Mash stood in the training grounds with Luke staring back at him. Slowly the fur that had grown on his body receded back into his skin. He was surprised when the fur grew on his face, as the creature he had fought had a truly human face. He was happy to see what it provided him, the biggest surprise being the pair of wings. Well, he guessed the transformations weren’t perfect since he didn’t grow wings in his dragon form or a beak in his Priscilla form. After the fight with the humanoid cat monster, Mash had been eager to test the new form. The training ground wasn’t big enough to utilize them, but the tournament arena would be big enough.

Honestly, the transformation had its benefits, though he had only barely managed to win the fight against Luke. However, Luke was at a bigger disadvantage in spars than Mash was. Though that was because he refused to use any of his offensive magic against his friends. It made sense since none of them could block or deal with attacks to their souls. It was similar to why Mash wouldn’t use his dragon form or imitation skills. Those weren’t really fitting for a spar. Mash did however try his newly gained form, which he proudly dubbed the winged-cat form. His friends scoffed at his naming sense, but Mash didn’t really care since it was easy to remember. It had raised his stats a bit, but the skill didn’t tell him what any of the transformations did exactly.

When Luke buffed himself, he was stronger than Mash even after the transformation. Although Mash was able to keep up with Luke’s movements. It wasn’t that he was much faster than Luke, rather Mash had gained a new sense that seemed to give him a tiny bit of foresight. It wasn’t like he could see the future, instead he was able to see the intentions of the person he was fighting. Mash guessed that if he didn’t have an unusually high number of mental defenses, he would’ve lost to the monster. The Colosseum must have been gauging his weakness, and hopefully, they would cross mental attacks off their list now.

The fight had been more chaotic than Mash had expected. Luke seemed to manifest a golden aura around him, and he could shape it freely too. It was apparently like his wooden imitation skill though it didn’t give him as many benefits. Plus, it was more like thick armor instead of gaining a new body. Mash wasn’t that worried about harming Luke and needed to take full advantage of his lightning and wood to damage him with that armor. The only reason Mash ended up winning was his unusually high energy pool. Simply put, his energy was far superior to regular mana, and Luke had run out of mana before Mash ran out of energy. Mash couldn’t really do any significant damage to him without trying for lethal attacks, and there was no chance he was going to risk that.

Mash stood on a rising platform. Today was the day of the tournament, and he was eagerly waiting for his next fight to start. His opponent today was a beastman assassin. He had won all of his previous fights in a single attack, ending the fights without revealing much. Mash was excited for the fight since it would be a good opportunity to test his new form. His current plan was to hide the dragon form, for as long as possible and was eager to get some combat testing in with his new form. Mash did have one concern, but he didn’t know if that would show today. He still wasn’t sure if his hunt skill would work for the tournament. It worked in fights to the death, which was great, but it didn’t work in the spars he had done. He guessed that the skill worked around his intentions, but he couldn’t make himself treat these matches as life and death struggles.

As he breached the arena, Mash looked over to the cloaked man on the other side. Mash chose to wear brighter colors today even if it did clash with his hair and eyes. Everyone had recommended he do so, and so he was wearing a blue shirt that had been custom-tailored. It looked like he was wearing water, with small fishes depicted across his chest. This didn’t have his family’s emblem, but the design was still immaculate. It did particularly well in contrast with the dull black robes of the other man.

Mash assumed that there were hundreds of knives hidden beneath them, and quickly activated his own skill. Fur crept over his skin as armor quickly started forming around his body. Before his armor could fully form, he felt an object suddenly appear within his draconic domain, though he reacted quickly. The improved reflexes and ability to read intentions were probably the biggest benefit of the transformation, and he was easily able to grab the dagger as soon as it appeared. It had been a teleportation skill of some kind, though it felt different from Jill’s magic. He guessed it wasn’t true teleportation, and likely a skill that straddled the line.

As if to confirm Mash’s theory the man vanished a second later, though Mash had no blind spots and caught the arm that appeared behind him. Wood quickly climbed across his hand and trapped the assassin with him. Mash was surprised to notice that the hand was smaller than his but brushed it off as another three daggers appeared within his mana sense. Mash used the assassin as a shield for one while blocking the other two by reinforcing the armor around his arm to intercept them. They passed through his armor stabbing into his arm without striking the armor itself.

