Chapter Twenty

"Now the width and length of a wire is detrimental in machines," Professor Lybeck, the dwarfish professor who taught us Mechanics and Machinery.

"A wide wire has disadvantages like Higher cost, weight, bulkiness, handling difficulties, and potential thermal management issues. while a thin wire has Higher resistance, heat dissipation problems, mechanical fragility, significant voltage drops, and limited current carrying capacity."

"Now it's up to the individual to decide on which wire their gadget may require, would you look at the time there are some papers I distributed amongst you at the beginning of the class? On top of the paper, you must have seen your name and two other names alongside yours well those would be your partners. You are to build whatever illustration on the paper and submit it by the end of the month remember that the assignment will consist of twenty-five percent of your midterm exam." the professor said as he arranged his material and left.

I was the one holding our assignment paper, on top of the paper read Raiden Ragnar, Gloin Thorin, and Arthur Feyrith. Unlike the other students, the three of us were lucky that we were paired together we were already familiar with each other so we wouldn't waste time with introductions and also Gloin was good at this subject I know it was slightly racist to say this but you can trust a dwarf to make quality things. So something called a dark mana purifier chamber would be easy for him to make right.

"yeah we are gonna fail," Gloin said while we were in our room.

"why it doesn't seem to be that hard to build?" Arthur said as he analyzed the diagram.

"building isn't the problem elfy,"

"then what is?!" I said

"well it's money sunshine, you are broke, am broke and I've never seen elfy with money unless he's got some stash we don't know about?" Gloin said as we both looked at Arthur with hopeful eyes only for it to be crushed when he shook his head.

"well, how much money do we need?"

"Well, the wires it needs are a little more expensive since dark mana generates a lot of heat and is slightly corrosive, also purifying dark mana requires a lot of power so the wires and the power source itself need to be small enough making the wires and the power source to be a round maybe fifteen gold coins, the inner part needs insulation and nonreactive materials also it should be durable, semipermeable and......"

"hey hey hey, I asked for the estimate, not the specs?" I interrupted.

"also working with an asshole like you is a headache which means I'll need some pills which makes the total cost to be forty-two gold coins give or take," Gloin said.

"forty-two gold coins, where are we gonna get that amount?" I muttered to myself

"you could reach deep into my ass and see if you can find any," Gloin said sarcastically making even Arthur smile a bit.

"but seriously though what can we do."

"well I have an idea but you are not gonna like it,"

"am I going to be the scapegoat again?"

"YUP,"

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The three of us were walking through the slums of Rivendell, Gloin said that the solution to our money problems could be found here, which to me sounded like complete bullshit since he told us not to wear our uniforms so that we wouldn't get robbed. The path we were walking on had junk and what I was telling myself to be a puddle of beer or apple juice. Gloin led us to a building painted gray, it had a couple of writings on the walls and there was a metallic door with a slit on the top. Gloin knocked on it three times and as he did the slab of metal on the slit was slid aside and I saw a pair of eyes peeping through.

"Gloin long time no see," the man said.

"yeah, it's been a while Rosco, could you open up my legs are getting tired," Gloin said, the slab was shut and I heard a couple of locks being opened before the door swung open.

"well then come in and you are in luck Braun's fighting today," the man said.

The interior reminded me of the stadium in Longhorn which meant that either the exterior of the building was an illusion or we just walked into a portal. This place was dark, the seats were arranged around the fence surrounding the actual ring, for added measure there was an array of mana shields blocking the contestants from getting out and the audience from getting in.

Aside from that on the upper floor of the stadium was a bunch of rooms covered by one-way mirrors where Gloin said that the rich audience sat there and bet on fights or put in requests on fights. This place was filled with every race, from elves to dwarfs to humans to Valterians to dark elves. In the middle of the ring, there was a man dressed in a suit, he was wearing a black top hat and a mask, and he was standing in front of a microphone. The ring had dried blood on the ground which was dirt in nature.

"Alvarians are you ready to rumble!" the man shouted in his megaphone, sending the stadium into an uproar.

