Jackpot

Arthur had no other option if he wanted to survive and he knew it was a risky move that could potentially instantly kill him, do literally nothing or save his life. This time however, he would have to sacrifice literally everything, that would in this case be his life, to get enough of a reward back if he's lucky, but luck can only take one so far. He raised his head, looking at the enemy, not with a single hint of fear but with a wide smile on his face, his eyes seemed like they had brightened again. An abundant amount of mana, mana that he did not innately own himself surrounded him, a figure appearing behind his body. The monster stopped in its track, the amount of mana being constantly emitted so powerful that it wasn't able to move. 

The creature behind Arthur was one made out of pure mana, a manifestation of the skill was hunged over, a deranged form of a monster accompanied by a dark aura, holding a scythe in one of its hands. The monster itself was bony and the layer of skin looked like the only thing separating the bones from the outside air. Its ribcage was much bigger compared to the rest of its body and the creature did not possess legs. It had an ugly face with weird proportions, a face straight out of a horror movie and very black-colored hair. It was made clear that if Arthur were to fail, whatever in the world the creature behind him was would be the one to kill him. Should have spent more time leveling up this skill... no matter, I'll deal with that later if I even manage to survive. 

"...I proclaim that the offering laid forth is the essence of my own existence... Wager it upon the altar of strength! " Arthur shouted out as loudly as he could, sacrificing his own voice as he began to cough up more blood. The creature behind him smiled wildly without speaking, its boney and wrinkly hands moving forwards. Its mouth opened widely, revealing a single set of white teeth and nothingness that continued seemingly forever, the creatures eyes rolling back as the mouth opened wider. "The user has chosen, 'altar of strength' as the reward. Sacrifice has been chosen and if failed, object 'Arthur' will be sacrificed to the 'game master'." As soon as it stopped speaking, its mouth began closing and its eyes rolled back and opened before a massive surge of mana was being released.

Magical illusions of slot machines were popping up out of nowhere, spinning and spinning and spinning again, each spin draining mana with magical numbers and objects flying in the air. The conditions for the Exclusive Skill: Dead Man's Gamble is that you can freely sacrifice something valuable or important to the 'game master' and in return get rewarded if you manage to hit a 'jackpot', taking inspiration from slot machines from the real world. A 'jackpot' can grant numerously different rewards depending on the thing sacrificed to the game master. The user of the ability can freely choose the odds and specific rewards but has no control over when a jackpot is hit or how big the amount is. Both of those things are pre-determined by the game master, the creature overseeing the exclusive skill. If one was to hit a jackpot with the highest odds possible while betting their own life, the rewards would be massive. That being said, the technique runs on the users own mana multiplied by the mana generated by the technique depending on multiple factors. If the total amount of mana is depleted, then the sacrifice will be destroyed or deleted.

The slot machines and numbers kept on continously rolling with such high speeds that Arthur wasn't able to even grasp what the results were for either of them, but then one of them suddenly stopped. The rest of them slowly disappeared and now remained a single slot machine left. The machine spun as long as any normal slot machine would, showing the number seven on one of them before it kept on going. Arthur didn't know if it was because he was so tired from the battle or because of the massive amounts of mana that were being drained from him but it felt like it all happened way too quickly, the type of feeling you get when you accidentaly fall asleep for hours but only think that it's been a few minutes at most. The monster stared excitingly as more and more mana began eminating from Arthur.

The numbers on the slot machine showed "777" all in a row. It was like Arthur could hear the machine making "ding" sounds over and over as if to congratulate him, as Arthur had hit the most powerful Jackpot since he obtained the ability, almost falling short with just a few more spins to spare. Having put his life on the line with the highest odds he managed to come up with in the state he was in, the mana overflowing in Arthur's body was hundreds of times stronger than before, if not more. The overflowing mana was almost too much. Despite releasing a large amount of mana, Arthur couldn't properly control all of it which meant that some of it was unstable. But without realising it, it worked in his favor. The large amount of unstable mana overflowing his body acted on its own as if to try and take control over the stable mana. As the two different types of mana in his body struggled against each other to take control, the result of the two different kinds of mana trying to converge made his own body heal itself.

Almost instantenously was his body now almost fully healed again, his limbs having regrown. Arthur didn't try to stop his mana but instead, he let it do its thing. The overbundance of mana was like a restless child, doing almost anything as long as it meant it was doing something. At times it wasn't even connecting to the main body, acting as seperate limbs destroying everything around him with brutal force. "You've been hiding an amazing ability like that from the start! Oh, how amazing you must be!" The monster was laughing, wearing a smile as big as always. Arthur appearead right infront of the monster without it being able to react, punching it straight in the face sending it flying multiple blocks away. Arthur kept on chasing the flying body of the monster until he managed to catch up, kicking it straight into a pair of buildings. 

"Nice! Nice! That's even better than before!" The monster launched its blade towards Arthur, putting every last bit of its power into it before sending it straight towards him. Arthur reacted calm and quickly, ready to punch away the flying sword. As he punched the sword, he was met with a surprise. As his knuckles made contact with the sword, the momentum of the sword was still overpowering, the sword going straight through his knuckles and continuing to cleanly slice off half of Arthur's arm before continuing flying straight forwards, slicing through buildings until the blade eventually got stuck in the giant wall surrounding the city. Arthur was heavily wounded again, half of his arm missing. Even the bone had been cut in two, revealing some of the bone marrow but somehow, Arthur didn't even panic. Due to the adrenaline he was feeling, it was like the pain was being constantly numbed and due to his overflowing amount of mana, it healed in the span of just a few secondss.

The two clashed in a brawl, their fists punching each other over and over. It looked like Arthur had the significant advantage. He was healing much faster and he was punching stronger, but what would that do? The effects of the jackpot weren't unlimited. They had a finite time and Arthur didn't know how much mana he could waste around. The monster said it himself. It could only be killed by the usage of holy magic, but would that mean that Arthur would stop fighting it? No. The strong always have the advantage, right from the start. It's the job for the weak to fight even despite that, despite knowing that losing is the most likely scenario. Arthur got in close and low, punching it as hard as he could in the middle of its gut while rotating as much as possible. The punch so strong that it easily tore through its body, the monsters upper body disconnecting with its lower. "This is exactly why I like fighting strong people!" 

The monster unleashed a fury of strings, multiple of them landing but majority of them having been dodged. Even as multiple of his limbs were cut of, the wild mana was so dense that it forced everything to be compact, healing them back almost instantly. During its attack, the monster had managed to heal itself, another set of stitches now forming around their whole abdomen, around the back and meeting up at the same place, a circle of stitches formed around the previous wound like everything previously. Despite this, Arthur didn't give up. Even before he was done regenerating, he waas already attacking the monster again, landing more and more powerful blows each time. The amount of mana he now possessed was truly astounding and it didn't look like he was running out anytime soon, with each of his strikes, he grew more accustomed and could in a much easier way control more mana at once. There remained only a single problem. He had no idea how he was going to finish the fight.