Yeah, I had nothing. Well, nothing that I could do in the short bit of time I had between now and my next match. So unless I could come up with a new, miraculous way to strengthen someone in a dozen or so minutes, I would have to wait. Then again there was the possibility that I could figure out a new skill. Something that gave a bonus to strength. But who was I kidding, while such a thing wasn’t impossible, it sure as hell was less likely than just working out.

  Hell, I only had one such skill, which was odd as it was not one that I would have associated with strength. If anything, I would have thought that the Short Sword skill would have given a boost to something like dexterity or agility and not strength. Then there were the Punching and Kicking skills. Both of which gave no bonus to any of my stats. Not that I was saying that their bonuses were useless, they just didn’t affect my stats in any way. I guess I would just have to wait and pray.

  Maybe if I ever met the programmers, I could demand an answer or two. For now, I had to focus on the situation in front of me. A tiny, pixie-looking woman stood in her spot on the field. She was shorter than me, likely not even reaching four and a half feet. On top of that, I was pretty sure she wouldn’t break one hundred pounds soaking wet.

  “Round four,” the announcer’s booming voice seemed to cause the woman to jump. “Lindra Greyhound versus Kyren Vulpier.” While I pulled out my sword, I debated whether I should charge straight in or hit her from a distance with magic. As various potential plans and ideas played out in my head, she pulled out a hammer.

  I don’t mean she pulled out a small hammer that someone used for nails, nor even one of the larger hammers used to break concrete and walls. This thing had a head the size of my torso. It was likely that the thing weighed more than her. Fuck, depending on what it was made of, it might even weigh more than me and she was moving it like it weighed next to nothing.

  Her hands twisted and twirled the handle back and forth as the hammer moved faster and faster. It slammed its way through the air so fast that it gave off a loud ass humming noise coupled with a high-pitched whistling sound. As soon as the announcer said, “READY!”, her hands stopped moving as the hammer came to rest in front of her. She held it in such a way that the bottom forward edge of the thing hovered just over the ground. “FIGHT!”

  A thunderous boom was the only warning I got as she vanished. With a fast and liberal use of my enhancement spell, I managed to dodge her first swing by a hair. I dug my feet into the soft sand and just managed to turn to look at my attacker. Her hammer was already lifted high into the air as she prepared another strike.

  Something about the hammer caused my instincts to scream at me to run. That I would not be able to deflect a hit from it, let alone take one. Without a second’s hesitation, I lept to the side.

  The hammer slid past me. It moved so fast and so forcefully that the air it displaced helped me escape. Not that I was complaining. Not when the hammer impacted the sand. It didn’t just create a small crater or kick up a small cloud of dust with the impact. No. The sand surged out like a wave.

  I was, luckily, still mid-air. My body was tilted slightly as the wind tried to shove me out of the way. It was this tilt that left one of my feet lower than the other. Low enough to get caught by the top edge of the sand wave.

  The thing grabbed my foot and mercilessly yanked on it. It jerked my leg, and everything attached, toward the ground with enough force to leave my brain slightly rattled. In shock, I found myself unable to react as my body slammed into the ground.

  I expected the match to be over at that point. So it was a bit of a shock that, when I finally came back to my senses, I found the hammer still stuck in the sand. The head of it was practically buried, and no matter how the pixie-sized woman pulled on it, it refused to budge.

  Now, I abhorred cheaters, and there would likely be people out there who claimed I had cheated, but I also refused to look a gift horse in the mouth. With a swift strike, my sword passed through her neck and ended the match. “In a turn of luck, Kyren Vulpier has won the match.” As the announcer said this, the woman slumped to her knees. Her face was filled with resignation and something that looked like fear.

  While it wasn’t my job or duty to stick my nose into her business, that didn’t mean I would just leave her here. Plus, I was curious as to why she didn’t just put her hammer back into her inventory. When I reached forward and gave the hammer a yank, I found that it was well and truly stuck.

