Chapter 57 - Showdown

It was as though there was a blue light pulsating within the goblin and Titus knew that it meant the creature was using his Mana. The understanding that had simply come to Titus was like nothing he'd ever experienced before – like it was a memory or something he'd always known but had been locked away until that very moment.

The blue light within the goblin had a central intensity that was almost white like the core of a star, and surrounding it were coronas of dark blue, fading out into lighter shades. It was like looking at a tiny nebula contained within one small creature. What was more, Titus knew that the Mana within the creature was falling with each passing second.

It stood to reason that the creature was probably bound by its own set of rules, having to choose between levelling up either Strength, Speed, Defence, or the ability to cast spells. Titus knew that as it was for the Contestants it was most likely for the monsters too: as one category grew, others were left behind.

The goblin was fast, so fast in fact that Titus didn't know who would be faster between it and Petra. But that meant that if it did indeed level like the Contestants did, then it must've been focused on that particular stat, at least until it had decided to use this strange spell that had Jordan so wound up.

It actually looked a lot like Jordan's Taunt ability, though it clearly had a Mana cost instead of Stamina and lasted much, much longer.

All these realisations that had seemingly come to Titus all at once just added up to one thing, and Titus shouted it down into the pit.

"It's running out of Mana! Just keep going and you'll be out of there in no time!"

He knew that Jordan most probably wouldn't respond to his shout but it made him feel better, and he thought Petra would like to hear the assessment too.

Jordan predictably didn't alter his charge, again swiping out at the goblin once he got close, but once again the goblin leapt out of the way. This time, it decided to stab out with its own little knife as it disappeared from the Defender's reach. Jordan's health fell by another two points, and it was clear that in a minute or two he was going to fall into his last quarter.

Titus hadn't ever seen Jordan in this much trouble before. Well, perhaps when they fought off the Spectral Harbinger though that wasn't strictly a fight; it was more of an ambush and a rushed attempt at surviving long enough to get someone else involved.

But this gave Titus a bad feeling; as they increased their levels, the monsters they fought would grow not only stronger but also better at fighting and with abilities they simply couldn't prepare for. Up until now, they could win their fights by being stronger or faster or poisonous, but this tiny little creature was demonstrating to them all that one well-used ability and a little bit of intelligence could undo them all.

Titus watched as the central glow of the Mana within the goblin flickered and faded again. He couldn't yet put a number on what was left in the creature's pool, but he had the impression that it was on the cusp of extinguishing itself altogether. What was worrying though, was that looking at Jordan's health and combined with the defence boost provided by his plate armour, Titus knew that if it were he or Petra out there, then each of them would've already been dead.

Jordan looked more enraged than ever, having already missed attempts on the creature more than a dozen times. It was like only anger and frustration were fuelling him and they were blocking out any and all logic that the boy usually had when holding an axe and shield.

The Defender threw his arm up in the air and roared. It was a primal, guttural roar that Titus hadn't heard from his friend before and it sent a chill down his spine. It was like this was the finale, the crescendo that the fight had been building to, and Titus felt his legs turn cold.

"Just hold on!" Titus shouted again, then turned to Petra. "The goblin's almost out of Mana. If Jordan just holds on for one more minute, then he'll be OK, I know it."

"What do you mean it's almost out of Mana? How could you possibly…"

Crash.

Jordan had fallen for the same trick again and again, and the goblin had sensed the oncoming end of its Mana pool and decided to do what it could to end this now. This crash seemed to have been louder than any of the others and when Titus looked down at his friend, he could see that Jordan was in a bad way. Crumpled against the wall with his axe discarded, though at least he still held his shield, Jordan had one hand on his head, and blood had coated his face.

What was worse was the fact that he now just had the five remaining health points. If something didn't change and fast, Titus and Petra were going to be the only witnesses to the downfall of their very good friend.

But then something did change.

The glowing ball of blue Mana that resided within the goblin flickered and then disappeared altogether. The spell that had been affecting Jordan dissipated but even then, Titus could see that his friend was in no fit state to continue.

Jordan was struggling to bring himself back up to his feet, and if he didn't manage it, he wasn't going to come out of this alive.

"Get up!" Titus shouted.

"Get up, you great idiot!" Petra offered.

Something must've resonated with Jordan though - whichever order it'd been - because he raised his gaze up to his two friends. They could see just how bloodied he was as he stared up at them, and he looked like he was done. He offered them a half-smile before lowering his head wearily again to find his opponent standing right in the centre of the pit.

The goblin knew that all it really had to do was land a solid blow on the almost defeated Defender, and that would be the fight done with. It also knew that if Jordan got a good hold of it, even exhausted and broken, that would also mean the end of the fight. But still, the goblin was mostly unharmed and was very much faster than Jordan could ever hope to be, even if he hadn't been wearing his plate armour.

It was a thought that apparently occurred to Jordan too, because he unclipped his plate cuirass and let it fall to the ground with a clang. He would be faster without it for sure and it wouldn't do much for him now anyway, not with this being the last charge of the battle.

