A shiver went down my spine when I felt a rather pointed gaze upon me, I quickly turned around in an attempt to find out whose eyes were on me.

  This one unlike any of the pointed stares I was used to, for this one felt like someone was looking right into my very being, like their eyes were seeing more than just my physical self and exposing everything inside of me that even I did not know.

  Strangely enough, it also felt rather familiar…

  “Dae? Is something wrong?”

  Tris’s hand on my shoulder snapped me out of my frenzy when I couldn’t locate anyone that was looking at me, I took a deep breath to calm myself down before turning to her and assuring her.

  “It’s nothing. Just thought someone was staring at me.”

  “I think everyone is staring at you, Dae. Us too.”

  “I guess that’s fair… but this one is a little—”

  “Shush, both of you! Drake’s match is about to begin!”

  My expnation died in my throat as I closed my mouth and turned my attention back to the elevated ptform in the middle of the coliseum, the battle arena in which all our duels would take pce.

  The conditions for victory in the duels were pretty simple and straightforward; you win the duel if your opponent either was kicked out of the arena, knocked out and unconscious, or straight up surrendered.

  Also, if any of our own people intervened during the duel in any shape or form, it was an immediate disqualification, and the opposite Familia would win that duel.

  Of course, the referee and the Ganesha Familia would intervene if the duel went too far, so there was little chance that either side would not leave the arena alive.

  Though when I saw who Drake’s opponent was, I was finding it increasingly hard not to be concerned for his survival.

  “Sorry to keep you all waiting, folks!!” Iblis cried out to the coliseum’s spectators, “Without further ado, let us start with our first match of the day!!”

  Climbing up the stairs, the two Adventurers from both Familias got onto the elevated ptform as the spectators cheered either side on with excitement, before meeting up at arm’s length while staring down at each other.

  “From the Aeshima Familia! A true berserker among berserkers! The beauty and wild nature of an amazoness with the strength and sturdiness of a dwarf! If she locks onto you, you are a goner! She’s ‘Raging Axe’ Akran!!”

  “Whoo!! Muscle mommy!!”

  “Squeeze me between those thighs!”

  The cheers were mixed with wolf whistles as the amazoness waved to the crowd, unfazed and was even comfortable with the attention she was getting.

  Akran was easily as tall if not taller than Drake, with her long white hair tied up in a sweeping ponytail standing out from her tanned skin as her sharp bronze eyes stared into her.

  And just like any amazoness, she was unabashedly dressed just as skimpy as many others.

  A lime green strapless top covering her rather impressive bust while showing off some cleavage and her muscur abs, and a pair of shorts with a red sarong cloth around her waist acted like a long skirt with an opening that showed off her long bare legs, alongside matching pairs of bracers and greaves.

  And resting on her shoulder was the weapon that her moniker was based around, a polearm with a twin-headed axehead that had one bde being rger than the other attached to a white wooden shaft.

  “From the Hecate Familia! With a bow in hand, he has never missed his target! Even with a bow, he is fighting up close and personal! He is the ‘Lone Ranger’, Drake!!”

  “Isn’t he that one guy who…?”

  “A bow? Seriously? He must have a death wish…”

  As the crowd cheered for him and his unorthodox weapon of choice, or ughed at the fact that he brought a bow into a one-on-one duel, Drake ignored all of them and focused on checking his own equipment.

  He adjusted his leather bracer around his dominant hand, before checking his quiver’s positioning and making sure he could easily reach his arrows, while his fingers cycling through the projectiles with practised ease.

  All the while the amazoness scoffed with a smirk and turned up her nose at him with unbridled confidence in her victory.

  After all, if they were comparing the two Adventurers solely by their difference in size, it was clear that Drake had a huge disadvantage and would most likely be the loser of this bout.

  ‘Heh, this would be an easy win.’ Thought Akran.

  “To your stances!!”

  The cry of the referee had them dropping into a ready position with their respective weapons, as the Ganesha Familia Adventurer stood between them with his arm raised into the air.

