A large screen popped up in the middle of the previous battle’s platform and a few different scenes started to flash by on it. An ocean filled with shattered ships and ghostly monsters, a void with a few rocks and pieces of debris floating around. It finally settled on an ominous scene of a volcanic ruin with a massive mountain in the back oozing lava. Pyroclastic flows ran down the side of the mountain and towards the front of the scene.
The arena began to change and the rocks of the platforms melded together and then started to turn into their igneous counterparts, marble to granite and so forth. The arena expanded outwards and soon the far side was barely visible. It sank down what looked like a mile into the ground, and with a shuddering crash, a fully formed volcano rose out of the ground. It erupted violently, spraying the landscape with lava and superheated rocks. The ground cracked and cracked again, creating small channels for the lava to run off. With a final sound of tearing rock, it stopped and the scene went still, with trails of lava oozing lazily down the side of the mountain.
Two balls of green light shot down from the heavens and towards Sam and the Overlord. Before they could even blink, the balls had already reached them. They sank into both men's chests and a refreshing cool sensation rolled out from them. The Overlord sighed in relief as his extensive wounds were healed and Sam smiled as his minor aches and pains were relieved. He cracked his joints, even his synovial fluid having been restored, and grinned.
The Overlord, much to Sam's chagrin, started to smile, the motion barely visible beneath his mask. With the chaff reaped, only the most spectacular ears of wheat remained and they would deny the scythe with all of their might.
The System whisked them away with its mysterious spatial magic, and they appeared in the middle of the arena, with about a kilometer of space between them. The Overlord screamed out his primal might to the world, and Sam tipped back his head, repeating the gesture. A wave of Dao energy surged down from the arena, filling up both men with power. Sam’s energy was more ephemeral than the Overlord’s solid red power, but it was even more inspiring than sheer brute might. His was the will of a good portion of humanity, those who wished for the dawn of a new era of justice and equality. A despot, who had risen and ruled on power alone could build the greatest empire in existence but would eventually fall. A man whose ideals were based on justice and compassion would never see such heights of rulership, but he had no need for such things. One could lead by force or through example, and out of the two the latter was by far the superior. Of course, Sam had great plans for the future of his species and his own power, he was not going to be some pacifist after all, but he had no wish to be a hegemon whose throne was constructed out of fear and lies.
With all of those thoughts blending with his Dao, he was ready to unveil the technique that he had been waiting to use since he had created it. Sam clenched his fist and a crackling noise could be heard as the first traces of his Dao energy and his elemental energy started to collide. Sparks of red and yellow collided, creating new shades and colors within his bones. A few flashes of gold raced up his arm as the full power of his technique came to bear. He clenched his fist again, using the motion as a focus for his Dao to cling to, a fist clenched in anger and as a symbol of retribution. Once more he pumped his fist and the final surge of energy pushed the power into every vestige of his body. This was the most perfect usage of the skill he had ever completed, and each fiber of his being felt like it was filled with the heat of a star.
A towering aura of golden light spread out from him, stopping at the halfway mark between himself and the Overlord. The Overlord howled and his own power surged out in a tidal wave of red. The auras clashed together, and both men began to rise off of the ground, with each taking on the full aspects of their auras. Sam grew wings of fiery light, and his mace started to glow with a lava like hue. The Overlord grew horns and his muscles doubled in size, turning him into a hulking brute of a man, built for carnage. These effects vanished as they dropped their auras, and they fell to the ground, landing lightly. The audience had been pressed back into their seats by the wave of power that their clash had created, but neither man could see it.
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“I see that you have created a new technique, Arbiter. It’s a pity that you will watch as it crumbles against the might of my peerless power.”
“Just… just stop. I know that this is all for your Dao, but it's honestly getting pretty irritating. Can we not have a fight without the grandstanding? After all, a true supreme being should not have to advertise his power.” Sam winked at the Overlord with that last bit and smiled as he saw some of the man’s accumulated Dao energy leech away into the air.
The Overlord nodded, acknowledging the challenge, and he raced forward, his feet barely touching the pitted hellscape beneath them. The last time that they had fought, Sam had attempted to utilize his fists to counter the Overlord’s pugilism. Now that he faced him again, he saw that it had been a mistake. He had been so outmatched then that he had been grasping at straws to bridge the gap, but in the end he was a man of the mace, and he would not forsake it.
Sam slid his right hand up the handle of his mace, stopping about halfway down it. His left hand grabbed onto the end, and he held his mace out like a horizontal bar of steel. This was the beginning of the Deadly Rapids series, and Sam pushed his latent energy into his mace in preparation. There were so many techniques listed within his mace mastery skill, and he knew that he would never use them all. There were multiple different ones for every possible situation, and it was up to him to find the best one.
The Overlord came in with a straight punch that transitioned into a series of blows that aimed for Sam’s chest and abdomen. Each strike would have broken bones if they had landed, but they did not. Sam’s conscious control over his body would now go faster than his normal reflexes would be, and he forced himself to dodge and weave around the attacks through the use of his skill. He started to feel a mild ache, but it was nothing serious.
Sam accelerated his mace towards the Overlord as fast as he could, and the man was actually unable to dodge it. For the first time, his speed and strength had failed him. Sam walloped the man head over heels, and he crashed backwards into the ground, coming perilously close to a stream of lava. Sam raised his mace and the faint noise of his supporters could be heard as they cheered. Eduardo and Lao had recovered by now, and they sat on the lowest ring of arena seats, looking down at Sam as he fought. Eduardo pumped his fist into the air as he saw Sam knock the Overlord over, but Lao was more reticent.
“Come on, Lao. Be a bit more excited. He’s doing far better than he did last time.”
The older man sighed.
“If you look closely, you’ll see that the Overlord is completely unharmed. He was only redirected by the force of the attack, not actually damaged by it. The only damage that he took was to his ego, which I suppose actually counts in his case,” Lao said.
Eduardo nodded but kept on watching the fight, a bright kernel of hope in his mind. It was not just for the power that winning the tournament would bring to their faction, but out of happiness for Sam that Eduardo smiled.
Sam was unable to see his close friends watching him, but he could feel their presence in a vague way as he watched the Overlord get to his feet. The man was enraged, but completely unharmed. He snorted like a bull, and charged Sam, pushing his Dao energy into his feet. Sam began to dodge to the side, about to use the next step of his weapon series, but a field of pressure dropped down on him. Sam quickly shattered it, but it was too late, and he was caught full force by the Overlord’s fist in his face.
Bones and cartilage snapped and shattered as he was thrown backwards by the punch. He rolled on the ground and gritted his teeth as his nose started bleeding heavily on the rocky landscape. Sam snapped his will down over the cartilage and bones of his nose with his skill, and forced them closed. It was agonizing, but he was able to stabilize the bleeding for the moment.
Sam growled at the Overlord and pushed his body towards him through the air. For the briefest of moments, Sam achieved unaided flight, suspending himself in mid air through his will alone. Then a twinge ran across his muscles, and he stopped. He needed to keep the skill running as long as possible for this to work.
Sam ducked around a devastating punch, noting that as it landed on the ground, it carved out a crater. The Overlord seemed to have achieved an even higher level of power since they had last fought. However, so had Sam.