Marlon managed to sleep for a few hours before his name was drawn again and Jacob came to wake him up. He felt rested, fit, and ready to fight again against a worthy opponent.

His instructor explained that three people had been eliminated during his nap and that the tension backstage earlier had eased.

Indeed, by the time Marlon arrived at the wooden doors, weariness and fatigue had taken the place of tension and excitement. Not everyone had the privilege of a dedicated room in the backstage area of the arena.

The runist laughed under his breath and stood next to his opponent, totally different from the one he had previously.

A man, slender, about six feet tall, whose elongated muscles were much more discreet than Doleon's titanic build. On his back hung a quiver and a wooden hunting bow whose fine carvings left Marlon admiring.

His quiver, made of leather, was much less worked and no arrow was in it. Suspecting that this was not an oversight on the part of his opponent, the young man deduced that they were surely magical arrows. No other weapon was visible except for a dagger on the man's belt.

So he was going to face an archer. It was a match-up that deeply satisfied Marlon, as it was one of the easiest for him. Of course, he didn't want to sell the bear's skin before he killed it, but his long-range spells were perfect for opponents like this.

"Marlon, since you both, have ranged skills, there's a good chance they'll fix the layout of the Arena, so don't be surprised, and do exactly as you did your last fight...be ruthless, and most importantly don't think you're invulnerable."

Marlon nodded and asked Jacob to give him his bow in addition to his longsword. His quiver consisted of simple arrows with steelhead and a feathered quill to give them extra stability.

The light was fading slightly in the bowels of the Arena but the oppressive heat was still very much present. A rancid smell of sweat was now rising in the air, a full day of marinating in armor beginning to take its toll, literally and figuratively.

The sounds of the crowd still echoed in the depths of the arena, but they were much quieter than during his first fight. The same was true for the fighters still present in the wings. The audience had had their fill of blood, the beast was almost sated. His suspicions were confirmed when Jacob put his hand on his shoulder and spoke to him in a calmer voice, audible only to him.

"This will definitely be the last fight of the day, so don't get hurt too bad, and give them a show!"

The torches on the walls suddenly lit up, a sign that the sun was disappearing outside and that the fight was going to take place at dusk, and he found that it added a certain charm to the deadly atmosphere that went with such an event.

The slit that allowed the view outside opened as the double doors swung outward and opened onto the belly of the arena, where they would kill each other to win.

Marlon let out a whistle of admiration as he stepped onto the sand. Even his opponent's eyes widened in surprise at the sight before them.

The Arena, as Jacob had predicted, had been transformed. Once a simple stadium filled with sand, it was now a real obstacle course. Piles of rocks popped up here and there, creating the ideal cover for anyone trying to camouflage themselves or avoid projectiles.

Trees had also been planted in the arena, having few leaves but making ideal platforms to be able to dominate his opponent and spray his position with projectiles.

There were also what looked like mini-grottoes that you could walk through and still be safe from air attacks.

A real hunting ground...prepared in just a few minutes. The miracles of magic in action.

"It's amazing...but we'll have a sizable advantage on this field."

Marlon wondered which one and the AI perceived his thought, answering it by slightly mocking him.

"Have you already forgotten the talents that my...transformation gave you? If your opponent uses his mana in any way, we will be able to see him and attack him without him suspecting anything."

Marlon nodded, having indeed forgotten this slight detail, and his opponent looked at him strangely, as if trying to decipher his thoughts.

"Good luck with that," thought the young man.

They both walked towards the announcer, who was waving to them from his protected box in which he had already taken his seat. The sun had long since disappeared behind the walls of the arena, and the orange color of the sky indicated that night would soon take over the stadium.

"Welcome to you, fighters, for this last but not least fight of the day! As you can see, we've decided to set up the Arena to put your skills to the test. And all this to entertain our dear public! So we have Revenge, the Runist! And his opponent is Nirdan, a Lynx-looking Archer by trade!"

At this exclamation, shouts resounded in the stands and the smile of the man dressed in red grew bigger. The day seemed to have been long for him, as deep rings were forming in his eyes and he didn't have quite the same energy as he had at the beginning of the day.