  Drake lowered his center of gravity with his hand reaching into his quiver and grasping upon an arrow, while Akran had both hands on her polearm in a somewhat rexed stance as she leaned forward.

  Underneath his Familia’s elephant mask, the referee’s eyes darted between the two, before swinging his arm down with a loud decration that echoed across the coliseum alongside the ringing of a bell.

  “Begin!!”

  “And there’s the bell! Oh, and someone couldn’t wait to get started!!”

  Akran made the first move and dashed past the referee and towards Drake, the amazoness rearing her arms over her head before swinging her polearm down on him hard.

  The archer managed to avoid the attack by leaping out of its way, the axehead smashed down into the ptform and breaking into the stone tiles beneath it; and as he did so, Drake took out an arrow from his quiver and pulled back his bow string.

  As he skidded to a stop, Drake took aim and fired an arrow at the amazoness, Akran easily deflecting it away with a swing of her polearm before rushing towards him with it reared back and ready for another powerful strike—

  “Grgk!? What the!?”

  “Oh! Akran has her momentum denied by Drake!!”

  She was forced to halt her advance as she used her bracer to knock away another arrow that was aimed for her head, before another found itself lodged into her exposed shoulder, though only the tip had managed to embed itself into her flesh.

  Even so, the projectile had managed to draw blood from the amazoness, leading to a loud cheer for Drake by the spectators that had once doubted him.

  Annoyed at how quickly the supposedly weak archer had put a stop to her offensive and managed to draw First Blood, Akran spun her polearm around and parried away the arrows before charging at the archer.

  Drake darted away from the amazoness’s powerful swing before firing arrow after arrow at her in rapid succession, his hands were a blur with how fast he was withdrawing arrows from his quiver and pulling back his bow.

  Akran quickly swung her polearm around her to block and parry away all the incoming arrows, but a few of them would find a way to slip past her guard and lodged themselves anywhere on her exposed skin.

  “Whoa! Look at Drake go!” Iblis cried out into his magic item, “Guess his choice of a bow wasn’t just for show!”

  “He’s also aiming for the openings between strikes with great precision.” Shakti noted, “He has quite the adept mastery over the bow and arrow.”

  Ganesha let out a bellowing ugh, “As expected of the ‘Lone Ranger’!! Truly living up to his alias!”

  With several arrows lodged within her, Akran let out a growl as she swung her polearm to block another barrage of them, acting like she found the ones embedded in her body were no more than an annoyance.

  ‘I can’t believe I have to use [Heart of Dwarf] on such a weakling…’

  The amazoness took a deep breath before flexing all of her muscles and ejecting the arrows lodged in her body, much to the surprise and confusion of Drake who stopped his onsught of arrows in response to her bizzare action.

  She then let out a loud cry and her entire body was soon enveloped in something ethereal that shimmered in the light, almost like an invisible coating of some kind.

  Not wanting to wait to find out what she had done, he fired a series of arrows at her, only for him to blink in silent shock when the projectiles bounced off her skin.

  “Looks like this amazoness has a few tricks up her sleeves!!”

  “Not that she has sleeves!! Haha!!”

  With a massive grin on her face, Akran charged right at Drake, foregoing blocking any of the incoming arrows he fired at him and, allowing the projectiles to bounce off of her like rain as she got in close for her to strike.

  The archer swiftly ducked under the heavy swing, before leaping back to avoid the followed up smash and quickly took a distance from her, as he continued to pelt the amazoness with arrows to little avail, Akran continued to chase him down with a furious vigor.

  “Hold still, you bastard!!” She screamed at Drake as she swiftly closed the distance and swung her polearm at him, only for him to avoid the strike and quickly bolting away before began firing his arrows at her.

  There were a few close calls where her polearm had managed to graze him, but those were merely scratches that he simply ignored as he focused on avoiding her attacks before firing his arrows at her.

  “Akran is chasing Drake down relentlessly! Talk about another reversal!”

  “Looks like she has a Skill that enhances her sturdiness even more. More than enough to defend against arrows.”

  “Muscles! Are! POWER!!”

