Chapter 19: Chapter 19
The stadium was dead silent. The crowd watched in awe as the A Class Berserker marched toward the battered boy slumped against the boundary wall.
Up in the VIP suite Elias Vance smiled a cold satisfied smile. The anomaly was broken. The natural order of the classes was preserved.
Isla Sinclair gripped the railing of the competitor lounge her knuckles turning white. "Get up Mcdonald" she whispered her voice tight with worry. "Do not just lie there."
Glen coughed spitting a mouthful of blood onto the white sand. Every muscle in his body screamed in agony. His spiritual core was completely hollow drained of all mana. He looked up at Kaelen Vance who was closing the distance with heavy thudding footsteps.
Glen knew he could not win a contest of strength. He could not pierce the Berserker’s ultimate defense. But as he looked at the giant he noticed something.
Kaelen was bleeding.
The dozen small cuts Glen had inflicted inside the domain were dripping dark red blood onto the white sand.
Glen forced his trembling hands to move. He did not reach for his fallen swords. He pressed his bare palm flat against the sand directly over a fresh drop of Kaelen’s blood.
His dark spiritual core despite being completely empty of mana pulsed with a sudden violent hunger.
System Error.
Hidden Condition Met: Direct Contact with High Tier Human Blood.
Skill Acquired: Blood Rage A Rank.
Warning. Core Capacity Exceeded.
Current Capacity: 4 of 4 Slots Filled.
You must discard a skill or initiate a Skill Merge to acquire Blood Rage.
Glen stared at the pitch black system screen. He had Lightning Movement Savage Strike Predator Domain and Obsidian Skin. He needed all of them. But he was about to be crushed by a giant axe. He needed a miracle.
He looked at the incoming Berserker. Kaelen was raising his axe preparing for the execution strike.
Glen made a desperate insane choice. He mentally selected his defensive skill Obsidian Skin and the newly acquired A Rank skill Blood Rage.
Warning. Skill Merging Initiated.
Warning. Extreme physical strain detected. Mana reserves critically low. Survival rate less than one percent.
"Do it" Glen whispered his voice hoarse.
The pain was unlike anything he had ever experienced. It did not just burn his muscles it felt like his very soul was being ripped in half and forged in a dying star. The dark translucent armor of Obsidian Skin shattered mixing violently with the boiling crimson energy of Blood Rage.
Because his mana was empty the system began burning his vitality his actual life force to fuel the merge. Glen screamed a raw guttural sound that echoed across the silent stadium.
Skill Merge Successful.
New Skill Created: Abyssal Juggernaut Armor A Rank.
Kaelen brought the massive battleaxe down aiming directly for Glen’s head. "Die."
The axe struck Glen.
But it did not cut him.
A massive shockwave of dark crimson and black energy erupted from Glen’s body. The heavy iron battleaxe slammed into a thick jagged layer of pitch black armor that had instantly materialized over Glen’s skin. The armor pulsed with a terrifying red heat absorbing the kinetic force of the blow and feeding it directly into Glen’s muscles.
The Abyssal Juggernaut Armor did not just block the attack. It converted the pain and the impact into raw physical strength.
Kaelen’s eyes widened in absolute shock. His ultimate strike had been stopped dead.
Glen slowly looked up. His dark eyes were glowing with a violent crimson light. The pain was still there but the armor turned the agony into pure adrenaline.
"My turn" Glen whispered.
Glen did not have a weapon. He did not need one. He planted his boots into the sand and drove his right fist upward aiming directly for the center of Kaelen’s heavy iron chest plate.
The punch carried the combined force of Glen’s Level 15 strength the momentum of Kaelen’s own attack and the explosive power of the Abyssal Juggernaut Armor.
The impact sounded like a bomb detonating.
Kaelen’s heavy iron armor shattered into a thousand pieces. The giant A Class Berserker was lifted completely off his feet his eyes rolling back into his head as all the air was violently forced from his lungs.
He flew backward soaring through the air for fifty feet before crashing into the reinforced magical boundary of the arena. The barrier flared brightly absorbing the impact as Kaelen slumped to the ground completely unconscious.
The stadium remained perfectly silent for ten long seconds. No one could process what they had just witnessed. The F Rank Mimic had just taken a direct hit from an A Class Berserker and then knocked the giant out with a single punch.
"Match Twelve Winner" the announcer’s voice finally stammered over the speakers. "Glen Mcdonald."
The crowd erupted into absolute pandemonium.
Up in the VIP suite Elias Vance shattered his crystal glass in his hand his face purple with rage. Evander Buchanan stood up his amber eyes locked onto the boy in the arena. Evander was not smiling anymore. He was looking at a genuine threat.
Down in the arena the dark crimson armor faded from Glen’s body. The adrenaline crashed leaving him completely hollow. He stumbled falling to his knees on the white sand. He was bleeding his ribs were broken and he could barely keep his eyes open.
He had won. He had survived the A Class monster. But Isla was right. The gap was massive. He had barely survived by the skin of his teeth and a desperate system merge.
Glen looked up at the VIP suite finding Evander’s silhouette behind the glass.
Glen forced a weak bloody smile and raised a single trembling hand giving the S Class champion a slow deliberate thumbs up before collapsing face first into the sand.
