Who knew Shyme had an underground Arena?

Luxinna certainly didn’t. It even caught Rem by surprise for a second until the veneer of calmness rollover his brief window of vulnerability.

As for the young goddess, she looked extremely uncomfortable.

“Do we have to do this, Shyme?”

Shyme looked back exasperatedly.

“Cy, you got four enemies on the top half of the 33 Stars. You might be skating on anonymity now, but I can assure you that they will know you are visiting me. LinLey might send someone to kill you tomorrow for all I know. It is not that I don’t trust Scathach, but I need to see your security with my own eyes.”

Rem did not give an iota of a fuck.

“Good, so who are we fighting?”

Shyme clapped, and six men and women appear. All of them were transparently beastmen. Rem took three seconds to measure their threat-level. Naïve. Their clothing gave them away. Three wore leather cloth and concealed weapon that yelled assassins. One slung a bow behind her back while wearing a medium-coverage breastplate. However, the sword hanging from her waist and lack of arm protection told the truth; she was an archer with at least C-grade swordsmanship. Next to the archer was a guy with a sword, but he wasn’t wearing any heavy armor. Rem marked him as a problem from a gut feeling. Finally, they got a knight in full armor and a giant claymore.

“Three assassins, a knight, an archer playing swordsman, and a guy who is at least smart enough to be vague,” Rem said. “How troublesome.”

“Hey!” the archer responded. “I can use the sword just fine.”

“Lady, we can sort that out in the arena,” Rem said. “Anyone of you wants to introduce yourself.

The stooges of six looked at each other and turned toward Shyme.

“No,” Shyme answered.

“Very well,” Rem said. “I will go first. Now, please sort yourself out. And Lux, please don’t give everything about us away. We are playing a slightly talented prodigy, not a freak of nature who can defy magical law, got it?”

Shyme twitched at the blatant filtration of her existence. It almost tempted her to jump into the Arena and smacked Rem herself.

Luxinna facepalmed, but still gave Rem a thumb-up.

…

Rem slipped his glove on and tapped the floor with the tip of his boot; steel. This material could pose a problem. Why couldn’t Shyme line the Arena with sand? Oh well, he would manage. At least, he got a brick wall for extra ammo.

Rem did a mental checklist of his consumables: nine trick-knives, a trusty piano wire, twelve Japanese-inspired kunai, an air-filer, and a set of recovery-pills. As for the weapon, he got a short-sword in his sleeves, a stun-gun, a revolver, an ignition glove cobbled together by him and Melody. Rem needed to give it to the demoness, having her around essentially tripled their hardware gallery.

Rem knew he would be up against a pro who could disarm him before he got a bullet off. With the tools available, it would be a challenge to take out three professional opponents in a fair match.

Luckily, he planned. He already chose his first opponent.

The beastwoman with goat-horns stepped through the opposing entrance with a bow and an arrow in hand. Rem smiled and fingered his gun with his right hand.

“Boss, can I punch his smug face off now?” The archer shouted.

And her boss answered.

“Very well, the rule is simple. Whoever gives up first or get incapacitated loss!” Shyme said. “Any question?”

“No,” the archer answered.

Rem didn’t even bother replying. He unholstered his weapon with his right hand.

“Three! Two! One!” Shyme yelled. “Start!”

Rem lifted his revolver, but a flaming arrow arrive cut toward the weapon so fast he could barely react.

The gun he was holding slip apart and landed on the ground in two molten pieces.

…

“Shit!” Cytortia yelled after seeing how fast Rem got disarmed.

Shyme almost felt disappointed. The battle was the most anticlimactic she ever witnessed. She knew humans were weak, but a human her friend praised so much should put more of a fight. Usually, Shyme would be sneering to heaven, but this was Cytortia. She couldn’t bring herself to trash-talk about her only friend’s recruitment blunder.

Among all the spectators, only one elf noticed the obvious. Rem still had his left hand be underneath his cloak. The only thing they saw was the gun in his right hand.

“Oh, you cheating bastard,” Luxinna whispered.

Rem threw out his left hand, unsheathing a flurry of trick knives the silver of the moment the archer fired.

With [Knife Throwing], the blades flew straight at the archer. The beastwoman didn’t have a split second to celebrate. It was a perfect counter that caught the opponent when she was to focus on the attack. Most opponents would already get hit, but the archer wasn’t most opponent. She reacted to the counter brilliantly, raising a shield of fire that deflected away two of the knives. However, she made one fatal mistake. Rem didn’t toss two knives; he threw out five. The flames redirected the blades and reduced it into molten metals, but three landed around her feet before erupting into the cloud of smoke.

Rem was already moving before the knives’ sheaths even landed.

…

The archer couldn’t see anything. Normally, she would cast a simple dispersion spell, but the smoke wasn’t that simple, breathing it in was turning her throat into an inferno. But she still held her ground and used a healing spell to keep herself standing.

