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Harmless Human Sacrifice (Mana Devourer) - 46
🕑 Added 2024-07-15 01:09:52 +0000 UTCThe time came.
Markus wasn’t ready, and that was as ready as he was gonna get.
“I’ll be here when you get back,” Rika had told him.
She’d said other things. They’d left an impression somewhere in his mind, but he couldn’t quite remember the words.
He was sure she’d be okay. They’d just met. She’d seemed to be doing just fine before she met him.
Markus put it out of his mind. He checked his pocket to make sure everything he needed was inside.
He felt along his armour as he walked. Lexi didn’t talk, which was uncharacteristic of her. She seemed pensive. Perhaps something had happened Markus didn’t know about.
Maybe she was just nervous about Randall. Drathok had been really on edge about this whole thing, and he hadn’t made a big deal out of hiding that. Whatever was waiting for him on the other side of this gate was most likely…
Markus pushed back his concerns, hid them behind an icy mask of certainty. He imbued his weapon with Spirit Mana, the highest Grade of it he had. As the gates opened and the crowd’s roars tripled in intensity, Markus crossed the boundary out onto the stage, into his own nightmare, confronting that which stood in front of him, ignoring his quaking polearm and his thundering heart.
The announcer was cut short before he could get more than ‘HELLO, SUN CITY’ out of his mouth.
He was replaced by Randall. The radiant, glorious creature floated above the arena, carried by dark, feathered wings. They ran contrast to his shining golden eyes and his long silvery hair, his features so perfect they could be distinguished for a mile. He wore a smile etched into his face like woodwork, a grin that twisted and morphed around his lips, never losing its potency as he spoke, his eyes trained upon Markus.
“Ladies and gentlemen of Sun City! My esteemed subjects and most loyal followers!” He paused, bowed before his audience, who’d quickly split from a cheer to a stunned silence—perhaps reverant, more than likely fearful. “I am honoured to personally present to you the main event of today’s proceedings, an esteemed bout between the paradoxical alien fighter stood before us, and some of my most esteemed and brilliant fighters!”
Wait, fighters? With an ‘s’? Drathok never fucking mentioned this part!
Randall summoned a chair in midair, making to sit, his amplified voice carrying over the amassed, stunlocked crowd as he ran a hand past the lot of them. “Now, I’m not often one to share details of my life, but I feel it rather… fitting to shed some light on my recent woes…”
He flashed down to Markus, then patted him on the shoulder, almost knocking him to the floor with the quick and fluid motion. “Markus. Why don’t you tell this eager audience what exactly transpired between us?” He conjured a contraption that looked something like a megaphone and thrust it into Markus’ face.
He could hear his laboured breathing through the contraption, magically amplified.
“Here. Just speak into it, like so…” He held the mic closer to Markus’ face, pressed it into him as he tried to back away, his mind and heart reeling, still acclimating to Randall’s instant teleportation before him.
Randall shook his head. Tutted. “Hmm. You don’t want to tell them?”
Randall grabbed Markus. Wrapped an arm around his shoulder, like one might to a friend. Yanked his head up by his hair so he was forced to stare at the crowd.
“Tell me, esteemed citizens! If I, the God of Benevolence, the Greatest, the Most Esteemed and Graceful of all who stand at the peak of existence… if I were to offer my time to you, to approach you in good faith, to give you a chance to become something far greater than you could ever be alone… would you entertain my offer?”
“YES!” came the resounding cheer of the crowd.
“Would you accept my Will without question?”
“YES!” the crowd repeated.
“Would you spit at my face and refuse my humble offering?” Randall asked, ashen venom upon his words threatening to melt Markus beneath his piercing gaze.
“NO!” the crowd roared.
“And what does a disgusting, irreverent, blaspheming cur who denies my magnanimity deserve, my sweet, loyal subjects?”
Stunned silence from the crowd; a few weak, non-committal shouts.
Randall ran a hand down his face. He sighed. “He deserves death, does he not, my loyal followers?”
The crowd hesitated for half a second. “YES!”
Randall took to the air. His voice lost its air of grace, substituted for foulness. “Yes he does or yes he doesn’t?”
“YES HE DOES!” came a quick, panicked, garbled response.
Randall sighed. “Yes. Yes, he does. But not only death! He deserves punishment! Punishment, punishment, punishmenttt. Yes. He deserves to be punished. THAT… is why…”
Randall clicked his fingers at the gate. They launched open. Markus heard a light snarl from the other side, but had yet to see anything. Between the possibility of a creature launching himself at him any moment, and the chance Randall might teleport back down any second, he didn’t know where or how to try and focus.
But he had to try. Everything was riding on this.
“That is why… he will be punished.” Randall paused. Leaned back within his chair. Held up a finger. “But! A God of Benevolence I surely am. You all know this, do you not?”
