TDE - Chapter 1 - Glorious Moment.

Second chapter of my little distraction. Back to my other fics now.

Wait, crap I have an exam Sunday... change of plans, gonna study. 

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Daimos the Great faced his opponents with dignity, one hand against his back and his arming sword casually held by his side.

The situation was dire, but he wasn't one to tremble in the face of death.

Yes, he was clearly tapping his feet impatiently and not trembling.

Beside him were a group of twelve men sharing the same fate, to fight, bleed and die for the amusement of the unwashed masses.

"Barbarians." He cursed.

"Shut up asshole, what did you do anyway?"

"I simply attempted to enlighten myself, to acquire the knowledge unfairly kept from us."

"He's a thief."

"Definitely a thief."

"Naaa, thieves don't go to the arena, he's a rapist, his scrawny looks don't fool me"

"Still think he's a thief, maybe he stole from the Lord and the fat ass wants him dead?"

"Wait, dead?" Daimos nearly dropped him sword, but recovered and turned towards the man at his side. "He's kidding right? Execution matches have been made illegal in the Empire."

The Dread Emperor had declared gladiator matches to the death illegal fifth years ago.

The Emperor was of the opinion that, if some bastard is sentenced to death, he damn well better die fighting against the dark tide and at least make himself somewhat useful.

The truth was that gladiators dying in the arena, even criminal slave gladiators, was a complete waste of resources. And the Emperor did hate wasting resources.

"The fat pig doesn't really care about the Emperor." The unwashed man at his side answered and spit on the ground, "he likes to pretend he's hot shit, but he knows this city is gonna be gone in a few more years, nobody cares what happens here."

Daimos thought about it, the city of Aduin was near the edge of the dungeon break territory, there were still some adventurers using the place as a forward base and holding up the line, but it WAS gonna get overwhelmed in five or so years.

Worse, the kingdom would let it be overcome, the Atmas fortress was right behind the city and it was an ideal place to contain the dungeon creatures without wasting too many men.

Despite being a big city there was no way any Emperor Justicar was going to come here to check on things, they were rare enough not to waste their times if it was going to be destroyed in a few years

The Emperor himself may hate waste, but his arm was notoriously slow to move and incredibly pragmatic.

"Damnation." He cursed as cold fear started to grip his heart.

"Yeah that's about right."

Daimos really doubted his go to strategy of running away and screaming bloody murder when he got in trouble was gonna work here.

In front of him, the metal gates opened. He tried to keep in place and let someone else take the lead, but the brute behind him pushed his body forward, almost making him fall.

He stumbled, but quickly gathered himself, glancing around the small coliseum he saw the faces of half drunk adventurers laughing and pointing his way from the coliseum stands.

In front of him stupid three warriors, he quickly looked at them and the system provided their information, then and gulped.

[Level 7 - warrior]

[Level 9 - warrior]

[Level 7 - warrior]

None of them had a title showing but, damn they were all silver rank, and one almost reached gold. Daimos himself was nearing silver but he really didn't like those odds.

They also wore heavy gear, two of the warriors had plate mail on, while the the third had a dark red leather coat that looked damn impressive.

Daimos really wanted a coat like that. Depending on how strong it was it could be worth more than anything else being used inside the arena.

Each warrior held a spear by their side. The one with the coat was the level 9; we had a great sword at his back while the other two had an oversized axe and a hammer.

What a diverse bunch.

How the hell did he manage to use a great sword on his back and still draw it out fast enough to be useful, specially one so big?

Back swords just didn't work out, it took too long to draw out and, if the sword was big enough, it was actually physically impossible.

Daimos knew, he had tried.

Looked damn cool though.

He looked at his companions again, all of them were level two to four, thin, unwashed and clearly suffering from sleep deprivation, their weapons were rusted and their clothes, what little they had, were stiff with dried blood. He wasn’t much better.

They didn't stand a chance.

The announcer started talking but he barely paid any attention as the boot licker praised the Lord, his eyes shifting one way to the other in search of an inexistent escape route.

"... But before the main event, our brave defenders are gonna have an exhibition match. Beerus Skullcrusher, Anders the hammer and Eron the Wild are gonna demonstrate their skills against the worst of the worst, the vilest scum, the worst villains our beautiful city has ever seen!"

Daimos snorted, they were hardly the worst the city had ever seen, they weren't even the worst they had seen today, that slug-like motherfucker of a Lord was watching the show after all.

