Posted by Aker stood there his eyes laser focused on the gate that would have his partner in this battle of life and death. As the gates opened Aker had tuned out all other distractions, the deafening noise of the crowd no longer rang into his ears.
Unlike the Kulga that came running out of the gates upon them being free from the confines of the gate a gigantic, monumental beast slowly walked out, each step announcing that it was the master no matter where it was. Its head held high and chest protruding forward, it must be an inborn belief in magic beast that they are above all others as each step contained its strength and superiority.
Instantly as Aker stared at the Fire Ape, he realized there was no comparing a magical beast to the Kulga he had been fighting. He now understood why The Pit had only had him fighting Kulga…… they wanted to warp his sense of strength and raw power.
They could have moved on from Kulga to other non-magical beast that were more powerful but the entire time they simply kept adding to the total number of Kulga he was fighting. He had thought about it so many times, why didn’t they have him fight a Collared Bobcat, Green Leopard, or Tundra Bear that he had been reading about. These were all especially powerful non-magical beast that would have been significantly more brutal and stronger than the Kulga. One Tundra Bear was probably the equivalent of 4-5 Kulga in strength and putting two or three of the Tundra Bears in the arena would have made for a more difficult fight than fifteen Kulga.
At first, he realized they did have him continue fighting Kulga due to the rules and how they had to go about progressing his enemies. For the first week certainly increasing the number of Kulga made sense and fit within the rules but why after the first week did they not switch it up with more powerful non-magical beast?
Seeing this Fire Ape…No seeing this sovereign as it strode into the arena, its cruel, brutish, and bloodthirsty aura on full display as if though it was wearing it as a coat Aker comprehended their plan. Somewhere in there they must have known that Aker would not be killed by a non-magical beast. More than likely when he defeated the ten Kulga and fought the primary Kulga one on one they also felt their blood boil. Even from our enemy we can find moments of inspiration and fist pumping, blood boiling, raise your head and scream into the sky moments. There wouldn’t be a person alive no matter how strong they were that could watch that exact moment who didn’t feel that way. What it also taught his enemy was that these piddly non-magical beast would never be a hindrance to Aker so why expose more beast strength to him?
Actually, it was Fastagio who had recognized that Aker’s strength was progressing at a pace faster than non-magical beast could keep up with and had recommended that they just keep having him fight simple Kulga. With this action they could still take shots at him since he would be fighting swarms of beast which typically makes the difficulty level rise exponentially while holding back their kill strike, like a snake in the prairie lying in wait as it trapped its prey. When he faced a magical beast, the trap would be sprung. Even if he could somehow survive the first battle, each following fight he would be exposed to different kinds of magical beast, it was a brutal and brilliant plan with no reference as he had only ever faced off against Kulga.
Aker had seen and learned fighting against only Kulga and while his comprehension was above average at this point, he still only had only the one data point. He could only use the Kulga as a reference for his practicing, when he did his visualization training it was based on the speed, movements, and strength of the Kulga, what else could he use? When doing his practice, he consciously or unconsciously trained using the Kulga for vital point attacks. The Kulga standing two meters with its short arms had glaring weaknesses that he had used to dominate the hordes of them as they attacked.
As Aker stared out into the eyes of the Fire Ape, he felt the intimidation of a magic beast that stood at over three meters. Unlike the Kulga the Fire Ape had armor covering its shoulders, half of its chest specifically over its heart , and its thighs and calfs. Its armor was a gorgeous blood red that matched perfectly with the slight flame emanating from both of its palms and under its feet. The Fire Ape’s mouth stayed open as it breathed in and out deeply showing its fangs. Probably due to its fire nature a bit of steam and slight growl bellowed out of its mouth each time it breathed out. It’s hair almost perfectly matched the blood red armor and the only reason Aker could tell that it was wearing armor was due to the reflective surface of the metal.
Sometime after seeing the Fire Ape one of Aker’s legs began to shake. Aker who stood 138 cm or just over 1.43 meters looked tiny when compared to the behemoth that was the Fire Ape. Due to the robe there was no way that anyone in the crowd would notice Aker’s leg shaking and despite the deep fear he felt at this moment he was still smiling big as he faced this freighting beast. Because Aker didn’t want to give the satisfaction of letting his enemies and those bastards who bet against him see his fear upon the Fire Apes grand entry into the arena his smile actually grew larger giving the impression that he was excited for the battle rather than fearful.
As Aker was taking in the Fire Ape, he was contemplating its size, strength, and weaknesses. From his vantage point he gave thanks for two things. First breaking through to the Body Conditioning Skin level had given him a huge strength increase. Secondly, he thankfully decided to not put all of his Skill points on strength and allocated at least one to agility. Based on the size, strength and power of this beast his hope was that he could beat it in mobility and movement.
