FB: Chapter 33 – Hammer Crusher

The man was eight feet tall and built like a tank. I looked across the arena at Hammer Crusher, who had a massive war hammer with a chain on the hilt that he held with his off hand. The hammer was a classic smith’s hammer which was a giant rectangular block, just upsized a lot. He had put a lot of work creating a build that worked with his combat style perfectly.

Hammer Crusher’s two unique traits that pushed him into S level were his massive size and his combat intuition. The man was built for combat, both physically and mentally. For this fight, I had a double item bandolier across my chest making an X. Normally I wouldn’t use something like this, but Hammer Crusher was not an opponent to be treated with anything but the utmost seriousness.

We looked at each other across the arena. While people might like to call him a brute, he was super smart. Everything else he did, he was an average man, but in combat, he was a one man killing machine. “This is going to be annoying,” he said while looking at me. He had instantly worked out my strategy from a single glance. It was complete and utter bullshit in my opinion, but he was just that good. Some people were just born with innate talent.

“You could always just give up?” I asked nicely and he chuckled.

“The greatest joys in life are overcoming challenges one finds difficult or annoying,” he replied. The crowd was roaring in the background, but there was a maximum cap on their noise level inside the arena. That was so the Champions could talk before fighting. It wasn’t something that was done in the regular matches, since people wanted to hear the cheering and not trash talk each other. Also, the crowd loved listening to the trash talk between Champions since our voices were boosted for the crowd.

“Have you visited Murk Swamp? Now that is a challenge,” I said.

“Yes, to train for your skills. It is said you trained there for an entire year in that hell. You have my respect and condolences,” he said.

“Indeed. And I have heard that you refuse to fight in a team. Saying others only slow you down,” I replied back. Hammer Crusher gave me a head nod and brought up his weapon. Well I guess the time to trash talk was over. Champion battles lasted a total of 30 minutes with an aggression warning coming at the 25 minute mark. That was why neither of us were that concerned about aggression. Once you get to this level, you weren’t looking to cheese things in that way. It would be better to just bow your head and accept defeat instead of running away. The embarrassment was far worse than the loss.

Hammer Crusher threw out his hammer, grabbed the chain with his off hand and spun around. The hardest part of fighting him was going to be getting close enough without being turned into a smear on the ground. I raced forward.

He spun the chain around his body, while constantly turning. If I hadn’t seen his matches in my last life in person, I wouldn’t have had a single chance of dodging what was about to happen, as he pushed the combat physics of Exponential further than most people could dream of. I dodged to the left, doing a cartwheel across the sand to keep up my momentum.

There was a burst of air as the hammer went flying past where I had just been standing. The metal chain turned in my direction as I dove forwards. The chain went flying over my body, and I did a handspring up to keep moving without slowing down.

I had already closed in half the distance and aimed upwards, unleashing Murk Barf towards Hammer Crusher. He had already recovered his hammer by pulling back on the chain, incredibly quickly. The man turned and unleashed his hammer at an angle into the air, blasting apart the attack. He had managed to pull it back while I had recovered from dodging. He had that kind of combat intuition that couldn’t be easily taught. I was already stuffing an ass fruit into my mouth as I unleashed a second Murk Barf. The hammer plummeted towards me and my off hand whipped out a trump card that cost a platinum.

A force shield formed, blocking the hammer. It would block all physical attacks from weapons for one second. These were the kind of items that could swing a battle instantly and were why large battles would become money pits. The small orb in my hand broke apart, turning to dust as the consumable was used up. The hammer struck the barrier above my head with a resounding crack.

Hammer Crusher stepped out of the way of my second Murk Barf while retracting his hammer, but I followed up with a third Murk Barf as I pulled out another ass fruit from my item bandolier. The equipment slowed me down slightly and if I was hit, it would be bad, but I didn’t have another choice. My only chance of beating Hammer Crusher was overwhelming him with items and attacks.

He was hit with my poison, but not a chunk, and was already drinking an antidote, using the drinking motion to pull back his hammer to try and hit me in the back. I dodged to the side as the hammer almost touched me. Closing my eyes, I threw out a flash bang while eating my second ass fruit, and then quickly popping an antidote. The benefits of having two hands free while I could use my skill. There went another ten gold. I unleashed another poison attack, and this one was dead on target.

Hammer Crusher proved why he was an S level combatant by swiping his hammer through the air, to deflect the front portion of my Murk Barf while stepping to the side. That kind of move was complete and utter bullshit, but I knew he would be able to react to such a move. This was why he was an S class combatant. I leapt forward into the air.