"The rules are the same as for the other fights, except that we give you thirty seconds to place yourself before starting the hostilities. Be careful, the stadium is large and there are many obstacles. Don't make any mistakes! Be strategic! And good luck to you!"

This time, no suspense, no big move. He dropped the red rag directly on the floor and began a countdown once it hit the ground.

"Thirty...twenty-nine..."

His voice echoed throughout the arena and reverberated in the stands, energizing the spectators who soon began to count down with him.

Marlon and Nirdan had both already taken off, anxious to find the best possible point of attack while camouflaging themselves as best they could.

The runist stopped very quickly, climbing up a tree that reached seven meters high. It wasn't the highest point in the arena, but it would be more than enough to get a good look at Nirdan.

The highest point was about 50 feet away, and Marlon was almost certain that his opponent would choose this promontory as his point of attack.

Using the twenty seconds he had left, he thought of a quick and effective strategy, just as Jacob had advised. He could cast four to seven spells, depending on which ones he used, and he planned to use every drop of mana he had.

The countdown was nearing its end and Marlon took a deep breath, switching his vision to [Mana Vision]. Immediately, everything around him lit up, and he saw the streams of mana flowing through the trees, the bleachers, everywhere there was life.

It didn't matter to him now that the arena was lit up, or that the obstacles hid the place where Nirdan was taking refuge, whom he could distinctly detect now climbing the highest tree in the arena, just as he had planned.

A hunter thinking he was the predator when in fact he was the prey...Marlon's sadistic grin resurfaced at this point and he pulled scrolls from his pockets, knowing exactly what tactic he was going to use.

When the announcer's voice rang out announcing the start of the countdown, Marlon saw that Nirdan was not sitting idle on his tree, his movements clearly visible even if indistinct from this distance.

"He is preparing a skill, I can distinguish the accumulation of mana, be careful."

The hunter did not need Loki's warning, for he had seen the mana gathering around the blue figure. Without waiting for Loki to finish his move, Marlon activated a [Fire Tracker] and shot it into the air, focusing on Nirdan.

Immediately the ball of flame roared through the air and illuminated the stands and the entire arena with its fierce orange-yellow light.

Marlon saw it charging toward Nirdan and prepared his second blow, expecting his opponent to have a way to counter this attack that he must have known from his previous fight.

A shrill sound reached Marlon's ears and he threw himself face-first into the giant branch he was standing on as a bright arrow reached him and planted itself just inches from where his skull had been seconds before. Marlon's heart leaped in his chest and he felt the adrenaline pulsing through his body as the familiar tension of battle took hold of him.

Nirdan had used [Stalking Arrow], a skill unique to Archers that allows them to stalk living things within range and not stop until they find their prey. Inexpensive in energy and with a very long range, it was the perfect shot to dislodge his target and finish him off easily.

Marlon didn't expect it but it didn't change his plans, he just had to stay under cover.

The ball of flames that was still heading towards his enemy exploded in the air before it reached its target, and he suspected that another of Nirdan's abilities was responsible for this.

Without even thinking, the Archer had indeed activated [Decoy], capable as its name implied of decoying enemy projectiles and defusing them.

But the ensuing explosion projected the flames over a large area on the ground and even over some of the surrounding trees, an undesirable effect for the Archer and one that gave Marlon a crazy idea that could make his hunt much easier.

[Fire Stalker] used up ten percent of his mana, so he could use a few before he ran out of mana, and he did so immediately.

Only, he didn't target Nirdan, but all the trees and the ground surrounding him.

Three fireballs flew in slightly different directions before crashing down and shooting out their flames in all directions. Instantly, the fire started to spread to many of the areas affected by the flames, as the dense nature of the arena helped the fire to spread even further.

Marlon decided to change his location and climbed down from the tree he was perched on, eager to get away from what promised to be quite an inferno.

As he hit the ground, a shock threw him a meter to the ground, a burning pain coming from his right shoulder, the tip of the arrow that had just hit him protruding from the flesh.

"Holy shit, that hurts!"

This guy was really a very good archer, nothing to say...and this rekindled the Runist's anger.

Marlon rushed into a man-made tunnel that was barely ten meters away and dove in headfirst, congratulating himself on his choice as he heard an arrow break against the rocky tunnel walls.