  Drake avoided another strike from the amazoness before running back to create some distance between them and started firing yet another barrage of arrows at her.

  Akran quickly charged at him once more, arrows harmlessly bouncing off her as she closed the gap once more, allowing her to swing her polearm down at him, an attack which he dodged with a jump to the right and darted back as he prepared to fire at—

  “Shit.”

  “Finally ran out of arrows, you slippery bastard!!”

  Distracted by the sudden ck of his projectile, Drake found himself barely managing to leap to the side to avoid the incoming polearm, only for it to stop mid swing before turning its axehead and swinging right towards him.

  Left with no other option, the archer raised his bow in front of him up and used it to block the strike; the polearm easily shattered the wood upon impact, the force behind the amazoness’s strike knocking the bow out of his hand and breaking it in two in the process.

  With him now disarmed and without any weapon to defend himself with, Akran swung her polearm down at Drake, a wide grin on her face as she had finally nded a proper hit on the slippery archer, and finally end this duel with her—

  “Hmph!!”

  “Wh-What!?”

  “Whoa, did he just…!”

  Just as her polearm was about to strike him down, Drake pulled out something from within his quiver and swung it into the incoming strike, parrying it and pushing the amazoness back a step with the force behind it that almost knocked the polearm out of her hand.

  And leaving her unguarded and open for a counter, an opening that he was quick to capitalize on, stepping forward and past the polearm before swinging his unarmed fist into her exposed gut.

  That had Akran smirking in response, ‘You fool. My [Heart of Dwarf] creates an impenetrable armor that nothing short of Enoch’s strength could break it! You will only break your hands against—’

  “Guargk!?!?”

  “Whoa!! He broke through Akran defenses!!”

  “No!! Her muscles have failed her!!”

  “I don’t think her muscles have anything to do with this, Lord Ganesha…”

  Her smirk immediately turned to a groan of pain as the shimmering ethereal light coating her immediately shattered the moment his fist struck into it, breaking right through it and striking into her body hard.

  Unknown to her, Drake had a Skill known as [Relentless Fighter], that increased his strength with each successful strike on his opponent, though the effects would dissipate the moment he was struck even once.

  And with how many arrows he had struck her with since the start of the duel, his current strength was comparable to a freshly ascended Level 3.

  The amazoness stumbled back while in agony from the unexpected strike, and was still shocked over her defensive Skill being utterly destroyed in a single strike from the supposedly weak archer.

  And thus leaving her unable to react when said archer followed up on his initial attack with a fast swing of his new weapon, its bde sshing into the skin above her cleavage and leaving a particurly rge gash in its wake.

  That immediately snapped Akran out of it as she quickly darted back to create some distance from Drake, her hand pressing on the wound as she stared at him with gritted teeth.

  “How…How are you so strong!?” She cried out, “An-And where did you get that weapon!?”

  “Oh, this?” With a grin, he lifted the weapon up for everyone to see, “I have my ways.”

  “Check out that dagger! That’s the strangest dagger I had ever seen!!”

  “Indeed, I myself have never seen such a strange dagger before. Lord Ganesha?”

  “I am Ganesha! And I have no idea!!”

  Miach couldn’t stop the smile from growing on his face at the sight of the weapon the archer was wielding with great pride.

  ‘So, you decided to use it after all…’

  In his hand was an unique weapon that had its origins in the Far East, a special kind of weapon that looked to be a strange melding of a dagger and an arrow known as an uchine.

  He had heard of this weapon from a Far Eastern god a long time ago, and had one commissioned many years ago as a present to celebrate Drake’s ascension to Level 2, one that he had left behind when he left the Familia.

  To see him wielding it after, for him to accept his help after all this time, was enough to make the god tear up from relief and joy.

  “You gave him that, didn’t you, Lord Miach?”

  The zy voice of his sole Familia member caused him to flinch, turning away from his Divine Mirror and meeting the eyes of Naaza, she gring angrily into him with her tired half-lid eyes.

  Miach let out a nervous chuckle, “Ah, Naaza, you finally changed your mind?”

