Clang! Clang! Clang!
"...Come on, cut him up!"
"...Stop backing down, and attack, you coward!"
In the loud Combat Lounge, two players were in the middle of an intense battle, and their blood was shed all across the fighting pit.
The players, who were spectating, shouted at the two players as they had also bet their valuable Square Coins on the players they thought would win.
"...Huff!"
The green-haired player lunged forwards with a spear, thrusting it forward, but his opponent pinned the spear under his armpit and, with a quick twist, disarmed the green-haired player.
"No, pick the spear up, you fool!"
"I’m not losing 1000 Square Coins because of your weak ass!"
The black-haired player let out a mocking laugh as he taunted him, picked up the spear, and tossed it inside his inventory.
He then twirled his claw-shaped daggers in his fingers, and his supporters were cheering him on from the sidelines.
They were all smiles.
"It’s over! He won!"
"Hahaha, I am making bank today!"
"Fuck, yeah!"
Silently backing away, the green-haired player grabbed a handful of sand from the ground and slowly backed till his back touched the cage.
In that moment, the black-haired player lunged forward with the daggers, and the green-haired player threw the sand into his eyes.
"Ahhh!"
It stunned the black-haired player, and he blindly swung his daggers, missing everything as the green-haired player had already walked behind him.
The green-haired player put him in a chokehold, and with his insane strength, he snapped his neck with a sickening crack.
"..."
"..."
"..."
It turned silent in the Combat Lounge, but a moment later, several players roared into cheers as their player won.
"Good job, hahahaha!"
"I AM RICH!"
The green-haired player combed his hair back with his hand and got his spear back from the dead player, and then he left the cage.
It was possible to decide whether the players wanted to fight till death or till a certain health point.
They decided to fight to the death, and the winner would get all of the loser’s possessions, and this time around, the green-haired player won.
"...This is pretty intense."
Fang Raon said from the sidelines.
They were standing right where the black-haired player’s supporters also were, and they looked heartbroken at the loss.
Some of them lost all their money.
"...Why don’t we go kill that bastard?"
"...Yeah, let’s do that..."
They whispered and headed in the direction of where the green-haired player went.
"Morons... They’ll just get banned from the city if they attack someone outside this cage."
Machary clicked his tongue and shook his head.
’...I am in need of money, so should I also gamble? Hell no, I should fight instead and wager money.’
Fang Raon thought.
However, he wasn’t quite sure whether he wanted to participate in this craziness because it would just cause him to make enemies.
There were several really strong players hanging around the Combat Lounge, and if he angered any of them, he was as good as dead.
"...The next match is starting."
Machary said and looked at the board.
[Orion vs. Abigail]
[Orion - Level 2 - Tracker (Ranger) - Win Record: 3 W - 1L]
[Abigail - Level 2 - Spellcaster (Mage) - Win Record: 4 W - 0 L]
"There is at least one Mage, and she is level 2. It could be what we’re looking for."
Machary said.
Fang Raon nodded and turned his attention to the fight pit.
The fighting pit was about thirty meters long and wide, so there was plenty of space for a good fight.
At that moment, Orion and Abigail entered the pit.
One was holding a bow made of brownish wood. It looked expensive, especially the markings on the handle.
On the other side of the pit, Abigail wasn’t holding the wand like the Mages were, but instead she had a floating grimoire.
"Put your bets on the player you think will take this one!"
Master Gambler shouted, his voice booming over the crowd, and the players were putting their money down.
"...500 on Abigail!"
"...Fuck it, 5000 on Orion. It’s time for me to become rich!"
"...11,000 on Abigail!"
Fang Raon and Machary didn’t bet. They only stood and watched in case Abigail was the person they were looking for for their party.
"FIGHT!"
In that moment, the fight started.
It didn’t take long for Orion to start just shooting arrows, and his arm moved swiftly—it twisted behind for his quiver, extracted an arrow, placed it on the string, and pulled it back.
Swoosh!
Arrows kept flying.
"..."
Abigail stood without doing anything and waited for Orion to just shoot those arrows, and there were soon five arrows flying straight at her.
She then waved her hand, and her grimoire started flipping through the pages.
It landed at a page that had "Earth Wall" written on it, and she quickly cast it.
A wall of earth rose up in front of her, and it blocked all the arrows that were heading her way. None of them got through.
"...She is smart. She waited for Orion to waste his arrows before making her move. Orion thought that since she wasn’t doing anything, it would be easy to hit her, but he was very wrong."
Machary said.
"It must suck being Ranger. When they shoot those arrows, they are just bleeding money since they have to pay for more arrows after each fight."
Fang Raon said with a wry smile.
"That’s the biggest problem of Low Ranker Rangers, but once they evolve to High Rankers, they can use mana to create magic arrows."
Machary said.
"Oh, is that so? Very fascinating."
Fang Raon said with surprise.
In that moment, Abigail jumped to the top of the Earth Wall, and her grimoire flipped through pages until stopping at the "Quicksand" spell.
The ground turned into quicksand, and Orion started sinking into the ground, and he couldn’t do anything!"
"Magic Missile!"
Abigail shouted as a bolt of magical energy shot out from her grimoire towards Orion, and it blasted him out of the quicksand.
[Match Over!]
[Winner is Player Abigail!]
It wasn’t a fight to the death, so Orion, once he dropped under 10 HP, was declared the loser of the match.
"She is good."
Fang Raon said.
"So, are we trying to recruit her?"
Machary asked.
"...Let’s try."