Short summary of the last chapter:

Spoiler :

Voice upgraded the arena, grabbed some techniques from other participants, and made it to the finals.

Also, let me know if anything is wrong with the chapter! Be sure to comment and rate!

Back in the realm of the living guys. Sorry it took so long. I have been so sick I’ve literally not been able to even write an entire sentence at one time. I also made the mistake of trying to re-write this chapter like three times. There is going to be a small time skip somewhere in the next few chapters. So don’t worry too much if one chapter starts in a weird place.

I watched the other groups fight their semi-finals as well. EDI and the guy with the Gladiator class were in different groups.

In the second battle, the one after I had finished, EDI fought. She basically disappeared as soon as the battle started. She had a technique that warped the light. It made me think of a few new ways to actually use natural light mana. If I could force the light mana to simply go around me, would I get something similar?

I got 1.5% of the technique ‘Light Shroud’. It turns out EDI really does have a lot of high level techniques. I would have only gotten 1% without the ring.

Most of the people in her battle had some cool moves. I even fully learned ‘Cleave’. It let the user’s attack hit multiple opponents, even if the weapon didn’t have the actual reach. The only requirement seemed to be to hit a vital spot on an enemy. It needed a two handed weapon though. So I’d only be able to use it with very low efficiency.

EDI was dashing around the entire area with her ‘super dash’ technique. I quickly mastered it. I did find out that my technique thief had a small cooldown timer. It was only a second, but someone could use a high level tech on me after a crappy one, then I’d not be able to get the second one. I decided to keep that little tidbit a secret.

Although EDI was invisible, I still gained the super dash technique. How, you ask? Well I could literally see the light mana bending around her. If I couldn’t see the mana I probably would be just as in the dark as everyone else.

It only worked until she attacked though. As soon as she did the veil of light was lifted from her. It didn’t matter, she was able to run a bit away from the group and begin targeting them.

Two of the fifteen people dropped in the same instant, screaming.

For no reason I could fathom, a screen popped up in front of me.

Congratulations! You have stolen a small portion of a unique skill set!

Eagle Eye

Currently Stole: .75%

At least 1% needs to be stolen before more information will be given.

Steady Hand

Currently Stole: .375%

Requires use of Eagle Eye.

At least 1% needs to be stolen before more information will be given.

I don’t know what they did, but that steady hand only increased by 3/8 of one percent!

EDI waved in my general direction.

Ah. I remember now. She used something like this before. A few months ago when she helped me escape from the people tracking me. Why didn’t I get it then though?

My conclusion stemmed from the fact that I could only gain so many techniques at once. Although it was ‘automatic’ I still needed to pay at least a bit of attention to the tech itself. That’s why I could do it now. I was watching out for every tech being used.

My ‘return’ technique also increased to 10%. So my conclusion was that EDI used a combination of time-slow, and returning to do multiple attacks in the same small amount of time.

When the two people dropped, they grabbed various body parts. Somehow she had managed to deal major damage to them without maiming or killing. I was most surprised that she didn’t go for their eyes.

The instant those two fell, two more cried out and hit the ground.

EDI was revealed, but she merely stood there, daggers hanging from her sides. No one would be able to get to her anyway. What did she have to fear?

She allowed the battle to go on for a while, before downing two more people. Each time she downed someone, they were transported out of the arena.

She waved in my direction a few times. She couldn’t have made it any more obvious she was letting them fight so I could use my technique thief. I don’t know how she learned of it, but when you ‘parent’ was the creator of such a game, then nothing was really impossible.

By the end of that round, I was more than a little disappointed. The only technique I gleaned, besides EDI’s, were all really shitty ones. I don’t care about the basic attack techniques! I want hardcore ones! DAMNIT!

I guess this was as good as it got. I got all the basic levels of techniques from all of the weapons they had here. Daggers, both single and dual wield. Sword, single handed, two handed, dual wielded, sword and shield. Mace, one handed with shield, and two handed.

Obviously some of these were repeated, but it didn’t matter since I didn’t get anything new from them. It was still ok for a minor haul of techniques. My real targets were those that would get into the finals anyway.

In this group that was obviously EDI.

The people all targeted her after the fourth time she downed two opponents. By beating eight people, basically by herself, she forced the remaining six people group up to deal with her.

They didn’t have any chance though. She basically toyed with them. By using her ability to return her weapons, she was able to make them stop to block her while she attacked again.

She would run a bit, and do it again. She was obviously not running out of stamina at all. I couldn’t help but smile at the pitiful players she was facing.

In the end I only got cleave and the few techs from EDI, but it was a fun match to watch anyway.

The next match had the guy with the Gladiator class. This time I actually managed to get some good stuff.

He seemed to go after only the most powerful enemies. His group seemed to fight in smaller groups. Instead of just a mass of people, there were several groups of two or three doing battle between themselves.

The Gladiator, HonorBound, was fighting two people. Both of the people he fought seemed to be the most powerful out of the group.

Man… their battle though… It was great! The three actually bowed slightly to one another, as if it really was an honorable duel. Words can’t properly describe the fight, but I’ll try my best.

