Villain Wants to See the End of the Game

Arena

What is the most prominent feeling of humans when one is in a dangerous situation?        

It is the fear of death.

The feeling of not being able to live tomorrow, not being able to see someone you love again, or not being able to see yourself achieving the things you worked so hard, etc.

And can someone really overcome his fear of death?

I don’t think someone can overcome this feeling. All you can do is accept the reality that you can die at any time and keep pushing forward until you reach your goal.

Then, you can enjoy the thrill of improving yourself on the thin thread called life. No matter what you do, if you don’t leave the place you are comfortable, you won’t be able to improve yourself.

Now, I am in the presence of a gladiator. Do I feel fear?

Yes, I fear that I could be dead at any time. I am uncertain about winning; however, does it matter?

No, it doesn’t matter if you are certain or not. The only thing you need to do is keep winning. That’s all that matters.

‘You shall survive, he said. It seems like this is some sort of a test for me. Then I shall not make it complicated.’

I thought like that, observing my enemy and myself.

Yes, myself, because right now, I don’t have my previous leather armor or daggers on me.

Right now, I have a bow without arrows and two daggers on my belt with light and tight one-piece clothing.

“The bow on your back will be yours if you can leave this place alive. This bow is called ‘Arcum Lunae’ and matches with only your mana type. So, only you can use this bow in this world. There are no arrows in this bow because it uses mana to materialize and nock the arrows, and you can change the attributes of this bow at your will in later stages. With this, I shall not speak anymore. Let your test begin.”

The same intimidating voice declared, and the gladiator immediately started to run to me.

<The weapon ‘Arcum Lunae’ (Growth-Type) temporarily bonded with the host.>

I instantly drew my new bow from my back and willed for an arrow to materialize on it. However, it seems it is not that easy to do on the first try, so I couldn’t materialize it.

‘It seems I should rely on my close combat in this test or, at least, for the first round.’

I thought, immediately putting my bow on my back and drawing my daggers.

‘It seems the gladiator’s speed is the same as mine, so I won’t have a hard time dealing with him.’

I judged and took a stance.

The gladiator has a sword in his left hand and a shield in his right hand. At the very least, he is not using a spear, so there won’t be any range disadvantage for me.

Because I am using daggers, I need to be in close contact with my enemy. With that, I bolted towards him, activating [Dash] immediately, attacking him from his left.

He raised his sword and blocked my attack.

I attacked with my second dagger to his neck, but he blocked it with his shield and threw a spartan kick to my abdomen, and because I was attacking, I couldn’t dodge the kick and flew backward with the force of it.

‘Wow, that kick was really powerful. This guy is a seasoned fighter; it looks like I should get a bit serious.’

I immediately started to attack again, but this time I aimed at his right.

He raised his shield, but my attack was faint. I instantly lowered my center of gravity and threw a kick to his right knee, which resulted in the loss of his posture.

I noticed that and attacked the tendons on his right shoulder and cut them swiftly with my dagger.

I didn’t give him any chance to regain his balance and shouldered him.

He lost his balance again. And fell to the ground. And because I cut his four right shoulder tendons, his right arm is unusable, which means he can’t use his shield to block my attacks anymore.

I instantly rushed him and attacked his neck again, but he raised his sword at the last second and blocked my attack; however, with my dagger in my other hand, I cut his neck, his body started convulsing, and I left him to die.

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I will use <’ this notation to indicate that the talker is the spirit of ‘Arcum Lunae’.

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<’ If you want to materialize an arrow, you need to visualize it with details. After that, you need to will its materialization. Think of the bow as a machine. Without a good design, can a machine understand your intentions? It can’t be right. It is the same for the bow, too.’>

Today, there really are many voices in my head.

‘Who are you?’

<’ I am the spirit of your bow ‘Arcum Lunae’. You can call me Luna if you want.’>

‘I understand. Let me try what you said.’

I replied and started to visualize the arrow I wanted to create.

An arrow with a shiny design started to materialize on the bow in my hand.

I felt my mana consumed and understood that the creation of the arrow was successful.

I immediately fired the arrow, and I must say, the arrow’s balance or sharpness everything is good.

After the guy died, his body disappeared from my sight, and two new gladiators appeared in the arena.

The first one had a spear and a shield, and the second one had a scimitar without any shields. Both of them don’t have many clothes on them and are half-naked.

‘It seems, in every round, the number of enemies will increase. I should aim for the scimitar guy first.’

I thought and immediately started to fire arrows at both of them.

Because I don’t have to nock an arrow by taking it from a quiver, my running speed while shooting increases.

I started kiting them while luring them to the edge of the arena.

At the end of the arena, there is a deep cliff, and I can’t see the end of it even with my skill [Hawkeye].

I kept firing arrows at them and managed to hit the scimitar guy in his left leg and injure him.

The moment the one with the spear reached me, he immediately attacked me by thrusting.

Because the spear had a range advantage, I needed to close the distance between us rapidly.

Since I have been running without using [Dash], they got used to my speed. However, getting familiar with something isn’t always a good thing. In some cases, you may be surprised by the sudden change and lose your composure.

Which was the thing I was aiming for, the moment [Dash] activated, I dodged his spear and threw my dagger to his neck, and because he was not expecting my movements would be this fast, he was caught off guard and couldn’t raise his shield in time.

My dagger hit his neck, and he started to stagger. I bolted towards him and pulled my dagger back, killing him in the process.

And, because the one with the scimitar was healing his wound, he couldn’t reach here in time.

After he saw the death of another gladiator, he started to approach me with a more alert expression.

The moment I saw him approaching, I started to fire arrows at him, left and right.

Because there was no cover in the arena, he needed to close the distance, and he knew that as well. So, he started sprinting to me while parrying the arrows I fired.

But he couldn’t parry or avoid all of them, and he didn’t reach me without an injury.

When he reached me, he was already exhausted from the fight like me and attacked me immediately. But before his attack could even contact me, using [Dash], I stabbed his heart and killed him.

 *Clap* *Clap* *Clap*

The moment I killed him, clapping sounds from all around started to appear from one by one…