Dungeon Diver CH346 (Patreon)

The next contestant is one of the newer fighters. He's a dagger user with considerable skill, making it past stage 4 unscathed but losing in the 5th to a large snake creature with scales too hard for his weapons to penetrate.

This event was a nice palette cleanser for what's to come next, the announcer speaks as Max walks onto the platform.

“I welcome the next Legacy fighter you all know well back onto the stage, The Shield!”

The crowd perks up and starts to cheer just like they did in the first event.

“With 91 Stage 5 Victories and 16 Stage 6 wins, you’re in for another incredible show. Let the fight begin!”

Max pulls a large war hammer out from an item box around his waist, then throws it to the ground by his side outside the transport circle before he's sent to the arena.

I hear the whispers of one of the fighters behind me remind his friend that no item boxes or potions are allowed in the event. This wasn't mentioned to me before, but I take note of it now. I'll have to take all my items I wish to use out of my storage before getting on stage not to cause suspicion.

Just like the contestants before, he does a lap to hype up the crowd before the event even begins.

Once the battles start, it's a picture-perfect version of Sia's run.

The moment an opponent appears, he runs across the ring and strikes them down with his hammer. For stages 1 through 4, every beast is killed in a single strike.

The tank looks like he would be slow, with a heavy shield and massive hammer, but his speed and agility are no match even against a level 430 Mutant Yeti in the 5th Stage.

The monster’s mana control looks fairly developed, but Max takes the beast out in 3 swings, leaving the creature lifeless in a pile of its own blood in seconds.

He gives the announcer the go-ahead to start the next round without a break, and the same thing happens. All the betting odds flip against the legacy fighter. It seems round 6 is their usual limit.

A huge scaled lizard creature standing on two legs is transported in. It wears light silver armor with various weapons strapped to its sides, and the creature carries a bow. The mana shielding around its body is visible to the naked eye, and it's clear the creature is imbuing its weapon with mana as well.

It’s a level 549 lizard archer of some sort; it looks nothing like anything I’ve seen in any dungeon.

The fight begins and it zips around the arena with blinding speed.

Although I thought Max was quick for his size, this creature is nearly twice as fast.

The crowd goes crazy, and many members of the audience yell out in excitement and fury, contradicting each other and arguing about who is going to win this fight. Others just cheer and keep their eyes glued to the fight below as it's a very interesting one to watch.

The lizardman readies a shot, and for the first time, Max activates his ranked-up buff. Along with the silver coating from his legendary body hardening skill, and a thin layer of mana shielding he's just capable enough to conjure, the "Iron Body" buff he uses places another layer around both of the lower ones, including his shield and hammer in a dark Iron coloring.

The mana-imbued arrow bounces off his shield and shatters into pieces as the metallic twang of mana being dispersed echoes through the air.

Then another hits him from the opposite side, and the same result repeats itself.

Over and over, the lizard archer zips around the dirt floor with incredible speed, firing off arrow after arrow directed right at the tank's vital points. They’re blocked time and time again until the monster runs out of arrows completely.

The moment it does, the monster throws its bow to the floor and grabs two daggers from its sides. Its battle IQ is off the charts. If I didn't know this was a monster, I could easily confuse its movements for a human's.

The projector zooms in on Max as this exchange occurs, and a smirk can be seen across his face.

Close-range combat begins, and the lizardman begins to try slicing through the Iron Body defenses but is struck with the same predicament.

Its daggers are blown back by miniature explosions of mana every time it attempts to attack, and after half a dozen lunges in, one of its silver daggers breaks in two. This is when the battle completely changes…

It's clear the tank can't follow its opponent's movements to the exact points of contact, but with his defensive abilities, it's not even necessary.

Every time there's contact with his Iron Body, the tank spins around and attempts to land a blow with his hammer. It take’s quite a while, but the lizard's movements are limited when it's surprised at the dagger breaking on impact.

This small hesitation gives Max enough time to finally make contact with one of his hammer strikes and send the lizard flying  in the air to hit the clear barrier of mana shielding high up in the ring’s inner dome.

Another small explosion of white mana erupts from the barrier, propelling the monster back as it makes impact, sending the creature flying toward the floor at double the speed it came up at.

The lizard hits the floor, creating a crater, and before it can think to move, Max comes swinging down on it with his hammer to land a final strike.

