Chapter 37: Ch. 27, Pt. 2- Jareth vs. Mort
Eventually, my turn came around to fight after just a few minor matches in the arena. None of the participants were especially notable, and the fights were a bit lackluster, with both sides having relatively normal tier 3 summons.
After all that I had already done and seen, tier 3's just didn't do much for me. That's not to say that tier 3's couldn't be dangerous or powerful, but the majority just weren't a challenge with my lineup, even if I didn't use the especially strong ones.
It was hard not to be overconfident against foes like that. I still had a healthy amount of respect for them and tried to be as cautious as possible so I don't lose as a result of something that should have been completely preventable. I wouldn't ever be able to forgive myself for making a mistake like that during such an important and public event, I would take this battle completely seriously.
It was quite in the hallways along the way to the locker room, with the dull roar of yelling people from the stands in the background. Only a few people were milling around to buy greasy food from vendors or to use the toilet before getting back to the fights.
I was using this chance to psyche myself up and get in the zone as it were. I usually did this before going into a monster biome, it helped me stay sharp and focused on any potential fights. It helped to keep the adrenaline from clouding my mind and making me panic, it also gave me an advantage in reaction time compared to someone treating the fight normally.
Hyperfocus like this was hard to maintain, but all of my constant fighting in unknown and potentially dangerous environments had tempered me. Facing against monsters much stronger than myself had allowed my mind to turn this skill into something I could call up at nearly a moment's notice.
I was struggling to get into this mindset at the moment because it wasn't a life or death battle and that was throwing me off a bit. My normal combat mindset is to kill any enemies as fast and efficiently as possible, but this wasn't really necessary in this staged battle setting.
Finding a balance between casual and deadly serious was a lot like mental juggling with one arm, it was possible but much harder than it initially seems. But enough about my emo thought process, I had finally made it to the room with only a few others still present in it.
They were watching the screen intently to study or be entertained until it was their time to fight. Everyone seemed to be in their battle clothes, and were all the more intimidating for it. Had I not already fought in a bloody and deadly war, I might have been a bit intimidated by them.
However, it was a bit hard to work up the effort to be scared of someone on your level when you've faced off against monsters that could easily destroy buildings like they were made of paper. A few turned my way to examine me, to which I nodded at them as I went to take a seat on one of the benches.
It seems like luck wasn't on my side, because right as my but touched the wooden bench, the fight ended and one of the colosseum attendants was calling for me to come out for my fight. It could have been worse though, I could have entirely missed the call for me to fight and lost by forfeit.
With a sigh, I get up off the hard seat and walk over to the woman in a business suit with a clipboard who had called my name. She waved her arm in a move it gesture and I followed without bothering to say a word. I was too focused and tense to bother responding or even being polite, all I had on my mind was the fight and potential strategies I could use against my opponent.
What I knew was that Wallace Benson was my opponent, and his tier 4 summon was a dullahan. What I knew about them is that they are armored undead who carried their severed head in one of their arms. They were masters of one-handed swords and were deceivingly strong, the undead part also made them rather hard to kill or even defeat for that matter.
I'll probably have Jareth test out their strengths and to see if it had any other abilities that might be dangerous to my 4-armed ogre. It would be interesting to see if skill would be able to overcome overwhelming force from two weapons that held the force of two hands each.
I had no doubt that it would end up a close-quarters match, which didn't leave much room for strategy. If worst came to worse and Jareth was being oppressed, I'd have him use the berserker skill and step back a bit to let him duel it out. The skill was overwhelmingly useful against a single opponent with little room to escape. I didn't make the rules, but all is fair in love and war I guess.
The dirt floor of the arena was similar to what I remembered last time, except for a few recent holes made from the earlier fights. The sun was still bright overhead, and the roaring of the crowd was deafening as a result of a bronze league match being promised to them.
With more than enough room for me to summon Jareth, I did just that and reveled in the yells of appreciation that came from most of the audience, except for a few critics who shut up after a glare from me. There's always going to be critics wherever you go, so I didn't worry too much about what they thought.
