The Warmaster, still on the ground, raised one of his swords toward Jake as it began to shine with mana. Jake temporarily abandoned his attack and dodged to the side as the entire blade was shot out like an arrow, as the man kept holding onto the hilt.

Jake thought he would have a chance to attack, but the Warmaster twisted his wrist as Jake’s danger sense warned him and made him duck right as a whip-like blade flew in from behind. The blade he had shot out had segmented itself into several sharp metal pieces with strings holding them together, and with a mere movement of his wrists, he had made it twist and whip around.

After dodging a few more slashes, the Warmaster pressed a button on the hilt of his sword, and the entire blade was dragged back and reformed the whole sword. Jake, who had been forced to make some distance, stared for a while as he spoke.

”Not gonna lie… I always thought those segmented snake swords or whatever they are called were hugely impractical and not useful weapons,” Jake said as the Warmaster had managed to fully stand up.

”Oh, but they are a questionable weapon, and as a general rule, I would not recommend them,” the Warmaster smiled. ”At least in any prolonged combat. However, they do tend to be useful for surprise attacks. The thing is that the skill required to control one is so high that it is rarely worth the practice. Of course, there are masters out there who still made it their primary weapon, none of which are to be underestimated.”

”And yet, despite it apparently being so hard, you, a blacksmith, have chosen to learn the weapon?” Jake questioned.

”The best smith is one who truly knows the weapons he makes,” the Warmaster nodded. ”In my eyes, to be a Weapon’s Master Blacksmith is to be a Warmaster.”

Jake smiled. It was a good philosophy in his eyes and one he knew many similar to the Warmaster shared. However, it often came about the other way around. That an archer would become a fletcher to make their own bows, a mage learning to craft magic tools to assist them in combat… or a hunter would become an alchemist to poison his arrows and help him recover during fights. Okay, Jake was a horrible example as his becoming an alchemist wasn’t planned but had happened entirely by happenstance, and he just made the best out of what he got.

”Then, by all means, show me the weapons you have mastered,” Jake said semi-jokingly as he pulled out his bow again.

The Warmaster didn’t hesitate as he charged forward once more, trying to close the distance and not fight Jake in a ranged battle. His speed was still impressive when he charged, but Jake had found quite a weakness as he did a wide dodge to the side as the man charged past him.

He took a while to stop as he skit across the sand, failing to block an arrow Jake had shot right as he dodged. Trying his charge again, the result for the Warmaster turned out identical as Jake once more made distance, taking advantage of how the charge of the Warmaster worked.

Jake had identified it as coming from his boots and had at first believed it just made him faster. This turned out to not be entirely accurate. Instead, it was a charge-like skill that propelled him straight forward at an impressive speed, which naturally resulted in significantly reduced maneuverability, making it much easier to dodge than Jake had first assumed.

After Jake had dodged two times in a row, the Warmaster also seemed to realize the jig was up as he switched approach. Rather than use the enchantment, he ran normally and chased the faster Jake around the arena for a few moments, Jake landing several shots on the man, though he sadly was still unable to explode the arrows due to the peculiar armor. The Warmaster continued until Jake suddenly stopped running as he noticed what the man was doing.

As he ran, the Warmaster slowly set up a net with a thin wire barely visible even with Jake’s high Perception. He strung it up between the pillars, limiting the space Jake could dodge inside unless he found time to destroy the wire.

Something Jake chose to promptly attempt as he purposefully missed an arrow right as he stopped, aimed toward one of the wires. Yet right as he did, the Warmaster seemed to slightly relax how taut it was, making it slack just enough for the arrow to miss.

He didn’t stop his charge either as he closed in on Jake, still wielding his two swords. Getting close enough, he swung with both as they split into segments and fell like whips. Jake dodged as best he could, but the movements of the odd snake swords were just too unpredictable, resulting in a few cuts landing here and there.

Jake instantly put away his bow once more and charged toward the Warmaster, who was also still going toward Jake. He had done so with the expectations of taking advantage of the snake swords effectively being whips, but the Warmaster had been prepared as he simply let go of both weapons as two machetes appeared in his hands.

Fucking hell, Jake thought as he dodged a machete swing. He was not too deterred, though, as he pushed forward, unleashing a barrage upon the Warmaster. The man tried to fight back, but with time, one thing had been obvious… Jake out-specced the Warmaster in Agility by quite a bit, while they were roughly equal in Strength.

