[The First Match Begins.]
[Red Side: Wizard]
[Blue Side: Tamer]
[Before the match starts, please state your bets on who and the amount; verbal confirmation will suffice. Players in the arena also have the right to bet on themselves, but betting on their opponents is prohibited.]
So, we can bet on ourselves but not on our opponent. I guess betting on the opponent and then losing on purpose would be an easy way to make quick money, but it seems they've thought of that.
"I better not place a bet for now. This is my first time seeing a tamer class; it must be quite rare, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's stronger. A good example would be me having a special class but lacking offensive abilities."
[Money Placed on Red Side: 780,938]
[Money Placed on Blue Side: 1,902,319]
The blue side has an obvious betting advantage. Most people must be betting on it because of its rarity. Considering there are people like me who didn't place a bet, I can assume there's quite a large crowd in this arena.
[The Match Begins…]
I can see everything happening in the arena. The person on the right looks like the wizard, so the one on the left must be from the tamer class.
Wizard: "A tamer, huh? I've never heard of such a class. You think you can beat me just because you have a rare class? I've bet all my money on myself, so when I win, I'll double it."
Tamer: "Hey, are you going to stop talking and start attacking?"
Wizard: "You think you can mock me, you fool? [Fireball] [Rapid Attack]! This is a combined spell! Do you know how hard I worked to acquire this skill?"
The wizard created a ring of fireballs and started launching them rapidly. It looked like he was attacking with a minigun.
Tamer: [Summon: Troll].
The tamer placed four trolls in front and let them take the brunt of the fireballs. Despite being hit, the trolls were quickly regenerating.
Tamer: "You seem strong and hardworking, but do you know what I was doing while you were cooped up in a warm room surrounded by four walls reading magic books? I was out all day trying to tame these damned creatures. Who do you think worked harder?"
So, this is the tamer's skill? Considering he said this in front of thousands, he must be quite confident. Revealing his class and abilities like this would be a big disadvantage for someone like me.
Wizard: "Get lost! [Fireball] [Rapid Attack] [Fireball] [Rapid Attack] [Fireball] [Rapid Attack]!"
The wizard launched a barrage of the same spells in rapid succession at his opponent. However, the trolls kept defending the tamer, even at the cost of their lives.
Tamer: "Let's finish this. See what a real fire spell looks like. [Summon: Phoenix]."
A gigantic bird made of flames appeared and soared into the sky. Then, it spun like a drill, speeding towards the wizard. The flames it left behind made it look like a shooting star. It tore through the wizard, disintegrating him, and then returned to perch beside the tamer.
Tamer: "Good job, Pho!"
The tamer was petting the flaming bird's head, and it seemed pleased. These creatures appeared very loyal to their master.
[Winner: Blue Side.]
[Betting results will be distributed. The next match starts in 1 minute.]
The wizard's dead body and the blood disappeared in a flash of light, presumably transported out of the arena. Similarly, the tamer also vanished in a bright light, likely teleported back to his room.
After a minute, the next match started. This time it was between a tank class and an archer. A few more matches went on, but I didn't place any bets. Was this wise? Surely better than randomly betting on matches. The matches continued, and finally, it was my turn.
[You will be transported to the arena in 1 minute. Would you like to place a bet on yourself?]
This seems like the most sensible match to bet on. In all the matches so far, one person has died. Assuming my opponent will attack me with the intent to kill isn't irrational. So, I should attack with the same intent or force them to surrender.
"I'll bet 1,000 gold on myself."
These must be the same currency I used to buy books earlier. So, can we buy something after this mission too? It would be good to save as much money as possible.
[Red Side: Strategist]
[Blue Side: Necromancer]
Necromancer: "It seems we both have unique classes. So, you're a strategist, huh? That sounds interesting."
"Your class looks quite interesting too. Do you, by any chance, revive the dead?"
Necromancer: "Hahaha, I wonder if you can laugh like this when you're dead. If you give me a bit of a challenge, maybe I'll make you one of my soldiers."
"Can you resurrect yourself when you die? I guess we will find out the answer today."
[Red Side: 2000]
[Blue Side: 2091251]
[Bets are Placed, Let the Battle Begin]
2000? When they saw my class, they must have realized it was unrelated to combat, but was the bet really this low? It seems like people are really underestimating me, anyway, it would be good for me to win this match for the person or people who bet 2000 gold on me.
[As the betting difference is more than ninety percent, if the Red side wins, the people who bet on the Red side will be rewarded with 10 times the gold instead of 2 times. However, if the Red side loses, the bettors will lose 10 times the gold instead of 2 times.]
