I sat down and took the time to circulate the aura in my head. With enough fighting I should be able to clear out the rest. I thought I cleared out all the blocks near my ears, but I felt two more new ones. If my condensing was just better, it would probably make things move faster.

I thought about it and tried. The pathways were already small, and the amount of aura in my head that I did unlock wasn’t large, I should be able to do it. I concentrated, best I could, and felt it creak as it condensed further.

Before I lost control of it, I shot it at the block. I felt it break, and it was rougher than the other ones. The aura didn’t feel out of control, so I shot it back the other way. It shot through one I didn’t notice and then cleared out the others by my other ear.

I wanted to stop it but as I breathed in it moved in its own way. It went back towards the center and then up towards the top of my head and to my eyes. It circled around and then back up towards the back of my head then straight down throwing itself into a block.

The block didn’t break, and the concentrated aura dismantled itself. Since when was I holding my breath?

My eyes opened. I fell back towards the wall I was sitting in front of trying to catch my breath. Even with the amount I just managed to break, I could still feel five that were solidly there. That method worked; Just wish I knew if that was the right way though.

I looked around but no one was looking at me. What I did see though was strange. I saw strings of mana in the walls and columns in the room. I saw all four of the walls now and saw that there wasn’t any door or exit along them. To my eyes the lines shone brighter than the lights. The color wasn’t one of the ones that Alrick showed me, and it had a glisten to it that I couldn’t take my eyes away from.

The glisten turned brighter when I heard a ding and I teleported.

Did I just see the magic controlling the room?

I was plopped upright in the arena and the cheering interrupted my focus and my sight shut off.

Damn, so loud. I covered my ears and looked across from me to see a mage, holding a lantern instead of a staff. I knew clearing my eyes helped my eyesight, but why did my hearing have to change. I wish I could use magic like Alcoroth and just turn it all off.

And then it did. I took my hands off and the world around me was quiet. I could see the crowd moving and cheering but I couldn’t hear a thing. Did my aura just instinctively do that?

I needed to hear the announcer and my opponent though. I felt my aura completely covering my ears and imagined some of it going away.

The sound of the world returned but it was softer than it had been. Much more manageable.

“Alright! Introductions done, let’s get this over with!”

If he insulted me, I managed to miss it this time.

I looked at my opponent and turned my sight on, I could already see the fire mana moving down his arm.

“3…”

The announcer was using a countdown this time and this person was starting a bit early.

“2…”

I planted my back foot behind me preparing to sprint forwards, my hand on my hilt.

“1…”

As soon as my foot left the ground the mana surged and was released. The spell came at me somewhat quickly, so I dodged to the right and kept going towards him. He drew mana from the air this time.

Knowing it was a weaker spell, I covered my sword with aura and slashed through where I thought it’d materialize.

I was right and was now close enough to do some damage.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a spark in the lantern and then in a burst of flames the mage wasn’t in front of me.

I swung my blade to my right and sliced through a fire ball that was shot at me. I turned and stared at my arm that was outstretched.

How did I know that?

I gave him a bit too much time and saw a large mass of mana streaming into the ground from his core.

“Homagura!” he yelled out.

A fiery mass materialized above him and spread its wings. A summon? This was my first time seeing one.

I didn’t have time to look at it in detail though, since it flew directly at me, its cry would’ve probably been ear piercing if I hadn’t already blocked out so much of the noise already around me.

Its claws came at me, and I blocked them with my sword.

I glanced over at them and could see their core for a brief moment. It was mostly empty; this summon was probably their last move. This was the first fight, why did they throw this much away so easily.

I condensed the aura on my blade and slashed through the summon. It felt different than when I’d slashed through mana before.

I guess spells were different than summons.

It cried out and I heard glass break. The lantern had shattered, and all that was left was the metal framework.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“That was better than I was expecting!”

The announcer’s voice laughed.

“To think we’d see a summon, and to see it get destroyed so easily in these rounds. It appears the crowd favorite has come back even stronger!”

The mage teleported first blood dripping from their mouth.

Crowd favorite? Was that me?

I was teleported next. I sheathed my sword and stretched my arms. That wasn’t a horrible warm up, but I felt stiff from the spars yesterday. That fight was so short, I really hope the next one is a bit more of a warmup.

If I didn’t unlock my ears right before my fight, I wouldn’t’ve been that distracted from the get-go. But I still don’t know how I dodged that one spell.

He wasn’t in view but like my aura sight I just knew where he was. Why wasn’t my fighting instinct this good earlier on? Wouldn’t I’d been able to do something in that dungeon?

I didn’t know my limbs could grow back, didn’t know I had aura. Didn’t know I liked fighting this much. That I would’ve even been able to be this strong.

I stood up and tried to distract myself by starting my daily quest, but when I started my squats the quest panel didn’t show up.

What?

I did a couple more squats but there was nothing. Usually when I started it’d stay open counting things for me, but it was nowhere to be seen. I’d have to ask Alcoroth about this. The quest requirements changed while I was with Thran and Alrick, but I wouldn’t be able to do the dummy one unless Alcoroth summoned them. Would they just change it all again after I got out of this floor?

I didn’t have to think for much longer as I was teleported back to the ring.

My opponent this time was a beast kin armed with two curved short blades. She was the ancestral kind, and I think a black cat. I figured she’d be much taller if she was a panther.

