Hydra Level: 1 Primary Class Type: Novice Class: Novice Subclass Type: ??? Title: None HP : 50 MP : 50 Strength 10 Dexterity 10 Stamina 10 Constitution 10 Intelligence 10 Spirit: 10

A small commotion occurred in the crowds as they began to talk before Xaecies bellows out once more “Now you have received your status you can start the tournament.”

Every single player looked cluelessly around scratching their heads as silence filled the arena, it was as if they were waiting for something to happen or they were expecting a signal.

No one wanted to be the first guy to throw a punch, can you blame them? A signal of sorts did come, however, as a rough-looking young man with a dirty blonde ponytail yelled from the top of his lungs “Hell Yeah! A good ol’ fashion beatdown! Let’s do this!” before his fist struck the nearest person and then what we can only call a street fight had broken loose. Players were punching and kicking anyone in sight, it was barbaric. Xaecies grinned with excitement while spectating the battlefield.

As the fight went on, there were a few others like Hydra just sitting back and watching the fight going on. These players were like hyenas waiting to clean up the bloody fights. There were also players who would play like snakes and wait for others to be occupied in fights and then sneak attack them to finish them off. Among the crowd of around 80, a small minority were starting to form teams of small groups.

This just helped them in the beginning but backfired on them as time went on. Human greed took over and the groups would start to fill with betrayal as it was obvious only one person would come out alive, everyone wanted that to be themselves. The groups would disintegrate.

Eliminating a player caused their body to explode into tiny red particle effects which then lead to a bright pillar of light rising endlessly into the sky over the place of death, marking a death.

The numbers started to drop down rapidly and in only 20 minutes the number of players remaining was halved. A small group of ten people were sat down leaning against the dome walls to the side, Hydra was included in this group that had an unspoken promise to not attack each other as they were either too scared to or didn’t want to fight.

More players began to notice them as the chaos from the start of the fight had started to slow down and it personally offended them leaving them enraged.

One of those paying attention to the ‘cowards’ sitting out of the fight spoke up “Get those fuckers! they’re just sittin’ on the sidelines while we do all their dirty work!”. Players began to sprint towards the group. The smarter players stood back, allowing the angry thugs to test the group of sitting players. One of the idiots rushed straight towards Hydra, blood was aggressively pouring from his nose from the previous exchanges of punching. He looked like an average street thug, decently well versed in fighting.

Watching the idiot rushing towards him Hydra sighs as he stands up. The brawler swings out a fist, Hydra used as minimal movement as possible to twist his body to the side as he dodged and moved to the right of the brawler's body. Hydra’s right hand gripped the back of the man's head and leg sweeps the man off his feet causing him to fall, adding onto the downwards thrust with his own strength Hydra pushed the man’s head to make to fall faster.

Sadly for the man that was falling, he doesn’t hit the ground, but he must have wished that he did because then Hydra timed his grapple perfectly and made the man’s head stop thrusting downwards just over an enormous icicle spike in the ground. Giving the man clear sight of his demise, the poor guy was met with a death notification as Hydra thrust his skull further and further through the spike, piercing his brain with blood spraying out like a hose.

Blood dripped from the icicle onto the ground before a pillar of light flashed over the spot of death and the corpse dissipated into the wind. Those watching immediately gulped and took a couple steps back, still some watched and waited for an opening on him, while others returned to brawl in the middle or attacked the others watching on the side.

As the fight started to wrap up nobody else tried to test Hydra. All the players were keeping a close eye out on him after that incident while attempting to clean up the others. The players still had no idea how to actually pass or how many people would pass through so they decided to attack anyone they could as it could be a kill count score.

It’s better to clear out the weak links than trying to pick off the boss. If the winners are those with the most kills then the weaklings would grant you a victory. So it’s best to clear out the weakest and then move onto the strongest.

