Bright and early the next morning, I left the house and walked towards Percy’s. I expected him to have set up some sort of arena for our… practice sparring session. However, what I didn’t expect was for it to be in the town square.

A makeshift arena was set up in the middle of the square, out of simple blocks of wood. They formed some sort of crude circle, with about a 20 metre diameter. To the right of the arena lay a table full of all kinds of weapons, from swords, to clubs, to staffs, to shurikens. Surrounding the arena were two large stands for an audience? Why would anyone be watching?

The stands were currently empty and no one was in sight - which was weird because on a day like this, the square would normally be packed full of people.

“Percy? What’s going on?”

Luckily for me, Percy had arrived before me and had just about finished setting up a small stall.

“Ah! Ikite! You made it nice and early!”

He put down the piece of wood he was holding and wiped his brow, sweat flicking off his hairy arms.

“What’s going on? What is this? Why aren’t we at your place?”

“Woah, woah. One question at a time. This,” He paused dramatically and gestured to the stadium like one would gesture towards their trophy collection, “is the annual ‘Pride’ competition, where our best fighters in town come to compete against each other.”

Raising an eyebrow, I replied suspiciously.

“And what has that got to do with us and our sparring?”

“Well, we’re going to use this opportunity for training of course! Giving you a chance to train against the best fighters we have in combat is a rare one, wouldn’t you say?”

“Yes… but are we up to their standards?”

“Who cares? They won’t kill you, don’t worry. We have a strict no-death rule which has only been broken seventeen times in our entire history of ‘Pride’ competitions.”

“Seventeen times, and how many ‘Pride’ competitions have you had?”

“Oh, this is our 20th one.”

20th… That meant that almost one person had died per competition?! How could he have said that so nonchalantly? This wasn’t like Percy. Had he taken a page out of Mei’s book?

“Isn’t that a bit dangerous then? If one person has been killed almost every year from this competition?”

“Don’t worry, the seventeen died in one year, the year when Orai joined.”

“Orai?”

“Yeah, he’s the best fighter in… possibly Hell. I think he’s cracked level 150 by now.”

“So he’s definitely not joining this year, right?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll be watching over it to make sure nothing too serious happens anyways. We also have Mei, who makes a better healer than she looks”

“How does the competition work?”

“Oh, it’s your simple knockout fighting tournament. A random draw will decide who gets matched up with who, then if you win, you progress to the next round, until the grand final.”

“What’s the prize?”

“Any three items from the town. Anyone’s store, any price.”

Any three items… that would mean that I could get even better accessories, better than the Ring of Increased Experience that I wore.

“What’s the average level of these guys? I know you said that Orai dude was past level 100, but surely that’s not the benchmark, right?”

“Yeah, the average level of the competition is pretty low, around twentyish.”

20? That was pretty good. I had killed the devil ant queen’s second form, which was level 30, two times what I had been at the time.

“Well, I’ve got nothing to lose, right?”

“That’s my boy!”

Clapping me on the back excitedly, he ushered me to sign my name on a small form, where fifteen or so other people’s names lay.

A week ago, I wouldn’t have even dared to join, but now, I felt like I may actually stand a chance.

* * *

“And first up, we have Ikite the All Rounder against Taki the Beast!”

A half hour later, the stands had filled up with spectators and the competitors had arrived. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to actually get a look at each other until our match, to avoid unfair advantages. Bea and I were just one of sixteen people competing in the Pride competition, both hoping to get a grab at the winnings. Since I had been locked underneath the square in a little cubicle (probably a prison), I could only listen to what was going on above me. It appeared that three matches had passed and now, it was my turn.

“Everyone give it up for Ikite the All Rounder!”

Someone, probably Percy, had written my name on the damn sheet as ‘Ikite the All Rounder’. I get what he was trying to do, protect our identities, just like how everyone else did, but did it really have to be ‘All Rounder’?

That sounded so silly and… weak.

Regardless, I stepped out into the light of the square and smiled, waving toward the stands, knowing that Erina would be watching.

Actually, the whole town would be watching.

I seriously hoped that I wouldn’t screw up in front of everyone here, cause it wouldn’t be very good for my reputation.

My opponent was a monster.

A literal monster.

I was pretty sure he was a mixed breed of half-bear half-human, being at least a metre taller than me and hairs covering his entire body. His red hair was set into short spikes and wore a giant belt across his shoulder to his waist, daggers filling half a dozen slots in it. A large pike was brandished in one hand, while the other gripped another of those small daggers just below his hip.

My mind stirred for a second or two, then proceeded to formulate a plan for getting out of this alive. Actually, I could have asked Kimi to help me with this, but she probably would just go off about being an advantage and being unfair and all that sort of nonsense I didn’t really need now.

Plan number one. Use Lightning Zap on him as soon as the referee said go.

Plan number two. Hope that he's slow and use Light Ray on him.

Plan number three. Turn around and get the hell out of here as fast as my legs could carry me.

If I put my first and second plan together, I could actually have the start of some good attack strategy. I straightened my belt and stood a little taller. Besides, if all else failed, plan number three was still there.

“Ready?”

I gulped.

“Set!”

Taki cracked his neck.

“Go!”

“Lightning Zap!”

The poor guy didn’t even have time to react before a massive bolt of lighting hit him right on the head.

Hard.

He stumbled for a second, then collapsed onto the ground in an unmoving heap.

Did I just one-tap a monster?

“And the winner is Ikite Dorau!”

* * *

The next few hours turned into a blur as I was whisked away, back into the cell, this time with a victorious feeling.

