20 The Island Of Patmos VII : Qitar

I didn't have much time left until my fight, so I took the healing potion, and all four bottles of bone hardening potion. At first it was the terrible taste, then came the intense pain as my wings were mended, and the bones in my body and wings became stronger. Though I'm not sure to what degree, I think it had to be strong enough to not break just as easily as before. I had two minutes left, and I spent that time to check out my competition. I was fighting a woman, and she's a Marksman just like me, or to be more precise a sniper.

She's had a single battle, and her mastery over her sniper rifle was unorthodox and insane. She never stays in a single spot, and was so agile and flexible that she could even use her sniper rifle as a sword and shield.

It's like she was trained to be a close quarters combatant, and her gun was the weapon of choice for it. Either way, I was ready, I've not exactly learnt my new skills, and that would probably be because I don't know how. It was embarrassing but, Lost Descendants online had a perfect mesh of fantasy and sci fi elements.

But it no longer had skill books, rather tiny disk like cases were given, with the skill name on it. I had no idea how to use them, which means I have to rely on what I already have, but there was no problem with that, I was more familiar with my old skills anyway.

When the time came, I made my way to the gate that led to the arena and went through it. There was a shimmer of light and I came up to the arena where I had fought and killed Maurice. My opponent was on the other side, and it was obvious from the way she was armored, that she has better gear than me. This would be harder than I expected. I bent my head down and looked at the grey wooden bow in my hands and inspected it.

[Elven Longbow of Theran'ur'mekir Iron wood./GRADE: EARTH/ HIDDEN GRADE: NONE]

[+45% arrow speed and pierce, +25% Power + 30 damage. + 15% wind element damage]

[Skill (I): Wind Mark: For every arrow fired, the speed of the subsequent arrow will increase by 10% for a maximum of 10 stacks.]

Equipment in Lost Descendants are divided into grades, and regardless of your level, you can use any weapon from any grade. Though some really special weapons have stat and skill requirements to allow usage. This bow was powerful and a very good piece of equipment. Among earth grade weapons, I would say this bow would find itself among the top players, so I really owed the elven minister a session of sincere thanks and ass kissing.

"Ladies and gentlemen, in a bid to redeem the Patmosian honor; that had been so brutally lost to the hands of the dark horse known as seven. The captain of Zebedee's own golden vines; Qitar has challenged and hopes to defeat seven to get back that honor. It would be a tough fight, but what many don't know is that Maurice was trained as a fighter by Qitar's own father, the two of them grew up together, fought together and were the best friends. Until the phenomenon that is Seven burst into the scene. This has now become personal, and talented as he may be, can seven withstand or even defeat Qitar the ferocious, an expert stronger, and faster than Maurice the butcher. Let it begin."

BAAANG!

It more to instinct than skill that I was able to duck down as a bullet flew over my head. She was fast, way faster than me. But this fight would not be won with just speed. She lifted her gun up to her shoulder, the five foot long and ten inch wide sniper rifle coming to life as she pointed it straight at my face.

The same green glow that I had noticed from Maurice's axe was seen, I flapped my wings and took a small jump, and in response she raised her gun up in the air too.

I couldn't help laughing at her a bit. Everything she's done so far, has been a replay of my fight with Maurice, and she was either trying to humiliate me,by having me use the same kind of moves I made during that fight. That way if she won, then it would to be to my great shame, and her glory. She was smart, very smart, and also very skillful too. But that did not change one very important fact, and it was that she was a crafty, vindictive green lady who knew how to plot her revenge in an extravagant way.

She noticed that I had only baited her, and then she brought her gun down to face it at my incoming form. Even though she was armored, she was not wearing a helmet, only an optical device on her left eye. She closed her right eye, and that was all the warning I needed.

I pulled out three arrows, put two in my mouth, nocked the last one and went down in a base ball slide, and just in time, as a green beam of light flew over my head with an electrical hum.

There was a smell of ozone, burnt hair and the feeling of scalded skin, I was like seven inches under the beam, yet a few strands of my silver hair and some of my skin was burnt off. But the pain was just fleeting, I've learnt to deal with it during my time in the army.

I let the arrow fly, with a better bow, it's speed was comparable or even superior to when I used shoot with an ordinary common bow. And this was just a warning shot, not even followed with a skill. She brought her gun down, and deflected the arrow away, but by then the second one was already on it's way.

She crossed her gun and intercepted the arrow, and turned her body sideways as the third arrow went past her face, taking off a few strands of her black hair and slicing a thin line on her forehead that trickled with tiny amounts of green blood.

I nocked another arrow as she whipped her gun at my face. No one was moving yet, we were just watching, waiting and anticipating the each other's move. She was waiting for me to make mine, and I was waiting for her to make hers.

A battle of attrition and patience, who would cave first. Neither one of us could close our eyes, as we focused on each other, and curse this game for how realistic it was, I could actually feel my eyes beginning to water and my vision blur.

So far I had kept my wings close to my body to make myself less of a target. But now, I released a little bit of my right wing from my back, letting the edge of it feathers poke out of my side and then.