Jordan looked unsteady on his feet and he was covered in blood and sweat, but to his credit, he didn't let his gaze fall from the goblin for even a second as he forced one foot in front of the other, and then again and again. His acceleration was slow but constant, and after a handful of steps, Jordan resembled an unstoppable boulder, rolling down a hill.

The goblin did not move.

"You think it's going to jump out of the way again?" Titus asked.

"Absolutely," Petra said under her breath. "But if Jordan can grab it somehow, he'll be OK."

Her words didn't sound sincere; it was as if she didn't even believe them herself. It made Titus tense up. He wished he could do something to help, but he knew it was entirely against the rules. He wouldn't do anything to jeopardise the bigger picture; he would just have to watch and hope with everything he had that Jordan was going to be OK.

Jordan reached the goblin a moment later and to the surprise of absolutely no one, the creature crouched down and burst into the air a moment before the Defender could take him out.

Titus groaned internally as he realised what that meant for his friend.

Crash.

Titus closed his eyes and his head dropped, but feeling Petra's fingers digging into his shoulder, he looked back up to see what had gotten her so excited.

Jordan now stood in the centre of the pit, his breaths ragged and laboured, and the goblin was slumped against the far wall with its back flat against it and black blood running from its nose.

Jordan then exhaled once more and returned to his charge across the pit straight towards the unconscious goblin.

"He got it with a Shield Bash!" Petra almost squealed. "It almost got away, but once it was in the air, he hit it! Did you see?"

Titus shook his head in disbelief. "I knew he'd have something up his sleeve!"

The pair then watched as Jordan crossed the pit at half-speed and rammed the edge of his shield into the goblin's neck.

Blood sprayed up from the goblin's body as it slumped down flat on the ground, its head still sitting neatly atop Jordan's shield. He hadn't needed his axe to end this fight, but if the goblin had had a little more Mana, or Jordan a little less health, then the result could've easily been reversed.

"Yes!" Titus couldn't help but exclaim, and as he did so, Jordan collapsed back onto the ground behind him.

Both Titus and Petra ran down the stone steps into the pit to rush towards Jordan. They knew now that the fight was over and that they were free to step onto the sands without facing punishment by the God of Balance, and a moment later, they were on either side of their friend and helping him back up to his feet.

"That was something else," Titus said as soon as he was sure Jordan had his eyes open and could stand on his own two feet.

Then Petra couldn't help herself and burst into fits of laughter.

"Did you see when he tried to take its hand and lead it back home? Talk about a classic lummox move!"

Jordan gave Petra a sideways glance, but it was obvious he wasn't quite able to give a good response yet. In the end, he just started walking towards his discarded plate armour with one arm around each of Titus and Petra.

"Seriously though that was a close call," Titus said. "That thing almost had you."

Jordan managed a silent nod as Petra picked up the cuirass, and the three ascended the steps from the pit. When they reached the top, Jordan sat back down on the ground and looked up at his two friends.

"I… I don't know what happened," he said, sounding very much like he wasn't entirely there. "I… I just saw red and I couldn't help myself from charging at the thing. I couldn't think straight. I… I couldn't do anything."

"It's alright," Titus said. "We know."

Jordan looked up at Titus with a confused expression on his face, to which Petra responded in his stead.

"It seems our resident superhero has learnt how his latest ability works. And passive it is. I'm not really sure how it's helpful to see Mana being spent though, but yeah, he said he could see the goblin running out near the end there."

Titus then spent a moment wiping the confused expression off Jordan's face by explaining exactly what had happened to him, what he saw, and how it felt. The end result though, wasn't Jordan slapping him on the back for a job well done, but rather him asking Titus what the hell any of what he just said meant.

"That's not like anything I've ever heard of. But I guess if it was something someone got, you'd see why they'd want to keep it secret… do you see what this means?"

Titus just stared blankly at Jordan. He was with Petra in having no idea how this new revelation was going to be at all helpful to him.

After a short pause where it was obvious Jordan wasn't going to get a response, he answered his own question.

"You can see when someone's Mana is running out, or has run out!"

Titus nodded slowly. "Yeah… that's what I was saying…"

"No, you don't get it!" Jordan said. "If you're pinned down by a creature throwing fireballs at you, you can just wait until you know it can't attack you anymore, and you'll know you're safe!"

"That's what it's good for!" Petra announced, snapping her fingers.

Jordan nodded enthusiastically. "And even when we're working as a team out there in the arena, you don't need us shouting out to tell you we're spent; you can just see it! There are so many situations where this is going to come in useful!"

It seemed like the excitement had caused Jordan to forget his injuries, or he was healing faster than before. Whichever it was, he was still coated in his own – but now dry – blood.

"Well, I'm sure we're going to find out pretty soon because I think it's about time we arranged another arena fight, isn't it?" Titus said. It was a clever ruse on his part because in that moment, he would've done anything to avoid heading down into the pit himself. He could already see how the difficulty – and therefore the danger – was ramping up faster than they could cope with for now.

Titus knew that what they needed was to stick together as a team, and maybe buy some new equipment when the opportunity arose.

Then they'd be ready.