The Dwarf stood across the platform from me, in light leather armor and two daggers, clearly specialized in Agility. He still looked apprehensive but confident with his legs planted to the ground in a ready stance.

"No need to fight to the death, right lad? If I lose, just send me back. I'd prefer the ax over whatever happened to that Witch... good riddance and all." He tried to smile, but it came across as more of a grimace.

"No, I'm sorry, that one was on me. I kind of went overboard. I needed to test out an Ability and I didn't like her very much so it was the obvious choice. I read over your file and I'm curious about the memory removal, but I neither want nor have the time to investigate every problem I come across, so if you beat me, and you murder a bunch more people once you're free, I will come find you." I turned to the rest of the prisoners, still standing off to the side, and glared.

"I understand, young Lord." He said bowing, along with all the others. "I will do my best not to kill you but I will not hold back. If it means my freedom." He said with a bow, turning one of his daggers in a reverse grip, before taking an aggressive fighting stance that resembled something similar to the third step in my own Strike form, but his hips were off center and his knees weren't bent. With his hip placement, his feet were too far apart, creating a vulnerability I could exploit.

He was Level sixty-two, which meant he would have higher stats than me and a Class skill on top of that. He also had some martial skills but was not as dedicated as I had been. It was small, but it closed the gap between us, and shouldn't result in my immediate defeat.

I kept my dagger sheathed, wanting to try something out with my new gauntlets. With the increased Mana density I received from them, I focused on my Unguis, as curved yellow talons extended from the tips of my fingers. They were about four inches long and thin with jagged edges. Testing them against my palm, they felt more tangible, like they were attached to my hands.

Extending a shell of mana around my body, I activated my Panoply, giving me an extra layer of protection.

All of the freeform Mana I used for these techniques wouldn't hold up against spells of a similar nature, as those were helped along with actual spellforms, whereas I had to manually form and maintain it, making it harder to maintain and repair while being damaged. But it would do, for now at least.

Nodding at Lenox, he gave the signal and the Dwarf and I both dashed forward, as I had expected from the weight he had placed on his front foot.

He came in with his left dagger to my thigh, making me step out of the way, pivoting to my left, directly into the path of his oncoming blade, coming for my ribs as I was mid-turn. I tightened my stomach, leaning forward, only getting a graze across my cloak, continuing my lean into a forward roll to gain some distance.

Isamaar came rushing in on my heels, forcing me to do another roll as his two daggers came crashing down, missing my calf and embedding in the solid stone. Taking the moment to stabilize myself I went on the offensive, lashing out with two quick strikes to his chest, he deflected and pulled the dagger free from the ground and thrust it forward towards my thigh managing to get past my armor and sink into my flesh doing a decent amount of damage as I felt the searing pain.

Slashing towards his right clavicle with my hand, he brought up his dagger to block me at my wrist. At the same time, he stabbed out with his free hand towards my gut.

Stopping my attack just before my forearm was impaled, I brought my knee up, pushing off his thrusting arm as I leaned back into a cartwheel creating a bit of space.

He came at me immediately as I landed on my feet. Activating the Ring of Nature's Lament, I dismissed the talons on my right hand and formed a fist as conjured vines came up from the ground causing the Dwarf to stumble. Right into a fully empowered Nieve to the temple.

Ismaar's head rocked back from the opposing force, hitting the ground hard, before quickly getting back to his feet with a slight wobble. He shook his head as I arrived in front of him, aiming another strike at his left chin. His arm came up to block, but it wasn't holding a dagger. I thought maybe he had dropped it until a dark blue glow started emanating from the center of the back of his hand. Pulling back I tucked into a roll, narrowly avoiding the massive ice spike that stuck out of the ground, twice as tall as me.

Three more came in quick succession as I dodged out of the way of the first two, but got clipped in the hip from the last one before I could fully evade it.

Turning into the spin, I activated my boosting skill.

Ability: Eternal Wrath. (Unique)

Enter a state at a 30 percent boost to all Stats. Backlash based on duration. In this state, sensory information is blocked but reaction speed is increased moderately (Beginner) Passive reaction speed increased slightly based on Dexterity. Backlash decreased moderately based on Toughness

Power flooded through my body as all my stats went up by a third, then my vision blurred and I was in the Library sitting on my bed.

"What the hell?" I asked, looking around. Mel wasn't there, which was a first.

"I didn't realize you would end up here, sorry," Mel said, popping in beside me. "Come with me."

Mel led me out into my soul space, floating above my Core like I was in orbit around a small planet.

"This is a great opportunity to test out your Transmogrify Ability, we should start with something small, and gradually get bigger."

"How?" I asked. "I have no idea how I did it in the first place."

