Flash Back - Temp Trial - Ch 3 (Patreon)

“Hear that? Nobles, fighters and crafters? Our challenger wants more.” the reverberating tenor of the Demon’s announcement voice yelled to rev up the crowd.

There were a series of yips from all around him.

“Remember, every fight after this adds to his rewards. Will this pathetic rank 5 bow out before he meets his match or will he perish like so many greedy challengers before them?”

Tom raised his eyebrow at that description.

He understood the risk. This was not a situation he was used to. These were sapients he was fighting. They were not the monsters where he could fight up ranks easily because his magical arts and skills outclassed that of the beasts. They were not dumb creatures who had no sense of strategy and would allow themselves to be manipulated into losing position. His opponents would adjust to his tactics to counter him and have tricks he had never seen before.

They would all be unique and Tom, despite the goading did not step into the portal to safety. He was determined to get something valuable out of this trial.

“Brave or foolish, either way, that’s what we love! He has defeated his rank eight opponents. Let’s see how he performs against a mid-nine.”

Howls joined the yips and Tom let the battle trance fill him. He would see the enemy and adapt until he killed it.

The portal that appeared was massive and when the opponent emerged, he was not surprised to see that it was a bipedal giant with a monkey like tail. It was three and half maybe four meters tall and Tom’s spear wouldn’t reach its throat. He assessed the monster and frowned in relief. It was faster than him in a straight line, but would be slower up close. Tom ultimately had a significant practical agility benefit of even if he was smashed by vitality and strength… and a single blow… it was best not to think about it.

Two strides and it was upon him the multi-jointed weapon lashed. Tom was surprised by what he saw. The joints basically meant that when swung the weapon formed a sideway L. It created a metre and half long horizontal blade that swept perfectly parallel to the ground just below knee height. He leapt over it, impressed by the design. It allowed the giant to use sweeping strikes against smaller monsters.

Tom moved closer and tried to land a spear strike, but the tail lashed out and knocked his weapon away. Then he was forced back by the strange weapon this time in a dangerous S shape that forced him to abandon the area close to the monster as the blade bisected at knee, waist and neck height and was twirled around with the enemy’s impressive strength.

The masterwork weapon easily countered Tom’s close in agility benefit.

Test two, he thought to himself.

He ducked in behind the weapon, knowing full well that it would either kick him or use its tail and probably both to drive him back.

Zap.

It’s left leg and tail both spasmed and Tom stabbed at the equivalent of the Achilles tendon.

His spear tip only dug in two inches, and Tom retreated quickly rather than attempting another strike. It was a fortunate decision as its weapon swept through the space Tom had been occupied. Tom kept retreating, and the giant saw him roared and lunged.

Crack.

It stumbled, suddenly dragging the leg he had hit. A swing of the giant’s weapon forced him to retreat, and the giant tested its maimed leg. It tried to step and couldn’t. Tom circled around and it hoped on one leg to keep facing him. He feinted charging.

The weapon swung, and he stopped to let it flash in front of him and then nodded in relief as the giant roared and almost fell as its wounded leg failed it.

Tom exploited the opportunity to land a strike on the exposed wrist.

Red blood dripped.

He pressed the advantaged, ruthlessly, refusing to give a quarter. Stab after stab and for its size, its vitality was low. It bled far more freely than he expected. After only a couple of clashes, it was to the point of pools of blood forming on the stones underneath it. That wasn’t too surprising and would barely slow it because it was so big but Tom hadn’t thought he had inflicted that much damage. It used its tail and weapon as a temporary secondary leg to stop him from closing.

Tom continued to press. He dashed to its left.

It rotated.

Thump.

It crashed down onto the stained rock.

He danced forward and drove his spear into its neck. That wound, unlike the one on the wrist barely bled.

It couldn’t get to its feet.

Tom baited out a clumsy strike and then attacked the exposed arms while it drew them back.

It roared and screamed, but its movements were finally slowing. Tom kept stalking around it and forced it to spin on its bums.

It thundered at him.

Tom feinted a lunge, and it flinched.

“LITTLE BUG.”

Tom kept going while it cursed more and more at him. Tom saw realisation in its eyes, so opened up some distance.

“DIE.”

