FB: Chapter 71 – Easy Tournaments

“This is bullshit! She is level 103, I am level 48. That is a 55 level difference. I couldn’t hurt her even if I wanted to,” the Champion I was facing yelled and pointed at me in frustration.

“Sucks to suck,” I replied and then used Blink and Vomitatis on him. I was getting used to the taste of the skill despite how horrible it was. It was hard to say if I was adapting to the taste of shit or just cared about winning more. Using skill shards for Silent Casting and Gestureless Casting were crunches I needed to learn to deal without. Even if everything did taste horrible.

The crowd in the arena roared for my final victory. I didn’t even need to use my legendary poisons.

Winner! Standard 1v1: 640-0 Champion 1v1: 72-0 Tournament: 2-0
Please go to the center of the arena.

The absolute level difference was just that brutal. I dealt 55% more damage to the unfortunate man, while taking 55% less damage in turn. My slayer title didn’t come into play, since he was a lower level than me. With the critical hits from my poison attacks, it was over instantly. The competitors had tried various strategies, skills, and used consumables all in an attempt to defeat me. It was all useless. Blink made me too mobile and my poison was just too strong. With the absolute level difference on top of that, it was a massacre.

An attendant brought out the sword Slice to the cheers of the crowd. I was about to take it back but then hesitated. “This is a bit boring. I think what people want to really see is an all out brawl. All of the Champions versus me. Let’s have another tournament right now. I will wager this sword, and we will have a free for all. Just 20 platinum to enter this second tournament. The last one standing, keeps the sword. That will be me of course, but I want to give other people a chance.” The attendant stabbed the sword into the middle of the arena which had been planned ahead of time.

“Since the Champions are poor, let’s set it an hour from now. Anyone who can scrouge up the entrance fee can enter, not just the Champions. A true free for all.” I had worked this out with the coliseum staff ahead of time. I was allowed to do this, to immediately have a follow up tournament. As long as eight other Champions registered it would be counted as a valid tournament for the purposes of my title.

The extra people allowed to enter were just to try and lure the Champion teams into combat. They would feel like they had a chance with their teams. As for the Champions that were part of the Fanged Fox Guild, I had said they could enter with their own funds, the guild would not pick sides one way or the other. Of course they all entered for a chance to beat me, the number one player in Exponential. Their loss was my financial gain.

“And while we wait, why don’t we have some entertainment. I have arranged some performers and people can pay one gold to try and lift Slice out of the ground. If you manage it, well, I can’t give you the sword, but I will give you ten platinum. Also, once you grab it, you can see its stats in full and take a picture with me after your attempt,” I said.

For the next hour, there was a line of people trying to lift the blade. They all failed of course, since it was a mega-blade and they needed skill shards for weight reduction, but they got to touch a unique item and I took pictures with them after their attempt. At one person every fifteen seconds, that meant over the course of 50 minutes, I earned 2 platinum. A small amount, but it offset the cost of hiring the NPC entertainers for this hour.

Once the hour was up, the arena was cleared once more and the sword left behind, stabbed into the ground in the center of the arena. The last one standing would be able to take it away. I went over to my starting platform and then experienced a moment of shock when I saw how many people had signed up.

There were 112 people across 18 different groups. All of them were looking at me with thoughts of killing me. The start was called, and I quickly drank my two legendary poisons. A person Blinked behind me and then stabbed me with a thorn spear. Clever to stop my teleportation. But it was too late now that I had consumed both legendary poisons.

“Vomitatis.” I spun and spewed out vomit around me as people rushed at me. The person who had used Blink was hit. Just as I was about to yank the spear out of my chest, four arrows came flying at me. I was forced to use a force shield consumable to block the attacks.

“Long range bombardment like we planned!” someone shouted. I was already tossing out smoke bombs and decoy dolls. More arrows and spells came flying at me through the smoke, but I was moving and didn’t plan to stop. Having someone use Blink and then then teleport behind me to stab me with a thorn spear was inspired. These people weren’t stupid and wouldn’t just rush to their deaths and waste money. The other players were learning the tricks to counter specific skills in high level fights.

