Maneuvering

The elevator went up for what felt like an eternity. Itsuki knew that his excitement – the twitching in his fingers, the quickening in his breath – made every second feel longer, but this elevator ride took him through nearly thirty seconds of staring at stone all around him.

It felt a little claustrophobic, and it showed how far underground Itsuki had been.

When he finally got to the surface, he found himself in a dank, musty room. A dirt floor, hard and sanded, greeted his feet. He spied dark stains on the dirt, and the faint smell of iron wafted into his nose.

Blood.

But he didn't pay particular attention to it before his eyes followed the light. Sunlight streamed in at the end of the room, and he could see through a barred door that the Arena was there.

The arena floor consisted of a flat battleground of firm ground colored orange by the sun. He recognized this as the default map for the Arena, one that mimicked the Roman Colosseum of his world. Widely considered to be the fairest map with the least variance as there were no tricky traps or shifting terrain to consider.

Itsuki felt drawn to the light, to the barred doors that teased him with the familiar sight of the arena where he'd won so very many times. He heard the murmurs of the crowd above, beckoning to him, waiting for him to make them cheer.

Before he could reach the bars, two spears crossed in front of him, blocking him.

Guards that had hidden in the shadows. They stood on either end of the wide door, their black armor and spiked helms imposing.

"Please wait for the match to be announced," said one of the guards.

"I'm very sorry for the inconvenience," the other guard continued. "But there are procedures we must follow."

Itsuki hadn't expected such a polite response from them. He nodded and took a step back, his eyes lingering on the familiar battleground.

A bell tolled, its chime resonating throughout the colosseum, bouncing off its intricate pathways and amplifying itself until it became an overwhelming sound that enforced quiet everywhere. With the crowd silenced, a booming voice washed over the audience in a wave, reaching down even to Itsuki.

"Citizens of Pacem and visitors from all five realms!" it said. The announcer was a woman, her voice loud and powerful like that of a drill sergeant's but still infused with the energy of someone born to rouse hype from a crowd. "Here comes the first match of the Bronze League Premiere! A lot is on the line for those at the top of the Bronze League, and I hope all you sponsors looking on have your eyes peeled, since today's batch of fighters have talent that'll knock you straight outta your seats!"

The crowd started a cheer like a revving engine, slow at first, but as people saw others let their voice loose, everyone joined in until the shouting, cheering, and whistling formed an earthshaking melody. Itsuki breathed in, smiling, letting those cheers soothe his him.

The two guards nodded, and their spears withdrew. The barred gate rose with a rumble, retracting into the ceiling.

"On one corner, we have quite the rarity! A warrior hailing from the Southern Mountains where even the rocks want to tear out your throat. Meet Itsuki, the Insectoid!"

Itsuki took that as a cue to step out. He came out with his arms raised, the sunlight making his golden body sparkle like a gemstone. The audience let out gasps of wonder and curiosity. When he looked up, he could see so many fingers pointing at him, talking about him as a wonder.

Soon enough, he'd make them cheer for him as a fighter.

"And on the other side, you know who it is! He's already won five times, and boy oh boy does the blood really fly when he gets mad. Here's your favorite Berserker in the Bronze League – Lok'Dar of the Wilds!"

From the other end of the arena, about two hundred meters away, a raw mountain of muscle emerged from the shadows. Even from this distance, Itsuki could tell Lok'Dar was an incredible specimen for his species. The troll stood almost nine feet tall, and all nine feet were packed with rippling green musculature shaped by the gods themselves to rip and tear.

Lok'Dar came out with heavy steps, spittle frothing at his tusked jaws.

The crowd cheered when he came out, and he roared in approval, his reddened eyes wide with bloodlust.

Itsuki would snatch those cheers from him soon.

"Standard Dueling Rules are in place. Winner is determined by the last man standing or forfeit, and the time limit is ten minutes! All weapons are allowed and all spells are free game! With that said, let's begin!"

Itsuki heard the barred door close behind him with a heavy thud. He assumed High-Stance, raising his right arm so that it was level with his head, his gripped shortsword pointing upwards and in front of him like a horn. With his sword elevated like this, he could produce more power with downward strikes and wider slashes in exchange for making his attacks slower. His dagger arm lay level with his sternum, at the center of his balance, ready to parry and cover the wide gaps that his higher right arm created.