Soon enough with still nobody to test him, Hydra became extremely bored. As time flew by so did blood, the arena was soon left with just above twenty, roughly around twenty-six. Hydra noticed that the timid boy from earlier was still alive and was shocked, despite looking cowardly and the type to hide in a fight, Hydra knew not to ever underestimate some.one

*What was his name again? Kleo right?*

It’s as if Hydra was casting a spell since as the moment he thought about Kleo, the timid boy got jumped by some of the snakes that had been hiding waiting for easy prey, a slightly sympathetic look was placed on Hydra’s face as it seemed the boy was only going to get this far without fighting, he must prove his strength to continue.

A three on one as the snakes were teaming up trying to secure their own place in this fight, assuming that surviving until the last bracket was the way to go. This soon turned into a three on two as a voice came out from those still fighting “It’s not nice to pick on little kids! I, Albus will give divine judgement!” as the same dirty blonde haired brawler jumped out to join the fight

A loud thud hit the ice, the snake attacking Kleo was slammed into the ground before Kleo stepped on top of him and began bludgeoning him, sending blow after blow to the face of the snake even after the body stopped responding he didn't stop, only stopped when the corpse disappeared in the same flash as before. Meanwhile, Albus swung an uppercut to his opponent, stunning him allowing Albus to throw a deadly hook, defeating him in as little as two hits. They quickly finished up the two on two making a small amount left, at least under twenty.

It soon became a deadlock, people were refusing to fight, even those who couldn’t read moods knew it would a mistake to be the first to punch in this situation as it would leave you open for others to attack. There were seventeen people left now. The mood was so tense, Hydra was the only player who didn’t care for waiting around but even he felt this was dragging on, standing up from the place he was resting and walked in the middle of the group.

All of the player’s eyes were following Hydra as he walked over into the middle and spoke towards Xaecies that sat losing his smile from the deadlock “Old man, give me a coin.” Hydra demanded.

“A coin… I like the idea.” Xaecies replied making almost everyone wide-eyed from the tone Hydra just spoke to a supposed god with. A gold coin contrasting the icy coliseum and slightly shiny flew towards Hydra.

Catching the coin, Hydra then moved back so he could see the entire group and then spoke, his voice containing a harsh commanding tone like a drill sergeant talking to the new recruits. “Heads or tails! Pick!” And after a moment of silence, he flipped the coin towards the sky.

A few muttered their answers whether either heads or tails but some either didn’t bother or couldn’t comprehend what was happening. The coin landed in his palm and for those who could see, the side portrait of Xaecies’ head laid showing towards the sky.

The majority looked at Hydra before someone piped up “Why do you get to make the decisions here, you watched us all fight while sitting back like a bitch.” Hydra looked at the one who spoke up, a woman who seemed to make the majority of the men here look tiny.

Cracking his knuckles, Hydra looked at the player speaking to him with disrespect, he began to walk forward towards her while she responded with more taunts “Look the little boy thinks he’s tough, let me show him who he’s dealing with!”. She raised her arms to the side of her body and lowered her point of gravity by hunching over, made sense that a woman of her size used some sort of wrestling fighting style if not sumo.

Hydra still stood relaxed, arms by his side as he stood in front of the large woman, she dashed forward attempting to wrap her arms around Hydra to bring him to the ground most likely, but she got stopped as Hydra’s knee raised up slamming into her nose causing her body to rise upwards from the force and blood spurt out of it.

She tried to regain balance, Hydra began his assault by twisting his body into a jab that landed on her nose once again causing a crunch from the bones to sound out as she stood fully up recoiled from the two hit combo.

Twisting once again in the opposite direction Hydra sent a sharp elbow into her jawline causing her eyes to rolls back, her body hits the thin ice layer covering the ground with a screech as she slides backwards slightly, making steam rise up. She stopped moving as it seemed the last hit emptied out her health points. The steam was covered by another pillar of light.

Soon everybody realised that they couldn’t move or talk any longer. And Xaecies spoke once again “Well done, now sixteen of you are left. It’s time to move onto the second phase, but first, you must all choose your weapons! Also, you will not be fighting alone so some sort of teamwork will be necessary!”