"Poor bastard."
"He barely survived the entrance exam, and now he gets Jett in Round One?"
"Jett is Prince Valerian's left-hand man. He has a Tier 2 Wind Tiger. That bug-boy is going to get shredded."
Sunny stood at the entrance of the sandy arena, cracking his knuckles.
"Bad luck, huh?" Sunny muttered, his eyes fixed on the holographic bracket floating above the stadium.
Maybe it was bad luck. Jett was a bad matchup. Wind countered projectiles. Wind countered fire. Jett was fast, rich, and had better gear.
Right now, Nova (Molten Sprite) and the Iron-Barrage Stag (Beetle) were two separate entities. They were strong, yes. But they had weaknesses.
"If I get Level 3..." Sunny whispered, a hungry, borderline psychotic light entering his eyes. "I can fuse them. I can make a flying, armored, lava-spewing nightmare."
"SUNNY! GET YOUR ASS OUT THERE!" General Korg bellowed from the judge's podium.
Sunny stepped onto the sand.
The sun was blinding. The crowd booed.
Opposite him stood Jett. He looked pristine in his A-Rank uniform, his hair slicked back with expensive oil. He held a curved sabre in his hand.
"You should have forfeited," Jett sneered, spinning the sabre. "The Prince told me to break your legs. Nothing personal, peasant. It's just business."
Sunny didn't summon his monsters yet. He just stood there, hands loose at his sides.
"You talk too much," Sunny said flatly. "Are we fighting or dating?"
Jett's face twisted in anger. "Arrogant trash!"
He raised his hand. A green summoning circle erupted on the sand.
"Come forth! Gale-Ripper!"
ROAAAAR!
A massive tiger materialized. It was twice the size of a normal tiger, its fur white with green stripes that pulsed with mana. Its claws were long, translucent blades of compressed wind.
[Monster: Wind-Blade Tiger]
[Rank: Tier 2 (Mid)]
[Attributes: Agility (High), Attack (High)]
[Skill: [Wind Walk], [Razor Claws]]
"Kill him!" Jett commanded.
The Tiger vanished.
Sunny's eyes widened. "Fast!"
Sunny crossed his arms over his chest in an 'X' shape.
The Tiger appeared in front of him, its claws swiping across his chest.
Blood sprayed into the air.
The crowd gasped.
"Oh my god!"
"He's dead! Call the medics!"
Sunny flew backward, his boots skidding through the sand for ten meters before he stopped.
He looked down at his arms. Deep, ragged gashes ran from his elbows to his wrists. His uniform sleeves were shredded. The blood dripped onto the dry sand, turning it into dark mud.
"Does it hurt?" Jett laughed, walking forward leisurely. "That was just a scratch. My tiger cuts steel. Your skin is nothing."
Sunny stared at the blood. It was warm. Then, he smiled.
"Nothing?" Sunny chuckled. "You call that a cut?"
If he was a normal human, his arms would have been severed. But beneath the blood, the [Chitinous Skin] enhanced by the Giant Acid Ant essence had held. The bone was untouched.
"Pain," Sunny licked a drop of blood from his lip. "It wakes me up."
"Summon: Iron-Barrage Stag!"
"Oh? That's your trump card?" Jett mocked. "A bug?"
"Fire," Sunny commanded.
The Stag unleashed a volley of silver spikes. They tore through the air, aiming for the Tiger's eyes.
"Wind Wall!" Jett shouted.
The Tiger roared, and a barrier of swirling air formed around it.
The spikes hit the wind wall and were deflected harmlessly. They spun away, burying themselves in the arena walls.
"Useless!" Jett yelled. "Gale-Ripper! Wind Scythe!"
The Tiger swung its paw. A crescent moon of vacuum blades shot toward Sunny.
"Dodge, Beetle!"
The Beetle zoomed up, dodging narrowly. But the attack wasn't meant for the Beetle. It was meant for the Tamer.
Sunny saw the air distorting. The attack covered a wide area. He couldn't sidestep it.
"Magma Armor! Summon Nova!"
