A smile forms on the man's face. I return the smile, eager for the battle ahead. I take up my daggers and charge the man. Our blades clash with an insane ferocity, sparks flying off them with each clash of our blades. Every swing of our daggers is evenly matched by the other. The man is easily telegraphing my every blow and meeting my own daggers with his. It seems we are quite evenly matched.

Even though I'm bleeding to death, this arena is perfect. The glow of the lanterns, the massive aquarium encompassing a third of the arena, and the blue-green stones of the floor providing for a perfect grip. It's perfect. I couldn't ask for a better place to battle to the death.

Both of our attacks are blazing with a fury unmatched in any of my previous fights. I'm launching attacks and defending from his attacks at the same time. Sparks are flying everywhere from our clashes. Neither of us has yet to land a blow to the other. Our battle is a complex and beautiful dance making full use of the whole arena. The smiles on both our faces never wane throughout out battle.

Finally, I land a hit. I parry his strike allowing for a quick counter slicing a 4-inch gash on his left pectoral muscle, the wound healing as soon as I make it. Oh, come on! How do I beat that?! The wound I notice looked like I sliced into water. There was no blood, just the appearance that he is made from water.

We continue our battle, and I am able to land a few more cuts on the man, each one results the same as the first. A slice appears, but it appears like I just sliced into water. Each wound heals as quickly as I made it.

I disengage from the battle and take a few hops back putting some distance between us. I evaluate this new information and formulate a plan. If this guy is made up of nothing but water, the only thing I have to combat this is fire. I guess I have no choice but to use my magic skill that's quickly becoming a go-to for my fights. It looks like things are about to heat up!

"Well, if you are made of water, then let's see how you deal with a little heat! TORCH!!"

Both daggers erupt in pure blue flame, causing them to glow red hot. I resume my attack, our clashes sparking even hotter than before. However, there is something new... steam. With each strike of my blade, there are sparks and an eruption of steam from his daggers. It seems that he is not the only thing made of water. His blades are too! It's seems I can cause damage without even hitting him directly.

I ramp up the ferocity of my attacks, I don't have a choice. It's been several minutes and I'm still bleeding out. I can already feel the effects of my blood loss. I push more mana into my blades, increasing the size of the flame and the intensity of the heat. My opponent momentarily recoils from this, obviously not liking the increase in temperature. Even more steam erupts with every blow. The arena is beginning to warm up from the heat from my blades, and the steam released from himself. Sweat is beading up all over my body and pouring down my face.

Another parry and I land a slice across his face. A scream of agony erupts from my opponent along with a geyser of steam from the wound. The wound isn't closing this time, steam steadily pouring out. That's it! I change my attack pattern. My attacker swings wide with his left, I duck and slice right across his hip, steam erupting from the wound. From my crouched position I slice straight up, slicing clean up his abdomen and chest. A massive column of steam erupts along with another scream.

Sweat pours off my body as I easily swat away an attack from my opponent, his attacks becoming more and more uncoordinated as I inflict more wounds on him. The wounds I have inflicted seem to be having a definite effect on his strength, speed, and the coordination of his strikes. I land several more strikes in succession on his arms, face and chest. Each wound erupting with searing hot steam along with screams from my opponent. It seems his time is running out, my blows taking their toll, and not a minute too soon as I'm reaching my limit, both in blood loss and in terms of the unbearable heat from all the steam from his body.

"You're done!"

I feint an attack toward his head and when he attempts to block, I land two slashes to his wide-open left side. His arms immediately drop to guard his side and I lay his defenseless throat wide open. His eyes open wide, and his daggers drop to the floor, splashing as they revert to water.

With steam gushing from his open wounds, and no longer able to mount an attack on me, he looks directly in my eyes and says,

"That was a battle worth dying for." The warrior bows his head toward me.

I just nod in agreement, slowly walk up to the honorable warrior, and plant my daggers in his chest. I crank up the mana to my spell and my opponent vanishes in an explosion of steam. I place my daggers back in their holsters and let out a sign of relief and wipe the sweat from my forehead. It got a bit too hot in here.

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That was not the battle I'm used to, but it's a battle I will never forget. I truly harbor no I'll will toward that guy. He offered me up with a challenge of battle, and I sensed no real hostility from the man toward me. It was almost like this was a test. A test for what, I have no clue. I just hope my opponent believed my performance to be satisfactory.

Suddenly the throne reappears in the middle of the room, and the man swirls back into existence on the throne in a column of water. I just smile as I knew he couldn't have actually died. It would explain why I didn't gain any levels from the fight.

