Chapter 28

“Good luck, son.” the spectre said and then he was alone once more in the arena. When he glanced back at where the acid attack had landed, the damage was still there. Tom made a mental note of it.

There was a crackle of energy, and he turned to face his next enemy. It was a goblin, and all that entailed. Yes, it was faster than him and matched his strength, but it was the size of a small kid. Tom ruthlessly exploited his reach advantage with his footwork, negating its speed. It attacked violently, but Tom, with the upper hand, bled it to death.

Then another quadruped with arms wielding dual swords appeared. This was a wolf version with a pug-like face. Tom was, of course, severely outclassed. He danced desperately backwards, staying clear of its blades. Chips of wood flew off his shield, and a slash opened the gash on his arm.

Zap.

It didn’t even flinch as the electricity struck it and did exactly nothing. Immune. Internally, Tom cursed.

Crack.

He blocked another savage sword flash, and then there was a stinging pain in his calf. Healing Tranquillity let him close the wound instantly. It was a shallow cut, but a sign of how the rest of the fight was going to go. He needed to turn the tables. If he kept balancing on the knife edge, then he would die the death of a thousand cuts. The only way was to change the engagement. Something like taking a blow to create an opportunity.

His mind connected with the wisp and told it exactly what he wanted.

Tom opened the space up from the creature, panting.

The wolf appeared unaffected by their brief conflict. It showed its teeth aggressively. “I don’t appreciate receiving this opportunity and ending up fighting something so weak.”

Tom swallowed and said nothing. He didn’t want it to think that he had a plan.

Instead, he pretended to allow the mocking words to rouse his anger and charged the wolf.

As he crossed the distance, it showed fangs and then the wisp struck, spraying water into its eyes. The wolf flailed its blades to dissuade him from approaching while it blinked through the abrupt blindness.

He leapt forward into the swinging blades. One he blocked with his shield, the other with his hip. All of his focus went into his spear that he thrust through the creature’s eyes.

Tom screamed and clutched at the sword embedded in his hip. It hurt, but he wasn’t going to waste mana to dull the pain, and Touch Heal instantly stopped the bleeding.

With the sword in his leg, Tom could barely stand, but he lifted the shield, ready for a counterattack, and he manifested his hammer back into his hand just in case.

The wolf had luckily recoiled violently. It had leapt almost four metres backward with the spear sticking out of his eyes.

The wolf collapsed.

With a crackle of energy, it vanished to signify it was dead. His spear clattered onto the stone.

Tom’s hip ached, and he had to get the sword out before the next battle.

He tried to grip the blade between his fingers and pull it out, but they slipped. Tom focused. Healing Tranquillity could be used in ways it was not supposed to. While keeping the blood vessels shut off, he softened the bone.

Once more, he attempted to grab the weapon and pull. Blood, sweat, the polish of the blade, all of them combined to deny him a grip.

Time.

He was on a clock.

With a trembling hand, he positioned one hand in front of the sharp edge and lowered his shield on the other side of his hip. Then he pushed together. The sword shifted, pivoting in the bone slightly as the hard surface of the shield butted against it. There was a stinging pain in the palm of his other hand before the sword’s edge got a purchase on his bones. With the sword stabilised, he pressed. There was a moment of pressure, and then his hip released the blade, and it clattered to the ground. When he looked at his right hand, blood dripped from the cut that went from one side to the other all the way to the delicate hand bones.

Silence filled the crowd as he raised his bleeding fist. Touch Heal did its work and fused both wounds closed. Tom briefly considered switching to sword and steel. The blade that had dropped was of a far higher quality than a spear, but the consideration was only for a moment. If he picked it up, it would serve as only a long knife in his hands, while the spear, he had strong technical skills in.

Tom strode toward his spear; the pain in the hip was so fresh that he limped.

Thankfully, the stadium let him pick up the spear and gather his breath before the familiar crackle of a portal bringing a new challenger came.

He was definitely leaving after this fight.

Tom frowned at his latest opponent. It was almost the same as the previous one but shifted toward cat like features.

It stalked towards him, fast.

Zap.

The sword it was holding fell out of limp fingers and Tom was already through its defences. The tip of his spear with the full weight of his leap behind it punched through its chest. Instantly Tom recognised the mistake he had made. There was no way he was getting that spear out.

“Idiot,” he told himself as he backed away. “Deus, please make it fatal.”

The cat swayed. Looked down at the wood protruding from its chest with a look of dismay and then at him.

Tentatively, it reached down and collected its own sword.

It snarled. “Die whatever you are.”

With sword in hand, it crept towards him. It was taking smooth, careful steps to prevent the spear from shifting. Tom was not out of the fight. He still had the shield strapped to his arm and chose not to grab either of the other weapons. His best ploy was to maximise his personal speed and hope the spear wound was mortal.

Even with it injured, he was over-matched.

“Stupid losing your only weapon.”

The cat creature pounced.

Tom blocked with the shield and retreated.