Then the boy appeared with a breath-filter in his mouth, flinging several throwing knives. She drew her sword and deflected the closest projectiles before twisting her stance into a counter-attack. Her bow would be less than useless at this range. The archer mentally admitted that she underestimated the human. His race might be weak, but he got the brain.

It failed to dawn on the archer that her realization was an understatement.

The throwing knives was a distraction. The real attack was a thin piano wire hooked to one of the kunai that was deliberately off target. Thankfully, Melody added a small clipped to the piano wire for easy utilization, or else Rem might get a slightly more awkward set-up.

Rem tugged the wired in he practiced motion, dipping the knife downward, and wrapping the wire around his opponent neck with its leftover momentum.

“Rope trick!” the archer laughed after in response. “Are you planning to strangle an armed beastmen? Do you think I am that frail? Our physical stats are above humans. I can deal with your puny wired before you come close to choking me.”

Rem answered by shocking the wire with his stun-gun.

While an electrical current from your average 450V stun gun would fare exceptionally badly against any resident of Phantasia D-rank and above, it was another story with someone who knew Arcane. Hikma De Darwin might be the best (and only) Arcane specialist in the world, but Rem wasn’t far behind him. The boy’s WIS was high enough to learn several Arcane, including some in the lightning categories. Rem might not be able to last semi-second against Luxinna in a lightning flinging competition, but he knew several gimmicks.

Stun gun might not hurt the archer, but it wasn’t the end game. It was only an electrical catalyst, powered up by his conceptual strengthening power, to fuel an Arcane.

[Heaven Python]

The storm surged, and the wire became a serpent of lightning, bitting into the beastwomen with a voltage of an industrial-grade tesla coil. It took barely a second for the archer to fall onto the floor with steam drifting from her mouth.

Rem tossed away his rebreather as the cloud dispersed and said a simple sentence.

“You are right, but your intelligence stats speak for itself.”

…

“How did he do that?” Shyme asked what her men were thinking.

“Impressive strategy,” Waiter commented, appearing out of nowhere. “He won before the battle even started.”

“How?”

“His weapon was a diversion. If our employees had attacked him directly, he would have to fight fairly. I believe the boy could not afford a fair fight, so he played the mindgame. He baited his opponent to commit a mistake and stacked up so much advantage on his favor that victory became mathematical.”

“Yeah, Rem won’t win a fair fight against a superior opponent,” Luxinna said. “He always cheats.”

“Let see if he can cheat this one,” Shyme nodded toward the man in black cloth. Rem might outsmart a warrior, but she doubted he could cheat trickster who killed people for a living.

…

Rem nodded as Waiter dragged the unconscious archer away. Behind him, a new figure entered. Great, it one of the four horsemen of budgeted Assassin Creed.

“Impressive, man!” The assassin greeted him cheerily. “You know; I always hate her.”

Rem nodded. He needed him to move a few more steps.

“Thank you,” Rem replied, thrusting out his hand. “Mind a handshake?”

“No, I won’t fall for that,” the man shrugged.

Rem sighed, flicking out a short-sword hidden in his sleeve.

“Alright, you got me,” Rem replied. “Geez, do you know how much Cytortia worked to create this spanking new paralytic? Shyme asked me to test it on you.”

“I DID NOT!” Shyme yelled.

“Wow,” the beastman sounded impressed. “I have never seen someone piss off the boss this much.”

Rem bowed.

“Pissing off people is my job description,” Rem took several steps backward with his left hand hidden out of sight. “May I continue.”

The assassin huffed--he knew what was coming. The boy was putting a distance between them using this conversation as a distraction. He sucked at melee, so he tried to bank on a ranged battle. The assassin took a few steps forward. He won’t give the kid a chance.

Rem frowned.

“Shyme, do we have to start now?”

It was then that Shyme was sure she got the bastard with his pant down.

“Yes, ready!” Shyme yelled.

The assassin procured a chained twin-dagger. Spell-formula lined within the chain activated, surrounding him in a metallic coil of darkness. His plan was simple; used his chain as a barrier to block Rem range-attack and applying his superior speed and a delayed shadow-clone spell he already pre-casted to overwhelm the boy. The kid wouldn’t see it coming. The real type of trickery was casting sure kill attack before entering the battlefield. It was what separated amateur from the pros.

“BEGIN!”

…

"He is dead."

Everyone from Shyme’s camp said in unison when then assassin moved.

…

Rem snapped his finger and performed one of the six Arcane in his knowhow. It was the one he practiced the most in the last three days. Although he didn’t maximize its power to a legendary-level, he did master two aspects of it: speed and accuracy. The ignition glove lighted a spark Rem strengthen ablaze with his True Magic. The whip of flames slid past the puzzled assassin, and his emerging clone, before striking at its target: the sheath of his trick knife.

…

"He is dead.”

Luxinna and Cytortia said in unison once they saw where Rem attacked.

