NOVEL NEXT 136 - The Tournament: Part 6
For the first time, the system allowed for a short break in the proceedings. A five-minute timer appeared above the arena, while clips of the tournament played on recently conjured screens. I only gave the highlight reel a passing glance, instead focusing on my upcoming match. The others gave me space, seeing that I was deep in thought, and I was glad for it. I didn't exactly feel like talking right now.
My blood was boiling, the voidling equivalent of adrenaline coursing through my body. My heart was beating fast and I couldn't stop myself from smiling. While Pirsa was the only opponent I faced that gave me a proper challenge, getting to this point was hard-earned. I was having the most fun since I was reincarnated as a slug.
I looked back on my admittedly bat shit crazy second life. It may have been, what? A year and a half or something along those lines, but already my past life was starting to feel like a vague memory, rather than something I'd lived through. Sure, I was still me, but "me" was being rapidly redefined. I had never felt as alive as a human. Back then I was more dead than alive, even. Rolling with the punches, feeling powerless, spiraling deeper and deeper into a hole I couldn't crawl out of. But it was different now.
My old values were rapidly disappearing in the rearview mirror, adapting to this new set of circumstances with surprising speed. Just a few weeks ago, I was still beating myself up over it, thinking I had become some sort of irredeemable monster. But now? After a hefty dose of therapy and taking a proper look around me, and the wider expanse that awaited beyond this planet? I was starting to realize that, in this world, I was normal. Exceptional even.
I still struggled a bit with my self-image, coming to terms with my new mental state, and my… alien body. But right now? I did not care at all. I was Gary the void slug, the stuff nightmares were made of, if Orbos and Andrius were to be believed. And Gary the void slug's only concern was how happy he was to fight a strong opponent. For a brief moment, Liam the human didn't exist anymore, and all that was left was Gary.
The timer was counting down mercilessly, and I once again went over anything I knew of Rollo's fighting style. He was overbearingly powerful, displaying flawless technique, and showcasing absolute mastery over his skillset, all the while being able to read his opponents like an open book. There would be no battle of wits. I wouldn't have time to set the field up to my advantage like I did against Pirsa. There was no doubt in my mind that Rollo would steamroll me if I gave him even an inkling of a chance. Which left me with only a single avenue of approach.
Blitzkrieg.
There was no point in measuring myself against Rollo in technique or trying to go for an honorable fight of any kind. I had one singular advantage, which was overwhelming firepower. All I could realistically do was throw everything I had at him right from the get-go, and hope he wouldn't be able to deal with it. I should definitely inquire if mage fighting styles existed and try to master one if they did. It was starting to feel a bit embarrassing, seeing all these fighters with their well-thought-out plans, while I was just unga-bunga'ing my way around.
While I was deep in thought, the system's timer reached zero and was replaced.
Rollo vs. Gary
I more felt than heard the wishes of good luck from the other contestants as I made my way out of the waiting room, my eyes locked on the asphon exiting across from me. As always, reading an asphons face was impossible, but I couldn't help but think he was staring me down as well. I didn't know how much of a threat he thought I was, but he seemed relaxed. Maybe a bit more eager than in his previous matches, but I couldn't tell if that was due to him facing me, or because the fate of several cities would be decided in the next few minutes.
Whatever the case, neither of us hesitated to enter our circles, causing the system to count us down. I discarded all stray thoughts and fully focused on what was to come. The first spell I would need to cast was shield, just in case. As it was a C-tier spell at max level, I could cast the spell within a split second, and I had the odd feeling that I might need to cast it faster than ever.
The horn sounded and my entire being went into casting shield as fast as possible. I barely noticed some movement from Rollo but didn't let it distract me from the task at hand. The shield snapped into place long before the sound of the horn ceased, and not a moment too late. Something crashed into my shield immediately after and deleted a truly shocking amount of my mana with it. My eyes snapped to Rollo, who was standing in his starting position, fist outstretched as if he had just punched the air. A second passed as the opening salvo lingered for a moment, me being shocked at how close things had gotten to ending instantly, and Rollo probably annoyed that I managed to block his skill.
