Only about 10 to 15 fighters remained on each side, and these people were the cream of the crop of Earth. Nobody had received their rewards yet, which meant that they would all get them after the tournament was over. Sam sighed and returned his attention to the battle, dreaming about what he would do when he had left the tournament. He would have to fight to protect his people, of course but there would be more free time to do what he pleased, which was, if he was being honest with himself, probably going to be more training. He no longer had any sort of inclination for entertainment, which was strange, but he supposed that life was now its own form of entertainment, a real life video game with stakes that were all too high.
He cut out all of the noise from his head, and watched the final moments of the fight. The Overlord had pulled out all the stops for his finisher, and Sam could feel the pressure from here. He was in the process of constructing some sort of beam attack between his hands that glowed with an ominous light. If that hit Rodney, there would be no going back for the man. Sam could feel a vague sense of unease as he looked onto the spiraling depths of the ball of energy, and he fancied that he saw his own death there, trampled under the foot of the Overlord. He shook his head and cleared the Dao influence from his mind with a surge of his own. He would not be intimidated that easily.
The man taunted Rodney with a few muttered threats, obviously trying to get him to attack him before he surrendered. Instead, Rodney took the wise course of action and surrendered before he died. Sam had not taken the man for a coward, but he supposed that it was the smart thing to do in that situation. Still, the sigh of relief that he let out afterwards was all too audible. Sam shook his head at the uncharitable thought. That might well be him soon.
As Rodney walked out of the arena under his own steam, a rarity in these past fights, he gave Sam a strange look. It almost seemed as if he was saying good luck to him, which would have been very out of character. He wondered why the man had done so, but then he heard a voice coming out of the monitor.
“The fighter known as the Overlord has invoked section 49b of the Mutiversal tournament code, and has waived his right to recuperate for a chance to challenge any fighter of his choice. He has decided to fight against the Arbiter. Will the fighter in question please make their way up to the arena?”
All eyes turned to Sam and he gulped. That had been unexpected. He smiled in an attempt to calm himself, but he knew that he was not ready for this fight. Either he was going to make a fool out of himself, or he was going to die. It was highly unlikely that he would be able to defeat the other man. The voice rang out again.
“Make your way to the arena now or be disqualified.”
Sam jumped up and started walking. He had been too lost in thought to remember what he had been supposed to do. As he entered the arena, the noise of the crowd reached a fever pitch. This was the fight that they had all been waiting for. He took a deep breath and stepped onto the sands. His anxiety was creating the effect of being in a far larger arena, and the cheers of the crowd sounded deafening.
The Overlord loomed large in his vision, almost as if he was a god standing in front of Sam. Then he blinked and the effect was gone. That had not been his mind acting up, but an actual attack from the other man. Sam could not tell what the other man’s face looked like now on account of his hood, but he was sure that it was not happy.
Sam walked forwards and smiled at the Overlord, trying to show that he wasn't afraid. His rapidly beating heart belied that fact, and he was sure that his opponent, along with everyone in the arena, could sense it.
With the start of the tournament announced, the Overlord dashed forwards. Sam gulped. The sheer speed that the man was exhibiting was almost insurmountable to Sam and he was only able to dodge by the tiniest of margins. That had the unexpected effect of making it look like he was a lot more skilled than he actually was, which caused the crowd to start cheering again. As the other man wheeled around to attack again, Sam noticed something strange. He almost appeared as if the man was moving slower than before. Only by a tiny amount, but still noticeable.
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“Your Dao revolves around the perception of your power, doesn’t it?” Sam said, gambling on the hope that the other man would answer him and not take advantage of his distraction. The other man narrowed his eyes and stopped.
“What do you think you know about me?” He asked, his voice stony. Sam shrugged.
“I can sense your Dao essence from here. Something to do with Supremacy, right?”
The other man snarled and raised his fist, beginning to empower it with mana.
“You’re an annoying little rat, do you know that? Your level is nowhere near as high as mine, but you have some cheat ability that is allowing you to progress with your Dao at a much faster rate than should be possible. Admit it, you bastard!” The tone in the man’s voice was surprising to Sam. Could it be that he was jealous of Sam’s aptitude with the Dao?
He dropped the thought as the Overlord’s fist powered through the air towards him. It was too fast for Sam to even see, so he raised up his mace and started to create a mana shield around it and him.
The fist impacted like a meteor and the shield almost instantly cracked, sending Sam flying. He coughed up blood and rolled to his feet. The strength behind that blow had been too much for anyone of the level that the Overlord was at to possess. It was far more than even Sam’s, and he had passed his first threshold. He would have understood if the other man had focused solely on Strength, but he was just as powerful in all the other stats as well. Sam was convinced that it had something to do with the Overlord’s Dao. He was just too strong otherwise.
But, there had been something that had caught Sam’s eye. The effect had gone now, but for the briefest of moments after Sam had dodged the man’s first attack, the Overlord had slowed down. Sam did not know how to capitalize on that, but he would. For not, it was time to get serious. Sam did not know if that would even be enough, but he had to try.
With a deep breath, he centered himself, a hard task with the Overlord barreling across the sand towards him, and he began to draw upon his Dao. The fiery essence of his Dao began to fill him up, a bit more muted than when he faced off against Andrew Munro, but still there nonetheless. As well as that, he used his Eyes of Judgement skill on the Overlord, surprised when it only showed the man as having a small amount of taint. It still gave him a boost however, and he welcomed every edge that he could get.
All of this barely made it so that the next punch did not send him as far. The other man seemed to be gaining power from each successful attack that he performed on Sam, and soon he would be too powerful to fight against at all. In addition, it was quite hard to fight against a pugilist with a mace, as it was far too easy for someone using their fists to get within his guard. So he decided to do something different.
Sam dropped his mace and got into a primitive boxing stance. Straining his mind to modify his fighting style, Sam began to use his fists as if they were tiny maces. The idea actually worked somewhat effectively, and the next attack that came in was redirected by his fists to the side. As he did so, the audience started cheering again. Sam was not cheering, mainly because he had broken a bone in his hand from just partially blocking that attack.
He winced in pain and tried to recover before the next attack came in. Because he had stopped the punch, the subsequent one was slower than before and he ducked underneath it. Slamming his hand into the base of the other man’s chin, he succeeded in sending him backwards a single step. It was like hitting a brick wall, and his knuckle bones cracked from the strain. There was something else going on here, something beyond simple supremacy based power gains. There was no way that the man was still this durable after his strength had been curbed somewhat. As Sam attacked again, this time he coated his fist in the raw essence of his Dao. it felt strange, as if he was pumping it full of air like a balloon, and the appendage became lighter which allowed him to swing it more effectively. A shot of Earth elemental energy into the hand brought its weight back to normal levels. With his perfected fist, Sam punched with everything that he had. The Overlord smiled and opened his arms wide. If this attack failed, it was game over for Sam.