Its weapon flew at him, and he tried to fall flat to the ground to get under it.

He was too slow and the edge of the blade cracked into his calf half tearing off a chunk of flesh. Tom spun on fell and leapt to his feet in case it had a second wind but it was still lying there a hopeful look on his face.

Tom glanced down. A chunk of his leg as big as his fist had been gouged out but thankfully was stuck to his leg by a strip of skin. He kept watching the giant as he moved the chunk of flesh by touch. Pushing it back into his leg and then letting his magic seal the wound.

He tested the healed leg and everything worked perfectly.

Despair filled the creature’s eyes, and Tom advanced upon it.

“I yield.” it rumbled, and white light filled its body and it faced away to be replaced with an exit portal.

The fight had not been easy. The whole time it had been balanced on a knife where a single mistake could very well have resulted in him dying. It was a line he was used to running along. He had been in hundreds if not thousands of battles where the slightest mistake was death. It had almost felt comforting to be in that situation once more.

Tom snorted at his thoughts. In all honesty, after his first strike had crippled its leg the outcome had been inevitable.

Even that final wound had more resulted from horrible luck than the other way. Half the giant’s fate had flooded out, and that had let the attack land.

However, despite the lopsided fight, Tom knew he had a problem. His opponents were getting too strong. If that giant had been lightning resistant, then with its longer reach, he was not sure he could have created the same opening.

Opportunity! The words rang in his head and the lure of rewards encouraged him to move forward in the trial. He had after all won easily. He should ride the wave to the very end. But how long would that fate he had invested keep presenting him with favourable fights?

The portal crackled, encouraging him to enter it. Tom ignored it, instead he checked his spear to make sure that it had not cracked in the fight. After all, the giant body had only been a little softer than rock. None of his thrusts had penetrated than a finger length.

Tom turned away from the exit. He was confident his luck would hold for a couple more fights. The exist portal vanished and a new entry portal appeared.

A green slime the size of a dishwasher emerged. It levitated and then shot toward him. Its pace was a fast jog and as it came, it spat a bit of material at him.

Tom instinctively side stepped, and he heard a hiss as whatever the substance was struck the stone behind him.

The crowd was dead silent.

Alarm bells rang in Tom’s head.

It was the noise of anticipation. The sucked in a breath as they waited a grizzly death. His instincts screamed at him to change the equation. Find a different way. Explode in a frenzy of physical attacks or desperately flee or unleash a torrent of magic that could overwhelm what was coming at him.

He did not know the nature of the approaching monster. All he had was contextual clues and the sizzling sound still occurring behind him.

Tom’s hand rose and lightning arced from it. The slime recoiled and attempted to retreat at but with a flick of his mind the electricity encased it in a cage.

A high squeal emitted from it. Smoke boiled up, and the slime vibrated like it was agony.

“Stop, mercy.” It cried out in a high pitch voice. “I yield.”

Fate was flooding out of the trapped creature. Twenty, forty, sixty he watched the fate being released in fascination. There was a pressure in his brain to release his magic, a thought that the cage form was inefficient.

Tom resisted the impulse as his sluggish mind tried to analyse what he had observed. So much fate had been discharged. Tom shuddered as his body forced himself to breathe involuntarily. He could easily hold his breath for ten seconds. Had that long passed? He hadn’t even realised that he had been holding his breath, let alone sufficient time had occurred for his body’s instinct to keep breathing to kick in.

What was happening? There was the artificial desire to change his spell? With that much fate in play, why would he do anything different? Anything he thought was a good idea right now was probably bad.

Tom ignored the pressure.

“I yield. Mercy.”

He was torturing the creature, and it had agreed to yield. What sort of person was he to keep it caged?

Not his thoughts. Tom fought back against them fiercely.

“No.” Tom stuttered. That was not how the rules had been phased. It was to the death or at least till the enemy disappeared. He might feel like he was acting shamefully, but there was no way he was releasing his magic. His pulse beat in his head. Relentlessly.

Thump, thump, thump.

The sizzling was still there as background noise. Audible over the crackling of electricity and the monsters’ futile pleas.

Tom looked to where that small blob of material that he had dodged had landed. There was the divot the size of his fist in the stone, and it was still expanding. Tom had witnessed the floor remain uncracked when a metal mace wielded by a creature with a strength rank of fifteen had hit it.