  A simple application of mana to move the sand revealed the issue. Her strike had been hard enough to crack the stone that covered the floor. While the crack wasn’t all that large, it was just big enough to prevent the hammer from moving at all. With a bit of mana and a minute of work, the hammer was free.

  The moment it was free and in my hands, the woman practically attacked me to get it back. It wasn’t like I had a reason to keep it so I let her take it. She simply nodded at me before she sprinted to the edge of the arena and out of sight.

  The sudden exit left me baffled. With a shake of my head and seeing as there was nothing else for me to do, I followed her example. I stopped in the waiting room as I needed time to think about what I would do after the tournament ended because I was sure it was coming to an end fairly soon given how the time between my bouts had shrank.

  “You’re up,” the staff member stated. Speaking of decreased break time, I had been in the room for less than ten minutes yet I was already up again. So either the rounds were run concurrently, or the event was nearing the end.

  When I made my way into the arena I found my opponent was a mountain of a man. Our eyes met as I walked. He huffed in concern before speaking. “Lookee here, little missy. You best be fixin’ to drop outta this here tournament. I ain’t gonna hit ya, but you sure as shooin’ ain’t takin’ me down neither.” I rolled my eyes. Not because he had mistaken me for a woman, nor his assumption that a girl couldn’t take him down. No. I rolled my eyes because of his damn southern drawl. For some reason, it sounded forced. As if he was faking it for some reason.

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  The moment I stepped into my circle, I pulled out my Chisa Katana and prepared to show him just what I could do. His shoulders rose and fell as he let out a sigh before pulling out a tower shield nearly as tall as he was. The thing thumped into the sand with such force that I felt the vibrations in my feet.

  We both stood there, silent as we stared each other down. He was likely waiting for me to drop out while I waited for the match to start. Thankfully, the announcer’s voice filled the place before even a minute passed. “For round five. We have Kyren Vulpier versus Austin Augusta. How will a jack-of-all-trades fare against a tank?” Either the announcer was getting into the matches finally, or he was bored. “READY? FIGHT!”

  Austin’s eyes tracked me as I slowly moved from side to side. I was trying to see which side might hold the best chance at taking the guy down. I was fairly sure neither was better as he swapped the shield from one side to the other when I moved too far in one direction. I muttered, “Fuck it,” just as I decided to go with a simple, if stupid, plan.

  My mana poured from me and into my sword. As I did so, a shimmering metallic-looking liquid traveled up the blade. By the end of the ten-second activation time, the blade would be covered by mana that would make it both sharper and able to cut into spells. Or at least I hoped it would be able to cut spells. After all, that was one of my original reasons for getting that skill.

  Not that any of that mattered now. Now, I just had to focus on my opponent. His eyebrows were lifted as he watched the mana coat my blade. Seeing as he wanted to watch it, I moved to give him an up-close and personal view.

  Sand exploded behind me as I boosted my body and shot forward. My sword got into range just as the skill finished activating. My mana-coated blade sliced into the edge of his shield. It cut a good ten inches into it before coming to a stop.

  While it was a bit of a surprise to have my blade stopped, my focus was centered on the arm behind the shield. I had hit it. Or at least I was pretty sure I had. Too bad his arm looked none the worse for it. Without pause, I yanked my sword out of his shield before hacking at the thing a second time. This time the blade made it less than six inches through before being stopped yet again.

  “See?” His accented voice taunted me. “What did I tell you? Save yourself some embarrassment and drop out. There ain't no shame in it.” In response, I activated another of my sword skills. Aiming for the unblemished edge of the shield as it activated.

  My sword seemed to stick into the air behind me. My muscles strained as they worked to get the sword unstuck from whatever was holding onto it. All at once and without warning, whatever it was released its hold. As the blade cut out, a shiny, silvery streak sliced up in an arc. The Crescent Moon Strike skill, coupled with the Mana Blade skill, sliced through the shield like it wasn’t even there.