It kept stalking forward. Tom kept stepping sideways to position himself on what was clearly the nondominant side of the monster. They played cat and pathetic human.

It lunged forward. Tom hurriedly intercepted the sword. His shield shivered under the blow and in that moment they were locked together. He reached out and pushed the spear with his second hand. The cat squealed and leapt back like it had been stung.

Blood leaked down its chest.

“Stupid, allowing yourself to get impaled.” Tom said in the same tone of voice the cat had used.

It showed its teeth and once more approached toward him, but with more cautious movements. A rivulet of red ran from the wound to drip onto the ground. Its nondominant hand touched the wound and then held the wet fingers up to its eyes to confirm the blood. There were more teeth, but this time he guessed it expressed uncertainty.

Tom took the opportunity to approach. It leapt away, and he saw the spear move as it did so. Its second hand moved to hold the shaft of the spear.

More blood flowed.

Tom knew he had it won and his opponent recognised it, too. The cat’s eyes narrowed.

Then it threw the sword at him. Tom dodged sideways and on instinct threw himself backwards.

Zap.

He rolled clumsily, his back smacking the ground and winding him slightly. He rose from the roll with his hammer materialising in his hand. His eyes locked on his enemy.

It was dying on the stone in front of him. Red blood now gushing from the wound.

Relief washed through Tom, but as he always he catalogued the fight to see if he could have done anything better.

Absently, he spun the hammer in his hand. He probably should have retrieved it sooner, but he had been worried about the cat’s pace and the heavy hammer slowing him down. He went through each step of the battle and ticked off his response.

Especially that last dive and electric spark. Desperate and clumsy as it was it had been the right call. As he had registered in the heat of battle, the thrown sword had been a distraction to enable it to close and unleash a more primal battle plan, namely one that utilised the long retractable claws on each of his paws.

Tom studied them. They were as long as one of his fingers. He shivered. That represented a lot of cutting power. Luckily, his dodge and his desperate spark had disrupted its plans.

With the spear lost, he retreated and picked up the cat’s dropped sword while watching the rate of blood, pumped from the monster’s flesh, slow down. His hammer vanished, and he held the sword critically. It was better than the one he had got from the wolf.

Sabre of Bleeding - Rank 2.

This tier 2 weapon, in addition to its cutting properties is enchanted to increase the bleeding of wounds.

Tom swung the weapon with interest and nodded. It was well balanced, if a touch heavy, for him.

The cat vanished in an abrupt crackle of energy and was replaced by the exit portal to the reward room.

Thank god, Tom thought to himself striding towards the exit. Hopefully, he could take the weapon with him.

Four steps before the portal the demon spectre abruptly appeared. The partially see through body blocked access to the exit.

“Wait a moment–”

Tom ignored the demon.

He was over the trial and the announcer and just needed to get home.

Ghost. It’s a ghost.

Tom did not care if he insulted it. The chances of him ever coming back here were essentially zero, and he wanted out. He would walk through it and out.

His foot hit something solid, then his arm, his head, his central trunk, and Tom bounced off the spectre like it was made of metal welded to the ground.

What?

Surprise, shock, and fury washed through him. It had been see through—He landed on his bum multiple parts of his body aching—Tom felt like he had been tricked. Misled and then extra chicanery as well. His foot should have broken, or his brow bleeding from the collision, but the primary sources of pain were from his poor landing. There was probably some rule in place preventing the demon from hurting him directly. But setting up the situation for him to do it to himself and look like a clown at the same time, that was definitely acceptable. He was hurt because of how he had landed and internally; he cursed his clumsiness and resolved to repurchase Acrobatics and get some levels to help in these situations.

The demon’s damn horns burned with the red flames of amusement, and Tom did not lose sight of the fact that it now appeared completely solid.

He flushed in anger but controlled his actions. Sometimes when faced with a superior force there was nothing you could do but bury the fury and play its game. Being belligerent would backfire.

“The challenger wishes to leave,” the demon declared and by its tone Tom knew it was playing up to the crowd and not him.

“Do we want to offer a challenger boost?”

Once more there was a mixture of yips and clicks through more yips this time. Tom knew the result of the vote before it came through. The yips meant support and with so many of them mixed in with the other noises the success was guaranteed.

It didn’t matter there was no way Tom was accepting another round of fights. Their vote was irrelevant. The richness of the prize was inconsequential if he didn’t live to experience it and after the last set of fights he knew the opponents were now too strong for him. To win, he needed both luck and a favourable match up. That was asking too much for his current fate pool.

He was happy with the trial. He had defeated the equivalent of sixteen enemies after factoring in the double from the challenge boost. That was a damn fine performance and would guarantee him a great prize. If he was lucky, it might even be a high tier 3 treasure.

If he couldn’t go through, he could circle. Determinedly, he bounced to his feet and prepared to step around the demon.

The air thickened.

Tom scowled.

The demon’s horns burnt with a darker red than usual. Malicious amusement?

Familiar words and texts appeared in front of him.

