Too Stubborn to Die

Mala didn’t seem to know where to look. One moment, Aaron had been standing there, and the next he wasn’t. And then in a blink, he was on the attack—feinting with a burst of mana, and then attacking one of her openings with another.

Skill-wise, Mala looked completely out of her depth, and a second later, she was down again.

He employed a confusing array of feints and lightning-fast dodges, causing Mala to swing around wildly. Aaron was everywhere he needed to be, and nowhere Mala wanted him to be.

The sound of their clashes rang out through the arena, and she got up again, just to be knocked back down.

“Getting tired?”

Aaron’s words had only been half mocking. But half was far too much for Mala, and she burst with new rage. Unfortunately, though, it seemed that the powerful burst of aura she had used to take out Mo’han had drained much of her power. Simple rage wasn’t going to turn the tide against a locked-in Aaron anymore.

But as much as the battle was turning in Aaron’s favor, he still had problems. The match timer was ticking away, and the scores were still level. And the ball was still in a problematic position.

Aaron had no idea what would happen if the two teams tied, and he didn’t want to find out.

He knocked her down again as she raged against his perfectly timed strikes. But Mala was an avenger hellbent on wiping out humanity, and she came at him with a fury few others had seen. She threw everything she had left into a charge, shooting toward Aaron at full speed.

But predictably, he dodged. And immediately countered with his own attacks, landing several within seconds. Unfortunately, she tanked every hit, continuing forward with her titanic momentum, and crashing through into their goals and putting Team Frostborn ahead by one goal.

“Dammit!”

Aaron’s nostrils flared with frustration. Winning the fight meant little if they lost the game.

But his brow perked as Mala got up and turned around. For a moment, he had hope. He spotted the ball wiggling and struggling to get free from where it was supposed to be, but it ultimately failed, and he sighed.

It seemed as if the System was trying to reset the ball after the point was scored. The problem wasn’t that Mala’s ass muscles were too powerful for the System to overcome. Rather, it seemed like the aura barrier she was using was preventing it from escaping. Mo’han must have weakened the barrier when he knocked her over. And while she seemed to lack the power to use her aura as she had before, it was strong enough to keep the ball locked in place.

However, Aaron doubted that she was actually overpowering the System. It had probably been intended for the ball’s reset to be imperfect. If one team was strong enough to hang onto the ball, despite its powerful pull, then it probably figured they deserved to keep it. After all, the System wasn’t about perfect rule following, but rather domination by the strong. And if a strong person could claim the ball and keep it, then there was little reason not to allow them to keep scoring over and over again.

Luckily for Team Obsidian, Mala didn’t seem too concerned with trying to score or win the game at all. Instead of jumping back and forth through the goals as she could, she just charged back toward Aaron, ready to continue the fight.

As she approached, Aaron realized that it was time to play the matador. Although that was easier said than done when he was unable to retreat. Instead, he had to circle, remaining engaged in the fight the entire time as he carefully led the rampaging mammoth to her own goals.

If her aura was as deadly as it had been, it probably would have been impossible for him. But without it, she was the slower and clumsier of the two.

A back and forth ensued, but now that Aaron had her read, she wasn’t landing attacks, and he could take his time luring her. Although there was the odd powerful blast of aura from her tusks. When she used the power in pulses, she could still maim Aaron. But she wasn’t hitting anywhere near enough to outpace his healing.

Moments later, he had her where he wanted her, and he led her straight up to the goals, and jumped up level to her face, and landed a perfect soccer kick, sending her flying backward through the goals, tying the score.

“Woo! GOAL AARON!” He cheered, infuriating Mala.

The mammoth was back on its feet almost immediately and charging straight back toward him, but things were about to go from bad to worse as Mo’han respawned.

The other players were still mostly useless. The two humans had wobbly legs, and while they might have recovered enough to do something if the ball was free, it wasn’t, and so they stood on the sidelines. No doubt, terrified of the idea of taking the ball back from Mala, considering its awkward position.

