Sinatro
patreon
Chapter 142. Round One!
🕑 Added 2025-08-22 17:33:24 +0000 UTCRafe had nothing to do at all these days. He could only sit down and try to improve his soul quality.
But he would get tired every two hours or so. When he got tired he only sat back and looked around the dark.
The cell was too uncomfortable to sleep in, so he could only doze off sporadically and wake up when his head shifted uncomfortably. Sometimes the muscles in his neck would ache suddenly, or sometimes he'd hit his head on the wall.
Once he had enough mental power, he would dive back into his soul.
At some point, he thought about maybe using his insight into molten metal to mess with the chains. But he soon found it was still too much for him. He didn't want to risk damaging his soul and body, but mostly his soul. It was the only way he had to relieve his boredom, if only just a little.
He didn't know how many days had passed when they came for him.
They were still E grades, so they were quite comfortable taking off all his shackles.
He took the time to stretch his stiff muscles a bit. His hair was long and wild, and probably no one was going to touch it. Perhaps he could hide something small in there.
While he was stretching, he activated his soul void ability as fast as he could. He put a bunch of seeds directly into his mouth, pretending to be yawning. Sneaking an eye, no one seemed to have noticed. Swallowing them whole was better than chewing, because this way they'd take a little longer to release their energy into his soul.
He didn't have the time to cultivate and store the energy in his soul reserve just then. Anyway, now that it was possible, he just needed to find a good time to get his portable fight simulator out of his soul void. It was a reward he got after clearing the fourth floor of the tower in the Skyholm trial.
He had a lot of other rewards from back then that he had not used yet. Like the Phoenix egg he wasn't sure he was ever going to use. He had no idea what he'd ever use it for.
He remembered he had never actually got the device he wanted out of his void storage before, so he had no idea even how big it was. He needed to wait for a moment of privacy to get it. Maybe during the fight?
He expected the fight to be leisurely. After all, how could any F grade cause trouble for him. Not to mention they were most likely a mage. Rafe could even see the movement of mana mages stirred up when they were preparing to cast spells. He could tell the likely affinity of the spell, its target, its strength.
With a little more experience fighting mages, Rafe was sure he could learn how to dismantle any mage near his level. Even mages a grade above would be no problem.
The mages on Primus gave him a very bad impression of mages. Mostly these E grades. One day he'd be killing mages a whole grade up, he swore. And it all started this day.
Rafe wasn't into the whole killing thing. He could kill monsters, but only for the experience, and most monsters gave very little experience anyway. As for killing sentient beings, even in the Skyholm trial, he had always avoided killing when it was possible.
Except times when he was too emotional to stop himself. Like every time he saw Filoria's face these days.
These slaves at the pits did nothing wrong to him, but they were going to die anyway. There was nothing he could do about that.
The fighting pits were no where near the spire.
After walking for almost an hour to get to the surface, Rafe was surprised when a bunch of flying beasts landed in front of his party.
He remembered seeing these beasts once before. In his visions of the history of Primus. The air Elemenoids spent centuries trying to protect the rest of their planet from these things, although the beasts had seemed more domineering in those visions. The current beasts were like babies in comparison.
Still, the Ma’la were quite impressive. They had tamed the beasts the air folk kept crying about.
He didn't really care about the direction of the pits. He instead closed his eyes and tried to control the spiritual energy trickling into his soul. It would dissipate at some point, so he needed every spare moment he could get to try and maximize amount of energy his reserve would have.
He didn't know how long they rode the air like that, but suddenly he felt the altitude drop. Then he felt the impact as the beast landed.
He opened his eyes and looked around, then he frowned.
They directly landed in the middle of a ridiculously large sand pit. He saw red socking in at some point far away. There was a group of servants carrying something wrapped in cloth, probably a body. And then he heard an amplified voice.
“And now we have the main event you've all been waiting for!”
He was interrupted by a loud uniform noise of cheering fans. And that was when Rafe noticed the fans. With the blue hair so crowded together, they looked like a sea. A sea of people watching Rafael and shouting their voiced hoarse. The blood lust was palpable.
And they weren't shouting to support him. After all, he killed a princess, and one with the purest blue hair. At least the common people who knew nothing of what happened in the palace wanted him dead.
“DIE! DIE! DIE!” went the chorus.
Rafe took a heavy breath as the creature on which he arrived left the arena.
So he was going to have to carry out his entire plan from here, he surmised. Not that it was a problem exactly. He could probably do it if he was fighting maybe a fire mage.
“...now, we know our dear criminal here is a warrior!” the announcer managed to get out over the crowd. “So we'll have him fighting with someone of that ilk! For fairness’ sake.”
“Boo, boo. Kill him!” Was the friendliest of the curses that followed this statement.
For his own part, Rafe only frowned. He was sure he was still going to fight a Primus resident, so they would still be able to use magic. He just needed a few moments hidden away to try and get the device from his soul void.
Depending on how small it was, he would decide whether to keep it somewhere on his body or to stuff it back into his storage.
“Of course we took this into account!” the announcer tried to placate the crowd. “There was a debate on whether we should give him a weapon or not. In the end, it was decided that he is a criminal who can't use magic, so he would have to fend for himself!”
And the crowd went wild.
“And his challenger?” the announcer continued. “You all know her! One hundred matches in the pits, one hundred wins! An absolute anomaly, an absolute beast! Zora the inferno!”
And the crowd shouted again. Only this time they were shouting in support, in elation.
Rafe rolled his eyes at the blue haired freaks supporting a red haired fighter, their absolute worst enemies. This was probably a first.
He studied the large scarred woman heading his way.
Name: Zora Arson (Elemenoid lvl. 75)
Class: Crimson berserker (Epic lvl. 75)
Rafe didn't try to see more. He didn't need to look too much at what skills the woman might try to trigger. He didn't need to see her highest stat.
The woman kept walking, and Rafe felt a sense of unease creeping down his throat. And not because he suddenly felt threatened by her.
“For those of you not in the know, Zora will be released after today!” the announcer screamed again.
And the crowd screamed after him as well.
Rafe frowned at that. He felt a bit of pity the poor woman had the misfortune to face him on her final chance. He even felt a little hesitant to kill her. She has likely been a slave since the system came to Primus about nine years ago from what Rafe knew. Now she had a chance to escape and yet Rafe was going to kill her. But why was she still walking towards him? Rafe felt the discomfort grow.
“Yes, yes, Zora will be released after she kills the criminal! Because remember, one of them must dieeee!”
“DIE! DIE! DIE!” the crowd chorused again.
When the woman was only a foot away, Rafe's eyes suddenly went wide.
He took a step back, his whole body trembling. He felt bile rise up in his throat.
Across from him, the woman paused for a moment and frowned down at him. She was taken aback by his behavior.
Rafe was too. From her reaction, she hadn't used any skill on him yet, yet he felt a sense of revulsion so strong he started to dry heave. He remembered he had not eaten anything in days.
Still, why the hell was he trembling at the mere thought of this woman getting close to him?
