The streets were curiously empty of anything other than vast buildings, most of which were square and squat in design. Only the enclosures of the nobles were made with any sort of beauty in mind, and they were in their own section of the city. Even then, most of the city was quite prosperous. There was little poverty visible. Sam had a suspicion that it was hidden, rather than nonexistent. He didn’t bother checking though. He had a place to be.

***

Cheers erupted from the crowd packing the arena, as Sam’s latest challenger stepped onto the field of battle. King Granthar glared down at Sam from his royal box, but he was studiously ignored. Instead, Sam prepared for the battle. His opponent was a slim woman wielding a pair of rapiers. She was more cautious than Elias had been, circling Sam as he watched her.

“You know that’s not going to help you, right?” Sam said, laughing. “Either surrender if you don’t feel confident enough, or fight.”

“Unlike Elias, I prefer to fight intelligently,” the woman replied, though the slight shaking of her weapons betrayed her real feelings.

Sam grinned. “Good luck with that.”

As the battle began, he watched as reality tore before his foe, letting her appear before him. His hammer flitted out, nearly beheading her. However, she was far faster than Elias had been, and she used her swords to flip over backwards, narrowly avoiding the hammerblow.

One rapier streaked in towards a chink in Sam’s armor, but he took one hand off his hammer, and deflected the blow with his gauntlet. As expected, there was little strength behind it, only speed.

Sam teleported in turn, appearing above his foe. His hammer descended, and he locked space around the other fighter, preventing her from fleeing. A cone of force bloomed around the tip of Terra’s Will, stretching out for fifty feet in every direction. The woman’s face twitched, and she sped out of the impact zone, moving so fast that she might as well have teleported.

Sam canceled his attack, and teleported once more, this time too quickly for his foe to react to. His hammer blasted his enemy off her feet. She streaked through the air for miles, and Sam followed her, his hammer raised to finish the job.

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He didn’t even have to use any Dao energy for this. Instead, a small amount of purified mana was channeled through his hammer and into reality. Then his hammer struck his enemy, and blasted her apart. He let gravity carry him to the ground, as blood rained around him. He pulled his helmet off, and flashed a grin at Granthar, whose face was visibly shaking in rage.

His floor completion quest granted him another boost to his stats, but ignored the notification. Instead, he strode out of the arena, ignoring the portal that appeared before him. He was walking a fine line here, but he knew that he would be alright for now.

He picked up his pace, crossing the twenty five or so miles to the edge of the arena in a matter of seconds. Then he left through a doorway, whose hinges creaked from disuse. Most of the time, people arrived here through teleportation, or the king’s portals, but Sam didn't trust the man at all. For all he knew, the portal that had been formed in the arena led to the heart of the solar system’s sun, or some equally deadly environment.

He had taken this route out after the first match, and he knew his way around the warren of tunnels that stretched out beneath the arena. Most of them led further in, but one of them was an exit. Sam could have teleported out, but he wasn’t especially confident with mentally guided teleportation over long distances. He had only used the ability once before, and it was contingent on his existence as an E Ranker, rather than his own skill.

Instead, he followed the drab, faintly rusted tunnel out into the city. It was only punctuated by a few lights here and there, but for the most part, it seemed to have been bored out the rocky substrate of the city, and filled with metal. There was almost no reason for its existence, but Sam was glad of it.

Before he could reach the end though, he felt a faint flicker of wind on his face. He kept walking, keeping his expression neutral, but he mentally pinpointed where it was coming from. It could have just been a coincidence, but then he felt it again, this time from his other side. Something was following him, something stealthy enough to evade most of his senses.

When it came again, Sam whirled around, and drove his hammer towards the source. There was a shimmer in the air, and his hammer met a sword that materialized out of nowhere. The shimmer extended, and a person seemed to spring out of the air itself. Clad in dark leather armor and a mask, the figure managed to deflect Sam’s strike. Instantly, he was on guard. Anyone who could do that was a serious foe, or at least more serious than those he had been facing in the arena.

“Who are you?” He asked sternly, preparing to channel his Dao energy into his weapon.

“A friend. You oppose King Granthar as well, do you not?” The man said, his voice revealing him to be such.

Sam scoffed. “If we’re friends, then why were you tailing me in secret?”

“Because I wasn’t sure if you would attack me or not. As it turns out, you did anyway. You have impressive senses for your level.” The man relaxed slightly. “Now, can we both do this the civilized way and withdraw our weapons?”