Chapter 65

Between the third round and the fourth round, time just seemed to fly by. One moment I was walking away from my third round, and the next I was walking into my fourth round.

The only thing of note that happened was the fact that I gained another Level, going to Level 38. But even with that, I was still the lowest Leveled individual left in the competition, with all the rest having made it to Level 40. I wondered when it would get to a time when I wasn’t always lower leveled than the competition. That would be a huge relief, walking into the arena, knowing full well that my Level wasn’t the limiting factor for me.

There were other limiting factors of course, but as far as I was concerned, Level was everything that mattered. It dictated how powerful your punches were, how fast you could get in and out of an opponent’s space, how much of a beating you could take before you went down, how much of a beating you could deal before you ran yourself dry.

I knew that Skills and techniques, and fighting prowess contributed to the fights just as much as the Levels did. I didn’t want to believe that though, because that would make me some kind of a fighting prodigy, or genius, me, who ran away at the first sign of trouble in my previous life.

I didn’t know what I was riding on that I could just walk into the arena, fight after fight, each time getting hammered to the ground, and still getting up to go through the process all over again. Somebody, somewhere had to be controlling me somehow. That was the only plausible explanation, otherwise, I had gone completely nuts, lost all sense of self-preservation the moment I arrived in the Realm of Mesily. I blamed it all on the not-caterpillar from my first encounter with another living thing in the Realm of Mesily.

I hadn’t done any research about my opponent, not that I would have remembered anything really, not with how my brain was all mush with details. Or maybe I had done the research and I completely forgot all about it. How convenient.

…

‘

[Human : Fred][Level: 44]

Status:

[HP: 7387/7461]

[MP: 7720/7727]

[SP: 9326/9407]

’

Fred was a huge man, adding that armor on top just made him worse, a hulking beast send by the System to crash me to a pulp and stop my pursuit of gold. Everywhere I looked, he was there. For the first time since I started fighting in the arenas, the arena didn’t feel big enough, it felt like he could easily reach me anywhere I ran off to. I was thankful that he didn’t wield any weapon, but that was hardly a comfort for me, compared to my staff, his armored fists where much better weapons. I imagined that the spectators were all besides themselves, roaring and bellowing in mad fury for the favorite. Was I anyone’s favorite? Truth be told, I wouldn’t bet on myself in the fight.

For the first time, I was glad for the distance they enforced before the start of the fight.

Maybe it should be a little bit bigger, like opposite ends bigger.

I slowly crept around the edge of the sandy arena, trying my best to stay light on my feet. I was smaller, tinier more like, but I was quicker, and hopefully smarter. I had to be if I had any hope of winning the fight, because I intended to win.

Keep moving, rolling, ducking, stay out of the way and pick my moments. Above all, don’t get hit, not getting hit was the most important thing to keep in mind. I was more than certain that a single successful punch, or kick would be all it took to take me out of the fight. So I had to rely on my superior Stamina… it wasn’t that superior though. Did that mean that we could keep going for about as long as each other? Or would he use up his Stamina faster than me? If so, why? Shouldn’t the Stamina be used up at the same rate?

Fred came at me from nowhere, pulling me out of my musings, as his great armored fist blurred for my head. I pulled away from it with [Fast Dash], but I still got grazed, the whiplash of the passing blow rattling my brain a little.

Going for the kill from the get go, respect.

The speed of the punch had been an unwelcome surprise, I knew that big muscles were sometimes capable of producing astonishing speeds, but if he could keep that up, I might not be able to survive the fight, let alone win it.

But Fred was still on me, another [Fast Dash], and another, and I found myself bouncing off the edge of the arena, rolling as I hit the ground. I saw his boot hit the ground where my head would have been had I stayed even for a second longer. I’m just running and running, away.

Before I could even reorient myself properly, he was already on me, with another fist heading for my head again. I ducked low, hitting the back of Fred’s knee with my staff as I rolled past him. I felt the staff connect nicely, sending a jarring vibration back at me that nearly dropped a point in my [Health]. But for all I had suffered for it, he walked it off like it was nothing more than a light tap.

He turned to me with what I saw only as I reeling smile, as if asking me, was that the best you could do? Of course it wasn’t, it had just been a test, that failed miserably. But I still got angry, and attacked him, roaring as I aimed for his head; I just wanted to wipe that stupid smile off his face. But the staff found his armored hand instead, having been raised in time to block it off. It bounced off harmlessly, bending like one of those poles used by pole-vaulters back on old earth. I stared stupidly at the waving staff, as a buzzing sensation ran through my hands.

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By the time I snapped back, he was already on attack. I activated [Fast Dash] as fast as I could, but it was still too late as his knee sunk into my gut, knocking the air out of me and folding me up, as it sent me tumbling, the added effect of [Fast Dash] made the tumble that much worse. It was like I had gone back to the days when I first learnt the Skill, going through without having much control of what was happening to me.

As I came out of [Fast Dash], he was already on me again, an armored hand swinging for my torso. I knew I couldn’t avoid it completely so I tried my best to ensure that he only managed the least amount of damage by twisting as much as my body would allow me. I would like to say it was painful, but my body was already smarting from the previous knee blow to feel anything. The only thing I felt was the whiplash as I changed directions and speed so fast.

