Anonymous did not wait for their opponent to heal and they rushed in, the wind around them lending speed to their motions. Profound Visionary stamped his right foot down, discharging a shockwave of energy out from it that disrupted the flow of the elemental energy in the area, causing his opponent to stumble. With a rush of air, he blurred forwards and karate chopped Anonymous in the face. Their mask cracked, revealing the face of a teenage girl.
The entire arena audience went silent as the people in it tried to get a better look at what was going on. The camera zoomed in on the scene to better make out what was happening, and Sam was sure that Berrigious was off laughing somewhere about how the plot twist would make his arena rating so much better. The girl stared at her opponent with undisguised hatred in her eyes and then began to scream in a high pitched storm of noise. It quickly became clear that this was not some display of rage, but an actual attack as the stones in the arena walls and the sand around the two fighters began to vibrate. Blood started to drip down the ears of Profound Visionary, but he just stood there and looked at the girl as she screamed. A force field shot up around the arena and the sound was muffled enough so that it would not cause any problem for the audience. It was still perfectly audible however, and it was still getting louder.
Profound Visionary started to be pushed backwards by the attack and eventually he was shot off of his feet and into the far wall. All the while, he continued to look at his assailant. Anonymous eventually ran out of air, far after a normal person should have, and she sank to her knees, breathing heavily. With shaky legs, Profound Visionary got up and started to walk towards her. His strides became stronger and surer as he approached the girl and eventually he stood in front of her. With a casual flick of his fingertip, she collapsed onto the ground. Sam was able to see the small thread of blue light that ran between the two and saw as it was tweaked somehow by Profound Visionary.
He sat down by the girl’s body and laid his hand on her before muttering something. After a moment, the body was teleported away so that she could get treatment. Profound Visionary stood up and walked out of the arena, covered in blood, but almost completely unharmed. After a pause, the arena broke into a round of deafening applause. Sam was tempted to run out there and scream at them, but he reined in the childish impulse and instead settled for clenching his fists. The people around him took that the wrong way of course, and a round of muttering started up about how he was angry that neither of the fighters had died. This only served to enrage him even more, and at some point he was going to have a stroke from all of the tension. The entire thing was completely ridiculous, something that could exist in a comedy, but not in real life. However, it was happening regardless, unconcerned about the laws of reality.
Sam let out a breath and started to meditate, as much to calm himself as to distract himself from the heckling whispers coming from around him. Attacking one of the people that were taunting him would only serve to make the matter worse. Instead, he found solace in his breathing and rather than attempting any mystical connections to his Dao or his element, he instead just meditated like a normal, mundane person would. The breaths started to calm his mind and soon all there was in his world was the motions of his mouth. In, out, in, out. Those two words dictated his body and mind.
After some time, he was jolted out of it by a loud bang and he realized that he had missed the start of one of the fights. Two people that he didn't know were having at it, and both of them had the same sort of build. They were both fire mages, and seemed to be evenly matched to some extent. One of them specialized in quick, agile attacks such as fire whips and darts, whereas the other one had a penchant for slower but more devastating attacks.
Stolen story; please report.
Before a man sized ball of fire could reach her, the quick casting mage sent out a dart of fire into the middle of it, rupturing the spell formation and causing it to explode harmlessly into a billowing gout of flames. The sand underneath it melted into glass, but neither fighter was harmed. Two more of the fire darts sped out across the divide and headed straight for the other fighter, who blocked them with a tower shield of molten rock, summoned out of thin air. Rather, it was created from the sand underneath the man who cast it, but to anyone other than the top people in the world, it would have looked seamless. Sam was able to catch it but only barely as Dexterity was not one of his strong suits.
They continued to send attacks at each other for a few minutes and then one of them stumbled, out of mana, The other one sent one last attack, but the massive pillar of flame that shot out of the ground was narrowly avoided, bottoming out the caster’s mana pool as well. Without any mana, they were left to duke it out in hand to hand combat and with shrill noises that were supposed to be roars of anger, they charged at each other.
It was like watching two kittens fight with each other to Sam, as he was a predominantly melee focused fighter, meaning that something like this was almost pathetic. They slapped each other with their hands, without an ounce of form or technique, ending with one of them, the quick caster, catching a lucky strike to the temple and falling to the ground, out cold. Sam noticed that the audience had stopped cheering about halfway through the fight and nobody made any sort of noises for the victor, except for a slight susurration that could just have been the wind blowing over the top of the arena. The audience was clearly not impressed with the match. Stifling a yawn, Sam got up and walked out of the room. Everyone’s eyes were on him, but nobody was stupid enough to try to stop him.
Sam was getting restless inside the arena, and he wanted to see if there was a way out into the city that was outside of it. If there was then he could satisfy his urge to do something different as well as defy Berrigious. It was the standard behavior of one with no self confidence, true, but Sam didn't really care about his appearances. He was just about done with dealing with the crap that people in the System seemed to love raining down on those weaker than themselves, and it was time for him to start resisting it. This was the first step in that, no matter how small.
Exploring the hallway led to him finding quite a few storage closets tucked away in alcoves, but no way out. That was until he went into one of the closets however. Rather than just being full of cleaning supplies as he had expected, there were stacks of random items in there too. It seemed as if everything that was lost within the complex was tidied up and hidden inside of these places. On the back wall was a glowing key that Sam was sure would unlock the doors to the outside city. Before he went in, he threw a small scrap of clothing inside to test for traps. There were none. Satisfied, he walked in after, immediately setting off a blaring alarm that echoed through the halls.
Behind him, the door slammed shut and he was locked in. A faint and crackly light appeared on the wall and a face slowly came into view. It looked like one of the service bots from the city outside and it looked at Sam with a disapproving glare.
“Provide the password or suffer the consequences. After ten seconds of inaction, you will be considered an intruder and dealt with. With extreme prejudice.” It was a robotic voice that sounded like that of the System and Sam immediately started thinking of passwords. He was guessing that it was something that was set by Berrigious and as such it might well be something to do with him. His enhanced mind made the scenario slow down, and he had a bit more than 10 seconds in subjective time. His first guess was Berrigious, but that was stupid.There was no way that the man would make his password that. With the time slowly ticking down, he moved on. He wondered if it was the name of one of the man’s family members, but then he realized that he had no idea if Berrigious even had family members, so he discarded that as well. The time ran out with an electronic sad trumpet noise and the floor beneath Sam opened up, causing him to fall down into a gaping abyss. On the way down, he picked the keys off of the wall, grasping them firmly in his hand. He fell for minutes, until his momentum suddenly stopped, causing him to touch down softly on a damp stone floor.