There were other stances, but High provided the most damage, and he knew that to even get a hit through the troll's leather armor and naturally tough skin, he needed to use High-Stance.

The troll roared, his abdominal muscles contracting as his baritone voice bellowed out in an explosive growl that Itsuki could hear clearly. Baring his thick and pointed teeth, the troll rushed forwards, his sinewy legs kicking up clouds of dust as he gained momentum.

Itsuki did not move and instead used this time to analyze. He utilized his Insectoid compound eyes to zoom in on the troll.

Leather armor. Light and weak. Not surprising considering the fact that the troll hadn't leveled the VIG to wear heavy armor and didn't need to rely on armor because of regeneration.

The troll held his weapon, a massive machete, high above his head. His other hand was empty, but it was balled into a boulder-like fist that would hurt whether there was a weapon or not.

High-Stance as well. Warriors could choose between High, Mid, and Low stances to fight with. High involved stronger strikes with longer frames of vulnerability. Mid was balanced. Low suited mobile attackers who darted in and out with short bursts of rapid blows.

The troll was getting close now, his brawny body getting larger and larger.

Itsuki stepped to the side and moved back until he felt the sturdy walls of the Arena on his back. A few murmurs went through the crowd as they saw him retreat. A few boos and grunts of disapproval came as well, but he ignored them.

He waited.

When the troll got within twenty meters of Itsuki, the beast used his [Charge] skill, pushing off the ground with an explosive movement and blasting forwards like a green meteorite of muscled madness.

Itsuki knew the troll was going to charge. It was a basic move. [Charge] granted a huge burst of speed and a powerful damage buff if it hit anyone, so using it at the beginning of a fight to get in a critical hit and to close distance was obvious.

With a faint smile, Itsuki dashed to the side. He did not react – he predicted. [Charge] was almost like teleportation – reacting to it after it happened was impossible, but experienced players could tell by behavior that an opponent would use charge. In this case, Itsuki spied the troll raise his blade a little higher, and he took that as a cue to dash.

The troll slammed into the wall and bounced backwards, the magic-infused stone repelling him. He landed on his butt, nose broken and bloody, eyes dazed.

Itsuki took this chance to run forwards and slash down, aiming for the head. He felt his blade slide across the troll's face, but the combination of the beast's tough skin and thick skull stopped the blade from digging into his brain. Instead, the blade, gouged out a thick red line across the length of the troll's face.

The troll roared in pain and threw out a wide, clumsy swing with its machete while its empty hand clutched its face. By that time, though, Itsuki had already darted backwards, out of the troll's range.

Itsuki stayed in what he called the goldilocks zone – a distance where he had enough time to react to an opponent but where he was also close enough to capitalize on a mistake and strike as well. He circled the growling troll with slow, steady steps.

The troll stood up and glared at Itsuki. Blood streamed from the cut on its face, pattering on the sun-kissed dirt of the arena floor. The ugly scar started to heal, the blood stopping and the flesh starting to regrow.

With another roar, the troll jumped forwards and used [Slash]. Itsuki used [Dash] to move backwards, letting the gargantuan machete thud on the ground and actually cleave the dirt, hard like rock, apart.

Itsuki gauged their Spirit levels. He couldn't see Lok'Dar's, but even in the game, a player couldn't tell what mana or spirit an opponent was at to increase the game's difficulty. As a result, Itsuki knew the costs of every single skill.

Lok'Dar Spirit: 60/100 – One charge costing 30 and a slash costing 10

Itsuki Spirit: 80/100 – Two dashes costing 10 each

Itsuki just had to wait until Lok'Dar expended his Spirit. Warrior's were unlike Mages with their mana in that they could regenerate Spirit rapidly if they got some breathing time, but that left them sitting ducks.

To get into a state to recharge Spirit, a warrior had to not attack, not counter, and not even run or jump. The only way to truly get back Spirit was to perform parries or use warrior skills meant to generate Spirit.

The fight would come down to whoever hit low Spirit first, and Itsuki was in the lead by a long shot.

The troll gave a low growl and waited, his machete poised over his head.

"Impressive," said Itsuki. "You actually have enough sanity to recognize that you need to conserve Spirit, huh?"

"Me know your kind," said the troll. "Always run and run. Me tired when chase, but if me stay, you no can run. Have to come."

Itsuki nodded. "Good, good. You have some basic game knowledge, but let me teach you where you're wrong."