“Vomitatis,” I used the skill as I burst out of the smoke cloud, catching several people off guard. They had probably thought they were fine, since who would be crazy enough to run straight forward. The combination of Overhealth Heart Stopper and Flesh Rot with my title of Poison Expert was completely overpowered. Once anyone was hit with my poison, the only cure was to kill me. I merely had to run around and hit people with Vomitatis and they would die. I kept throwing out smoke bombs and decoy dolls as I ran about, creating even more confusion.

While only the real me would use Vomitatis, when I ducked back into the smoke clouds and my decoys ran out, people would panic and attack right away using their skills on pointless targets. I also used the expensive smoke bombs that made lots and lots of smoke. Each one cost a platinum, but it was a platinum well spent for this plan. After half a minute of utter chaos, I withdrew to the edge of the arena, and slammed my back into the wall, to force the thorn spear out my front.

“Urg,” I let out a soft grunt of pain that couldn’t be heard due to the chaos in the arena.

I took mending potions, which didn’t return my HP, but removed large wounds on my body. HP potions wouldn’t do that much with both legendary poisons and I needed to fix the hole in my chest right away. I felt a bit of danger as the smoke swirled in front of me as my combat intuition screamed that an attack was coming. I quickly stepped to the side as a massive hammer smashed into the arena wall where I had been standing. Hammer Crusher was living up to his name.

While he might be part of my guild, he only stayed out of respect for my combat abilities. If I couldn’t win or asked for his help in a fight like this, he might start looking at other guilds along with the other Champions.

Running, I leapt and kicked off the side of the arena wall to get some height so I could see while using a feather fall potion. “Blink.” I teleported over the center of the arena and tossed out another round of smoke bombs. “Vomitatis.” I rained down poison onto the people in the arena.

There were screams and shouts. “In the air! In the air!” Arrows and skills were shot into the air, but the cool down on Blink had worn off by time they realized. I teleported back down to the ground in the middle of a team of healers that was trying to fix what I had done to the various fighters.

“Vomitatis,” I poisoned the healers that had been brought along while throwing out more smoke bombs. I ran into the smoke clouds and threw out more decoy dolls. They almost had me, but all my advantages were too much. What damage I did take was limited due to the absolute level difference and my Luck making critical hits impossible.

With no way to heal themselves enough to counter my poison, one by one, the other competitors died in the arena as the smoke dissipated. It was a simple matter to Blink over to a person and poison them after that. People tried to resist, but Blink and legendary poisons were just too strong a combination.

Seven minutes after the Brawl Tournament started, I was the only person left alive in the arena. The crowd had gone wild with my second tournament victory in a row. I had also managed to win another 1,120 platinum. I had spent about half of that on consumables, but that just meant I had earned another 600 platinum just from the entrance fees. The betting had been off the charts, and I had Henry bet quite a bit on my victory with money, since I had stayed in the arena.

People loved a winner, and I was pleased to see most people were wearing my new limited edition merchandise in the arena stands. That was even more money going into my pocket, since I had special merchandise created just for this event.

Winner! Standard 1v1: 640-0 Champion 1v1: 72-0 Tournament: 3-0
Please go to the center of the arena.

It didn’t count as defeating Champions since it wasn’t a one on one, but I would take another tournament win. Unfortunately, no new title appeared. That was what I had been really hoping for. To get the next title in the champion title track. I also took the time to swamp out my skill shards while people were cheering for my victory. Time to make it truly iconic.

I went over to Slice which was still stuck in the ground in the middle of the arena. I reached out and grabbed the hilt with my hands. I then pulled it free and gave it a couple of swings, being careful not to embarrass myself. I had to replace all my current skills with Reduce Weight, but it was enough to pull the blade free and give it a few casual swings. I had just over 81% weight reduction and the stupid blade was still insanely heavy.

After swinging it around a couple of times, I put it away in my inventory and left the arena to collect my winnings. How much did I need to win to get another title? Three tournament wins and that many Champion and regular matches won should be more than enough. QAI was being stingy.