Jareth seemed to be enjoying the crowd's reaction, and even gave a war cry to rile them up some more. The hulking silver humanoid carrying two weapons almost as large as me made for quite a sight, and I couldn't help but smile remembering when he had been so little and undeveloped compared to the summon standing in front of me.
As this was going one, my opponent came from his end of the arena as well. Cheers instantly began as soon as he was spotted, and all attention went from me to him in a heartbeat. If I were a more vain person, I would be a bit miffed about being forgotten like a moldy piece of cheese in the back of the fridge.
Who was I kidding, I was a bit mad at first but looking at my opponent, I couldn't stay angry at such a nice looking person. He had a humble smile on his face and waved to all of his fans in the crowd, his outfit choice was rather interesting as well.
He wore khaki pants, a white long-sleeved shirt, and a green woolen sweater-vest. His physical features were no less eye-catching, he had a rather long nose and ears, and his teeth were large but pearly white. He didn't exactly look like he was participating in what amounted to a gladiator match, but who was I to judge, if the man wanted to wear odd clothes then all the more power to him.
At least that was my thought before he brought out a slice of swiss cheese from one of his pockets and began nibbling on it like he was a mouse. I was rather off-put by the eccentric figure, but compared to the man, his summon was rather normal. That's not to say that the undead warrior wasn't special or intimidating, but it was hard to be super impressed by its' looks when his summoner is acting like a mouse who learned to put on clothes.
The dullahan had a dark blue almost black armor and a pale cadaver blue skin shade to match the outfit. Its' head was tucked under one arm with no helmet on, and in the other was a dull silver longsword that would have been a two-handed weapon on a normal person. The armor was dented and cracked along some places, but for some reason, it didn't seem weak or unstable in the least.
"Good day mister summoner." (Wallace)
"Ummm, Hello to you too?" (Thomas)
"Would you care for some cheese? I've got some swiss in me pocket, and a wheel of cheddar in my storage if you would care for that more." (Wallace)
I couldn't help but respond politely to his question despite being extremely confused, "I'm alright, thank you for the offer though."
"Suit yourself I guess, more cheese for me then. Mort, would you be so kind as to cut me a slice of cheddar from this wheel. I can't eat swiss when fighting, it gives me a terrible stomach ache." (Wallace)
I was extremely baffled by this person, but I guess I seemed nice despite the oddities surrounding his entire existence. I warned Jareth through our link to do his best not to kill the dullahan, I wouldn't want to be rude to someone who had been friendly so far to me despite his eccentricities.
Wallace and his bluntly named dullahan Mort, whose name meant death, if what little I could recall from French class was correct, stepped up to their line to get ready for the start of the fight. I wasn't going to judge the guy, but it was almost like calling a slime 'gooey', not terribly imaginative. Not all names can be winners I guess, I just hope my summons would come to appreciate the thought I had put into theirs.
I decided it would probably be wise for Jareth and I to do the same, and so we also stepped up. There was a referee to the far side of the arena preparing to begin the match, he was quite far away in what I assumed to be well-warranted caution. After all, it wasn't just a simple fight, it was potentially mortal combat between two tier 4 summons who could easily kill him with a stray attack.
"Both Summoners, are you Ready?" Boomed the referee with a surprisingly loud announcing voice.
Both of us just nodded without taking our eyes off of each other, and as soon as the ref saw our confirmation, he blew the whistle to begin the highly anticipated fight. I was not only hyped to fight against a well-established summoner with a fairly strong tier 4 monster, but I was also looking forward to the money I would get if I won.
I didn't plan on losing, so the money was as good as mine, and Jareth seemed to agree as he charged the undead warrior with surprising speed for someone his size. The dullahan proved to be much faster than Jareth, and dodged his charge with little effort while also leaving a decent cut along my humanoid tank's abdomen.
A little wound like that wasn't too problematic, what was concerning was the skill and speed of the headless undead. Mort was obviously much more experienced fighting one on one, and it wouldn't matter how hard Jareth could hit if he couldn't land a single attack on his foe.
