Saying that he wasn’t nervous at the first non-monster fight would be a lie, but the excitement kinda overshadowed the nervousness by a mile.

  Truth be told, all the monsters lately had been disappointing. Looking back now after facing the ant queen and the crusher, the difference in aura was night and day. Despite looking small like a mouse, or a dog in the case of the queen, the ants were powerful and lethal. The attack he blocked to create an opening for Shinnya to finish off the crusher was just a simple lunge, but it carried such a weight that was shown by none of the big monsters he killed so far.

  A fight against another fighter could be a pleasant and necessary change of pace. The ants were too strong for him, but this fight could be it. Where was his skill level compared to other fighters? It would be great to score the first win.

  His battle was near the end of the day, so he took time to meditate until his resources were full. He had tinkered with the System yesterday and managed to peg the three main resources to the top right of his viewport so that he could always tell the level of his mana or stamina before they ran out. Even though Ulken had said that he could still use a skill at reduced effectiveness even when he was out of mana, it would still be helpful to be able to get that information with only a quick glance and thus helped him plan accordingly. Hitting a near-dead ant with a full-power bolt only to attack a fresh one with a lesser bolt when he was out of mana wouldn’t be the most effective way to use his resources.

  Zalanir arrived at the pit when the second fight was taking place. Too early. Should’ve spent more time honing his swing. The arch was still too wide to his liking. He could save half a second with a more compacted swing path. Might not be much, but these could add up over time. That was his coach’s advice back in the day, and that rang true ever since in everything. Incremental changes were the foundation for the eventual breakthrough.

  The second fight ended with the fighter’s victory. No surprise. He had witnessed just six deaths caused by monsters thus far. If anything, it was the supply of monsters that impressed him. Where did this place find and catch all these monsters? From plant monsters to mindless beasts to even humanoid abominations, the diversity was just ridiculous.

  Wasn’t that man injured? The appearance of the next fighter caught Zalanir’s attention. From his position in the ground section that was reserved for the pit fighters, he could clearly see that the bald fighter was having trouble on the right flank. The half red tape was fresh, and that shade was obviously from a wound, not its original color.

  Facing the man was a ferocious hound beast with four big, dull orange fangs protruding out of its own mouth. It pounced on the man right from the get-go and remained the aggressor for the whole fight.

  His movement was just too off. He guarded the right flank alright for a while, but the battle eventually reached a point where he slipped off and had the flesh there getting ripped apart by the hound.

  There was no miracle. The man lost his life shortly after.

  But the thing that baffled Zalanir was the booing from the crowd. Not all of them, but some big voices outright cursed the dead fighter with vile language. Didn’t they see that the man was injured? The man lost his life to unfair conditions, for fuck’s sake.

  Also, couldn’t the organizer replace him with someone else? There were at least dozens of other fighters in this place. There was no way that none of them could switch their slots.

  Adding onto his bewilderment, the crowd shifted their mood to cheer like normal when the next fighter stepped out of the cage. No conscience at all.

  Zalanir left the surface and went down to the barracks. Staying there could infect his mind with inappropriate thoughts, especially for this moment. He didn’t want it to happen. He needed to be 100% for the upcoming fight. Everything else had to be secondary now.

  He replaced his worn-out pants, boots, and bracers with identical ones, albeit brand new. They provided no stats or effects, but it was still better to wear new ones anyway, especially since they were free and just laid there. A setup of bronze shield and dagger remained his choice for the weapon. Just because he already had Energy Barrier didn’t mean a shield would be useless, and the dagger might come in handy.

  When it was his turn, he followed the instructions of the guard to take the lift on the left room to go up. This room was small and empty, acting as the midpoint between the corridor and the lift. Quite unnecessary, in his opinion.

  While waiting for the announcer to finish his introduction, Zalanir took a deep breath and stretched by pressing onto the wall and bending his leg, one at a time.

  Creakkk … Thud. The ever familiar sound of the lift signaled the go. And forward he went. Walking out under the screaming of the audience still roused his excitement and made his heart pound, but he didn’t enjoy it as much as before. They wanted entertainment only, not that they supported him personally. He now understood that.