  “Don’t try to change the subject, Lord Miach.”

  “Ahaha…are you mad?”

  Naaza shook her head, “No, I’m not. It is just like Lord Miach to do that.”

  “Ah, is…Is that so…?” Her patron god let a soft, good-natured ugh, “So, want to join me?”

  The chienthrope let out a sigh as she leaned onto the counter, the fingers of her artificial metal arm loudly tapping on their store’s wooden counter as her gaze was fixed upon the duel happening on the Divine Mirror.

  “…Even so, why help him?” She asked him, “He…He left us…! When we needed him the most, he…”

  “…Because even though he has left, he is still one of my children…” Miach patted the chienthrope on her shaking shoulder, “And… that weapon was his to begin with, so it is only right that I returned it to him.”

  “…he was the one that left it here to begin with…”

  “Even so, it was, and still is, my gift to him.”

  Drake spun the uchine in his hand before stopping it in a reverse grip and rushing towards the amazoness soon after, Akran quickly regained her senses and moved to intercept him in his path.

  She quickly swung her polearm down on him the moment he got close enough, but he redirected the strike with his weapon’s buff bde before stomping his foot onto its bde and burying it deep into the stone tiles.

  That left it stuck inside the stone tiles and Akran had no choice but to leave it behind to avoid a stab into her arm, before quickly retaliating with a punch which Drake parried away before slipping in a ssh on her stomach.

  “Oh! There goes her weapon!”

  “Looks like it will be a battle of the fists now!!”

  “One of them still has a weapon, though…?”

  Now disarmed and without her weapon, the amazoness resorted to using her bare hands, throwing wild and powerful swings at the archer in an attempt to strike him down.

  Yet no matter how many punches she threw, she wasn’t able to nd a single strike on him, Drake avoiding each of her attacks and parrying away those that he couldn’t avoid, which infuriated the amazoness and caused her to swing her fists more wildly.

  After one particur swing, he dived under it and swung his uchine into her side, leaving behind a massive gash on her exposed gut that had her crying out in pain from the unexpected attack.

  That left her wide open, which he quickly capitalised on by charging right back in and striking her liver with his foot, Akran’s knees buckling from the intense pain as the archer swiftly followed it up with an upward ssh from his uchine that sliced into one of her eyes.

  “Ooh, that’s an eye gone!!”

  “This is supposed to be a fist fight!!”

  “Lord Ganesha…”

  The amazoness let out a scream of agony as she clutched onto her wounded left eye, before letting out a growl before swinging at Drake with a wide haymaker, which the archer weaved around before swinging his uchine and leaving a gash along one of her thighs.

  Akran stumbled back moments ter as she processed the pain on one of her legs, leaving her wide open for him to charge at her for what he had hoped to be the finishing blow.

  With both hands on his weapon, he swung it down with all his might and sshed deep into her torso, slicing down from her shoulder to her gut; blood spurting out of the wound in a spray of red mist as the amazoness stumbled back with an unsteady gait.

  With a wound that bad, not to mention all the smaller but bleeding injuries he had inflicted on her so far, it wouldn’t be far fetched if the referee just called the match and handed Drake the victory

  “Looks like this might just be the end—or maybe not.”

  “Oh, that’s one nasty right hook!”

  Drake quickly raised his guard before getting sent flying with unexpecting strike from the amazoness, the archer skidding to stop as Akran stood there with clenched fists and a rage filled gre.

  She didn’t even care if her top had fallen off of her and revealed her breasts to the world, with many men present either having to cross their legs in shame, or getting gred at by their spouses and lovers for staring at her any longer than needed.

  Not even when her blood was leaking out of her by the gallon.

  “I-I’ll admit…” She let out a shakily huff, blood dripping from the corner of her lips, “You are… a lot more… tougher than I had… thought…”

  “You’re not going to st with those wounds.” Drake told her, “Just surrender and have them look at, or you’ll—”

  “I would much rather die.”

  “…What are you…?”