Itsuki leaped into the troll's attack range and used [Slash]. He willed it to happen, and it just did. He didn't think about whether it would work or not, he didn't care and just went for it. At the same time, the troll also raised his machete up, ready to pulverize Itsuki.

Power flowed into Itsuki's right arm, making it glow with a sunlit radiance, and he swung the shortsword down.

Due to the height difference, Itsuki carved in a decent scar on the troll's midsection, but the monster's hardened muscles and iron-like skin stopped him from reaching the soft organs inside even with the [Slash] boost. However, the scar was deeper than the one on his face, and would pack quite a bit of pain and make his movements slower.

The troll smiled as his blade plummeted down. He'd expected that since they were both in High Stance, that this would be a 1 for 1 trade where they exchanged blows, and he knew that his hits hurt far more than this strange bug's.

But Itsuki disappeared before the troll's eyes, and the machete hit empty ground once more. The troll stared with dumb eyes before he roared out in pain again, blood flowing from a new wound at his back.

Reacting, the troll swung backwards, but Itsuki was already out of range, in the goldilocks zone again.

"How?" the troll said, staring at Itsuki. "You move fast, but you attacked, you no can move after attack."

"Oh, that's true." Itsuki raised his shortsword overhead in High-Stance again. "Especially in High-Stance. Once I swing my sword down, there's quite a bit of time where I have to pull the sword back and above my head again. But I can cancel that animation by Dashing, making me just a bit faster than you every single time."

"No understand, but you no can do forever."

The troll thundered forwards again, his colossal blade blocking out the sun.

Itsuki understood that the troll was going to go on a sustained offensive. The troll didn't know what animation-cancelling was, but it had the instinctive idea that whatever Itsuki did costed Spirit, and if it kept up its attacks, eventually it'd make Itsuki drain to 0 Spirit.

However, to do this, the troll had to use basic attacks and not skills or else he would lose Spirit at the same rate as Itsuki. And unlike Skill boosted attacks, basic attacks could be parried.

When the blade swung down, Itsuki did what he did best.

A flash of light, and his dagger expertly diverted the massive blade away, causing it to miss Itsuki's head and crash into the dirt beside him at a diagonal trajectory.

A perfect parry. It gave him a burst of Spirit too, but his [Slash] was on cooldown, so he opted to riposte with a regular attack, sending the troll stumbling backwards with another scar on its face, this time one that picked out its left eye.

Battle damage didn't exist in the game, but Itsuki had mentally prepared himself that certain real life elements like scars and wounds would have impacts, so he tried to go for hits that would really hurt.

The crowd roared as they witnessed that expert display of reactions and battle finesse, and Itsuki tightened the grips on his twin blades, a wide smile baring his bladed teeth. Even with the excitement coursing through him, he kept tabs on the numbers in this fight.

Itsuki Spirit: 80 – 25 (Dash[10]+Slash[10]+High Stance Basic Attack[5]) + 15 (Parrying a High-Stance Attack) = 70

Lok'Dar Spirit: 60 – 15 (3 x High-Stance Basic Attack [5]) = 45

The troll did not seem to care, and instead bared his fangs. Itsuki noticed the troll's blade twitch just a little, and he predicted.

Itsuki used [Dash] to the side, letting the troll zoom past him with his [Charge]. He felt like a matador dodging a mad bull. He heard the troll collapse on to one knee behind him, his breathing heavy.

Lok'Dar Spirit: 60 – 30 (Charge [30]) = 30

Itsuki turned around and pointed his blade at the straining troll a dozen meters away.

"You're running low on Spirit, and I have more than enough. At this rate, you're going to run out, and then I can push a [Slash] through your head for a Critical Strike and kill you through your regeneration."

"Me know." The troll stood up again, once more putting that chunk of steel he called a machete above his head. "But me have to win. Me must."

Itsuki sighed. "I'm giving you a last chance. I know what you're going to do. You'll use [Battle Rage] to give yourself a burst of temporary Spirit and rush me with everything. You'll break my weapons that way, and even then I can't parry Skill boosted attacks with just a dagger. That's what you think, right?"

The troll grunted in affirmation.

"It won't work." Itsuki switched the Low-Stance, both his arms lowering until his shortsword and dagger angled downwards. "So I'm giving you a chance to forfeit."

The troll cocked his head, and a tense silence hung between the two warriors, even infecting the crowds above.