand, crunched it into a dense blob with his will and elemental control, and lobbed it at Sam. The rock twisted in the air as the Bear controlled it with his mind.

Sam grabbed his mace with both hands, and swung it as hard as he could. The stone shattered as his mace made contact, spraying him with a storm of small ultradense rock fragments. They tore through his skin, but were unable to make it past his muscles, and he grunted.

Sam gave the Bear a smile. He had scored first blood, but that would not be happening a second time. Sam jumped up as another rock came flying in, and pushed off of it in midair, catapulting himself towards the Bear. It had been a risky move, and he almost missed his mark, but Sam reached it in the end. Now both men were on the same rock, and in close quarter combat, Sam was far better than the Bear. Despite the large size difference between the two, the Bear was only a little bit physically stronger than Sam, and he had focused solely on Strength. Sam had a plethora of other stat allocation as well, and there was only one way that this could end.

As the Bear launched a ponderous punch, imbued with the power of his element, Sam slammed his fist into the man’s gut. The Bear doubled over and then whipped his ax around, the blade of the weapon taking on a stony appearance. A small blade of quartz formed on the end, and Sam knew that if he was hit by that then small fragments of the rock would splinter into his body, possibly creating infections. Not that it mattered of course given that they would both be healed afterwards, but it would be annoying in the moment.

Sam flipped his mace around in his hands and slammed its head down onto the ax, crushing it into the ground. The quartz blade shattered as it hit the rock below, and the blade returned to its normal state. Sam looked down at the weapons and saw his brooch briefly, suddenly remembering its existence. He hadn't used it much, as he had quickly outgrown it, both in skill and his stats. Even if he tried to use it now, he doubted that it would do much for him anymore. Sam looked away a moment later, not letting himself become distracted, and he let the Bear withdraw his ax, using the moment of vulnerability to crack the head of the weapon into the man’s jaw. He staggered back, spitting out a tooth, and laughed.

“I know that I am weaker than you, but this is just ridiculous. How the hell are you so strong?”

Sam shrugged.

“I just got lucky, I guess, quite a lot of times.”

“Quite a lot indeed.”

Both men stopped talking and advanced again. Neither of them had any patience for a long and drawn out farce of a battle, and they wanted to end it quickly. Sam decided to let the Bear get in one good hit, in order to help him out further down the road. The people of Earth would remember this tournament for a long time, and this would be one of the things that they would remember.

The Bear started to charge up his final attack, enhancing his ax with all of his elemental energy. It started to grow in size, pure stone flowing out from its handle and onto the blade. The Bear lifted it up, groaning in effort, and placed it on his shoulder. Taking a deep breath, he raised it above his head and slammed it down. Meanwhile, Sam had funneled a good portion of his power into his mace, out of respect for the other man. Purposefully swinging in a way that would not interrupt the Bear’s strike, Sam smashed it into his ribs.

The Bear was thrown sideways, just as his ax landed on Sam’s shoulder. There was a resounding crack, and Sam’s shoulder blade broke, causing him to wince. Just a few weeks ago, that kind of pain would have made him pass out, but now, after multiple thresholds, it was like nothing. The Bear was teleported away after that, and Sam was returned to the waiting area a moment later, clutching his arm.