HonorBound carried his two-handed double bladed war axe, and was decked out in a set of heavy armor I had enchanted. He actually wore a full plate armor set, but above that he wore chainmail. He really didn’t want to take damage. It must have been awfully heavy though. His muscles heavily bulged from their constraints, as if craving the sunlight.

His two opponents were equipped with a similar level of gear. One wore light armor, but somehow managed to carry two bastard swords, one in each hand. A bastard sword is halfway between a short sword and a longsword.

Usually you could only carry one though. Using two was equivalent to needing three to four arms worth of strength. That guy must have been a monster!

He did a few practice swings; it was obvious that he could use both swords independently. That required some monstrous dex. The ultimate dual wielding. His muscles were noticeable, but nowhere near the outlandish size of HonorBound.

The third guy in their group held a simple dagger, and wore only a robe. The dagger looked completely ordinary, but I knew differently. I couldn’t help but give a small wicked grin. His small frame was covered entirely by the cloak.

I remembered this guy.

The fight started abruptly. The dual wielding guy, Slasher43, went straight for HonorBound. He swung both of his swords at different vital locations.

10% to lucky hit, requires at least 100 luck to use. I got 5% for each swing, but I couldn’t USE IT.

I shook my head as I sighed. I was getting a lot of useless techniques thrown in with a few good ones. I continued to watch the battle progress.

HonorBound swung his axe in a peculiar way. Somehow the axe managed to block both attacks. 5% to intuitive block.

The third member of their group, Decrepit

Decrepit

He narrowed his eyes as he quickly backed away. He jumped backwards, and landed with his guard up. At the same time HonorBound slashed at the robed figure of Decrepit

The robed figure didn’t block the axe, he couldn’t even if he wanted to. But he did managed to tap the side of it as he dodged to the side.

Then, pain rang up the arm of HonorBound. He smiled as he looked at the metal hilt of his sword. Alarm streaked across the eyes of Decrepit

He jumped backwards, away from HonorBound.

HonorBound let out a chuckle. “Haha, so you got an enchanted dagger? Good! Good! This will be a bit more fun!”

His muscles, if it was possible, seemed to grow even more grossly over sized. Veins were clearly visible on his arms and neck. At least the parts that weren’t protected by armor. His armor grew downright taunt, almost like he had outgrown it.

5% to ‘Constrained Rage’ which increased str for a short time.

He used super dash to appear in front of the dual-wielder. He swung his double-bladed axe, trying to cleave the poor bastard in two. Swinging from the top left to the bottom right, he planed on outing this enemy in one blow.

The dual wielder wasn’t having it. He used one sword to guide the attack further to the right than it was meant to go, while using the second sword to slice at HonorBound’s legs.

He might have dealt a crippling blow if not for the robed figure. The robed man was clearly outmatched, and only able to stay in while the other two had to fight each other. Relying on enchanted gear will do that to you.

He parried the dual wielder’s sword, using his enchanted dagger. The dagger he commissioned had a very interesting enchantment. He wanted to cause pain to anyone that he parried.

I gave him a dagger that shot out a miniscule amount of water/darkness mana. The mana traveled along metal surfaces, and activated on the first thing it came in contact with besides the metal surface.

It cost him a small fortune to buy. 100 gold. Now that is a steep price for a single weapon. I could make duplicates of that for only an hour of my time and a few copper.

The cloaked figure tried to attack the dual wielder, but HonorBound attacked him instead.

The three continued to trade blows with each other, and receive blows from alternating opponents, for about ten minutes or so.

Their battle raged on for quite a while. Whenever one of them seemed to gain the upper hand, the other two would team up temporarily to bring them down.

The seemed perfectly matched for each other. The guy with two swords could easily deal with the axe wielder. The axe wielder completely over-powered the dagger user. The dagger user had the advantage over the dual swordsman, because of the enchantment on the dagger.

They continued to fight until all of the other opponents had finished each other off. Only one other person, outside of their three, still stood.

A tall, lanky, swordsman walked up to the three as the were concentrating on combat. He managed to land a stealth hit on HonorBound.

HonorBound’s HP took a drastic hit. All the armor and muscle in the world can’t save you from a well placed dagger. Though his health dropped, he didn’t seem to be stopping.

If anything he grew more powerful. It was evident he had some other class abilities than just the ability to allow people to live when he used a deadly strike.

His attacks grew more ferocious and less predictable. Soon he was a blur of heavily laden fists and weapon strikes. The longer it went on, the more powerful HonorBound seemed to get.

The person that sneak attacked HonorBound was quickly dispatched. Then HonorBound turned his attention to the dual bastard sword wielder.

At first the dual wielder was keeping stride, but he soon fell behind. He could block one, two, even twenty strikes, but HonorBound continued to pummel him.

Soon it was obvious that the bastard swords user was going to lose. At that point the cloaked figure stepped in. With a few well-placed stabs, he managed to at least damage HonorBound.

The damage only made the situation worse. HonorBound became more and more unstoppable. The chance of him losing was decreasing at an alarming rate.

A series of near desperate attacks took place. Not on HonorBound’s side, but by the other two. They began to go all out, else they fail before they really got the chance to do anything.

