I made my way to the arena, after recovering from the beating master Trian had given me when he was at full power.
Before contacting Ryan, I made myself familiar with the rules and things of the arena. I learned that there are different types of matches as well as rules. The list of matches read as
any type of weapons or magic can be used. Injuries and health will be replenished after the matches unless the match type explicitly says differently.
Ranked match- a match that is used to gain in rank. Higher ranked fighters fight against each other and the higher ranked are more like to be considered for a match with the champion. The match automatically stops when one competitor reaches 1% health
Normal match- a match with no ranking, anyone can fight against anyone and automatically ends when one competitor reaches 1% health
Death match- matches to the death, the winner gets all possessions of the loser, not ranked.
Surrender match- a match where both players get infinite health, however every hit causes extreme pain and injuries. Armor is basically useless as it gives no protection from the pain. Once a competitor gets to where their health would have been out, the hits cause amplified pain and continues until one competitor surrenders to the other. Can be ranked.
Timed matches- matches are timed, and if not settled before time runs out the competitor with the highest health win, if both have same health then it will be a draw.
Team matches have the same rules as the single person matches, only more people on teams, when a competitor reaches 1%health he is eliminated and the team mate or mates will continue the match.
Tournament rules- a tournament will consist of matches of a predetermined type, usually for some kind of reward. Unlike other matches, competitors may not be healed after matches as it may carry over to the next matches depending on tournament rules and match types.
'I think I'll just challenge Ryan to a normal match'
I opened the challenge tab at the arena and selected Ryan, then selected normal match. The tab just read as sending
Shortly after suddenly it changed to
Accepted! Please go to the arena to start your match!
Slowly I walked to the arena battle area to see Ryan standing across from me. He wore golden armor and held a green spear and a large axe with a sword on his back. Unlike before he had a mask. His armor seemed different and looked thinner. He was much taller than he seemed in the shop.
"Your armor is different"
He nodded and said "the other was for looks, this is much more battle ready"
Battle start!
"I see, ready to start?"
"Always ready" he said as he twirled his spear holding it to his side with the blade pointing down and the length behind his back. The axe he held the same way and charged, moving very fast for such a big guy with heavy equipment.
As he got closer he slashed at my head with the axe. Quickly I fell to my knees to avoid it and stabbed my claws at his stomach doing very minor damage.
I quickly rolled away and jumped back.
Ryan laughed "like my armor? It negates all elemental damage to a degree and does extreme protection from physical damage"
'It must have a weak spot' I though as I quickly activated blood eye.
There wasn't a single red glow on him, he had armor every where.
I growled unsure what to do.
Ryan charged again, as he got closer he slashed vertically with the axe, to which I dodged by side stepping, but Ryan quickly knocked my legs out from under me with the spear.
Before Ryan could act I used mana port and got up. Scanning his armor I decided to fight dirty and so I decided to eye gouge him. Just as my claws made contact the mask emitted a wave of force knocking me back.
"Oh, and my mask covers my weak spots with a barrier" he said with a laugh.
I jumped back to my feet and used mana port again this time going behind him and trying to kick his knee out from under him 'Big guys fall hard right?'
His knee didn't even move ,and it felt as if I had kicked a block of solid metal.
Ryan just laughed and quickly elbowed me knocking me back about three feet.
"Did I mention my armor amplifies my physical output? I don't think I did"
'If he does that from a elbow, I should avoid his weapons at all cost'
Ryan quickly swung his axe at my legs, which I jumped over.
The spear ,which he now held with his hand just above the blade and the length of it under his arm, he used to slash at my torso.
I caught the blade with my hands to block it, but Ryan then swung the axe at my other side, which I caught with the other hand.
I was now positioned in between the two weapons. Ryan simply stepped forward and kicked my torso sending me flying a few feet.
I got up and thought carefully, 'what can I do? He has to have a weakness! What is it!'
Suddenly a small tab appeared. It showed master Trian's message to me, however unlike normal messages it read it out loud in his voice.
"You are outmatched physically, however you have what you need to beat him. Think about it."
'What could that mean? What do I have that isn't physical? How could I possibly damage him? His armor is resistant to physical and elemental, my claws are useless! Ugh! Wait, the magic! Is he immune to that?'
I waited to get a clear shot on Ryan and unleashed dark blast at him, which staggered him and knocked him back.
'That's it!'
I tried to unleash another blast but couldn't as it has a cool down time.
'Ugh I forgot about that. Wait I have recharge! I just need to get in hits. Even if the hits don't do damage they'll restore mana and take away cool down times. I also have dark ray which doesn't have cool down time.'
Ryan got back to his feet and laughed, "you found my weakness, my armor doesn't block out magic. But you'll need more than a few blast to finish me!"
With his arm wrapped around the spear and the other around the axe, Ryan charged and slashed with both of the weapons.
I quickly tossed a smoke pellet behind him and unleashed a quick flurry of slashes, each one reducing cool down time and giving me mana.
Ryan quickly held out his weapons and did a tornado like spin attack, however I lowered down to dodge it. After he stopped I sprang up, pointed my palm at his face, and activated dark ray which does continuos damage until it's stopped or the target gets out of its path. Ryan got hit and damaged before dodging out of its path.