"I saw how you did it. I am not fully sure what it was quite yet, but you followed those purple veins of Mana to your Relay and imposed your will and intent directly on your Spiritual Matrix. You wanted to look at the old man, so you made your body have the ability to do so. All you have to do is focus on what it is you want and let the skill guide you to the outcome."

"You make it sound super simple."

"That's because it is. It's a Unique ability, which means it's your own. It is tailored to you, you have the tools, you just have to use them. Just give it a shot, you have to start somewhere."

"Alright. What should I do?"

"Let's try just adding a little extra mass to your body, but not too much, just focus on an extra pound. You don't want to throw off the muscle memory your body is currently running off of."

Concentrating on my Body Relay, I focused on the mass of my body. I imagined it getting heavier.

As soon as I started thinking about what I wanted, purple motes of energy began swirling, coalescing together, forming the guiding path I had seen before escaping my nightmare.

Following it toward my Body Relay it separated into four threads piercing the Relay this time. Pushing Mana into these points, I felt my Mana drop rapidly and a few moments passed as Mel and I just looked at each other before I was thrust out of my soul space. As soon as I was inhabiting my body again, pain tore into my shoulder and leg, as I felt the cold all over my body.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I looked down to find myself frozen to a wall of ice several feet in the air, with a spear impaled in each of my legs and in my shoulder. My health bar was down to about twenty percent.

I winced at the sight, luckily it looked worse than it was, but the backlash from the Ability exhausted me. It was like I had just fought off an army for a week straight.

Looking at Isamaar, he had several gashes in his chest and chin, and was slightly disheveled, but in clearly better shape than I was regardless of the backlash.

"I acknowledge your victory." I rasped out. Bringing my fingers up to the right side of my throat, and finding blood on them when I pulled them back.

It seemed he had gotten in a good slash to my neck. I looked back at my health bar, noticing it was still dropping, the blood loss doing more damage than my regen could keep up with.

Releasing his skill and spells, the spears and wall melted, dropping me to the ground, before dispersing to rejoin the ambient Mana. I pulled out a minor Health potion and downed it before storing the empty vial back in my dimension ring.

He walked over and held out his hand, helping me to my feet. "It was a good fight, you are strong, to still be at Beginner. I know you could have killed me if you truly wanted to."

He bowed to me and left the platform, returning to Lenox.

"I'm going to take a short break, then we shall continue."

"Young Lord?" One of the human men below said. "I wish to forfeit."

[Human- Level 42 (Beginner)]

All but two prisoners nodded along with the man.

"Those who wish to forfeit please take a seat."

The ones who had nodded all sat, leaving a Dwarf woman and a burly human man.

[Dwarf- Level 49 (Beginner)]

[Human- Level 52 (Novice)]

"Lenox please, grab me the rest of the files." I indicated the two remaining standing prisoners.

After being handed the stack, I quickly skimmed through them, glancing once at each page, then entered Meditation, planning on looking at them with the Hall later.

"No need, I saw them already," Mel said, responding to my thoughts as I arrived next to her on my bed in meditation. I sagged down onto the mattress, not even bothering with the facade of putting on clothes and just willing a comfortable pair of fleece pajamas onto my body. Mel laid down before me and propped her head up on her elbow before continuing. "The Dwarf was caught stealing secrets from one of the High Nobles, after posing as a servant in their household. She killed two guards while attempting to flee and confessed to working with a group trying to overthrow the Dukedom. The human is part of the thieves guild and killed a noble's son during a robbery. The transcript of the memory crystal said the son was left behind from a masquerade ball as a punishment for impregnating one of the servants and was trying to play hero even though the boy was Coreless. The boy tried to attack him but was killed before the man ever saw his face. Being a normal human, he obviously couldn't take a punch from a Novice, and died from a light jab."

"So not horrifyingly terrible people, at least not doing bad as the Snakekin woman." I sighed.

"No, but there was one, one of the elven men, he was a captain in the army. He razed a village to the ground on the pretense of treason. They later discovered it was a girl who refused him at the market, so in revenge, he destroyed her hometown and killed her family."

"That sounds like a lot of work, I'll deal with that next week. For now... sleep."

Mel cuddled up to my side, as I pulled the thick down comforter over myself, closing my eyes, drifting off to a thankfully dreamless sleep.

I had spent the better part of my six days in the Library, going over the fight with Isamaar, primarily the scenes from when I was using Eternal Wrath. One thing I noticed about the skill was that I stayed almost completely defensive. I would counterattack, but not attack outright.

Another was that I had been played. Isamaar's sloppy form had been a faint to lure me into a sense of ease. Watching it back, every time I attacked his center of gravity would shift to its proper place, before he would purposefully unbalance himself again. It was extremely crafty, and I had fallen for it without even noticing it was a trap.

I also learned that his Class Skill was the ice wall, it had manifested in a sheet behind me and sucked my body into it, freezing itself to my armor to prevent movement.