"Jareth, don't charge in like a barbarian, you're better than that. Fight him properly, and use your reach to your advantage, no point in having extra arms if you don't use them."
Luckily he was willing to listen, and the titanium ogre got into a proper stance and walked forward without leaving any apparent openings. Both weapons were raised and prepared to swing, the dullahan did the same as Jareth, and had his single dulled metallic longsword at the ready in front of it.
The head of Mort remained in the crook of his left arm and had the same static expression on his face that he had before the fight, it was almost infuriating to look at even for me. Jareth had a much quicker temper and roared out before swinging his weapons continuously, all the while, Mort remained expressionless and almost effortlessly parried the heavy hammers.
The dullahan was smart enough to not try and get in a contest of strength, instead, it was using a soft method of fighting where Jareth's wild strength was used against him. Each parry was followed up with a quick swipe of the sword, and Jareth was left bloodier and bloodier as time continued.
His regeneration was doing its' job, but there was too many wounds for it to address and was quickly running out of reserves to heal him with. It wasn't looking good for my summon, and it was quickly becoming apparent just how different the bronze league was to normal colosseum fights.
Not only were the summons at the 4th tier at least, but their skill was far higher than most. When it came to the higher tiers, fighting skill became as important if not more so than abilities and physical attributes. There was only so much room to go, so having a fighter that could continue to advance in other aspects than tier was extremely important.
I now saw the significance of this test and the bronze league, I had taken it lightly since I now had a tier 4 summon, but amongst those on or above my level, I was still too inexperienced to fight them. Despite this realization, I had no intention of losing and decided to risk it all on my next move.
Jareth was on the losing side of this battle so far and wouldn't last much longer. None of the wounds he received were especially deep due to his naturally bolstered defense, but the sheer amount of wounds was making up for their lack of power. My ogre was trying as hard as possible, but he was simply out skilled in combat and too slow to fight his opponent effectively.
Deciding to bet it all, I inhaled deeply before shouting, "Jareth go berserk mode!".
He looked back with a manic grin towards me while ignoring the damage occurring due to his current lapse in attention. I could only smile back myself as I saw his skin begin to redden in a weblike pattern until he was the color of a red chili. His smile and eyes changed as well, no longer was there a smiling and excited ogre, in his place was a manic and angry brute with his sizable teeth bared in aggression.
His muscles bulged slightly, and the cuts from the dullahans sword were becoming shallower as time went on. A frightening scream of madness and rage came from berserker Jareth, and he charged forward with an even more impressive set of physical abilities than before due to his new state.
No longer was Mort able to keep up with Jareth, and he was quickly forced to retreat to avoid being crushed. Luck wasn't on the undead's side apparently as the enraged ogre's mace managed to nick the severed head that was being held in the left arm of the dullahan. Said head went flying back against the wall of the arena, and even more surprising was the reaction of the headless undead.
The body acted for lack of a better expression like a chicken with its' head cut off, which seemed to be the actual case here. Apparently the head of the dullahan was used to see, and by knocking the head loose, Jareth had managed to blind the undead.
This obviously wasn't intentional on Jareth's part, since it would be a miracle if he was able to have a coherent thought in the state he currently was in. He also didn't let up on the disadvantaged undead and began to wale on the armored form of the dullahan.
The crazed ogre had even forgotten the gravity function of his hammer and was simply swinging at the other summon. Great clangs were heard as metal impacted on metal, and the armor quickly began to creak and chip from the frequency and strength of the blows.
Apparently, the head was situated well enough on accident that there was some vision available for the summon to direct the main body. It used the force of a blow from the unactivated gravity hammer to scramble for its' head before Jareth could intercept it. It would practically be a sitting duck without its head to guide it.
Miracles never cease, as Mort was finally collect all of himself and fight effectively once again. Jareth continued to hammer down blows that were either dodged or redirected, the strain on the comparatively diminutive summon was apparent as each blow knocked his sword a bit farther and he began to be slower to dodge.