  His focus then shifted to being 100% on the man who walked out of the opposite lift at the same time as him. Suddenly, all the moral issues washed away, and Zalanir chuckled. Why was today his first 1-on-1 battle out of any day? It could be that he was finally strong enough to provide an intense and entertaining fight, but personal conflict could also play a role here.

  Unless there was another twin in the fighting pit, that mohawk couldn’t stand out more. Yellow as the main color, supported by red spikes and two shorter lines on both sides. Zalanir wasn’t sure if it was hair wax or not, as he doubted this world would have something like that, but the mohawk was standing proud and rock solid on top of his opponent’s head.

  No longer holding a knife, the man today rocked a jade winged-spear more than half of his height. Taking into account that the man was about the same height as Zalanir, the reach the spear provided was massive. Lucky for Zalanir, the spear was the only noticeable piece of equipment, at least to his eyes, so he just needed to focus on that. Just needed to dodge it.

  “Now let the battle of love begin.” It wasn’t his opponent, but the announcer who delivered the first blow at Zalanir.

  What? Since when—

  The spearhead flew straight at his torso, which Zalanir — distracted by the announcer — blocked in the last second with his shield. The impact created a sound like a stick hitting the drumhead. Couldn’t plant his feet on the ground, Zalanir took three steps back to neutralize the pushing force. However, as he did that, the spear cut his right thigh, making him step back the same amount of distance.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Fast, strong, and precise. His impression of the Mohawk took a 180 turn. If he wasn’t careful, he could be in big trouble. The image of the bald fighter earlier was still fresh in his mind.

  In a desperate attempt to wrestle back the tempo of the fight, Zalanir threw two earth bolts back to back at the Mohawk, or to be precise, in the direction of where his opponent was.

  Though to his surprise once again, the spear still kept coming. This time it slammed down from above and knocked his shield off. Zalanir swirled around and kicked the shield into the opponent, successfully halting the assault and thus allowing him a chance to breathe and assess the situation.

  His bolts did hit, as there were bloods in the left abdomen of the Mohawk. But the man still stood straight with his right foot to the back and both hands holding the spear in a thrusting stance.

  Not good. His mind screamed at his legs to run, but it was still late. The opponent charged at Zalanir and scratched his left flank with the thrust. That range was bad news.

  Zalanir cast Energy Barrier. A translucent shield the size of a table stood between him and the Mohawk, preventing a follow-up slash from reaching him. It broke right after the contact, but the energy wave bought Zalanir enough time to retreat.

  You aren’t the only one with a long reach. Zalanir mumbled while throwing an air bolt at the man. Then he ran. Not toward, but parallel, to the Mohawk. Retreating would slow him down and was too passive. No, he just needed to maintain a good distance to not come into the strike zone of the spear while bombarding the man with his bolts in order to win.

  After all, why came to the net while his baseline game was good enough to win?

  His assessment was correct, as his enemy progressively pulled back into defensive position, using the spear to strike down his bolts. This was the first time he had seen this, and thus was marveling at the reaction and precision of the striking motion. But the tempo was on his side now. The man could target the metal and earth bolts, but was completely at Zalanir’s mercy for the air variant, as he seemed to be unable to spot and react to it quickly enough.

  Just when Zalanir was enjoying throwing out his bolts like in a dodgeball game, the Mohawk did a move that took Zalanir by surprise. In the middle of receiving and dodging attacks, he just stepped forward, ignoring all the wounds and any defensive measures, and thrust the spear at an acute angle to the air. The attack was definitely not aimed at Zalanir, but a jade wolf suddenly flew out from the tip of the spear and pounced upon him, swiped down diagonally, scratched his hauberk, pressed him down, then faded away. All within two seconds at max.

  Amidst the attack, Zalanir reactively formed a shield in front of his body using Energy Barrier. The wolf did destroy it in one go, but perhaps thanks to that, Zalanir wasn’t being torn apart yet. Pushing his hands onto the ground to lift his body up, Zalanir saw blood pouring out of the three tears on his hauberk, running along the edge before dropping onto the dirt surface of the arena.

  His health was down to 20%. Its red bar flickered per second. It was hard to breathe, as if his heart was being squeezed — not enough to kill, but hard and constant. All the shouting and screaming made the air even more suffocating. His legs held firm, but for how long? If possible, he would choose to drop onto the floor now and take the rest that he desired.