Forced to switch one of his weapons to a shield, the Warmaster could defend again, but it wasn’t enough for him to get the upper hand. He also had to drop the second machete, as while it was fast, it did take longer to dismiss it and summon a shield than just abandon the weapon outright.

At least Jake thought that was why he dropped it as he kept fighting the Warmaster until suddenly he saw the dropped machete lift off the ground behind him through his sphere. Jake kept acting as if he didn’t know as the Warmaster positioned his remaining machete between Jake and the dropped one as they both seemed to attract one another.

Magnetism, Jake quickly concluded.

Jake made a feint where he acted like he would commit to a big attack. Right then, the second machete flew for him from behind, but Jake abandoned his attack mid-way through and dodged to the side. The Warmaster let out a soft chuckle as he threw the machete he wielded after Jake and used his boots to charge backward.

This one, Jake had also been ready for as he also kept retreating as both machetes clashed mid-air and exploded, sending out fragments of metal flying everywhere. Jake summoned a barrier of stable arcane mana to block all the fragments as the Warmaster naturally just used his shield.

”Should have guessed that one wouldn’t work,” the Warmaster muttered as he once more charged Jake, who was still maintaining his stable arcane barrier.

For what felt like the umpteen time, he had replaced his weapons as he now had two hatchets in his hands… or, well, he had them for a few moments as both began to burn right as he threw them, forcing Jake to turn his body and place the barrier in front of the hatchets as both exploded, sending him skirting back.

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The blast had broken his barrier and left him with a few burns, but those two hatchets had not been as potent as the earlier weapons… which indicated he was either trying to bait Jake or was genuinely running out of high-rarity weapons.

Even so, the man refused to back down as he closed the distance with two longswords now in hand. Jake took a moment to fully stabilize as he dodged the longsword swings and backed away a few steps. Right as he did, one longsword that he thought was stabbing toward him was dropped as, mid-thrust, It was replaced with a spear.

Jake barely blocked with his bracers as he was still left with a nasty cut and skirted back as he quickly swayed to the side a moment too late. The spear in the Warmaster’s hand had instantly been dropped and replaced with something else the moment he had finished his thrust. What had appeared instead was a cursed object that Jake felt truly disappointed in seeing in the hands of someone who dared call himself a master of weapons.

It was a pathetic crossbow.

Had this pathetic crossbow hit him in the shoulder, meaning it had been a good move from the Warmaster to use it, the weapon doing the exact job it was made to? Yeah, sure, but it was the principle of even using one to begin with Jake was against. All for purely logical reasons, of course.

He just really didn’t like crossbows.

With a groan, Jake pulled out the bolt as the Warmaster didn’t miss a beat and went in again, the dropped longsword replaced with a shortsword. He engaged with the expectation that Jake was weakened from the bolt… unaware of the mistake he had just made.

Jake didn’t even consider being defensive, as he was done playing around after the insult of being hit by a crossbow bolt. He dodged the first swing as he stabbed forward, and after finding himself parried once, he skirted to the side as he made it to the right side of the Warmaster.

The man turned to face him as Jake attacked again with ferocious intent. He didn’t hold anything back as both katars began glowing with arcane light, and both started to give off small shockwaves of destructive arcane energy with each blow. These shockwaves didn’t really do any damage, but they did mean that the usual impact the Warmaster expected from every clash had changed, throwing off his tempo.

It was only a matter of time before Jake managed to land a nasty stab on the Warmaster’s arm. Before he could get it free from the katar, Jake twisted the weapon and forcefully moved his arm away as he blocked the man’s other weapon and kicked him on the side of his leg, making him fall slightly off balance.

He stumbled for a few steps as Jake kept attacking. Jake made a move to stab the Warmaster in the chest, but his foot suddenly slipped when he stepped on the dropped longsword from earlier. Opening his eyes wide, Jake was thrown entirely off balance as the Warmaster took the presented opportunity and lifted his uninjured arm high as he swung down with his full might.

Jake smiled to himself as he allowed himself to side fully along the length of the blade as he went nearly entirely prone. The weapon descending toward him didn’t arrive. Instead, a spray of blood hit Jake from above.

Not missing the chance he had created for himself, Jake lunged forward and stabbed into the knee of the Warmaster right as the man summoned a mace and slammed it into the ground, forcing Jake back.

