Artia and the Throne Holder were watching Pebble in the arena from a private box in the audience. "What traits did you give our champion?" Artia probed.
"The necessary ones." The Throne Holder simply replied. "I gave him what he needs to get the job done, the rest is up to him."
"That answers nothing, as always from you." Artia shook her head, how was she supposed to work with such an enigmatic god?
"Reeki isn't asking questions, why can't you be more like him?" The Throne Holder gestured to the mountain god who was in the first row of the audience with his arms up in the air. He had a keg in each hand. "Or maybe find a happy middle ground," he sighed.
Artia ignored his comments, "I've never seen a human receive such a blow and not be phased. I feel that his life is in danger, but you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at him." Pebble was currently holding the dagger that was sticking out of his gut, the guitarist played a little sting as the dagger was pulled from its bloody baptism. Pebble raised a fist in the air, beckoning for the crowd's recognition which they provided without a moment's hesitation.
A golden light appeared on the wound and it healed immediately. "Looks like he's one of the Heroes that receives a Holy Light when they level up. Lucky little man." Artia smiled.
"Everything about this man screams, 'keep going.' It's by design," said the Throne Holder.
—
Back inside the arena, Pebble was intoxicated from the thrill of the fight and the audience's cheers. He looked at the blood soaked sand, glistening in the light from the radiant miniature suns beaming into the arena. A door appeared on the wall in front of him with a timer above it.
He apparently had twenty seconds to sort out his situation and go into the next room. He looked down at this gut and saw the wound was already sealed. His leg was also currently making some crazy popping sounds as it repaired the damage from the bat. "I don't know which one to thank, but thank god…"
Pebble's eyes began twitching as he accessed his menus once again. He quickly went to his skill tree and tried to see what skills unlocked after Rock Throw. It looked like it branched it to two possible nodes for him.
"How does that make sense?" Pebble muttered. He eyed the door and saw that it had eighteen seconds remaining, so he contemplated on what to do for a few seconds. He noticed that both skills had asterisks next to them. That could mean anything. His mind was racing as he knew he had to pick something, it was life or death right now.
Ultimately, he determined that he didn't want to risk any sort of potential drawbacks. The asterisks had done a successful job in scaring him off. He decided to go with one of the original five abilities that were more appropriate for his barbarian build.
After experiencing being immobilized in his first battle, Pebble recognized the importance of speed. He unlocked the Sprint skill.
"Double movement speed sounds insanely good!" Another big smile appeared on Pebbles face as he suddenly learned how to move incredibly fast. He was just about to give the ability a try when he noticed that there were seven seconds left on the timer above the door.
He went back into his menu and selected Stats for the first time.
He dumped all three points into constitution. This was life and death, he needed to make himself tankier ASAP. Back on Earth, when he leveled constitution on other games, it would make his health points increase and grant him resistances to diseases.
Pebble was starting to get a little irked by the lack of details in his system. It seemed like the texts it gave just led to more questions than answers.
Pebble worked as fast as he could. The door said three seconds left, so he activated his new sprint ability and ran as fast as he could right into the door.
The musicians didn't miss a beat, they ramped the music along with Pebbles actions. He shouldered the door, while running faster than he ever felt possible. The door shattered on impact, sending wooden splinters across the new room. Two giant birds as tall as horses, with beaks the size of beach balls were peppered with the splinters. They both started to bleed, but it didn't seem to be anywhere near enough.
They squawked in disapproval at the wracking ball of a man that stood before them. Pebble backed up against a wall made of glass, it was a VIP section of patrons that wanted to watch the fight up close. A little girl who looked to be eight years old was in the front row and Pebble could overhear what she was saying.
"Daddy, Daddy! Look! He's got big meaty arms! I hope Becky eats one of them arms! He has Two arms, if Becky ate one, he'd only have one arm!" Pebble couldn't see the child, but his mental image of her shattered.
Pebble had so many questions, but the first one on his mind right now was, 'What the hell is wrong with that little girl?' He looked at each bird and spoke out loud, "Which one of you is Becky?"
The birds looked at each other and looked back at Pebble, one of them tilted their head. "Okay, so you must be Becky!" Pebble pointed with his left hand and the other bird charged in. "Whoa, did I strike some sort of nerve?" He activated Sprint and dodged to his left as the bird's massive beak pecked the glass, causing it to reverberate. The drummer decided to throw in some extra kicks for the impact.