He caught his breath for a couple of seconds, and he couldn't help but rejoice as acrid smoke began to fill the Arena and the entire stadium was lit up by the fire that was beginning to grow.

With his mana vision, Marlon could see that Nirdan had not left his tree, and he was now blocked by the flames that were beginning to lick the trunk of the tree he was standing on.

The latter felt the trap closing in on him and swore inwardly, furious at having been trapped by an opponent he thought he could eliminate very easily thanks to his range. The smoke was getting thicker and thicker and Nirdan decided to use a card that he thought he would keep hidden for a long time.

There was no escape for him unless he tried to jump out of the tree, but even then he would land in the roaring fire that was roaring on the ground and now consuming a good half of the stadium.

"He tries a desperate move...A lot of mana is concentrated around him. Be careful, kid, I don't think you're safe."

Loki's advice was rarely useless, so he decided to be extra careful and pulled a new scroll out of his outfit, coughing as the smoke also began to fill his tunnel.

"Give me the signal when his ability releases, Loki. I can't see well enough at this distance to judge it properly."

A few seconds passed and even Marlon could see the cluster of energy around Nirdan through his altered vision, and he realized that the AI was right.

This was the moment the Archer chose to release his most powerful skill, [Celestial Shot]. This skill consumed all of the user's remaining mana and a quarter of his life, infusing the arrow with unparalleled power and turning it into a veritable shell that could pass through almost any obstacle. His target would never see it coming and would end up being atomized by this wild card. It is with a carnivorous smile that Nirdan let the arrow go in the direction of its target, betting everything on this shot.

A shockwave was released when he let go of his bowstring and he fell backward after firing, the acrid smoke preventing him from breathing normally and causing him to cough more and more hollowly.

"Now!", Loki shouted at him in an urgent tone.

Without pause, Marlon injected mana into his scroll, a quarter of his total bar disappearing in the activation of the spell.

As soon as this was done, a rumbling sound was heard and the earth began to shake violently, with the young runist struggling to stand.

A wall of compacted earth rose from the ground and stood between Marlon and the wall of the artificial tunnel in the blink of an eye, doubling the thickness of the protection standing between Nirdan and his opponent.

The combination of Protection, Earth and Wall, and two connecting runes had given birth to this additional spell in Marlon's arsenal, which he had simply named [Earth Wall]. There were more original spells, but it didn't matter. It was a useful addition, and a very solid one at that discovered also during his experimental workshops with Djilany.

As soon as the thick wall was erected, an explosion threw Marlon against the opposite wall of the tunnel, and his wall fragmented into thousands of pieces thrown in all directions by the power of the impact. The young man had just enough time to cross his arms in front of his face to protect himself from the shrapnel of earth and rock that reached him.

Fortunately, most of the blast had been absorbed by the incongruous thickness of the walls and he suffered only superficial cuts, light trickles of blood running down his body here and there, his clothes pierced in many places by the shards of earth. But without the added protection of the [Earth Wall], he would have been blown to bits as the wall in front of him was.

He wasted no time and exited the tunnel, moving as far away from Nirdan as possible, zigzagging between obstacles so as not to leave him too easy a field of fire.

But if Marlon could hardly breathe from where he was, he suspected that his opponent was in a much more complex situation than he was.

Hearing no crash of arrows behind him, he allowed himself to glance toward the archer's spot and was extremely pleased to see that his target was kneeling with both hands on the ground, not shooting at Marlon from where he stood.

The pain that came from his shoulder was manageable and he left the arrow where it was, the blood having soaked his outfit all over the right half of his body. But he had seen much worse and didn't care in the least for the moment.

Marlon turned off his mana vision for a few moments and was dazzled by the sight before him.

He could no longer see Nirdan, only the tree on which he stood, and it was burning from all sides. Marlon had summoned hell with his strategy, and flames several meters high were waving around Nirdan for tens of meters.

The magical barrier seemed to filter out the smoke so as not to inconvenience the onlookers, and the flames themselves did not seem to be able to spread beyond the magical boundaries of this barrier.