"Rapists, murderers, heretics, there is even a cursed eldritch cultist!" The narrator stopped for dramatic effect and there were a few gasps in the audience.

He narrowed his eyes, he did try to open a portal to the outer plane but that hardly qualified him as a cultist, as if he would worship those brainless eldritch creatures! He just wanted a bit of their power that was all.

He was so angry he missed what the narrator said next and only snapped out of it when the man screamed. "... Let the battle begin!"

His eyes snapped to the three adventurers almost too late, one of them had pulled up his spear as soon as the narrator had finished and hurled it like a javelin towards his chest.

[Graceful Dodge] he activated his skill in a hurry and stepped forward and to the right, bending his body just enough for the spear to pass harmlessly where his chest had just been.

The man behind him wasn't as lucky, the weapon hit him in the stomach and pierced him all the way through, worse, there was some kind of damage skill activated on the thing causing the entrance wound to be several times the normal size and showering Daimos back with his spilled blood.

"Ugh, disgusting." He commented as a small amount of the man’s refined mana entered his body from proximity alone.

To his side another prisoner was hit with a second spear and it took his head right off, the other prisoners panicked, running around like a bunch of children's.

Daimos didn't want to be left out, the nail that sticks out gets hammered first after all, so he followed their examples, running in a zigzag pattern to avoid getting hit by the last spear.

Said spear was finally thrown, pinning a third prisoner to the wall like a grotesque fly and making the coliseum go wild with screams.

The adventurers finally moved, separating, they started hunting the criminals down without hurry, twirling their weapons around and making a show of it.

Daimos finally gave up on escaping and approached a small group of the survivors, six prisoners who had gathered across a large man with a long, gray hair filled with sticks and a lot of scars on his exposed chest.

"Ugh, I hate fighting" he cursed as his hands tightened around his rusted sword.

Not that he was bad at fighting, far from it, but there was always a chance of things going wrong or meeting someone stronger, he didn't like it.

And to think he wasn't even arrested for his eldritch portal, but because he had borrowed the lord's spell tome for study.

When they had found out, he had figured he'd have to give the book back, pay a fine or go a few rounds with a monster in the arena, nothing too dangerous, so he hadn't really resisted.

If he knew it would turn out like this he'd have resisted, killed a few guards at least, that asshole Kraig had been one of the ones who came to arrest him, and he'd have liked to show him who was the useless vagabond after all.

He sighed, such missed opportunity.

Refocusing, he saw who he thought to be Anders 'The Hammer's, on the account if the man wielding a huge, fuck off, hammer, approach a second group of prisoners gathered on the other side of the arena, his body staying to shine with a red light of mana being released to strengthen his muscles.

So that would make the two approaching him Beerus Skullcrusher and Eron the Wild.

Daimos briefly wondered which was which when the one with the axe lowered it towards the floor and he felt a rush of mama gathering on its edge, earth from the arena started to gather over the weapon like a coat making it at least three times bigger, then he swung it towards them with both hands.

The stone coating exploded, released from the weapon in the form of a dozen sharp shards of stone that flew towards then like arrows.

Daimos eyes went wide, his skill was still unavailable and, despite his ability, he had no confidence of dodging every shard without assistance.

With wicked fast movements, he grabbed the thin man beside him and swung his body around using it as a shield.

In other circumstances he'd have felt bad about it, but the man was a rapist so he didn't really care.

Two shards pierced his human shield’s back and sent them both flying backwards.

Around him he heard a few screams of terror, and the man still laying on top of him was groaning in pain, he just pushed the criminal aside and hurried up to see what was happening.

The huge prisoner with gray hair had survived the skill effects and rushed the adventurers with a roar but the level nine actually managed to draw his great sword from his back scabbard and slashed right through the man’s body, cutting his weapon and bisecting the man in a single motion thanks to some skill.

The last two living prisoners broke and ran. With a laugh the axe wielder went after them.

Daimos sighed and got into a proper sword stance, his feet light on the ground and his sword held pointed towards the adventurer's throat, one hand at his back and under his rags, holding his trump card. The higher level adventurers smiled and lifted an eyebrow.

"Not gonna run too? It would make for a better show."

"Stray back, I'm not like those others, when I'm serious I scare even myself!"

The adventurer actually burst out laughing, suddenly he feinted forward causing Daimos to quickly step back.

"Ha, let's make this fun then little wizard!"

