My (Monster?) Hero Life

Kace had initially been pleased with even being able to put a scratch on her armour. He had thought to capitalise on it and deal a mental blow to his opponent. However, now she was eyeing him with a predatory look in her eyes. It made him feel extremely uncomfortable.

After all, that was the signature look that he fired at someone to make them feel uneasy. So how could he not recognise the world of hurt that he was in for? His eyes traced her rapid movements as she closed in on him yet again. 'Using the spear again won't help now that she knows about it. I'll have to settle for trying to seal her movements.'

He fired off two simultaneous Spider Thread's in the shape of wide webs to either side of her oncoming figure. When Sonja saw this, she knew exactly what he was aiming for. 'Let's see what you're capable of then.' She could have easily moved to the outside of either one of the webs which would effectively ruin Kace's plans.

When Kace saw that she was not going to make a move to thwart him, he grinned. 'She's too proud of her own abilities. You need to stop underestimating me!' He cast several Ice Spears in a scattered formation to cover the entire area between the two webs. The spears moved at a faster pace than the nets did and soon caught up. Completing the formation.

Sonja nodded her head, impressed by what he was attempting. 'It's a shame that mere tricks are useless in the face of overwhelming strength.' As it reached her mace moved at an incredible speed, even Kace found it difficult to track it with his Kinetic Vision. She did not waste any movements. She deliberately smashed only the spears on her right side with a single swing to create a gap for her to slip through.

Kace had to admit that she looked stunning with the shards of ice reflecting the light off of her silver hair. She arrived before him with a confident smile plastered on her face. 'It's over!' She thought as she began to swing her mace.

At the last second, she noticed there was a strange glow coming from Kace's throat. Her instincts told her to pull back. Not a moment too soon did she manage to avoid the lethal Fire spit that came spewing out of Kace's mouth. She was shocked to notice that it even slightly melted the black stone beneath their feet.

'Damn! Thought I had her that time!' Kace grumbled to himself. He could not entirely complain, as he had managed to push her back yet again. The spectators were on the edge of their seats. Not one of them had imagined that he would last this long. Cruel jeers, complaints and even a few minor compliments made their way to Kace's ears.

Kace knew that he could not keep this up for long. Sonja was quickly forcing him to reveal his trump cards. As such, they would be hard to use effectively against her from now on. He knew in his heart that he had not done enough yet to earn the Queen's mercy. Looking at the crowd, he smiled as he thought that there should be enough of them within range.

He fired off random Ice Spears, and Spider Thread's to keep Sonja on her toes as she approached him yet again. As soon as she was within range, his look became ice cold. 'Empower!' Kace felt a rapid increase in his fighting power as Sonja showed signs of being weakened. Despite this, Kace looked at the crowd in the audience incredulously.

A golden radiant barrier had appeared and seemed to protect them from the effects of his skill. 'Oh, for fuck's sake!' he yelled in his mind. As he realised the massive power boost he had been expecting had been stopped by a feature of the arena. A soft chuckle came out of Sonja's mouth as she came to a standstill, drawing his attention back to her.

Kace did not like the look on her face. It was as though she were enjoying herself too much. She seemed to be lost in thought as she twirled her hair with her free hand. This annoyed Kace to no end, just thinking that she had marked him as insignificant enough that she had the leisure to think about something calmly mid-fight made his blood boil.

"I see now. I wasn't sure until that last attack, but I'm positive now." Sonja called out to him with a knowing voice.

"What is it that you think you know?" Kace growled back at her.

"Why, your class, of course," Sonja said in a mocking tone. "Let me show you! Empower!"

Kace felt his stats drastically drop. As though his very power were the water gushing from a tap that had been left on. He could not stop himself from falling to his knees. Just his instincts alone told him that not only had she reclaimed what he had taken from her but she had also stolen a large portion of his own stats.

'This bitch! She's a Hexblade too!' Kace screamed in his mind. He felt as though the gods had set him up to fail this time around. There was no need to think about it. She would have definitely advanced the class further than he had. After all, she happened to have had far more time to do so than he had. What's a year and several months in this world compared to someone who has had centuries to develop their abilities.

She walked slowly towards him. She was completely confident that he should have no way to resist her anymore. 'Too bad, if he had lasted even a slight bit longer I might have considered sparing him. Kace could see tears streaming down Sophia's face from within the box. The area around her eyes was bright red as a look of helplessness was written upon her face. Grugda averted his gaze as Sonja moved to deal the final blow.

'I have no choice, it's the only way. Half-Life!' Kace thought as he activated the third and final ability that he unlocked at level ten.