The Fighting Pit

“Crazy bastard.”

When the half-dead corpse that could die at any moment smiled, the guard clicked his tongue.

“You’re completely broken.”

There were two types who could be relaxed in this place.

Either strong, or mentally gone.

The guard judged Pernok to be clearly the latter.

‘He killed the Red Zaka by stabbing its eye, was it?’

At the story that the collaborative work of a pale boy and a feeble old man had silenced the spectator seats, he’d thought, “So even monsters let their guard down before prey they’ve already caught.”

‘Boyle must have set the stage for them.’

The five people dragged here were far inferior to Boyle’s group, so there would be no second stroke of luck.

And above all.

“Keep your wits about you in the arena. The VIPs are coming to watch your match personally.”

Since VIPs who’d heard the news of them surviving twice were coming directly, they’d send out a monster that wouldn’t disappoint them.

“Eat well and fight spectacularly. Hahahaha!”

The guard laughed unpleasantly, threw some hard bread, and disappeared.

Pernok scanned the remaining newcomers.

‘They look even more useless than Boyle.’

All people who seemed to have nothing to do with exercise, being either undersized or fat.

Pernok picked up the bread without regret and sat in the corner.

“A-a fighting pit, nothing! I’m a former soldier! I’ve even hunted monsters!”

Suddenly, the pot-bellied man jumped up and shouted.

The people with despairing expressions gathered their gazes as if discovering a ray of hope.

“Is that really true?”

“I may have gained beer weight now! But back in my day, I attended all sorts of tactical lectures! If we gather together and use tactics, we can beat small and medium-sized monsters!”

Then the pot-bellied man turned to look at Pernok.

“You two are this room’s survivors?”

Pernok chewed his bread and answered dryly.

“Yeah.”

“What monster did you face before?”

“Red Zaka.”

“What weapons do they give us?”

“Shabby ones.”

If he was going to volunteer himself to death as bait, that was welcome.

He wasn’t in good enough shape to look after anyone besides Yak, so he gave perfunctory replies.

Then the pot-bellied man swaggered as if he’d become Room 15’s leader.

“…So that’s how you survived. Good, you two hold onto the monster’s feet like before.”

While the pot-bellied man anticipated various monsters and laid out what he called tactics in sloppy formations, Pernok whispered to Yak.

“We’ll do it like last time.”

“Won’t you cooperate with that man?”

“He’s so confident when he doesn’t even know what’ll come out. People like that usually lack substance.”

“Then why didn’t you say something?”

“I threw out a few test words. It would’ve been good to reflect them in tactics, but he wouldn’t even listen to me. That guy wants to rule this place like Boyle. Paying attention is a waste of time.”

“Really, is there no way to survive together with those people?”

When Yak asked pitifully, Pernok’s eyes became indifferent.

“Forgot already?”

Yak’s shoulders flinched.

“At first, there were seven people here.”

Yak, who’d been intoxicated with the excitement of surviving, realized the cold reality again.

“The fantasy of everyone surviving together is something you prattle about when you have the strength for it. Are we in any position to give advice?”

Though recovering, Pernok still broke into cold sweats from pain.

Yak was an old man who could barely swing a weapon.

“Five people died so we could live.”

“Right. That was it…”

“Besides, the people who run this place are furious now. They’ll send out something more cunning and stronger than the Red Zaka. I can’t guarantee I’ll keep you alive next time, old man. So always remember.”

Yak nodded with a heavy face.

“Words you can’t take responsibility for aren’t kindness—they’re bravado.”

And Pernok quietly observed his interior in the corner.

“Monsters are similar to humans. Intelligent ones hesitate when facing a group!”

The man’s monster lecture continued all night.

Most of it seemed like knowledge picked up somewhere, but people nodded and responded enthusiastically.

Before long, the man began ordering people around as if they were his subordinates, and not long after, Room 15’s match arrived.

* * *

When they entered the arena gripping rusted weapons, the spectators cheered.

“We’ve been waiting!”

“Survive this time too, Room 15!”

At the boiling heat, the men tensely watched the iron bars on the opposite side.

Grrrrind!

From inside the bars burst a black wolf the size of three adults combined.

“A Lamira Wolf!”

The pot-bellied man screamed.

“Mr. Marson, have you hunted that thing?”