The crowd around the ring can't believe their eyes, and everyone goes wild as the announcer yells out, only to hype the crowd up more.

“Can you believe it? The Shield! He’s done it! Our first stage 6 victory of the night!”

Max raises his shield and hammer up in the air to celebrate. As he yells this out, the buffs and active skills on him deactivate, and he falls to the floor next to the lizardman because of a lack of MP.

The announcer plays it off as a usual occurrence, and many from the crowd don’t even seem to care that he’s unable to move on. Everyone is still excited for the first event of the night with unexpected results. Some people that still bet on Max just made over 3x their money back.

Before the hype is lost, another newer contestant is brought onto the stage to give the crowd a cooldown again. People continue to talk about the results of the final match for many fights that follow, not paying much attention to the fighter that makes it through the 4th round and gets defeated in the 5th just like the other newbie.

Ace, the swordsman, takes hold of both his blades and walks up to the transport platform. He doesn't say a word, looking very serious as he's teleported onto the ring and the announcer gives his introduction.

“Everyone welcome one of our newest Legacy Fighters, Ace! With a record of 14 Stage 5 Victories, and 13 Stage 6 Wins, you’re all in for one of the best fights of the night here! Make some noise!”

Ace stands still in the ring as each new opponent is spawned in and runs toward him. Stages 1 through 4 go by in a flash as he raises a thumb after each match to continue without the rest period offered in between.

After all 4 of the starting matches, he hasn't even moved a foot out of place. The swordsman just waits for the monster that spawns in to attack him and he swings a glossy black blade from his right side every time they come in range.

There’s a thin white light that appears around the blade each time he swings it, showing it's imbued with mana.

As stage 5 starts, I expect the fighter to act differently, but he still just stands still. However, this time the swordsman grabs both of his swords and slices the level 446 creature into pieces in an X formation without batting an eye.

Stage 6 comes around, and the betting stats are going wild when the announcer yells out that the same type of monster that defeated the Stone Maiden opener in a single hit will be his opponent too, a Red Ogre.

The crowd fills with whispers, and the odds for the fighter and monster fluctuate greatly as mystery fills the colosseum.

Once the level 569 Red-Skinned Ogre is teleported to the arena, the crowd starts to cheer louder and louder. Instead of the huge metal club the last variant had, this one carries a long black sword.

Ace smiles and his eyes finally show a hint of life.

Before the battle even begins, the swordsman shifts his stance and readies his blades. Then, the roar of the beast and its shimmering glowing golden strength allow the battle to begin.

The man dressed in black activates his legendary grade extreme speed skill and matches the impossible agility of the Red Ogre in an instant. There’s a loud metallic clang and scraping sound that rings out as the two blades of the fighter collide with the Ogre’s.

The moment they do, a blue light flashes around the swordsman’s body, and he twists around the Ogre’s blade with ease. If my natural perception wasn't so high, I’d completely miss what just happened. I’m sure 99% of the audience did.

The swordsman activates his divine speed buff and lands two clean hits on the Ogre's torso before flashing across the area to prepare for another exchange.

Two open wounds appear on its frontside, and before it even turns to see the swordsman facing its back, he already deactivates his buff and stands in a ready position to fight again.

Consumed with rage, the monster runs forward and following the loud clang of metal on metal, there's a small flash of blue light and the swordsman is on the other side of the ring without a scratch on him. Meanwhile, two more open wounds cover the beast’s chest.

This repeats 4 more times until the Ogre's movements start to slow down.

Its body gets covered in a red veil of energy. I can't use my inspect or appraisal skills from here, but I can only assume it's a conditional stat-boosting final move.

The swordsman sees this and glows bright blue before their next exchange even starts. He starts zipping around the ring at speeds I doubt anyone here can even hope to perceive in their lifetime. In less than a second, the swordsman returns back to the position he stands in and turns off his buff while falling to one knee.

In the same instant, the ferocious glowing red ogre falls into pieces, and the red glow fades as a crimson liquid stains the floor below it.

The audience goes wild. They have no idea what just happened, but know the fighter won.

Ace wipes his swords clean of the monster's blood while standing back to his feet and giving the Announcer the go-ahead to push him to the next round.

“That’s right, folks! Our second stage 6 win of the night! This brings us to our first stage 7 duel.”