The final fight of the evening was between two Warriors. None of the higher ranked rogue classes had made it to the final four of the melee side of the competition. This disappointed Jude a little as he would have liked to see an advanced class of rogue.

These two warriors, however, were quite particular. The first was reasonably straightforward in its understanding. He was a Bladesman Advance Class. He wore medium armor of leather and chain mail. The leather formed the base and the chainmail the exterior with a few pieces of leather stripes intertwining themselves throughout the chainmail to create an abstract design that lent to the bladesman’s ferociousness. But this still did not match the ferocity of his opponent.

The second warrior held the Advance Class of Shifter. This person reminded Jude a lot of Valice and her skinwalking abilities. However, the shifter was more of a fusion between man and beast. He was covered in a light brown fur, but still wore light plate mail that focused on covering his vitals rather than the whole body. This was important because he would change sizes drastically when he shifted. Unlike Valice, he seemed only to have one form, a lengthy werewolf like figure. Each finger had a claw that extended out like a long steel pick. Surprisingly, his long arms combined with the claws actually gave him better range than the bladesman with his two swords.

But what shocked Jude the most was how devastating these two warriors could be. They were not far below the level of destruction that a wizard could put out. Their clashes created catastrophic explosions and craters quickly filled the entire stage.

“It has been a while since I’ve seen a warrior fight on this level. I’m glad that you will be facing the victor instead of me,” Jorgan chided Jude.

“I’ll need a way to slow them down at least,” Jude said as he started strategizing. “My barrier should hold off a few hits. The real problem is their ability to dodge.”

“It’s more than just dodging,” Jorgan added in, “warriors at this level should be able to use attack skills to fend off attacks. See how their skills clash against each other? They can do that against magic as well.”

“Who would have thought warriors would be this troublesome,” Jude said concerned.

“It’s not that bad. As long as you keep your distance and keep them from closing in, you should do fine.”

“But that is the problem, isn’t it? Both of these warriors can close the distance between them and a wizard easily. The real trick is to slow them down.”

“But you can use that blink skill, right? Wouldn’t that keep you away from them?” Jorgan asked and then commented with a bit of jealousy, “at best I only have Blip, and it moves me a max of two meters.”

“The movement skills of these warriors are almost as good as Blink. But Blink puts great stress on the body as it is not actual teleportation. To keep the fight up, I would have to use it continually for a long period of time. Seeing this fight, I can tell that they have an enormous amount of health and it would take a while to chip through it all.”

“What about that ice fog spell that you used?”

“It’s a possibility,” Jude thought for a moment then continued, “But I would have to modify it.”

Jorgan chuckled, “Why? Because a single swing from one of them could push back the fog?”

Jude looked at him annoyed, “You are the one to suggest it.”

“Sorry, sorry!” But he continued to laugh.

Jude sighed and feigned regret, “So this is the kind of friend that I have!”

***

The crowds were cheering heartily as the fight continued while at the same time the city below them started to burn. But with such an enthralling fight, no one took notice as they all watch with anticipation.

The king smiled to himself. Before the fight had even started, he secretly had his agency give each contestant an extremely rare boosting item. For the next few hours, they would be able to exceed their usual limitations. Boosting items were one use and even as the king, he had an extremely limited amount. It wasn’t something that could be manufactured as it was a relic of an age long past.

Still, he considered it well worth the cost. Every bit of time he could extend the competition, there was a slightly higher chance of his plan succeeding.

These two hyped up warriors would now be able to fight much longer than they would have in the past. He should at least get a full hour’s worth of time out of it. Then he would proceed to the next part of the plan.

***

“This is amazing, I’ve never seen warriors fight for so long,” Jorgan said as the fight ended with the Shifter being the winner.

“Yes, a whole hour at that intense of a level of fighting, I bet he’s completely spent,” Jude said.

“Before everyone leaves, the King has an announcement,” the tournament crier shouted before everyone could leave.

The king stood up from the golden throne and exuded an aura of kingship. Many sighed at the site.

“This year’s tournament has special meaning to me,” said the king. “For many years I have laid sick and imprisoned to my bed, now that I’m finally free and in good health once again. I would like to extend this tournament into the night!

“Let us celebrate not only my return but the magnificent special and skill that this year’s elites have shown us. To make things more interesting, let us have three rounds of combat between Rile the Shifter and Jude the Spell Analyst.

“But let’s not there! Each round, the contestant will be limited to the first three skills they use. This way we will see the true skills that these participants have cultivated over the years. The Foundations that control the arena will forcefully limit you to these restrictions.”

Then the king looked directly at Jude, “This limitation will also apply to Item Skills, Inscriptions, and Foundations that you may use.”

Jude’s bad feeling was getting worse. He didn’t feel like he had time anymore to fight in this tournament. But he didn’t have the stone shard yet from winning the magic casters side of the tournament. Without the stone shard in hand, he could not even make the escape attempt. Not that he knew how he was going to get down from this floating monstrosity they called a coliseum.

