He stomped his foot on the ground and shot out toward Elk swinging his spear.Elk was too slow to react but the seven shadows came to his side to stop the spear.
The lighting spear cut through the shadows and hit Elk from the side cracking his ribs sending him flying into a tree.He was hit so hard the momentum from the hit only stopped when he broke through four trees.
Bam!
Elk hit the fifth tree and spat out blood.Fog gathered around him and started to fix his injuries as he struggled to stand up.
'Fuck!That hurts.Who the hell is this bastard.This is really bad for me,I haven't even awoken by ability yet.The only thing I can do is try to imitate the abilities of those whose experience I took.'
Elk gathered the dark fog infront of him and spiraled into five small oval orbs and shot them out like bullets.
The man swung his spear at the bullets dissipating them one by one.As he was about to change he noticed one of the shadows appeared to the left behind him and sent put a wave of fog at him with an oppressive force.He jumped upward to dodge and landed on a branch of a tree far away.The dark wave hit where he stood and rolled to a tree knocking it over while it withered away.
During this fight Elk discovered he can communicate with the shadows mentally and give them commands.Although the shadows have their own minds they still listen to Elk in battle to avoid conflict in their movements.
"What an interesting ability you have.I can sense you have not awoken your ability yet and are only crudely imitating others abilities. Although you are not the first to do it,few use this method because it is inefficient compared to an awakened ability."
He suddenly propped up the spear and threw it at Elk with an astonishing force.It arrived infront of Elk before he or his shadows could even react and stopped infront of his forehead with the tip inserted into his skin with drops of blood flowing down.
"The difference between imitated abilities and awakened abilities is control,the most fundamental thing you should understand as and awakened."
Sweat ran down Elk's face as the man explained this to him with indifference and waved his hand as the spear flew back to him.
"Now then enough of these games,I told you I will show you the difference between an Ability tier and an Armament tier."
He suddenly held his spear infront of him and it began to vibrate like it came to life it released a domineering might as runes carved over 30% of the spear.
"Armament tiers have awoken their own innate weapon,although not always a weapon most use it to imbue their abilities that's why it's called weapon.It enhances the ability and at the peak evolves it,although I am far away from that."
He pulled his spear back and looked at Elk with a serious expression as energy gathered at the tip of his spear.The energy flowed through the spear into the runes and imbued with pure destructive thunder energy.
"Combat art - Thunder spear - Thunder lariat!"
The oppressive might of the spear caused Elk to stagnate and unable to move.As the man thrust his spear forward energy shot out at Elk destroying the surrounding trees and ground and arrived infront of Elk in a Thunder clap.
'I'm fucked!'
Bzzzt Bam!
It slammed into Elk pushing him backwards and kept moving.As it pushed Elk it destroyed trees and even a unlucky participant who came to watch from the side was hit effectively killing him without him even having time to put up a resistance.
Elk slammed into a mountain not far away and was inserted into it.The lighting energy wreaked havoc through his body destroying his cells faster than they can regenerate.
The seven shadows surrounded him into a cocoon trying to heal him and was only able to stop the lighting energy when his left arm and under body was destroyed and started to to heal him,albeit slower than before.
Elk was knocked out cold and was unable to move.The man walked out of the forest and came to the mountain and focused on Elk's position while ignoring the dead participant.
"Oh that's surprising,you are still alive.I guess Bib and James were right, you are going to be needed."
Then a loud horn sounded through the entire forest.
Hong!
"Three hours have passed and the game is over.There are 12 participants left and two shall be eliminated.All participants return to the exit. I repeat,all participants return to the exit!"
A voice was then heard and all the remaining participants went back to where they entered the forest.
The man went up to Elk and ripped him out of the mountain and saw most of his body was already healed.The shadow cocoon had already dissipated.
"It seems by the time we return your body should be fully healed."
He threw Elk over his shoulder and walked towards the exit.
___________
"Alright since there are twelve of you left two of you will have to die however since one of the two is a newbie the warden has decided to give him a second chance.He and the other one will fight in a one on one battle to the death with other creatures for the wardens entertainment.The one who survives till the end gets to live."
The guard then looked at Elk lying unconscious on the ground and another man standing next to him.The other participants has already started to walk away.
The guard then took some ice cold water and splashed it over Elk effectively waking him up.
"What the..."
"Get up!Now you two follow me to the arena."
Elk was confused as he followed behind the guard and looked at the man beside him.
"Where are we going?"
He asked the man but was ignored.They walked until they reached what seemed to be a coliseum and entered through the gates.The coliseum was packed,with guards on one side and prisoners on the other separated by bars.
Opposite the two of them growls of beast were heard from a cage as they threatened to brake free.