I careened off the edges of the arena, rolling for several seconds before I could bring myself into control. I quickly tried to get backup, using the staff I somehow still held after all that to support my weight. He was approaching normally, and I used that respite to wait for the pain racing through my abdomen to subside enough for me to regain my breathing capabilities.

I guess not even he can keep that up for long, I thought to myself as I tried to think up a way to take him down, even a dirty trick would be welcome. Really, anything.

But I came up blank.

He was stronger than me, had Health to spare, and he was somehow just as fast, if not faster than me. Whoever said that big muscled people were slow had clearly never met Fred, not at all.

I felt a sense of relief as I took in my first breath, albeit just as painful as the knee to the gut had been. At least I was still alive, but that altercation had taken nearly half my Health. It was hard to say for how long I could keep up, and I had yet to do anything to him.

I had never felt so scared before, so exhilarated, so very much alive because I was about to die. But as scared as I was, my body was responding the best it had ever done in the whole time I had known it. With how effective my staff had been, I focused on raw Mana attacks, of which I only had two and one of them was barely better than my staff.

I soon learnt that it wasn’t that he was faster than me, more like he had extraordinary reflexes compared to me. All that I needed to do was react before he could, as long as I activated [Fast Dash] before he attacked, then I would be safe. But that only resulted with me almost always on the back-foot. I was sure I looked tiny, weak and brittle in the presence of Fred. And to make everything worse, my attacks were doing too little, they were doing something but it was so abysmal that I was sure which would run out first between my [Stamina] and his [Health].

It needed to be his [Health].

Eventually, he managed to get the better of me, and to the edges of the arena I found myself, lurching helplessly as he delivered blow after blow. But to my credit, I recovered faster than before, dodging a down fist strike as I applied the best Mana I could at [Staff Strike], aiming for the knee again. The knee buckled as he stumbled a little and I pushed for another attack.

I knew I was running low on, everything really, but I also needed to drop his [Health] as much as I could, to try and force him to take a potion too. Or collapse, I would very much like it if he just collapsed. The next blow I aimed for the small of his back as he tried to regain his balance, then I jumped, spinning to add more momentum to the staff as I aimed for the head, hoping for a knockout as I poured the last of my Mana into the [Staff Strike].

Sadly, it was not to be. But it caused him to flail a bit before he went down. I went to follow through and finish him up, but he was already getting up, potions in hand. I pulled back as fast as my raw muscles would let me, fast downing a [Health] potion, and when I thought I was safe, followed that up with [Mana] and [Stamina].

I didn’t know what potions he had taken, but I knew that [Health] wasn’t one of them, wait… that meant he took the other two. I had not seen any Mana attacks from him, but I had given up expecting everyone who used Mana to use it for attacking. Well, as obviously as I did. Maybe I was limited in that regard. I couldn’t afford to have such a limited view of Mana.

“Huh!” I jerked sideways to get away from an armored fist to my face, then down as its partner in crime came rushing in after, I rolled back as I nearly kissed his boots. What a way to force me to swear fealty, shame on you. And kept rolling as he stomped forward in pursuit. Having already taken some of his blows, I knew that they couldn’t kill me outright, but I still had this ingrained fear that they were powerful enough to do it, so, I avoided them as best as I could, not that I would want to get hit anyway.

I rolled up, already swinging my staff for one of his knees, but he gracefully sidestepped, and I had to rotate through with the momentum, risking my back for a more lethal strike. And land it did, to what I hoped was his kidney, or was that the liver? My human anatomy knowledge was patchy at best. Even without knowing what effect it had had on him, I was already on another attack, knowing fully well that if I gave him the opportunity, I would find myself a ragdoll to him.

I swung hard for the head, he tried to lean back to get out of it, but I had struck pessimistically, with a generous room to the staff. He might have gotten away had he ducked, but I had been prepared for that too. The blow forced his head to tilt sideways, not the one-eighty degree from my first round, just half of that, maybe even less. But it was enough for me to notice a dent in his helmet from my previous strike to the head. They are dealing damage, I thought ecstatically, considerable damage I hope.

My momentary distraction earned me an elbow to the rib’s, and just like I had predicted, it lifted me completely off my feet and threw me flailing to the edge of the arena, again. This arena is smaller than normal, I thought as I spat out a glob of blood to the arena getting to my hands and knees, the world around me spinning around and the ground wavy. Had I hit my head against the arena wall? I was sure that if I was asking myself that, then things were bad for me, very bad indeed.

I crawled to my staff a few hand-lengths away from me and winced a little as I pushed myself up using it as support, blinking the sweat off my eyes, or was it tears? Looking at Fred, he was slowly approaching me, casually I would say, with the confidence of an experienced fighter who had brought many mighty opponents to their knees. He showed no signs of tiring, even with all that armor on him, or the slugging he was delivering, or the little beat ups I offered in return. I hoped he was at the very least uncomfortable inside there.

I felt fear rise again, and I embraced it wholeheartedly, there was no lying that I wasn’t scared to death of him, only a fool wouldn’t be, and I liked to think myself as no fool. Or at least a little less of a fool. And there it was again, that smile, how more condescending could he get? At least he wasn’t holding back, or I hoped he wasn’t. Why hadn’t he worn a full helmet? Was it to torment me with those smiles? I swore to myself that if I ever got the chance, I would smash his face in. Would the healers be able to him save then? Frankly, I couldn’t care.