The Tortollan smiled at Karl, his mouth extending all the way across his head.
“I am Donald, what might your name be, human warrior?” He asked.
“My name is Karl. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Donald.”
The Tortollan laughed. “You might not be saying that in a minute.”
Karl shrugged. “We will see. I just hope that a cracked shell won’t leave you in too bad of a condition. From what I remember, snapping turtles don’t have a skeleton inside their shell.”
The Tortollan looked vaguely insulted at being compared to a common snapping turtle, but he didn’t dignify Karl’s taunt with a response.
Johann led them to the arena ring, and Morrisa called ten peak Ascended fighters through.
“If my man loses, I will pay the customary double fee. If not, there is no point in delaying.” She insisted.
Johann nodded. “Fine by me. They might as well get started. This fight might take a few minutes.”
Karl and Donald squared off, with the Minotaur Overlord as a referee.
“Fighters ready? Bring up your defences and we will start.”
Karl activated Flaming Body, Eternal Lightning, Haste, Terrorize and Brutality at the same time, then nodded.
The two beastkin both looked shocked when Karl expanded to be close to the same size as his opponent, but Donald didn’t look concerned. Tortollan expressions didn’t change much, but his body language said that he thought the size expansion was just a trick to give Karl longer reach.
“Begin.”
The two combatants launched toward each other, neither trying to dodge, and two mighty blows landed.
Eternal Lightning flared as it was nearly shattered by a blow to Karl’s left shoulder, but Karl’s fist landed in the centre of the Tortollan’s chest, and the stout beast was lifted off his feet and tossed backward into the grass, sliding on his back shell for five metres before tucking his head inside his shell and flipping onto to his feet with a pale white barrier flickering around him.
He was a bit more cautious as he advanced, shifting positions, so Karl’s darting jabs couldn’t hit him squarely again.
“What did he hit him with? I’ve never seen a Tortollan put on his back with one punch.” Niall asked as the two Royal Rank fighters gauged each other’s skills.
Ophelia considered it for a few seconds. “Likely [Bone Crusher], increased by the same buffs that he uses on his beasts, since he’s expanded his own size like he does for me in bear form.”
“Ah, armour bypass. That makes sense. A Weretiger likely would have been a worse matchup for him. That’s what I was expecting her to pick.”
The Minotaur gave them an annoyed look as Karl shifted targets at the last instant and met Donald’s punch with his own fist, sending shockwaves out from the two fighters before the Tortollan staggered back, clutching his shattered hand.
It was quickly healing as Donald dodged and focused his energy on the injured limb.
Monk Class internal healing wasn’t as good as a cleric spell, but it appeared to be as good as Bestial Regeneration, just more energy intensive.
Donald was breathing heavily by the time his fist was healed, and a quick jab from Karl made his barrier flicker completely out of existence for over a second.
But the Monk was deceptively fast, and he managed to dodge enough hits to keep Karl from following it up to finish the fight.
His breathing evened out, and his barrier came back as Donald focused on defence while he looked for an opening that wouldn’t let Karl sacrifice his own body to counterattack.
That double barrier over Karl made it a losing proposition to trade punches like that.
Karl took advantage of his need to focus on defence, and chased the Tortollan around the ring, shocking him with Chain Lightning every time they made even the slightest bit of contact.
Most of the effect was being blocked by the barrier, but Karl could see that Donald’s muscles were beginning to twitch with every hit as his defences weakened, and the Tortollan slowly became exhausted.
With [Eternal Lightning] Karl was still feeling as fresh as when he started the fight, though a bit hungry.
Karl hadn’t realized how much time had passed until he spun behind his opponent to rain a flurry of attacks down on Donald’s shell, letting [Bone Crusher] and [Shatter] with the [Crushing Blows] enhancement do their work on his internal organs.
That was when he noticed that there were ten freshly advanced Commanders waiting for the fight to end.
The internal shockwaves sent Donald to his shell, limbs pulled inside and spitting blood, as Karl backed away.
Twenty seconds on the ground was out of the fight, and with the lingering tremors in his body, Karl could tell that his opponent was doing the best that he could just to keep his organs from liquifying.
Marissa sighed and signalled the end of the fight. As Karl retreated, she used healing splash to coat the monk in power, and he collapsed on the ground, resting on his back shell as he could finally begin to recover and not curl up with his limbs retracted in pain.
The Overlord Rank Minotaur stared at Karl for a few seconds before nodding.
“You are more crafty than you look, human. To think that you wouldn’t try to break the shell, but to attack through it to the softer parts of the body. I will be certain to add this lesson to our training.” She announced, then easily picked the two hundred kilo turtle man up in her arms and passed him through the portal to someone on the other side.
“Now, the matter of payment.” She reluctantly sighed, before producing one large box and a small one, no bigger than the palm of Karl’s hand.
The first she handed to Johann, who opened it and nodded in satisfaction, but the second she held out to Ahmad.
“Don’t deny yourself any longer, little mage. Come home with me.” She announced, then opened the small box to reveal an absolutely stunning wedding ring, with a large central diamond surrounded by seven smaller coloured gems.
The mage sighed and shook his head. “My answer hasn’t changed. I am quite happily single, and intend to remain that way.”
The Minotaur snorted in annoyance and stomped back through the portal, followed by her team.
As it closed, it was clear that the other two Overlords were doing their very best not to laugh at Ahmad.
“Laugh it up. Next time, it might be you with a crazy Minotaur stalker,” the mage grumbled.
Johann gave him a sympathetic look. “Why do you think that I wear this helmet whenever we’re meeting with new people? I can’t have my handsome face making them fall for me.”
Not even Colonel Valerie could resist laughing a little at that. The Overlord known as the Shining Knight was nearly the picture perfect handsome warrior stereotype, and he knew it.
It might have made him arrogant, but he was also an Overlord, and that was bound to affect the Ego of anyone who managed to make it to that level of power.
Niall snapped his fingers to get everyone’s attention. “Alright, let’s hope that is the last of our visitors for the day. Morrisa will inform the rest of her countrymen and their allies about the outcome, and the details of the dungeon, in the next few hours.
After that, we will see what happens. They might send a few more teams with payment, as it is a large nation. But they might hold off for a few more days.”
Just what Karl needed. More practice. If only he could send the rest of the team out. Thor and Remi both had ideas that might help them advance, but nobody wanted to let them fight.
