Prometheus had moved to the second round, where eleven contestants were once again fighting in duels. He could see Sayuri sleeping with her arm resting on her sword in between the crowd. Zilch was probably somewhere underground, circling around, waiting for his time to shine. He had told them about his plan, so they were waiting for their moment.
The second battle he had to fight was against an old man with loose robes, tier six. He had a bald head, and a long beard, almost reaching to his chest. Prometheus kept the same form, naturally, and walked to the area. They were the only two contestants in the arena, as the previous matches were the preliminaries, to weed out the weaklings who wouldn’t bring any entertainment to the crowd.
Theo stretched his arms, moving to do a couple of push-ups just for the show of it. The old man had his hands behind his back, a smile adorning his wrinkled face. His old eyes were tracking every movement Theo made, chilling the shapeshifter’s spine.
“What’s the old fart looking at?” Saul said.
“Doesn’t matter, I need to beat him quickly so we don’t waste any unnecessary time here.”
The announcer turned on his magic microphone, Theo assumed, and spoke, “The preliminaries have ended, and now the real tournament can begin! Will number eleven use any other hidden tricks, apart from his pocket dimension? What about contestant five, will he ruthlessly paralyze his opponent just like his previous match? We’ll witness the battle of two bloodthirsty warriors in just a moment, after a quick word from our sponsor!”
Theo tilted his head at the announcement.
“Have you ever felt hungry enough to eat a whole monster in one sitting? How lucky for you, Luki’s Grilled Meats has the solution for you! For just a handful of moons, you can get yourself a delicious-“ Prometheus stopped listening to the advertisement, confused at how such a backward society even had the concept of advertisement.
When the announcement ended, the usual announcer returned, engaging with the crowd, “We’re ready to start! Contestants, are both of you ready?”
Prometheus nodded. The old man raised a single thumbs up.
“For the crowd, you’ll see a table with many images on it, please interact with it to affect the arena! For our VIP spectators, you’ll have access to exclusive effects! Now, three, two, one, fight!”
Prometheus dashed forward, shifting his weapon into a large, two-handed mace. He wanted to see how effective such a weapon would be. His strike was aimed at the old man’s arm, who raised it in a parrying motion while using a more advanced version of [Enhancement]. His opponent’s smile turned into dust the instant Theo’s two-ton weapon impacted against the thin forearm, shattering it into fragments. The old man was flung dozens of meters into the air, slamming into the internal wall. The closest spectators leaned over to look closer, shouting at the man to get up and fight.
Prometheus could see the crowd interacting with tablets made of Influence, which caused pillars and other structures made of metal to rise from the ground, creating a wider variety of obstacles in the otherwise flat arena. Theo’s eyes were locked on the old man’s immobile form, disappointment rising in his mind.
Is that all? The tier five from earlier gave me a better fight!
A whisper escaped his opponent’s mouth, which Theo heard with his enhanced hearing, “I have been humiliated. I’ll use every last scrap of life force in me to settle the balance,”
“What’s he talking so much for? His old ass is losing,” Saul added.
Prometheus didn’t lower his guard, ready to face any unexpected event like the teddy bear. Influence gathered around the man’s body in large quantities, but the worrying part was how it didn’t stop. The amount wasn’t something a tier six would normally have. That’s more like a tier-nine. The old man’s muscles swelled like balloons, and he calmly got up, stroking his beard while flexing his new bodybuilder-like physique.
“You got me to use my ability, young man. Very well done. Unfortunately, today you’ve decided to make a grave mistake, and I’ll make sure it is the last one you’ll ever make.”
Prometheus decided to play it safe and activated his ability as well, the Cards one. Before the old man could interject, Theo threw a card in the air. It had the drawing of a person raising their hands while a massive aura surrounded their body. Theo had gotten a lucky draw, as his Influence swelled up to many times its normal amount.
Wow, this ability feels like cheating!
“Be careful about jinxing it, you’ll get karma’s effects real quick,”
“Whatever. Let me have some fun,”
Prometheus used a constant [Enhancement] all over his body to maximize power, and power did get maximized. Prometheus moved so fast he almost felt like he had teleported in front of the old man’s face, his eyes widening slowly as the mace flew toward his face. His opponent couldn’t react, and he was launched once again to the sides of the arena, only this time, he didn’t get up.
“Ladies and gentlemen, seems like contestant eleven has a card ability that allowed him to decimate his opponent! A quick round of applause for the show of martial prowess,”
The crowd began cheering and clapping, which Theo found highly enjoyable, enough to bow toward the spectators multiple times. The next fights happened uneventfully until the next round came. Apparently, these were the semi-finals, before the finals, which was a three-way fight. This time Theo’s opponent was… a man made of rock. The individual in question looked as if he was a statue made of quartz, but given how he was moving around, he was anything but.
Prometheus decided to initiate a little chat, “Hey, what’s with your skin?”
The rock-man raised his chin, looking away. What’s he looking at? Is there something cool in the sky? Prometheus tried to look but the sky was completely empty, except for the black hole. The announcer initiated the fight once again, raising as much excitement as possible. Theo’s opponent raised his palm toward him and whispered, “[Pulverize]”, upon which a beam of Influence shot toward Prometheus, who couldn’t dodge it. It reacted weirdly with his silicon carbide, causing some of it to become dust and fall off.
Weird.
It wasn’t anything serious, so he knew this was another easy battle. For that reason, he decided to entertain the crowd a little. “With my next strike, I will eradicate you from the face of this planet!” Theo shouted. His mechanical voice weirded out most spectators, but some of them seemed happy enough to see blood spill. His opponent used the same attack, which once again impacted Theo’s armor. Right when he was about to dash forward, he noticed how a much larger chunk of his armor had been reduced to nothingness. A simple thought, and it was back whole.
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His ability gets stronger with every hit.
When he was just two meters away from the rock-man, his opponent yawned and said, “[Pulverize]”, after which the same beam of Influence shot out. Prometheus had been expecting it, so he shifted a hole in his armor to allow the beam to harmlessly pass through. The bored man stopped mid-yawn, too late to evade the punch aiming for his pointy chin. He flew many meters into the air, crashing on the ground. Prometheus dashed where he was and raised his mace, ready to deliver a finishing blow. A barrier of Influence formed around the prone man, while the announcer exclaimed, “Contestant two is knocked out! Eleven, by the rules you aren’t allowed to kill other contestants!”
Prometheus walked back, returning to the changing room, awaiting the next battle. Shit. There’s a barrier that prevents me from dealing a finishing blow. I need to find another way to kill the space-user then.
The next round was scheduled for an hour from now, which was the three-way final challenge with the two other winners. Prometheus sat back down on the bench, looking at the various pieces of furniture around the room. Everything was made of metal, from the wardrobes to the sinks, which had flowing water, astoundingly so.
Maybe society here is more advanced than I thought?
Prometheus was then called into the arena, along with two other contestants. Something different was present in the arena, though. A two-meter-and-a-half-tall man was sitting down on an ornate throne on one side of the arena, where a raised platform allowed him to look down upon anyone in his vicinity. He was almost naked, with a tiger cloth hiding his privates and a heavy helmet covering his face. From the Administrator’s description, Theo knew that was the space-user.
Perfect. Just need to win against these idiots here, kill him, and get away. There’s a chance the city is being patrolled right now to find whoever killed that Guard, so we need to be quick.
Prometheus decided to end the battle as soon as possible, so he created exhausts all over the back of his arms and legs, ready to flex his elemental skill. Willing some cells to become fire, he expelled them out of the exhausts, and he managed to strike the two other warriors before they could even react, two supersonic booms exploding from behind him as he moved. A long pause ensued before the announcer spoke, “Um, it seems like number eleven has won once again…” The crowd was silent. Chances were that they hadn’t seen anything, just from how fast Theo had been.
