Chapter 70

I stayed there, on one knee, using the staff to hold me up, and that was all I could do. My body was numb all over, not even a breath of air was possible. I tried, I really did, but nothing responded and my heart raced faster and faster still as panic set in. if I couldn’t breathe sooner, I might actually lose the fight to asphyxiation.

“What?” I heard Coello ask, but I couldn’t even bring myself to react to it. Even moving my eyes was proving near impossible. “Are you really letting me take my potions just like that?”

Curse you! Do you think I want that? I felt like throttling him to death, a deep searing feeling that I had never felt before. How could he be so ignorant? I wanted to beat the stupidity out of him, if only I could move. I felt something in me stir, and I latched on to it.

With all the training I had been through, I quickly circulated the rising Mana as fast as I could. First to my limbs, and it was a good thing as he seemed to have recovered from his stupidity, throwing his axe at me in a curving path. I barely managed to dodge in time, as I finally felt my abdomen cramp as air rushed into my lungs.

Argh! Why is the first breath always so painful?

Feeling was slowly returning to my body, but with it came the reminder of my current state of wellbeing. My muscles ached and I was sweaty all over, with my clothes thoroughly drenched in sweat. I could feel the perspiration soaked in my hair slowly trickling over my brow, stinging my eyes and forcing me to narrow them in an effort to keep it out. Why were the eyes so sensitive? Besides, weren’t the eyebrows or the eyelashes supposed to keep the sweat out? Or was my biology failing me again?

I slowly licked my lips, but the salty taste, too salty bordering on bitter, of my sweat did nothing for my patched mouth. They really needed to offer water for rehydration during the fights, even marathon runners in old earth got water stalls placed on the race route. For a moment, I thought of giving up the fight, just so I could get a taste of the soothing cool water.

But the thought was ephemeral, as I was determined to win the fight.

Coello surged forward, almost catching me by surprise. When did he even retrieve his axe? I wondered as I fast dodged his attack while sending a thrust to his face which he nimbly avoided. But I was not deterred, quickly swerving the staff right with a [Staff Strike] to make up for the short distance and thundered his jaw. I wished I had had the room to build up more momentum, but I took the win. Anything that dwindled his [Health] was welcome.

I hoped such strikes would be enough to daze him, maybe even bring him down, but the explosion of pain to my side was a stark remind that my opponent was a hardy man. I still looked to the side just to make sure it wasn’t a spectator who had attacked me. Good thing it wasn’t the axe that caught me.

I staggered from the blow, my side smarting all the more, and my [Health] dropping further still. As he moved in for follow up attacks, I quickly reined in my fuming body and counter-attacked with a series of combination strikes that snapped his head. For all his hardiness, his defense was lacking.

And he still came on.

I feinted a thrust to the head, quickly turning it into a strike to his axe arm. He snarled at me as the axe sagged a little before he recovered and swung it in a wild curve for my head. I ducked under it only to meet up with a rising uppercut. I dodged as much as I could manage, the blow only managing to glaze my cheek. I righted myself, bring my staff up for his chin. It knocked his head back, and quickly followed that with a wide [Staff Strike] swing to his head.

He somehow evaded the strike, but not fully as I saw one of his eyebrows get washed clean off the face. I really wanted to stare at what I had just done, but he looked dazed for the first time in the fight as he reeled from the near blow to his head. So I moved in for the kill.

I saw the blow too late to do anything but brace for. I activated my [Shield] as fast as I could, hoping for all that was good in Mesily that it would protect me. Somehow, it didn’t kill me, but I was sure it had gone through a rib or two.

Panic rose through me as I saw where the axe had slashed. Right where my heart was. Another centimeter or two and it could have sliced my heart in half.

Coello roared as he began to rain attacks on me, brutal and powerful blows forcing me back and back. It was all I could do to keep the axe from ending me.

Soon enough, another slash connected, this time on my left shoulder. I ducked and weaved, but more and more attacks were leaving the axe wetted.

