Kifeda knew better than to let someone like Erland get the initiative. His grin told the story of a fight maniac. People like that were exhausting given the opportunity.

So naturally he activated [Stealth], his upgraded form of [Hide].

Best to end fights like this quickly.

Erland saw Kifeda disappear and closed his eyes immediately, turning [Hunter’s Scent] back on. The skill lived up to its Top Tier rating, increasing its utility as it leveled up. While it couldn’t fully replace his eyesight yet, it could certainly help in situations like this.

Here, he received his first surprise of the fight. The man lit up his nose like a dose of smelling salts. He was every bit as much of a challenge as Halina. Anticipation shuddered through him as goosebumps crawled up his arms.

A washed out and extremely blurry view of the landscape around him appeared in his mind. Where Kifeda traveled, a swirling blue fog trailed him. Erland was unsurprised to see that the trail led behind him.

Without opening his eyes, Erland spun around. [Remorse] struck out in an arcing blow that would cleave the man in two unless he managed to block.

His second surprise in as many seconds appeared here. Instead of getting behind Erland to attack him, the man had gone straight for the fort.

Both of Kifeda’s arms swung down, his knives striking the corner pillar. The fort shook heavily under the blow, but didn’t buckle. More worryingly to Erland, the blades left smoking scars on the pillar itself.

Erland swung his axe down and it buried itself in the dirt. Kifeda was already gone, attacking a different pillar of the fort now. Two more smoking scorch marks were left here as well.

Erland growled in frustration. Despite clearly being a capable fighter, Kifeda wouldn’t engage him. He was focused on the objective of the trial.

Erland hated good fighters who wouldn’t fight him.

“Are you spineless then?” he said. “Did Hodr choose you for your cowardice?”

Kifeda didn’t answer, but dodged away from a third looping blow as he was forced back from the third pillar, leaving it unharmed. They played at cat and mouse for a few moments and the smoke continued to rise from the pillars, weakening them slowly.

“Look, if you can beat me in a fight now, I’ll surrender when I attack your fort,” Erland wheedled now, desperate more to fight Kifeda than to win the wave.

“Why would I trust that?” Kifeda questioned. “And if I beat you in a fight once, surely I could just do it again.”

“If I keep you from hitting the fort long enough, the round will end,” Erland said. “And while I’ve lost a few fights, I’ve never lost to the same person twice.”

Kifeda glanced at the smoking pockmarks he had left on the building and judged that Erland was right. They wouldn’t progress fast enough to topple the building on their own.

Still, with enough successful attacks, he would win eventually. He had no reason to accept Erland’s deal. Besides, he hated fighting men like Erland. They just had too much… energy.

Unfortunately as the minutes dragged on, Kifeda only managed a scant handful of successful blows, and they grew further and further apart each time. Erland was adapting to Kifeda’s movement and anticipating him better and better as they shuffled around.

Eventually, Kifeda let out a sigh of aggravated defeat.

“Your type are always pests,” he griped. “It’s even worse when you’re actually skilled. Fine, I’ll fight you.”

Erland was so happy that he actually capered in place for a moment. Kifeda attacked immediately.

Erland smashed the knives away, but grunted with the effort. Kifeda must be nearing the top of C-Tier. His strength and speed greatly exceeded Erland’s own. Without his axe, Kifeda might have torn through Erland right there.

His grin ratcheted up a notch.

Kifeda flowed between his attacks, feints mixed in heavily with his true intent. He could defeat this man, but the effort it was costing him felt too strenuous. Still, he wasn’t the type to quit in the middle of a job.

Erland fell for nothing. Feints were ignored, and true strikes were met with measured responses. Still, he could not step off the back foot. The difference in stats was too great to bridge.

After a particularly close dodge, Kifeda’s frustration peaked and he finally tipped his hand.

[Arrest] activated.

Kifeda put everything into this attack, stacking [Backstab], [Power Attack], and [Eagle Eye] together into one. This attack could take down even a peak B-Tier.

Erland felt his body freeze, and a knife plunged into his back.

Or at least it would have, if he hadn’t activated [Faultless Defense] immediately. His body flashed gold for just a moment before impact. It only blocked one attack, but combined with Kifeda’s surprise it did the trick to let him survive. He felt the blade snap and the pressure against his defense disappeared.

He dropped [Remorse] and reverted to his base, cobbled-together style.

Snaking his body around, Erland grappled the taller man around his neck and arm. His other hand shot out to immobilize Kifeda’s now singular dagger. Using his positional advantage he bore the stronger man to the ground.

Kifeda writhed under Erland’s chokehold and scrabbled at anything his free arm could reach. He could not find purchase. His eyes flashed to the timer of his Player interface and he relaxed. His struggled breathing eased slightly.

