Level up!

The words appeared in the corner of my vision in large fancy letters. Show me that. A screen popped up, displaying each of my skills in a new way. Each of the magic skills were on a branch of a tree pointing upward. And my other six skills were on a simple hexagon. Above all of these were the words Prowesses to unlock: 1.

What prowesses are there? A huge list of information appeared in front of me. Show me the Ranged prowesses. The other skills disappeared and the Ranged portion of the hexagon took up my entire view.

There was a list of different ways I could improve my ability with ranged weapons written out in black text. One in particular caught my attention: Critical Eye: You will be drawn to strike the weakest point of your enemies. (increased chance to deal critical damage).

Select that one. The prowess I selected glowed a bright gold and cooled to a deep silver color. I could feel a slight change in my thought process looking at the room around me. It felt like the mindlink was guiding me to every person’s weaknesses very subtly. I need to try this out in a real fight.

I was itching for another round in the arena. My mind was ready, but my body was still a mess from the last one. I was considering heading out to collect my winnings and see if it was enough for a somator. The red bar at the top of my vision confirmed that I was not doing well.

Ch 5 Health [https://i.imgur.com/j64c3rt.png]

But, on the other side of the room, I saw the previous fighter, the large woman with her polearm, step out from somewhere. My curiosity got the better of me, so I went over to check it out before I left.

I saw a tiny entranceway and went through. There’s an entire facility over here! The Arena’s training facility had healing pods, training dummies, racks of weapons, an enchanting bench, and what I can only describe as a relaxation lounge with large couches in a circle. This area was easily three times the size of the little waiting room I just walked out of. Fighters littered this room, mostly sparring and training.

I quickly rushed over to the healing pod. It was a very nice one with plush cushions and a darkened crystal door to seal yourself in.

I laid down in the reclined seat and closed the door. The enchant activated as soon as the door closed. I felt a vibration throughout my body as the magic found and fixed everything wrong.

The throbbing in my side eased and stopped. The red bar in my vision refilled entirely. I felt the best I had since I arrived in the city.

The pod opened and I stepped out, fully refreshed and ready to fight. One more thing before I go back to Dragana. I needed to see the racks of weapons in there. The area holding the weapons indented into the wall like a mini-hallway. I recognized most of the weapons. Daggers, swords of all kinds, halberds, axes, hammers, bows, and a few styles of slings coming from all over the world.

The quality of the weapons was less impressive, though. They were suitable, but not something that would excite a smith of even average skill.

I grabbed one of the slings and loaded a small projectile onto it. The projectile was simple, basically a polished pebble. Very different from the specialized projectiles you could buy in a market. I aimed the sling at one of the practice dummies and pulsed my magic through it. The enchantment glowed and the pebble launched pitifully across the room.

It struck my target squarely, but that would not be a remotely lethal wound. I doubted it would be strong enough to be felt under a thick cloak. I guess these are just practice weapons. My best guess was they were meant to give us some variety to experience, but not give us an edge in the arena if we decided to take one.

It looked like each weapon had a brand emblazoned on it as well, so they would probably auto-summon back to their racks every day or hour or whenever by an enchantment.

Before leaving, I grabbed a quiver by the rack of bows and examined the arrows. They looked standard, sharp enough to hurt. I took several of them for my next match; it would be nice to not have to buy my own if I was going to be fighting all the time.

Satisfied that I was well-equipped and fully healed, I walked over to Dragana.

“Ready for another match?” she asked, looking me over.

“I’m ready to take down the next challenge,” I smirked.

“There’s only one other challenger at your rank right now, so you’ll be fighting the somator.”

I looked at the towering woman watching the current match on the screen. I actually don’t know what her name is.

“Why don’t you call us by our names?” I asked Dragana.

“You’ll need to win a lot more matches for me to care what you're called,” she said bluntly.

True, one match probably doesn’t have much of an impact. The reader chimed, showing the previous match was over and the only match lined up right now was ready: mine.

The somator appeared next to me almost soundlessly. Somatic sorcerors really defied normal assumptions: they were strong without lacking coordination, fast without being loud, and fearless without being reckless.

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She wore almost full armor, minus a helmet or gloves. It was mostly dark unpolished metal, except for parts of her arm and leg where it was leather, probably for easier movement.

The polearm in her hand was much more intimidating up close. It looked small in her hands, but it was about as tall as I was and had a fierce hooked blade. She only really swung the blade at her opponent once in the match I watched, and the entire fight seemed untiring for her. I would need to be clever for this match..

Dragana placed the arm braces on us and we departed down our tunnels. My mind was racing. What did I learn about her from her fight? She was strong, faster than she should be with her size, merciful in the end? The grumpy guy was right,I wasn’t paying enough attention after all.

I reached the red flames again. I did well with my vantage point last time. I should get high and make a plan from there.

The announcer’s voice boomed out, “for our next match, welcome back our two newest victors! We will see now who will make the cut and who will be cut down.”

The gate rose up and I wasted no time, I ducked under it before it opened fully and sprinted to the small wall to scale. I climbed up and reached the top of the pillar I had perched on previously.

