"U…unbelievable! Incredible!" Donatella yelled into her mic. "Ath3na has just done the impossible!"
Down in the sands of the arena, Maestro held Ath3na's hand up even as blood dripped from the nasty cut above her right eye.
"Ladies and gentlemen," he called to the audience, "The amazing Ath3na~~a!"
The roar of the crowd was deafening, and it would be much, much later until they would stop singing her praises.
A bandaged up Lyghtning returned to the Ath3na at the head of the hobgoblin medics.
"You were bloody brilliant!" Lyghtning said as she raised her hand for a high-five.
Ath3na slapped her hand and grinned, blood staining her otherwise perfectly white teeth, "There's still one more round, you know…"
In the stands, whispers of Ath3na's accomplishment flooded the audience.
"She really is a goddess," someone yelled.
"I…incredible," another whispered.
"I'm a wraith warrior too… do you think I'll get that good?" a third person asked his friend who was kind enough to reply with, "Nope… not in a million years…"
Eventually, Donatella ended the revelry with the announcement of, "Ath3na conquers the dark prison! She rockets to first place with fifty points!"
The cheers only got louder.
---
After a short ten minute recess where the tournament officials discussed what to do with the remaining thirty four challengers — which the audience interpreted as a short cut-scene the devs whipped up so they could add an alternate program that would solve the issue — the challengers who had yet to have their turn in the prison were invited to return to the sands.
"What's going on?" Wunderkid asked. "How will we earn points now?"
"Did she really have to defeat all fifty?" the morphling, Iceheart, added. "Seems like showboating to me…"
"True that," a bright-eyed teen with short cropped, glowing white hair chuckled.
"Shut up, Skeleteen," Thorminator growled.
"Ahem," Maestro cleared his throat to stop the bickering. "As I was saying, we can't restock the prison any more but everyone here still needs to get a rank so we can select the final sixteen challengers who will move on to the third stage of the challenger's cup."
Maestro glanced at the empty patch of space beside him and cleared his throat again, and as if in response, there came the sound of fingers snapping.
In a puff of white smoke, a bald and well-built humanoid figure made entirely of bronze appeared on Maestro's other side. It had its arms bent with fists resting on its hips in that easily recognizable superhero pose.
"This is One-punch Mannequin, or OPM for short, and it's his job to assess who gets the remaining ten spots for the third stage," Maestro explained.
"Um," Thorminator raised his clawed hand to get Maestro's attention. "How exactly will he do that?"
"You each get to hit him once" Maestro raised a finger for emphasis. "It's up to you how you do it but all attacks, from physical ones, magic ones, and even debilitating ones will work as OPM will take your hits and translate it into a numerical equivalent that everyone will be able to see on the screens."
An armored glove came up. It belonged to a tall skull-faced man in plate armor.
"If it's just comparing our battle power then aren't healers like me at a disadvantage?" he asked in a high-pitched voice that didn't quite match his appearance.
"You can heal him, Oh!siris, and it'll be interpreted in the same way an attack would be," Maestro assured him. "It's a given that a healer is needed for raids too so we've taken this into account when setting up this alternative game."
Maestro patted One-punch Mannequin on the shoulder, and as he did this, the Mannequin came to life and resumed a boxer's stance.
"Oh, yeah, you're allowed to hit him once but he can dodge or block the attack too," Maestro explained. "So if your move fails then you automatically fail."
One-punch Mannequin opened its right fist and waved the challengers forward with his fingers. This caused the players to exchange nervous looks with each other.
"Wait, wait… so we have to do this while the other six automatically pass?" he whined.
Maestro scowled. It was a rare sight as he'd always shown a smile when dealing with players.
"All six challengers proved their strength in the prison," Maestro answered. "Can any of you deny this fact?"
Although Don Coyote turned to look at his fellow challengers for support, none came. So he was forced to back off, but not without glaring at Ath3na who was standing by the gate to the hypogeum along with the other five who'd come up to watch the next game.
"Alright, you'll go in turns based on the previous order," Maestro said as he took a step back. "That means Iceheart's up first."
"Fine, I'm always up for a challenge," she said with a sidelong glare at Ath3na.
Iceheart walked over to within six feet of OPM, causing the doll to resume its battle stance.
"I like your style, sugar," she said, and then she yelled, "Riptide!"
Her entire form swelled to the size of a tidal wave before it shattered down on OPM. Her body reformed once more behind OPM, and she had her hands raised high and yelling excitedly back at the audience who were cheering her on.
Iceheart's portrait appeared on the right side of the screen, and her score was displayed on the left, [550].
Scattered clapping ensued as no one was sure if that was a high enough number that was worthy of their praise.
"Yeah, that's definitely strong… the equivalent of a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher," Maestro explained.
The clapping got much, much louder afterward.