Less than a minute remained in the round. His constitution and endurance would outlast this hold.

Erland grinned as he realized the same thing, but he didn’t release the hold. If Kifeda overpowered him here, he was still dead.

And so the last few seconds of the wave passed.

“You didn’t win,” Erland said. “See you in the attack wave.”

Kifeda sighed even through the choke.

Erland hoped with all his might that he would be attacking Kifeda this round. Instead, he saw a different familiar face.

Facing him from a formidable stone structure was Anu, chosen of Forseti.

Erland felt like a kid in a candy shop. Most of his fights this round were dreams come true. The chaff in between fell out of his notice and memory.

Anu seemed surprised to see him at first, then the same scorn descended upon his eyes.

“The ant who carries himself like a king crawls once again before me,” he called from the top of his hewn stone fortress.

It was the best constructed of all Erland had seen this trial, and Anu had clearly been so effortlessly victorious that he had been embellishing upon it between rounds. Signs of a bas relief of Forseti’s throne were even roughed into the keystone of the entryway.

Anu jumped down.

“I guess today I get to kick the anthill,” he said.

“Oh no!” Erland shouted in mock terror. “Please don’t squish a poor little ANT LIKE ME!”

The last few words joined a roar of exertion. He had activated [Charge] before he’d even finished responding to his opponent’s taunt. [Remorse] swung with all the force of his considerable strength.

Anu wasn’t there to meet him.

His combat senses screamed a warning in his skull. Using the momentum of his swing, Erland launched into an impromptu somersault, unequipping his axe as he did so. Still, he felt a glancing blow of dull pain in his back.

He caught sight of Anu at the peak of his jump, and true alarm touched him for the first time since his conversation with Baldr on the farm. It felt like years ago.

Large adamanstal gauntlets gleamed a muted, almost rusty purple on his hands. Worse, he was throwing a double fisted punch straight at Erland’s back.

[Dodge] wouldn’t work here. It couldn’t move him when he couldn’t move himself, and in the air he was virtually helpless.

Virtually.

Just before the moment of impact, [Faultless Defense] activated instead. The now familiar flash of gold swept over him and Anu’s fists collided with his back harmlessly.

Well, mostly harmlessly.

The strike still sent him flying.

Despite the peril, Erland’s lips tugged upwards into a feral grin. A wolfish expression, as much a smile as a snarl. His eyes could barely keep up with Anu’s movements, but he knew what would happen next.

It was the same thing Erland would do from such a dominant position. Unfortunately he’d spent most of his cards already. His only option now was to take some pain to avoid more later.

When Anu streaked towards him with a charge skill, Erland quite literally grinned and bore it. The next minute or two of his life was guaranteed pain.

It wasn’t the first time.

Still, after the first blow, Erland realized he’d never been hit quite that hard. It was further compounded when his back slammed into the barrier surrounding Anu’s portion of the trial ground. Blood stained the ground underneath him as he crumpled into a heap.

Still, he tallied a small victory in containing the groan of pain that tried to bubble past his lips.

“You see?” Anu said from above him. “An ant. You climb your hill and think you’ve scaled a mountain, until an uncaring foot squashes everything you’ve built in a moment of distraction.”

“I think you’ll find that’s what the Aesir did to all of us,” Erland coughed a laugh, slowly gathering himself. “You’re just as much of an ant as I am to them. Or did you volunteer willingly when Forseti asked for your service as his slave?”

Anu grabbed Erland’s hair, pulling his head up and locking eyes. Erland saw a fervent zeal behind that gaze. Mixed heavily with madness and disgust.

“Of course I did!” Anu screamed at him before loosing a blow across Erland’s jaws that scrambled his senses. “I’ve served him since childhood! I have carried his justice across the deserts of Gullvatr since I was a child! Since one like you stole my parents from me with a smile.”

Another blow cracked across his face, sending blood flying. A dangerous darkness tinted his vision now. Anu punched in a weight class almost entirely out of Erland’s realm. If Erland didn’t end this quickly and decisively, he would lose this round.

Still, the man was fully in the grips of his rage now, lost in a traumatic memory far from here.

And [Charge] had just come off cooldown.

[Remorse] flashed into his hands. He stacked every attack buff he had into one blow. The two men crashed into the barrier in a silent explosion of force.

Anu glared at him from behind his crossed gauntlets. His footing was steady. No trace of pain lurked in his gaze. Completely unharmed.

Rather than panic, a thrill of excitement shivered down Erland’s spine.

The Player system always had more to show him.

The only reason his grin finally left his face was that his jaw shattered under Anu’s uppercut a moment later.