“My magic is your natural weakness,” the man spoke up. “There’s no reason to extend this fight longer than necessary. There’s no dishonor in forfeiting when you know you’re defeated.”
To dodge the massive number of Ice Shards, she’d begun running toward the Ice Mage’s flank and called out, “Are you able to jump with all that ice on your head?”
Ignoring her, he replied, “I warned you.”
Rolling her eyes, she countered. “Look down.” She’d already cast her hand out and was drilling excessive amounts of Lightning into the ground where he stood.
At a closer look, it seemed the orb that rained lightning down on the Ice Mage wasn’t aimed at his outer defense, but at the same place on the ground she was now attacking. It was charred and nearly molten.
The torrent of Ice Shards stopped a moment later. The female Lightning Mage turned around and walked away. The ice was still surrounding him when the announcer called the match. An elder came and fetched the Ice Mage, having to tear the youth out of his own defense. He was unconscious, but alive. She’d literally melted his lower defense out from under him before giving him a bit of electroshock therapy.
It immediately struck me as odd that none of them were killing each other. The more fights I watched, the more it seemed that Shamash had made a mistake. Not only were most of them not to the death, but none of them were. There were some close calls, but there was always someone there to help when any serious damage was done. What was going on?
With the lich gone and not coming back for a while, I further resolved myself to take in as much as I could. There were few melee fighters that dared to fight. But there were a few exceptions. A battleaxe-wielding orc that was level 12,000 had the ability to send out razor sharp arcs of energy with every swing of his ax. They worked both defensively and offensively. He wasn’t terribly quick on his feet, but he could move his two-handed axe with remarkable speed.
Another obvious observation was that most of the contestants were between level 5,000 and 20,000.
There was only one evident vampire Blue Mage. He didn’t have any Shapeshifting Forms from what I could tell, but easily won his fight by utilizing a combination of five different elements.
The most eye-catching fight of the day wasn’t due to the skill of either of its participants, but the personality of a female dark elf. The moment she stepped foot in the arena, she addressed her opponent on the other side of the arena’s stage. “Hey there.”
As the vampire turned to her, the show began.
Having the vampire’s full attention, she licked her lips. In contrast to the emotionless gaze common to vampires, she looked at him with interest and hunger. It seemed she either wanted him or wanted to eat him.
His response was respectfully stoic, but it was obvious that her act had an immediate effect on him.
“If you plan on giving up and proposing to me later, it will require many gifts for me to consider you,” she said, preparing him like a slab of meat. “Don’t be stingy.”
He should have never opened his mouth and kept focused on the fight at hand.
“Who’s going to propose to you?” he retorted. “A filthy elf.”
Giving him a knowing grin, she replied, “Isn’t preparing your food half the fun?”
“What are you insinuating?”
“Did someone take out your monster core or something? I guess it doesn’t matter that you’re an idiot as long as you have enough money and a pretty face.”
She’d gone on to win a completely one-sided victory that was filled with an endless supply of flirtatious taunts throughout the match. She was talented in Water and Earth Magic, but also Dark. At the level of 14,000, she would have easily walked over him even without mocking him the entire way. As someone that wasn’t a fan of the vampires in general, I enjoyed the change in pace.
Between the lower level fighters and higher ones, even if the range of participants were just between levels 5,000 and 20,000, the difference was substantial. The more I watched, the clearer the power difference became. Level 5,000 was high enough for any of the participants to have 10,000 in two different stats, so only those that placed their sole focus in one stat would lack the stat bonuses. By level 10,000 it was possible for someone to have the stat bonuses in every stat. Most of the participants didn’t dare do this because it would hurt them in the long run, but there were some that did. They had a large advantage over those that were dual or single stat focused at this level. My biggest advantage was that through my Light Magic Buffs I had all the stat bonuses while not having to use my stat points. I had the stats of a single focus combatant and a multi focused one.
Stat bonuses weren’t always enough, though. There were some talents that broke every rule. Lady Contessa for instance would’ve been able to slap most of the level 5,000s around while being half their level and could’ve possibly even defeated some at level 10,000.
By the time Shamash returned, my mind was fully saturated with the common strategies and alignment versus alignment strengths and weaknesses to be found in the Hallow Amphitheater. It had been approximately a day since the lich had left me to myself.
I was going to mention the lack of killing, but he beat me to it. Standing up from where I was perched on the forcefield, I didn’t face his vampire form directly but continued to watch the fighting below.
“Our luck is good,” he began. His voice echoed in my mind. “A tournament will be held a week from now, so Hallow is filled with young nobles at the moment. Killing is not permitted, but the rewards will easily make up for it. You’ve already gotten a feel for how these matches are run and where they draw the line between victory and defeat?”
“I have,” I replied.
“Good. This is a preliminary tournament for a much larger one held during the Festival of Parmida. The nobles that will show up to this preliminary will be mostly locals, so there will be few Truebloods, but during the main festival that will be different. The maximum level for the tournament is 20,000 and the beginning stages will split up the contestants further by level. This will be good experience, so I signed you up. You will participate in the preliminary, but there will be too many exceptional people here during the main tournament. Thankfully, the rewards for winning the lesser tournament are worth the effort.”
