It's Finally Over, For Now

I kept approaching the mage, intent on dealing some kind of damage to him, but he was not going to let me get that done.

He summoned several balls of magic and threw them at me, making me have to stop my approach in an attempt to dodge the energy balls.

'Of course he can multicast.'

I had to weave through a short barrage of margin in order to restart my approach, but as soon as I laid my eyes on the mage he was chanting the same chant to summon skeletons.

'I am not going to deal with even more skeletons right now.'

I pulled out the dune hopper and threw the spear at the mage.

The weapon struck the mage head-on and pierced their body, but they only winced and continued chanting.

'Damn... That's some real dedication there.'

I charged forward, hoping to get close enough to attack the mage with more of my arsenal.

It took me about half a minute to reach the mage, and by then he was in his final stages of the chant.

"You are not going to finish that!"

The mage focused some of their attention on me after my shout, but that small amount of redirected focus slowed down the chant slightly.

very, very slightly.

But that slight extension of the chant was enough for me to get into the range of the mage and attack them viciously.

I attacked the mage aggressively, and the mage was forced to stop their chant before it finished to block my attacks.

"I'm gonna kick your ass!"

The mage somehow looked confused at my words, and it only took me a moment to realize what I had just said.

'That was... Uncharacteristically aggressive of me. Maybe this whole army was getting to my mind and stressing me a bit more than I thought...'

I was surprised at my outburst, but the moment after my outburst surprised me more.

"You have a very unstable personality. I wonder what hides beneath all those fake emotions."

I expected many things from the dark mage, but I was not expecting them to speak to me.

"You can speak?"

The mage seemed insulted at the fact that I questioned their linguistics, and huffed at me.

"You aren't the most intelligent person, are you? I can chant, so why can't I speak?"

"I don't know... Because you haven't for the past entirety of the battle?"

The mage retorted with sound logic.

"We are opponents, and we are to fight to the death. Why would I speak to someone soon to be dead?"

I contemplated those words, and came to a single conclusion:

"A diversion!"

I looked around, and then back to the mage.

The mask grinned back at me.

"Oh. I really am stupid, aren't I?"

The mage seemed entertained by my response, and their grin seemed to get even larger.

"Disappointingly so."

"Fuck."

And so I immediately began my hurried escape from the mage's vicinity, quickly being followed by several dozen magic balls.

I was mildly annoyed by the actions of the mage, so I decided to say something back to them in annoyance.

"Why do you have to be such a dick?! This whole situation is unfair!"

The mage responded to me with enjoyment laced into his voice.

"There are no rules in war. And if this wasn't a war, I do not know what is."

I was surprised by the enjoyment in his voice, but it also gave me an adequate response.

"Oh, so you're also a sadist as well as a dick. Good to know."

The mage was unfazed by the insult, seeming more complemented by it instead.

"When people live for a long time, they tend to pick up some enjoyments in life. One of mine is my love of watching someone suffer."

'Damn, he even has thick skin.'

During this whole conversation, I was running around the arena trying to escape the magic balls that were still following me.

"How the hell did you make these things home in?!"

"A bit of spell tweaking."

"That tells me nothing!"

"Exactly."

And so I kept running until an idea popped into my head.

'What if I used the magic against him?'

I immediately put the plan into work, turning to face the mage while I was running.

As soon as I turned to the mage, I remembered a tool I had been neglecting for the entirety of the arena challenges: My grappling hook.

'Did I ever test if it could latch onto living creatures? No better time to test than now I guess.'

I put the grappling hook into my hand and threw it at the nearby mage, hoping for it to work.

My aim was slightly off of the mage, though, so I only struck the book he was sitting on.

'Well I guess this is better than nothing...'

And so I went flying towards the mage's book.

The mage seemed interested in my plan, but seemed to be less than phased by what was happening

"Well that's an interesting Idea... But it'll only work if I don't stop you."

I watched as the mage formed a ball of magical energy and hurled it at my still moving body.

"Too bad you didn't expect this, you sadist!"

I used my second hook to pull myself to the ground and dodge the magic ball.

"Smart."

I dismissed my second chain so that I could continue flying towards the mage.

The mage repeated the same action he did a few seconds ago, but also aimed a magic ball at the location below me.

I dodged the attacks easily.

"Nice try, but I bet you didn't expect me to have THREE hooks, did you?"

The second wave of attacks were the last wave, as I had gotten too close to the mage for him to have adequate time to summon any more magic.

I pulled out my light's bane and held it out in a position to throw it.

'Will this work?'

As soon as I got close enough, I made the movement to throw the sword, easily launching it out of my hand and flying towards the dark mage.

With the added momentum of the hook and my throw, the sword flew fast enough to impale the mage.

The blade struck the mage, and he did not have the reflexes to even try and dodge the blade.

It struck the mage's head and flew through, leaving two incomplete halves.

I looked at the grotesque scene with a very uncomfortable face.

'This is disgusting, but I still think the goblins were worse...'

I was startled from my contemplation when the sound of fizzling came from behind me.

I looked behind and noted that the magic balls were dispersing into the air, leaving a slight hissing sound.

I looked back to the mage and noted that his death left some things behind, consisting of two eggs and a table.

'Of all things... Eggs and a table?'

I was cut out of my contemplation once more by the announcer.

And it was a voice I was glad to hear.

=There you have it folks, our challenger has completed the first stage of the Old One's Army. We wish that we could continue these challenges, but there is a prerequisite for the next stages, and that is...=

'Wait, this was stage one?'

=To defeat one of Draedon's machines!=

'Who the fuck is that?'

=You shall know it when you see it. They are great machines, after all.=

'I assume that that was a hint.'

=But since we cannot let you obtain the higher prizes at the moment, we shall grant you the prize you earned for phase one of the OOA: The arkhalis!=

'Ooh, sounds like a cool weapon.'

s soon as I said that, a flash occurred in the air and a sword flew down from the sky.

It impaled the ground and I immediately grabbed it.

'It looks pretty nice.'

I looked at the blade and noted that there was a card attached to it, reading:

"When you have completed the prerequisite, swipe this card in the air to return here."

"That's pretty cool."

=Now that you have collected your Prize, you have a minute to collect your loot before we boot you back to the surface.=

I hurried to grab the things the mage dropped, and immediately put them in my inventory.

=Thank you for your challenge, and we hope to see you fight for a higher level once more!=

And with that, I was gone.