Three times, I came out, facing some monstrous creature or person, then destroyed them with a lightning zap. I couldn’t help but feel lucky that the alpha pegasus hadn’t used it on me when I had first met it. If just the basic form of this skill could do this much damage, how much would the original form have done?

For the first time in my entire two lives, I felt powerful.

Strong.

Brave.

Everything I hadn’t been in my previous life.

The announcer’s voice dragged me out of my thoughts with another-

“Everyone give it up for Ikite the One Shot!”

After the first match, he had changed my title from all rounder to one shot. To be honest, it sounded much better, much more… satisfactory.

Once again, I was ushered out of the little cubicle and out into the midday light. My opponent this time was… Bea?

“Bea? I’m fighting you?”

There she was, this time wearing a shirt which revealed her stomach, the elk hide jacket, a pair of stockings which was chopped off high above her thigh on one leg and dark crimson boots.

“Hey Ikite! Don’t go easy on me!”

A sword in each hand, one from the imp and one she had previously, rings on both of her middle fingers and a white belt set with a dagger completed the look.

“Ready?”

She bent forward and brandished her swords in a fighting stance.

“Set?”

I whipped out my snake handle sword and prepared to mutter my incantation.

“Go!”

“Lightning Zap!”

The bolt of lightning struck down onto… nothing?

Bea had disappeared.

Suddenly, a small breeze passed me and, instinctively, I raised my sword up to my face.

Shing!

Something metal sliced against my blade, scraping a little bit of metal off.

Crap.

She had gone invisible.

The pattering of footsteps on the ground next to me told me that she hadn’t been expecting me to block her hit. This was unfair! When had she gotten an invisibility skill? How could I expect to defend against an invisi… my perk.

“Aligned Perception.”

I activated my only useful perk and scanned my surroundings. A blue person-shaped aura lit up to my left, moving in my direction very, very slowly.

Oh right, time slowed down when I used this, I nearly forgot. Unfortunately, I could only see one of her swords - I believe it wasn’t the one from the imp - as it too lit up in that same blue aura.

“Light… Ray…”

It took a painfully long time for me to pronounce the two words that activated my skill, and much longer for me to raise my hands up in her direction. But, nonetheless, the beam shot out of my palm and hit her straight in the stomach area - or thereabouts.

Light Ray has reached 100% mastery. Skill upgrade available.

Deactivating Aligned Perception, I witnessed Bea skittering away and crashing into one of the wooden barriers. Not knowing whether I had burnt a hole through her stomach, I rushed over to the crash site to see whether she was all right.

I didn’t even get halfway there before a sharp pain emerged from my thigh.

A black dagger protruded out of my leg and a little bit of blood trickled from the wound

Huh? Since when did that get there-

“Ahhhhh!”

The pain hit me like a giant devil ant queen’s blow. Feeling paralysed, I dropped to my knees and cried out once more. How did this hurt so much? The time when I was drained to half health fighting the ant queen had only left me out of breath. Was it because this was a flesh wound?

Regardless, the pain came and I was this close to blacking out.

Finally, the pain stopped and became bearable for a second, enabling me to see that my health had dropped to 80 and a figure rising from the dust.

Bea.

Gritting my teeth, I yanked the dagger out of my leg and watched my health go down by another 5. Luckily, the pain only lasted a second longer before disappearing, leaving my leg only a little sore. The heck was wrong with this game system?

I stood up shakily, careful not to put too much pressure onto my leg in case it failed me.

“Dissection!”

As I heard that single word, I ducked and activated Aligned Perception, knowing the onslaught that was coming. Bea hadn’t told me much about her perk, but I knew it was dangerous from looking at it’s profile.

Very dangerous.

Perk Information - Bea Haka

Name Dissection Rarity Legendary Power Level 8 Activity Level Active Cooldown 3 minutes (3 second use) Information

Enables the user to perform precise slashes or cuts, either to do damage or for other uses. The amount of cuts performed will be based on the amount of mastery this skill has. The more mastery, the more amount of cuts, damage and precision will increase. This skill can only be used on sharp objects. The speed of the cuts depends on the users agility level.

It’s power level was on par with lightning zap, which destructive power I knew very well.

Time slowed and deciseconds passed.

Nothing happened.

Then suddenly, a slice of white appeared.

A slash! I began to raise my sword out to block it, then another one appeared, crossing it.

Double slash?

Then another one appeared near it.

And another one.

And another one.

And another one.

How many swords did she have? Was it even possible to swing just two swords this fast?

Grunting, I leapt backwards, attempting to dodge or somehow evade the wall of slices that had appeared before me.

But still they came, more and more appearing to fill the gaps of the ones that had slowly faded away. My sword was up, a desperate attempt to block the onslaught.

Shing!

Cling!

But to no avail, as the attacks started to nick my shoulders, stomach, legs, arms, everywhere.

When did this stop? How could she move her sword this fast even with my perk activated?

My HP dipped from 75 down to 60, and counting. Growling, I felt the pain emerge from all around my body like fire and I fell to the ground. Luckily for me, her perk's attack time must have ended because the torrent of attacks stopped at last.

My chance for a counter attack! Ignoring my wounds and drooping health, since my cooldown had ended, I activated my Lightning Zap in a last ditch effort to end it now, while I still had enough HP to move.

Boom!

The bolt of electricity struck, kicking up clouds of dust around me. Had I done it? Had I won the match?

Bea’s figure was no longer visible through the dust and I hoped, prayed that this was the end.

As the air cleared, she was no longer where she was before.

“I win.”

A familiar sword, now at my throat, glinted in the light and I looked up slowly, only to find Bea’s face grinning down at me. Her stomach was completely intact, skin without a scratch.

“Congratulations Bea the Hell Bringer! You have won the match!”