  His opponent, on the other hand, seemed like he couldn’t muster the same strength. The Mohawk was lying face-up on the ground with hands to both sides, his body full of bruises and cuts. The winged-spear lay out of reach to his right. His belly was still pumping up and down, which meant that at least he was still alive.

  Zalanir dragged his feet, step by step, to where his opponent was. All the noise and cheering was reduced to utter silence. He won. His first fight against another fighter ended with him claiming the victory. But the fight wasn’t over yet. He had seen this conclusion multiple times throughout tons of fights already. It was time for his decision: to kill or not to kill.

  The Mohawk glanced at him when he came over and then closed his eyes soon after. No, don’t act like that.

  “Tell me, what’s the name of the last attack? You know, the wolf one?”

  The opponent snapped his eyes wide open. His lips twitched.

  “Why are you asking that?”

  “Because you owe me one, and I want to know that. Shouldn’t you be a bit subservient to your lender?” Zalanir grinned, then turned away toward the exit. He had a certain interesting notification to check out.

  The crowd erupted not only with cheers but also with some cursing at him. A person in the first section even threw a rock or something when Zalanir passed by, but he dodged it easily just by tilting his body to the side. He gave them entertainment, and that was all. No need to have more death today.

  In the midst of that was the signature clear and high-pitched voice of the announcer.

  “There you are. The man named Zalanir wanted the maiden’s heart more, and that fueled his power and led to his victory. He was even considerate and confident enough to let his rival live. Will it come back and bite him later? Who knows? But today, he is the winner. Is this the beginning of a star in the making? I am a fan myself, so try your best. Everyone, one more time for Zalanirrrrrrr!”

  Zalanir wished that he could teleport away. He would trade anything for it.

  ***

  “Haha, Lady Luck is with me!” Djaxinz extended his hand forward.

  The man next to him groused, but still took out five silver coins and flung them into Djaxinz’s palm.

  “I heard that you ventured out together the other day. Is he good?”

  “No idea. But Shin did praise him, so maybe he is.” Djaxinz’s eyes lingered on the arena.

  “Is he worth investing in?”

  “Too soon to tell. How many good prospects live up to their full potential?”

  “Right.” The man then changed the subject. “I will take a leave now. Need to make some preparations for their arrival. I will find you tonight.”

  “Make sure to check the item. The Vavolta fellow would be delighted to see it.” Djaxinz lifted his hand and flicked.

  ***

  “Is it just me, or does this scene kinda look familiar?” Inside the special section for the pit fighters, a man was sharpening his swords while doing push-ups. Two front hands pressed down on a huge stone, while a third handled the grind. If Zalanir were here, he could definitely remember the three-armed dude who he would argue shouldn’t be classified as a human.

  “Still early, but yeah. A new prospect burst onto the scene out of nowhere, win-streaking with a less-than-popular-for-an-arena mage mastery, and wasn’t bloodthirsty. Certainly not a fond memory,” responded a naked man who was chewing some meat buns.

  “Anything noteworthy about him?” The man’s focus continued to be on the whetstone and his sword.

  “He was brought here by a brigand boss from the north about a month ago. He was often seen with Shinnya, the fire chick. Other fighters said he was her lackey, gold digger, womanizer, etc. — all kinds of different labels. Out of these, gold digger seemed to be the most common, which was possibly the reason why the organizer set this matchup. Lots of fighters who wanted to get close to Shinnya now treat him as a stepping stone to get to the girl. Oh, according to one of our sources, he got a big power-up the other day after going out of the settlement with Shinnya, gaining tons of levels in just an afternoon,” said one person who stood behind the naked man.

  “He was the nosy who helped Ulken a while ago after the brawl with Talicun, you remember?” piped in a fighter whose nose was red like a tomato.

  “Hmm … I think I do. No wonder he looked familiar,” the naked man exclaimed. “Does that mean he is already on the list?”

  “Yes, he is at 29th,” the person on Talicun’s back confirmed after looking at a parchment.

  “Push him up then. I will handle him after dealing with the green runt,” Red Nose ordered.

  “That midget is just too slippery. Let me have a go if you catch her. She had to know the consequences of stealing from us,” The man with three arms said. “As for this fella, if he is already on the list, better handle him when he is still in the egg. We don’t need another Cunha. Got it?”