Up next was Sirius Blue, a Dusk Knight like Don Coyote who the audience seemed to find more likable than his fellow knight.
"Oh, sword of twilight, let me feast on my enemy's strength," he said as he raised his longsword high. "Sanguine Blade!"
Red spikes exploded out of OPM's entire body and converted itself into essence that were absorbed into Sirius Blue's sword.
Afterward, his score appeared on the screens, [390].
Annabelle's Dolly, an Eldritch Sorceress, summoned a pillar of black fire down on OPM which the doll tried but failed to dodge as it had such a wide range. Her score was [680].
Thorminator's turn came next, and he fired off a powerful fire spell, [Scorch], that was so hot it blackened the ground underneath OPM even more.
His score of [650] caused him to blush while his fans, all of them Draconic Magicians like him, cheered him heartily.
Don Coyote stepped up once his name was called, and with a flourish of his sword, he pointed its tip at OPM and yelled in as pompous a voice as one can imagine, "Piercing Darkness!"
Energy that was as black as a raven's feathers wrapped around his sword, and then extended outward to pierce OPM's heart.
[800] was his final score, the highest one yet, although he didn't seem satisfied with it at all. He ignored the cheers of the crowd, and after sending Ath3na a steely-eyed glare he returned to the back of the line of challengers waiting their turn and sulked.
Bulldog Alfie, the only Radiant Battlemage among the challengers, created a cube formed entirely of light between his hands. As this [Light Box] touched OPM, it expanded and engulfed the doll. A score of [900] appeared on the screen before Bulldog Alfie released his spell.
"Hell yeah!" he roared to the excited crowd.
Wunderkid strummed a beat with his lute, and his lullaby lulled OPM into a deep sleep that it would not wake from until Wunderkid finished the final note. His score was [600] which was quite high for an ability that didn't cause damage.
Ser Galevant, a black-eyed human with glowing markings appearing all over his extremely pale skin was the first of the challengers to miss his attack. OPM dodged the spectral weapon he'd conjured to land on its head. Perhaps the fact that the weapon was shaped like a giant glowing penis might have been a factor in why it was so unwieldy.
Despite his failure, his artistic talent earned him a rousing applause from the audience which he accepted with a bow.
Wundergurl's performance, unlike her partner's, was a song whose [Good Vibrations] caused OPM to wobble on its feet and then fall on its knees.
As her score of [510] appeared on the screen, Donatella asked Wundergurl what kind of debilitating effect she caused OPM.
"I made him dizzy," she laughed.
Nikku, a water-type Draconic Magician, was the second challenger to fail. She'd opted for a similar spell as Wunderkid that should have caused OPM to fall into sleep, but her spell failed because OPM had apparently earned an immunity to sleep spells.
"Yes, I forgot to mention that he's a training doll that learns resistances," Maestro chuckled while sound completely unapologetic that he'd kept that info secret. "So I'd avoid more fire spells if I were you."
Oh!siris, a Death Cleric, cast [Healing Orb] on OPM, a skill which continually healed the doll for a short period of time. This earned him a [1,020] score on the screens.
"That's right," he yelled at the audience. "Healers are awesome too!" And the audience praised him for it.
Both Dragon Joe and Liberty Belle were the only two challengers who opted to use physical attacks on OPM. To everyone's surprise, their scores were pretty high. Dragon Joe, a Ravager, hacked at OPM's chest with his battle ax and earned himself [740]. Liberty Belle, another Ghoul Paladin, slammed her war hammer into the side of OPM's metallic face and earned herself [700] points.
Those close combat experts in the audience were very enthusiastic when it came time to applaud the two warriors.
The game continued on until all the players were finished. A large number of challengers failed to get a score because OPM was quite adept at dodging their attacks but of those who succeeded, their ten names appeared on the screens floating in the air alongside the six that were already listed down.
[ 1st – Ath3na, 2nd – Argonaut, 3rd – Lyghtning, 4th – Narukami, 5th – Bully the Kid, 6th – Cyborg Ninja, 7th – Oh!siris, 8th – Bulldog Alfie, 9th – Don Coyote, 10th – Dragon Joe, 11th – Liberty Belle, 12th – Annabelle's Dolly, 13th – Thorminator, 14th – Wunderkid, 15th – Iceheart, 16th – Wundergurl]
"Here are our final sixteen who will battle it out for the right to be one of the chosen ten!" Donatella announced.
The audience cheered. The sixteen challengers cheered. Even those who failed to get into the final stage cheered. And while this electrified atmosphere filled the air, the sands of the arena began to shake. Then it split apart at the very center to reveal a stage rising slowly out of the earth. It was a rectangular stage made entirely of black obsidian with a length that spanned half the arena floor.
Maestro, trainer of Heroes climbed up this stage, and with all the enthusiam of a child unwrapping his Christmas gift, he proclaimed, "It's time for the final round!"