Pebble was now positioned for a counter attack, he tried to use Sprint and swing his axe at the same time, but it was an odd feeling. He completely mistimed the swing and ended up running chest first into the beast's wing. Becky squawked angrily and was now getting ready to pin Pebble in between the two of them.
"Becky, NO!" Pebble pointed again, but Becky couldn't care less. She turned at the last moment of her charge and lifted her leg, she was going to kick him. Pebble took the quickest of moments to appreciate the bird's massive leg muscles as it kicked him in the back and the other bird lifted its wing at the same time. The combination of the two attacks resulted in Pebble being launched high in the air.
His health bar dropped in half.
<18 HP>
Pebble had a moment of self reflection as he flew through the air. The world seemed to slow down, and honestly, it was pretty nice. He was peaceful in this moment, the only thing that stirred him out of his stupor was the sheer joy of a little girl's laugh. Pebble smiled, children are so innocent.
"Here it is Daddy! Becky gonna pecky!" Pebble felt his gut twist. Both birds were tracking him in the air, getting ready to snap at him the moment he fell low enough.
"No seriously, what's wrong with this child?" Pebble questioned as he did his best to flail his body into a position to land on both legs. He had a moment of clarity during his peaceful flight. He had a plan and it was going to work.
It had to work.
Pebble switched his axe into his left hand and feigned a falling chop attack. Both birds retreated in separate directions from where he was going to land, giving him exactly the space that he needed. He quickly put the axe behind his back and it disappeared. He then activated Rock Throw and landed with a double legged stomp on the ground.
It was a spur of the moment bluff and a gamble, but it paid off as instead of a normal rock flying up, a whole boulder came out of the ground and floated in front of Pebble. Using the momentum from the fall, Pebble performed a full 360 degree spin and punched so hard against the rock that he pierced the air cushion and impacted the boulder. The boulder then shattered into dozens of sharp jagged pieces that launched at incredible speeds into Becky's friend.
Feathers, sand, and blood rained in the air like confetti. The bird looked like it got lit up by a machine gun. It had bloody holes all over its body and its leg was twitching as it tried to walk forward. It managed to take a step before it fell and squawked in defeat.
<+50 CP>
<+200 Exp>
<200/200 Exp to level 3>
There were a couple notifications waiting for him as well, but he didn't have time for that right now. The bright golden light shone from inside Pebble, bleeding through his skin as his body was renewed.
<36 HP>
Becky didn't immediately attack Pebble. Instead, she lowered her head and walked over to the fallen bird. Pebble took this moment to re-summon his axe and quickly dump his three points into constitution again.
Becky looked to be busy processing some survivors' guilt, so Pebble decided to go all the way and went into his skill tree as fast as he could.
"Hell yeah, I'm going to cook me a little snack before the next round!" Pebble decided to unlock the skill. His teeth were showing as he grinned ear to ear. He now knew exactly how to cast a Fireball. He even figured there might be a way to combine his Rock Throw and Fireball together. His imagination went wild as he pictured himself lobbing hundreds of fiery meteors into hordes of enemies.
Becky shook her whole body, then refocused on Pebble. The look of sheer hatred from a future poultry dish was a deeply disturbing feeling that Pebble would like to snuff out immediately, if at all possible. He looked over to the stand and scanned the audience quickly until he found who he was looking for."
He pointed to Glurt, "HEY COLONEL, THIS ONE'S FOR YOU BUDDY! WE'RE ABOUT'A FRY SOME CHICKEN!" Pebble put his left hand to the side, stretched his fingers out wide and arced them upwards. His face was fierce and determined.
"Hold up." The look of determination on his face was soon replaced with a concern but stern look, "Becky, NO! Heel! Stay Back! Please?"
Today, Becky was going to avenge her lover.
—
Inside the City of Aegis's training dungeon, three Heroes were chatting as they waited for the scenario to reset.
"How do you guys think Alain's holding up?" Bard inquired as he tuned his guitar.
"Knowing him, he's probably bored." Fred replied while exhaling a plume of smoke from his pipe.
"Yeah, if we can clear this, he's probably already done. What do you guys want for dinner? Do you think they have fried chicken in this city?" Phil's belly growled.
"Damn, chicken does sound good." Bard started playing some campfire cords as they peacefully waited.