Reflections on the Warpath - [An Isekai Progression Fantasy]

18 days until the E grade advancement tournament

Ping skimmed across the newbie arena, barely an inch off the ground, and kicked up loose sand in her wake. Jay ran half a step behind her. The lightning trailing behind his shield surged into his legs, energising his sprint and propelling him faster.

Jay was hesitant about returning to the coliseum. It was a risk, so close to advancement, and it gave his future opponents more footage to analyse his style with.

But he was flat out broke.

He could've scraped by, but that would've compromised his training. If he wanted to go to the Pits, or buy tools to help him in the tournament, he simply needed the points.

After a few fights, Jay had understood what Fox meant by intensity. No amount of practice could compare to a fight with your life on the line. Jay wasn't quite comfortable with coliseum fights yet, he doubted he ever would be, but each outing helped. He had learnt which techniques worked in high pressure situations and which he needed more practice with.

Fighting more than the standard once a week meant gladiators had more control over their opponents, so Jay wasn't stuck with a gorilla this time around.

Today's opponent was a trident wielding minotaur called Brenn ranked in the mid-300s. He was slightly shorter than Jay, but probably twice as heavy and thrice as strong. His chestnut brown torso was uncovered by any armour except a bronze chain that stuck to his neck suspiciously tightly.

But, before his opponent was even announced, Jay knew his strategy for the fight. It was becoming his strategy for every fight.

He didn't just pressure his opponents anymore. He suffocated them.

If they had room to breathe, then he wasn't close enough.

The minotaur thrust his trident forward. Jay raised his right hand, jamming the Conqueror's fists between the oncoming prongs.

Jay tugged down. If he was stronger, he could've wrestled it from his opponent's grip.

He wasn't, but Brenn didn't know that.

The fake worked. It drew the minotaur's attention away from his neck.

Sparks skittered off the trident as Jay pulled his fist free. He pressed forward, planting all his weight on his left foot.

Jay dropped his left fist. He swung it out wide. The hairline channels running down his arm sparked to life as they prepared to attack.

Another fake.

Brenn flicked his eyes down to Jay's fist. By the time they got there, Jay's plan had already evolved.

With his opponent's attention scattered, Jay aborted the punch and drove his shoulder into the minotaur's chest. Radiant white light ignited within the channels on Jay's arms. Jay's hands snaked their way up to his opponent's meaty neck, the Conqueror's fists sliced into Brenn's chest as Jay initiated the clinch.

The instant they reached Brenn's neck, Jay's arms grew sluggish. Like someone had shackled them to the minotaur's bronze chain with granite manacles. Jay tried shifting them but moving them even an inch felt exhausting.

The minotaur grunted, and Jay saw the beginnings of a smile crawl through his bovine lips.

Don't get ahead of yourself buddy.

Closing one door just opens another.

With his arms locked out of the assault, Jay found another purpose for them.

Electricity coursed through Jay's muscle fibres. His stormforged body came to life.

The blanket of muscles wrapping around the minotaur's neck rippled with strength in response. In a fair fight, Jay could never out-strength the minotaur.

But the Second Chance Coliseum had no place for fairness.

Jay sank his nails into his opponent's neck and slammed his shin into Brenn's knee. Sweeping half his base away while dragging his head to the ground. Jay leveraged all his weight just to tip his opponent off balance.

But, even with his opponent on one leg, Jay was outmatched in strength.

Good thing he wasn't alone.

Ping flew by Jay's legs, crashing into Brenn's feeble human knee. The squealing of strained tendons made Jay squirm as his opponent's leg bent backwards.

But he couldn't afford to waste any time. Ping had just compromised his opponent's base, so Jay had to press his advantage. Jay pulled Brenn aside as he repositioned his feet, switching stances before driving his left knee into the minotaur's solar plexus.

Jay knew he could land another, but he held back. Passing up a good opportunity for the chance to make a great one.

White light made way for blue as Jay's muscles drained themselves of electricity. Eye of the storm painted its familiar blurry brushstroke over the world, but Jay wasn't merely looking at his opponent. He didn't need any extra details.

His body told him everything he needed.

Brenn's warm muscles pulsated beneath Jay's grip. The air around the minotaur's neck felt colder, quieter. Unmoving.

Jay flexed his arms. He stopped almost immediately. They felt, restrained. He could still control them, but they were slowed down. Like he was dragging them through wet cement.

Is it the chain? But they slowed down before I even touched it… A field around the chain?

Jay reckoned he could pull his arms out, but it would take too much time. The binding was tight.

He released his grip. If he was bound to Brenn already, then he didn't need to hold on. Instead of wasting strength on grabbing his opponent, he could use it all to pull him around.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

How far does it extend?

Jay's left knee shot towards his opponent's head. Electricity snarled and snapped its jaws within Jay's thighs but he pushed it back and focused his perception on the strike. He knew this attack would never land, but that wasn't why he launched it.

Half a foot before his knee reached Brenn's temple, Jay intensified Eye of the storm. He prepared to act.

Slowed to a crawl by Jay's perception, his knee crept ever closer to its target.

Until it didn't.

The impact was so faint that he nearly missed it. Before his knee even reached the slowing field, Jay felt the fabric of his robes press against his body.

Jay aborted the attack.

He pulled his leg back. The edge of his trouser knee snagged against the slowing field, but it had barely entered, so he managed to pull it free.

Head's off limits.

Jay could've analysed his opponent further, but he didn't see the point. The information would be useless in a few minutes. Jay dropped Eye of the storm and pulled Brenn in the opposite direction.

