Elsewhere

The seventh chamber saw similar growth as the previous ones had and it was starting to get on Duke’s nerves. It was the same thing over and over again. Doesn’t this dungeon have any creativity? This is just as tedious as the training chambers had been. It’s great that I’ve learned a thing or twelve, but this is just too much. It’s time to finish this so we can be done with the dungeon.

Duke strode into the chamber, crackling with LIGHTNING and full of attitude. The instructor standing before him offered a greeting. “Congratulations on making it to the seventh chamber of The Gauntlet. Few have made it this-“

He was interrupted by Duke’s attack. It was as brutal as it was sudden. Duke flew at the instructor at Mach 12 with both of his Tonfa extended in front of him, angled to a point. He struck with so much force that the instructor’s body barely slowed his FLIGHT down and Duke slammed into the wall. The instructor’s upper torso held in the air for a moment before gravity asserted itself and it collapsed to the floor with a bloody splash. Duke took a full minute to REGENERATE his own damage but the passage to the eighth challenge was open to him. He activated CLEANSE and RESTORE before moving on to the next chamber, not giving the mutilated corpse a second glance.

The eighth chamber followed the same pattern as the previous seven. Duke groaned as he saw the instructor waiting for him in the center of the larger, blank room.

The instructor measured Duke’s mood and spoke with full haughtiness. “I see you have accepted that you cannot pass The Gauntlet. You have not the will nor the skill to pass the tests. Go back and learn your lessons well. For then, you will have what it takes to survive The Gauntlet.”

“That’s not it, asswipe. See, the problem is that you are all the fucking same. Sure, you’re going to be stronger and faster than the last generic instructor, but, in the end, you’re just another dumb clone. I’m not defeated. I’m fucking bored! Now come at me, stand still and wait for me, or whatever, I’m going to wipe the floor with you just like all the others before you.”

“We shall see.” The instructor responded with full arrogance.

Duke moved his mouth as if he was in a dubbed movie, “You killed my master. Now you must die!” Duke TELEPORTED behind the instructor and blasted him with 10,000 Mana worth of LIGHTNING. The instructor spun around and launched a blazing fast series of attacks at Duke.

“Spells? They shall not avail you, student. How can you concentrate on casting when I am striking you over and over?”

Duke was able to keep up with the instructor but he found that he needed to start pushing himself a bit to keep his blocks and counters going. He started infusing LIGHTNING into his pair of tonfa, incrementally increasing the Mana flow by a factor of 10 a second. When he hit 100,000 Mana, the instructor had aimed a cobra fang strike at Duke’s left eye. The tonfa block sent LIGHTNING coursing through the instructor’s body, leaving him twitching on the floor for Duke to finish with a single brutal downstroke.

“See. Boring. Sam, I’m really disappointed in you. This is tedious.” Duke waited for his Mana to fully top off, his REGENERATION repairing all his minor wounds the fight had inflicted quickly. He moved on to the ninth chamber.

Duke was frustrated and more than a little angry at the repetitiveness of this so-called gauntlet. He strode into the room and growled at seeing the instructor staring back at him.

“Again? Fucking groundhogs.” Duke ground out through clenched teeth. He didn’t wait for the instructor to speak, opening up with 100,000 Mana poured into a massive bolt of LIGHTNING. It left little more than a scorch mark where the instructor had been standing. Duke ignored the remains of the instructor and stomped his way into what he hoped was the final chamber.

There was no instructor standing in the room to greet Duke. Instead, there was a tall black man wearing red and black robes that left his chest and stomach exposed. His hair was shoulder-length, very thick, and unkempt. He wore a pair of studded leather bracers and a belt that appeared to be made from the pelt of a leopard or cheetah. He looked Duke square in the eye and simply asked, “Who’s the Master?”

Duke looked at the man, his head slightly cocked as if he was disbelieving what he was seeing. “You didn’t just say that, right? I’m hallucinating.”

The answer was clear and loud with more than a hint of irritation. “Who’s the Master?”

Duke laughed. “Not you. That’s for damned sure.” He charged the man barehanded, hoping for some sort of actual challenge.

The man met Duke’s charge, easily blocking Duke’s leading punch and delivered a punch of his own to Duke’s midsection. The punch was faster than Duke had expected and connected with a red flash of energy, sending Duke flying into the far wall.

Climbing back to his feet, Duke shook his head which was ringing a bit from slamming into the wall. He quickly noticed that he had lost 16% of his health from that one punch. Fucker packs a hell of a punch. I actually have to take him seriously.

Duke blasted away with another 100,000 Mana LIGHTNING bolt, engulfing the man. The thunder from the bolt shook the room and blasted Duke’s eardrums, leaving him temporarily deafened. The dust quickly cleared and Duke saw the results of his attack.

The man stood in the same spot, completely unscathed. He was now surrounded by a red, glowing energy field. He looked at Duke and laughed. Duke’s REGENERATION repaired his eardrums in time to hear him speak again. “No magic this time. Now, who’s the Master?”

Duke decided to answer with a barrage of different Abilities to see if there was anything that could get through the energy field. He poured 1,000 Man each into FLAME DART, FORCE DART, POISON DART, ACID DART, WIND DART, ICE, and EARTH SHARD. They all impacted harmlessly on the barrier.

