Chapter 672 - Serious punches

Unsurprisingly, the casino had a dedicated place to fight, and it was more like an entire coliseum than a simple arena. Sofia made it just in time to witness Mornn separate a chimera’s body from its last head, while an announcer skeleton gave announcements for the crowd of spectators.

“And for the fifth time in a row, the saintess takes the win! Congratulations to all who bet on her, you have ten minutes to collect your winnings until the next match.”

Kuli and someone else from Tartaros’ team took it upon themselves to manage the business part of the duel and handle the wagers, so all Sofia had to do now was to wait.

“Are you confident you can beat us?” she asked Tartaros as they both waited in the corridors of the coliseum.

“Confidence? I have never needed such feelings. Winning does not matter to me, after all,” he answered, as he stood with his arms crossed, leaning his back against the wall.

“Winning doesn’t matter to you?” Sofia repeated, “What does then, strength?”

“What an astute guess,” Tartaros answered with a mocking snort, “Strength, yes. But more than that, progress. Attaining more strength, this is what I am after. Winning or losing is of little importance; I shall learn much from this fight either way.”

“Hmm… I can relate to that. It’s no wonder that you would be chosen as Strength’s saint. Why do you need the strength, though?”

“Ahahah,” Tartaros laughed lightly. “Does a plant need a reason to grow? Does the sun need one to shine?”

Sofia frowned, “So no reason, then? There isn’t a single thing you hope to accomplish with all that strength you’re accumulating?”

“Oh, there are many things I wish to accomplish,” he said with a sharp smile, ”I merely find joy in the pursuit itself. I need no accomplishments; I am the accomplishment.”

Sofia was stumped, her thoughts swirling; she recognized herself in Tartaros’ philosophy more than she expected.

After a bit, Tartaros gazed at her and broke the silence, “Your pursuit is not quite so straightforward?” he asked.

“I– It’s quite similar… All things considered,” Sofia admitted, “I have often chased strength out of necessity but… It would be a lie to say that I have not been enjoying the process, no matter how excruciating.”

“Ah! Now this is something I like to hear. I hope these words of yours will still ring true when I reach the top, that you may follow me there.”

“Uh? What does it matter to you? There are plenty of other strong people ‘at the top’ already, I am sure you’re aware. They are probably watching us right now, for that matter.”

“There are, but do they share the same drive? Will they keep trying to climb as they watch us from atop the lofty mountain?”

“I still fail to see how that matters to you…” Sofia said with a raised brow.

Tartaros grinned widely, showing his fangs. “A blade rusts if it has nothing to cut.” 

In a room outside of the casino’s reality, a small group of people were scratching their heads.

At the general silence, Mid sighed, “I need to go make the arena’s barrier stronger again, don’t I? I swear, we should have just left the lunatic out of the pool… It’s like this every time!”

Sofia and Pareth were on one side of he coliseum’s arena, fully armored, Pareth overlapping his own armor of light with Sofia’s exoskeleton for the first time. They were not channeling any spell, as per the rules of the deathmatch, but Sofia still had her four unlife runes up.

Tartaros slowly and methodically stretched his body on the other side, wearing almost nothing. No weapon and no armor, all he had kept were enchanted short pants with a thick belt made of large white balls lined up together like a pearl necklace.

He’s almost naked and I’m here with multiple divine artefacts. 

I am going to feel so silly if I lose this…

After a bit, Tartaros was done stretching, and the noise in the coliseum gradually died down. It was not often that people suggested a deathmatch by themselves, and the contestants looked serious, so everyone was eagerly waiting.

Let me and Bookie handle the fight until the Sanctified grounds are up.

Pareth slightly shook his skulls under the armor.

No? Alright, your call. I stay backline then. Bookie, be ready, Paladins and High Priest right away, we keep Pestle for later.

“The battle may now… BEGIN!” the announcer shouted.

Sofia had a terrible feeling. She used the toybox to freeze time right away.

FUCKING SHIT!