“YES!” the crowd said, before some thought better of it and added “WE DO KNOW!” to the end.
“And so it is within my nature to be forgiving, even to the lowest of cur…” His smile deepened. “This arena is the greatest equaliser of Sun City. It is a holy place. A place where men from humble means can become legends, and where even great beasts can be felled. A place where gods discover champions. By those markers, I see no reason it cannot be a place for even the worst of our universe to find their redemption.”
Markus didn’t know what to do. He’d been expecting one opponent. Did he activate Pride? The stacking buffs could be useful if he had to fight enemy after enemy, but in a fight this critical, the inability to run might be his downfall, not to mention how the ability seemed to alter his mind…
“And so! Should this mortal manage to outlast the punishment I’ve prepared for him, should he work his damndest to keep you, my most esteemed followers entertained, to show his willingness to survive, the wealth and breadth of his spirit…”
“I may yet keep him alive.”
Randall flashed a smile, eyes still golden, yet darker than the blackest night.
Markus might’ve gulped, but his throat was too dry. He squeezed the handle of his glaive like a stress ball, struggling to retain his grip as his hands became increasingly sweaty.
It wasn’t just his hands. His body was quickly becoming drenched. He felt like a mess. He was a mess. He—
It didn’t matter.
It doesn’t matter. You were always gonna feel like this if you gave a fuck about winning. Ride it out. Live in it. Fear keeps you alive.
Fuck Pride. He’d fight without it. He didn’t need the skill if he had the real thing.
“Now! For the moment you’ve all been waiting for…”
Tune him out. Focus. What’s coming out of that gate? Wh-what the fuck is that thing?
Looked like Drathok had gotten his information wrong. That thing wasn’t a lizard… it was an insect.
A… scaled insect?
And it was massive. Really fucking long.
Maybe it couldn’t breathe fire?
It let loose a torrent of flame from its spiraled, circular mouth as it moved, revealing a hundred or more long, jagged teeth.
Well, fuck. That was just one of the things he had to fight?
The gate slammed shut about as soon as all thirty feet of it had slid through. Maybe this was supposed to be a staged battle? Defeat one monster, and then move on to the next?
That was assuming he could defeat one…
The worm struck out at him before Randall could finish talking. It didn’t care to wait or pause or oh shit move your fucking arm now.
Markus barely managed to avoid the worm’s first strike, the sand beside him smashing into his body so hard he almost fell back as the worm sailed right past him, burrowing into the ground and pushing its body down over the course of only three or four seconds before more than half of it had disappeared from sight completely.
He could hear cackling from above. The bastard god was sat directly over him. Markus refused to look up. He could still see the sand moving around where the beast burrowed, its writhing body repositioning and preparing to strike once more…
Markus cast Frozen Tomb immediately. He’d stored plenty of Frost Mana, he could maintain it for a while. He didn’t expect that he’d be able to hold the creature off, but he needed every layer of separation he could get right now.
When the creature came back up, bursting from the sand and rearing before him, its serpentine body moving with both lightning speed and deadly poise, Markus summoned four icicles with the intention of smashing them directly into the creature’s mouth the second it opened it.
He didn’t control their flight, but he could control the moment of their summoning, and despite getting that perfect, two of the missiles flew too far south and smashed into the creature’s body, dropping limply to the ground after leaving no discernable impact. The third and fourth melted as the creature breathed a potent blanket of flame over the area before him, dousing Markus and singing his skin as he shuffled back and pressed an arm over his face, trying his hardest to absorb the attack without having to resort to using Stone Skin.
[E Grade Flame Mana Absorbed!]
It fucking hurt, but no more than pressing your hand against a stove for a second might. Well, assuming instead of pressing your hand to the stove, you were pressing your entire face and torso.
But still, Markus could at least tell that his Adaptive Resistance was doing some job to mitigate things. He was pretty sure he’d be a toasted marshmallow right now otherwise.
Okay, ice doesn’t work, so maybe—
Markus jumped to avoid another strike, barely able to move out of the way in time as the creature shot forth in an attempt to swallow him yet again.
This wasn’t like the bulleater. Regardless of the size of its mouth, those teeth were sharp and existed all over its long neck for as far as Markus could see. If his body ended up inside of it for even a second, he was surely finished.
But, if a part of him ended up inside…
No. Try something else first. Don’t resort to that immediately…
Markus’ thoughts skidded to a halt as he crash-landed onto the sand, falling down a small hill of it that had been built by the worm’s impact as it pushed through the ground below. His glaive’s handle smashed into his chest, winding him, but he fought through the pressure to stand.