Unlike traditional sheath, Horizon Dawn’s standard-issue trick knife wouldn’t arm until itself unless separated from the blade by design. The interior baffled its two creators for days due to the design specification.

After all, it took a very sophisticated design to safely store, disarm, and weaponize the dangerous substance called Burning Sunshine.

…

BOOOOOOM!

The sheath erupted and caused the chain-reaction that ignited the other four fully-armed explosives.

The explosion of Cytortia most dangerous mishap was immense, and no amount of clone would block the fiery ball of roasting from the nether region. The assassin’s chain did nothing to stop the explosion going right beneath him. The conflagration of savage fire sent him into the sky in a flaming ball of cat-man. He tumbled in the air twice, slammed into a barrier shielding the spectator with enough force to break half his bones, and fell right into a kicked from Rem.

The unfortunate assassin slammed into the brick wall in a broken pile of burns and defeat.

Unfortunately, he held to enough consciousness to hear his opponent finishing blow.

“The strong cheat with strength, while the weak cheat the game. Get down to my level, fucking normie.”

…

“What. The. Hell.” Shyme said in awe at the explosion.

“That is Cytortia’s solution of doom called Burning Sunshine,” Luxinna explained. “Rem mindgamed your boy into walking inside the blast-zone and detonated an instakill attack right underneath his behind.”

“When did he set it up!?” Shyme yelled before turning to her friend. “And, Cy, please don’t play with explosive.”

“It a scientific experiment!”

Waiter coughed.

“I believe he already planned to do this from the very first knife attack on our archer,” Waiter noted. “I take my word back. The boy wasn’t a good tactician; he is simply evil.”

Shyme breathed out her rage.

“Sent the assassination leader!”

…

Rem watched his next opponent step to the bat--a part-snake assassin with scales and slit-eyes.

“Yo,” Rem said.

“Save your word,” the snake-woman's clothing come to life. Her cotton cloak lighted up with defensive spells. Her scarf elongated into a tendril as several enchantments came to life. “I won’t even talk to you.”

“Ouch...”

Shyme doesn’t even bother with formality.

“SMASH HIM, MURIEL!”

Muriel came whirling like a cyclone of death. Rem breathed and gave himself him into his training plus countless hours in Astral Trace.

His short sword swung, deflecting two consecutive strikes from the tendril of clothing wrapped in a shearing wind. Conceptual strengthening clashed with spell woven into pieces of fabric. Utilizing his forms and his [Clairvoyance], Rem dodged, deflected, and blocked several attacks of winds, fire, and blades.

But he couldn’t last long. Unlike Hikma’s defensive form, Rem’s style was all about zoning, the basic, and strategic response weaved into combat. The boy was simply to slow to match Muriel.

The tendril of cloth cut him in the leg, and then the blast of fire sent him flying into the wall.

Rem gasped as the snake-woman came in for a follow-up without even allowing him to breathe. As for his weapon, it already flew off to who-know-where. In a desperate gamble, Rem ripped off his cloak and flung it at her, Muriel cut through the fabric in a second, but it was enough for Rem to unsheathe his remaining knives.

Muriel knew what was coming. She threw a fireball, shattering the knife in Rem’s hand, and readied herself for Rem to explode.

But the boy smiled, she should have disarmed him instead of exploding Burning Sunshine in his face. His [Clairvoyance] already told him the future; the entire brawl led up to this moment.

“[Burn the Witch]”

The fire did roast his hand, but the Arcane’s activation saved the rest of his arm. [Burn the Witch] was a fire Arcane that burned every medium conducting supernatural phenomenons in the entire target area. Rem studied many texts with Hikma, but he picked this particular Arcane to meditate on because of his hatred for enchantment. There was nothing Rem hated more than a U/W in Magic the Gathering.

The sacred flame containing the frustration of every Magic and Gathering who fell to the enchantment control deck surged, searing the entire area in flames.

The flame didn’t hurt Muriel, but it went for her clothing. The Arcane’s flames licked the legging enhancing and turned them into ash. Her linen clothing wove with a protective spell did not do anything to stop the burning. Even the annoying scarf disappeared in the fire. The Arcane also went for her underwear with an auto-cleaning function.

In a second, Muriel was naked in her birthday-suit against a boy with a massive shit-eating grin.

“Wait!” The snake-woman tried to cover herself embarrassingly. Her face turned tomato from raw humiliation. “Let me get something to wear!”

Rem booted her in the face.

“Sorry, as a true believer in true feminism. I punch every gender, clothed or naked, equally. Plus, I prefer a 2D angel over thot.”

…

Upon the spectator seat, everyone turned silent.

“Scum,” Shyme said.

“Trash,” said the remaining assassin.

“Brute,” said Waiter.

“Monster,” said the knight.

“Just which century does this bastard come from!?” said the duelist with a hint of admiration.

“Great!” Luxinna said while Cytortia buried her face in her palm. “Can I take all three of you at once. I need to one-up Rem, or else I will never live this down.”