Nova appeared instantly in front of Sunny.
"Defense Mode!"
Nova didn't understand tactics, but he understood "Protect Dad." He expanded his body, turning into a shield of hardening lava.
The Wind Scythe hit Nova.
Debris exploded. Smoke covered the area.
"Got him," Jett smirked. "A direct hit from a Tier 2 skill. He's minced meat."
The referee raised his hand, about to call the match. But then... a cough. The smoke cleared.
Nova was on the ground, his magma body cracked and dim, whimpering. He had tanked the hit, but just barely.
Behind him, Sunny was on one knee.
A shard of Nova's hardened magma armor had shattered backward and embedded itself in Sunny's shoulder. Blood was soaking his entire left side. He looked like he had walked out of a horror movie.
The crowd went silent. The amount of blood was disturbing.
"Why..." Jett frowned, his smile fading. "Why aren't you down? You're B-Rank trash."
Sunny stood up. He grabbed the shard of obsidian stuck in his shoulder.
"Because..." Sunny gritted his teeth.
He ripped the shard out. A fresh spurt of blood hit the sand.
"Because I need that fucking upgrade."
His eyes were burning with a terrifying intensity. It wasn't the look of a student in a tournament. It was the look of a starving beast cornered in a cage.
[HP: 65/120]
[Passive Activated: Berserker Instinct (Low Health)]
[Strength +2]
"Wind Wall deflects projectiles. Wind Walk boosts speed. But it has a cooldown, doesn't it?"
Jett's eyes narrowed. "What do you know?"
"I know that every time your kitty cat uses Wind Scythe, it pants for two seconds," Sunny pointed with his bloody hand. "Two seconds. That's an eternity."
"You're bluffing!" Jett screamed. "Finish him! Tiger! Storm Rush!"
The Tiger roared, gathering a massive amount of wind mana. It prepared to launch itself like a missile.
Sunny recalled Nova.
"Return."
The injured sprite vanished. Sunny stood alone with his Beetle. He dropped his stance, looking completely open.
"Come on," Sunny whispered, blood dripping from his fingertips. "Come closer."
"DIE!"
The Tiger launched. The crowd screamed.
"He's just standing there!"
"Move, you idiot!"
Sunny watched the Tiger incoming. 20 meters. 10 meters. 5 meters.
Time seemed to slow down.
The System blue screens flashed rapidly.
[Enemy Velocity: 80km/h]
[Impact in: 0.2 seconds]
"Now."
Sunny stepped into the attack.
"[Shadow-Sprint]!"
He vanished. Not completely. He moved so fast with his Agility 15 + Skill boost that he slipped under the Tiger's lunge.
As the massive beast flew over him, Sunny reached up. He used his hand.
His hand, hardened by the Chimera reconstruction, grabbed the Tiger's back leg.
Sunny's shoulder popped. His muscles screamed.
"Gotcha, bitch."
The Tiger jerked mid-air, its trajectory ruined. It slammed face-first into the dirt.
Jett's jaw dropped. "Impossible!"
Sunny was covered in his own blood, his arm dislocated, but he was smiling like a demon.
"Beetle!" Sunny roared. "Zero Range!"
The Iron-Barrage Stag dove. The Tiger was pinned for one second. Just one second.
The Beetle landed on the Tiger's neck. It placed its horn directly against the Tiger's throat. The horn drove deep.
The Tiger didn't die but the shock to its nervous system was instant. The beast convulsed and dissolved into green light, forced back into Jett's soul space due to critical damage.
Jett stood alone on the other side of the arena. He looked at the empty spot where his invincible Tiger used to be. Then he looked at Sunny.
Sunny popped his dislocated shoulder back into place with a wet snap. He walked toward Jett, dragging his feet through the bloody sand.
"My turn," Sunny rasped.
Jett stumbled back, terrified. "Wait! I—"
He walked up to the A-Rank student. A simple, brutal right hook to the jaw. Jett spun in the air and hit the ground, out cold.
[Ding!]
[Winner: Sunny!]
[Quest Progress: 1/5 Wins.]