Sure enough, my next opponent walked slowly into the arena. I thought about trying to get past them and into the corridor beyond, but in the next second, the iron gates slammed shut. I’d have to take this guy down first.
The enemy in front of me was humanoid and clad in gleaming silver armor. They were clearly much smaller than me, which seemed rather unusual. I tried to use Discerning Eye to figure out why, but their information and abilities were concealed. However, I could get a read on the morningstar they were carrying: an A-Grade weapon with the skill Shockwave. The skill did more or less what you’d expect, creating a blast of air during an attack, but that was all I could get. What’s more, their plate armor had C-Grade Physical Defense.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” shouted the host, “please welcome the Armored Knight to the right! I know you can’t wait to see him in action!”
The crowd responded with an appreciative roar, but I had more important things to worry about.
For starters, the morningstar was generally classified as a blunt striking weapon. There were a number of variations, but the one the knight carried had a large spherical head with a number of sharp spikes attached to the handle by a long chain. It wasn’t hard to imagine how it worked—namely by spinning it around on the chain and using the centrifugal force to attack.
Sure enough, the knight spun the flail about his head, and a moment later, the ball came hurtling toward me. I took off running as fast as I could, getting out of the way of the strike but not the explosion that followed as soon as the ball hit the ground. That Shockwave was really something else.
“Whoa!”
I’d managed to get clear, but the blast swept through the entire arena and knocked me off my feet. I tumbled over and over before coming to a stop and taking up a defensive posture. Unfortunately, the impact had scattered dirt into my eyes and mouth.
“Argh! Gah!”
I choked and rubbed my eyes, trying to bring everything back into focus. I couldn’t even rely on my ears because the spectators wouldn’t shut up! One thing was for sure: If I stayed in the same place, I was done for. With that in mind, I started moving, but as soon as I did—
Bam!
The head of the flail slapped into the dirt right next to me, and I was sent flying again.
“Whoaaaa!”
I know I’d always said I wanted to fly, but this really wasn’t what I meant! I hit the ground headfirst and skidded across the arena. There had to be some way to catch my breath, but if I paused for even a second, I’d be toast.
I jumped back to my feet and fired off an Icicle, but the Armored Knight skillfully deflected it with his morningstar. Next, I launched a max-size Stone Bullet at him. The three-foot rock sailed through the air but fell short of hitting him directly.
Perfect! Just as I’d planned!
It was extremely easy to kick up clouds of dust in the arena, so I used it to my advantage—by memorizing the knight’s position before he disappeared from view.
The knight didn’t say anything, but he looked flustered as the dust cloud rose up and swallowed him. As soon as he was gone, I pulled out my Piercing Spear and charged toward him, thrusting with my entire body weight toward the spot where he’d been standing.
The spear entered the dust cloud and immediately encountered something hard, but while the knight’s armor had a physical defense ability, my spear had a piercing skill. With a running start, it would get through the metal with no problem.
Fortunately, my aim was good. The knight collapsed to the floor, and I drove my spear between the joints in his armor to deliver the final blow. I had no idea what kind of monster he was exactly, but at least it was over.
“What an unexpected turn of events!” the host cried. “Who could have predicted it?! Which of you ever imagined that this mere boy could defeat the Armored Knight?!”
Honestly, I was mostly just surprised the host was safe. Things had gotten dicey down here during that last round. But that was two rounds down, which meant I only had one more to go, right?
Ugh, I’m getting tired.
Before my next trial, I walked over to the Armored Knight and retrieved his Shockwave Morningstar. Then I stowed it away and waited. Finally, my final opponent entered the arena.
He was a lizardman covered in vermillion scales who had two horns growing from his head. He kind of reminded me of a dragon, although his upper half was bare and he wore pants that cut off below the knees. Luckily, his build wasn’t so different from mine. I tried to use Discerning Eye on him but, once again, it didn’t work.
However, from appearances alone, I could tell he was quite skilled, and his weapon was…wait. That sword looked strangely familiar. I promptly used Discerning Eye to check.
It was called the Blade of Growth, and it had five skills: Sharp Edge, S-Grade Destructive Edge, S-Grade Enduring Edge, Flame Blade, and Wave Slash.
I know that sword!
“Noname, is that you?! What are you doing here?!”
But Noname didn’t respond. Strange. He had been so talkative on the twelfth floor. Maybe he’d lost his spirit? But why did a lizardman have that sword of all the possible—oh, yeah. I got it. I thought it had been strange that the dungeon gave me a weapon that could so easily increase its power. It had even handed me a bunch of easy enemies to help build it up! Turned out that the dungeon was just leveling the sword up to give to this lizardman. I probably should have been used to the sting of betrayal by now, but it still hurt.
Before I had too much time to dwell on my feelings, the lizardman lunged in for the kill—swinging Noname and unleashing a Wave Slash at me.
“I taught you that!” I complained, dodging out of the way.
The lizardman fired off one Wave Slash after another. I had to start running laps around the arena to avoid them. Was there some way I could take the weapon back? The fight would turn a lot easier if my enemy didn’t have a weapon that was effective at long range and close quarters. For the time being, I focused on dodging out of the way, hoping he would drain his stamina.
“Hissss…”
At least I was managing to annoy him. Once he realized that he couldn’t get me with Wave Slash, the lizardman stopped firing off ranged attacks and enveloped the blade in fire. I really didn’t want to get hit with the Flame Blade skill. Even if it didn’t set me on fire, the sword still had S-Grade Destructive Edge, so it wouldn’t make much difference to my life expectancy either way. Although…did the S-Grade version of that skill mean the blade was much more likely to break?