Ska ignored the noise from the mass of people as he flitted through the trees and tall grass that had replaced the open sand from the previous day. This was his element and he already knew where his opponent was thanks to Hunter’s Scent.

The mage was sitting in the center of a burned-out ring of grass with short flames surrounding him as he was preparing a spell. Ska growled quietly in annoyance as a portal opened and a fire elemental stepped through.

Fire was not Ska’s favorite thing to deal with. Looking around he spotted a fist-sized rock. He picked it up testing the weight before he hurled it with impressive speed and accuracy at the back of the mage’s head. The flame circle flared up to intercept the attack but the rock didn’t care. It flew through the barrier, clipping the mage on the ear as he turned to see what the barrier had intercepted.

Ska could see blood pour from the wound before he dashed back into the forest, the elemental hot on his trail.

It was foolish for the mage to assign his elemental to track Ska down. He simply circled around and repeated the process, hitting the man in the leg with another rock.

The third attempt was a failure as the man dived aside and threw a fireball at where the rock had come from. But Ska was already gone. Eventually, the man's rings of fire faded away and he was forced to look for another place to hide while his elemental persued Ska. The elemental was quick but Ska was quicker, easily outpacing the summoned creature and blindsiding the surprised mage. A wave of fire scorched Ska as he Leaped toward his target but he didn’t let the pain stop him as his bulk knocked the man to the ground while Ska savaged him.

***

“Hmm, that just might have been the most savage fight I have seen yet. And the speed of this outworlder is beyond impressive,” Charles Lemont remarked.

“Yeah, it goes beyond what I witnessed on the street a few days ago. I hate to admit it but I think he is quite a bit faster than I am,” The Don grumped.

“Oh, tier two then? We will watch him with interest. How about the other man?”

The Don shrugged. “Mildy impressive, but I feel he is hiding most of his strength. You saw what he did to Henrich. I haven’t seen him let loose on anyone like that. And he toyed with Natalia, making it an easy win for him.”

“It does seem that way. It's too bad only one will have a chance at Hegar, assuming they can make it through the next rounds.”

***

I did get to see flashes of Ska’s battle, too bad outside buffs weren’t allowed, so Ska was a bit slower than usual. Still, it didn’t seem to matter much as I caught him taking down the mage in an open rocky area, visible from my vantage. Ska was even more vicious than I had remembered. His work with the Marshall had definitely helped him grow as a combatant.

There was one more match between an ice mage and a beast summoner before I was up. I only knew this due to the chill that permeated the air and the cry of animals as they raced around the arena trying to kill their target.

Then my time came. My gate swung open and I rushed out, checking the nearby entryways. All were closed, so my target was not among them.

I used my mobility to quickly cross the arena and climbed the broken building in the center. I scanned around but was unable to locate my target. I could certainly cheat and use Reaper as I had seen the faces of all the contestants, but I chose not to. I did activate my tattoo though and spotted a flash of movement racing up the building toward me. It was the stealth user that had penetrated the mage's shield with talismans.

I pretended to not see the fighter as I readied a spell. He landed on top of the wall and jumped toward me. I tipped back off the wall and released Boiling Oil right at the man’s face. He was quick though, ducking to the side and only getting hit by part of the attack on his shoulder. I heard him hiss in pain as my wings sprouted from my back, slowing my descent and allowing me to fire off an Arcane Bolt.

The bolt wasn’t aimed at the man, but the broken wall he had been standing on. It gave way, causing the man to go tumbling off the building.

The man rolled with the fall but he was slow to get up as I landed near him. I didn’t give him time to disappear as I struck with a sweeping kick. I felt a sharp pain as the man grunted from my attack. Blood soaked my leg where he had stabbed down with his dagger moments before my attack landed.

I stumbled back a bit while using Rejuvenate to heal the wound. The man used my injury to disappear from view. I scanned the area around me and spotted him running off into a cluster of rocky towers. I knew what he was doing, he was going to use the tight confines to get the drop on me.

It might work against most people but as I neared, I used Disruption to topple the pillars in front of me. It didn’t take long for the man to realize his gambit failed as he shot toward me from on top of one of the stone pillars.

I lifted my arm to block the dual overhand strike. There was a clank as his blades skittered off my fake arm, surprising the man. I quickly followed up with an elbow to the man’s face, breaking his nose and causing him to stumble back. His face was already rotting away from Corrupting Touch. But the man was tenacious, fighting off the pain and trying to cut me open like a fish. Clinging Spray put an end to his ability to escape and I finished the fight off with an Overcharged Frostwave.

The man was still shivering as he shook my hand. “Goo- Good M- Match.”

I had been prepared for another betrayal – a sad fact of my life – but the man seemed genuinely happy he lost.

I didn’t get to witness much of the final matches of the fourth round. Most happened near the opposite end of the arena and there were just too many obstacles blocking my view.

That left eight people for the fifth round. Both Ska and I were among the eight, giving us a decent shot at taking the tournament thanks to us not being paired against each other. Other than Hegar, I had no clue who else had moved to the next round.

There was a short intermission where the contestants could drink, eat or use the facilities. When a bell dinged I heard my name called. It seems I was the first match in round five.

My opponent was a woman wearing dark blue robes that trailed a mist of freezing air behind her.

