Chapter 4 : The Arena

Bain and Persian's swords collided, and a large light flashed out, making the ground crumble.

Persian said, "I know you…"

Bain replied, "A lot of people do. I know who you are too."

"You couldn't just stay out of this, mister popular?"

"Don't call me that please. It's not formal. I'd like to be called by my real name. Which is Bain."

"Put a sock in it, weirdo!"

Persian and Bain started to duel, both of their swords fighting, with the two of them jumping over each other and dodging attacks, no one landed a single hit.

Persian pushed Bain a couple feet back, and they dashed towards each other again.

Sho watched this, thinking, 'Who is this guy?'

Persian jumped back, and he started spinning his sword fast towards Bain, and a flood of blood started to flow out.

"Blood army."

Coming out of the blood wave, were faceless blood soldiers, holding blood swords and blood shields.

Sho thought, 'Blood army?' Why the hell didn't he use those against me? Did this bastard think I wasn't worth it?! I'm gonna kill that arrogant son of a bitch..'

Bain thinks, 'Blood soldiers..annoying. Can easily counter this.'

Bain took his sword, put his hand on the blade, and cut himself.

Sho thought, 'This idiot cut himself..?'

Persian thinks, 'I know this move Bain is doing, everyone talks about it, it's usually his final move before he finishes off a raid beast. But I'm not like them, I can win this! I will ascend to the top! I couldn't use these moves on that other kid, Sho. He wasn't worthy enough to see my full potential, an arrogant bratty scum boy, he's not worthy of it. He's a class Z, not worth my full power. I have more honor for myself than that. But with Bain, I'm giving him all I got! He just pisses me off.'

Bain said, "Sorry."

The blood in Bain's cut hand started to glow blue, and then his entire body was glowing blue, and his eyes bright white.

Bain dashed towards the blood wave and soldiers, and he punched them both with one blow, and there was a loud thud and wind shot.

Persian was smacked far back, sliding on the ground, with his blood armor almost cracked.

Bain ran forward, with his skin turning back to normal.

Persian exclaimed, "You can't stop me! Fuck your class! I won't let you or that snot nosed brat stop me!"

Large blood arms and hands came out of Persians sword and back, and eyes.

The arms and fists were spiky, and they were smashing everything apart.

Bain kept running forward, unbothered.

'How boring.'

There was so much debris flying all over the place, and Bain was dodging the large spiked blood arms and fists.

Persian screamed, "Die! Die! Die! I will ascend! You cannot stop my ascension!"

Bain replied, "I can."

Bain made another blue sword form in his other hand, and they both started to glow.

"Gather."

Bain's two swords were using telekinesis, gathering all the rubble in the area, and they started to create a roof over Bain's head, while Bain was still dodging the spiky blood arms and fists.

Persian thought, 'His swords gathered all the rubble in the area, creating a wall dome over his head, but he's still exposed in his front, back, and sides! What's he planning? Doesn't matter! I gotta go all out! I can't let them stop me from ascending! I'll hit him from all directions at once! Even from underground! And if he jumps, I'll hit him with my lightning, there's no way that wall can block it.'

All of the spiked blood fists and arms started to attack Bain from all directions.

Bain waited for them to get close, and he jumped high up in the air, with the blood arms and fists colliding with each other.

Persian screamed, "Gotcha!"

A red and black lightning blast came from the sky, hitting down on Bain.

Bain said, "Harden."

The wall Bain was holding started to glow blue, and it completely blocked Persians blast.

Persian said, "What?!"

Bain pointed the wall at Persian now, and he said, "Bullet."

In the air, the blue wall started to form and spark into a giant bullet, and Bain pointed his fingers like a gun at the blue bullet wall, and he said, "Gun gun."

Persian gasped, and tried to fly away, but Bain already shot the sparking blue bullet wall.

It hit Persian, and there was another large explosion.

Sho saw a bunch of debris headed towards him, and he thought, 'Can't move! Gotta fucking move! Move! Move, dumbass!'

Suddenly, blue rubble walls began to form around Sho, protecting him.

Dust and smoke were soaring into the air, and Persian's armor was fully destroyed.