  As the top half of the shield thumped into the ground, Austin simply shrugged. He dropped the tattered shield as he lifted his hands into a boxing pose. Given his size, I would die if I even tried to box with him, so that wasn’t happening. Instead, I tried to activate my Crescent Moon Strike again.

  Nothing happened. I tried a second time, but still, the skill didn’t work. It wasn’t due to a lack of mana because, despite the fact that I had used over a quarter of my pool, I still had more than enough to power the skill.

  As I thought through all the reasons I couldn’t use a skill, the metallic sheen on my blade drained away. And, as with the Crescent Moon Strike, the Mana Blade skill refused to activate. Without a reasonable explanation or timeline, I gave up on using those skills. Maybe after the fight, I could figure out their issue, but now was not the time.

  As I moved in to attack, a muted golden-brown glow covered his skin. It gave the guy a decent-looking tan but otherwise looked entirely cosmetic. My blade made contact with his forearm and found no purchase. It skittered off to the side as if his skin was metallic armor.

  Whatever he had done reminded me of various skills in other games that strengthened the guy's body. But that knowledge did little to help me. I still had to figure out what type of skill it was. Was it one that gave immunity or lessened damage for a set amount of time, or was it one that took a set amount of damage before disappearing?

  As there was only one way to find out, I attacked him in earnest. Striking at every part I could reach. Balls of fire slammed into him from behind as I tried to do as much damage as I could. Finally, a sound of shattering glass filled the area as the glow broke into particles of light. Based on his uplifted eyebrows, he hadn't expected this to happen, which likely meant it wasn’t a timed skill.

  I sliced at the guy's gut just as he started to glow again. This time it was a muted red color. My sword made contact and I saw nothing but fire as I was flung back. Something around my neck audibly shattered. The pieces of which traveled down my dress and got stuck between it and my skin at various points.

  “While this jack-of-all-trades managed to do what no one else in the competition has done, they were still unable to break through the wall that is Austin Augusta. Give it up for our semi-finalist.” As soon as I heard the announcer’s voice, I gave up trying to get up. The round was over. I had lost.

  “Not too, shabby, darlin’,” Austin’s drawl caused me to open my eyes. He was crouched next to my prone body. “Ya had me sweatin’ bullets for a sec, with you breakin’ that first shield an’ all.”

  “What was with that damn shield?” I asked. As I tried to sit up I returned my blade to my inventory.

  “Talkin’ ‘bout the first one or the second one?”

  “Second.”

  He helped me up to my feet before continuing as we walked out of the arena. “Kinda my last-ditch defense, y’know. It takes a hit and gives it right back, with a lil’ somethin’ extra.” His grin was wide. It almost looked like he was happy with our fight.

  “Sounds overpowered if it can reflect any hit.”

  “Any single hit,” his drawl stressed the word single. “After that, it’s on cooldown. Now, tell me, what in tarnation did you do to your sword to make it bust up my shield like that?”

  “Mana Blade. Before you ask, I have no clue what exactly the skill does. The description is quite vague.” As we stepped out of the tunnel and into the waiting room, the woman that sat at the desk held her hand out to me. It took me a second before I remembered that I needed to return the used-up protection item.

  In a swift motion, I lifted the leather over my head. The stone it revealed was in tiny fragments. She took the leather but ignored the stone fragments in my hand. While she placed it into the box next to her, she spoke to Austin. “Your next match is in approximately ten minutes. I would recommend you rest and recuperate.”

  “Thank ya, ma’am.” Austin nodded his head before finding a seat. He gestured to the bench on the other side for me to take, but the woman coughed loud enough to catch our attention.

  As soon as I looked at her, she said, “and I recommend you return to the seating area. The only people allowed in this room are people still in the tournament.”

  I sighed. She did not like me, but to kick me out like this, just what had I done to her? Instead of arguing, I nodded and started for the door on the other side of the room. Taking a moment to turn and wave at Austin.