“Contestant eleven, seems like you have won the Iron Tournament…rules dictate I ask you if you would like to try challenging the Iron Champion for a chance at winning a skill stone.”
Prometheus nodded, and he could hear the announcer sigh.
“Very well. Contestant Eleven, step forward. Iron Champion, your time has come to be challenged by this unnamed warrior!”
The giant of a man stood up, his size even more impressive now. In contrast, Theo’s body almost a meter shorter looked ridiculous. The shapeshifter activated his ability, a mark of Influence appearing above the man’s head. As soon as he understood the space-ability completely, he would be able to harvest it. His opponent stepped forward, his hands moving to his sides, in a low combat stance.
“He’s probably tier seven, or even eight. Think you can manage that?”
“Good question. I could use the spiral ability, the cards one is out for today, and the automatic weapons one is also useless until I master the red cube. I’ll stay on the defensive until I understand his ability, then I’ll use everything I have.”
“Sounds good to me,” Saul said.
Prometheus shifted the mace into a small shield that he put on his forearm, and a spear in his other hand. Focusing entirely on the massive man, he lowered his center of mass and waited. I won’t make the first move. His opponent slowly walked toward Prometheus, his fists relaxing on his side. It looked like the man was taking a stroll through his favorite park, with how he was looking around and scratching his back.
A moment later, he was gone. Completely disappeared. Prometheus wouldn’t let superspeed trick him twice, so he turned around and stabbed forward, meeting only air. His head turned around at every angle, looking for the opponent, who was nowhere to be seen. The crowd began shouting and cheering ever louder, rooting for the Iron Champion by shouting his name over and over.
Shit, where is he?
A strike impacted Theo’s side, penetrating around five centimeters, which was incredibly impressive given how hard his armor was. And the fact that Theo hadn’t seen anything. Another hit on the back of his head caused him to stumble, but he instinctively turned around and stabbed from where the strike had come from. Nothing once again. His opponent wasn’t anywhere near him. Prometheus began tapping his foot on the ground, closing his fist tighter around his weapons.
I hate this ability already. I can’t wait until it’s mine.
A moment later, his opponent reappeared in the distance, near the throne. Prometheus dashed to him, but the Iron Champion took a deep breath and disappeared once again. Prometheus kicked the ground in frustration. Okay, let’s think this through. He can disappear and reappear anywhere. It’s definitely not invisibility. He’s actively going somewhere else. It lasted around one minute in total, and after that, he reappeared to take a breath. Does it mean that he can’t breathe while he’s in that weird space?
Another handful of strikes impacted Theo’s body, and with each one the crowd cheered louder and louder, chanting the Champion’s name once again. Prometheus waited for the man to reappear, focusing intently on his surroundings. Prometheus began absorbing the oxygen around him, efficiently turning it into carbon dioxide, which coated most of the arena. It didn’t go as far as the crowd, so hopefully, no one would suspect anything. Almost as if on cue, the champion reappeared on almost the exact same spot, and began gasping for air uncontrollably. The crowd’s cheers became silent, while Theo observed the mark above the man. He still hadn’t fully understood the ability.
What can it be?! It’s another dimension, a subspace, a pocket dimension, I don’t know!
“None of that makes any sense,” Saul said.
Prometheus had no other information to go off of, other than from where the strikes had come from. One of them had hit him right on the top of his head.
Wait, on top of my head? That’s a weird position to hit me in. Does it mean he can float while in the subspace? The mark didn’t light up, while the champion tried using dozens of techniques to throw at Theo, who dodged them all.
It’s not floating… what is it…swim! He needs to swim in the subspace, like he’s underwater! That’s why he can’t breathe in it!
