Up above, in the stands of the glorious colosseum, Glurt was chuckling to himself. "He sure is entertaining." He pulled out a coin and flicked it. When he caught it he spoke up again, "Artia, can you hear me?"
The coin projected volume from another location and some shuffling could be heard before Artia's voice came through. "Hello Glurt, enjoying the show?" She asked playfully.
"My dear, I'm simply having the time of my life!" Glurt played it up, "Anyone can see, that wasn't a normal Rock Throw, this Hero is more akin to a beast with the amount of stamina he has. I do have to say, I'm not sure what game you or the Throne Holder are playing, but I want in." He pulled out his handkerchief and wiped his forehead. He didn't sweat or anything like that, he just enjoyed the soothing feeling of the cloth against his skin.
"Listen you salacious punk, I'm not involved in the Throne Holder's schemes. I have no idea what he's doing. As for my agenda, what do you stand to gain, Glurt? Why the sudden interest?" Artia's response wasn't what Glurt was expecting.
Glurt was surprised, "Honestly, I figured you guys were working together with how effective he turned out. If he doesn't die in this arena, I just want to follow along, you see?" Glurt sighed, "I know this might be hard to believe, but I just feel that even though it's been a short time since fate brought us together…" He paused for dramatic effect, "I've bonded with the little bastard." He waited for a response but none came
He continued, "Look, I've got nothing going on! My worlds all suck. My worshippers are lazy and no matter what I try, they just go back to their old habits. They are perpetually at war and it's not even the fun kind, it's BORING. I know that I have the sacred duty of maintaining Tiamat and all of its legal proceedings, but this won't interfere with that duty. As for my worlds… F*ck 'em. Let 'em rot. Hopefully the soil will be fertile again and something more interesting will come along."
"I pity your people, living in a god forsaken world is cruel. You should just wipe them out and start over. Nice and clean!" Artia chuckled, "Okay fine, you want in, you're in."
"Yes! Thank you, you won't regret this." Glurt pumped his fist.
—
Meanwhile, Pebble was holding his axe in front of him horizontally while Becky was chomping down on the handle with her beak. She was pushing forward and Pebble was losing ground. He soon found himself against a wall, still holding Becky back with the axe.
The good news was that the axe seemed to be fine. In fact, Becky's beak seemed to be losing this battle slowly as tiny chips appeared.
"That's got to hurt, Becky. Why don't we just cut this out and share a nice little bucket together?" Pebble gestured to the dead bird. Becky's eyes went wide and she managed to slide one of her legs into the fight and a talon pierced Pebbles's pelvis on the left side.
"Son of a b*tch!" Pebble shouted as he absorbed the pain. Blood began soaking his robes, joining the stains from the last fight. He reached down and gripped the talon with his left hand.
As of right now, he was extremely thankful that he decided to unlock Rock Throw. It seemed to have been the right choice as it had already helped him out a bunch and he had yet another idea for the skill. He held on to the axe and the talon for dear life as he engaged his core and attempted to hold Becky in place.
After seizing his muscles, he tried it.
He stomped the ground with his right foot and a rock was summoned. The rock shot up from the ground and hit Becky from below. It wasn't enough to push her off, but her relentless onslaught took a momentary rest due to the unexpected pain.
Today seemed to be a lesson in hesitation for Pebble, first the character creation tablet, then the goblins, now these giant birds. He was done waiting for them to give him a reason to continue. His reason now was survival. He understood the assignment.
He continuously stomped his right foot and summoned multiple rocks to hit the same spot on the bird's leg… or ass, or whatever he was hitting, it was hard to tell with all the feathers.
The drummer made sure to add extra drama to the moment. The impacts were emphasized with double kicks and with each Rock Throw, the crowds' cheer went up an octave.
"How does he have so much stamina?!" Shocked gasps could also be heard.
Reeki already completely downed one keg. He now punched into the other keg and removed his hand. Beer started shooting out I'd the hole as he put his mouth to the gap and used his other hand to rip the top off the keg. He shotgunned a whole keg in honor of Pebble's fights.
Blood started pooling below Becky. The bird let out a chirp that sounded like a whimper as she backed off of Pebble, ripping her talon out as she did so.
<24 HP>
It looked like Pebble's new points in constitution paid off as he resisted the bleed. He was certain now that he should double down on leveling up constitution for the foreseeable future. Being a little socially awkward and maybe a little slow wasn;t ideal, but it is better than being dead.