From the limited experience I had with axes, they were heavy things, unwieldy and very imprecise tools. I couldn’t even imagine how I would go about using one as a weapon. But here was Coello, swinging and swerving the axe as if it weighed nothing. It sang through the air, almost as fast as any sword I had faced before, and the attacks he delivered were always precise.

Coello increased the ferocity of his attacks, with the axe coming faster and faster. I put extra effort in avoiding it, but that just meant that the shield bashes landed more often than not. Is he sensing victory? If it were me, I would. But there was no way I was going down.

I ducked the next axe swing, taking the follow up punch in stride as I charged at him, trying my luck at landing a few hits of my own. But he easily sidestepped and countered, nearly cleaving off my right shoulder. I recovered fast, advancing on him even as my heart raced faster and faster from the near amputation.

Coello send his axe my way, but I slapped it away with the staff, using the opening created by the axe as it carried his hand to strike at his shoulder. I saw him wince as the last minute [Staff Strike] smashed home, swinging it around for another [Staff Strike]. He ducked under that, bringing his shield arm for a bash on my chest that literally lifted me off the ground. Compared to the hammering I received in the last fight, it was nothing, but it still ate away at my [Health]. Which was getting dangerously low.

We slowly circled each other, with the arena dead silent but for my ragged breathing and fast beating heart. I was no longer feeling like the fight was akin to a spar as I had at the start, but I didn’t have the murderous intent to see his face bashed in like the opponent before him. I wondered who the spectators were cheering for, they always cheered for the underdog, right? That would be me, it had to be. For the umpteenth time, I wondered why The Grand Competition had saw it fit to keep the cheering, or jeering, of the spectators away from the fighters. Then again, maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing. Messily knew, it would be a bother for me more than it would be worth.

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I attacked. And he met me with his axe, which I easily avoided but ended up becoming acquainted with his shield, again. I rocked back on my heels before advancing again. We engaged ferociously, each time grateful for my new staff as it held its own against the axe. Of course, I did avoid direct contact with the sharp part of the blade. I wasn’t sure whether it could survive that, and I didn’t want to risk it.

The engagement saw him opening more cuts on me, but I did get a few good hits on his shoulders and arms. Especially the [Hurtling Projectile]s, those were crippling. And when I managed to knock his axe off him, I moved in immediately only to find myself grabbed and pinned close to his body as he squeezed the life out of me. As if that wasn’t enough still, he hammered me down with his big head, over and over again.

It took me a while to form enough coherent thought to beginning struggling. And when that didn’t work, I roared in desperation as I raised a [Fire Ball] between, not big enough to eat away at my remaining [Health], but strong enough to force him to let me go.

As the shock hit him, I managed to jerk myself loose, quickly downing a much needed [Health] potion. And faced him again.

Coello’s fingers tightened on the axe’s haft as his eyes gleamed, and a chill ran down my spine. How fast does he retrieve that thing anyway? I tried to calm myself, but there was no denying the predicament I was in. Up against a very strong, powerful opponent who seemed to brush off my attacks as if they were nothing more than pats. I knew I was hurting him, after all he had taken a [Health] Potion already, or was that two? But my brain could only process what it was seeing.

I grabbed my staff a little tighter, then loosened my grip as I spun it a few times, trying to get my nerves to calm down by doing something familiar. We glared at each other for what felt like minutes before Coello began advancing on me, spinning the axe as he got closer to me.

I took controlled deep breathes as I waited until he was within a few paces and then leapt forward, lunging my staff towards his chest. There was a thud as he easily knocked off my staff with his shield while the axe whished a hair’s width past my throat. I leaned back, bringing my staff around for a strike against his exposed side.

I was glad for the hit, but he brushed it off like it was nothing to him, attacking again with a series of sweeps and thrusts aimed for my neck and torso. The blade of his axe gleaned as it flashed through the air, up and down, left and right; it was everywhere, the only sounds I could register that of his axe searching for my blood, or when I got a lucky hit in. It was completely different from what would have been had we had an audience.