A challenger bounty has been offered.

If you accept it, all rewards will be doubled, including a qualitative improvement.

You will need to complete three fights before the portal to the contribution room will appear once more.

“No.” Tom said immediately, not interested. He expected his pronouncement to result in the demon disappearing and the fixed pressure around him to vanish, but that didn’t happen.

“Oh, a rejection. I ask you should we use our once a month Courage Boost.”

“What?” Tom asked, but his words were drowned out by yips, howls and trumpets along with a significant amount of clicking.

“What?” Tom insisted again.

“They want to see you fight, kid. Your biped form is exotic, and you fight crazy, so it’s no surprise they desire more.”

“What’s a Courage Boost?”

Above Tom, he could tell from the progression of sounds that another vote was in progress. He had a sinking feeling he would not like the results.

He had refused the offer before the vote. That meant… Tom’s inside fell away in anticipation of what was happening.

The demon’s horns continued to burn with the dark red colour. “Sorry Kid, you’re in the coliseum and you’re bound by its rules. You can’t exit till after the vote has been completed.”

Tom’s vision flashed, and text appeared in front of him.

Congratulations, the Lartonga coliseum has voted to grant you a Courage Boost.

This has been applied to force the acceptance of Challenger Bounty.

As a result, you will need to win three more fights before you may voluntarily leave.

All rewards, instead of being doubled will be quadrupled.

This is multiplicative with previous awards.

The demon patted him on his head. “Good luck, kid. Some people, the cheapskates up there, voted to see you bleed and don’t believe you can get through the coming fight.” The demon grinned. “I would like to imagine otherwise. Good luck.”

The portal to safety vanished.

So did the demon.

Crack.

Tom rotated and saw that a new portal with a familiar crackle of energy had been created.

He charged at the silhouette of the creature that had appeared. Sword ready to hack it apart and prayed that it would not register the approach in time, and that the demon would not stop him.

He reached the almost formed monster and started to swing his sword.

It was letting him…

The air thickened around him in an early warning.

Despite that, he attempted to bring the sword down, and the air became like a rock. And he was lifted and tossed backward. Rather than windmilling, he accepted the motion, and when he landed he slid backwards a further two metres before friction could bring him to a halt.

By the time he had recovered from the toss his next opponent was fully formed and watching him.

This situation sucked. He was supposed to be out of the trial with a valuable prize. He knew the enormous benefit he would get by surviving the remaining fights that would be beyond anything he had previously imagined. But that was pointless if he died, or, almost as bad, if he lost and discovered he was under a GOD’s shield and he had gone through all this for nothing. It was not an impossible outcome. The last three fights were more carried by fate than by skill or abilities and that was a limited resource. He remembered being forced to allow a sword to hit him to buy a moment of time, gambling that the swing was not sharp enough to lop off his leg.

It had been a desperate ploy, and now he was facing even stronger opponents. Every fight they went up half a rank and the difference between them and him was now becoming telling.

In front of him, his opponent was fully formed, and it made Tom shiver in disgust.

It was gaunt, with desiccated skin. The eyes were snake like and their biological nature was the only reason Tom did not assume that it was undead. The undead’s eyes were always magical. This creature had four arms each of them wielding a hook that was slightly longer than his forearm. It stood on two legs, was incredibly skinny, and had an aura that terrified Tom.

Fear!

It beat against him.

Tom rejected the concept. Sure, if he was anywhere else and running was an option he might listen to his senses, but there was no fleeing from here.

What else?

The armour was not cheap and while he knew nothing of what was available on Existentia; he was certain it would be classed as master class tier three, sort of level. It was the finest chain mail he had ever seen.

With his tier two sword, Tom knew that the enemy armour might as well have been granting a hundred percent protection against piercing damage.

He glanced at his weapon and sighed. There was no way it was getting through that metal. The sword could threaten the eye slits, but not much more beyond that.

He swished it experimentally.

“You are brave. I felt my aura dig into you.”

Tom shrugged even though, whatever he was fighting, would not understand the gesture. “Where could I run to?”

The monster vibrated. Purred? Laughed? Something like that. The strange phenomena only lasted a second. “Are you protected by a GOD’s shield?” the creatures asked with a chilling lack of inflection.

“I don’t believe so.”

The monster… not the person -Tom corrected his internal thoughts - inclined its head. “I will try not to kill. Can you return the favour?”

“To the best of my ability I will.”

“You are weak but have beaten many strong challengers. I can see it from the damage from the arena and the blood on you. Why would you be stupid enough to pit yourself against me?”

It didn’t hurt to tell the truth. “I won five battles fairly, got bribed to fight another three, and tried to leave. The coliseum used a limited intervention to force me into this fight and two more after.”

“It wants to kill you.”

Tom nodded. “That’s what I concluded.”

The surrounding clicks were growing louder.

“And, I’m the first of three?”

“Yes.”

“May you fight well and the blessing of the GODs be upon you.” The fighter intoned.