“What are they?”
“The top ten participants all receive prizes. They will have you choose between magic gear and rare blood. The main prize, though, is the fresh corpse of a level 30,000 Leviathan. It could only be considered a young adult, but they are beasts on the same level as dragons, and even a young one will hold hundreds of bodies of blood. The blood itself is worth nearly as much as all the blood in the shop we visited, and its scales and skeleton are also worth a small fortune to blacksmiths and alchemists.”
“What’s the prize for the main tournament?”
At first, he didn’t respond. He seemed to be considering whether to even tell me or not. A few minutes later, he replied, “A Master Dark Orb, an Obsidian Steel Sword, and a body of Trueblood.”
My eyes went wide before I remembered to remain stone-faced and made the correction. “Is a body of Trueblood enough to make a difference?”
“It could cut the amount of blood you need to become Trueblooded in half, if not more.”
Cut it in half? That could save us months… “Is it not worth it?”
“I don’t know. The danger is great. If you make a single mistake while the wrong person is watching… There will likely be a number of people in Hallow at Mistress Nava’s level during the festival. There’s no need to make a decision now. Let’s get a closer look at your competition.”
Chapter 10 – The Competition
Being amongst a crowd of vampires was even more intimate when I sat in one of the smaller arenas. I could feel the breath of the man behind me, except instead of looking at me like a piece of steak, he was completely transfixed by the fight below. It was hard to focus, but I’d already had to deal with the s
ame problem while watching from the forcefield above. Shamash had brought me to watch the fight of one of the most promising competitors I’d face in the preliminary tournament. He was Parth of the family of Gul.
Parth was the oldest son of an extremely wealthy merchant family that made their livelihood growing and selling alchemy ingredients. They weren’t Truebloods but had power similar to that of lesser royalty because of their wealth.
He stood ready on one side of the arena facing his opponent like a haughty playboy. His long-sleeved shirt looked to be made from silk and was so well fitted that it hid the armor beneath it almost perfectly. It was black with intricate purple designs that faintly resembled flowers or some kind of flowing plant. His face was long and thin, making him look more delicate than intimidating. At level 14,000, he wasn’t to be underestimated.
“Even with their vast wealth, Gul has only been able to provide enough blood for him to reach quarter-blood—hence his reason for participating,” Shamash said through mind-speak. “It just goes to show how difficult pure Trueblood is to procure. He will also be one of your strongest opponents. It’s appropriate that he’s the only other Blue Mage you’ll face on my list. You’ve never had the opportunity to study your opponents. Its effect on your fighting has been positive but also there’s negative. Killing often takes less control and creativity. Your tendency to want to preserve mana and finish a fight with as much remaining as possible has been a boon to your effectiveness. I know you’re in a hurry to return home but use this time wisely. You may never get another chance like this.”
The announcer called out for the fight to begin. A long guardless dagger appeared in Parth’s hand which he held like a baton.
His opponent lunged forward with his redwood staff. A phantom black flame covered in red fire spewed across the hardpacked earth. It wasn’t as compressed as the fireballs I’d seen the day before, but this fire moved differently than any fire I’d ever seen.
“This is new to you?” Shamash said.
“Yes,” I replied, narrowing my eyes to try to get as much out of Mana Sight as possible.
As the flames reached Parth, he barely moved a muscle and only lifted his arm. With a flick of his wrist, using his dagger like a wand, a jet of water shot toward the center of the flames, breaking up the attack and sending the fragments flying in all directions. The fire that hit the ground crackled and caused the packed earth to pop and burst, creating a small trench in front of him.
“The Fire Mage has joined two magics,” the lich explained. “It’s generally referred to as Dark Fire. As you can guess, it’s a combination of Dark and Fire Magics. It’s very rare naturally, but not in this environment where everyone has been training their entire lives. Most of these vampires are not much older than you are, but even those raised in lesser families reach level 5,000 in their first ten to fifteen years of life. For royal bloodlines, it’s at least twice that, and that is without ever going adventuring. Their education is far greater than yours.”
A dozen Ice Bolts flew toward the Fire Mage. It was obviously a probing attack, but a jet of Water, this one much more compressed than the first, fired off behind the Ice Bolts heading directly for the Fire Mage’s chest. My angle wasn’t great, but it seemed to be hidden behind an Ice Bolt flying along the same path.
As the Ice Bolts reached their destination, the Fire Mage spun his staff counterclockwise with both hands, creating a Dark Fire vortex. It was twice his height in diameter, easily devouring each of the Ice Bolts.
He dropped his Dark Fire shield, only to come face to face with the most vicious water gun attack I’d ever seen. Dark Fire blazed to life down the shaft of his staff as he tried to block the Water with the staff itself. The only thing that saved him was that he shifted his body at the same time he moved to deflect. Even though his staff partially intercepted the attack, it hardly slowed it down as the Water jet jabbed right into the meat of his shoulder. It wouldn’t have been enough to kill him, but the Fire Mage’s red scale armor only slowed it down. Water dripped down his elbow mixed with blood.
