Thrill of Battle

Chapter 14: Thrill of Battle

The arena was a grand colosseum made of hardened concrete and dense bricks. It was filled with crowds of people cheering for their supporters.

I took a random seat and watched the ongoing battle. It was between a skinny man and a fat man. Both were rare-tier mystic users.

They both fought bravely and were equally powerful. They continued to spam their skills as the crowd went wild. 

After an intense struggle for an hour, the skinny man defeated the fat man by sneaking a move inside an attack.

The crowd cheered while both of them moved out of the arena. 

My communication orb vibrated slightly. I took it out from my ring and held it in my right hand.

"Pereperepere"

Click

"Hello?"

"Hello, Sir! The slave trader has announced an auction next week."

A horse voice echoed from the other side.

"Alright."

"Sir! My cure?"

"Hmm… Meet me at the market next week before the auction."

I remarked and ended the call. By the way, I had set up that the ringtone after tweaking with the orb for a while. It was quite useful and also sounded cool.

The call was probably of that bandit leader.

 I should just inform the authorities about the Slave trader. I don't want to leave this treasure trove behind.

"Sir, Your match has been arranged."

A lady appeared behind me and replied.

I stood up from my seat and went to the counter. The counter lady was looking at me, so I approached her and asked about my opponent.

"Your opponent is Dan Cooper."

I nodded and went to the waiting area.

There were a few people in the waiting area. I took a seat and calmly awaited my turn. 

Two matches later, my turn arrived. 

I stood up and approached the arena slightly nervous not cause I was scared but because of the massive crowd.

The crowd's murmur echoed in my ears as I gazed at my opponent. I acquired quite a lot of skills after shopping at the nearby skills shop and was itching to try them.

"Inspect"

[Name: Don Cooper]

[Age: 16

[Title: -]

[Tier- Rare]

[Rank: low-silver]

[Affinities: Darkness]

[Abilities]

[Shadow Grasp] [Shadow Strike] [Shadow Leap] [...]

[Copy condition: Defeat him.]

He was wearing a completely black outfit from head to toe. He had a mask that covered his face and a dark blue dagger.

I took a deep breath and entered my battle stance. 

Ding!

Swoosh 

We both vanished and parried our weapons simultaneously.

[LightSpeed]

[Shadow Strike]

Both activated their skills and clashed with each other.

Don was covered in a dark aura while Loki was covered in a light aura.

[Life Severing Art: Severing Slash]

[Shadow Leap]

A slight groan escaped from Don as he received an injury on his shoulders while escaping.

Huff Huff

[Blinding Light]

An intense light blocked Don's vision and he got panicked. 

[Shadow Cloak]

A pitch-black cloak surrounded his body blocking the light.

[Light Crater]

Loki swiftly appeared before Don and pushed his sword through the cloak.

Swish

The sword phased through the cloak as the cloak was empty.

[Shadow Grasp]

Shadow tendrils appeared from the ground and bound Loki. Don appeared a few meters away from Loki and dashed towards him.

[Shadow Pierce]

A silver glean appeared on the dagger as he pushed through infinitely close to Loki's chest.

[Aegis of Life]

siing 

The dagger got parried with a green barrier.

Swoosh

Both distanced themself and prepared their attack.

[Darkness Destruction]

[Life Haven]

A huge slash completely pitch black escaped from Don's dagger and dashed toward Loki.

Loki countered it with a holy light that purified the darkness.

[Life Severing Art: Life Blitz]

A chain of sword slashes dashed toward Don.

[Shadow Leap]

He tried dodging but got injured during the process.

Huff Huff

Both became increasingly tired as the battle continued.

"This is it."

Loki muttered and prepared his final move.

Don did the same as a pitch-black ball appeared before him.

[Darkness Descent]

[Life Severing Art: Life Nova]

Two balls, one pitch black with an ominous dark aura and the other blinding white with dense vitality clashed.

Boom

An explosion occurred as clouds of dust appeared on the arena.

After the cloud cleared, The match result was decided.

Don was kneeling with severe injuries while Loki stood up having only slight injuries on his arms.

"LOKI ODINSON IS THE WINNER"

The crowd cheered wildly as both contestants walked out of the stage. 

[Ding! Darkness Affinity added to host's status…]

"Damn! This feels amazing." I chuckled while casting a minor healing on myself.

The adrenaline rush felt during the battle was quite exhilarating. I realized my strengths and also my weaknesses. I should utilize my basic moves more efficiently rather than spamming skills.

 As I revised through the battle, I found someone near the gate.

"Yo!" I announced as I captured his attention.

"..."

"It was a nice battle. I learned a lot." I raised my hand while trying to strike up a conversation.

"Same." He uttered in a low voice and shook my hands. 

He left afterward.

"Wierd guy. Is he Autistic?" I thought and shook my head clearing the useless thoughts.

Growl

I felt quite hungry so went to a restaurant and had a meal. A good meal after an intense battle always feels amazing.

Later, I watched a few matches and left.

A week flew by as I acquired more Affinities and skills.

"Status" 

[Name: Loki GrimHeart]

[Age: 15]

[Tier: Rare]

[Rank: low-silver]

[Affinities: Order, Life, Light, Darkness, Fire, Wind, Earth, Water]

[Arts]

[Grimheart Reinforcement Sutra]

[Grimheart Eden Manipulation Sutra]

[Life-Severing Sword Art]

[Skills]

[Healing Touch]

[Lifebloom]

[Lifedrain]

[Sensory Field]

[...]

[...]

[Abilities]

[Inspect: Host can observe other's status.]

[Fool's gaze: Host can copy the target's ability, skills, affinities, or items after the copied conditions are met or if you defeat him.]

[Deceit Robe: Host can negate any mental or spiritual ability]

[...]

[...]

An interesting piece of information was being passed around in the Dawn City. It's about Dusk City.

 Dusk City was destroyed overnight by a beast horde. Most of the people were evacuated beforehand but some unlucky ones got perished. The monster horde was led by two epic-tier beasts. 

No, It was not those beasts that I saw during my visit at Nightfall Forest. Remember, They were killed by that Luke guy. 

These two new epic-tier beasts were foxes. More accurately, they were Moonshine Fox and Sunfire Fox. 

Sigh

I nearly lost my money and my life trying to visit Dusk City because of that stupid bandit leader.

I spouted a few curses at that bastard and started preparing for my match.