Persian had long blonde hair, white eyes, and red skin.

Persian said, "I..lost.."

He blinked once, and Bain was standing over him.

Persian says, "Well..what are you waiting for? Finish it."

Bain replied, "Since you asked nicely."

Bain stabbed Persian through the chest with his sword, instantly ending him.

Bain sat up, making his sword go away.

Sho was crawling on the ground, gritting his teeth, looking at Persian.

"What..the hell is he?"

Bain responded, "He's not from earth. He's from another world. The Tower of Valhalla expands to hundreds of worlds. You'll find all sorts of beings here."

Bain walked over to Sho, and tried to help him up.

Sho smacked Bain's hand away, saying, "I don't need your help. I didn't need your fucking help. I had it."

"You clearly didn't. Still, you managed to survive long enough for me to come help you. Quite impressive for a class Z Fighter."

"I didn't need saving. Fuck you."

Bain sighed, and he opened his hand out, and it showed a small green pill.

Sho asked, "The hell is that? You wanna fight?"

"It's a herbal pill. It's used to heal up to 100% of your wounds depending on which kind of herbal pill you get, I bought tons of them with my Fighter points. Take this."

"No. I can help myself."

"How long are you going to be stubborn, Sho Takahashi?"

Sho gasped, "How do you know my full name?"

"First, everyone can know your name if they look at someone and think, 'Stats.' And I know you from earth, from my old school."

"Ah?"

"You went to my old school, and you beat up half the bad boys there. And you got expelled."

"They fucking deserved it. What's it to you? You saved me for yourself so you could take revenge on me for almost slaughtering your thug friends?"

"No. I was captain of the kendo club at school, and I always saw potential in your skill. You were strong, fast, and knew how to fight."

"Had experience, kendo nerd. What do you want from me? And how did you find me?"

"First things first, take the herbal pill."

"No way."

"You must."

"I don't have to if I don't want to. Now go away."

"I can't do that. If you take this pill, I'll tell you everything you need to know, including things about the features of the Tower, and the worlds."

"…."

"Please."

"Stop saying please, I'm gonna vomit on your ugly face. Give me that. You're lucky I'm in need of more answers, or you'd be dead already."

Sho snatched the pill away from Bain, and ate it.

Immediately, Sho's body started to feel refreshed, and his wounds were closing up, but it didn't get rid of the blood.

Sho stood up all the way, saying, "There. I did it. Now answer my questions."

"..About how I found you. There is a tournament going on nearby with nothing but Fighters trying to gain points. Me and my guild were there, looking to compete. Until we heard the noise. I went to check it out, leaving my guild members to compete in the tournament. I wonder if they are still waiting in line.."

"Focus."

"Apologies."

Suddenly, firefighters and fire trucks arrived, along with medical services. They hopped out of their vehicles, and did their jobs.

Sho asked, "Firefighters…medical people.."

Bain answered, "They are all passive Fighters. That's what everyone calls the Fighters who gain points by getting jobs or working locally. They're weaklings. Scared of death itself, when they are surrounded by its shadow at all times. Follow me."

"I don't remember taking orders from you, kendo nerd."

"If you want answers, follow me."

"Tch."

Sho spit to the side, and followed Bain.

(15 minutes later)

Sho and Bain were walking down the sidewalk, walking down a large city, with multiple tall buildings, billboards of pop idols, sports teams, professional athletes, and more.

There were cars all around them, with people driving them. There were Fighters around too, dressed in glowing armor, holding their weapons, showing off powers, or even trying to invite people into their guild.

"Come on! We're the best guild here!"

"I don't know..I'm not really looking for any guilds.."

"SHUT THE HELL UP AND JOIN MY GUILD!"

"NOOOOOO!"

Sho asked Bain, "This resembles earth a lot. Explain."

"The billboards of idols and professional athletes are passive Fighters who don't care about fighting or gaining points, they just care about getting famous anywhere, spreading their fame everywhere. They cling onto their fame so much that with half of earth's inhabitants in the tower, they desired to come here with them and continue being their favorite person."

"Yeah, I don't fucking care."

