Under Pressure (2)

A black and brown sea covered the bright golden sand.

The desert was overrun with <Terrentia Malerachnis>.

Or, as contestants typically called them, spider monsters.

Other than Otto himself, Mikelo was the final remaining contestant.

The one who should have long been dead, his body fully digested in the spiders' bellies.

Otto watched him die painfully, wake up, run away from the spiders, then die all over again after they turned their attention to him once more.

Otto had to give it to Mikelo, though.

This Throskart was one tough cookie!

Having to die over and over in an extremely painful manner would break most ordinary minds after a single round.

Mikelo had now done it almost fifty times, by Otto's count, but while his expression was locked into a grimace, he still showed no sign of giving up.

Otto now had the un-enviable task of killing this person once and for all.

And his time was running out.