The audience groaned as this had happened before in the last fight. Hearing this, the Overlord dropped Reaper.

“Pah, you're not even worth killing. Weakling!” He spat, filling himself with even more Dao energy. By this point, the man was so full of Dao energy that even the normal people could see the faint haze of energy that swirled around him. Eduardo let out a gasp.

“So that’s what you were talking about! Wait, does that mean-”

“No, you don’t have a Dao yet. It's just that the Overlord has gained so much energy that it’s visible to normal senses.”

A groan came up from the arena floor, and Sam looked down.

“Who… who are you to speak of death?” Reaper said, his voice thin.

“What was that?” The Overlord asked. “You want to die?’

“I said, who are you to speak of death?” Reaper asked, his voice stronger. He started to get to his feet, and a haze of black light began to swell around him.

“The embrace of the mother is everywhere. Death is part of life, the most important part in fact. I will be its arbiter within this world! Call of the Grave!”

“Oh shit,” Sam said, “he’s having a Dao breakthrough!”

Three spectral figures rose from the arena floor, each shaped like a tattered facsimile of a human. They clutched ethereal axes and swords, and their countenances were grim. Sam bit his lip, suddenly wary. The power that was emanating from Reaper was quite palpable. It was nothing compared to his own, but for someone without any sort of Dao comprehension multipliers, save for the presumable influence of the man’s leaderboard title, this level of power was almost unbelievable. Sam wondered if the rest of the universe was doing this well, or if it was just Earth.

The three shades charged the Overlord, and he dismissively batted at one of them with his hand. It chittered and brought its sword down, cutting into his skin. A drop of blood welled up and the man went berserk. His demonic mask glowed an even deeper hue of red, and he roared so loudly that Sam was tempted to cover his ears.

The man punched at the air, creating a solid beam of light that tore through the upper body of the wraith, leaving it standing there without a head. It remained there for a moment, as if unsure of what to do, and then faded away into a light mist and then into nothing. The other wraiths quickly followed suit and the Overlord turned towards Reaper.

“The games were fun, but it's time to end this.”

“Agreed.”

A tiny speck of dark energy shot out from Reaper’s outstretched hand, traveling at such speeds that even the Overlord wasn't able to dodge in time. It cut straight through his body and out the other side, leaving a tiny hole on his chest. He looked down in horror and then back at Reaper. Dao energy leaked out of the wound, as well as the more physical fluid of blood.

He stared at Reaper for a moment and then clapped his hands together. A thin blade of force was pressed out between his hands, slicing through the air towards Reaper. The man just stood there, and when it hit him, he was instantly teleported away. He had thrown the match without any apparent plan, and as he did so, he looked up into the sky for some reason. Sam forgot about that soon afterwards, but one man did not.

Baltus shivered in delight as he witnessed the performance of the prospective sect member. He was magnificent. Simply magnificent. To be able to fight like that against the local planetary hegemon was more than Baltus had expected. Even better, he had been able to sense the tendril of energy that Baltus had sent down to test his Dao senses. He had looked up at the last moment, just before he had been teleported away. Yes, this boy would do well indeed. Laughing, Baltus snapped his fingers, and the ship tore a hole in space and time, exiting the universe and heading back towards his own.

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The Overlord let out a cry of rage and struck the ground multiple times with his fist, throwing a tantrum like a baby. Still, his fans did not relent in their cheering, and as he walked off the arena, he seemed to perk up a little. The man slammed himself down into his chair, nearly cracking it, and crossed his legs. He was angry that Reaper had humiliated him in front of the entire arena.

Sam whistled. He knew that Reaper would be in for a tough time after this tournament, and so would he for that matter. His heart rate started to increase as he realized that the next losers’ bracket match was up. He had a 1 in 2 chance of being up next, and it was most likely that he would be up against-

“For the third match of the losers’ bracket, we have the Arbiter versus Rodney Kane!”

-Rodney Kane.

Sam swallowed his nerves and got up, and across the room so did his rival. It was time to see who was the number two under the sun. Kane hissed at Sam as the two of them walked side by side up the ramp to the arena.

“You may think that you’re assured of victory with your fancy Dao, but I’m not as weak as you might think.”

“Good for you. All I know is what I’ve been told, and I was told that you can only last for a minute.”

The man’s face twisted in confusion and then he reddened.

“You bastard. I’m going to make you pay for that.”

“Didn't deny it, I notice,” Sam added, chuckling. By then they were on the arena sands, and Sam stopped taunting Rodney. The man was in an ideal state anyway, his mind inflamed with rage. This would hopefully be an easy fight.

“Begin!” The System said almost immediately, and Sam gripped his mace with his other hand, bringing it up into a tentative guard. Rodney clenched his fist and the suit of dark armor rose out of the sands again, this time looking sleeker and more deadly. It coated his body in all areas, and he smiled as the last bit of metal covered his face.

Sam took this in with a blank face and instead focused on getting ready to fight. An invisible sheath of Dao energy formed around his mace, quickly becoming tangible as he poured more and more into it. His body began to fill up with his elemental energy, rapidly spooling out of his Meridian. He was not going to attempt to use his new technique yet, both out of fear that a countermeasure would be devised by his audience, and also because he felt that he would not need it.

Rodney finished powering up and Sam drew back his mace with both hands, getting ready to fight. The other man summoned his greatsword to his hands, the weapon’s razor edge clearly visible. No normal greatsword would have been constructed like that, but as it was a summoned weapon, it did not matter. He raised it up and hefted the weapon onto one shoulder of his armor, getting ready to attack.

Sam smiled and drew his foot back, preparing to take the blow and retaliate with one of his own. Rodney Kane took a deep breath and then shattered the ground beneath him with a mighty thrust of his legs. The heat and friction of the movements made the sand momentarily fuse beneath him, creating a thin layer of glass that cracked instantly with a tinkling crash. Even Sam appreciated the showmanship, and he let himself smile slightly at the display. That had been a pretty good opening move.

What came next was more standard fare, an overhand swipe from the greatsword that cleaved down towards Sam’s head. He tucked his stomach in and turned, trapping the blade between his mace and himself. Rodney struggled to remove the blade, and in the end his strength, augmented by the armor as it was, was superior.

Sam was forced to let go and he turned it into an opening by spinning the man’s blade as he released it. The extra motion momentarily confused Rodney, and as he took his greatsword back in check, Sam struck. The spiked tip of his mace, which corresponded to the middle claw of the bear’s paw, struck home and lanced into the solar plexus of the suit of armor. It did not break through, but Kane let out a gasp as the air was propelled out of his body, and he was driven back a few steps.

He growled and slashed his greatsword through the air, creating a shallow rent in reality that quickly grew into a horizontal edge of energy that streaked towards Sam. Sam ducked underneath the blade, but as something cut into his cheek, he saw his mistake. There was a much smaller and almost invisible blade of concentrated air pressure traveling in the shadow of the main one, and that had succeeded in cutting him. If not for his duck, it would have cut one of his arms off. The main blade dissipated, its work done, and Rodney Kane laughed.

“All of your grandstanding is just a load of hot air, Arbiter. I am going to make you feel some serious pain before this is over. Mark my words.”

Sam did not respond to the taunt, and instead began to channel his Dao energy and his elemental energy. He was not going to use his secret skill, but he could turn the tables a little with something like it.