Through the gate three creatures that had once been hedgehogs waddled into the the pit. They looked a lot like they had before the Dark Dawn, but there were two key changes. The first was their size while they had previously been small enough to hold in your hands they were now giant enough that you wouldn't be able to get your arms fully around one. Not that you would want to, as the second change was their spines, which were now even sharper and more numerous. Each individual spine had multiple spikes coming off it. But despite the danger they posed, the spines were beautiful like jagged flowers sprouting from the creature's back.
All these changes, however, had made walking difficult for the creatures with their stubby legs rendered ineffectual. But this was of no consequence as they had come up with a brand new way of moving around. Even before they had been capable of curling into a ball, but now after curling up they would roll, both to get around and to attack.
Although the creature couldn't be considered strong. It was about the worst situation to have to fight them.
Fighting in the tight arena Luke felt a bit like a bowling pin watching a bunch of balls about to roll down the alley towards him. With the size of the three creatures, if they were to all roll at him in a row, there was very little room for him to manoeuvre.
Luke looked up into the stands and gave Jasper a questioning expression, but he only shrugged and appeared to laugh. A clear sign that these were no normal round two opponents.
"Fine, I will win, even with a handicap." Luke quickly tried to formulate his plan. Once again he wanted to make sure the fight didn't last long. It was becoming clear they weren't going to make this tournament easy for him.
The thorn bulls, which they had come to be known as due to their tendency for charging, didn't let Luke think for too long. All three curled into balls with their spikes all facing outwards, before rolling towards Luke, picking up speed as they went along.
Luke only had two means of avoiding the creatures. Either he could go over them or around them, neither seemed like a good option. For the time being Luke decided to just run backwards and buy himself some time.
"Bing" Went the notification in his head.
"I don't have time to check now. Could we mute the notifications while I fight?"
"Done," Ava said seriously, which Luke really appreciated. But seconds later instead he started hearing a song, which his step-father had loved playing, in his head. He couldn't quite remember the artist's name but it sounded like Rob Linen, but both the lyrics and distraction were very unwelcome.
With not much choice in what to do Luke decided he would fully commit and attempt something he had always thought looked cool on the TV.
Turning around, Luke ran straight at the living tumbleweeds, which hurtled towards him. At the last moment, Luke stabbed his staff into the ground and pushed down on it. Using the metal rod he attempted to pole vault over the top.
As he did so Luke could hear large intakes of breath from the crowd. It was understandable, Luke had not gotten the amount of elevation he had hoped for. So he had to twist his body and flip over to avoid the longest of the spines. But he managed to avoid them by a hair, though he was not able to stick the landing and had to roll off the fall.
However, even with the poor landing, he was still in more control of his body than the thorn bulls. They were going so fast that they couldn't stop themselves anymore. They all crashed into the gate on Luke's side of the arena. Luke immediately dashed towards them. This was his opportunity. While the creatures were still disorientated Luke needed to strike their weakness.
Swinging his staff like a golf club, he hit one of the thorn bulls into the other two. When he did he got lucky. One of the creatures ended up on its back. Their unproportioned bodies meant from this position they could do nothing to right themselves
He didn't even need to deal the finishing blow to that one. It was out of the fight. That left the remaining two that were able to recover. However, when they lined up side by side and rolled at him, he had plenty of room to dodge to the side. It was a simple matter of sticking his staff out as they went by to use their own speed against them.
It wasn't difficult to finish the creatures off from there. They were only just a little stronger than Rancour Rats after all. If not for the unfortunate setting the fight wouldn't have been nearly as hard as it turned out to be. Whoever came up with this fight knew what they were doing and Luke had a funny feeling that he knew who that someone was.
They were currently smiling at him from the crowd as joyous cheers rang out from the stands. In almost every case they also waved their bet slips in celebration. It seemed he had fully got the crowd on his side. What they didn't realise was that he was only just getting started.
Back in the restroom, Luke took a well-deserved break, though as before he only had a few minutes. However, this time it was not just the attendant who came to visit him, following behind him was Jasper.
"This is fantastic. The pit is rocking. I haven't seen the crowd this animated in ages. The queue outside is so long they are having to put up barriers."
"I'm glad they are enjoying the show."
"People love to get in at the start to witness the debut of a rising star. However, there is a slight problem. None of the challengers want to fight you in the next round."
"Are you saying I'm going to get a bye?" Jasper only laughed in response.
"What would be the fun in that?"
"So what are you going to do?"
"Well, I'm sure that we can come to some sort of agreement. Before I do, I will say as organisers we have failed to provide the promised conditions for the competition. Therefore whether you choose to accept my offer to continue or not you will still be considered a winner of the rookie tournament and gain the benefits which that brings."
"Really, but couldn't I still face the creature rounds?" Luke felt that was too good to be true, also a small part of him was a little disappointed. He felt he had only just gotten started.
"Well, we take bets each round and are currently making a loss, since everyone is betting correctly on you. We would rather just cut our losses and payout now. That way we can offer a new bet while the crowd is still so hungry for more."
"I see so that's what this is really all about."
"Naturally, this is a business after all."
"So what do you want from me?"
"You are free to quit now and take your full winnings. But we would like you to fight more special rounds. The first against a creature worthy of the sixth round and the second against an experienced fighter who has already beaten the rookie tournament."
Luke could see why this man had his job in the arena. He had quickly managed to calmly change a bad situation into an opportunity. Luke was confident the creature would be a lot stronger than a sixth round one normally would be. Jasper would make sure that Luke was no longer guaranteed to win. And if Luke did win, he was certain they would pick a fighter that he had no chance against for the second round.
However, from how Jasper was coming up with all of this himself it appeared he was definitely in a leadership position. When they first met he should have had reduced likability towards Luke, yet it hadn't appeared that way. Luke found it very strange.
"Do I get anything if I stay?" Even with the odds stacked against him Luke was still interested, win or lose as long as he survived he could potentially earn some achievements.
"Yes, just for fighting we will give you 50,000 tickets. For beating the first round, you will get 50,000 more. But most special of all, If you beat the second you can ask one thing of the conductor."
"What? The Conductor as in the leader of this place. Can you really give that away, does the Conductor know about this deal?"
"No they don't, but I promise I can offer it and they will fulfil the request."
"Seriously. Isn't that too large a prize? Are you sure?"
"Oh don't worry I am afraid you wouldn't beat the second round."
"How can you be so certain?"
Jasper broke out his massive grin "Because you would be fighting me."