The man smiled at Duke, waving his index finger in admonishment. “I said no magic.” He closed the distance with Duke in a flash of red, leaving afterimages on Duke’s retinas. The side-kick that slammed into Duke’s chest bounced him back into the wall with the feeling of something breaking in Duke’s ribcage. Duke TELEPORTED to the far side of the room to give himself some space to breathe and gather himself.

His REGENERATION was working at a furious pace to put his bones back into place, but Duke was getting seriously concerned. He was down to nearly 80% Health, and he had yet to lay a finger on the guy who seemed to be toying with him. He needed time to think. He’s too fast and hits too hard to just sit back and counter-punch. Need a new strategy. Right. Evasion game time.

Duke rapidly TELEPORTED randomly around the room to give himself time to heal up and think. It took about five seconds for his REGENERATION to get him back up to full. His Mana was lagging but he still had over 200,000 Mana on tap, so he wasn’t worried, especially since his Abilities seemed to be blocked by the barrier. He even tried a TELEPORTATION trick, but it didn’t penetrate the glowing barrier either.

Duke TELEPORTED behind the man and attacked with his tonfa. His blow was fast and hard at the man’s head in an upstroke spinning the tonfa out to full extension. Despite the surprise, the man managed to slip his head aside so that the blow glanced off his head and hit his shoulder. The man grunted and spun a kick back at Duke’s head who leaned back to only be clipped by the blow himself.

The fight was truly joined then with Duke using everything he had learned combined with all his Intuition, Agility, and Strength to block, slip, and counter blows. As more and more blows flew in both directions, Duke realized that he was losing. He was down to less than half Health while his opponent was still above three-quarters. He disengaged, TELEPORTING away and changing his location randomly again.

This worked for about ten seconds before one of his TELEPORTS wound up in the wrong spot and he was launched across the room again. The blow had been tremendous, reducing his Health from 82% all the way down to 19%. He scrambled back to his feet, waiting for his now broken left arm to become functional again and wracked his brain for a solution. I can’t get through his barrier with my magic, and he is winning all the physical exchanges. My ARMOR SKIN just can’t absorb enough damage. Maybe…Gotta try it. If I can’t use my magic on him, can I use it on me?

The man laughed haughtily, “Who’s the Master?”

Duke OVERCHANNELED his ARMOR SKIN. It was something he had never tried before, but it was likely his only chance of surviving this fight. He poured 10,000 Mana a second into the Ability, knowing that if it worked, he would only have about two minutes before his Mana ran out. But in a flat-out fight, two minutes could be an eternity. He could feel his skin strengthening as his Mana suffused it, becoming harder and thicker.

He launched himself at his opponent, attacking full-out and hoping it would work. His opponent, knowing he had the upper hand, was eager to trade blows with Duke. Each blow his opponent struck caused the Mana infused into Duke’s skin to flare in a golden flash of power, but no damage made it past his enhanced ARMOR SKIN.

Flash after flash erupted from Duke’s body as red-framed blows struck harder and harder with less control and more frenzy. Duke’s own blows began to take their toll on his opponent. The exchange of blows increased in pace as both pushed to the limit, red and gold flashing and blurring around the room. Duke’s Mana was down below 40,000, leaving him no more than three full seconds of protection. His opponent was finally down below 20% but Duke knew that he was going to be outlasted.

Duke TELEPORTED away again to get a moment to think, stopping the extra Mana going into his ARMOR SKIN. He could see his opponent was visibly winded and was taking the time to ready himself for the next exchange. Duke knew his Mana was ticking back up by the second but not fast enough to make a true difference. He planned for his next and last assault but paused when something occurred to him. He pulled a pair of potions from his INVENTORY and downed them. Immediately, his Mana ticked up by 50,000 points and began to climb far faster than normal. Baslin had given him potions, but Duke had never thought to use them before.

Duke re-engaged his enhanced ARMOR SKIN and charged back into the fray, and not a moment too soon as his opponent had already started to move in his direction. The fight resumed in full intensity. Duke kept his inner eye focused on two numbers, his Mana, and his opponent’s Health. His Mana ticked down to just over 80,000 – 8 full seconds of resistance as his opponent’s Health dropped to 14%. The intensity continued.

Duke dropped to just over 50,000 Mana as his opponent dropped to 10% Health. The red glow surrounding his opponent intensified and Duke could feel a build-up of power coming from the man. He TELEPORTED away again but kept his ARMOR SKIN going as he pulled another pair of potions out.

The next attack came faster than any had previously, striking Duke so hard that it penetrated even his enhanced ARMOR SKIN, dropping his Health down to 15%. They both were on their last legs and the potions had gone flying to smash against the wall from the intensity of the strike. Duke pulled the last two out of his INVENTORY and downed them as he TELEPORTED across the room yet again to get a breather.

With the last infusion of Mana, Duke engaged for one last furious exchange of blows. The red glow was weaker than it had been to start and was even occasionally flickering now. Duke’s own golden glow was getting brighter and brighter. Finally, with a tonfa strike to the chin, his opponent was knocked back, off his feet with his health flickering at 0%.

The man raised his head from the floor, blood dripping from countless strikes. With a feeble voice he asked, “Who’s the Master?”

Duke replied, “I am the Master!” His opponent finally collapsed.

A red burst of energy erupted from the fallen “master”, flashing over the room and travelling beyond. When the energy wave faded, Sam stood before Duke, fully fleshed-out. “Duke, we need to talk.”