Winning the grand prize of the Mortis Device would be nice, but he still didn’t know exactly what it did or what it could be used for. Should he continue risking his life for it? Jude didn’t think so, but he didn’t really have a choice either.

What was he to do, quit?

“Actually, that is an option,” Jude mumbled to himself. “If I quit, then I can get out of here sooner and hopefully with the stone shard.”

Jorgan seemed to overhear Jude despite the king continuing the speech.

“You can’t quit,” Jorgan whispered to him. “See how the crowd has been enthralled by the king? If you back out now, not only will they all hate you, but you will also be humiliating the king himself. Not only will you not get the stone shard, but you might lose your life as well.”

Jorgan was a little miffed over Jude’s attitude himself. How could someone just quit after reaching such a height? You could at least try to win the championship!

“Besides,” Jorgan continued, “Can’t you just do something amazing like what you did with Morcheron?”

“You’re kidding right?” Jude asked.

“I don’t expect you to be able to use Disrupt Spell on a warrior, but you have ceaselessly come up with new ways to defeat your foes. Don’t tell me you don’t have anything else?”

“Technically I do have Disrupt Skill, but I don’t have the necessary skill level to overcome someone has proficient as that shifter.”

“What?! You actually have the same thing for skills to?! At least this one isn’t overpowered and broken as your Disrupt Spell magic.”

“Technically it works as well as it does because I am skilled with magic. I’m not bad at melee, but I’m still nowhere near my next opponent.” Jude replied. He was feeling a little bit sour at Jorgan’s attitude. Did he think that Disrupt Spell was so easy to cast?

“Then, what is your plan? And don’t say that you will quit. It just feels wrong to do that.” Jorgan continued to encourage Jude.

“You don’t understand. I have a premonition that I need to get out of here quick, and I don’t know why. If that means forfeiting, then I don’t mind. I still don’t even know what the Mortis Device does.” Jude didn’t want to continue risking his life for something that might not even be worth it.

“Wha?!” Jorgan was constantly being surprised by Jude, whether it was his items, magic, or just plain lack of knowledge. “Trust me. You want the Mortis Device, it is the equivalent to an extra life. A Resurrection! You might feel like you need to get out of here as quick as possible, but sometimes there is a need to take a risk.”

Jude’s eyes brightened. An extra life? Resurrection? It was a game-like world, so it should be possible. But this was the first time he had heard about it. Perhaps it was worth risking his life. If anything, he could use blink to escape if things really did get bad.

But three more rounds of fighting seemed like too much. And this opponent didn’t seem normal either. He had only seen a few of the warrior fights after the coliseums combined, and none of them were as fierce as this last one. It made him wonder why and if they could get even more ferocious.

“Fine, I won’t quit for now.” Jude agreed, much to Jorgan’s joy.

***

Jude stood up on the stage with Rile the Shapeshifter. All the proceeding titles had been announced, and the fight was about to start.

“Rile vs. Jude. Round one start!”

Rile who was in his human form quickly shifted into his bestial appearance while seemingly swaying to one side. This action, however, was not a clumsy move as he moved so fast that he nearly disappeared. From left to right Rile zig zagged across the stage.

So is this what it feels like to face my Blink? Jude wondered.

Jude knew that this was a tactic used to avoid spells. So instead of fighting him head on Jude cast Formless Ice. This time, instead of creating a dense fog filled with cold, the ground turned white as a slick sheet of ice formed across it.

Rile was undaunted as he barked a laugh. His padded feet grew claws that dug into the ice, and he shot directly towards Jude with an extended hand filled with sharp spike-like claws.

“Form,” Jude ordered, and from within the ice, dozens of runes glowed as ghost-like hands extended from the ice. As soon as they touched the Shifter, they transformed from wispy and faint hands into solid blocks of ice.

Jude had given his Formless Ice, Form!

The first few that touched Rile did not get a good grasp on him, and he managed to slip through. But the more he moved, the more he found the stage transforming. At first, it was only a few phantom-like hands, but the closer he got to Jude the more that appeared. Quickly jumping back, he fled to the other side of the stage.

Looking at Jude now from Rile’s perspective, Jude seemed to be in a white field of wheat. Yet if one looked closely those stalks weren’t some frost covered grass, but the swaying hands of icy death.

“Ha ha ha,” Rile laughed, “Good, I’m glad you aren’t making this easy. I want a good fight with you!”

***

In the judging area, Yorik and the other wizards from court were now combined with other experts. Their job was to judge disputes, sort out a tie, and identify any cheating.

After the ghost-like hand extended out of the ice an aged wizard, who had long since reach Archmage gasped, “He can already infuse foundations into his spells?”

“Is it too surprising?” said the youngest Archmage. “He’s already shown that he’s skilled in both Foundations, Scripts, and Magic in general. Would it be so hard to combine them with his talent?”

The old archmage shook his head, “Think back to when you were learning how to combine the two. It isn’t so simple to control a spell to the extent to easily form runes. Not to mention all the other requirements needed to be fulfilled to create the foundation.”