Grunting from the pain, Mash was glad to hear a scream of pain from the assassin too. It was a lot higher pitch than he expected, and it clicked into place that the assassin was a girl. It didn’t really matter, and he was surprised at how misleading her armor was. Was that intentional? While his arm did sting from the pain, having daggers cleaning stab into his arm wasn’t as painful as he expected. Not hesitating in the slightest Mash swung the girl roughly, slamming her face-first into the ground. His armor grew as he fell on top of her, a small crunching noise could be heard as the spikes he grew from the front of his armor and the added weight crushed her body. He managed to do some real damage, though he had separated from his armor and dodged soon after. More daggers appeared behind Mash, and he didn’t hesitate in dislodging himself from the armor and rolling out of the way.

His arm stung more now; the daggers having twisted when he rolled across the ground. Mash felt the pain lessen as something activated to diminish it. It seemed like the threshold for the skill to take effect had risen and allowed him to feel more pain now. The assassin rose to their feet. Her thicker robes had been cut and ruined from the wooden spikes, but it seemed like she had some enchanted leather armor that didn’t get pierced. It was probably designed to be good against blades, though that didn’t do much against the weight of his blows, or her own daggers.

Getting a good look at her, Mash realized she was a member of the night clan. She had the telltale reddish-brown hair and pointed ears that were known about them. He understood why everyone called them foxes when insulting them. However, he cared little for her appearance, focusing on the dozens of daggers strapped to her body. Now he understood why he thought that she was a man. The daggers completely covered her body, completely changing the outline of her body. Honestly, that was a pretty good strategy to hide weapons.

His appreciation went unnoticed, as the girl appeared beside him once again this time forming another three daggers in the air around Mash. She staggered her attacks, the daggers seeming to appear at random timings. If not for his improved reflexes, draconic domain, and foresight he wouldn’t be able to block the attacks. Even now he didn’t try blocking them, instead, dodging them and striking at the wrist of the girl. She parried his blow by lowering her swinging hand, and his palm roughly struck the hilt of a dagger. It hurt, but he was glad it wasn’t the blade. She was slightly shaken by his strength too, and he quickly followed up with a blow to her gut.

She was definitely faster than Mash was originally, but his new transformation actually let him match her speed. She clearly had some skills for sudden boosts, but they were still within the range of his reactions. Though she didn’t have the defense or strength to match him, his blow did a lot more damage than her daggers could. This time he heard some ribs break as her armor dented inwards. She was coughing up blood as she rolled across the ground. It was a fast reaction to lessen the force of his blow, but it also stretched the wound itself.

She shakily got to her feet, and she glared at him. Black pupils surrounded by a yellow fire seemed to look at him with unending anger. Mash could only look back in confusion, as she spat some blood to the ground. It was clear the fight was over at this point, and he was shocked to hear her yell at him.

“Hey, Bastard! What’s the big idea, why aren’t you using your lightning or snake summons? You trying to piss people off by beating them at what they’re supposed to be good at. Bragging about everything your class can do!”

Mash was surprised to hear her start a tirade but realized that the fight was over as her breathing became more ragged. After yelling, she got into a coughing fit before collapsing. The healers arrived quickly, and this time, Mash was the one that looked on in stunned silence. That couldn’t possibly be true. He thought about his fights thus far and realized that she was telling the truth, though not for the right reasons.

He had wanted to test his new abilities and compare them with people that would provide a good challenge. Somehow, that had turned into him beating a sound mage with overwhelmingly fast magic, and a summoner by simply summoning more things. Now, he had just beaten her with his speed and reflexes, rather than any of his other abilities.

Mash wanted to smack himself in the forehead but settled for quickly shuffling to the moving platforms. He kept his transformation up as the fur made it easier to hide his embarrassment. How could he accidentally act like an arrogant asshole?

He quickly became the villain of the tournament and was planning on continuing to do the same for the rest of his fights. Honestly, he was using the tournament to gauge where his different transformations and abilities landed, and that meant that he would continue to humiliate his opponents. Maybe he could start ending his fights without holding back, and hopefully, that would be enough to ease their anger. It was the best place to truly test his abilities after all. Where else could he find such a diverse group of adventures that would fight him seriously?

“It is fine, you are merely showing them that they are not your equal.”

Mash expected the reaction but didn’t expect to hear Priscilla's words. The message was sent to his mind, but it was given to him like she was speaking, and he could’ve sworn he heard the sarcasm in her tone. Had she been practicing acting sarcastic and communicating that sarcasm? Really? Somehow, this had been the most stunning revelation of the day, and he laughed as the platform descended from the arena. Despite knowing it would only make his image worse, he couldn’t stop it. It had been forced out of him and realized that he would be glad to play the villain.