Before Ryan could act, I used dark bind which made a shadowy hand grab him and hold him still. I stepped in front of Ryan and put both my hands in front of his face and rather than activating dark blast, I charged it up. It made a large black sphere in front of my palms that seemed to grow and become pressurized. It drained all my mana and took some time ,but the sheer force it seemed to have was amazing. I turned my head and unleashed it sending a black beam of energy at Ryan's face doing amazing damage at the first impact
And continuous damage as the beam continued firing, the sphere shrinking as it did and doing less damage as the sphere shrank and the beam became less pressurized
BATLLE ENDED! YOU WON!
I walked over to Ryan, hoping he wouldn't be angry about the battle. He got up and removed his mask. He was actually smiling.
"I've never been challenged that much in a fight", he said laughing.
"I'm glad your not the vengeful type"
"I'm not, but I have to go. Thanks to you the shop is busy as ever, if you ever need something you know where to find me" he said as he started to exit the arena.
I exited the arena also and went to rest. After I was fully rested and restored I walked back to the arena where I was supposed to meet Kaze. He was sitting on the ground with his back against a wall of the arena. As he saw me he floated upward into the air and then landed on his feet.
"Ready for our match?"
"I'm ready"
Kaze had already signed us up for a match against random opponents. We had to enter a different door than I did to fight Ryan, apparently the arena had many different fighting areas. As I entered I saw two girls across from us. Above their heads were the names
Onyx
Celeste
Onyx had Long, straight, ebony hair and slightly tanned skin. She was tall but not quite as much as Ryan or me or Kaze. Her eyes sparkled like crystals but the weirdest part was that left eye is completely black and her right eye is completely white.
Celeste had long, brown, wavy hair with short bangs and lighter than onyx but still tan skin. Her eyes were a light golden color. She had a scar that ran diagonal from her forehead, over the bridge of her nose, and ended right under her eye.
I'm unsure if battles in the game leave scars, if she had chosen to put it there, or if maybe she had it outside the game and came into the game with it.
"Kaze, do we have a strategy?"
"Of course, attack them until they can't fight anymore and avoid being hit by their attacks."
"Oh right, what was I thinking"
Battle start!
Celeste pointed her hand at the ground and spikes started to shoot upward from it and travel at us. Kaze grabbed me and flew into the air with me holding onto him.
"Earth users can't fly can they!" Kaze said laughing.
Celeste jumped upward and her feet turned into a tail type thing, sort of like a mermaid might have, but it when she moved it she could fly.
Kaze laughed, "you might fly but I control the air!"
He punched his arm downward and white streaks outlined a giant hand, seemingly made out of wind punch her down into the ground.
"Kaze when I throw this let me go"
Before I could throw my smoke pellet, onyx threw a wave of crystal type blades, but Kaze countered by making strong wind blow them away.
I tossed my smoke pellet and Kaze used his wind to guide it so it landed behind onyx.
As I appeared I stepped forward stabbing her in the back doing lightning damage as well.
In the background I could see Celeste throwing huge boulders at Kaze, who was able to easily dodge them as he was still flying in the air.
Onyx made a crystal sword appear and started to slash at me with it, which I dodged and then caught with a hand, followed by blasting her with dark ray.
The ground rose In front of her and turned into crystals just in front of the dark ray blocking it. I deactivated it and went around the large crystal and slashed at her. She dodged and back flipped away from me.
Kaze and Celeste seemed to have started fighting physically with Celeste using a sword and Kaze using his dual daggers. When it looked like she finally would land a hit on Kaze, he vanished. White streaks outlined wind which blew going past her and he reappeared behind her, then quickly turned around and stabbed both daggers into her back.
'He can literally turn into wind!'
Onyx made a large crystal spike from before break away from the ground and shoot at me.
Quickly I used mana port, it slowing time just before it would have touched me.
I walked beside the crystal and pushed it which turned it so that it was aimed directly at Celeste.
'I like this target much better, I'm sure Kaze would agree.'
I then walked behind onyx and took a few steps back. It seemed Kaze and Celeste were still in the air, Celeste was blocking the flurry of kaze's dagger strikes.
I then started charging up dark blast which deactivated mana port.
The crystal spike headed directly for Celeste. Celeste noticed it and took her attention off Kaze because of it. Onyx quickly noticed and started directing it back to the ground to avoid hitting Celeste. The crystal was re directed and smashed into the ground. Kaze took advantage and stabbed a dagger into Celeste's heart and the other slashed at her throat.
DEFEATED
Onyx turned around and saw me, but before she could react Kaze appeared behind her and made a typhoon type wind wrap around her and squeeze her, with the same effect as my dark bind. I the fired dark blast just as Kaze was clear of its path.
DEFEATED
You win!
Me and Kaze had won.
Kaze appeared beside me, "yeah! New champions in the making!"
I laughed a bit.
Both the wins from the battles today boosted me up a level. I used the skill point to upgrade my black magic so that it took less mana, did slightly more damage, and took less cool down time.
"Well teammate up for pursuing the champions?"
I nodded, "of course".
Kaze laughed, "it's gonna be hard to be the best team ever in this game, but someone has to do it. Might as well be us"
I laughed just a little.
"So let's go try out those restaurants, all you can eat I'll pay for it all" Kaze said friendly as we walked out.