"Congratulations warrior, you have bested me in combat."

He raises his hand, and a white glow appears. The same white glow appears on my wrist and extends to the rest of my body. The wound on my wrist quickly heals, and I begin to feel completely refreshed. In fact, I feel better than I have in a long time.

"I have healed your wounds warrior. As a token of your victory, I bestow upon you, my amulet. It's bestowed to those worthy of being considered a ruler of the seas. I'm sure we will meet again young warrior. I won't go easy on you next time!"

With a final grin at that last comment, he swirls back into water and vanishes into the water behind the throne just as fast as he came. On the throne in his place, a small golden chest appears. I take stock of myself first to ensure I don't have any other injuries from the fight. I notice that I seem to be completely healed. Not a single steam burn present anywhere on my body. My skin even looks better than it has in a long time.

I walk over to the chest and open it. Inside is an ornate gold necklace with a 1 inch aquamarine gemstone inlaid inside it... and a plate of sushi.

"Sushi?! Are you for real old man?!" I yell out in disbelief.

I have a good laugh at the irony of the plate of sushi and pick up the necklace. I put the necklace on and felt of surge of mana course through me. Well, let's see what this thing is.

Skill Acquired: Water Walker

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Water Walker?! What the hell does that mean? Does this mean I can walk on water somehow? What about breathe underwater?! I guess I will figure out what it really does when I get back to the pond.

I take a moment to admire the arena once again, thinking this would be a hell of a place to make a base out of. I'll have to come back and check to see if that Sea King guy respawns or not. I wouldn't mind another fight with him, especially if he doesn't go easy like he said! If he doesn't respawn, then I wouldn't mind moving in down here. Other than the flying fishies of death roaming the hallways, this place isn't that bad! Who wouldn't mind a bad ass room where a third of the room was a massive aquarium that's at least 60 feet long by 20 feet tall?! I need to figure out a way to get furniture in here!

I leave the arena and start making my way back toward the entrance. Oh wait!! My sushi!!! I run back to the arena, and luckily the door opens, and I run to the throne and take the small plate of sushi from the chest. Fucking sushi! I let out a laugh as I walk toward the door, plate of sushi in hand.

I return to the hallways and once again start to make my way back to the entrance, enjoying my sushi along the way. I slash and hack any respawns I come across, never missing a step, never missing a delicious bite of sushi. I got another level on the way back too! Sushi and leveling. It doesn't get much better than this!

I arrive at the shimmering doorway just as I finish my final bite of sushi. I want more sushi! That was delicious! Well, let's see what this new amulet can actually let me do. I decide to first test to see if it allows me to breathe underwater. I take a deep breath then step into the water. I just float there for a second, nervous as hell to take a breath. If this doesn't work, it's going to be a real bad time for me. I let out all the air in my lungs... well; it's the moment of truth! I take a huge breath in, might as well go for broke! Nothing happens. I don't end up drowning. Wow! It feels just like I'm breathing air! And there is something else I notice now that the worry of drowning at the bottom of a pond in the middle of a dungeon is gone. The pressure of the water at this depth is gone as well! It's like I'm a fish in her completely natural environment!

I start swimming back up to land only to discover I'm swimming just as fast as I move on land!! The water offers very little resistance to my movements. Oh, this is sick! I swim as fast as I can. Blazing ahead at full speed I breech the surface rocketing 25 feet into the air, do a quick flip exhaling a stream of water, taking in a deep breath of air, and dive right back into the water with a 10/10 dive. I blow out a stream of bubbles and inhale a breath of water. Ohhh YEAH!!

"Fuck this is AWESOME!!!" I shout overjoyed!

"I can talk!!! I can even talk underwater!!!"

Oh, this item is amazing! I'm never taking this thing off! I swim around the pond, swimming around, leaping out of the water, and diving back in, for about 20 minutes just enjoying this new ability. I eventually go back to shore and up onto the granite outcropping. I stand there overlooking the pond, overjoyed that I took the time to explore it. It was WELL worth it. I received an item that is sure to be invaluable to me for a long time. I figure it would probably be a priceless item anywhere in this world.

Seeing as I finished my exploration of the pond, and there is still plenty of time left in the "day", I might as well go explore more of this dungeon. As I walk into the trees, I think about the days here on this floor. I'm not sure if the day in this dungeon floor is corresponding to the day in the world outside. So far I haven't seen anything that resembles a sunset or even night in here. Ah who cares? It makes me feel like I am outside, and I like that. Now, let's go hunting!