I could easily picture it, us in a dingy street, surrounded by whore houses and taverns, with whores leaning out of the windows and drunkards shambly surrounding us, shouting encouragements and insults at us in equal measure. They would mostly be waiting for the looser to be made, to steal what little they could from his dead body.

My momentary distraction allowed Coello to push me back, and the determination I could see in his face gave the impression that he was solely gunning for the win.

I tried to regain the upper hand, but he was having none of that, his attacks coming faster and faster. I could feel each move I made becoming the slightest bit slower, the weariness of the fight was creeping on me as I desperately fended off his axe. Sooner rather than later, I was bound to make a mistake that could cost me the fight.

I feinted a lunge, then rolled, tucking my staff in and bringing it out as I rose, already offering a [Staff Strike] at his open back. Coello groaned as he stumbled forward a little before turning to face me. I used the momentary respite to gather myself and take a much needed breather. I was visibly panting, with my clothes soaked in sweat as I prepared myself for what felt like another round of torture. In comparison, he looked as collected as he did at the start of the fight. I guess I needed to work on maintaining my composure during fights.

He advanced on me, and it suddenly felt like I hadn’t taken a breather at all, lunging at me with his axe first, quickly followed by his shield as I barely parried the first attack. As I avoided the shield bashing, I regretted not having checked his [Status] during that small break. There was no telling how close, or far, he was to being done. That information would have helped me immensely, especially so late into the fight as we were.

I pushed that regret away as I put my all into not being put in the back foot again. I quickly lost track of what Mana attacks I used when, just throwing everything that I thought might give me the upper hand against him. We chased each other through the arena, never letting the other gain enough distance to take a break. I didn’t know how many potions he had left, but it felt like we had decided that it was our last engagement. I could see my [Health] drop lower and lower with each successful hit he made, and it made me anxious as I got closer and closer to being knocked out.

A small [Earth Grab] made him stumble a little, and I capitalized on that, using a bigger one to completely through him off balance. As he went down, I launched a [Hurtling Projectile] from below him with as much Mana as it could allow me.

People in the Realm of Mesily had proved sturdier than I had been used to in old earth, but that hit still looked like it had broken something important. But I didn’t leave it to chance, quickly following with a [Staff Strike] that brought him back down to the arena ground with a resounding thud. I tried launching another [Hurtling Projectile] for his head, but nothing came. As I moved to finish him off with my staff, the fight was called.

It took a few seconds for reality to register, and when it did, I nearly collapsed to the arena in exhaustion. And relief. Looking closely, I could finally see that he was no longer moving. I slowly sank to the ground as it didn’t feel like I had anything left in me to carry me out of the arena.

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[Species: Human]

[Name: Hartie]

[Sex: Male]

[Level: 39]

Status:

[HP: 1405/5477]

[MP: 910/6941]

[SP: 128/9117]

Attributes:

[Agility: 45]

[Constitution: 39]

[Endurance: 47]

[Intelligence: 39]

[Strength: 33]

[Vitality: 33]

[Wisdom: 39]

General Skills [4/4]:

[Health Regeneration: 5]

[Identify: 1]

[Language Proficiency: 4]

[Mana Manipulation: 17]

Primary Skills:

[Daggers: 8]

[Enhanced Hand: 14]

[Earth Grab: 16]

[Fast Dash: 17]

[Fire Ball: 16]

[Hurtling Projectile: 19]

[Staff Strike: 16]

[Staffs: 19]

[Unarmed Combat: 14]

[Wind Gust: 12]

Other Skills:

[Acrobatics: 12]

[Archery: 3]

[Bludgeons: 3]

[Carpentry: 3]

[Enhance Plant Growth: 3]

[Fire Bolt: 9]

[Herbalism: 5]

[Mana Attenuation: 12]

[Mana Projectile: 10]

[Mana Shield: 11]

[Mana Slash: 11]

[Shield: 2]

[Spears: 3]

[Stealth: 2]

[Staff Making: 6]

[Staff Shield: 8]

[Water Ball: 9]

[Water Punch: 11]

[Weeding: 8]

[Whirlpool: 7]