What is this now? I had already risked all my money by accepting death, but if the person who bet on me doesn't have any reserve money, they will probably die along with me. I guess I should win this match and save my bettors. Also, it seems like the system is trying to encourage people to make more unbalanced bets and lose their money, leading them to death.
I don't know if there's a god of gambling somewhere, but today I will be the God of Gambling and become insanely rich.
Necromancer: "I think these low-level skeletons should be enough for you. [Rise: Skeleton Warriors]"
More than a hundred skeleton warriors stood before me, they seemed weak enough to defeat easily, but he must know that too. He must be planning to wear down my durability with this attack and then strike with a heavier one later.
Necromancer: "Skeleton warriors, attack!"
[Aura Use First Technique: Aura Release]
The skeletons rushing towards me suddenly stopped, my massive aura seemed to be working.
Necromancer: "What? Why are you stopping? Attack!"
"It seems like your skeletons haven't drunk enough milk."
I increased my Aura a bit more, and the skeletons in front of me started to retreat. Those not familiar with aura use can't see or feel the aura, but they can sense the bloodthirst and fear. He probably senses something strange leaking from me but doesn't get affected by such a small amount of aura as he's strong, but I can't say the same for the weak skeleton warriors.
"My power even scares the dead, you'll be joining them soon, so you might as well get used to it."
Necromancer: "This is the first time my skeletons have disobeyed me, I admit you're a bit strong. I'll make sure to add you to my army of the dead!"
The Necromancer withdrew his skeletons, he could make summons quickly, so mindlessly approaching him would be dangerous. My long-distance attacks are limited and considering thousands of people are watching me right now, it wouldn't be a good idea to show all my powers.
Necromancer: "Dullahan, RISE!"
A headless man and his headless horse stood before me, Dullahan was a character from a horror story told to little children.
"Don't you have a more cliché soldier? Like a skeleton dragon or something?"
Necromancer: "Your jokes end here! Dullahan, attack!"
[Aura Use Second Technique: Compression.]
Dullahan was coming towards me, I could try scaring him off by releasing more aura, but instead of wasting my durability, I compressed a large amount of aura to make myself temporarily invulnerable to attacks so that I could perform powerful attacks without worrying about damage.
Dullahan ran towards me and swung his sword. He was holding his sword with his right hand because he was holding his head with his left. Whenever I went to his right side, he would move to my left with his horse. After a few more tests, I realized that his vision was limited to where his head was looking. I kept dodging his attacks, he was too fast and powerful to find an opening, so I decided to take one of his attacks with my body. Trusting the hard work I had done, I compressed my aura even more and, hoping it would protect me, I took the sword strike with my chest. As the sword grazed my chest, I moved to the side where he was holding his sword and split his body in half with my sword. Luckily, the aura wrapped around my body protected me from the sword strike. The Dullahan's body I had split in half fell to the ground, and his horse was left ownerless. He was still holding his head tightly even as he fell, so I lunged towards his head, but his horse blocked me, indicating it was about to charge at me by stamping its foot and started running towards me. I responded to its challenge and ran towards it too. As the distance between us closed and I came nose to nose, or rather nose to neck with it, I swung my sword with my right hand, and the horse moved to my left to escape, but it was actually a feint. With my left hand, which was not holding the sword, I touched the horse and used the fourth technique of Aura use, Transfer, to transfer all the aura I had compressed in my body to the horse and blew up the horse with an overload of aura.
Necromancer: "Damn it, what the hell is this? How can he defeat one of my strongest soldiers so easily?"
Does he think I defeated it easily? Didn't he see how many times I faced death while analyzing all this? Anyway, I don't care. Your time to die has come.
I ran towards the Dullahan's chest where the head was lying and thrust my sword into it. The Dullahan was dead and, like the other skeletons, vanished instantly. He probably could summon it again, but that would require a large amount of mana or there must be some kind of cooldown period; otherwise, he wouldn't have tried to wear down my durability with small skeleton soldiers at the beginning.
"It seems like it's your turn now."
Since he was hiding behind his soldiers and didn't take advantage of the two against one while I was fighting the Dullahan, he must be quite weak. His power must be in the soldiers he summons.
Necromancer: "You think it will be this easy? I haven't done my strongest attack yet!"
"Yes, yes, I'm sure that's the case."
I tried to close the distance between us quickly, but I realized he still had enough mana to make a summon, and sensing he was about to summon something big, I retreated.
"Please don't let it be a dragon, please don't let it be a dragon."
Necromancer: "SUMMON SKELETON DRAGON, RISE!"
"..."