The man, Marson, nodded while breaking into cold sweat.

“It’s my first time seeing the real thing, but I once heard about its weakness from a comrade who hunted a Lamira Wolf.”

“Is that really true?!”

“When Lamira Wolves are cornered, they have a habit of opening their maws wide! We have to aim for that moment and shove our weapons in its mouth!”

He’d derived a method close to the correct answer, but there was no explanation of the process—how to catch it.

“Spread out and maintain distance! When it comes for one person, that’s when we swarm from all sides!”

Spreading a wide encirclement before a predator wouldn’t look threatening at all.

It was just sloppy tactics that seemed picked up by observation somewhere, but it created time to thoroughly observe the Lamira Wolf, so it wasn’t bad for Pernok.

“Kraaaang!”

The Lamira Wolf’s sharp roar shook the arena, and the moment everyone including Marson turned pale, the Lamira Wolf charged straight at Marson.

“Cl-close in!”

Marson thrust his spear, but the Lamira Wolf dodged with just a tilt of its head.

“Kill it!”

“Protect Mr. Marson!”

The men pressed in on the Lamira Wolf from all sides.

Yak was about to rush out too, when Pernok reached out to stop him.

“You’ll get swept up if you go.”

One swipe of its claws shattered Marson’s weapon. The men stabbed with weapons from all sides, but they only swept over fur—they couldn’t even scratch the hide.

Instead, they only provoked the Lamira Wolf’s temper.

Crrrack!

“Guhk!”

Not long after the Lamira Wolf lunged in, Marson’s throat was torn.

‘Much easier than with the Red Zaka.’

Perhaps thanks to the synchronization rate rising slightly, all those processes looked smooth.

Though he could only maintain it for five seconds at most, Pernok clearly grasped the Lamira Wolf’s hunting method and discovered a very minute gap.

‘A wound on the nape?’

Marks from restraints strong enough to capture a Lamira Wolf remained on its nape.

Hidden by fur so it didn’t catch the eye, but the Observation Eye precisely caught the spot where blood trickled out bit by bit.

“If I do it right, I can pierce the hide even with this junk.”

“What should I do!”

“When I signal, stab in from the side. There can’t be an inch of error.”

“Got it!”

Yak gripped his sword tightly with both hands, and Pernok held different swords in each hand.

Thanks to his stamina recovering somewhat, using dual swords was no problem.

“Kryaaak!”

The moment a man’s scream rang out and the group collapsed.

Pernok charged straight at the Lamira Wolf’s front.

The Lamira Wolf, which had been ravaging the others, turned its head toward Pernok.

It hadn’t paid attention to the feeble human, but felt a strange pressure from the sight of him raising his weapons.

“Kraaang!”

As if wounded in pride that it had hesitated before prey for a moment, the Lamira Wolf howled loudly and charged to meet him.

The moment Pernok swung his right sword down vertically, the Lamira Wolf swung its front paw to respond.

Clang!

The blade shattered like glass, and the moment the sword fragments filled the Lamira Wolf’s vision, Pernok’s left hand moved quickly.

The fragments hit by the left sword’s blade drummed against the Lamira Wolf’s face like rain, and the Lamira Wolf closed its eyes and twisted its head.

‘Does it think the eyes are vital spots?’

Though only a few seconds, it was enough to grasp the opponent’s capabilities.

‘The creature doesn’t even realize the wound on its nape.’

Right now, the Lamira Wolf was just rampaging wildly in the euphoria of freedom from the restraints.

He had to pierce the minute gap that even the creature itself didn’t know about, with not an inch of error.

Whoosh!

Sharp claws swept past before Pernok’s eyes.

As if saying it wouldn’t give an opening, the Lamira Wolf charged ferociously.

But the claws and fangs all just circled through empty air.

Pernok had carefully observed the battle between Marson and the Lamira Wolf.

Which direction the claws flew when the Lamira Wolf twitched which leg.

He demonstrated the miracle of predicting those peculiar habits in advance and dodging by a hair’s breadth.

When the astonished spectators fell silent with mouths agape, Pernok smiled wickedly.

It contained clear mockery—is this all you’ve got?

“Kraaaaaaang!”

The moment the provoked Lamira Wolf sharply closed the distance.

“Uaaaaaaah!”