Talia was also recovering. She still looked ill, but nowhere near as bad as she had been. While Mandor wasn’t far off either. But if they were planning on doing something about the match, they were waiting for a more opportune moment.

Not Mo’han, though, he came barreling forward, slamming into Mala without a second thought, and putting her straight back on her back foot again.

“My goodness, this is getting tiring!” Aaron shouted. “How much does it take to kill you?!”

“HAHA!” Mo’han roared.

Mala was one persistent beast, and despite the absolute battering she had taken, she didn’t actually look too badly damaged.

“PESTS!”

Mala stamped her feet and, in an instant, sent out a powerful burst of aura she had been saving up, and then collided with Mo’han, sending him flying once more.

It was a defiant show of power. But she was more drained by the second, and so when she turned to Aaron, he decided to finally dig his feet in and meet her head on.

When she charged, Aaron tensed up like a bulwark. Her tusks were aimed down and ready to shred him to pieces, and instead of dodging, he grabbed them.

At first, it looked like the human man, tiny in comparison to the massive mammoth, had stopped the incredible force dead in its tracks with sheer strength. But that wasn’t correct.

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Aaron had long since noticed that her mana seemed to be concentrated in her tusks. It was how she was able to tear through their defenses so easily. Her control of it was atrocious, but it poured out in such massive quantities that anything struck by the tusks was obliterated. If Aaron were a betting man, he would have been willing to gamble a lot of money on the tusks being the source of her mana anchors.

But after stampeding around the field for so long, her reserves were depleted. Being hit was still dangerous, but not as much as before, and she didn’t have as much raw power to throw around. It was still a gamble, grabbing her like this, but as soon as Aaron touched the ivory tusks, he knew he had gambled correctly.

Attacking energy organs was nothing new to him. It was how he had defeated Oozagh’s shadow, and part of the reason he had been able to defeat Mo’han. But he had never done it quite like this.

All his experimentation with his energy anchors recently had given him an idea, and when he grabbed hold of her tusks, instead of just overpowering Mala’s anchors and shocking them with pure force, he tried pushing his own mana in with a bit more precision. It was almost impossible to control it once it entered Mala’s body, but since his hands were directly on her anchors, he didn’t need much. Just a bit of interference, and her energy went haywire.

Aaron slid back a few steps from her momentum, but the loss of control of her energy caused her to falter, bringing her off balance. He didn’t waste time taking advantage of this, and immediately poured every ounce of mana he had into his foot anchors, boosting himself up like a rocket and bringing Mala with him. Her sheer mass made this one of the most wasteful things he had ever used his mana on, but he didn’t need to bring her up very high.

Once she was fully off the ground, her entire weight held up by Aaron’s hands on her tusks, he shouted with effort as he pulled her up, cutting the power to his mana anchors. He felt his muscles tearing and re-healing as he did so, but he managed to get her over his head.

For a moment, they were weightless. Then, Aaron raised his legs until his feet pointed up, launching himself back toward the ground with Mala swinging over his head and behind him in a suplex of apocalyptic proportions. He barely managed to swing his feet back to catch himself before his head went splat on the indestructible ground.

Spectators had to shy away, protecting themselves from the shockwave that blasted through the arena, and while the arena itself was indestructible, it did not protect anybody from the shockwave itself.

And as it happened, an audible, and disturbingly wet pop sounded that made Aaron’s hair stand on end. But when he saw the red ball flying gloriously through the air and into Frostborn's goal, he didn’t care.

“FUCK YEAH! Wooo! Mate, check it out! We’re ahead!” Aaron shouted and glanced up at the scoreboard for confirmation as he did a victory lap.

Obsidian 9 — 8 Frostborn

Lights flashed around the scoreboard as the score flicked over, and a wide grin was plastered on Aaron’s face.

Although the match wasn’t over, and like clockwork, the humiliating suplex had Mala outraged again. But she didn’t seem to care about the score in the slightest. Her rage was entirely fixed on Aaron. A human who had done such a thing, and she charged straight for him.

But before she could arrive, Mo’han stepped to his side, and they both met the rampaging mammoth head-on.