The moment passed just as fast as it came and, not wanting to give Rollo any more of an opening, I teleported away. My destination was the shadow of a pillar to Rollo's left, carefully chosen to break line of sight. I didn't expect to be able to hide, since Pirsa was somehow able to find me whenever I did that, but the pillars, just like the ground, were indestructible. They were the perfect cover for squishy mages like me.
The good news was that Rollo wasn't immediately on me. No sudden appearances, no skills homing in on me, not even the telltale explosion of a skill hitting the pillar. The bad news was, that I could almost feel that Rollo knew where I was. There was an odd feeling of pressure bearing down on me as if I were prey stalked by a hunter. He was probably waiting for me to expose myself. Unfortunately for him, the small break gave me time to enact my plan. It was time to gear up. An array of void javelins appeared above me, more than I had ever summoned at once before.
A good twenty of them were ready to be sent off in short order, I activated all of my speed buffs, void pressure, and poison aura were activated and I started on the spell matrix for void rend. What I was about to do would be a feat of magic like I'd never attempted before. I needed to juggle so much magic simultaneously that it was starting to hurt my brain, even though it was mutated for just this purpose. I was so focused on my singular goal of winning, it almost felt like the world was slowing down around me.
As I was slapping down the last rune for void rend and felt the matrix snap into place, I was already working on casting another teleport. No turning back now, this was it. I reappeared behind Rollo's position, about twenty meters back from him, letting fly three javelins the moment I appeared. Rollo still hadn't moved from his starting position, reinforcing my theory of him maybe not being able to move around all that much. That, or he had passives that buffed him immensely while stationary, similar to my turret skill.
While he wasn't moving, he did react to my appearance, several skills activating in sequence as he presumably was about to send another flying punch my way. This was, however within expectations and I waited until just before he finished his punching motion before teleporting once again. At this point, void rend was screaming at me to be let loose. I may have only held it back for at most two seconds, but the spell didn't like being denied its purpose. It was too much power for me to hold back for too long, so the instant I reappeared behind Rollo once again, I let it loose.
Reality got torn asunder as the spell sliced through existence and Rollo, while somehow still able to react to it, was cleanly hit. Time seemed to pause for a moment before the crack in reality fixed itself, the two separated sides crashing together like two massive waves, causing untold destruction. The force was so great, that I could've sworn I saw the system's floor crack ever so slightly, but it was repaired so fast that I questioned whether it actually happened to begin with.
Rollo, on the other hand, moved for the first time since the match started. He used some type of movement skill that smoothly shifted him along the ground without him moving a muscle. But even with defensive skills being activated, he wasn't able to dodge the spell completely. He lost contact with the floor and was sent flying, and I could clearly see his left foot being cleanly cut off. I hadn't won yet, but that wound would prove to be a significant issue for him going forward. Not giving Rollo any time to breathe, I sent all of my Javelins after him, two poison assassination needles sneakily hitting him mid-air.
Another teleport, followed by a lava torrent on Rollo's location, while I spread a stupid amount of poison caltrops around the arena. All the explosions had caused a significant amount of smoke to appear and it was hard to pinpoint Rollo in all the chaos, but I didn't relent while keeping an eye out for any movement. I felt the odd pressure of being observed cut out for a second and didn't hesitate to cast void cloak and activate stealth to hide myself, before teleporting once again. I needed to know what Rollo's condition was and get a proper line of sight on him before deciding what to do next.
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Unwilling to pause, though, I was already whipping up my next void rend while carefully observing from the opposite side of the arena. I could feel the pressure return, washing over me like a cold shiver, but it was seemingly unable to pinpoint my location. The smoke dispersed, and with the backdrop of glowing lava, Rollo stepped forward, his missing foot having been replaced by some sort of mana construct. I couldn't help but curse. Of course the guy had some weird skill to replace missing limbs, why wouldn't he?
His head was on a swivel trying to find me and I could feel the odd feeling of being stalked intensify. He didn't immediately find me, and a stupid idea flashed through my mind before being discarded almost immediately. If I could hide in this spot for a solid ten minutes, my passive skill, turret, would activate, effectively doubling my firepower. But, while Rollo hadn't displayed much mobility so far, the arena was much too small for me to hide for ten minutes, stealth abilities or not.
