As the dagger entered his guard and seemed to pass through it, Sam twisted his mace and caught Munro’s hand in it. With a sharp yank, he broke the man’s wrist and threw him high into the air above him. With a pained yell, the other man thrust downwards with his other hand to kill Sam, but he was ready for him.
Munro was unable to dodge while in the air and Sam cocked back his arms, ready to blast the man’s head off of his body with the next swing of his mace. The other man tried to cover himself up with his hands, desperately trying to stave off death. Right as the mace was about to connect, a bright light enveloped the scene and they were blown backwards from each other. The tree monster had finally died and a rush of essence filled Sam, almost feeling tangible as it did so. He tried to move back towards Munro, but an invisible force stopped him from doing so. Berrigious floated down from the air, like some parody of an angel and touched down on the ground.
“Well done, all of the survivors here. This event achieved my goal of killing off all of those who were under a certain level on the leaderboard. I am very pleased with your performance, especially the ones who actually killed the boss. For that, you each shall receive a special weapon, themed after the boss.”
A small box fell out of the sky in front of Sam and similar boxes, some smaller, some larger, fell in front of the others. It opened as it hit the ground, revealing a small brooch. Ignoring the trinket, Sam roared and rushed Berrigious, trying desperately to reach him. Before he had even moved an inch, a gravity field slammed down around him, pressing him into the ground. The System would not tolerate such aggression within the bounds of the arena.
Berrigious wagged his finger at Sam and then laughed before floating back up into the sky. Sam lay there, a toxic wrath filling his being, for once not inflaming his Dao Mote of Anger. Whatever had happened to him that had patched up his Daos had stopped them from influencing his being, at least for now.
All around them, the forest began to peel back, as if it had been an illusion all along. The sunlight expanded until it filled the entire arena, which was the same size as it had always been. All around them, other fighters appeared, far closer than they should have been based on how large the forest had been but a few moments ago. More common than the fighters were the corpses however. Sam gazed up to the packed stands filled with the remaining members of Earth, and lost hope when he heard their deafening cheers for the spectacle that they had just witnessed. Berrigious stood on thin air in the middle of the arena, with both hands raised in supplication.
“I’M GLAD THAT YOU ENJOYED THE EVENT! BUT I AM NOT THE ONE TO THANK. IT WAS ACTUALLY THE ARBITER WHO THOUGHT OF THIS WHOLE THING AND TOLD ME, IN HOPES THAT YOU WOULD ENJOY IT. HE KNEW THAT YOU WOULD ALL FIND IT ENTERTAINING, AND AS HE IS A LOCAL OF THIS PLANET, I DEFERRED TO HIS WISDOM.” Berrigious flashed Sam a devious smile after he said this that went unnoticed by everyone except for him. All around Sam, the other fighters turned, with rage on their faces.
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“What did I just hear?” Reaper said, an ugly look on his face. Both of his fists were coated in ectoplasm and he held them towards Sam in a threatening manner. Sam began to grind his teeth together and a red haze filled his vision. Berrigious had set up this entire thing, just to make him an enemy of everyone else. But why? What was the point? Just to have some fun at the expense of a weaker universe? Sam couldn't do anything with the anger however, and it looked to the others as if he was ignoring them. Reaper turned to everyone else and sighed.
“See? He’s not even repentant,” he said, pointing at Sam. “I say that we kill him, here and now.” All of the others began to move towards Sam, except for Eduardo, Profound Visionary, and surprisingly enough, the Overlord. Of course, the first of the men was still unconscious, but Sam was sure that he would have rushed to his aid if he was able. A few of the others looked back in surprise at the holdouts, but they continued to move towards Sam. With a growl, an overwhelming aura exploded out of the Overlord, petrifying everyone except for Sam and Profound Visionary. It was imbued with the full power of the man’s Dao and it was yet another reason why the man was number one on the leaderboard. His body seemed to be coated in a layer of pure power as he strode forwards, before standing in front of Sam.
“I want this man to die, just as much as the rest of you, but stop and think about the situation for a moment. We are being purposefully tricked by our dear host, and he is trying to make us attack the Arbiter. Have none of you asked yourselves why? I stand for myself first, but for Earth second. Why should we let some alien bastard control us to this extent? Earth should be for humanity, not the aliens. There is something else going on here, and this man is the key. If none of you listen to me, then I will have to kill you.” Nobody moved, as much terrified from the speech as from the aura. Then Reaper let out a roar of rage before stalking off to the arena door.
With that, the rest of them dispersed and Sam was left alone with the Overlord. He had caught the last few moments of the Overlord’s diatribe and was confused as to why he had helped him. Before he could say a word to the man, he walked away, leaving Sam standing there in utter confusion. Then he too left the arena, feeling the hot glare of Berrigious on his back the entire time.
Sam rushed back to his room, and made sure that he did not stop to talk to anyone. Almost everyone was against him now, and despite the ban of violence within the living quarters, he would not trust Berrigious to not slip something by. With a relieved gasp, he tore open his door and rushed inside, sitting down on one of the sofas with a grunt. There was a lot to unpack.
Sam started first with the state of his Daos. Both of them were in poor condition, and worse, he had no idea how they had gotten like that. There were entire libraries full of what he did not know about the Boundless Expanse, and archives the size of galaxies that contained everything that he would never learn. More melancholy thoughts began to intrude into his psyche, for the first time in a while. His past was a tangled morass of loss, bad luck and confusion that he had no wish to encounter again. Unfortunately, his mind, divested of anything to take its attention away, began to work overtime in creating visions of his past life.