Throwing up a cloud of dust when I landed, and receiving 5% damage when I looked at my Health, I slowly stood up. The crowd broke into laughter as I picked myself up. When I looked at The Gladiator he had his shaking head in his hand. A moment later, the double gongs sounded and the audience settled down slightly. I pulled my sword and started towards Darin.

Thanks to my proximity to the edge of the audience I heard snickering about my weapon posture and stride before I could make it out of clear earshot. My face grew hot as the embarrassment of the fall and my lack of skill was showcased to too many others. As I struggled to focus, I crumpled that dwarf’s note slightly in my hand. Glancing at the paper for a moment longer, I stuffed it in the single back pocket my leather leggings provided. I spared a thought for my burab rucksack and the familiar egg within, before I was waved forward by the giant ringleader.

Darin had moved back to the center of the arena and I jogged over to the man as evenly as I could muster. With a face burning nod from me and a smirk from The Gladiator, he motioned and the last gong filled the arena. A cage-like room, identical to the one where I had been observing, opened from the opposite side of the arena. A lithe-looking man purposely leapt from the opening and landed on his feet easily. From the slightly pointed ears, jet black shoulder length hair and light skin, I assumed he had to be some portion Elf, but I had no way to be sure. He had a halberd easily as tall as him propped on his shoulder.

He casually made his way over to the center a few dozen feet from me on the other side of Darin. He wore a dark brown leather vest as well as a longer version of a gladiator skirt. His entire body screamed speed, but I could see defined musculature that indicated he was no Strength slouch.

“For today’s final match we have the adventurer Faust Swift, untiered, against Grislend Ban‘Tun the Champion of our second tier!” announced the giant.

With the introductions out of the way, a wave of oh’s and ah’s ran through the crowd while the other fighter looked my way with a pearly shit eating grin on his face. I tried to get Darin’s attention, to ask about the placements, but he waved me off. Everyone in this Realm-damned arena has a shit smirk on their face. With a flare of his earth mists, the gladiator-turned-announcer bounded off to his stone perch.

“Begin!”

Combat! You have engaged in combat, passive Regen is reduced by half!

The moment the giant signaled the start of the fight, the halberd immediately reached out across the space and I jumped back too far. I admonished myself. While I wasn’t trained for close combat of any kind, the snippets of memories that resurfaced about it all shared an important piece of information: Being inside your enemies range, while they are outside yours was definitely idiotic.

I moved forward slowly, looking to parry the weapon as I circled and tried to push in. Grislend was having none of that. The fighter merely moved the base of his halberd and kept me at range. I tried to cut in, but a loud gasp from the audience distracted me for a split second and that’s all he needed to catch my blade. With my sword between the two prongs on his halberd, I try to pull back. With a practiced twist, he knocked my blade out of my hand.

Disarmed! Acquire a weapon!

Your Swordsmanship skill has increased to 7!

I quickly dismissed the skill notification as I jump back. I managed to dodge a sweep much faster than the previous ones, but the exchange told me that Grislend didn’t think much of my skill. The crowd started to boo and the elf’s face remained smiling at me. The face of Hanfel, the mage who murdered Dana, flashed through my mind. I feel the ineptitude and weakness of the last few days begin to boil up in my chest.

My knuckles whitened as I balled my fists. I whispered “Free” to summon forth my earth mana from my untouched mana pool. At the appearance of my creeping mists, Grislend’s expression flattened. Hopping back and to the side is all I can do to keep the man from gutting me as he picks up the speed of his sweeps. A blow, having anticipated my dodge, comes in and I was able to catch it on my misting bracers. The moment the halbert’s blade struck the earth imbued metal, the mists dissipated but pushed the weapon away with force. Scrambling to get a better grip on his weapon, the elf takes a half step back.

Trying to capitalize on the opening, I went for his shoulder. Mists dancing along my fingers, I focus on getting a non-lethal blow against the elf. With a breath, I am knocked back and have to fight to stay standing as my balance is thrown off. Wisps of green and gray mist join and a shower of sand covers us both. He’s a mage also! I note a tiny flash in my peripheral and see that the exchange took 3% of my Health. Looking at the man notes thin lines of red welling up along his arms. A quick glance at my cuirass showed micro cuts in the leather, but nothing too damaging.

With the first real blood drawn, we both dove back into the combat.