Mala had fought spectacularly well, and Aaron had to admit, he was a little worried to see how powerful she might be with Skills. But her aura was exhausted, and all she had left was her sizable raw power. But what was raw power in the face of Aaron and Mo’han?

A shockwave blasted out as they clashed, and the two friends returned fire. Mo’han tackled her around her lower half, holding her in place with his six powerful arms for several long seconds as Aaron tenderized her.

It was brutal. Power that could shake worlds pummeling into her from all directions. And little by little, they pushed her back. Slamming fists, kicks, and bodying her back and forth. They tackled her down and crashed down upon her prone form with flying elbows. It was vicious. Attack after attack. An endless tsunami of pain. Her points were exposed, and brutalized with the efficiency of German engineering.

Mala staggered backward. She had no answer for the rain of attacks, and when the two of them slammed against her once more, she was thrown back and through her own goals again. And only a second later, stepping on Aaron’s shoulder and bouncing off it, Mandor came somersaulting through their goals with the ball.

Obsidian 10 — 8 Frostborn

The goals blared and flashed, and a second later, Mandor toppled forward and started throwing up again.

“Respawns. Suck.”

And as it was supposed to, the System yanked the ball out of his sickly grasp, resetting it in the center of the field.

But it didn’t matter. Not only was Mala fading, but she wasn’t trying to score. And Mo’han and Aaron hadn’t stopped pulverizing her for a second.

Several more attacks landed in quick succession, and finally, the mammoth rolled over.

Mala was dead.

Of course, she would respawn just like they had. But the goals were open now, and it only took one look from Mo’han for her two human allies to stop in their tracks and throw their hands in the air.

And they had a good thirty seconds to score as many goals as they wanted, and that was exactly what they did.

Not that they were too worried. It seemed impossible for her to recover. And when she did finally return to the field, her aura was not rejuvenated, and the beating carried on more or less the same. Although even weakened, Mala was still a mighty opponent, pushing the two of them back on several occasions as the match timer ticked down.

FINAL SCORE!

Obsidian 63 — 8 Frostborn

Aaron fell forward, resting his hands on his knees as he panted. The game had been hard fought, and the final score was not an indication of how the match had actually gone, not that he was complaining.

“Good fight,” he said to Mala with an appreciative nod. “You are strong. And stubborn.”

“AYE! You’re a worthy opponent, MALA! I hope we can challenge one another properly in the future!” Mo’han cheered, extending his arms for a hug.

Mala stamped her feet and turned away from Mo’han before he could reach her. “Shut up the both of you! This is nothing but a disgrace!”

Congratulations, Obsidian Sector, you are the winners!

But wait! Hold it right there!

Auction points rewarded for winning the dungeon floor!

100 additional auction points rewarded!

The System message came loud and clear, with a strange voice accompanying it, like an announcer.

We love your energy! Keep that animosity bottled up! Because this is not over!

A winner of this challenge objective, and for defeating the opposing king, the Obsidian Sector may select three members of their group to automatically move onto the next floor!

But that’s not all!

By completing the Mythical Challenge Objective “Second Chances, Live with Goliath,” you have unlocked a special additional quest objective!

Please stand by for interdimensional transportation!

You are invited to the multiverse’s favorite program, “Second Chances, Live with Goliath,” and an opportunity to bring more people with you to the next floor! An opportunity you’re going to need!

Transporting all participants from the sixth floor to the studio!

“All participants?” Aaron blinked.

“You know what this is, A-ran?”

“Not a clue.”

Aaron had no idea why it wanted to bring everybody. They were the ones who won the challenge. Why would they want to bring the rest of the teams into an opportunity for a second chance?

Then again, perhaps it wasn’t such a bad idea, he thought. If the next floor was quadrant versus quadrant, which seemed likely, then having the top talents from all sectors in their quadrant could be very useful.

As System energy wrapped around them, he glanced over at Mala, and that very same thought gave him a bad feeling. She didn’t look like she wanted to work with him, no matter the consequences.

Oh, this is going to be interesting…

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