Rollo wasn't one to let me think about it for too long, and he once again entered the stance I had gotten familiar with. I couldn't help but wonder if he planned to root himself down once more, patiently waiting for me to make my move, but he started moving soon after. Almost as if doing tai chi Rollo started to slowly, yet deliberately, move from stance to stance. The pressure I was feeling changed slightly every time he arrived at a new stance and I knew whatever he was doing, my time was limited. Might as well come out swinging.
As sneakily as I could, I started to summon an array of poison ballista spells. The evolved poison spear didn't see much use anymore as I generally used my void spells for their more destructive nature while applying poison with the ever-reliable poison assassination spell. The ballista spell had one advantage though, which was its extremely low cost. This allowed me to use my woefully tiny amount of void-infused mana in order to cast it. I almost never used my infused mana, since its extremely limited amount meant I could cast almost nothing with it, making it more effective to use other spells. I could barely summon fourteen of them before running out. I kept going, summoning sixteen regular ballistas before I was satisfied.
I didn't have high hopes for this array. The only thing I could hope for here was that Rollo would get cautious once he saw that the spells had different effects, buying some precious seconds due to hesitation. Next, I started charging up a void laser but was interrupted by the odd pressure intensifying. Time was up.
I hopped out of my cover, immediately letting the laser rip in Rollo's direction, closely followed by a few regular spears meant to cut off his escape route. Not entirely unexpectedly, Rollo had given up on his stationary approach to battle. He easily dodged the laser, just like Pirsa had, running away from it as I tried to catch up to him with it while firing. The ballistas were even more inconsequential as he simply dodged or even slapped them away to annoy me. I started mixing in the infused ballistas here and there, and just as I hoped, the different spell made him pause for just a bit.
This was the moment I'd been waiting for, and I unleashed another void rend that I'd painfully prepared while juggling all these other spells. The cut in reality appeared once again, and this time Rollo was slightly slower to react, his entire left arm getting cut off, flying away in a wide arc, the explosion followed soon after and I mentally cheered as I followed the flying Rollo with glee.
The elation didn't last very long when I realized that the explosion was sending him straight toward me. Did this madman manipulate things in such a way that the explosion would send him this way? He had seemingly used to force of the blast, combined with a skill to fly at me with truly ridiculous speed, and it was too late to even snap out a simple spell. I cursed my lack of foresight and could only hope that my shield would be enough to buy me the time I needed.
Just before we collided, another mana construct snapped into place, replacing Rollo's left arm. Then, with all the momentum behind him, and at least three different skills activating, a fist came down upon me. I almost dropped the teleport spell I was busy casting because of the overwhelming pressure the attack emanated, staring up at the incoming fist with panic. Then, the collision happened. I could just about close my ears, but the resulting impact was still loud enough to be heard. The shield held, but some mysterious force penetrated through and did a decent amount of damage to me. My vision swam and I almost dropped my spell again.
I barely managed to finish the spell, reappearing on the other side of the arena. I had trouble focusing through the haze in my mind but still managed to call up my status window. That one punch had deleted half of my maxMP, and still somehow managed to deal almost 5'000 damage to my HP, all while affecting me with some sort of debuff. I barely recognized a black splotch bearing down on me, before I teleported again. I could vaguely hear another explosion, terrified of Rollo's strength.
Void rend was definitely doing damage, but Rollo didn't much seem to care about his own wellbeing. There was a good chance I only managed to cut off his arm because he saw the opportunity it would provide him should he sacrifice it. This meant I probably wouldn't hit another void rend again, now that he had already seen through the attack. The spell was fast and powerful, but certainly not impossible to avoid if you knew about it. I had to teleport once again since Rollo was trying to make me meet god once again. At least my vision was stabilizing and the fog lifting from my mind.