"Braun the conqueror is ready to break bones! Ready to make his challenger meet the gods! The question is are you ready?"

"YEAH!"

"then let's bring him in,"

At the far end of the stadium, two double doors were opened and a seven-foot man made his way to the center, the man had a dark collar on with a green gemstone at the side, and he was shirtless which made his towering physique visible, his body was filled with scars three on his ribcage and two on his chest every step he took made the audience get wild.

"and his challenger swift killer,"

On the other end of the stadium, a dark elf walked out, the elf had dark gray skin, his whole eye was purple and he was wearing light leather armor, he walked over to Braun and as the elf stood in front of the behemoth Braun, the elf resembled a child looking at his father.

"Now the rules are simple if the challenger can last three minutes in the ring then he wins, now begin!" the man said as he walked out.

Braun took a fighting stance and so did the dark elf, the first few seconds went into the two circling each other in the ring before the dark elf struck first. The dark elf shrouded his fists with dark flame, one of the elements associated with dark mana, he rushed over to Braun and did a light jump as his fist shrouded with dark flame was about to land on Braun, Braun leaned back but the flicker of the flame touched his right cheek leaving a charred spot where the flicker had touched.

The elf then threw a roundhouse kick which sent a blade of dark flame to Braun, Braun sidestepped to the side dodging but the elf had anticipated this he sent three fireballs at Braun, one aiming at his face, one at his chest, and his gut. Braun held up his guard and he slightly bent his body, effectively blocking his face and his body as the fireballs hit him.

The elf rushed at Braun as he threw a tornado kick while his right leg was shrouded with dark flame, judging by the way that kick was thrown the power it was about to exhibit was going to be massive, everyone was cheering Gloin the most and Arthur was strangely grinning me on the other hand I was confused why Braun was on the defensive, judging from the introduction he must have been the offensive fighter.

Braun ducked down, as the elf's leg whished past his head, in that split second Braun threw a haymaker as he got up the punch landed on the elf since the elf was in a compromising situation. A loud crack was heard as the punch landed, and the dark elf coughed up black blood, the force of Braun's punch was so powerful that it sent the elf straight to the barrier, and the elf's body slammed the barrier so hard that more black blood came out of his mouth.

Braun dashed to where the elf was at a speed that was shocking considering his size, he threw a push kick at the elf. The elf blocked but the kick pushed his body further into the barrier. He then grabbed the elf by his arms and threw the elf over his shoulders. The elf landed like a ragdoll, Braun then dropped his knee on the elf's solar plexus. He stayed on top of the elf hitting him with loud deafening blows over and over.

"Braun stop!" the announcer said and Braun stopped his punch mid-air as he got up from the elf and walked to the center of the ring. Healers rushed to the ring to heal the elf and Braun.

As soon as the elf was in a non-critical state the healers carried him out of the ring, the announcer was now in the ring next to Braun his eyes surveyed the audience, in the audience some had bet on the fight and the winners were now collecting their dues others were simply overjoyed at the fight.

"Who amongst you thinks that they can survive in the ring with Braun,"

"..."

"none of you have the courage... Yes, my little friend you think you have what it takes," the announcer said to a dwarf who was raising his hand and the dwarf was none other than Gloin.

"oh not me but my friend here can," Gloin said, I thought to myself (sorry Arthur it was nice knowing) while Arthur was puzzled.

"this guy over here," he said as he pushed me forward.

"WHAT!"

"he can survive,"

"I most certainly will not,''

"Shut up," Gloin said as he pulled me down, "listen you can heal and you have the air element so you can run away from him and you can tank his hits."

"but..."

"listen to me you can forfeit if you are not sure,"

"fine."

I walked into the ring still not believing that I let him talk me into this before, the announcer turned his gaze up towards the glass panels.

"Sorry kid, Troy has paid a hundred gold coins and changed the rules, the updated rule is Braun has to kill you in three minutes."

"what! That's not what we signed up for, Raiden gets out of there." Gloin yelled but his voice was drowned out as Braun crashed next to me sending debris and dust all over my body.