Yak stabbed at the Lamira Wolf’s flank with a battle cry close to a scream.

The faint pain alone couldn’t stop the Lamira Wolf. Nevertheless, Yak kept pushing with force.

Because Pernok had instructed him to annoy the Lamira Wolf even if he couldn’t pierce the hide.

“Kaaaaang!”

Finally, the Lamira Wolf turned its head.

The opponent was an old man, a fly-like existence that couldn’t even pierce hide.

It judged he would die from just a light sweep.

But that instant was the Lamira Wolf’s fatal mistake.

“Shame you’re quadrupedal.”

An eerie voice swept across the Lamira Wolf’s nape.

“You have to move your neck together to maintain balance.”

The Lamira Wolf’s vision distorted, and with a sword stuck in the lower left of its nape, it laid its massive body before Yak.

“Grrrrr…!”

Though collapsed, it still moved its legs.

Despite the vital spot on the nape being connected to the spine’s nerves, seeing it struggle showed its vitality was tenacious.

As Pernok picked up a fallen weapon to finish it off, his expression hardened and he grabbed Yak’s collar and pulled back.

“Gack! Why, why…!?”

“Poison.”

At those words, Yak’s face froze solid as he looked around.

Though they’d clearly only heard Marson’s scream, everyone was collapsed.

Seeing they all had purple blood vessels drawn across their faces, it was an extreme poison they couldn’t even scream from.

“He said he knew about the Lamira Wolf, but it was all hot air.”

If Marson had proper information about the Lamira Wolf, the men might have luckily preserved their lives.

“This thing’s claws and blood are poisonous. When enough blood drains, cover your mouth with cloth and finish it.”

After catching his breath, Yak tore his clothes to cover his nose and mouth. And when the Lamira Wolf’s blood grew cold, he roughly stabbed and slashed its faintly convulsing body.

“Huff, huff!”

When the Lamira Wolf’s writhing stopped completely, Yak finally relaxed and slumped down, and souls surged from all around.

Pernok extracted and absorbed only the spiritual power.

‘More quantity than last time. Thanks to the Lamira Wolf?’

Human spiritual power was the same, but the Lamira Wolf had more spiritual power than the Red Zaka.

‘The quality of spiritual power differs according to the individual’s strength.’

His joy at the hypothesis being proven was brief—when the synchronization rate didn’t rise as much as expected, he frowned.

‘The more the synchronization rate rises, the more spiritual power is required.’

Continuing to hunt small fry wouldn’t reach the level he wanted.

He needed sizeable prey.

‘They said VIPs were watching?’

A good idea occurred to him.

Pernok trampled the Lamira Wolf’s corpse and shouted.

“You low-level bastards! Is it fun watching us struggle to survive when you give us weapons with no teeth?!”

The spectator seats fell silent as if doused with cold water.

“Not this junk! Give me proper weapons!”

Pernok smiled wickedly at the spectators.

“I’ll give you a real show!”

* * *

“Waaaaaaaah-!”

The spectators’ heat surged. It was an atmosphere never seen before in subjugation battles, so even the manager became interested.

“That guy was picked up from a village?”

“Yes. The thieves said there wouldn’t be any separate problems.”

“He looks accustomed to fighting. Was he a mercenary? Or a vigilante?”

“I investigated separately, but there are no special circumstances.”

“A civilian, and with a chest wound at that, killed a Red Zaka and Lamira Wolf?”

“He seems to have extraordinary cunning.”

“I gave him weapons that can’t even pierce hide on a battlefield where I pushed him to die. But that guy somehow bit straight into the nape? Do you think that’s possible?”

The reporter broke into cold sweat and bowed his head.

“I apologize. I’ll dispose of him immediately.”

He thought the manager was angry that Pernok had survived.

But it was the opposite.

“Never mind.”

“Pardon?”

“The VIPs became interested in that guy.”

“…!”

“They say his fighting is extraordinary. They want me to give him good weapons and make him fight stronger monsters until he dies…”

The manager stared at Pernok contemplatively.

“…What a waste.”

His skill at killing monsters and his showmanship that heated up the spectators.

He was too valuable a talent to stick in subjugation battles as a simple one-time product.

“The death match slots are open, right?”

“Yes. Two spots remain.”

The manager smiled.

“Send him up.”