Chapter 74

Standing in the arena before the fight began still had me as nervous as the first time I walked into the fighting pits in Yange for my very first fight. You would think with all the fights I had had over the preceding six weeks I would have somehow gotten used it. But no, I still got sweaty in my palms with my heart rate rising as we waited for the fight to start.

As with the Baronies, both semifinals and the finals were held in the Jibane Arena. But unlike the Baronies, my semifinal was being held first. Sunshine and her opponent would duke it out later in the day. If I were lucky, I might actually be recovered enough by then and get to watch her fight. Maybe learn a thing or two on how I could possibly win against her, assuming we both made it to the finals.

Monty stood in front of me, all cool and collected, leisurely staring at me while we waited for the stupid commentator to call the fight. What is taking him so long anyway? I couldn’t recall the wait being so long in my previous fights.

“FIGHT!!?”

Finally! I thought in relief, but it was quickly washed away as Monty used that time to quickly close the distant between us. My reflexes kicked in pretty fast with a rudimentary form of [Fast Dash] enhancing my reactions enough to bring up my staff in time to parry his slash, sending a stabbing pain through my arm.

A follow up kick to his chest launched him backward over the distance he had just closed. I shook my left arm, washing away the jarring I felt from parrying the blow. We had seemed somewhat comparable in size, but that one blow proved that he packed quite the punch. I cursed myself for my lackluster [Strength] as I quickly went on attack, using [Fast Dash] to rush him as he tried to right himself.

I brought my staff down on him fast, with a [Staff Strike] to maximize on the opportunity. But he positioned his sword against the strike at the last minute. The force of the strike was enough to push the sword back into him, nearly opening a wound on his chest as his legs buckled and he dropped to one knee.

I quirked my lips at the outcome. Maybe I wasn’t as strong as the others, but that didn’t mean I was to be trifled with. While I had had slight doubts at the start of my quarterfinals, it was completely different now. I wanted to hammer Monty to the ground more than anyone else before him. For what reason, I didn’t know. Maybe it was because of the debate he had forced on me.

I retracted my staff, swinging it for his head, but he used his position to evade by rolling forward. That didn’t deter me, as I chased him, not wanting to give him any reprieve. My staff moved fast as I attacked relentlessly, forcing him to be completely on defense.

My staff was a whirlwind as it sought points of vulnerability to attack; I wasn’t sure I was in complete control as I heard clanks, thuds and thunderclaps. I wondered, for a moment, what the record for the shortest fight was. Could I break it? Knock him unconscious before he had the time to take even a single potion?

Maybe, maybe not. Winning the fights was more luck than anything else, Xan had said something like that. I had already gotten lucky enough to put him on the back-foot from the get go, I decided to push and see just how far I could go.

I could feel my body straining, whether it was trying to go faster or it was tiring from all the exertion I forced on it, I couldn’t tell. I tried pushing past the strain, but I got a pushback, as if I was asking for something that wasn’t mine to begin with. I began to feel my body slowing down, and I got alarmed. I quickly checked my Status even though I had not gotten any notification for my Stamina being low. And it wasn’t.

As I kept up my attack, I felt like for every strike, I had to use twice as much force as the strike before it. Every step, every parry for the few attacks he managed to muster. Was I getting used to my current [Agility] level? But that would make things easier, not harder. If it was the bottleneck, then it chose the worst time to rear its ugly head. If this continued, I might not be able to finish the fight at all. Would pushing through help me make a breakthrough, or would it tire me for no good reason?

A slash for my throat mercilessly brought my attention fully back to the fight itself, forcing me stumble back as I evaded it. That was all it took for Monty to begin his counter attack. He brought his sword high, and I parried, but again I was reminded that he was still stronger than me as the blow jarred my arms, knocking me back a step or two. A low strike followed as I recovered my form, and I barely sidestepped it, avoiding a slash that could have lost me a leg at least.

I ducked low, rolling as he followed, attack after attack. I thought of using [Fast Dash] for a breather, but that would just give him the opportunity to take a potion. We clashed ruthlessly, trading dozens of blows faster than I could have imagined possible. We clashed again and again throughout the arena, sending dust all over.

Was he as eager as I was to hammer me to the ground? Maybe he hadn’t liked my responses the day before; I couldn’t blame him.

I somehow managed to strike his sword arm, knocking the sword off of him. But my joy was short-lived as I tried, and failed, to block a round kick he send at me. The impact was numbing, completely shattering the control I maintained on my Mana. I was sure an organ or two had being completely damaged.

How was he so strong? I wondered as I tried to control my tumble across the arena. I scrambled to land on my feet, a [Health] potion already on hand. I was out of breath, straining to reign my raging Mana back under my control.

Mesily! I cursed as looked forward to find him downing a [Health] potion of his own. There goes my chance to set a record.

And we rushed each other again, colliding in a flash of blows. His sword slashed at my chin. Again, really? I easily knocked it away, but he pivoted, as if he had anticipated that, plunging another kick to my gut. I should have anticipated that. I stumbled back as air forcefully rushed out of me. He followed me, his eyes fully focused on me. I swung the staff at him, trying for a hit as much as to keep him away from me. But he ducked, the staff passing over him harmlessly, as he rolled and came up behind me.

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I kicked back out of instinct, only to meet air, as I brought my staff around in a wide arc, forcing him to step back to avoid it. But I had already begun a new attack, throwing a [Fire Ball] at him as I struck with my staff for his head. He somehow managed to evade both, returning attacks of his own.

I wasn’t as strong as he was, it was true, and we both knew it, so I did my best not to meet his attacks directly. I deflected at just the right directions, slipping aside by mere centimeters, dodging and throwing him back as fluidly as I could manage with my limited training.

