He left the robot in his room to think about his offer and Sam made his way towards the arena entrance. He should be up soon again, and he was looking forward to getting closer to the end of the tournament. Sam took his place in the seats and took a look behind him, noticing that most of the seats were empty. It was like sitting in the rows of a C list movie, where there was only you and a few other people around. Sam was surrounded by his strongest allies, and it seemed that he had been set up as a figurehead for the group. As before, the Overlord sat at the front of the room with the other faction sitting away from him. Taking a look at the match, Sam saw that it was one of the losers’ bracket matches. Not wanting to watch this, he turned around to talk to his allies.
“Any changes since I was here last?” Sam asked Eduardo. The Italian man shook his head.
“No, from what I have seen, the positions are pretty much set in stone by this point. I was able to get out of the losers bracket by now, and everyone else in it are the weakest specimens of the tournament. Some of them have taken to killing their opponents before they can surrender in order to artificially move up the ranks, but the System usually is able to prevent that. I think that the normal matches are about to start now. You might be up again because you’ve been away for a bit.”
Sam nodded as the match finished and sure enough, his name was called. A small jolt of excitement ran through him as he saw who he was up against. Andrew Munro. The man looked delighted to have an opportunity to take out Sam and he was positively salivating as he entered the arena. Sam laughed and called out a taunt at him.
“Hey, why don’t you get that looked at? You might have rabies.”
The other man flashed him a look of utter hatred.
“I’m going to tear the flesh off of your bones, Arbiter. You’re going to be begging for mercy by the time that I’m done with you.”
“That’s what I said to your mom last night.” Sam retorted, delighting in the look of rage that he received. That was the face of a man who was on the borders of unhinged and going straight into madness. As soon as they entered the sands of the arena, the other man started to prepare something. A silvery substance started to cover his skin and it quickly spread over his body, creating a layer of armor all over him. As Sam started to move towards him, the man raised his fist and slammed it down.
“Censure!” As the name of his technique echoed off of the stands, a wave of energy shot out from where he had landed, passing through both him and Sam within a blink of an eye. Sam tried to say something, but nothing came out. Looking at Munro, he understood what the man was doing. This would be a battle to the death. With no recourse or means of surrender, they would have to fight until one of them was dead. Sam was happy with those conditions.
He pushed off of the ground and flashed forwards, already beginning to enhance his mace with his Dao and mana. The weapon hummed as it arced through the air and towards its target. Munro danced to the side and the mace cracked into the ground next to him, blasting the man with accelerated sand. Small scratches opened up on his strange armor, but they closed up after a moment.
Sam jumped back as Munro swung out with his knife. At the last moment, some mechanism within the blade triggered and it was lengthened by over a yard. The end of the blade shaved a small amount of skin and hair off of Sam’s head. Munro had gotten first blood, and that caused the crowd to go wild. Notably, about half of them did not. It seemed that Sam’s fans were not happy with the turn of events.
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Sam wiped the blood off his face and backed away, preparing for a counterattack. Then the other man let go of his knife and started to use his magnetic abilities on it. It whipped through the air end over end towards Sam and he raised his mace to defend himself. Sam planted his feet firmly, after all the attack was not really that powerful, and was able to catch it firmly on his mace, preventing the knife from going any further. The other man frowned, the expression somehow visible through the mask, and the knife split into two pieces, each of which accelerated towards Sam’s head. He let out a grunt, except nothing came out of his mouth, only silence. This was pretty odd to deal with, and it was quite distracting as well. It wasn't that no noise was being produced per se, it was that something was blocking the sound waves from making their way into the air. Sam could still feel the vibration as he spoke, but they did not reach his ears on the outside. It was just the two of them that were affected as well, as all of the inanimate objects still made noise.
That was shown by the clink of the knives as Sam snatched them out of the air and slammed them together, dropping his mace in the process. It was the only way that he was able to mitigate the attack, and it was exactly what Andrew was looking for. The man grinned and snapped his fingers. Sam tried to throw the knives away, but they stuck to him until they blew up in his hands, tearing through the flesh. Sam growled inaudibly and wrung the shards out of his hands. Then he dashed towards the other man, who was seemingly content to let him come to him rather than the other way around. Sam was only too happy to oblige.
Munro lacked any more weapons, so Sam assumed that he was unprotected, save for the armor. In addition, he did not look like a Constitution main, so dealing with him would be trivial. As Sam approached, with his mace raised above his head, his opponent did something with his fingers, creating something in the air. It was too small for Sam to see, but a moment later he felt a burning pain in his abdomen and he looked down to see a thin line of blood. The thin line blossomed into a river, soaking through his clothes. Only his bones had prevented the attack, which was a razor thin wire made out of metal, from penetrating his entire body. Luckily for Sam, his Strength was high enough to stem the bleeding just by clenching his muscles, although it was a bit distracting. Another cheer came out of the crowd and Sam grimaced. The pain was still quite sharp, even if the bleeding was gone. Pain was one of those things that he was just going to have to get used to as a cultivator.
Sam started to clear his mind and began to build up his Dao energy again, this time focusing on the battle as well. The power of Righteous Anger began to fill his body, and his skill activated. As the power of Fiery Rage took over his body and mind, it stopped almost immediately, leaving his mind clearer than it would have been under the effects of the previous skill. The physical empowerment still took place however, and Sam smiled as his body began to smoke with the red heat of his anger. It was not very hard to summon up some wrath at this man, even with the more selfless version of the skill. This man had wronged him many times, and he was now returning for justice.
Sam relished in the feeling of his Dao working properly and he luxuriously stretched as the power finished building. A System notification blared in his vision, but he ignored it. Right now he had a battle to win. Cracking his knuckles, Sam got ready to give Andrew Munro the fight of his life. It was time to get revenge for everything that the man had ever done to him, or another innocent.
Sam cranked up his aura to the max, pumping it with the power of his Dao. A field of palpable energy rolled out from around him and took Munro head on like a freight train. He was actually pushed back by the power, and the aura broke over the edge of the stands like a wave. Then something strange happened. Half of the audience recoiled in fear, and the other half began cheering even louder. Sam opened his mouth to answer them, and let loose a scream of his own. Then he realized that a noise had actually come out of his mouth. His aura had been so powerful that it had dispelled the skill that his opponent had used. Sam laughed out loud and canceled his aura, moving in on his enemy.