Bart watched in glee as Gregorvich easily climbed through the first ranks of the Arena-the fire lizards, elemental sloths and hobgoblins posing little threat. The big man only slowed as he got to round 17, when three full sized buffalo appeared. No one had ever made it to round 17 before, and at the appearance of so imposing a foe, a throng of spectators flocked to Bart’s stand, trying to get their bets in before the creatures finished Gregorvich. Bart was happy to oblige. He could tell from looking at their souls that Gregorvich was still favored here, if only barely.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

In the last few hours, Mike had managed major breakthroughs and disappointing setbacks. Once he had found out that he could easily kill the Quicksilver figures by putting them in his spatial storage bag, he had gone on the offensive, easily hitting Level 10 in under a few minutes. Not long after, he had reached the expected kill count to advance towards Level 11 but didn’t advance further. It wasn’t until his Character Sheet indicated that his Kill Count was 1024/512, double the requirement for Level 11, that he put enough space between him and the throng to look through his notifications, only to find the following:

[Level Limit Reached.

As a monster, your level limit is capped until you leave the Noob Zone.

Excess kills will be applied to your next level once you leave the Noob Zone]

At least he wasn’t being forced out of the Zone before he had a chance to save the valley, but as he thought of the domineering border that separated the Zones, he had a sneaking suspicion that the System didn’t plan on monsters ever getting to the next zone.

His second major breakthrough was the notification he found after that the disheartening news:

[Congratulations! Companion Skill Unlocked: Impervious Skin.

+1 Toughness

Take 10% reduced damage from penetrating attacks]

The skill was obviously a companion to Hardened Skin, and suddenly he was excited at the prospect of the thousands of tiny blades stabbing into him, until he checked his character sheet and realized that the Level 2 requirements were equal to the Level 4 requirement for Hardened Skin. He would need to be stabbed 99 thousand more times before he would gain a level.

The masses once again upon him, he reached down to grab another load of creatures for his spatial storage bag, only to have his hands grasp at empty air as a white light whisked a large chunk of his opponents away.

Shrugging his shoulders, he could only hope that whoever was in the Arena was victorious today.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

As predicted, the buffalos were defeated by Gregorvich, the large man having dispatched them with even more ease than Bart had predicted. Dancing between the charging beasts, he seemed to know just when to move his body to ensure that their rushing forms crashed into each other. He had even gone so far as to have one buffalo charge into the Arena barrier, causing it to vanish in a burst of particles.

After the hulking forms of the buffaloes, the small army of metal people seemed almost comical, despite their sheer number. At least a thousand of them were arrayed before Gregorvich in ranks. Before anyone had a chance to move, half of the small creatures exploded, their bodies creating a thin metal coating across the floor of part of the Arena. The remaining monsters waited patiently for Gregorvich to advance.

Inching forward, the large man kicked the nearest creature into his brethren, causing 4 or 5 of them to all break apart into pieces, only to reform before their very eyes. Backing away, the battlefield was silent, until the Quicksilver Soldiers advanced. The metal near the back of their flooring slithered together, coalescing once again into soldiers, even as the bodies of the foremost soldiers exploded, creating new ground closer to where Gregorvich stood. In a rolling wave, the soldiers advanced forward, forcing combat upon him before he was backed into a corner.

It took a solid 10 minutes for Gregorvich and the assembled crowd to realize that the Quicksilver Soldiers didn’t reform if the bodies, whole or broken, were thrown into the Arena barrier, and by that point he had already suffered numerous wounds. His position seemed desperate, having been slowly shepheard to the edge of the arena. His fatigued frame straightened and he used an ability to easily leap over the enemy. Stomping his foot on the ground, he used Terramancy to cause the floor of the Arena to roll forward and throw his now cornered enemies into the Arena wall.

Downing a large potion, he turned to face the center of the Arena, his body once again ready to fight as a large grove of trees appeared.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

Despite the huge amount of creatures that had been taken to the Arena, and despite hours of work on Mike’s part in slowly whittling down their number, the creatures seemed almost endless. He had plenty of endurance left in the tank, as “fighting” these creatures was about as easy as picking up a small rock and putting it into a fanny pack, but he was now facing a new problem, his fanny pack was out of space. The spatial storage bag couldn’t fit any more of the small creatures, no matter how small he smashed them before putting them inside.

His initial course of action was to remove some of the Quicksilver metal from his bag, but upon dropping it to the floor, he found that small creatures began to reform. Unable to come up with a better solution, he began a sort of phased approach to defeating his enemies. First he would crush them, then he would put them in the bag, and finally he would take out some metal from his bag and add it to the growing mound of solid Quicksilver that was being held aloft in his off hand.

As the growing mass became more and more unwieldy, he wished for it to be shaped more like a barbell that would evenly distribute across his shoulders, and was surprised when the metal responded to his wishes, lengthening and balancing in the exact shape he had imagined. The ability to shape the metal allowed him to go further than he would have thought possible. The metal twisted around his shoulders and upper chest, his knowledge of plate male allowing him to shape the metal into such a way that his arms could still move freely. He then imagined a series of poles forming vertically on top of his shoulders, their height growing as he continued to add bodies to the structure. After the poles were several feet high, he added a platform that connected the poles. The metal responded to his commands with precise detail.

When his imagination was exhausted and he could barely move because of the weight and shape of his armor, the Quicksilver Soldiers took a step back from his lumbering form and began to form together. Where the individual forms had looked vaguely human shaped, their combined appearance was closer to a praying mantis. It stood 10 feet tall, with hooks rather than forearms and hands, its curved head protruded grotesquely from its thin neck. Even the creatures name showed a firm delineation from what the creature had once been.

Name: Freskeeth

Monster Type: Quicksilver Sliver

Level: 10

Strength: 20

Dexterity: 30

Intelligence: 15

Charisma: 7

Toughness: 40

Luck: 10

Abilities: Self Salvage: Upon dying, all parts of this creature touching Quicksilver will reassemble, causing it to completely revive.

His hopes of retaining all of his collected Quicksilver all but vanished with the initial salvo of attacks. The creature was nearly as fast as he was, and its toughness was quite a bit higher. The creature also had enough intelligence to focus on the unsteadiness of his armor, elongating its limbs to hit him where it would throw off his balance the most. At least the Quicksilver he carried didn’t turn against him when the Sliver struck it, apparently he had to relinquish control of it, which he found himself doing more often than he would have liked. Uninhibited, he would have been faster than the creature, but burdened as he was, he could only do his best to stay alive as its blistering maneuvers repeatedly forced him into awkward situations, with damage premonition warning him exactly where he would be skewered unless he shaved off a little more weight. In each instance, he was obliged to allow some of his collected mass to drop rather than taking a spear through the head.

Eventually his weight dropped enough that between his Dexterity and Damage Premonition, he was able to sneak in attacks of his own. He formed axes out of the Quicksilver running along his back and began chopping off bits of the Sliver at the same rate at which he was forced to drop excess weight, causing a stalemate.

The increased weight and intensity of fighting caused his endurance to wane, and he was almost happy when he was surrounded by a bright light–he was being called to the arena for the first time.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

Bart used Soul Sight as the bright light appeared, marking the beginning of round 20, and his stomach twisted with horror. There was only one entity in the Noob Zone that would have a soul that bright. Gregorvich would be fighting Mike to become Arena Champion, and he didn’t stand a chance.