BAANG!

Damn she works fast, but she took the bait. Though she was not as stupid as her dead friend. I moved my self sideways and moved back, using my wings in a way that's too hard to describe to drag myself back.

That's when I released the fourth arrow, and she deflected this one too, but barely as it glanced off the shoulders of armor, letting out a shower of sparks in protest. Her gun glowed silver at the tip, and my eyes narrowed to a pin prick. I knew that move, that was the animation for homing Shot!

I picked up the fifth arrow nocked it and released it too, using homing shot too, and setting it's target for the bullet aiming at me. Qitar fired almost at the same time as I did, her bullet a silver streak flying towards me, but my arrow moved to intercept, slamming into the bullet as both ammunitions exploded into a cloud of sliver fire. She let off more shots, but I had already jumped up high, and pulled the bow back for the sixth shot.

The skill of the bow was a passive, and it would stack with all of the speed and other bonus that was already active.By now, my entire attack speed with the arrow would increase by 95%. What came next was not pretty. I fired my bow, and the arrow streaked across the arena with a whoosh. She blocked it again, but she was incapable of holding her self steady as it pushed her backwards a few steps, throwingher off her game.

And that was all I needed to finish it as I nocked the seventh arrow, and used shoot. At first I aimed it at her head, it was the most undefended part of her body, which means a hit would kill her, but I change my mind at the last second and shot at her right arm instead.

It was like a beam of blue light tore through her hand. It just wasn't her who couldn't see it, but me also. And then came the screams, it was grating, and painful. To be honest it made me feel bad. But this was a fight to the death, showing mercy to your enemies was foolish.

I walked up to her as she clutched the stump that was her right hand, and tears flowed down her face. She looked up at me defiantly, almost as if she was challenging me, telling me she wouldn't die with her head down. I squatted down, so that my face was level with hers and said.

"Forfeit."

"What?" she asked back confused.

"I said you should forfeit. That way you can get your arm fixed up quickly." I explained to her.

"Who do you think you are? Do you think you would make me throw away my respect and my honor,the expectations of my people. Aren't you done humiliating us!" she shouted at me. And then I got mad.

"Are you stupid or something! Your people humiliated me! I was running for my life and came here for help. What the fuck did your people do? You guys locked me up and took my friend away. You took my elephant away, a battle beast that's bonded to me, to raise her as a brood mare so that your people can have powerful sentient weapons. Fuck you and your self righteous honor, is it worth it to die for people who lie and are not straight forward. They sent me to this place to die! Was I supposed to let that happen. (Sigh) please don't let any more blood be on my hands. I'm fighting just so that I can get my friend back and get the hell out of here. I don't care about this trial, all I want is to get Sky back."

She was silent, I bet she didn't expect such an outburst from me. To be honest I didn't expect it either. She clutched at her wound and looked as if she was not so sure about what choice to make. Just before the fight I checked up on the rules, someone could forfeit a match if they want too, but since it's a death match, the person would have to leave a limb behind to appease his or her opponent. It was a rather brutal rule, but in this case it worked well for me.

"I understand how you feel; you chose to fight me because of your friend, well that's the reason why I'm also fighting. So that I can get the chance to find and be reunited with my friend. I'm sure your friend wouldn't want you to die here, and definitely not at the hands of his killer. How else are you going to get revenge if you die?" I said to her.

"You're going to let me have revenge against you? Is there something wrong with your head?" She asked me.

"Sure why not, that way I can beat you again. Though I can't promise I would be this forgiving the next time we fight. But I'm sure it would be quite a challenge, and more honorable than fighting for other people's amusement. Please Qitar, do right by yourself, it's the only way to do right by your people. You're the captain of the golden Vine, whatever that is, and I'm sure your people look up to you. It would hurt for them to loose two of their heroes in the same day and to the same person. There's a better choice here, so take it."

She looked up at me and sighed. Then raised her head to look at me. All the while saying.

"I forfeit."

Both gates on the opposite end of the arena lit up, and team of doctors came running out from the gate Qitar had come out of. At least I think they were doctors, because they were just wearing green dresses, had flower bands around their head, wrists and ankles. And they floated off the ground too. I got up to leave, but Qitar clutched at me with her left arm.

"Our story is not over yet Seven, I'll come find you soon enough." She said to me.

"Hahahaha, Qitar I'll be expecting you. I believe our paths will cross again. And as an added incentive, to make it easier for you, I'll tell you my name. It's Aaren, don't forget it beautiful."

And then I turned and left the arena, feeling all too good about myself. I was given a 20 battle points, and nothing else. Seems like my sponsors are not happy I spared her, or something. Though I don't get this tree, it seems to be sentient, but entirely aloof to everything that's been happening. Oh well, I'm not worried about it anyway.

I was led back to my cell, and unceremoniously thrown in by the guard that escorted me (the jerk!) But either way I was tired. I came, I saw and I conquered, now I'm going to log out. I have yoga in the morning with my son, don't want to be late.