Pebble wasted no time, as soon as Becky backed off he gripped his axe with both hands and lifted it above his head. He brought it down hard diagonally from right to left. The axe chopped through the bird's neck and got stuck there.
Becky locked eyes with Pebble and in a final act of defiance, she lunged forward and ripped open Pebble's left shoulder with her beak.
<12 HP>
Blood shot out of his shoulder, but the bleeding stopped almost immediately. Pebble's previous health pool of 36 wouldn't have been enough to survive this fight. He would have died right then and there.
Becky fell to the ground, axe still protruding from her neck. Pebble watched Becky with pity for a moment.
'She was simply protecting her own,' he thought. This was a little different from killing NPCs in a video game. The mobs he'd kill online were simple programs. They attacked because he were near them and that's how the world was designed. Becky on the other hand, well, Pebble really had no idea about Becky. Was this someone's pet? The little girl seemed to be pretty familiar with this bird, maybe it was hers?
'Am I a bad guy?' Pubble pondered as Becky's eyes closed slowly. She never stopped staring at Pebble. A part of him felt deeply hurt.
<+50 CP>
<+200 Exp>
<200/400 Exp to level 4>
"Peaceful my ass! What the hell, man?" Pebble looked up at the sky.
The musicians played a little victory jingle and the crowd cheered again with renewed vigor. This time there was no fan fare from Pebble. He was still sorting out his own feelings. During the fight, he felt like he lost himself a little bit. Even though he and his enemies' lives were on the line, he had to admit to himself that he enjoyed the fight. Perhaps a bit too much.
'I didn't put them here,' he coped. 'The real bad guys are the organizers,' Pebble paused, 'wait, the organizers are gods and they can read thoughts…' Pebble sighed and shook his head, 'F*ck it, this is my life now. I'm just a pawn until something changes.'
Pebble noticed that no door had appeared yet, so he quickly went into his challenge mode menu and selected challenge mode skills. The whole screen was blank except for one node.
Pebble once again was left in the dark, he didn't really know what CP was in the first place and he didn't really feel like it cost him anything. All things considered, this was his only option. He decided to unlock the ability. He had 240 CP currently, so 50 wasn't a big deal.
<190 CP>
Pebble was hopeful that this meant he could cast his Fireball skill now. However, he was nervous about his health being so low before the nextt room. Two additional nodes appeared after he unlocked Energizer.
Nothing that would help him right now, but Pebble shrugged and unlocked both.
<130 CP>
Pebble rubbed his chin. Between Energizer and the new mana capacity with Pack Mule, he was starting to feel like a wizard. 'Maybe I'll be some sort of spell sword,' he thought.
"Okay." Pebble nodded. "Another useless skill."
Glurt began announcing something to the audience, but the same perception issue from earlier was in play and Pebble immediately forgot every word. While Glurt was speaking, Pebble figured he should explore a little more in the challenge skills to see what followed Pack Mule and Charge. It looked like both branched into two different nodes.
A door finally appeared on the wall in front of Pebble. This time the door only provided a fifteen second timer. Pebble had no idea what Messiah could be and Thorns might be decent later, but right now it wasn't something he'd want to risk. Not to mention that he currently didn't have enough CP for either of those skills at the moment. As for the final skill, the Augment, Rock Throw was his best ability right now and doing anything that might make the ability useless to him could be suicide. He had 12 HP anyways and he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth, the fact that Life on Kill was even an option was a god send in his current situation. With no other options, Pebble gave into fate and unlocked the ability.
Pebble took a look above the door and saw that there were nine seconds left, so he began hobbling his way over. Becky's talon had left a nasty wound on his pelvis and it wasn't doing him any favors in the mobility department. His left arm was stiff as well due to the shoulder wound.
"This next room's going to be hell." Pebble searched within himself for the resolve needed to push through. He looked back at Becky one last time and noticed the little girl leaning with her hands against the glass wall.
"Becky? Daddy, Becky's not getting up… Do we need to feed her some rodents?" Tears welled in her eyes.
"No darling, she's dead now, just like Julie." Her father replied with a matter of fact tone.
"But, Julie never came back from being dead, Daddy. I want Becky to come back now please." She begged her father.
"Don't make me feel bad for killing the damn murder bird!" Pebble groaned. "Just get me out of this room." He pushed through the next door.