“The kid using Dark Fire is using a superior magic and much more power,” Shamash said. “But, as you can tell, against a skilled duelist it makes little difference. Let’s hope this kid can extend the fight long enough for you to get an idea how Parth fights.”
The Fire Mage was starting to realize the reality of the situation and pounded his staff into the ground. It erupted with an aura of fire three times the size as before. Taking it up in two hands, he pointed it at Parth as if it were a flamethrower and released a massive swell of mana. Dark Fire filled the space between them in seconds, setting the ground off like a thousand bags of warming popcorn kernels as the flames swept over it.
Parth remained unmoving except for another flick of his wrist. An orb of Water appeared before him and started to expand. In moments it was the size of a small house.
The Dark Fire reached the Water and the massive ball burst, falling to the ground then washing outwards like a tidal wave. With a wave of his dagger, the merchant’s son commanded a sheet of water into being. It rose up between him and the flames that snuck through his main defense. He came out completely unscathed.
Sending out another dozen Ice Bolts, he continued with no sign of slowing.
The Fire Mage was ready with another vortex of Dark Fire, but this time he left the defense up for a few seconds longer in the case of a hidden attack. To be extra safe he also jumped to the side.
There were no more surprises during the rest of the fight. Parth was using far less mana and ultimately wore his opponent down until he forfeited the match.
“Too easy,” Shamash said under his breath. “Consider carefully how you would beat him—without your forms. He should be a good challenge for you.”
When Parth returned to the stands, there was a small group of other competitors waiting for him. Unlike the other fighters, there was no senior watching in case he needed help. I mentioned this to the lich.
He responded, “That’s because the announcer is part of the Gul family. They have a large influence here. Do you see the vampire Parth is sitting next to now wearing the black cloak? That is Manu Shah. He will also be one of your main opponents. He’s a talented Dark Mage and, well, take a look for yourself.”
Using Creature Observation, I immediately saw what he meant. It didn’t explicitly tell me he was a Trueblood, but looking at his stats compared to his level of 16,000, it was pretty obvious. Not only did he have 10,000 in every stat, but his Intelligence was only 20,000 away from the 100,000 bonus. I asked to be sure.
“You are correct. He is the son of a noble of a neighboring territory and has great hopes of placing in the top five in the main tournament of the Festival of Parmida. When you fight him, you must not hold anything back.”
“Only the top five?” I replied.
“Yes. He is favorited to win the preliminary, but the main tournament will have many Trueblood participants.”
The next fight Shamash took me to watch had a familiar face. It was the dwarf girl who was talented in Nature Magic and used the poison plants to defeat her last opponent.
“Her name is Lusa. You could also consider her royalty from the Egotak Clan, but dwarf and vampire culture are very different. You’ll also notice that her level is among the lowest competing.” He was right. It was only in the 5,800s. “But don’t let that fool you. Dwarves, like vampires, have an alternate progression system. It’s not as crude as drinking blood, but because of the rich Earth Mana running through their veins, when they take in minerals, it strengthens their bodies and magic proficiencies in certain Alignments.”
I was hoping that she would lose, or at least get banged up, so that I could use Forced Learn. When I’d tried to steal Sanctuary’s guest dwarf Ujurak’s essence, he was never beat up enough, or drunk enough, for it to work even with tens of thousands of mana. Dwarves had crazy natural Constitution and every point put into the stat gave them more benefits than it would for other ra
ces.
She faced off against a melee specialist—a vampire with sword and shield. He ran at her with impressive speed, but her tree was already twice her height before he reached her. Jumping in the air, he hoped to soar over the tree and quickly engage her, but the tree’s branches grew rapidly, reaching toward him and plucking him from the air. She didn’t even have a clear line of sight but somehow she knew exactly where he’d be. He whacked away at the branches, easily severing them, but more and more grabbed hold until he was stuck there. He gave up when he lost the ability to breathe.
“That was fast,” I said with a sigh.
Shamash nodded in minimalistic vampire fashion. “Yes. Dwarves’ biggest advantage is that their best warriors’ strength is difficult to judge. There are rules for such things, so you can rest assured that she’s no more powerful than a level 20,000 vampire. The best way for you to gauge is to watch the pulses of her mana with Mana Sight while she’s fighting. Even the density of the mana in her bloodstream isn’t a good indicator of her ability.”
I wasn’t surprised to see that the next person on the lich’s list was the dark elf I’d seen teasing her opponent before defeating him.
“Eshana Dara is well known in Hallow as a competitor even outside of tournaments,” the lich explained. “You probably would’ve had to face her even if there wasn’t one going on. She is like most of the other non-vampire races here and has a strong backing. She is also one of the most promising talents of Andheree Raat. It is a large kingdom to the east and has trading terms with the vampire realm. They aren’t exactly friendly or hostile.”
As with Lusa’s fight, Eshana quickly finished her opponent, but not without first embarrassing him.
The best line of the match was, “If you grovel, I’ll lend you a pair of my socks…”
I noted that she also had a powerful person waiting for her in the stands. More than one. The dark elves took up a whole section when she fought. There were at least fifty of them. Most were young and below level 20,000, but there were a few 40,000 to 50,000s among them.
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