Chapter 521

The creature that charged him the moment the doors in the arena fell looked like a mutated sphere, with bumps and random mouths laid through it. It rolled forward with speed, but Arthur did not even bother trying to dodge, instead dropping his spear low and letting the creature impale itself on the weapon. Unlike with the babi ngepit he had once fought and had to dodge rather than take a straight charge, he was strong enough to take the blow, pierce the creature all the way through its body and then twist and toss it without thought.

The creature deflated as it spun through the air, falling far aside. The simulated roar of the audience around was muted, as though they were uncertain whether to cheer or not the way Arthur had managed to dispatch the creature.

He did not care, instead turning aside and walking back through the gates back through the tunnel into his cell.

Cell – that really was what it was. A stone room that had a bed, a washbasin and place to shit and a small table and that was it. The stone from the creature appeared on the counter beside the washbasin in a simple hollow moments later, but Arthur ignored it.

Instead, crossing his legs, he meditated, drawing energy into his body. No point waiting, he had a lot of time to train in here.

A lot of time.

 

***

 

Monsters, one after the other. None of them a challenge, though gradually increasing in numbers and lethality. He cleared the first floor as quickly as he could, even though it took a few weeks to do so. The problem – or advantage – was the down time between fights.

The second floor was similar to the first, a different kind of arena with terrain changes and monsters that came after him. Similar to that popular teen dystopian show, where multiple individuals entered and the encounters with the various monsters and the other contestants were part of the challenge.

The second floor was interesting, the battles longer. The other contestants were strange, near human but for the green slitted eyes, the webbing between fingers, the raw speed that they exhibited. Thankfully, they were light of bone, weaker than they should have been and lacking in techniques. At least on the first round, but each time the terrain changed, the number of contestants increased and the variety of monsters multiplied.

Every time, after the fight, time off. More luxury, bigger rooms, techniques that he could pick from if he wished. Nothing spectacular, unfortunately, but the rooms they offered allowed him to cultivate faster, the shower of stones if he played nice in the social situations, useful.

Arthur paid lip service, took whatever cultivation techniques that were on offer though he refused to use them. Continued to work on his own, improving the Sticky Threads technique so that he had more options. When he had time, he was playing with adding it to his various Energy Dart techniques. Making an Exploding Energy Dart was not hard, it just required a few adjustments to the base technique and one that he had already learnt how to do.

Adding a Yin technique was what he wasted his time on in the first place for the entirety of the second floor, as he went through multiple battles in various biomes. It kept failing, the dart breaking down long before it even emerged from his hand. Stubbornness drove him to keep trying, only to decide when he finally cleared the floor; Champion of the group; that it would not work.

Mana Dart’s made of Tower Energy was just not as stable as Refined Energy. It could not take the unstable nature of Yin energy, breaking down immediately. Refined Energy – Refined Yin – was but definition more stable, though not by much.

Without the ability to make Yin Energy Darts, he could not make Poison Energy Darts either, which meant he was stuck at plain Exploding Energy Darts. Less powerful, disruptive but the big advantage was he could unleash literal dozens of those at a time.

A good thing too, when he entered the next floor.

 

***

 

Third floor of the third Bhutanese Tower. This time, he was part of a siege. Standing outside with the besieging army, working in units of five. They slept together, ate together, trained together. Learnt from one another, the team showing him how to use the techniques that he had taken on the second floor, even if he had not chosen to use them.

Quick study or not, Arthur chose to skip learning some of those techniques, focused on picking up only two more. Burst Movement gave Arthur something else that he needed – a way to boost his movement techniques, a way for him to match even the fastest of individuals.

Used properly, the Burst Movement technique could double, triple, quadruple the speed of its user. He saw it in the fighters that utilized it, but also saw the drawbacks of such cultivation techniques. Too fast movement made them lighter, could make them uncontrollable as they blurred forwards. Broke bones when one impacted another.

Dangerous, but useful. Something that he needed, though it took him a long time to figure out how the other used it, without the technique scroll to reference. Pulled it together slowly, took notes and built upon it to make himself stronger.

The other technique that he took was similar to one of his first, but with a slight variation. Impact Strike broke power into an individual, rather than focusing the strength of an attack to a point; it pushed it in. More useful for palm strikes, for blunt weapons that were utilized to smash others.

Impact Strike was less useful in most fights especially with his spear, but against certain kinds of monsters, those with plate armour or solid defensive layers; the technique would be worth it. It was not something he would pull out all the time, but in the right conditions, it would be worth the study time.

On top of that, there were parts of the Impact Strike technique that he needed. The cultivation techniques ability to push energy into the strike point could be utilized – in theory – with his Energy Darts. Maybe even combined with his Focused Strike, so that he could punch an attack all the way through.

Something to look into, but he never got to it.

After all, he had a wall to take.

 

***

 

“Shields!” A roar from above, and Arthur swung the shield that he had brought along upwards. He hunkered beneath it, feeling the impacts over and over again as arrows and javelins landed. The javelins were the worst, since it punched through the shield itself and hung in his shield, dragging it down. One nicked his arm as it came through, sharp steel brushing against the technique reinforced skin.

Unlike in the movies, the archers were not stopping. They kept loosing, dropping javelins and arrows all around him, so that there was no time to take a break. Instead, he could only shuffle forwards at a run, try to reach the underside of the wall where archers and javelins could not help but strike as easy.

Another javelin landed, nearly yanking the shield out of Arthur’s arm. He tossed the entire thing aside, utilized Burst Movement to skip across the ground at speed, dodging the arrows and javelins. One caught him high on his shoulder, bounced off his armour and skin beneath before he was in that sweet spot – not too close that stones thrown from above could hit him, not too far that the archers didn’t need to lean over dangerously to aim at him.

Hand raised, he conjured his Energy Darts. A half-dozen formed and loosed at the archers and javelin throwers above, striking and throwing them off the wall. His unit arrived moments later, no longer under attack. Arthur conjured more Energy Darts, ready to unleash them on any archers that popped their head above the wall.

Unfortunately, as well as his unit was doing, the rest of the attack on the wall was not progressing as well. That was fine, Arthur knew that even if he went up, jumped upwards and then threw the doors open; they would still lose.

That was the script, and he just was here to play along.

“Here they come!” Another roar from his unit, as a sortieing crowd arrived. Arthur twisted, pointed his hand and unleashed the energy darts, saw only four fall rather than all six as two were blocked. Mattered little, the surviving ten struck his team and together, they butchered them.

Easy peasy, just another few rounds until they cleared this floor.