Somehow, the sickly green light in the massive cavern had grown in levels. Perhaps his eyes had gotten used to it, or perhaps something in the Tower was reacting to the pair and the match that was about to happen. Arthur had no idea, but he had asked a few more questions - okay, a lot - before he had chosen to test his might against the Hermit.
Now, staring at his opponent across the space of the cavern, he was wondering if it was a good idea.
“Remember, you have to survive at least one move. It will be up to you to decide when to stop, but I will pause between each move to give you time to withdraw.” The Hermit grinned wide, showing those sharp, almost needle-like teeth as it did so and sending another atavistic shudder through Arthur’s body. “The more you survive, the better the cultivation technique or system I’ll provide.”
“And it’ll be the kind that is useful to me, ya?”
“I won’t cheat you.” The creature raised its hands up, claws growing out of its fingers and then, moments later, a glowing red light appearing on it. “But you best get ready.”
Arthur broke out in a cold sweat, rotating his shoulders and then setting his spear before him. He kept it in the neutral stance, mid-line and tip pointing towards his opponent, though he shortened the grip just a little to give him more flexibility. Keeping his opponent at range was unlikely, so maneuverability was most important.
His backpack had already been placed aside, so while waiting, he had flooded his body with both Bark Skin and the Heavenly Sage’s Mischief, the two most powerful and useful full body techniques he had. At least, before he got injured.
While speaking, he’d also tossed aside the Refined Exploding Energy Dart within his Pocket Simpanan, instead going for an Imbued Strike – Yin Poison. Even if it slowed his opponent down a fraction, it might just give him a little advantage.
Worse case, it’d just annoy the Hermit.
“I’m coming!”
No other warning, as the Hermit exploded into motion the moment he had finished speaking. He crossed the ground in quick bounds, going from side-to-side, moving nearly faster than Arthur could track. Every time his foot came down on the earth, he’d throw himself forward, sometimes changing direction, sometimes continuing.
Arthur made minute shifts of his body, forcing his eyes to stay unfocused, to track the motion out of his peripheral vision rather than lock on directly. Long years of training had taught him to do that, so that when the rat leapt into the air and then ran across the sky at the last moment, he reacted by instinct.
Legs tucked in, dropping himself downwards even as his spear tip shifted upwards. He felt the first claw impact the tip, pushing the point away. Arthur used the momentum of the push to twirl his spear around, the haft and backend of the spear impacting against the other reaching arm.
Too slow though, the Hermit’s arm already inches away from him when it did that. All he managed to do was push himself and the Hermit away from one another as the claws scraped down the side of his face, catching and leaving deep gouges in the gorget around his throat before he was free from the falling body.
Arthur rolled, coming up and bringing his weapon tip back on-line to the Hermit, the sides of his face bleeding freely. He might as well not have bothered to utilize that, the creature’s claws tearing right through his defense. As he stood there, he felt a wave of heat rushing outwards and causing his wound to throb.
“Poison…” Arthur snarled. “You dirty… rat!”
“You said it…” the Hermit let out a low hissing noise, that it took Arthur a moment to realise was the rat equivalent of a giggle. “One. Coming.”
Unlike his earlier commentary of the rules, the ratman didn’t even bother waiting after saying coming. Perhaps he considered the few moments discussion was sufficient of a break for Arthur to pull out, or perhaps he really did intend to kill the Climber.
After all, that was the greatest danger of the might test. While the Hermit was not supposed to directly kill the Climber, they could push the matter as far and as hard as they wished within certain boundaries. Just like the Tinker might offer to help with good or product selection or enchantments, the Hermit could choose to not hold back as much.
The next attack was an explosive charge again, except rather than take to the air, the form was a series of fast moving clawed swings that ended with a sudden tripping of Arthur via the creature’s tail that had wrapped around his ankle. In mid-air, Arthur had no opportunity to dodge the full-body elbow slam that struck the center of his breastplate, sending him flying backwards through the air.
He impacted a nearby fully formed stalagmite, shattering it as he flew through and then bounced twice more before ending up slumped against the edge of the cavern. His breastplate had caved in, the hardened leather bent inwards and compressing his own broken bones, breath entirely robbed from his chest such that Arthur could not even scream.
Head swimming with pain, he dropped the Bark Skin, utilizing the focused energy of the Accelerated Healing method to pull back his ribs, to give him space to breathe. A couple of yanks on the breastplate had it swing free as he popped it clear of his chest, the deep depression grinding open with each moment.
“You… what did you do to my tail?” Clutching his back appendage, the Hermit was staring at it, noting how it drooped and refused to listen to his own commands.
Arthur wanted to offer a pithy comment, talk about how two could use poisons even as his Pocket Simpanan hung empty. Unfortunately, all he could actually do was get his breathing back in order and prop his weapon up, just grateful that tens of thousands of repetitions breakfalls and rolls had taught him to instinctively keep his head tucked in. No concussion for him at least.
Palpable anger radiated from the Hermit now as it dropped the tail. Quite literally, as a blood red aura swirled into being around the creature. Arthur could feel pressure from the Tower asserting itself, even as the rat hissed. “Coming.”
Two. Not enough by far.
Arthur gambled, surging forwards and catching his opponent by surprise as he cut the distance between the two of them. Rather than trying to take the attack head-on, he crossed the distance and thrust with his weapon. When it was battered aside, Arthur kept moving, spinning with his weapon, his feet circling the creature and cutting next to it as he struck at the Hermit.
Even as he spun past, a claw scraping along the edges of the flapping breastplate and managing to nearly knock Arthur off his feet, dozens of living ants tore into his flesh. That red aura sunk into his exposed flesh, through his armour to eat into his skin. It was incredibly distracting, and if he wasn’t already moving; already forcing himself to fight through another greater pain, he might have stumbled.
Spin completed, he pushed himself away, breaking off from his opponent as he swung his spear down to threaten the other. He felt the impact, his eyes squinted tight as tears blurred his vision, feet stumbling across uneven ground before he finally managed to set himself.
Only to find the Hermit had stopped, anger all too easy to tell. The creature hesitated, then spoke again.
“Coming.”
No more time to think, broken ribs popping back into place, bruised lungs filled with air, his skin humming as the red aura’s damage that had left streaks of burst capillaries all across his body faded a little. Now, it threw itself forward, bouncing high and then landing, rolling and springing upwards, tail still flopping uselessly behind as it sprung at Arthur.
The Climber retreated, shifting angles as best he could. Hoping he could break the form, the attack pattern like he did the last time and gain another count. It was a foolish hope, for each round the monster had sped up; the aura growing worse.
By the time he managed to break free, one arm hung by his side, useless. His spear lay on the ground, a half-dozen feet away and another set of shattered stone columns lay across the floor. Only the use of that obstacle had managed to save Arthur from the bouncing rat, and even then, he’d had to sacrifice his arm.
Even as he shifted energy to heal his arm, to flood his system with Tower energy to fill his body with strength to keep up with the ever faster and stronger opponent, that dreaded word rung out.
“Coming.”