What it had spat at him had left a gaping hole in that sturdy rock.

“Mercy.”

It was babbling, and Tom looked at it without a trace of pity. It had tried to kill him and Tom knew that unlike it there was no chance he had a safety blanket. If that material had landed on him, he would be lying on the ground screaming in agony as the acid devoured him.

What he was doing to it might not even be lethal if it was under the GODs protection.

It did not deserve mercy.

“I yield.”

It was trying to trick him.

Anger flared.

Thump, thump.

Tom squeezed the lightning harder, and then the resistance vanished.

For a moment, he considered panicking. Then the slime seemed to shiver, and it flooded through his lightning cage… Escaping.

“NO!” he screamed, preparing Sparkto react to whatever it planned next to do next.

It hit floor and splashed like normal water would.

What? He remembered the divot and looked for the stone to steam. Instead, the liquid vanished as it sprayed the ground and then out of the vanishing liquid rose the familiar portal to the contribution room.

Tom released a gasp of relief.

The slime was dead.

The explosion of yips was deafening.

“That was cruel!” the demon screamed in excitement. “How unlucky can a challenger get to run into a Pollucka Slime in a rank nine match? Ridiculously unlucky, but did you see the response from our challenger that was a high tier spell that no rank 5 should possess? A tier three lightning cage, if I’m not mistaken. Can I hear it for…”

The demon’s voice was drowned in a mixture of yips, howling and what sounded like elephants trumpeting.

“Our challenger.”

The noise died down.

“Who knew that our warrior who was so ill prepared that he stole his first victim’s weapons would have such a devastating counter in his arsenal. He is GOD’s blessed.”

The yips started up again, and Tom stared blankly at the portal in front of him. He knew he should go through it to safety.

From the start he had been under levelled, and five victories should be a wonderful reward. Fate had won him that fight because he had the magic to counter the opponent. Apart from that one weakness that slime would have destroyed him.

Like he was in a trance he walked towards the portal.

“Wait, you don’t need to make a quick decision,” the demon said suddenly. “Crowd, should our challenger take his spoils and leave?”

Clicking noise filled the stadium.

“Or should he keep fighting!”

Yips exploded out of everywhere.

“You’ve just defeated a Pollucka slime. I can’t imagine anything challenging you till at least rank twelve.”

“Hard counter.” Tom said and took another step forward.

“Wait,” the demon insisted. “You have had bad matchups. I’m sure it’ll get better.”

“It’s my life.”

Tom kept walking.

“Wait!” the demon cried. “Let’s have vote whether to award a challenger bounty.”

There was a moment of silence then a scattering of both clicks and yipping.

“What does that mean?” Tom asked curiously, knowing even as he did he had been sucked in by the announcer when he shouldn’t have been

Suddenly the spectre was next to him. “Wait to after the vote kid. That’s all I ask. It is not something that happens often, but if it’s a positive vote and you accept, your rewards are doubled and that’s funded by everyone in the coliseum losing some experience.”

“And the cost?”

“You keep all your points and progress, but will need to win the next three fights before you can leave.”

“I don’t know.”

“Think about the rewards of a trial being doubled. And not just future fights. They’re doubled for the ones you just completed as well.”

The demon was no longer paying any attention to him with its consideration back to the crowd.

“Nobles, warriors and crafters. We’ve just had a historical vote on a continuation and the results are…”

Clicks and yips filled the pause.

“The challenger bounty has been offered.”

Text snapped into existence in front of Tom

A challenger bounty has been offered.

If you accept it, all rewards will be doubled.

You will need to complete three fights before the portal to the contribution room will appear once more at which point you can choose to leave once more.

The spectre of the demon turned to face him. Its horns were uncoloured. “So kid are you going to take it. Between you and me, you should be right for eight or nine more fights, but it’s your choice.”

Indecision warred, but it came back to the simple consideration. Had this opportunity been created by his fate or not? He didn’t know precisely, but his gut was saying yes. If his fate had generated the chance, then there was only a single answer that made any sense. “I’ll accept.” Tom whispered, not sure was making the right choice.

The portal to safety vanished.