My opponent looked like a human being, but didn't seem human. 'Hmmm... He doesn't feel like a Shade either. What is that guy exactly?' I thought. The guy walked over, and spoke "I heard you are quite strong. That freezing ability of yours, is also something to envy. I wonder how you got it". I replied to him quietly "What are you exactly?". He laughed, and said "A Shade". I shook my head, and said "No, you are not". He seemed surprised, and didn't talk anymore.
Instead, he just stared at me for a while. I could feel something going on, something was about to happen. "BOOOM!", "Swoosh!", strong gales started blowing, as if the guy was a centre of a hurricane. Even though the winds were very powerful, he just stood there without moving. I decided to attack first, even though I had no clue, what that skill was. I ran at him, but my speed seemed to be affected. I was too slow, nothing would make me go this slowly. 'Is this his Aura?' I thought.
Before I even got closer, he appeared next to me, and punched out. He was very strong, so strong that I flew backwards from just one punch. "Ugrh" I grunted, when I landed on the platform. 'What the hell is that guy exactly' I thought, and tried to pick myself up. My body felt heavy, as if couple of tonnes were pressing down on me. Suddenly, he said "You don't seem that strong. To think I had my hopes up". 'What the hell is going on?!' I screamed in my mind. He again appeared next to me, and punched. I couldn't even react, as my body flew from one side of the platform, to the other.
He always appeared next to me, punched me, then appeared at the location I was about to land. After a few punches, I couldn't pick myself up. He walked over, and said "How did you obtain that power? I know it's not a Formation, where did you get it from?". I replied "Go die... bastard". He didn't seem to like my reply, as the next words he spoke were "I will torture you a bit more then, until I get what I came for". He started punching me again.
"Haah….Haah...Haah", I had a hard time catching my breath. "So, are you going to tell me? I have a whole day, if you enjoy it so much, we can continue as long as you want". Then I noticed something. 'This is wrong. This is not real, it's an illusion!' I thought, and smiled. I knew who my opponent probably was. I said "I will tell you, but first, you answer my question". He laughed, and said "Sure, whatever you want". I asked "Are you Eterian?". His mood changes instantly, and he was no longer playful. 'So he is. Good, that means I can kill him without any issues' I thought, and said "This is an illusion". My mind no longer believed, what my eyes saw. The illusion dispersed, and everything went back to normal.
The guy panicked, and tried to run away from the stage, but I was faster. I grabbed him, and smashed his face into the platform. "ARGHH", he screamed. I didn't stop though, I grabbed him by his neck, and said "I already had the pleasure, to deal with one of your kind. For her luck, she escaped. You will not be so lucky", then tightened my grip. I broke his neck, and threw his corpse to the ground. As I was about to leave, I heard "You are quite interesting. We will meet in the future".
It was the voice of that Eterian. I looked at the place where his corpse was supposed to be, and noticed nothing there. There were no signs of fighting either. 'So, it was another illusion. No wonder people call them master manipulators... I will get you next time Eterian' I thought, and left the stage. I knew I won, because the Eterian left. If I notified others about the fact he was Eterian, probably all creatures in the Arena would chase after him. The announcer shouted "The Great Potarius is gone! Our warrior wins the battle by default!".
I sat down, and released a sigh. 'This was unexpected. These Eterians are dangerous. That woman back then, knew some things about illusions, but this guy is on a completely different level compared to her' I thought. The announcer soon screamed my next opponent's name. "The Dark Traveller, will face Gornak in the 9th round! Will he survive, and advance to the 10th round, or fall? We will find out soon!".
I stood up, and headed towards the platform. 'My only solution against this guy, is to freeze him to the point, where he can no longer move' I thought. Instead of a hard battle, I received another surprise. When we stood on the Battle Platform, facing each other, he suddenly said "I was here to test your strength. I already know about that power of yours, so there is no need for us to fight. My purpose in coming here, is accomplished. I shall give up, Graver sends his regards". He then left.
'I knew something seemed fishy. Graver must've done something, to attract all these strong opponents. I will demand an explanation later, for now, I have to take care of the last round' I thought. The announcer was even more surprised than me, and shouted "Another win by default? Is no one able to win against the Dark Traveller?". After a while of silence, he shouted again "Fear not ladies and gentlemen! There is the final challenger, and he is not going to give up so easily! Please welcome RAZOR!".
The crowd cheered, and Razor appeared from one of the entrances. I didn't even go down from the platform, and simply waited over there. When I heard the name Razor, I was not surprised either. I kind of expected, to meet him on the platform that day. 'My last opponent. Supposedly a cruel guy, who likes to chop the limbs of his enemies. Well, I already had that pleasure, and I don't intend to experience that again. I wonder if he had that pleasure?' I thought.
He was not a weak opponent, in any sense of that word. 'We will see how this goes' I thought, and waited for Razor to enter the platform. He seemed to like the attention, as he basked in the glory, when the crowd cheered for him. He finally stepped onto the platform, and said "That right hand of yours, I will take it as my souvenir". I already didn't like the guy, and said "Try".
He didn't waste any more time, and rushed at me with his saw like swords. His speed was on par, if not better than mine. I took out the bow, and started shooting. This didn't bring any results. He was able to deflect my arrows, with his swords. 'His sight is very good, maybe a bit worse than mine. This is going to be tough' I thought, and decided to fight in close combat. We got closer to each other, and he released his Aura. It felt crazy, with a hint of blood thirst, hidden in there as well.
I released my Domineering Aura too, while restricting it to 5 metres in radius. He was no noob either, and restricted his Aura as well. The first strike belonged to him, I had to evade, in order to punch him. With the first slash of his sword evaded, I tried punching, but then realised, another sword was coming at me. 'Shit, this guy is good in close combat. A lot better than me!' I thought, and evaded that sword as well.
I had to back up, and stay on the defence. He didn't allow me to get close to him, even for a moment. 'He is not stupid. He knows that I have this ice power, so he doesn't want me to get close' I thought. This situation required some trickery, therefore I immediately tried activating the Camouflage Formation. It took a while, but it finally managed to hide me completely.
The guy didn't panic at all, and just stood in one place. As I was about to attack him, he slashed towards my direction. I backed up, and repositioned myself. The Formation still worked, so I tried again. I tried couple of faints, but he seemed to be able to see me. With a final attempt, which he managed to block, my Formation stopped working.
He smiled and said "This shitty trickery, will not work on me", then ran at me in order to attack. 'Right, so the camouflage will not work' I thought, and evaded again. After a while of running like this, he finally decided it was enough, and merged his swords together. "Your arm will belong to me! HAHAHAH!" he shouted, while a buzzing sound came from his swords. He became even more crazy, and faster at the same time. I had a hard time evading him now, even though I used my Natural Path skill, to the fullest. Then, my boots decided, it was a very good time, to play a trick. The Boost Formation decided to just change my direction of running, and slid me towards my opponent. 'FUCK!'.
Before I could do anything, Razor slashed his sword at me. "VOOOM!", the sword slashed right through my coat and sliced open my chest again. I flew back from the impact, and landed on the platform. Blood gushed out from my wound. The damage was severe, thanks to those moving teeth. "ARGHHH!", I screamed with pain, when I landed. "Cough… Cough…", 'I think… I lost that one…' I thought to myself, after a fit of coughs.