Jareth was still full steam ahead and continued his barrage of blows, and just when it seemed that the fight was over, something rather unexpected happened. Mort raised his head from under his arm towards Jareth and let loose a burst of black fire on him.
Screams were immediate as Jareth screamed out in pain and misery as the flames ate away at him. He had managed to raise an arm to defend part of his face, but the flames still managed to eat away at the forearm and right side of Jareth's face.
I thought that I had witnessed rage from Jareth, especially when he activated his berserker skill, but this was something else entirely. All screams ceased from Jareth's partly damaged mouth, at first I thought that he was unconscious or his tongue or throat was damaged as well, but I was extremely wrong.
Jareth had literally entered a new state of rage, this was the cold and calculated sort of anger that masked a raging inferno underneath. It seemed that Jareth was in complete control despite the berserker skill, but instead, all of his anger was directed solely at the dullahan that had burned and half-blinded him.
A new stage of the berserker skill seemed to have emerged when Jareth was especially pissed at a particular enemy, he had returned to a semblance of his normal self, enough to think logically while retaining the extra-strength that his anger afforded him. It was the best of both worlds, and I felt especially bad for Mort since he was the current target of Jareth.
The dullahan seemed to of realized he had screwed up judging by the startled expression on his previously expressionless face. It backed up quickly while Jareth slowly stalked towards it, and eventually a wall met the back of the slightly scared undead. I never thought I would see the day that the mostly unfeeling undead would express fear, but sure enough, it was written plainly on Mort's face.
The cat and mouse game ended quickly, and Jareth finally closed in while leaving little room for Mort to escape. The first swing of his mace left a whistling sound as it disturbed the air from the force and speed it was swung. There was almost no time for the dullahan to react, and what did end up happening was him raising his sword in an attempt to block or stall the incoming weapon.
What happened, in reality, is the mace barreled through the dullahan's paltry defenses and smashed the left arm holding its' head. The arm was pulped within the armor, and the head was knocked far away to places unknown. The next blow was the gravity hammer, and Jareth had enough mental faculties to turn on the gravity function, and the resulting impact created a giant gong-like sound as the chest plate completely cracked and sent the undead warrior flying.
Jareth rushed up to the downed opponent, when I heard Wallace to declare, "I forfeit the match!". It was quite clear who the winner was in the end even if the start wasn't so great, and now I had the problem of reining in a rogue summon intent on demolishing the opponent who burned him.
"Jareth, calm down! You won, the match is over!" I did my best to get to him, and aside from him glancing at me for a moment, he didn't stop his march to the downed undead.
Seeing that nothing was working yet, I ran towards the marching ogre and got within unsummoning range and immediately did so. I didn't think I'd make it in time to stop him, but luckily the fight had taken a lot out of him, and the final blows did, even more, to tax the already down beaten ogre.
I didn't want to turn a friendly if competitive match into a feud or bloodbath, and I couldn't be happier that I had wone while also managing not to kill the opponent's summon. It was a possibility we were all aware of, but none of us wished for it to happen to us. Having a summon die would waste any effort they had put in with the summon since the last time it had evolved.
The aftermath was a blur with me being declared the victor to the cheers of the crowd after seeing such an intense performance. All the while in my head, I was thinking about Jareth's newest berserker skill development and the possibilities that came with it.
I continued to think about this until I reached the stands near Alexis and she wrapped me in a large hug. It appears that the fight was just as nerve-wracking for her as it was for me, but we could both be happy for now that I had won. I also looked forward to the money I would be making off of my bet and the fight itself.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Porkiepie
Porkiepie I powered through all the aches and general awfulness to crank out this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it, and that it showed you that there's much more than just tiers to the world. Thomas is learning this the hard way, and if it weren't for the berserker ability, Jareth likely would have been defeated without even leaving a scratch.
He was getting a bit too much of an ego, so he needed to be given a knock or two to humble him some. Hopefully the lesson sticks, but I don't know if it will considering he still ended up winning, maybe I should nip that in the bud soon. After all, no one likes an undeservedly cocky main character.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone