The attack landed with a clang on Harry’s buckler, the small shield looking far too minuscule to turn away such a powerful blow. A half dome of earth erupted from the sand below, and formed around the buckler, reinforcing it. There was a cracking noise, and a piece of the wall fell off, but it held firm for long enough to dull the impact.
Marina snarled and pushed back off of the wall, landing with a thump. Harry took a step back and then banged his weapons together, sending out a cone of red light that enveloped Marina. It didn't seem to do any damage, but it caused her to go on a rampage towards the man. Sam chuckled. When the other two men looked at him, Sam explained.
“It's a taunt skill. It's one of the most ubiquitous skills that tanks have in video games. It makes it so that the enemy will target you over all else. It's much better in a party setting, but as you can see here it's pretty effective on its own.”
With no higher intelligence governing her actions, Marina made attacks that were far sloppier than they should have been, snarling in bestial rage as she did so. Harry patiently turned the attacks aside and then struck back, catching the woman in the ribs with the flat of his ax. Its size was such that it acted like a hammer, propelling her backwards. She was sent about 20 feet, skidding on the sand and creating a long furrow in the arena floor. She let out a frustrated growl and then got up, charging Harry immediately. Halfway through the motion, she stopped and clutched her head.
“Damn it! I should have invested more into Wisdom or something.” It seemed that she had thrown the taunt off, and was now in control of herself again. Sam leaned in to watch the fight unfold, and he watched as Harry tried, and failed, to execute another taunt. It looked like prolonged exposure to the effect created a resistance to future iteration of it, just like in games. Perhaps the entire concept of video games was just another Dao Archetype, stored within the Dao Annals. In any case, there were definitely parallels between them and the workings of the System.
Marina weaved around the ponderous strikes of Harry’s ax, making good use of her higher Dexterity. Both of them had pretty skewed stats towards Strength, but Marina focused on Dexterity as a secondary stat, and Harry clearly was aiming for Constitution or Resilience. It was hard for him to land a blow, but he could take one with the best of them.
Marina kept landing attacks on his arms and legs, seeking to cripple them, but every strike that could have shattered boulders only caused the man to shift in discomfort. Sam narrowed his eyes as he noticed something interesting going on. Harry refused to move out of one spot, instead preferring to stay rooted in place, almost as if he was drawing power from not moving. And as the battle progressed, Sam saw that was in fact correct. The man had the inklings of a Dao, one that seemed to be related to the concept of Solidity. In fact, it was likely that very concept, as Sam’s Fragment stage Dao sense could make out the nature of lower order concepts quite efficiently. In any case, he was going to break through soon. It seemed that Marina was only just behind him in that regard, as Sam could feel small sparks of nascent Dao energy coming off of her as well. They would likely not break through during this match, but they were still able to draw upon their power somewhat. It was not very efficient, but it was enough for a fight against another non Dao wielder.
Marina’s attacks grew a small amount in power each time that she landed an attack in succession, a good Dao spark for someone who fought like her. She had low health, but high stats that were conducive to a rapid fire blitzing style of fighting. This was exactly what she was doing against Harry.
After three solid minutes of power building, the momentum within the hammer had grown too much for Harry. With a sickening crack, the buckler, and the arm underneath it, broke into tiny pieces. Harry screamed as the shards of bone clattered together to the ground, leaking out of his ruined arm. He looked at Marina with a pain filled gaze before activating a skill. The ruined arm started to glow with red light, and that light streamed up into his mouth and nose, filling him with energy. The arm started to wither away, but he ignored it, instead breathing in more and more of the red power.
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His eyes dilated, and his skin turned a bright shade of red. With a bellow like that of an angry bull, he charged Marina. Harry moved far faster than he had before, far faster than he had any right to move, with the weight of his ax. He still managed it however, and when he reached Marina, all of his momentum was transferred into his ax. The woman’s face filled with fear, and she tried to move, but she could not, and Harry brought the ax down like a thunderbolt from heaven, at such speeds that a red haze of heat appeared around the edge. It slammed into the ground where Marina was standing, occluding the view with a cloud of dust.
When it cleared, the audience gasped. Marina stood tall in front of Harry, with one of her arms missing. What was more impressive was that her mace was buried deep into the man’s face, denting the iron mask that he wore to such an extent that he was barely recognizable as a person, only a twisted hunk of metal. He fell backwards with a groan and crashed to the sands.
His body was teleported away, and Marina raised her free hand in victory, to the sound of tumultuous cheering. What the crowd, and indeed most of the fighters, did not see was the new Dao that blazed within here. Sam smiled. It seemed that she had been able to form it during this match after all. That last devastating attack from Harry must have been the crucible with which she forged her destiny, creating enough danger and adversity to hone her skills on to the point that she formed a Dao.
Marina walked off the arena, dripping blood from her stump. It did not seem to bother her overly, and as soon as she sat down a robot came over with a large bandage and a plastic bag connected to a drip filled with the green healing solution that Sam had been hooked up to multiple times. He doubted that it would be able to heal a severed arm, but perhaps he would be surprised. It was more likely that it would make the stump heal over, allowing Marina to fight again, although with a severe handicap. Sam gave her an appraising look. The world would be a very interesting place after the tournament ended.
“And now for the next match of the finals, in the winners' bracket. This battle will be an interesting one, showcasing the strongest man alive, and a rising star. Without any further ado, the next fighters are the Overlord and Reaper!”
Sam frowned as he heard the System’s voice. Was it just him or did it sound more enthusiastic about this battle? He was not the only one to notice this, and Eduardo chuckled.
“Heh. The System sure seems excited. I wonder why,” Eduardo said.
Sam nodded and laughed.
“Yeah, normally it just speaks in a monotone. Now it's acting like a real arena announcer.”
“Well, it knows how to work the crowd. This battle is one that will excite the audience to no end. Those with little power hate, but also worship, those with an abundance of it. This fight will show that to excess. Did you never wonder why the Overlord has fans, despite the fact that he should be someone reviled by all?” Lao added.
“Huh, that’s actually a good point,” Sam said, watching as a good portion of the arena started clapping as the Overlord raised his hands in supplication. “He does seem to have way more support than he should.” Sam was about to say more, but then the voice of the System drowned him out.
“With two of the most promising fighters in the world here today, who will win? Will it be the paragon of overwhelming force, the Overlord, or will it be the cold hand of Death itself, Reaper?”
Sam pursed his lips. There was definitely something strange going on here. The voice of the System was uncharacteristically emotional. It was almost as if it was trying to feed the Overlord Dao energy so that he would easily beat Reaper.
“Could that be it? Does the System not want Reaper to do well in this fight?” Sam wondered. “Perhaps it has something to do with the man’s Dao. The System might not want a loose cannon death cultivator gaining even more power.” The rest of his thoughts ebbed away as the match started.