The minotaur still hadn't recovered from Ping's attack. When he tried to plant his injured leg, it buckled beneath his weight. Still, it took all Jay's electrically empowered strength just to redirect his opponent. He yanked Brenn's head aside, grabbing the bull by the forcefield near the horns, crushing his balance.

Jay chopped at his opponent's legs, not forgetting the lower half of their battlefield. Ping followed him. She swept the minotaur off balance, charging into his ankle this time. Brenn couldn't withstand Jay's sweep anymore, Jay stopped pulling and let his opponent drop to the ground.

The slowing field clamped onto Jay's arms. His shoulders wrenched against their sockets, yanking the rest of Jay's body down towards his opponent. His spine bent forward, almost buckling under the pressure.

But Jay held strong. He stayed standing while his opponent slammed into the gravel.

They'd just separated, but Jay still couldn't allow his opponent any space. He planted his left foot into the ground. Not twisting it outward this time.

Against a grounded opponent, Jay didn't need mobility. He needed raw power. His right leg drew back. The glowing electricity within chirped with joy, eager to release its power.

Jay could never have landed an attack like this out of the gate, but that's what the grappling was for.

Jay clawed a minor advantage out of the first exchange, an advantage he then used in the next. Whenever the fight shifted, Jay leveraged his position to create a slightly better one. Stacking small victories together until he could force a decisive opening.

Until he could land the killshot unchallenged.

Jay's foot cracked through the air like a whip of pure lightning. Its blazing white light illuminated the fear on his opponent's face.

The terror of facing fatality while powerless to prevent it.

Jay almost felt sorry for his opponent. For a moment, he hesitated.

But he remembered the last time he'd seen that fear. Plastered across Vega's obsidian skin moments before the headsman's axe crunched her neck.

He didn't hesitate after that.

Jay's foot caved in his opponent's ribs, spearing them through his chest and capsizing his lungs beneath the pressure.

But that was merely the first stage.

An attack like that wouldn't cut it against Fox, or anyone tougher than him.

Jay had to push further.

Weaselling darts of electricity surged from the point of impact. Seek and destroy missiles that were already within their target. Jay felt them snake inside the heart's valves, searing them from the inside and overloading the muscle fibres with information.

Jay felt Brenn's heart spasm uncontrollably, before sinking into eternal stillness.

He spun around, Fixing his eyes on the familiar blue-grey walls of the newbie arena.

On the faceless spectators behind them.

On the two people he knew would eventually watch this fight.

You're next.

Jay waited for the beige waiting room walls to replace the newbie arena before sitting in an armchair at the corner of the room. Turns out, you could bring furniture into the room. The only downside being that you had to lug it into the coliseum by hand.

After a journey filled with the awkward stares of people who knew exactly what he was doing, Jay decided that one chair was enough furniture, for now at least. His last five fights hadn't pushed him as hard as his first three, so he didn't spend much time in here analysing.

Huh, what's that?

Jay spotted an oil painting hung on the wall opposite him. It was of an angler fish, illuminated by its glowing lure against the murky blackness of the deep sea behind it.

He got out of his chair and inspected it closer. Jay wondered who had placed the painting here, since it wasn't there before the fight. He wondered how they'd got here too, the only times he'd seen this room were before and after fights.

He stopped wondering after reading the placard.

'Among frigid depths, a lone star doth shine.

Down, where the weight of the world crushes all,

mere power bows its head to survival.

Beneath all-encompassing darkness, the blind reign supreme.'

Well, it's better than his other ones.

Jay pondered over the poem, and about the animal that inspired it. The fish's sickly brown scales barely stood out from the pitch black depths behind it, faintly illuminated by its ethereal lure.

Jay was far from the strongest. He was far from the toughest and, although he didn't want to admit it, he wasn't close to being the fastest yet.

So Jay made the suffocating depths his home.

Spine-like teeth studded the angler fish's abyssal, cavernous, jaw. But Jay knew that, behind its façade, the angler fish was next to harmless. Face it off against a great white shark and the shark would win every time. Jay didn't need a marine biologist to tell him that.

But drag the shark down to the midnight zone, into the angler fish's domain, and it wouldn't stand a chance. The ocean's inescapable pressure would crush it before it had a chance to swim away. Meanwhile, the angler fish would swim peacefully by, nipping at the shark's mangled corpse as if nothing was amiss.

Ultra-close-range.

Relentless pressure.

That was Jay's domain.

If he couldn't beat his opponents on the surface, he'd just have to drag them into deep waters. In a world where only he could survive, of course Jay was invincible.

Jay pulled himself out of the muddy depths of allegory, he wasn't actually dragging his opponents beneath the ocean. He simply deprived them of what they needed to fight.

What he could do without.

Jay's life spent infighting meant he didn't need space.

Eye of the storm meant he didn't need time.

His stormforged body meant he almost didn't need to see either.

So why allow them such luxuries?

Why give them space, time and sight if I don't need them?

Drag them to my domain, and the fight's over before it begins.

Jay looked down at Ping. He hadn't needed much protection in the last five fights, but she'd proved useful in other ways too. With her by his side, Jay was never fighting alone.

Jay opened his rankings as he got up to exit.

Still don't know what these mean… How'd it only take me three fights to break the top 500 but another six to crack the top 300?

Jay dismissed the table, happy to be in the top 300, even if his ascension had slowed down significantly. Maybe after advancement he'd be able to speak to the mysterious voice again and ask more questions about the coliseum. Until then, Jay just had to put up with the confusion.

He exited into a sparsely populated pavilion and headed straight for the Pits.

This morning's fight had given him both experience and contribution points. But he needed it for something else too.

A confidence boost.

Because as much as his survivalist style worked in the arena, Jay was intimately acquainted with the futility of strategy against overwhelming power.

And that was exactly who he was training with next.