Tartaros was there, his fist right in front of her face, in the stopped time, she could actually clearly seen the disturbance the Orc had left as he moved, cutting a curved line through space, around Pareth, to arrive straight to his target. It wasn’t even teleportation, just pure, brute speed that had almost caught her off guard.

He didn’t do that on the first day! That better have a long cooldown!

Mana heart hidden behind his belt. Unsurprising.

Preparing at least two more spells, but it’s too early to tell what kind… Can’t gather anything more than this. This will be a quick battle, I can’t hold anything back. Bookie, forget about the paladins. As soon as the time stop is over, summon the dwarf. We need to slow him down.

Sofia prepared herself to cast multiple spells at once when the time freeze stopped. She would summon herself through both Tartaros and Pareth to put herself out of harm’s reach, fully activate [Runeforged Overlord] and start casting a star all at the same time.

Alright. Three. Two… ONE!

Sofia disappeared right as Tartaros’ fist collapsed on her face, creating a shockwave that displaced so much air that Sofia was sucked in, her back hitting Pareth’s chest.

Pareth ‘teleported to Sofia’ to instantly turn around and face Tartaros again, using the chains of light to restrain him as he raised his sword. Behind his back, one of the rings of eyes stopped moving, Tartaros had already earned his first stack of Judgement.

The chains shot out from the ground as Tartaros spun around, but he was fater than they were, sending a flying kick toward Pareth’s chest. With his sword raised, he couldn’t defend himself, but that was part of the plan, he didn’t have to.

From behind him Sofia, forcefully brought Tartaros’ bones to a stop mid-air.

The sanctified grounds flared up, their casting time much shorter than usual, and Pareth’s sword came down. It split the orc in half down the middle, crimson blood splattering verywhere, while the chains finally reached him and grabbed his locked limbs, pulling the two halves apart.

The left half of Tartaros’ body, where his mana heart was, struggled against Sofia’s control of his bones. In the end, his muscles wons, shattering the bones to forcefully move as he grabbed the chains with one hand as they pulled him away and pulled on them. The chains broke, ripped off of the ground, and in the same move were sent flying at Pareth’s face, while the missing half of the orc’s body explosively regrew.

Pareth dispelled the chains, while on Sofia’s side, her mana quickly plummeted down, mostly drained by the skeleton dwarf holding a shovel appearing behind her.

Golden time, now! She ordered as she tried to keep Tartaros’ bones locked in place. 

For the second time, Tartaros overwhelmed her control, doing the same thing he had done at the start of the fight, he moved extremely fast, appearing in front of Pareth. There was no defending against this. Tartaros punched a large round hole through the two layers of Pareth’s armor, erasing almost half of his skeleton from existence in a single strike. Hiding behind him, Sofia almost also died instantly, the one hit protection from VPPV being the only thing keeping her alive as little more than a shadow of bloodlight around a fractured mana heart.

Havin appeared further away, the dwarf skeleton was mostly safe. He had been pushed back by the shockwave of the strike, but he used the runeforged free-flight to stay in the fight, his bones quickly enlarging and turning to gold.

Pareth struck back with his remaining arm, his sword morphing into a spiked gauntlet mid-punch. Sofia has lost control over her aura due to her sudden almost-death, which left Tartaros free to move. He surgically blocked Pareth’s fist with a plam strike, sending both himself and Pareth flying back.

Out of nowhere, a golden coin pierced through Tartaros’ skull, and he started to slowly turn to gold from his forehead.

Finally, through all of this mess, Sofia managed to quickly pull Pareth inside of the painted halls and kill herself by cancelling the saintomancer’s star cast and suffering the backlash due to not holding her scepter.

The dwarf would have to survive for three seconds somehow, but Sofia would be back alive, and Pareth would come back fully healed, as he missed about 40% of his health and healed 14.6% a second from Sofia’s specialization boosted by his own.

When Sofia came back to life, the dwarf was dead, and Tartaros was a golden statue riddled with holes, but he, unlike the dwarf, was still very much alive.