As Aker stared down this beast taking a big breath, he formulated a plan. While this Fire Ape was indeed powerful it was still only a Level 1 Magic Beast Basic meaning this was the weakest of the magic beast. Based on what Vance said it was probably border line intermediate but still fell in the basic category. He was going to get revenge on this whole damn empire wasn’t he? He was going to take down the person who threw him in here. He didn’t know who it was but they must be powerful to instill fear in everyone around them. They must be powerful if Vance can’t get to them even though he is at the peak of the Source Core. Could he be afraid of a single Level 1 Magic Beast? No…..As Aker contemplated his back firmed up and his leg that had been shaking dug into the ground while his knees slightly bent. Aker started leaning forward and his fake big smile started shining as the light reflected off his teeth with a truly glorious confident smile.
Surprise was reflected in the Fire Ape’s eyes as it intuitively understood the change in Aker and more so understood what Aker’s posture meant. It couldn’t be possible…. Everything ran when they saw the majestic Fire Ape. When anything caught the dignity and grandeur of the Fire Ape they would bow down and beg for mercy but instead….
Aker swallowed down his saliva and from his slightly bent knee position sprung forward kicking up a pile of dirt and rock in the air.
A gasp could be heard through the entire arena as Aker put his shield forward and darted towards the Fire Ape. Aker believed that the Fire Ape being at basically the lowest level of the human Source Core couldn’t extend his flame out and attack with it. Source Core magic fighters could also use the elements on their body and weapons but they couldn’t extend out the attack through the atmosphere. This being his first attack in his first fight with a magic beast he didn’t want to risk it and led with his shield just in case the Fire Ape could launch a fire attack at Aker from a distance.
As Aker closed the distance it must have enraged the Fire Ape that Aker had trampled on his dignity by attacking as the Fire Ape took its massive closed hands and beat them against its chest as it screamed to the heavens. The roar of this Fire Ape was deafening as the sound of it echoed through the approaching Aker.
With sword in hand Aker was aiming for the Fire Apes left knee where a gap existed between the armor. If he could cut across its knee, he could heavily injure it limiting its movability. This move would serve two purposes, first Aker could injure the beast which in and of itself was noteworthy but secondly and more importantly he could slow it down which played perfectly into Aker’s strength.
As Aker approached his eyes locked in on the left knee, he could see the Fire Ape posturing and preparing to attack Aker as he approached. Aker seeing the posture of the Fire Ape change decided to follow the line of the Fire Apes new posture and his eyes caught something completely unexpected…. both arms of the Fire Ape were swinging down as if though to break the earth. Aker looking at his speed and the speed of the Fire Ape realized he had not accounted for one major difference between the Kulga and the Fire Ape….The Fire Ape’s arms were ridiculous long, like stupid laughable long.
‘It’s not going to work; I can’t reach his knees right now. If I go straight at it now, I’ll be killed!’ Akers intuition was telling him that despite his advantage in speed it wouldn’t allow him to get into attacking distance of the Fire Ape just like that.
As the arms of the Fire Ape continued swinging down Aker realized that he wasn’t going to be able to get away cleanly as he didn’t have enough time to stop and back away, he was already committed.
‘I don’t know what to do, I can’t go back.’ Aker thought to himself as he watched the already massive fist become larger in his eyes. As he took another step towards certain death Aker had a sudden epiphany.
‘Why would I want to go back? Isn’t my enemy right there in front of me? I already decided I was going to attack him, should I back away just because he has a bigger fist than me? No!’
Aker had come to a realization. If he decides to move forward, he shouldn’t allow anything to stop his movement. He wouldn’t just attack without reason and thought, that’s not what he was thinking. It was just that once his reason and thought led him to attack he shouldn’t allow anything or anyone stop him.
With this thought in mind and the idea that he was going to be pummeled Aker slid a couple of steps to his left and tilted his body to the side while moving his sword over his shoulder and parallel along his whole arm. At this point Aker had the sword pressed against the full length of his arm and was leaning away from the Fire Ape trying to minimize the impact.
As the Fire Ape’s arm finished crashing down it grazed against Aker and knocked him to the ground where he tumbled and rolled a few times while at the same time the Fire Apes arm exploded out blood as it ran across Akers sword.
Aker stumbled back to his feet and once again took a stance bending his knees slightly and digging his back foot into the ground holding his sword up in an attack position.
As the crowd watched Aker tumbling on the ground and the blood exploding in the air they were silent however upon seeing not only Aker stand back on his feet but take a stance indicating that he was going to attack they erupted in cheers.
Aker who started laughing taunted the Fire Ape “That hurt you more than me didn’t it?” as a cloud of dust and rock flew behind him, he pressed forward.