I began to burn through my Stamina and Mana only to exchange blows and minor damage. A series of exchanges and attempted grabs dropped my health by another 5%. With a sudden realization, I noticed that I have no clue what his actual health was, or mana pool for that matter, so I back up and frantically scan for my sword. I spot the polished iron to the right of the halberdier and dive into a roll to pick it up before he can engage me. Committed to my dive, the edge of his halbert catches me in the shoulder. With another drop of roughly 4% Health, I grab a hold of my sword.

Bleeding! You take 1 HP/sec damage for the next 10 seconds!

With a mental wave, I moved away the bleed effect notification and try to staunch the bleed with my sword hand. The dripping blood made my grip slick, but the bleeding was reduced to a five second timer. When I resummon my mists, they immediately mixed with my blood. Pale brown stone encased my hand, binding it to the handle of the weapon. The words from the dwarf’s note rung in my head.

“Use earth to grip the blade.”

With a solid grip on my sword, I was able to deflect the next attack from Grislend. I feel the force threaten to rip the blade from my hand as the halberdier deepened his attacks. Dodging the follow up sweep, I run the fuller of the weapon along my wound just before the bleed effect ran out. Pushing my mists out into the blade, imbuing it, the blood began to crystalize. A slight glow was added to the weapon once the mists finish converting the blood.

“Use earth to reinforce the fuller.”

I brought my sword to bear against a downward halberd strike strike. The weapon stopped dead in its tracks, almost none of the elf’s Strength pushing against my block. Instead, the vibrations of the strike were magnified tenfold. A tingling spasm crawled up my arms and through me. In the case of the halberd’s shaft, it wobbled severely. Both of us backed up with short jumps and I saw Grislend shaking out his hands while keeping a grip on his weapon.

You have received 5 damage from Disarming Vibration. You have resisted the Disarm effect due to your restricted grip.

Grislend redoubled his grip on the pole of his halberd when we both recovered. Expecting his momentum to die like last time, I went on the offensive. Choking up on his weapon, he pulled back to block my strike. To both of our surprise, my weapon swing is also stopped, but the Disarm effect triggers on the other fighter. The elf jerked his hands and the still vibrating halberd fell to the ground.

You have received 10 damage from Disarming Vibration for stacking vibrations. You have resisted the Disarm effect due to your restricted grip.

Still reeling a bit, I rush to get a damaging blow. Any kind of blow. I heard the man inhale while saying “Breathe”, then blow out a dense cloud of gray mist. The mist slowed my charge, halting my advance and then pushing me back as I tried to swing forward. While caught up in the mana cloud I saw the elf reach back for his halberd. The serious look on his face sparked a fire in me.

While the mists pushed on my body, they also dissipated and slowly entered me with each breath of my struggle. Remembering the two instances where I had summoned my Air mana earlier in the say, I breathed out. Then inhaled deeply.

A sharp pain cut through my throat, like trying to swallow hundreds of tiny razors. A flashing warning told me I had 30% health remaining as the mana attacked the inside of my body. However, when I breathed out the mists were my own.

Your Mana Channeling skill has increased to 4!

Your Combat Magic skill has increased to 4!

I coughed up a glob of blood that landed in the elf’s mana cloud. The blood instantly dissipated and shrunk what remained of the cloud. Before I could muster another attack, I felt the fighter’s halberd lunge forward at me. Crossing my left arm on my chest, I caught the prongs on the bracer. The tips still reached past my guard and through the cuirass, but only enough to take 4% off my Health. Summoning some of my earth mist, I repulsed the halberd sending the elf back from his deep lunge. I cast a glance at my Health and Mana and quickly ran the edge of my blade along my left hand’s fingertips.

“Use air to sharpen the edge.”

Using my own personal air mana cloud, I swept my blade through it and noted some of the mists lingered on the edge. Without further delay I lunged forward to attack Grislend. When our two clouds touched they kept us separate, acting as large globular cushions. The elf, having the larger range, used it to his advantage. He threw obscured thrust after thrust that I was forced to dodge instead of risking a Disarming Vibration block.

With a misstep from the elf, I managed to catch his attack. The moment our blades made contact, the vibrations spread and chunks of the air mana around us suddenly started to dissipate. I ignored the 15 damage the attack caused me as my Health continued to creep lower. The glow along my fuller flickered and the crystalized blood crumbled to dust as I pulled my weapon back slightly. Thanks to my sustained hold on it I was able to recover faster than Grislend. While he managed to keep his weapon, I swung up and diagonally towards his chest.