‘So she had beaten the beastmaster.’

The woman slowly approached and anything within ten feet of her froze solid. The sound of ice cracking made my hairs stand on end but it was the dozens of ice spears hovering around her that made me anxious yet curious at the same time.

I fired off a few spells to test her defenses as I avoided the icy missiles as they cracked through the air leaving a trail of frost.

I couldn’t even get close enough to use Identify to see what class or level she was. She was excellent at controlling the space around her as shields of ice formed, intercepting my attacks. She was also tossing out snowballs that grew sharp icy spines. The balls of snow and ice flew around and tracked my movement.

I had to keep on the move to avoid the snowballs. When they got close, they exploded into a shower of icy projectiles. It was no wonder the beastmaster lost. I tried my orb of darkness trick but she must have seen that fight because a spear of ice shot through it, causing it to pop. The only thing keeping her attacks at bay was my fists, now imbued with Earth and Fire. I wouldn’t be able to keep that up long though as I could feel it taking a toll on my body.

Had I figured out a way to enhance my body I might have been able to keep the Imbuement going. But I still hadn’t made much headway on that experimentation. After only a few minutes I was forced to cancel the spells and allow my hands to return to normal.

I would like to say I thought of a way to counter my opponent but without pulling out some of my hidden aces it wasn’t going to happen. I did use my speed and spells to rush in and attack her but she had been ready for that. Her entire form was coated in a thick layer of ice as my fist smashed into it, sending a spiderweb of cracks across the surface but leaving her unharmed.

When I tried to retreat I found my feet frozen to the ground. I struggled against the growing ice, managing to free one foot before I was hit by three spears of ice. The first one shattered the shield on my armor and the other two speared me like a fish. Just like that, the fight was over, I had lost. There hadn’t even been enough time to heal the damage.

I wasn’t too mad about losing, disappointed maybe but not mad. After seeing some of the fights I knew I wasn’t the best fighter here. It would be nice if Ska went all the way but I didn’t think he had any counter to the ice woman. I did get her level and class though.

Tatiana | Frost Maiden/Winter’s Heart | 20/12

Her level was one of the highest I had seen and so far the first in the tournament that I knew of to hit level twenty. She had elected to specialize in cold magic and it worked well for her. I had no doubt that her Intelligence stat rivaled mine and she made exquisite use of her spells. She wouldn’t fare well against someone like Jamal Redford the Magmamancer if he were still around, but anyone without sufficient heat or the ability to counter her ice, and she was pretty much assured to win.

Even my overbearing stats were no match for her after she took away my biggest advantage, mobility, and speed. After that, it was easy for her.

I gave her a toothy smile as I walked up and shook her hand. “That was a fun match, thank you.”

She smiled demurely, “it would have been more fun had you not held back. A pity, perhaps some other time you will show me your true strength?”

I coughed sheepishly as she released my hand and walked away.

Despite my loss, I walked away happy. If I had really pushed myself I probably could have beaten her. All I needed to do was surround her in magma or use some of my more powerful abilities like Energy Lance, Annihilator Sphere, or my mana cannon hand. But I didn’t feel the risk of exposing those abilities was worth the reward. I would talk with Don after the tournament to see if I could swing another way into the Bazaar. If not I would figure something out.

Ska’s match did not go in his favor either. He was up against that strange man that froze his opponents and simply walked up to them for the kill. Unfortunately, I got to watch the whole confrontation as it was near my room.

David Blaine | Mentalist/Illusionist | 20/10

…Well, I wasn’t expecting to see the world-renowned former magician in a tournament. He looked completely different. I guess the fall of civilization had been hard on him but it looked like he had found his niche. Ska was powerless against the man’s manipulations and it was mostly a repeat of what Mr. Blaine’s previous fights had been like.

I felt bad for Ska, he loathed fights like this. But it was a reality he needed to face. I would have probably faired slightly better with my high Intelligence and Iron Mind title, but Ska only had the title and I knew his Intelligence stat was not something he put a lot of emphasis on. Had we known what we were up against, we could have prepared, but I guess that was the whole point.

The sixth round saw another change in the arena layout. Gone were most of the obstacles, allowing for a clear view again. There were still a few smaller obstacles though, allowing for places to avoid detection or remain out of sight.

Tatiana and Mr. Blaine gave one hell of a performance. Tornadoes of ice and snow ripped through the arena while Mr. Blaine would shimmer out of view only to appear somewhere else and fire off some weird reality-warping wave.

I didn’t think he was teleporting around, but I could be wrong. It was no surprise that Tatiana had been immune to his opening move. Mr. Blaine didn’t seem too concerned about it at first.

As the fight dragged on, Tatiana pressed the man, firing spear after spear of icy death at the projections that appeared around the arena. She wasn’t doing this all willy nilly though. With each attack, the arena grew colder and her domain spread. Soon she finally caught Mr. Blaine inside her aura and similar to what happened with me, he was stuck. He flailed about, warping the surroundings and causing the missiles to miss him, but that was only a stopgap measure. She turned him into a pincushion after he finally ran out of mana.

I had to clap, it was an impressive match between the two of them. I could tell they hammed it up a bit for the crowd though. I assumed Tatiana had been a Vegas performer prior to the System similar to Mr. Blaine.