Daimos was desperately thinking of how to deal with the nearly gold rank when the man rushed him with wild roar and actually jumped high into the sky, his great sword lifted for a great and powerful blow.

Daimos blinked, high-silver warriors were incredibly dangerous, their mana empowered muscles were faster, stronger, more resistant and their reflexes were supernaturally fast, losing only to rogues.

They still weren't impervious to lower leveled damage, like some high gold or named adventurers could be, but they had so many advantages it wasn't even funny.

And nearly all of them were just negated by the idiot jumping in the sky just to give some assholes in the audience a better show.

Daimos supposed it wasn’t a very risky move against a typical wizard, bookworms that they were.

Almost not believing what was happening Daimos casually stepped aside and towards the opposite side of his opponent’s swing, the warrior attempted to correct his strike, but in the air and without the ground to push against he couldn't get the sword at such awkward angle fast enough.

Daimos slashed at his throat with all his strength, the rusted blade dug deep into the warriors neck and hit bone, then it's damaged metal broke, sending shards flying everywhere and leaving Daimos holding a piece of jagged metal smaller than a dagger.

The fighter finally hit the ground and wiped his sword around with lightning speed, but Daimos had already retreated beyond his reach. From his neck a fountain of blood spilled forth.

The gladiator attempted to put pressure at the wound and call for help but the sword breaking had actually done far more damage and the blood flowed from between his fingers, his voice also failed him and he could only manage a gurgle.

Daimos didn't attack, but looked around to make sure he was safe. Both of the man's companions were still having fun pursuing the remaining prisoners and hadn't noticed his predicament.

When he looked back he saw the warrior taking a small red vial from a pocket and attempt to open it with only one hand.

Nope, that wouldn't do.

He advanced on the warrior forcing him to swing his sword again to keep him at bay, but also delaying the use of the potion even further.

Daimos was a level 3 wizard and a level 1 warrior, he didn't really have any spells that could damage a high silver despite his wounds, but he could annoy him, and a potion vial wasn't nearly as resistant.

Lifting his other hand he started casting small mana bursts at the fighter until one of them stuck the vial and it shattered all over the warrior's hand.

Daimos saw the anger; the fear and the disbelief on the man's face and knew he didn't have another.

After all, bringing a potion to an execution match was already being overcautious, no need to bring two.

Turning away from the bleeding man Daimos crossed his arms behind his back and sighed, "I warned you, I scare even myself when I'm serious"

Then he took the chance while the other two weren't watching to search for a new weapon.

Walking back towards their initial position Daimos grimaced, "sorry about this."

He put a foot against the mangled body of another prisoner and tugged at the spear, then he tugged again, and again.

With a wet noise it came free from the man's body still holding a piece of the guy, "ugh" he groaned and proceeded to beat it against the ground until it fell off, the he lifted it to his shoulder and looked around.

One of the remaining adventurers had finally noticed something was wrong and seemed to be looking around for his companions while the other was still having fun wasting his skills against defenseless prisoners.

For a moment, Daimos was worried the guards would interfere but the Lord himself seemed to be finding the situation incredibly funny, relaxing a little he looked back at his defeated foe.

The high silver himself had finally started to lose his strength; he was bleeding out on the ground, one hand still trying to stop the bleeding while the other tried to drag his body away.

Daimos nodded, such wound must really hurt and the fear and uncertainty… hurrying towards the guy Daimos decided to end his suffering with a single trust of the spear.

Even to his enemies he was just that kind. And the Large rush of refined mana filling his very being didn’t hurt too.

Killing things was so much faster than meditation. And he didn’t even have to refine the mana he got.

"You bastard!" 'The Hammer' shouted attracting the attention of his other companion.

In a hurry Daimos took off the adventurer's leather jacket and put it on without even taking off his own rags.

Both his remaining enemies started rushing his way and Daimos looked from his spear to the great sword in indecision, the sword was clearly the superior weapon, and it was much cooler, but the spear had a little more reach, plus the sword looked heavy as fuck.

With his life on the line, practicality won out and he turned towards the rushing enemy with his spear held in both hands.

'The Hammer' attempted to just bull him over with his armor but Daimos managed to keep the tip of the spear pointing straight to his head and the fools hadn't thought to wear their helmets in order to look better for the audience.

Unwilling to charge right into a sharp blade, the man stopped and attempted to hit his spear aside, but Daimos was fast enough to get the shaft out of the heavy swings of the weapon and tried to skewer his face every time, forcing the man to retread.