As the attack finished its arc, the thin line of air mana on the edge flew off my blade. The gray line easily cut the air cloud as if it was a hot knife through butter. The instant before it landed, Darin Rogelto seemed to materialize in the elf's place. The man simply clapped his hands and the blade of mists broke apart into a breeze that rustled his clothes.

“Quite enough, Mr. Swift. I do believe the match is set.” With that the giant turned to the audience, who I then realized had been deadly quiet through the later half of our engagement. “The victor by intermission is Faust Swift! Healers, please attend to the challengers.”

The moment The Gladiator announced the results the audience released a roar of approval. It also released the tenuous hold I had on my injuries and I slumped to the ground. As my head spun from the constant Mana usage I couldn't help but smile. I need to find that dwarf, I thought, as a pair of what had to be half dwarves jostled me onto a stretcher.

One of the dwarves injected me with a small needle and I immediately saw my health start to tick up. There was a small portion of my Health that was greyed out and a few blinking notifications on the edge of my vision. I heard the cheers and encouragement of the audience quiet slowly. As the light of the crystals in the Bowel's ceiling gave way to torchlight, I opened up the notifications.

You have Internal Scarring. Max Health reduced until proper treatment is received.

You have Mana Withdrawal. Mana Regen halved for the next 3 hours.

Quest Complete! You have found and completed the secret quest An Underwhelming Challenger!

You will be recognized by the Mountain’s Bowels as a Tier 2 Champion, as you have defeated their current tier Champion. See the Arena Organizer to receive your Title.

Title may be lost as a result of defeat in official combat or falling out of favor with the Fighter’s Guild.

You are now Rivals with Grislend Ban‘Tun!

You have gained Experience!

Congratulations! You have gained 1 Endurance, Willpower and Intelligence for developing your skills in both Combat Magic and Mana Channeling during combat while receiving little instruction.

Even with my injuries and the new Mana debuff I felt quite well. Also a bit woozy but I wasn't entirely sure if that was a result of my injuries, my mana or the needle I had been stuck with. A second later I noticed the lights brighten considerably and blinked to see the half dwarves standing over me. They were running their hands over my body.

“We’s got good external healing. Health Serum done got' im tickin’ up and numb,” said one of them.

“Not sure what be causing the Health cap, might need to start probin’,” added the other.

With a flashback to the 'treatment’ Walton had given for some of my prior injuries I perked up at their words. “Throat…. Scarring,” I rasp out.

The two looked between each other and nodded. One held my head while the other began to tuck his short beard into his apron. Why aprons? I wondered before I realized why.

While the one dwarf held my head and jaw, the one with the tucked beard shoved a potion down my throat. I only knew it was sky blue in color because the moment the taste hit my mouth I gagged part of it out. Most of it landed on the apron.

“Gah, ye ninny.” The apron dwarf didn't appreciate the helping of spit up on his beard as he helped his colleague clamp down on my mouth for the rest of the dose. Several disgusting swallows later, the potion was down the chute and the grayed out portion of my Health started fading.

After the taste had dissipated some, I tried to thank the dwarves, but my tongue was swollen in my mouth. They explained it was a normal reaction and should fade in an hour or two. As they left for the door of what I realized was an infirmary room lined with beds, they also mentioned that if the swelling lasted for more than four hours I should seek a healer.

Alone in the room I noted Flesk, snoozing in the corner. I wobbily made my way to him but saw that he looked to be in good health so I made it back to my spot. I wanted to thank the half orc. He had indeed found a good distraction and a productive one in the end.

Dana wouldn't have sat still, so I realized it would be okay to grieve while also pushing forward. I had taken her death personally, but I hadn't taken her final message to heart. With my determination in not as many pieces, I laid down to rest for a bit.

Only to have to jump back up a second later, along with a not too coherent Flesk. The door to the infirmary had been slammed open to reveal a slender blond haired human.

“The General requests your presence within the hour,” announced the man in Milton guard garb.

Flesk and I looked at each other in confusion before the guard continued, “I am to escort you. Please prepare your items as we will be leaving briefly.”

With that, the man slammed the door shut behind him.