23 Lizardman
Everything turned silent around him, he looked down at the blood and found himself more confused than ever.
"Beginning the second wave in 5 minutes, if you would like to quit then enter the light to your left", the mechanic voice died down and a white gate appeared to his left.
Neil was left to his thoughts.
He plopped down onto the floor and gave a long sigh.
'I'm so fucking stupid.'
He loathed his stupidity, he kept on boasting and boasting but in the end, this was all he amounted to, just a stupid kid.
During these 5 minutes he remained silent, he didn't think of anything and cleared his mind in preparation for all the fights.
"The second wave is beginning.", the mechanical voice broke the silence.
The light came back, this time, however, the light contained a touch of darkness within.
"GRAAAA!", a painful scream violated his eardrums.
He jumped backwards.
Light footsteps came running out of the light, the owner being a lizardman with a long green tail and green scales covering his body.
Crackle!
A whip lashed out towards his belly.
"Slow!", instead of backing off he ran towards the lizardman, the best defence was offence especially against long-ranged opponents.
The whip slammed into the ground as he jumped over it, his speed constantly increasing.
He raised his scythe slightly in preparation.
"KAAAA!", the lizardman screamed and the hand holding the whip flailed wildly.
A quiet whip came flying towards his back, Neil's senses went haywire so he quickly twisted around.
Ting!
The scythe and the whip collided, borrowing the force of the impact Neil turned back around and sped towards the lizardman.
'I can reach it.', his scythe lashed towards the lizardman's chest, he was too short to properly reach the head.
Just as it was about to hit the lizardman, 'Green?'
Thud!
The lizardman's right leg smashed into his chest, it pulled enough distance for the scythe to no longer be able to reach it.
'Luckily this thing is quite weak, I shouldn't forget about martial arts.'
-----
A few days before.
"Remember Neil, you are missing an arm, this means that your fatal flaw in a fight would be martial arts, you would lose in every fight, this means you have to practice martial arts aimed directly towards using your legs such as taekwondo and constantly place pressure on your opponent to not allow them to attack."
"Understood?"
This was something Ray was constantly annoyed about, a missing arm would make you many times weaker than the opponent.
He looked at the little boy in front of him and sighed inwardly.
'I must leave this place, I have to prevent other people from going through this situation.'
"Understood!", Neil's voice broke his thought process.
-----
Balancing himself he stepped forwards and was in range once again.
"RAAAA!", a sudden heatwave attacked Neil.
Looking up he found a fireball being formed within the lizardman's mouth.
'Magic?'
It tried launching the fireball but Neil was too quick for it.
Dark green blood splattered across the arena, a deep wound formed on the lizardman's chest.
A desperate cry ensued, it screamed and screamed and bent over in pain.
'So you're an actual copy, with the same personality and everything.', he looked at the squirming lizardman.
His scythe struck down and cut off its head.
"Ray told me that some can come out with a sudden force of strength whilst they are dying so I should finish them off as quickly as possible."
The light came down and cleaned up the battlefield.
The second enemy came down.
"Another lizardman?"
Just like last time, it was a lizardman, the difference being this one was wearing gear and used a sword instead of a whip.
Unlike the last one, it gradually circled him, after a few minutes he saw its eyes light up.
The dirt under was sent flying, it ran straight to the left side of his body.
'So slow.', this thing was many times slower than the lights that he had to deal with before, it was also many times weaker than his sparring partner Ray.
He stood still and waited patiently, its sword swung towards the left side of his body.
'Just a bit longer.'
The sword was about to hit him, the lizardman smiled in satisfaction as it imagined the human getting cut in half.
"Kruk?", the lizardman was confused, where did that human go?
"Down here.", it looked down, a smiling little boy with a devilish smile appeared in its eyes.
That was the last thing it would see.
Its head went flying.
"Phew..."
Use the least amount of energy to kill the opponent; that was Ray's main teaching.
"I have many more rounds to go."
His opponent arrived once again, just like last time it was another lizardman, this one also used a sword and was much better than the previous opponent, but to Neil, it didn't make a difference.
Just like last time a head went flying and so did the next opponents.
It was finally time for the final enemy, the light that shone done contained a sharp darkness within it.
"The last fight, this should be harder than the previous four."
"Keruk, tough human."
"Hm? You can speak my language?"
"Kek, human easy."
'Its speech is quite bad but it's better than nothing I guess.'
His scythe lay on his shoulder; the lizardman left the light.
'It's huge.', he instantly knew that this fight would be difficult, this lizardman was at least 7 metres tall and the heat coming off it was enough to reveal its strength.
Neil charged over, 'I have to use its slow body to my advantage.', if he let the lizardman make the first move then things may become dangerous.
"But you're still weaker than Ray!"
"Kek, you human weak!", his words angered it, from behind it came a large club swinging at Neil.
Wind blew all over the arena; the force behind the club was powerful enough to rip apart a house.
'I can use that.', he came up with a plan.
The club grew larger in his eyes, the pressure of the wind battered his body but it wasn't enough to knock him over.
"Human die!", the large lizardman shouted in anger, the veins on its forehead surged with blood and the sound of its heart-pumping became audible.
Flames burst all over its body.
'This makes things difficult but my plan won't change.'
The club was about to hit him.
"Dead!"
But it only swung at air.
Tap.
The lizardman looked up and found the human.
ROOAAAAAAR
Air quaked and the ground shuddered.
"That doesn't make a difference.", he smiled at the lizardman's action.
He was running on its club and had already made it right next to the lizardman.
"You die instead.", he slashed at its chest, the heat burnt his skin.
'That doesn't hurt!'
Blood poured out of its chest but it wasn't enough.
Bang!
The flames exploded outward sending Neil flying, crashing into the wall.
"That burnt some of my skin, let's be careful next time.'
It went on a rampage in the middle of the colosseum, its flames cauterising the wound on its chest.
'And back to square one.', he laughed bitterly while he began standing up.
"This is more difficult than I expected it, a few more of those strikes and it should just bleed to death but I don't know if my body can handle burning up more than this. I wonder how far Ray made it because this is way harder than I expected it to be."
-----
"Remember Neil, during every wave the final enemy is quite similar to a boss monster in video games, its much stronger than normal, so it's during these fights that you should go all out, I don't know what you'll be facing because it's constantly changing as more people join."
Ray patiently explained the difficulty of the trial.
"But what if I run into a boss which is extremely difficult for me to face even if it's during a lower wave?"
"Hahaha...", Ray laughed a bit.
"You'd just have to die then."
"..."
-----
The lizardman turned towards him, 'Is that?', he watched as it got into some sort of running form...
'Run!', he didn't even hesitate, he immediately rolled to his left.
BOOM!
A heatwave attacked him from the right, a dust cloud formed.
Woosh!
The cloud twisted and a club came from within.
Smash!
His scythe attacked the club, his strength couldn't match the lizardman's so his only outcome was to be sent flying like a piece of meat.
Rolling over blood spewed out of his nose and his mouth, he felt a piercing pain attack him from within.
'Something broke.', spitting out some blood he wiped his mouth.
The lizardman was still where he was standing before, steam came flying off of it and it was obviously tired.
"I have to win in a battle of attrition, but the question is can I even survive any more of these attack."
Its head slowly turned towards him, its previously black eyes were now dark red.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
The sound of its heartbeat became louder.
Its entire body turned and returned to a sprinting form.
'So hot!', the heatwave was many times more powerful now, steam blew everywhere.
With a deep breath, it dashed once again.