"I'm gonna kill you!"

"Better men than you have tried." He told the man with a mocking smile.

He wasn't sure if the one to cast that calamity level spell had been male but there was at least a 50% chance so he wasn't lying, not really.

From the corner of his eye Daimos saw the axe wielder trying to flank him.

Immediately he started retreating, trying to keep both man in front of him where he could see, and threaten them with his spear.

The men may have been arrogant and boisterous at first, but killing the high silver seemed to make them become serious very quickly.

With most of their skills wasted making a show of themselves, and not knowing how he had taken out their companion, they didn't want to risk his attack.

Good, he was only a level 1 warrior, [gracefully dodge] and [increased agility] were the only skills he had and one of them was a passive.

Daimos was quickly losing ground; he felt the arena's walls approaching and started sweating cold.

This is why he hated fighting, damnation.

Behind the warriors, one of the prisoners slowly pushed himself up, Daimos saw he was holding on to his side, but the bastard seemed to have been playing dead.

As the audience noticed it, they too started becoming more agitated, fearing his enemies would notice the commotion and see his newfound ally, Daimos became more aggressive, trying to attack every opening and taking more risks than he was normally comfortable.

Finally, the axe wielder lost patience, his blade shone red with power and he attacked Daimos weapon, he tried to avoid it but the blow was too fast and cut right through his shaft leaving him holding a little over a meter of wood on his hand.

"Die!" ‘The hammer’ took the chance and closed the distance with a lunge while delivering a massive blow to his chest.

[Graceful Dodge]! He activated the skill, it wasn't some magical ability that would allow the weapon to slip right though him, but it did help correct his mistakes while making a dodge allowing him to instinctively know how to move out of the way and what would or wouldn't work.

In this instance the skill screamed at him that the wall was right behind and, if he wanted to survive, he actually had to dodge forward and under the blow.

In desperation, he ducked, ‘The Hammer’ still managed to adjust his aim and clip him in the shoulder, the leather jacket was made from some strong beast because it absorbed a lot of the force behind the blow but it still sent him sprawling to the ground and made him drop his former spear, now a cane.

Before a new attack could come Daimos gathered a handful of the arena sand in his hand and threw it in the warrior's face

Far too used to such tricks the man blocked with his arms but it still gave Daimos enough time to scramble backwards and grab for his trump card hidden bellow his rags

Axe man had also recovered from his skill use and was advancing on him with a bloody smile in his face.

"Behind you!" He screamed but the warrior just snorted, his entire mind focused on taking Daimos mind.

Then a great sword fell edge first on top of his unprotected head, driven more by its own weight and gravity than by the survivor's strength it still split his skull in half, only stopping when it was halfway into his forehead.

"Eron!" 'The hammer' screamed and turned around towards the culprit; his hammer flew and caved in the man's chest before the poor guy could escape.

Taking his chance Daimos threw the makeshift pouch at the back of the man's head and got up, then he ran for it.

The pouch hit ‘The Hammer’ and unraveled, dropping two dozen creatures on and inside his armor.

Daimos didn't have access to anything too dangerous on his cell, but there had been plenty of large cockroaches, spiders, beetles and even a large hornet.

Some of the creatures simply fell off the armor, others were crushed when the man tried to pat them off, but a few squeezed their way into the gaps and through the neck, getting inside the armor.

They quickly started biting.

Daimos may have a level as a warrior but he actually had three as a wizard, an incredibly hard to level class and fairly weak in the beginning, wizards focused on ritual magic, preparing their spells beforehand and having home field advantage.

In a pinch, a mage or sorcerer would beat them nine out of ten times but, give them enough time to prepare…

With his strength 'the Hammer' just ignored the bites and continued to try and kill Daimos but the wizard seemed to have gained a second wind, being chased by a maniac wielding a hammer did that to him.

He ran because his precious little life depended on it, for a few minutes he avoided the warrior like the plague, because that was just what he was waiting for.

Normal spiders, beetles and hornets weren't enough to take out a level 7 warrior no matter what he did to them; undead spiders, beetles and hornets carrying a plague spell however…

His greater affinity for everything evil may be a pain to work around, but it did give him some powerful options even at low levels.

Suddenly the hammer's weapon fell out of his hand, he looked at it without understanding what was going on, then he saw the weapon hadn't just slipped out of him fingers but his fingers had fallen off.