I still marveled at how well I had taken to fighting. If I didn’t know better, I would think I was riding on cheat codes all through the competition. And I wouldn’t complain, not when it meant more golds for me. But it would be nice to know, maybe I could use them better, hurt myself less.

I fought him directly, without backing down at all. I felt as if I was moving like I knew every attack he would make before he even made it. Who am I kidding, I’m sure I look like a flailing bird to the spectators. I pushed that thought away as I concentrated in securing myself a win, it didn’t matter what it looked like to others, as long as it got me the results I wanted, I wouldn’t complain.

I don’t know how long we rushed each other through the arena; I chased him, he chased me. But eventually, I had the upper hand again. As much as he had me in terms of [Strength], I was his superior where [Agility] was concerned. And by much. I might not have been hurting him as much as he hurt me with each blow, but I scored way more attacks than him that ultimately, it didn’t really matter.

I checked his Status to see where he was, and I was pleasantly surprised.

‘

[Human : Monty][Level: 43]

Status:

[HP: 995/7997]

[MP: 4255/6941]

[SP: 3210/7727]

’

When I found myself back in the realm of struggling through the bottleneck, I knew I had him. And I wasn’t planning to let him get away a second time. I pushed through the strain, the pain, the raging Mana in me, as I sought victory. I brushed aside all the alarms Clare was sending me as I used Skills every chance I got. When was the last time I had taken the potions? How many potions had I taken? Which ones? I found myself wondering with the alarms. Was I about to push myself past the limit? Knock myself out of the fight. I didn’t want that, but I didn’t want to give him a breather more. So I pushed, gambling that I would be able to finish him off before I ran out of juice.

I cursed myself as I was forced to take a step back from a slash that threatened to spill my guts all over the arena. I quickly threw [Fire Ball]s at him, but he cut through them, disappearing behind him as he advanced on me. And right into a [Hurtling Projectile].

It had been a last ditch effort to buy myself time to take the last of my potions. I had seen others knock them out like they were nothing more than pesky flies. Luckily for me, Monty was not one of those people. He stumbled back a step, and upon seeing that, I forgot about the potions as I poured the last of my Mana into another [Hurtling Projectile], with the intention of getting him as far away from me as possible.

In his dazed state, he didn’t have the faculties to mount any form of defense, and I watched dumbfoundedly as the piece of earth picked him up, and carried him all the way to the edges of the arena. The force of the impact was so great that I felt the whole arena shake for a second. Just your imagination Hartie, just your imagination.

I watched him fall back into the arena ground, and lay there motionless, the piece of earth falling beside him and shattering on impact.

It took a few seconds for me to remember where I was. Quickly, I retrieved my last [Health] potion and made to take it. Then, the fight was called.

I stilled with the potion on my lips, thinking that I was still imagining things. The thought was washed away as the healers rushed into the arena, and I slowly lowered the potion as I watched them attend to Monty. For a moment, I entertained the thought of what it would have turned out like had I used a pointed projectile. Would I have pinned him into the arena wall? Or would the arena protection shatter the pointy end on impact?

I waited for the exhaustion to take over me, but nothing came. I slowly cocked up the potion, stored it in my pocket, and began my walk out of the arena. I had finally earned at least a thousand golds, enough to payback Xan what I owed him. I was glad for it, but a small part of me wanted more. I wanted more.

I walked as if on auto pilot, picking my overcoat from the waiting room before proceeding to the infirmary. With how much it cost to have a healer undo all the damage my body sustained in the arena, the infirmary visit was not something I ever wanted to miss. Sometimes it felt as if my right hand was still a shattered mess, held together by flail channels of Mana that could unravel at any moment and leave it a useless slab of meat.

When I made it to the infirmary, I bee-lined for the nearest bed and flopped down on it, ignoring the blank stares the healers inside threw at me. Thinking back on the fight, the one thing I regretted most was not pushing myself past the bottleneck. Even after all the effort I had put into pushing through, I still hadn’t made it through. What would it take? And why was it so pronounced? Did [Constitution] have such a huge impact in my overall power level?

The last thought I had as the exhaustion finally overcame me was, why had that last [Hurtling Projectile] being so powerful?

[+][+][+]

[Species: Human]

[Name: Hartie]

[Sex: Male]

[Level: 39]

Status:

[HP: 621/5711]

[MP: 13/7199]

[SP: 752/9117]

Attributes:

[Agility: 45]

[Constitution: 39]

[Endurance: 47]

[Intelligence: 40]

[Strength: 34]

[Vitality: 34]

[Wisdom: 40]

General Skills [4/4]:

[Health Regeneration: 6]

[Identify: 1]

[Language Proficiency: 4]

[Mana Manipulation: 20]

Primary Skills:

[Daggers: 8]

[Enhanced Hand: 14]

[Earth Grab: 16]

[Fast Dash: 19]

[Fire Ball: 18]

[Hurtling Projectile: 20]

[Staff Strike: 17]

[Staffs: 20]

[Unarmed Combat: 16]

[Wind Gust: 12]

Other Skills:

[Acrobatics: 14]

[Archery: 3]

[Bludgeons: 3]

[Carpentry: 3]

[Chains: 3]

[Enhance Plant Growth: 3]

[Fire Bolt: 9]

[Herbalism: 6]

[Mana Attenuation: 13]

[Mana Projectile: 11]

[Mana Shield: 12]

[Mana Slash: 13]

[Shield: 2]

[Spears: 3]

[Stealth: 2]

[Staff Making: 6]

[Staff Shield: 8]

[Water Ball: 9]

[Water Punch: 12]

[Weeding: 8]

[Whirlpool: 7]