“Alright, the last quarter final match was quite a bore, but luckily your favorite is here, let’s see how he does against twin blades! I don’t see a need for a count down. Let’s get this started!”

The assassin was quick to close the distance between us by throwing a small blade at me. I deflected it and she was now close enough to fight.

I used this time to warm up by simply deflecting each of her blows. She had no mana, or at least wasn’t using it so I didn’t use my aura.

And even though we weren’t fighting with mana and aura I was still having fun. When I felt warmed up enough, I started making counter attacks.

Even if I had previously seen so many openings, each time I tried to take advantage of them she closed the gaps in her fighting.

I saw a glint of light from under one of her blades and saw some chains hanging from them. I kind of wanted to know what they were for so I used a bit more of my strength to start throwing her strikes off harder.

My skills wouldn’t beat her, but she seemed to be a thief or assassin type fighter so going against strength alone probably wasn’t her strong suit. In the end if I really wanted to be quick, I could just use my aura to destroy her blades and move on from it. But it was fun fighting her, why should I make it stop so soon.

Throwing her away from me multiple times made her change styles. She flung one of her blades at me and when I dodged it she pulled back on the thin chain.

Ohh! That’s so cool!

It came back and while I was distracted by how cool it was it sliced off my left forearm.

Damnit! Why was her style so cool I got distracted!!!

“Look at that, it’s our first lost limb! If he manages to win it will be healed before the next fight but let’s see how he fights now!”

Good, I just have to end this fight quickly, so no one spots my own healing.

I ran towards her covering my blade with aura. She stared at me frozen in place for a moment but tried blocking when I swung my sword.

It sliced through them cleanly. She glared at me.

“You were going easy on me weren’t you.”

“Fighting was fun.”

She glared and dropped the hilts to punch me. I forgot my arm was gone and went to defend myself with it, so I got hit in my jaw with her fist. I felt the healing start, I needed to end this quicker. It would be obvious something was happening when the bleeding fully stopped, and I hadn’t passed out from blood loss.

I grabbed her arm though with my other hand and threw her out of the arena.

“What a boring ending. He was really just playing with her the entire time.”

Is that what it looked like?

“Well let’s hope the next fight is better.”

I was teleported back to the waiting room. My arm quickly healed, which was a weird feeling. My own healing was a slower process than I felt. In the way that I slowly felt the rest of my arm be there. The feeling of air on my open wound would slowly stop then I’d feel some slight growing pains and as my joints regrew, I’d suddenly be able to move them again.

With this though, my arm was just suddenly back. It didn’t really feel like my own arm. Hopefully, that feeling would disappear though. Right now, I really wanted to just cut it off again, but here, the floor would just heal it not me. I’d have to wait till we were off this floor.

I tested it, and it moved like I wanted it to, but it still didn’t feel right. Everything was there, my aura paths too… it still just felt off.

I’d have to forget it quickly though, the next fight would hopefully be more challenging, and the final should be fun too.

I spent the break time running my aura through my hand trying to stop it feeling so weird. It mostly helped but I was glad I was right-handed.

The next time I was teleported I was facing another ancestral beast-kin, a wolf this time, with a large battle axe.

“We’re in the semi-finals everyone! He lost an arm in his last fight, hopefully this will be more exciting than the last one.”

Right, entertainment. I wasn’t here to just have fun and enjoy these fights, I was here to make things entertaining for the monarchs. How could I make this more entertaining? What should I do?

“Cheser! Get on out there already!”

Cheser was just trembling at this point. His eyes shifted to me but he quickly looked away.

Why was I even bothering to think? They’d decide on their own if it was entertaining enough. I should just fight.

“3…2…1!”

Cheser dropped the flag and the beast kin charged forwards. I didn’t know if the healing would help Cheser too, and he reminded me of Fluffy I couldn’t let him get hurt. I mean Fluffy could defend himself, but I’d still want to help him.

I got to the center first and picked Cheser up dodging the swing of the beast kin’s axe. I felt Cheser stiffen in my arms, and I quickly got him out of the ring.

The beast kin was on me in an instant though. As I turned, I pulled my sword up to defend myself.

My sword caught the handle and not the axe itself which just missed my shoulder and now I was between it and him, not a very good position.

I tried to push through the axe’s hilt with my aura, but I hit a solid thing I hadn’t felt before.

“Your aura won’t pass so easily through this.”

He laughed pulling away from me.

“Why’d you help that little brat? It’s just a tower floor person.”

“He’s not part of the fight.”

He scoffed.

“Let’s just end this quickly.”

I didn’t want to fight him at the edge of the platform the whole time, so I dodged and rolled through his legs after his next downward swing.

He turned and swung his axe at my side.

I encased my sword in aura to block it and saw something interesting. There was a rod in his axe’s handle that glowed with mana. The material was thin in the hilt but was the entirety of the body of the axe. He was right, it’d take me a while to get through that and using my sword probably wasn’t the quickest way to do it.

I didn’t get time to switch out though for a bit. I was too busy stopping his axe from cutting off a limb. That’d make things even more annoyingly difficult. And if I lost an arm again and was way too calm about it that’s not something that would be easily ignored.

At a certain point a very stupid insane idea came into my head though. I wouldn’t be able to get a solid strike into either the head of the axe or the handle if it kept moving like that, so what was a good way to get it to stop moving?

Obviously, to get it stuck in something.