Rollo was too powerful, too fast, too smart, and too well-versed in combat for me to win. He had stolen the momentum from me and put me on the back foot. It was only a matter of time until he would get me again, this time crushing me for certain. I had to teleport a few more times, taking potshots all the while, trying to desperately come up with a plan. Then, all the rationality left me. There was only a single way for me to still win this, and I wouldn't be able to do it if I kept running away afraid of my opponent.
Rollo wasn't the only contestant with limbs to spare.
I once again teleported away from a life-ending punch, this time to the center of the arena. I waited for a second, making sure Rollo could see me, before pulling out an entire building from my inventory. I was one of the smaller whole buildings I managed to put into my inventory during the road-building quest, yet it still dominated the arena as it appeared and crashed down with a loud rumble. Some of the building couldn't take the strain and a few walls collapsed here and there, but that was just fine with me. Amidst the chaos, I once again found an opportunity to cloak myself, losing Rollo's nearly omnipresent pressure for just long enough to hide.
I went to the third floor and kept completely still in a ceiling corner, waiting for my prey to arrive. It was time to go back to my roots as a trap hunter. Rollo seemingly wasn't all too impressed by the appearance of an entire building since a loud rumble announced the fact that he had entered the building via a hole, courtesy of his fist. While he couldn't pinpoint my location, he did seem to have a vague idea of my whereabouts, since he burst through the floor of the room I chose to hide in just a few seconds later. I didn't move a muscle, as he looked around to search for me. Magically hidden as I was, I managed to evade his notice for now, but that would change soon enough.
Seemingly unsatisfied, Rollo once again entered his rooted stance as I began to call it, seemingly ready for anything I could throw at him. Unfortunately for him, he had his back turned to me. Six tentacles spread out and I latched onto Rollo's back with a wet squelch. All of my tentacles wound around his limbs, intent on stopping him from moving for just a little bit. My focus was worlds away though, busy working on my greatest magical feat yet. Every speck of my being was focused on casting these spells, so much so that I barely registered my tentacles being ripped out.
Void rend, just like any other S-tier spell, was terrifyingly complex. I could manage to cast one while juggling a few other spells, but it took a lot out of me mentally, even with my extremely high attributes, supported by mutations and passives. Right now, I was learning that casting two void rends at the same time, was exponentially harder for some reason. You'd think that, since I'm constructing the same spall twice at the same time, it should be easy enough, but that wouldn't be further from the truth.
The world seemed to fade away as the only thing I could focus on was the two spell matrixes being woven as fast as I dared while making sure not to mess up. I could only hope that my tentacles would stall Rollo for long enough to buy me enough time. The anxiety was almost killing me, not to mention the toll casting like this took on my body, but the two spells snapped into place at last. Sensation returned to me, and the first thing I could see was one of Rollo's clawed hands descending on me. I vaguely realized that all of my tentacles were missing. It would appear I had been completely de-limbed, and now Rollo wanted to pry me off his back.
Well, too bad, better luck next time, Rollo.
I arched my back a bit, creating a small space between my foot and Rollo's back where the two spheres of void rend appeared. Let's see you dodge this one, bucko. Rollo's hand grabbed at my body just as the two spells were set off in a cross shape. I could clearly see reality cutting Rollo into four neat pieces, and for a split second, the world seemed to stop.
Then, time resumed and Rollo was cut apart, I hung on to the top part of his body for dear life as the explosion followed immediately after. I almost blacked out from the strain hoping that the shield would hold up properly. Both of us got thrown out of the building and I could vaguely hear the system horn marking the end of the match, but was too preoccupied with what I had to do next. Rollo had been cut apart, and if nothing was done, he would die in the next few seconds, if he hadn't already.
I could leave it at this and celebrate my victory, but it would feel hollow if I just let such a magnificent warrior die here. There were already asphons rushing towards us in the hope of getting Rollo into the waiting room before all life signs disappeared, but even with their super-speed, they'd probably be too slow.
"Sorry about this," I murmured, unsure if Rollo could even hear me.
I was still stuck to Rollo's top part, which was only a part of the torso and his head. Carefully taking aim, I cast poison explosion, calculated so that he'd be propelled toward the waiting room. The resulting explosion separated us, and finally, knowing I'd done everything I could, I succumbed to the darkness.