The mark lit up, and Theo immediately shifted some cells into fire to push him in front of the champion in a fraction of a second, while he stabbed his spear straight through the man’s neck. The announcer stuttered for a moment before continuing, “Contestant eleven, you won the Iron Tournament, congratu- what are you doing?!”
Prometheus stabbed toward the man’s eyeball, thinning the spear so it would kill him. The barrier of Influence rose up on top of the bloody man, deflecting Theo’s strike. The shapeshifter clicked his tongue and gave Sayuri a glance and a nod. She nodded back and jumped into the arena, while Prometheus carried the Iron Champion up while pumping as much Carbon Dioxide as possible into his airways, which resulted in him falling unconscious.
“H-hey, what are you doing?! Guards!” The announcer shouted through the magic microphone.
Prometheus sent a mental communication deep underground, hoping Zilch would receive it, telling him to join them in their escape. Prometheus and Sayuri ran toward their exit, while multiple heavily armored Guards entered the arena, most of them being tier six. They didn’t have time to fight them, but thankfully, they didn’t need to. Three Deathworms made of dirt and rocks exploded from the metallic floor, moving to hurt the closest Guards. That distracted them enough for the two monsters to exit the arena, where they found Zilch patiently waiting right in the middle of the street. People were running away while shouting loudly, hiding as far away from the trio as they could.
Outside the arena, the protections on the contestants weren’t present anymore, so he killed the Iron Champion and absorbed his ability. Fuck, finally.
“We don’t have any time to lose. Zilch, I’ll grab you. Sayuri, get on top of me as soon as I change form.”
Prometheus used every scrap of biomass he had available in his inventory, taking inspiration from a mythical creature he had seen in this world a couple of times.
Time to see how good of a wyvern flier I am.
- - -
Lorenzo, Chief Guard Captain of Iron Feather’s Ministry of Defence, was tired. Life was getting boring, as he hadn’t had a real challenge in years, ever since he had fought against that high-tier tree monster. When he had reported back, they had told him it was one of the Generals of the Monster Army. Lorenzo snickered to himself while touching the scar going through his left eye.
“Heh, that weed really managed to land a solid one on me,”
Before he could continue spending his time in comfort and laziness, three loud knocks sounded at his door. They sounded quite urgent, so Lorenzo shouted, “Come in!”
A sweaty young man ran inside, wiping away the sweat with a hand and taking a breath, before saying, “Chief, a small group of monsters have invaded our city!”
“Mh, a small group, you say?”
“Correct! Reports are coming in, but it looks like a premeditated attack! They have taken out the Iron Champion from the arena,”
Lorenzo twirled the white mustache above his lip, thinking. “Was that their target?”
“Looks like it, sir! They are currently retreating!”
“I see. Did you take them out yet?”
The young man gulped and continued, “Unfortunately not, sir, our spears went right through one of them, which is presumably a wyvern, like it was made of water.”
“Interesting, interesting. They must be really high tier for you lot to fail so miserably.”
The young man gulped once again and hesitated to speak. Lorenzo looked at him with a piercing gaze, prompting the Guard to continue, “They…they are tier three, and the wyvern is a four.”
Lorenzo raised an eyebrow.
“Why didn’t the Aerial Defense Units take care of them already?”
“The wyvern, sir, it moves unbelievably fast, with fire coming out of its wings. They reported that any damage they caused to it was immediately repaired. It is carrying one of the other two monsters, a large Deathworm, but even aiming for that one is useless. All their shots just pass through, without any effect.”
Lorenzo sighed heavily, standing up from his sofa and moving to grab the Greatsword on the wall.
“Tell the others that I’m taking care of this myself. Got it?”
“Yes, sir!”
Lorenzo took the Great sword and moved past the Guard, clapping his shoulder.
“Good kid. Shouldn’t take me more than a day.”
Moving out of the door, the only tier-thirteen in the surrounding cities moved to pursue the three monsters, if just out of boredom and curiosity.