Chapter 346

Chapter 346

The next contestant is one of the newer fighters. He's a dagger user with considerable skill, making it past stage 4 unscathed but losing in the 5th to a large snake creature with scales too hard for his weapons to penetrate.

This event was a nice palette cleanser for what's to come next, the announcer speaks as Max walks onto the platform.

"I welcome the next Legacy fighter you all know well back onto the stage, The Shield!"

The crowd perks up and starts to cheer just like they did in the first event.

"With 91 Stage 5 Victories and 16 Stage 6 wins, you're in for another incredible show. Let the fight begin!"

Max pulls a large war hammer out from an item box around his waist, then throws it to the ground by his side outside the transport circle before he's sent to the arena.

I hear the whispers of one of the fighters behind me remind his friend that no item boxes or potions are allowed in the event. This wasn't mentioned to me before, but I take note of it now. I'll have to take all my items I wish to use out of my storage before getting on stage not to cause suspicion.

Just like the contestants before, he does a lap to hype up the crowd before the event even begins.

Once the battles start, it's a picture-perfect version of Sia's run.

The moment an opponent appears, he runs across the ring and strikes them down with his hammer. For stages 1 through 4, every beast is killed in a single strike.

The tank looks like he would be slow, with a heavy shield and massive hammer, but his speed and agility are no match even against a level 430 Mutant Yeti in the 5th Stage.

The monster's mana control looks fairly developed, but Max takes the beast out in 3 swings, leaving the creature lifeless in a pile of its own blood in seconds.

He gives the announcer the go-ahead to start the next round without a break, and the same thing happens. All the betting odds flip against the legacy fighter. It seems round 6 is their usual limit.

A huge scaled lizard creature standing on two legs is transported in. It wears light silver armor with various weapons strapped to its sides, and the creature carries a bow. The mana shielding around its body is visible to the naked eye, and it's clear the creature is imbuing its weapon with mana as well.Ñøv€lRapture marked the initial hosting of this chapter on Ñôv€lß¡n.

It's a level 549 lizard archer of some sort; it looks nothing like anything I've seen in any dungeon.

The fight begins and it zips around the arena with blinding speed.

Although I thought Max was quick for his size, this creature is nearly twice as fast.

The crowd goes crazy, and many members of the audience yell out in excitement and fury, contradicting each other and arguing about who is going to win this fight. Others just cheer and keep their eyes glued to the fight below as it's a very interesting one to watch.

The lizardman readies a shot, and for the first time, Max activates his ranked-up buff. Along with the silver coating from his legendary body hardening skill, and a thin layer of mana shielding he's just capable enough to conjure, the "Iron Body" buff he uses places another layer around both of the lower ones, including his shield and hammer in a dark Iron coloring.

After all 4 of the starting matches, he hasn't even moved a foot out of place. The swordsman just waits for the monster that spawns in to attack him and he swings a glossy black blade from his right side every time they come in range.

There's a thin white light that appears around the blade each time he swings it, showing it's imbued with mana.

As stage 5 starts, I expect the fighter to act differently, but he still just stands still. However, this time the swordsman grabs both of his swords and slices the level 446 creature into pieces in an X formation without batting an eye.

Stage 6 comes around, and the betting stats are going wild when the announcer yells out that the same type of monster that defeated the Stone Maiden opener in a single hit will be his opponent too, a Red Ogre.

The crowd fills with whispers, and the odds for the fighter and monster fluctuate greatly as mystery fills the colosseum.

Once the level 569 Red-Skinned Ogre is teleported to the arena, the crowd starts to cheer louder and louder. Instead of the huge metal club the last variant had, this one carries a long black sword.

Ace smiles and his eyes finally show a hint of life.

Before the battle even begins, the swordsman shifts his stance and readies his blades. Then, the roar of the beast and its shimmering glowing golden strength allow the battle to begin.

The man dressed in black activates his legendary grade extreme speed skill and matches the impossible agility of the Red Ogre in an instant. There's a loud metallic clang and scraping sound that rings out as the two blades of the fighter collide with the Ogre's.

The moment they do, a blue light flashes around the swordsman's body, and he twists around the Ogre's blade with ease. If my natural perception wasn't so high, I'd completely miss what just happened. I'm sure 99% of the audience did.

The swordsman activates his divine speed buff and lands two clean hits on the Ogre's torso before flashing across the area to prepare for another exchange.

Two open wounds appear on its frontside, and before it even turns to see the swordsman facing its back, he already deactivates his buff and stands in a ready position to fight again.

Consumed with rage, the monster runs forward and following the loud clang of metal on metal, there's a small flash of blue light and the swordsman is on the other side of the ring without a scratch on him. Meanwhile, two more open wounds cover the beast's chest.

This repeats 4 more times until the Ogre's movements start to slow down.

Its body gets covered in a red veil of energy. I can't use my inspect or appraisal skills from here, but I can only assume it's a conditional stat-boosting final move.

The swordsman sees this and glows bright blue before their next exchange even starts. He starts zipping around the ring at speeds I doubt anyone here can even hope to perceive in their lifetime. In less than a second, the swordsman returns back to the position he stands in and turns off his buff while falling to one knee.

In the same instant, the ferocious glowing red ogre falls into pieces, and the red glow fades as a crimson liquid stains the floor below it.

The audience goes wild. They have no idea what just happened, but know the fighter won.

Ace wipes his swords clean of the monster's blood while standing back to his feet and giving the Announcer the go-ahead to push him to the next round.

"That's right, folks! Our second stage 6 win of the night! This brings us to our first stage 7 duel."