Chapter 66

I tried taking a step to the right, he responded in kind, keeping the distance between us always shrinking. The left got me the same response, so I activated [Fast Dash] in a bid to create more distance between us, but he was on me even before [Fast Dash] ran out, his heavily armored boot slamming into my chest, knocking the breath out of me and crashing me down into the arena.

I couldn’t believe what had just happened, he got me while I was in [Fast Dash], it’s not that it was impossible, but still. Did I have a tell that he used to get the better of me? Or had he simply guessed right? But that was one too many times in the fight for it to be guesswork. No, it was something else. Could it… was he smarter than me?

My wits were forcibly returned to the fight as I was forced to roll away from another stomp, sending [Fire Ball], [Wind Gust], [Mana Slash] and [Mana Projectile] in my bid to get away from his onslaughter. I wondered when the [Mana Projectile] would be combined with [Hurtling Projectile] to form a new Skill, but I wasn’t in the place for such thoughts, as I earned myself a fistful to my face as I tried to get up, sending me rolling back. I went with the momentum, getting in a few more rolls before I got up.

When we faced each other off again, Fred seemed to stand a little straighter. He seemed taller too, his shoulders thicker and more powerful than I would have thought. It’s my nerves getting to me, I tried to console myself. Even an amateur could appear almost formidable if they hid their inexperience well enough.

He rolled his shoulders as he eyed me, like this was nothing more than a spar to him. Maybe it was, but for me it was everything.

I made a mock lunge and then immediately dove into an attack, the bait-and-switch jarring even for Fred, but he blocked the swings easily enough. They engaged for a few seconds, then parted, circling again.

I couldn’t believe how fast he was; I was barely holding out in terms of agility against him. And I prided myself in being fast. Then again, he did six Levels on me. They had to go somewhere. I wasn’t sure if I was glad for it or not. It felt like it would be worse for me if they had been in [Mana]. Worst if it was [Health], there was no way I would have any chances of winning then.

Fred attacked with relentless speed. I cannot keep this up for long, I thought while barely evading another blow. The whiplash of the passing blow felt like an actual blow from an average person from old earth. At least I thought so. They both knew Mbatha wouldn’t tire anytime soon.

I swung at his face, and he pulled back his head. Swung down at his feet, only to have him deftly leap the staff. He countered by bring his left hand down hard on my shoulder, numbing the arm momentarily. I could have sworn several bones broke from the impact. I backed away, flexing my arm as much as I could, glad that it could still work. He came after, with that predatory wicked grin of his. I was landing several more blows, for each of his, but I didn’t think it made that much of a difference. To make matters worse his blows were jarring to the bone, while mine didn’t seem to have any effect.

Fred always seemed to be moving away or sliding sideways such that my attacks seemed to touch him but never really delivering any damage. Before long I was giving more ground, trying to avoid the other’s crippling blows and nearly failing all the time.

My eyes stinging from all the sweat that was running my face. Too strong, too quick. How am I supposed to win against that? I wished I had trained harder before the Counties began, gained a few more Levels. Would it have made that much of a difference though? On the next backswing, I took a chance and ducked under, coming right up and inside Fred’s space for a thrust. With a [Hurtling Projectile] right behind it.

I was rewarded with a left hook to the temple, quickly followed by a sweep of the legs. And then something slammed into my chest so hard I was sure it had caved in.

And for the umpteenth time in that fight, I found myself flying. Blue sky above morphed together with the arena below and the sea of spectators in the middle to form one whirlpool of color, before I unceremoniously crashed into the edge of the arena, half-dead to the world. All my numbers were screaming red, had he punched a little harder, or had I hit the arena wall with a more sensitive part of my body, the fight would have been over. It still could be if he made it to me before I downed my potions. Looking up, I realized that he hadn’t come out of it unscathed either, and I used that time to quickly take the potions as he got his bearings. He was already back full on his [Status], having taken his own potions during the reprieve of the fight.

As we approached each other, I smiled to myself, it was the last round for me, maybe him too, and I had yet to find a way to take him out, other than making him run out of [Stamina] that is. I didn’t think that would work though, I would have already won otherwise. No, it was his [Health] I had to take out, and he still had a spare [Health] potion on him, while it had taken me two [Health]s to take out one of his.

Yeah I was a goner.

So, yes, I smiled as I wiped the blood off my mouth and nose, spitting the rest to the arena. And he was kind enough to return that condescending smile of his. But it was okay, he had earned that, he knew it, I knew it, we all knew it. Still, I would make him claw tooth and nail to claim victory over me, that, I swore by all that was me.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

With that resignation, I felt my body calm down, the pains racing through me slowly ebbed away and the Mana in me flowed calmly for the first time since I began [Mana Cultivation]. I could feel all the wayward flows disappear as a sense of serenity washed over me.

And I used [Fast Dash] to rush him.

I would like to say that I somehow found a hidden power inside me and was able to overturn the tables, but I would be lying. I was no different than I was before, maybe I moved a little faster, my control on Mana a little bit better than before, my use of it also more efficient, but in the end, the gap between us was just too wide to be covered up by such little things.