An oppressive heat had taken possession of the place, even more, suffocating than the one felt during the fight he had had earlier. It felt like being in an oven, Marlon's skin as dry as paper while he was at a good distance from the fire.

He reactivated his mana vision and went to the opposite edge of the arena, only having to wait to see how Nirdan would get out of the fiery inferno that the stadium had become.

Anyone who had seen Marlon up close at that moment would have sworn he was a demon straight out of the underworld. His smile was frightening and in his wide-open eyes danced the reflection of the gigantic fire that was devouring everything in the Arena.

He could hear the red-clad man commenting on what was going on, but he paid no attention to it, concentrating on the figure of Nirdan, whom he saw in the distance, still on his knees, unable to get up, probably because of the lack of oxygen, the smoke, and the heat combined.

Marlon's fists clenched as he felt genuine pleasure in seeing his prey trapped in this way. There's nothing like a hunting trip to awaken that deep contentment, that joy in inflicting death.

Nirdan would be another of his trophies paving the bloody way to his ultimate goal.

Then came the shock, brutal and sudden.

A deluge suddenly poured down on the stadium, coming from nowhere, torrents of water as he had never seen before falling from a sky where no clouds were visible, making it difficult to even breathe in without feeling like drowning. This torrent of water coming from the sky extinguished the blaze in just a few seconds, only a thick smoke rising in the air because of the reaction of the two elements in contact.

That fire he had so loved to create had just been put out in just two breaths. Amazing.

At the same time, the stadium's decor of obstacles seemed to melt into the ground gradually, like a mirage that would disappear as one approached it.

The sound of crunching rock obliterated everything else for a few moments, and Marlon found himself gritting his teeth to endure the unpleasant sound, putting his hands over his ears as he thought his eardrums would burst.

When it stopped, there was nothing left, no trace of the ground as it had been laid out a few minutes before, nor of the gigantic fire except for a smell of smoke that still hung vaguely in the air.

Even the black smoke that had obscured everything was a vague memory, and all Marlon could see was Nirdan lying on the ground and the announcer walking to the middle of the stadium and beckoning Marlon to come to him.

"Ladies and gentlemen, after a surrender from Nirdan, here is our winner, Revenge! Please give him a round of applause after his incredible performance!"

The salvo coming from the audience was enraged, exulting after this turn of events that they had not expected in the least.

In a muffled voice, the man addressed Marlon.

"Very well done, Revenge. This is the first time a participant has used the Arena in this way. Whatever happens next, you've already made history in the arena! Congratulations, can you go and rest now? And ask the healers to remove that arrow, it's a mess."

Still stunned by his quick victory and the way his fight had ended, which was not at all to the young man's liking, he made his way to the entrance, closely followed by two men in green carrying Nirdan on a stretcher. His hands were clenched and his nails were digging into his palms as he felt a burning shame.

He had not killed his enemy, he had let him surrender. This was unacceptable...

The doors opened in front of them and one of the Arena's two resident healers walked over to Marlon as Jacob smiled at him with a satisfied look on his face.

Gritting his teeth as the man broke the arrow and then withdrew the shaft still stuck in his shoulder, he ignored the many suspicious and calculating looks that came his way.

"Well done, Revenge! You just got your opponents' attention even more with this round. But you're going down in history haha! Causing a fire to get rid of your opponent...that was fucking smart!"

Marlon ignored Jacob's compliments. All he cared about was seeing Nirdan getting up after being treated, who was giving Marlon a frightened look when he had just come so close to death.

He felt a frantic urge to pounce on him and finish the job, to finish off the prey that had proved too cowardly to face the fate it would normally have.

He followed his gaze even as he walked backstage and into one of the treatment rooms.

"Is he going to spend the night?" asked Marlon of Jacob, cutting off his instructor as he continued to compliment the young fighter.

"Huh? Oh, yes, of course, that's the case for all the fighters who are close to death. We keep an eye on them for one night and then they leave the next day..."

Marlon nodded and thanked Jacob, enduring his excited chatter from his victory for a few minutes.

When he was finally able to slip away, he made his way to his room, careful not to let anyone see the big sadistic grin on his face, his eyes shining with a murderous excitement that Jacob would not have failed to recognize.