"Also, this world basically has everything in it, but with powers and more mythical things. Each floor I heard is kinda like this, but each one is definitely different from each other, different enough to where you'll be able to tell the big difference. All floors are not similar."

"Earlier you said something about buying things with points. Explain that before I hurt you."

"Apologies."

"Stop apologizing."

"My mistake."

"Don't say that shit either."

"THEN WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO SAY?!"

"…"

"…About the buying thing, you can use your points to go to a merchants store and buy items that'll help you in combat. Things like armor, herbal pills, adrenaline pills, sleeping pills, and all sorts of other things. But the armor you buy will be at the same level as your class. Meaning if you buy a random armor suit, it would be on par with your current power level and class, but it will still be a good layer of protection."

As they walked, some flashy armored Fighters noticed Sho, saying things like:

"Isn't he from your school?"

"Yeah, he had gotten into a fight with Kell and his group!"

"That fight was awesome!"

"Someone leaked the video all over the internet on earth!"

"Didn't he beat up half the students at his last school?"

"Hell yeah, I was there."

"Sho definitely has anger issues."

Sho heard one of the Fighters, so he rushed up to him, grabbed him by the face, and smashed it into a nearby car, saying, "Fuck you!"

Fighters started to gather around Sho, ready to attack him for hurting their guild member.

"You'll pay for that!"

"Angry Sho!"

Bain jumped in, saying, "Back away."

They said:

"It's Bain!"

"What's he doing protecting someone like Sho?"

Bain replied, "I cannot disclose that information to a bunch of heathens. We're leaving. If you have any concerns, tell it to yourselves."

Bain and Sho started walking away, as eyes followed.

Sho asked, "The hell are they acting so shocked when they see you for?"

"I'm well known. I ranked up to my level in less than a day, defeating mythical monsters and humanoid creatures."

"Don't care anymore. I need to gain points and get strong so I can go onto the next floor. Sick of this lame ass place."

"You and I both. That's why I wanted to ask you something."

"What?"

"Can you join my guild?"

"No. Buzz off now."

"Wait! You have potential! If you join my guild, you can grow exponentially fast! You wanna level up, right? That's all you want?"

Sho thought, 'You're wrong. It's deeper than that. It's more than this. What I really want can be given to me as long as I win. Living alone without feeling good emotions from anyone else changed me more than my bastard father did.'

Sho said, "It's your guild?"

"Yes."

"All the more reason I'm saying fuck you. I don't take orders from anyone. If you knew me, you'd know I'd react like this. Buzz off."

"Wait! If you join us, you could definitely get stronger! And we'll help you get points faster than you'd get them on your own."

"Doubt it."

"No, really. At least meet with the other members at the tournament arena."

"I'll kill them."

[Outside the Tournament arena]

The arena was as big as a football stadium, and it was packed with Fighters and passive Fighters, inside and out.

There were large TV's on the outside of the arena, showing Fighters battling it out with each other using their bright and strong powers, and there was the announcer's voice, yelling, "Whoa! What a strike from Vass! WHOA! HUGE dodge from Kitty! The tides have turned in this bout, and the crowd is loving it!"

The crowd cheered loudly.

Sho and Bain were walking towards the arena, and Sho asked, "So where is your team?"

"Over there. It seems they are waiting for me. I thought they'd be in by now."

Sho and Bain started to make their way over to the team, as Fighter eyes followed them immensely.

They approached them, and Bain said to the team, "What's going on? I thought you'd all be in?"

Bain's team:

Gideon - [Dark orange hair, reddish orange eyes. Class D, 922 power level.]

Yanlin - [Long ash white hair, grey eyes, and glasses. Class D, 400 power level.]

Bright - [ Shiny blue hair, dark blue eyes, always wears a white nightgown, has feathers all over his body besides his face. Class D, 500 power level.]

Sho looked at them, and thought, 'Stats.'

All the teammates' statistics were made known to Sho, and Sho thought, 'Their power levels are high as hell, with two of them being stronger than this Bain guy. How the hell does that work? Better yet, should I just use these fools for my advantage then ditch them when I get the chance? Yeah. I trust no one.'