We engaged ferociously through the arena, I got tossed to the edge of the arena a couple times more than I would have liked, but I got up and got back to it all the same, because the only way to end it was for the fight itself to be called. And I wanted to make him bleed.

He launched fists at me, kicks and stomps that actually shook the arena itself. I wondered if the spectators were allowed to feel those, to make their viewing experience all the more exhilarating.

Most of those I avoided, and some did land, some sending me flying, others merely pushing me back a little.

But I gave more than I got, landing nearly three strikes more than he did, and he was sooner putting in the effort to actually avoid my attacks. My staff became a blur as it spun, thrust, struck at Fred, but he kept his reflexes up, fading and unfading with the situation. The ground beneath was a firm anchor, using it as a launch pad for my attacks, and a pivot for my evades, taking advantage of openings to launch counterattacks when possible.

I stumbled, and he launched forward with a determined expression on his face. I rolled under his fists throwing a [Staff Strike] at the nearby knee as I slid through and past him. I followed that with a back thrust on his back as I turned to face him again. He turned and made to take a step forward but his knee buckled slightly. I took the small win as he righted himself, favoring his other leg a little more.

I pushed my attack, hoping to capitalize on the injury I had inflicted.

But as I began to appreciate the advantage I had gained, my staff creaked, and I nearly wept then and there. Why couldn’t it have lasted a little bit longer? A few more strikes would have been enough, around twenty, maybe forty. Was that too much to ask for?

I pulled back a little as I settled into Mana attacks, using the staff for areas that weren’t heavily armored, which were few for Fred. But that allowed him to turn the tables too much in his favor, and I couldn’t have that.

I went for a [Hurtling Projectile], but he slapped it away like it was a playtoy, shattering it into tiny pieces. I went with more Mana, trying to make it dense and compressing it to make it all the more hard. And it was slapped away again, he might have struggled a little bit for the second, but it wasn’t enough to justify the Mana drain it cost me.

Trying [Earth Grab] proved useless as he either was fast enough to avoid them, or too strong to be held down by the little things I conjured up. Bigger ones would cost me Mana I couldn’t afford to lose.

I held my staff tighter as I closed in again resolutely, going for the final push. My [Status] were running low, but so were his, not as low as mine, but I had managed to whittle down his [Health] with one of my own. I wasn’t even sure how I had managed that, but it didn’t matter.

I twisted out of the way of a wayward punch, turning around to deliver a good strike at his knee. Had that being the same one? I didn’t know, but his wobbling made me believe it had. I struck again as he made to regain his balance, his defenses barely up in time, but doing nothing to stop a third strike, with the staff groaning each time, reminding me that it was not long for the fight. A fourth, and a fifth hit, and on the sixth, my staff broke but Fred remained standing. My Mana was running low, I had enough for maybe one or two measly Skills. With nothing else to use, I threw myself bodily at him, putting my all into the jump, and that did it as he went down with a loud thud.

I quickly scrambled on top of him and used the last bits of Mana to hold down one of his hands while I yanked his helmet free of his head and began smashing his face with it, using all the force I could muster from my battered body. He tried to use his free hand to get me off him, but I somehow managed to pin it down with one of my legs. It took a lot of blows to finally get him to tap out, by then, I had completely disfigured his face, with most of his front teeth smashed in, together with the nose. The eyes had bulged shut.

…

Somehow, he woke up before I did.

Show some respect and wait till I wake up before you do.

Just how did his [Health] work? If I remembered correctly, my opponent at the third round, Thengi her name was, had regained consciousness minutes after the fight had been called. But I was sure that the healers put her right back under, they always did.

Anyway, my opponents recovering fast was beginning to become a thing, which was not something I wanted. It was like they were rubbing it in my face that they were still my betters, and I didn’t like that one iota. I would do thorough research on the [Health] and recovery stuff, try and get myself to be as superhuman as they were, no not like them, better than them, much better. I was the winner of our fights, I had to have something to show off that I was better.

I looked at him, sitting there on his bed, all smug about it. What was up with him and smiling? He had lost, shouldn’t he be feeling bad about it? If it were me and I had lost so early on with absolute certainty that I wouldn’t be going to the next level of The Grand Competition, I would be livid, furious, and all those other emotions. In fact, I might have been feeling them while I watched him behaving like he had won. What if they changed the results? Claimed that even though I finished him off, he had been the one to land the much more devastating hits. Some fights in old earth had been judged like that, based on how many good hits you landed. Was it better, or worse?

“That fight, I had fun,” he said as he smiled at me. Damn, everything is back to normal for him, even the teeth.

“Fun!?” I asked in bafflement.

He nodded enthusiastically as he said, “Yes.”

Then it hit, the smiles during the fight, he hadn’t been laughing at me, he had just been enjoying himself. Oh, poor old me, used as entertainment by your betters. Glad I could be of service.

“I underestimated you a little, and it cost me dearly. But I’ve no regrets,” he said.

We really had been fighting two different fights out there.