This thing was fucking intense. He needed to find a way to get some real damage on it if he wanted to slow it down, and every time the creature dipped beneath the surface as it had, Markus began to feel as if he were prey…
Markus felt around within his pockets. He felt something slimy against the inside of his leathers. He grabbed it.
Markus had asked Drathok for meat after his last fight. Not just to give Ember a treat, however…
If there was a way to fish this thing out, a way to fuck it up.
“Hah!” Randall chided from above as Markus threw a slab of alien steak onto the floor below.
Glad he was fucking entertained. Time to see if this worked…
The worm completely ignored the steak as it reemerged, immediately attempting to bathe Markus in flames once more. Once again, Markus barely weathered it, cursing his stupidity as he dove out of the way and attempted to grab the fallen meat off of the ground.
It wasn’t gonna grab it by smell, but was that because it wasn’t interested or because it hadn’t seen it? He wasn’t even sure if the thing had eyes…
He hung on to the meat, feeling its texture fraying in his hand. It wasn’t completely spoiled, but it was definitely running past its prime now…
The worm reemerged for a third time. Markus threw the steak into the air just as it did so.
…it snapped it out of the air.
Markus smiled.
Then he felt his entire body begin to fry.
His Flame Mana was surely depleting. He wouldn’t be able to maintain this resistance forever. Hell, even if he did keep it up a while, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to deal with the pain of repeated flame attacks for much longer either. Something had to give, but if he activated Stone Skin, he was taking a sacrifice in speed. He’d surely get hit in the worm’s next attack, and crushed in its jaws before he could move.
Only alternative was Stone Barrier. He grimaced as he erected the wall, still finding Earth Mana difficult to pilot and wishing he didn’t have to waste one of his few usages this early into what sounded as if it would be continuous combats…
But it was what it was. If he wanted to get through this, he had to take drastic measures. The resources at his disposal were there to be spent.
Thankfully, the barrier maintained itself as Markus poured his energy into it, pushing the flames around it and giving his body a much needed reprieve, most likely preventing him from fainting under the pressure.
He couldn’t see the creature anymore… his vision was blocked off by the barrier he’d erected ten feet into the air.
If it smashed straight through it and sought to attack him, he wouldn’t be able to see it to dodge in time. He couldn’t brace himself and block from a creature of this size. He couldn’t turn and run away either. Even on the ice, even with all of his movement enhancers, he couldn’t outrun this creature, he’d seen as much within the very first seconds of its arrival.
This was a problem Markus needed to go over.
But how…
Simple.
Small ramp. Six feet, maybe seven. He only needed to be able to clear the wall he’d erected, and he could dissipate it as he jumped if he really fucking focussed on it. It was like vaulting a fucking horse jump, his legs burning as he ascended the ramp and pushed with everything to try and clear the barrier.
He’d placed his hand in his pocket as he built the ramp. Slotted an Essence Stone into a hole he’d put in a slab of meat earlier, and then felt with his spirit to ensure it was the right one, that it had the correct kind of mana built up within it…
He’d gotten it right. Now he needed to clear the ramp.
Markus jumped…
He watched as the creature whipped its head around to face him, mouth right open. If he kept going at this trajectory, he was gonna fall right into its waiting maw and be consumed immediately…
Markus grabbed the slab of meat with the Essence Stone inside, throwing it with all the force he could muster, watching as the creature snaked out to snap up the morsel and then immediately screwed its head back to try and catch the falling Markus…
Double jump, bitch.
Markus activated Wind Blast for the first time, pushing his body to the left and veering directly out of the path of the worm’s snapping bite, watching as its face contorted around the small slab it’d snapped up, likely already beginning to realise that something was wrong…
Yeah. Something’s extremely fucking wrong…
Markus activated [Detonate] as he landed, his fall cushioned by his greaves, and watched as the creature jerked, its head slumping a touch from the initial impact…
And then watched further as its neck fucking exploded.
Blood sprayed the ground before him in a wide, fountaining arc as the Essence Stone he’d housed the [Detonate] spell within exploded into a million pieces, releasing a bevy of mana, a vicious cocktail designed to decimate even the deadliest and most dreadful of opponents.
That was one down.
Randall clapped. Markus glared at him. Watched as he took a sip of wine…
A few sanguine drops spilled onto the sand below. It dripped from his chin.
“Wonderful… more! Show me more!”
He was hungry.
Markus was burnt, but compared to what he’d been expecting, still unscathed.
The gate swang open.
He heard the clink of metal. Something grating against stone.
Something more than a simple monster emerged.
Comments
Ben Bass
TYFTC! I like the worm/beetle fight, Markus being treated as prey and not an opponent, different tactics are required. Now let’s see who/what he is fighting now!
David Cast
This is how he escapes. There was a moment between enemies that makes it at least arguably 2 different fights. Separated by mere seconds, but how far away is he from 10 now?
