As I did, I had just enough time to bring up my axe to deflect the blow that was thrown at me. The fool I’d seen fight earlier that day, Randy the Reveler, was gunning for me, and had thought it would be smart to kill me before I saw him coming.
When I’d stepped into the ring, I’d told myself to keep my cool, but the idiots’ low-handed attack pissed me off.
I blocked a few of his attacks, waiting for him to use one of the skills I knew so well. Sure enough, I saw his blade flash out as he triggered Sunder. Activating Dodge at the perfect time, Randy’s greatsword missed me.
Sunder, like many skills, took a certain amount of time to perform. This skill was quick, but to reset and attack again or use another skill would take a least a full second. That gave me plenty of time.
I activated Whirlwind.
Randy recognized the move and managed to duck under the first of the strikes. But what he didn’t realize was that the ability tripled a single attack, and when dual-wielding, as I was, that effectively gave me six attacks.
My axes fanned out before me, the second strike grazing off his sword and clipping the side of his head. The third and fourth attacks tore through his unarmored chest, and the fifth sent the man’s head to the ground. The sixth attack struck air—the foolish warrior was already falling.
Taking a moment to catch my breath, I realized I had finished my opponent quicker than most of the other competitors. Several were still fighting one on one, and a few others were teamed up, whittling down a single opponent.
Nobody was close to me at present, so I glanced back at the orc. His body was marked with an assortment of shallow wounds, and though the elves looked winded, and one had a deep gash down his thigh, it seemed to be a losing battle. That wouldn’t do at all.
I rushed over and caught the injured elf off guard. I cut off one of his sword arms at the wrist with one axe, then sunk my second axe into his chest. The elf’s chainmail vest blunted the attack, but the bones of his chest caved in.
The orc looked up at me, pain and fury in his eyes. I gave him a wink then turned to find another foe.
His laughter exploded behind me, loud enough to part water, and I joined him with a laugh of my own. Maybe I had been wrong. This was turning out to be a blast.
As I observed the carnage of the pit once more, I was surprised to see several more players down. I couldn’t get a good count, but there couldn’t have been more than eight or nine fighters left standing.
I dimly heard the jeer and tussle of the crowd above and spotted another worthy target. This one was a female tabaxi, her furry body bare but for her gleaming steel breastplate. She held a long, thin sword, a needle of a weapon. She grinned at me, her white fangs outlined in blood.
When I engaged this enemy, I knew right away that she would not fall easily. Just the way she trotted toward me, barefooted and light as a leaf on the wind, made it obvious her dexterity was through the roof.
She made the first move, three probing thrusts that flickered against my armor. Each one struck its mark. The last managed to lift up one of the scales on my armor and pierce me, though only an inch or so of the blade sank into my thigh.
I tried to block the next attacks, but the tabaxi sidestepped my efforts and activated some ability I hadn’t seen before. She struck out at me with her offhand, long claws raking across my chest. I gasped and felt grooves tearing through my flesh.
When I looked down, my armor was still in place, but I could distinctly feel blood trickle down, covering my belly as I panted. Some skills could ignore armor, at least in other video games I’d played, but now, seeing it performed on my own fleshy self, the attack seemed unfair.
Darting out to land another strike, the cat woman said, “Your stupid bear killed a flame leopard today. It is fitting that I will kill you now.”
I grunted and backed off, glancing side to side to make sure nobody else was nearby. Then I focused on the kitty that danced around on her feet.
I attacked and used Sunder afterward, but the fighter just dodged easily, then repaid me with a few more strikes. I was going to use Whirlwind, hoping to get lucky, but I had the feeling she would evade that, too. She was too quick.
An idea began to form in my head.
I threw a few wild attacks to give her the impression that I was getting desperate. She took the bait and came in to punish me again with a lighting-fast counterattack. But when she closed the distance, I used Rampage and grabbed her sword in my hand. My gauntlet resisted the cut, but I felt the bite of steel grind through. Using her momentum to aid me, I yanked on her blade and made the cat woman stumble toward me. I punched out with the end of my axe, shattering her breastplate. She wasn’t so fast after that.
I bent over to recover, gasping to catch my breath and feeling the dozen or so wounds the cabrón had left me with.
One pitched battle was underway on the far end of the arena. The orc holding the halberd was backing away from the skilled thrusts of a fighter with a long spear. I couldn’t see much about them other than that they were armored head to foot, only a thin visor slit in their helm.
To my left, a