“Then he must have already known how to do this before the competition.” The younger stated and many others nodded their head in agreement.

“I don’t think so. If he had, he wouldn’t have struggled so much until now.” Said the old man.

“Neither would he have struggled if he had used Disrupt Spell from the beginning.” Another said.

The old man continued, “We know too little about Disrupt Spell to speculate on it, but if I had to guess there should be some significant requirements for him to use it. Otherwise, he would have used it from the beginning. I’ve seen many wizards in my years, and I can tell that this is the first time he’s combining spells and foundations.

“After all, spells and foundations are intrinsically different. They don’t operate on the same set of rules, which is why they are so hard to combine. This is also why we spend so much time teaching this method to the younger generations.”

Everyone quieted down after hearing this. This old man was well established in the community, and it would be hard to disprove his experience. If he said that this young man really did perfectly combine spells and foundations for the first time, then there was a good chance it was true.

But if it was true, then his talent was indeed frightening.

However, they did not really know what the skills of a Spell Analyst were. If they had known that Jude didn’t go through the pain staking process of casting magic with such care and precision to create runes and link them up to create a foundation, they would have wondered what he really did.

Instead of going through the complicated process that Geonar’s wizards go through to create the spell/foundations combinations. Jude used his Spell Analyst skills to do it for him. Using Skill Link, he combined Copy Script with Script Foundation and his Formless Ice spell created through the staff. With this, Jude was able to copy down the Foundation inside of Copy Script, test it out with his debugging mana well before the fight even started. This ensured him a fairly reliable spell.

His real luck in this matter was that the System saw it as only one skill for the restrictions of this fight.

***

Rile concluded that Jude was either preparing a large spell or was waiting for him to come into his field of ghostly hands. Neither option seemed all that pleasant, so Rile chose the third.

Rile inhaled greatly, and his chest expanded considerably. Then with a boundless bellow, he unleashed a sound and wind attack. The sound waves were so thick you could see them with the naked eye and between these were green blades made of wind.

The attack was concentrated on Jude, but its power could not be solely contained in one straight line. As pressure from the attack was exerted on Jude’s foundation, the ghostly hands were either blown out like smoke or shattered like glass.

Three great ice walls were erected out of the foundation to slow down the main attack, but it wasn’t enough as the walls were blasted through. Jude cast Spectral Shield, but even that was blasted away flinging him across the stage.

Jude got up, bruised and bloodied.

What the heck was that?! Jude thought. This was the first time he had seen such an attack, and it was already passed the attack power he had faced with others. Where warriors just this terrifying or was there something else going on here?

Jude didn’t have time to ponder it as Rile rushed in after he unleashed the Roar attack. Luckily he had been pushed quite a distance and was able to recover before Rile ambushed him again. This forced Jude to use Blink to escape the inevitable close combat situation. Jude had no desire to fight Rile in close combat. If his ranged attacks were that strong, then there was no hope for melee.

The restrictions were now kicking in, Jude’s three skills were now locked to Formless Ice, Spectral Shield, and Blink.

The fight continued on this way with Jude’s eventual loss of being knocked out of the ring by one of Rile’s Roar attacks.

“Rile wins round one!” The announcer shouted.

***

Jude was in the medical tent yet again, and this time Jorgan came over to join him.

Between each round, scantily clad women were scheduled to do a performance. Even though Jorgan had come over to visit with him, he could barely keep a conversation as he was constantly looking over at the stage.

“If you were just going to watch the girls, then you could have done it just as easy from your own seat,” Jude said with a sour attitude.

“Don’t be a stick in the mud,” Jorgan replied. “Even if you are getting the crud beaten out of you, at least you can enjoy this show. They are working really hard after all.”

He ignored Jorgan’s comment, “I need to figure out a different way to overcome Rile. The restrictions are making this tougher than I thought they would.”

“I’m pretty sure the restrictions were put in place to make you lose. In your other matches, you’ve won by slowly adjusting to the opponent, but the way it is now is not in your favor anymore. I’m surprised you didn’t use your Inscription Magic, what was it called again? If you could use that, then wouldn’t you be able to use as many different kinds of magic as you wanted?”

“It is no use, after experiencing the restrictions in the arena I have a good understanding of it. Once I use a single type of script, I would then be limited to that script alone. This arena somehow works in conjunction with the . Even item skills are included in this count.”

Jude was already lucky enough that it counted his Skill Linking of several skills only counted as one skill. If not, then he would have lost even quicker.

“Just relax then, it’s not like you wanted to win this anyway right?” Jorgan teased Jude. But to his surprise, Jude did not agree with him.

“I know I said that before, but when a challenge is presented to me I have a need to overcome it,” Jude said with a sincere look. “Maybe I’m just being hypocritical, or maybe it is just human nature, but now that I’ve started this, I want to win…

“I can’t stand the thought of losing, and I can’t stand the fact that I can’t win. I really want to win now, and it is strange even to me.”