When the dust settled, one could see a faint red line floating in the air and the Warmaster down on one knee as he cradled his arm that looked halfway cut through. Jake didn’t want to assume anything and pulled out his bow along with a massive pre-prepared quasi-Protean Arrow and-

”I surrender!” the Warmaster yelled in a pained voice as he looked at Jake. ”To use my own wire against me like that… heh, I guess I really am getting too old for this damn arena fighting business. I should just stick to working as the Battlemaster.”

Jake smiled as he went over and offered the Warmaster – or Battlemaster – a hand. ”Eh, I wouldn’t say that. You are definitely better than a few of the other Champions.”

”A minor consolation to someone who met his downfall to his own weapon… what an ironic end,” the Battlemaster sighed. Right then, the announcer did his announcer things.

”We have a winner! No… we have a Grand Champion! The Gauntlet of the Grand Champion has been completed once more as seven Champions have fallen before the Doombringer as he now stands at the apex of the arena of Mortals, a true master! Glory and honor await… unless he still finds himself unsated. Unless he wants to face one more person… one more challenge. Will he face the current Grand Champion? Will he dare face… the Warrior?”

For the first time in a while, Jake actually listened intently to this speech as he was taken aback by the title of the Grand Champion.

”Warrior?” Jake questioned the Battlemaster, who he had helped stand as the medics began running in. ”Seems like a pretty damn basic title for a Grand Champion.”

”Yet one that symbolizes him perfectly,” the Battlemaster said while the medics checked he wasn’t going to die before simply standing back, waiting for Jake to be done talking.

”I guess I’ll see for myself,” Jake smiled. ”You’re gonna be fine, right? Can you stand.”

The Battlemaster scoffed and pushed Jake’s hand off as he stood pretty stably. ”I didn’t surrender because I was on my deathbed but due to that large arrow of yours. I knew I didn’t have the tools to handle that one, which is also why I kept up the offensive to never give you a chance to use it, so when you got your chance, I knew the fight was over.”

”That’s pretty fair,” Jake said. ”I guess I’ll see you at the usual spot?”

The man just nodded as Jake said his goodbyes and made his way out of the arena as a system message appeared before him.

Congratulations! You are now a Grand Champion of the Colosseum of Mortals, standing at the very pinnacle!

All objectives but one have now been completed within the Colosseum of Mortals. There is only one thing to do:

To become the sole Grand Champion.

As the Grand Champion, you are allowed to participate in weekly Show Matches, each rewarding 25,000 Colosseum Points. These Show Matches will be of ever-increasing difficulty, with the Colosseum Rewards remaining stable.

You are no longer allowed to buy equipment using your Colosseum Points.

At any point, you can choose to leave the Colosseum of Mortals. Any excess lives will be converted into 100,000 Colosseum Points for the final point tally.

As a reward for becoming the Grand Champion, you are given the chance to face the Grand Champion, who is simply known as the Warrior.

Jake read the message as he walked out of the arena and hadn’t really expected anything new, which is why he was surprised when he saw that Show Matches were back and even more surprised when he was told that buying new stuff using his Colosseum Points was also off limits now.

Luckily for him… he didn’t plan on doing either. He didn’t want to spend more points than he already had on equipment. He already gained all the stats he could, and his weapons were pretty good. Plus, if he did go all the way, it would feel wrong if he did so in large part due to just having good equipment.

Show Matches were also not appealing. 25,000 points just wasn’t enough, and he would rather focus on beating the Grand Champion. Even if he chose to stay and do Show Matches for another full year – assuming he could even do that with an ever-increasing difficulty - it would only amount to around 1,300,000 points, and while that was a lot… Jake also had a lot of points already.

Bonus objective gained: Defeat the only other Grand Champion and fully conquer the Colosseum of Mortals.

Current rank: Grand Champion.

Colosseum Points: 6,382,110

Lives remaining: 9

Jake had more than six million points now, the Champion rank alone more than doubling his total points. There had been no final big reward from reaching the Grand Champion rank, and he didn’t know if this was because he had lost one life or not… but based on the prior message of losing lives no longer being penalized, he doubted it.

He also had 9 more lives available. 9 chances to win the final fight against the Grand Champion. But… in his gut, he had doubt if it was enough if he was right about who he would face in the final fight.

Looking at the name of the Grand Champion, there was only really one name that sprung to mind. One man who Jake believed was indeed fully described with just the title of Warrior. The only being Jake had ever seen kicking the living shit out of the Malefic Viper and the strongest human – if not being - alive in the multiverse:

Valdemar.