A small, plump creature wiggle around in a red jacket adorned with gold buttons. His skin is covered in light green fur and he has large, captivating eyes. His four arms and legs are rounded at the ends, but that doesn't stop him from holding a sort of microphone in the crook of his paws. He enthusiastically greets the audience in the arena and elsewhere. Music seems to come out of nowhere to accompany his words:

  Welcome! Welcome!

  Yes, welcome to the GM4 Arena!

  Today, a new exciting match will pit two creatures against each other in a fight to the death!

  Who will emerge victorious? What magnificent moves will we see? Have you already placed your bets? For this last question, I hope the answer is yes, because it is too late now: the die is cast!

  Here are the participants who are already teleported to the field.

  On one side, an adventurer climbing one of the Towers on planet Earth:

  !

  !

  On the other side, a Zcarbb warrior pulled from the depths of a dark Dungeon:

  !

  I can already hear some people protesting: a level 8 fighter against a level 4 fighter, is that fair? But remember that the Human race is categorized as “F” while the Zcarbb race is “D”, meaning that the Zcarbb start with greater innate advantages while the Humans have the long-term growth potential. With both fighters being at “F” status levels, it’s a fair fight. Who will win? We’ll find out soon:

  LET THE FIGHT BEGIN!

  The Human looked warily at the heights of the stands and the blurred crowd of spectators. Were they creatures from the Dungeon, people from another world, or illusions? He turned his attention back to more immediate problems.

  So, this time the ordeal was solitary. If he got through it, how many of his comrades would he find on the next floor? And why did the enormous window floating in the air that displayed his status call him "Random human warrior"?

  The arena was a circle nearly 50 meters in diameter, which made it a very large space for a single fight. The ground was covered in sand and the architecture of the stands suggested a crude copy of the Roman arenas, remixed with fantasy sauce. Half of the circle was cut by a sort of wall of fog that hid from him what he was apparently going to have to face. He couldn’t see the window describing his fighter, but he had heard the announcer talk about a level 4.

  Instead of rejoicing, the Human was worried: the trials of the Tower had already taught him not to trust appearances. Positioning himself in a defensive posture, his sword raised straight in front of him, he prepared himself for what was to come.

  The Zcarbb warrior panicked: where was it? Where was the scent of the hive? Where were the instructions?

  Furious, it raised its spear in a threatening gesture towards the inaccessible audience and snapped its mandibles. Without instructions, it would fight and kill everything it encountered until it could find the hive again!

  It resolves strengthened; it began to thrust its spear into the strange wall of mist that stood before it: it seemed to it the weakest thing to break in order to advance.

  Was this the fruit of its efforts? In any case, the intangible barrier shattered, revealing the rest of the arena. A horrible monster awaited it, weapon in hand.

  The warrior let out a shrill cry of defiance and charged.

  The Human watched with concern as the approaching enemy raised clouds of dust, then breathed a sigh of relief: it was just a normal charge, and the repulsive insectoid monster didn't seem to have any specific skill in this regard. As the monster approached, he decided to switch to an offensive stance and go meet it.

  The two fighters exchanged their first blows. The Human's sword, although sharper, struggled to penetrate the Zcarbb's chitin, but the latter had inflicted a deep spear blow on its opponent that could have proved fatal without the System.

  Knowing that it would be difficult for it to wield the spear up close, the insectoid threw itself back, narrowly dodging an enemy attack and immediately retaliating, inflicting 12 points of damage.

  Frowning, the Human warrior rushed forward to deliver a vertical blow...

  But he suddenly lowered his sword for an oblique blow... which the enemy avoided: having perfectly understood the maneuver, implemented too hastily, the Zcarbb took advantage of the gap in the Human's defenses to strike.

  With a grimace of pain, the Human returned to a defensive stance. With this skill, he would temporarily receive seven additional points of Vigor and Life and slightly increase his armor.

  The insect did not care about his new stance and continued its relentless attacks. The Human failed to deflect the spear, which inflicted another cruel wound on him.

  Continuing its butchery, the monster almost missed its next blow but the Human's clumsy dodge placed him directly in the path of the spear that he should have easily avoided. He was definitely lacking luck since the beginning of the fight...

  Luck finally turned: as the Zcarbb tried to press its advantage, it missed its opponent and planted its spear deep into the sand of the arena. Trying to pull it out, it found himself vulnerable to a masterful blow from its enemy: while the description of his defensive skill forbade “offensive actions,” that didn’t actually prevent him from counterattacking.

  The blade had penetrated deeply through a crack in the monster's natural armor, on the abdomen, tearing off a large piece of chitin and coming out in a gush of green blood and acid. The rest of its armor cracked all over its body but held firm.

  Not caring about the pain it felt, other than by letting out shrill howls, the monster continued its assaults with its weapon just torn from the ground. The warrior avoided the weapon and planted his own successfully.

  Catching his breath, the warrior skillfully bandaged his wounds to stem the bleeding, then wiped away the greenish blood that coated his blade with disgust, using the sand of the arena to clean it. He briefly noted the 40 XP brought by this violent fight before turning his attention to the screams and applause of the crowd. He responded by raising his weapon triumphantly, as he must have seen done in some films, before advancing towards the blue portal that had just appeared in front of him to take him to the next floor of the Tower.

  Meanwhile, the presenter commented:

  Well, wow!

  You can say that our Human warrior was lucky: I myself would have bet on the Zcarbb given the start of the fight.

  No, no, I assure you: this fight was not rigged at all, the laws of the arena prohibit all manipulation and the field is strictly protected by the System.

  Whether it is luck or talent, we have a winner, we have a loser.

  Who will be the next opponents to face each other?

  You will find out next time…

  All the results of the moves are truly determined randomly. The result was a surprise to me too.

  CONTEST:

  Rules:

  one participation comment per person. Each serious proposal will be rewarded with 1 reputation point, 5 reputation points for the winner (and 5 more if the winner write just “I won the previous contest” in the arena comment), when the winner has been selected.