The bastard sword user was using some high level moves. Oddly enough they weren’t abilities, so I couldn’t actually steal them. It looked as though he actually practiced using two swords in real life. The flow felt so natural.

The cloaked figure did not use any techniques either. Well none that I didn’t already know. By combing and reforming several lower-ended techniques, he called forth some amazing effects.

He used the basic sneak skill, while using double dash. He turned into a blur, and began circling HonorBound. He launched several attacks while circling. They were a series of slashes and jabs. They weren’t aimed at HonorBound though, they were aimed at the air.

His speed was insane. Double dash seemed to even effect the speed of his attacks. His running and attacks slowly began to kick up a small dust tornado. The dust was obviously making its was primarily towards HonorBound.

With this HonorBound would be hindered much worse than the dual wielder. Or so the robed man hoped. Fate is never that simple.

The dust in the tornado had a small adverse effect on the dual-wielder, at least that part was correct. It had no noticeable effect on HonorBound though. Absolutely none.

HonorBound simply charged through the dust, directly at the twin sword user. He grabbed his axe with both hands, and brought it down on the head of the twin sword user.

The twin sword user used the dust as coverage and just barely managed to dodge the attack. The robed figure creating the whirlwind seemed to never run dry of stamina.

The whirlwind was picking up speed, as was the gladiator. They seemed to be competing with each other in a battle of agility.

The gladiator, HonorBound, was in the lead.

The twin sword user stabbed at him the first chance he got, but was pushed harshly away by the double bladed axe. HonorBound broke through the guard that twin-sword guy hastily put up.

It was like paper before a flood of lava.

Each attack grew heavier than the last. In moments the twin sword user couldn’t take it anymore. He succumbed to one attack, then two, then five. HonorBound quickly depleted his HP to one.

It was only a few seconds before the robed figure met a similar fate. Although he was fast, he had used up almost all of his stamina just creating that tornado. He could parry with his dagger, but HonorBound seemed immune to the pain.

HonorBound took care of him in less than a dozen swings. He finally came to his senses when all others were defeated.

5% to berserker.

His victory was called.

The next match wasn’t very exciting. Someone like Crimson fought. Not-Crimson won easily. Though most of the combatants had seen him fight, they didn’t team up against him. He slowly whittled down the numbers of the group.

He defeated every single one of them single handedly. He utilized Terror right from the start though. He would incapacitate an enemy, then quickly dispatch them.

By the time the group realized what was happening, it was too late. The total damage they had taken was far too great to be able to overcome Not-Crimson.

The highlight of that battle was the additional 14.5% I gained to Terror. It didn’t seem to have any limits, but he only used it on up to three people at one time. That might have been a limit.

There was a weird one in the fourth group. He seemed to barely know his way around a sword. It was surprising that such a novice made it to the semi-finals.

The thing that made him so weird though, wasn’t that he made it past one battle. It was the fact that he didn’t die right away.

What was more surprising was the fact that this little shit was using magic!

I didn’t notice it at first, seeing as techniques also gave off mana. But I realized it after the second encounter the guy had. He was humming! Every time he hummed he would produce a small magical effect, much like a technique.

He was copying my strategy! What’s worse is I knew that shoddy magic usage! He was humming an older song by the ancient band Metallica.

The little twerp was that guy with the harp. What was his name? It didn’t matter. I couldn’t see his name though!

Well I could, but it wasn’t the name I remembered. Then a sudden horrific thought passed my mind. Johnny! That was his name. That wasn’t the horrific thought though.

The thought that made me cringe was: what if this Johnny character wasn’t just a typical human? He obviously could manipulate mana freely.

Only one race could do that.

He was trying to be a warrior, but still had to use magic to complete it.

I knew his name was fake, and there was an obvious backstory that would fit for.

My race could manipulate mana like that.

The other Ancient Elf was trying to be a warrior, but had to use shitty mana to keep pace.

My background basically forced a substantial level of disguise on me, else I be found to be an Ancient Elf. Only someone with higher disguise than my inspect could fool me.

Ancestor had been distracted recently, especially since the start of the arena.

MOTHER FUCKER!

ANCESTOR YOU GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE RIGHT NOW!

Ancestor didn’t respond, but I felt a presence appear in my mind.

YOU DIDN’T TELL ME!?

Ancestor’s reply was calm. “*Sigh* I guess you found out then. Well I had no obligation to tell you. You are just repeating the mistakes of the past. If he becomes your king you will not be able to gain the full abilities of our race unless he allows it!”

Ancestor seemed to want to give an inspiring speech. Ancestor continued:

“With him as king I won’t have to worry about the folly of the past coming to haunt my race in the future. Once he beats you in this contest, then I can recognize him as king! If you do anything to stop that… well that is cheating and you forfeit!”

I angrily stared at the harpist down below.

Ancestor must have said something to him, because he looked right at me with a wicked grin.

Bastard!

I logged out of the game. I was in the white space, with my house and computer.

I texted my mom, and asked her to get EDITOR for me. I was about to change the rules of Ancestor’s game.