8

*****

Wyatt

I laughed like a madman as my barrier snapped into place. Darkness enclosed the entire arena so now the torches were the only source of light. I'd be able to teleport the entire arena in just a few more minutes once I brought all the mana in this arena under my control. Invisible poisonous mist flowed through every pore on my body. This poison was specifically meant for elves so it shouldn't affect any of the slaves.

The half elf slaves might run into a little trouble, but the toxin wasn't meant to kill. It just prevented them from creating or absorbing any mana. Although it was rare for anything that wasn't an origin species to have a core that produced mana it wasn't impossible. This particular poison had been Letty's idea. Focusing it so it only affected certain species was my idea.

It took a little trial, and error to get it to work, but I was dominant over poison. For me it was possible to create whatever affect I desired. Medicine, toxins, and poisons were all closely related. I could probably create all three if I wanted. The potential of all the elements was limited only by your imagination.

All the intelligent races I'd met so far seemed to think that magic had limitations. They were wrong. We were the ones that were limited. Magic could do anything our bodies could handle. No spell was out of reach as long as we had the power we could do what we wished.

I was an origin species. I had more then enough power to do what I wanted at the moment, and I was bringing more, and more under my control as we stood here. I smirked at them as the darkness settled over the arena. I owned their asses, and they knew it. Fear fell down on the arena.

Not just the elves, but the slaves as well. They'd all seen me kill a wyvern with near zero effort. This darkness wasn't helping. The toxin spreading through the arena would add to that terror in a few minutes once it spread to the whole arena. I waited patiently for them to attack.

There were several hired muscles in the crowd. It was a given that they would act. The question was when. My patience was running thin. I was more then willing to kill them all.

In fact. That was the plan. I was going to kill them all. I was going to experiment with them a bit. I wanted to see if my hunch was right.

Did the time element take lifespans to create crystals? I was going to use these elves to find out. I was going to take a hundred years for every slave they'd killed. No, a hundred was a bit too extreme. Fifty years for every slave they'd killed.

Elves only had a three to four hundred year lifespan. Many of the elves in this arena were young so some of them might survive. The fear that letting some of them live would spread once they saw just how much damage I'd done to the survivors. My laughter died down slowly. My eyes were sharp, and focused.

There was no mercy there.

"I am the fox," I announced to the whole coliseum.

Before I could continue three attacks were launched at me at once. I waved them off with ease. I could tell from the surprised expressions of the elves that they expected me to have the wyverns block the attack. The ease at which I blocked those attacks was disturbing to many of them. The part that would really bother them was the fact that beyond the initial spell I hadn't spent a single drop of my mana.

The spell was mostly constructed of my dense divine energy so I had used a large amount of my divine energy to create the spell. My personal mana reservoir was hardly touched. Add on the fact that the massive amount of mana that swirled around this arena was coming under my control rather quickly. I'd even taken over all the anchor points of the pre-existing barrier that surrounded the coliseum. Adding it's power to my spell.

"As I was saying," I continued a moment later as if nothing had happened, "I'm going to give you one chance to survive all of this." I altered the arena walls so there were several sets of stairs that led down into the arena, "Give me fifty years of your life for every slave you've killed, and I'll let you go."

Another round of attacks was launched. I smacked their attacks away. It didn't matter what element they attacked with. I was dominant over most of them. With the amount of mana in the arena under my control there really was no need for me to dodge.

The mana siphoning poison had spread to the entire arena floor, and was working it's way into the stands. Some of the more mana sensitive elves had noticed the poison in the air that was working its way towards them. They tried to move away as terror set in. They were probably the only ones who knew just how fucked they were at the moment. I wasn't holding back simply because I couldn't.

My core couldn't absorb this massive amount of mana. I had to either use it or let it go to waste. I didn't know if I was willing to do either. Forcing my core to expand wasn't the greatest idea. Not right now.

My core cried out suddenly. Pulsing painfully. It wasn't completely purified yet, but it was getting close. If I had to guess I had a few hours at most before my core was purified. My reflect runes had accelerated the process.

The first of the elves daring enough to take my deal came down the steps to stand before me. He looked confident as if he could trick me in some way. His aura was fluctuating wildly. Fear, and confidence mixed together.

"I've killed just one slave," he announced loudly.