I crouched low and scanned the arena on her side. The gate was open fully now, but she wasn’t there. I pulled my bow out quickly and nocked an arrow. She had to be in here somewhere, but the walls and columns hid her well.

My eyes darted around, but I was feeling more like prey at this point. I need to move. I hopped over to another pillar and across a long wall. My head swiveled so much looking for her that I was feeling dizzy.

From where I was, I could see almost everywhere to the left side of the arena, so she had to be on the other side. I pulled back my arrow and carefully scanned the nearby walls.

Suddenly, I heard thudding footsteps on the wall behind me. I turned just in time to see her vaulting off the side of the wall and swinging her polearm at me. I tried to react, but it was too late. Her blade sliced cleanly through the flesh of my leg. I buckled, dropping my arrow and nearly falling off the wall.

She landed back on the ground and looked me directly in the eyes. I had fought many battles in my short years, but I had never faced someone with such animalistic power. She was like a tiger getting ready to pounce.

I nocked a new arrow as fast as I could, but she had already sprung onto a chunk of broken column and jumped up to take another swipe. I was ready this time; I leaped backwards off the wall and aimed. I felt the mindlink pull my vision to her neck, fully exposed above her armor. I let the arrow fly.

She tried to correct her jump to get completely out of the way, but only managed to shift slightly. The arrow sunk into her bicep where the thin leather armor started. I landed awkwardly on the other side of the wall I had been on. I pressed my right hand onto the slash in my leg and willed it to heal.

I wasn’t a talented healor, but I could do enough to stop the bleeding. I didn’t want to push it anyway, or my body might start dissolving my muscle to get enough energy for the wound.

I could see her through a few small holes in the wall. She looked at her injured arm and grasped the arrow roughly. With a short yell, she pulled the arrow out of her arm, splattering blood onto the ground. She dropped the arrow and placed her hand on the now-open wound. A mere second later, the wound was sealed into a light scar.

She took the polearm in both hands and sprinted out of my view. I was surrounded by walls right now, in the middle of the maze of debris. I needed to get into a better position. Her quickest route to me from what I saw would be from my right side, so I sprinted left.

I had to wind my way through the maze of half-walls, but I reached an opening. I was almost exactly halfway between her starting gate and my own, on the right side from the perspective of where I started.

I probably can’t fight her head-on with just a short sword and dagger. Being up high only made me more visible. My only choice seemed to be to get a lot of distance and hope I could cover her in enough arrows that she either dropped from blood loss or from exhaustion after using too much energy to heal the wounds.

From where I was, the longest patch of open ground looked to be between the walls and her starting gate. I sprinted to the gate and turned with my bow already drawn. She had no choice now but to come out where I could see her.

The seconds trudged by like hours. My body stayed perfectly still, but my eyes moved nonstop. The sooner I saw her, the more shots I was going to be able to shoot at her.

I don’t know if my eyes were playing tricks on me, but I thought I could see a shadow or an outline moving within the maze. Popping up on the left, swimming through the middle, on the other side of a small crack in the wall on the right. The shadow covered ground impossibly quickly.

She emerged abruptly from behind the pillar on the nearest edge of the debris at a full sprint, polearm held tight. A plume of dust followed behind her. I immediately loosed the first arrow. It bounced off her breast plate, but she winced at the impact.

With no time to waste, I reloaded and shot as fast as I could. She tried to weave back and forth, but her pattern was too consistent, too easy to predict. Every arrow roughly found its mark: one to her upper leg above the metal plating, two ricocheted off her abdomen, another one in her left arm. Each clearly hurt, but her speed was unchanged.

I had one last shot before she would be on me. I wanted to aim straight for her eye, but that might be instantly fatal and I could be banned. I needed to aim somewhere critical, but the only unarmored options were her head and the very top part of her chest where a necklace hung.

I didn’t have time to decide, I let instinct take over and released the final arrow. It hit her at the base of the side of her neck, almost staying put, but tearing through her flesh and flying to the ground.

It wasn’t enough. She had reached me and she was enraged. I tried to dodge her first swing, but I had backed myself into a corner when taking that last shot. She sliced my arm and knocked me to the side with one swing. The second came swiftly down across my leg. I fell face-first onto the ground. The dust filled my lungs and mouth.

The red bar in the corner of my vision pulsed with my heartbeat. It was low. I might still have some hope if I can just maneuver around her. I turned toward her and drew my dagger.

She kicked me with her entire body weight. I flew back like I was bucked from a wild gryphon. It knocked the wind from me, but I had a little bit of distance now.

This might be my only chance. I flipped my dagger in my hand and threw it deftly at her. She almost too easily swiped her weapon and deflected the dagger away from her.

I stood frozen. I was out of good options. She was already in front of me, towering over me higher than ever before. She kicked me again, knocking me to the ground. The red bar was flashing frantically.

She lifted her polearm up and lunged the blade straight at my chest. I threw my arms uselessly at it, hoping to stop it or deflect it or anything. It easily evaded my arms and penetrated through my leather armor into the lower right part of my ribcage.

The taste of dust was replaced with the iron bitterness of blood. The feeling of a heavy blanket tossed over me began to suffocate my mind. I tried to fight it, but I knew it was lost. My vision darkened.