The extremities were always the first to go.

Filled with furry the man took a few more steps, his body getting covered in a red light as mana poured out of his body into a strong skill.

Then he fell to his knees and threw up most of his stomach in the form of black sludge and blood.

"Damnation, that's nasty, I do wish that spell was a little cleaner." Daimos didn't even want to think about the state of things inside the man's armor.

The mouth wasn't the only opening the plague affected after all.

He stopped in place, twisting his wounded shoulder he felt it wasn't broken or even really cracked, he'd probably just have a bruise tomorrow, the jacket was good.

So, he patted his jacket down, getting rid of the dirt and lifted his arms up in victory enjoying the sound of his adoring fans.

There were quite a few boos in there too, but he was sure they were meant for the adventurers.

The iron gates opened and a group of twelve, well armed, guards entered the arena, from the stands another group lifted crossbows at his body.

For a moment Daimos though about fighting, he really did, he had a strong protection and there were quite a few weapons he could use, one of the spears wasn't even a meter to his right.

Despite his ability, there were too many guards to truly win the fight, but he could go out with a bang, leave those barbaric spectators with a nice memory.

Then he remembered he wasn't actually an idiot, or insane, between life and death he'd always chose the first.

"Drop your weapon!" One of the guards screamed.

"I’m not holding any weapons!" He screamed back with a shrug.

Then they jumped him, a guard holding each of his arms while a third pushed him to the ground, pressing his face against the sand.

"Hey, watch the jacket, its nice!" He protested the indignity but nobody heard him as they striped him back to his rags and locked his hands in iron manacles, a guard even closed a magic suppressor collar on his neck.

He was impressed, those were expensive and mostly used for gold ranks or high silvers with a single magical class.

After a few moments the guards forced him into a kneeling position looking at the slug Lord high up in the coliseum.

The lord wasn't actually a slug, but he certainly looked like one, wider than he was tall and with layers of fat one on top of these other, the only way the man… thing, could be alive was a high constitution from a powerful class when he was younger.

Spitting some sand to the side Daimos tried to get up but another guard kicked at his knees and he decided to continue kneeling, the sand was soft anyway, it wasn't that uncomfortable.

Another attendant whispered on the Lord's ear for a long while before he finally waved the boy away, then he looked at Daimos.

"We find ourselves in a very happy mood prisoner, a very happy mood." The slug said and attempted to smile but his face had too much fat in it, "usually I'd order your torture for costing me three silver rank adventurers but the trio's debt was almost paid for, they only owned me two more matches so, I didn't lose much."

"Better yet, it's been months since anyone bet on one of you criminals surviving, I actually earned a lot of money from your little show, And I believe the next few months will be very interesting as people attempt to bet on another miracle."

"So, tell me, what o you wish as a reward for winning this match?"

"I don't suppose I could be set free?" Daimos asked in a conversational tone.

"Hmmm… you're still a cultist and you just revealed yourself as a necromancer, worse, you attempted to steal from me. No, your freedom isn't an option."

"If it helps, I only wanted to borrow the tome; I'd give it back in a day or two."

"It doesn't."

He sighed, he didn't think it would anyway, then he used the little freedom her had to look around.

"Say, can I keep the jacket, oh, and the back scabbard too?"

So, the guards dragged back inside his cell, a new jacket on his back and a cool scabbard on top of it, he'd still need to find a sword but everything had its time.

Dusting a spot on the floor Daimos sat cross legged and closed his eyes, ignoring the shouts from around the coliseum on top of him he focused inward, on the chunk of refined mama he had just acquired.

He considered what to use it for, the amount he currently had was probably enough to grow his wizard class by two levels since her was already on the edge of level 4, bringing him directly into the silver rank but it would be an unstable silver.

Or he could use it to empower his muscles and carve new mana pathways into his limbs raising his level as a warrior.

The warrior class was always one of the most common and hard to make a mistake anyway.

Now, what would help him escape faster? He was Daimos the great, calamity survivor; he refused to die in such small coliseum.

Taking off his new jacket he smiled as he felt the enchantments it had, it would make for a powerful sacrifice to fuel a ritual, it almost pained him to ruin such fine work but, then again, that would only make the sacrifice worth more, perhaps enough for him to escape?

The magic suppressor collar would make it much harder but that’s the beauty of ritual magic, you don’t have to fuel it yourself.