"That would be more useful than your ring," Mel said, sitting off to the side with a book on introductory Conjuration magic. One of the many magic textbooks we had picked up and I was actively absorbing.

"Yes, but my Affinity is Karmic, not Ice, whatever that means. So maybe once I can actually craft something, I'll try it, though the sucking is going to be hard to replicate."

"Maybe Wind and Ice?"

"Could work, but that's pretty far off, I can't even do one Affinity yet let alone two. Remind me when I have the skill to pull off something like that, would you?"

"I'll put it on my calendar." She said graciously.

"Ready?" I asked.

"As I'll ever be."

I exited the Library to see a group of terrified faces, even the two who were still willing to still face me, looked unnerved. Lenox was the only one who seemed unfazed and waited patiently to be called on.

I was confused for a moment before Mel's laughter rang out in my head. "You've been staring at them for an hour... without blinking... while the cut to your throat healed over. That was probably... the most intimidating thing they have ever seen, especially after the Snakekin."

She could barely get the words out as she tried speaking through the tears. I groaned as I put my head in my palm. Let's just move past this, it's fine. It's fine.

Looking back at the crowd I found who I was looking for quickly.

[Elf- Level 45 (Beginner)]

Activating Divine Retribution, I felt the mark take hold in the man, though he seemed none the wiser.

Out loud I said. "I'll take them both, Lenox, please."

The butler obeyed as he escorted the Dwarf and the human to the platform.

They both bowed, the human speaking first. "I wish to greet the young Lord, my name is Frascani, but most call me Fras. I do not wish to die today my lord, I simply desire the exercise before my head is taken. Should I prevail, and earn my freedom, then that will just be a happy accident."

"My name is Renora Lynel, leader of the People's True Republic sect in this region, I too do not wish for my own death today young Lord. Though, I also do not wish to return to the tyrant's executioner. I will fight for my life here and now, to my last breath, for my brothers and sisters of this country. For the oppressed. For the weak. For those who hope."

She is very good at speeches. I thought

"Maybe that just comes with being the leader of a revolutionary group," Mel added helpfully.

Based on their posture, only the man seemed to have any real training, even though Renora looked comfortable with her acidic yellow-green, glowing battleax. I would have called her form lacking, at best. Clearly, the human spent more time stealing than training, and the Dwarf was more of a spy based on her file.

The match started with a call from Lenox. The man came at me fast with a two-handed, flaming broadsword, thrusting it towards my upper chest, while she circled around my flank. Parrying his blow with a step toward his leading foot, ducking my body underneath the path of his blade. I sent a quick jab to his exposed right side.

Bringing his momentum around with his thrust, he leaned forward, but not far enough and caught the knuckles of my gauntlet on his right shoulder blade, taking the hit and using it to lead into a front roll, but as he was mid-roll, a plume of bright orange flames, exploded from his hands, coming straight towards me, forcing me out of my preferred position in the center.

Renora came at me from behind with her ax in hand and a small buckler attached to her left forearm. Striking out, she went for my knee, the acid splattering onto my cloak, making it steam. She wasn't fast enough to halt her momentum, as I brought my heel around from behind me and caught her in the temple with my heel.

With the first few clashes, it became obvious that Fras had a slightly lower Strength and Toughness than I did, even if his speed could keep up. Whereas Renora outclassed me in Strength but not much else.

Fras came in with another overhead swing, and I dodged away, feeling the heat from his blade as it passed me by inches. Pivoting from my fainted retreat, I swept his legs as he was about to give chase, the sudden shift from fleeing to attacking, caught him off guard, knocking him to the ground. Taking a few steps back, I allowed him to stand and looked over to find Renora holding the side of her head, wobbling a bit.

"We should start thinking about adding some kind of boots to the armory of 'Karmic weapons'. Maybe a pointed boot for stabbing, or something similar to your Nieve where you kick really hard." Mel suggested.

I like that, I've still been wanting to test out my grieves and the Kinetic damage they do. Maybe, I'll combine them, and see how it turns out, but not here, That definitely gives me the vibe of a lethal attack.

"Just don't overdo it with Momentum damage, With your acceleration boosting effect it might get messy, you don't want to be struggling to get your foot out of one of their chest cavities."

I shivered at the thought. Gross

Following up on the Dwarf, who had finally stabilized herself, I dashed forward at maximum acceleration. Then just before I arrived next to her, I pushed Mana into my right leg, focusing both my Mana and the Kinetic energy I had built up, and channeled them into the same point on my leg, before trying to get a kick in at her shin.

She brought her buckler down, into the path of my kick, but I snapped my knee out, changing the trajectory to her ankle. I felt her bones give with a wet crunching sound.

Renora didn't make any noise or react at all, she simply looked down at her leg and then back up at me with rage in her eyes tinted with flecks of fear.