For a guy this big, no one ever fought him at close range due to his size. For one brief moment, his immense combat intuition blue screened at a completely unexpected situation. I landed on his chest and pushed my head forward. I kissed him and unleashed Murk Barf directly into his mouth and throat. He tried to wrap his arms around me and crush me before he died with his passive strength boosting skill shards, but I was already letting go and dropping to the ground before he could grab me.

I dropped to the ground with my skill unleashing all over his face, blinding him. I quickly rolled away as he swung his hammer and smashed the ground where I had just been. Even with a mouth and throat full of Murk Barf, he didn’t pause in the slightest. I quickly scrambled a short distance away before getting up and turning around.

He used another antidote and he frowned after taking it. “How unpleasant. That skill is broken,” he replied. For someone to still be standing after getting a mouth full of Murk Barf was further proof he was an S level fighter. He also knew he was dead. There was nothing he could do with the chunks going into his throat. Once the antidote ran out, the poison would be reapplied, and he didn’t have the health to survive.

Hammer Crusher was the best at midrange combat while I was the best at close range combat. He could chase me and try to kill me, but since I had dodged his earlier attacks and he probably felt incredibly ill from getting that stuff in his mouth, he had accepted defeat gracefully.

“It was a good match,” I said politely. It had been a very good match. It was the kind of match I had loved to watch in the past.

“It was a good match. When we face each other in the Tournament of Champions, I will be much better prepared and defeat you Foxy Blight,” he replied with a touch of excitement and feral rumble. His fighting spirit didn’t diminish even with putrid waste coming out of his mouth. It only increased. I felt a shiver of fear go up my spine.

Winner! Standard 1v1: 100-0 Champion 1v1: 2-0
Please return to the platform to leave the arena.

We both returned to our respective platforms and left the arena to massive cheers with a large portion of the crowd chanting, “Kiss of Death!”

After collecting my winnings and setting up the new merchandise items, complete with miniature chain hammer, I made my way to my interview with the ENN hosts. I had charged them an appearance fee of one gold, for all interviews through this upcoming Tournament of Champions. I was the headline story in Exponential at the moment. It wasn’t that much money for me, but for the network it was quite a bit. Also, it was a bit of revenge for trying to ask me a got you type of question that was meant to embarrass me.

“Foxy Blight, congratulations on your most recent victory. This marks you as the clear favorite for the Tournament of Champions,” Fred said.

“Perhaps, but Hammer Crusher is incredibly skilled. I have no doubt I will have to work extra hard for our next fight,” I replied.

“It has been noted in the betting information that your level has shot up from 30 to 44 in just a short time period, how did you do it?” Rebecca asked.

“Knowledge and skill. The exact specifics have already been purchased from me, so I won’t be able to answer that question,” I replied.

“Anything you want to say to the other Champions?” Fred asked me.

“Yes. I look forward to crushing you all in the Tournament of Champions,” I replied. I was going to be changing things up when the time came to crush everyone who held the title of Champion, not just winning through the brackets.

I needed at least 10 wins against other Champions and to win the Tournament of Champions to get the next title in the chain, or at least that was one of my guesses. The problem was, there would only be 7 champions participating including myself. Since I was now ranked number one, that meant I would only have to win two matches to win the entire thing in a bracket format, which wasn’t my only goal. I needed those Champion wins.

There was a move that the rank one seed could do right before the Tournament of Champions started if they felt they wanted to dominate the entire competition. It had never done the first time around, but it was one of those interesting pieces of information that everyone talked about once it became common knowledge. The hope was that one time, someone would declare a Champion Gauntlet.

No one ever took such a risk my first time in Exponential, since there were no obvious rewards for doing so. People had shelled out hundreds of platinum to find out if there was an additional title for winning such an event, but there wasn’t. There was just bragging rights and slightly increased reputation among the NPCs.

My guess was that there was a higher title and fighting and beating a lot of Champions was a requirement. So, while it just made the entire Tournament of Champions harder to win, it actually simplified things by allowing me to fight every Champion who joined the tournament. Also, there was going to be a trick that most players weren’t prepared for. The Tournament of Champions was a major event that was even attended by and bet on by NPCs.

The real trick would be stacking as many levels and skills as possible in the next 10 days. I would be heading back to Murk Swamp it seemed. That was something I was not looking forward to.