  Akran wiped the blood off her mouth before taking a deep breath, letting out a long exhale soon after before the chant left her lips in quick succession.

  “I surrender myself to the beast within. May it guide my body and soul to victory. Immore Pecus.”

  The moment the st words of her spell, no, curse was spoken, her eyes turning bloodshot as her skin turned red with the veins and muscles underneath flexing and gaining definition by the second.

  Then, a tense moment ter, the amazoness let out a loud bestial roar that had every spectator leaning back in shock while the Adventurers present nearly went for their weapons in response.

  “Whoa, what is this!? Raging Axe’s body is all red now!!”

  “And her muscles have become glorious!!”

  “Looks like she is in some kind of berserker trance, probably induced by that spell of hers.”

  Drake didn’t have long to take in the changes to Akran’s body when she suddenly charged at him with a haymaker ready to take his head off, the archer barely managing to dive out of the way to avoid that scenario.

  The amazoness didn’t stop attacking, as she began swinging her fists at him even more wildly than before, only her attacks were way faster than her previous attempt.

  It caught Drake by surprise with how much faster she had become, especially with all the wounds she was enduring; thought it was more like she was straight up ignoring them and was only focusing on beating him down.

  That became certain when Drake ducked under one of her strikes and threw a punch into her liver, which should have incapacitated her with the pain.

  Instead, she didn’t even register the hit and took the chance to throw a rather sloppy hook at him, the archer barely managed to dodge it by weaving his head back before quickly creating some distance between them.

  ‘Her spell must have numbed her to pain too… At this rate, she’s going to—’

  “Guah!?!?”

  “Drake!!!!”

  “Ooh!! That gotta hurt!!!!”

  Unfortunately, while his mind was distracted with processing the new information, Akran had closed the distance and nded a devastating punch into Drake’s chest, the archer letting out a pain-filled gasp as he felt his ribs cracking beneath her knuckles.

  The amazoness didn’t stop there, as she grabbed him by the face and smmed him into the ptform hard, stone tiles cracking under the impact as the archer let out another grunt as he was forced to let go of his uchine.

  With his vision blurred and a loud ringing in his ear, Drake was completely at her mercy when Akran lifted him up by his ankle before smming him back down into the ptform with a loud bang like he was some kind of human hammer.

  A blood-filled cough sprayed out of his mouth upon impact as he felt his bones cracked, the archer struggling to keep his consciousness from slipping as the amazoness suddenly leaping over him before dropping a dive bomb on him.

  This time, he could feel his ribs breaking as he coughed out more blood, wet gasps leaving his mouth as the amazoness mounted his prone body and reared both hands up for a hammer blow.

  He barely managed to raise his arms up as she swung down, her fists struck against his guard and nearly broke through it with sheer brute force; that was not the end of her assault, as she began wildly smming her fists down on him nonstop.

  “What a huge reversal!! This could spell the end of the Lone Ranger!!”

  “Yeah, I couldn’t see any way he was going to get out of this. It might be best if he surrenders.”

  “I agree! And I! Am! GANESHA!!”

  Drake could hardly focus with the ringing in his ear from all the concussions he had withstood in a row, though the idea of surrendering has never crossed his mind even the slightest.

  From the day he and the expedition party experienced the humiliation of being spared by the Amphisbeana, he had sworn to himself that he would become stronger, strong enough to not feel such helplessness again.

  ‘Never again would I suffer another humiliation like that, to let someone else decide my fate for me…!’

  As he felt the ringing in his ear lessened a little, Drake made his move and thrusted his hips upward, unbancing the amazoness and allowing him to push her off of him as he quickly got on his feet.

  “It’s not over yet, folks!! We might be getting another turnaround!”

  “All in the hips!!”

  “Lord Ganesha, please don’t move your hips like that…”

  The now berserk amazoness was quick to recover, rushing towards the archer as he made a mad dash towards his fallen weapon, all the while ducking and weaving through all her strikes.

  After diving under a particurly wide hook, he picked up his uchine and rushed back towards her, narrowly avoiding another of her strikes before slicing into her other arm, leaving a rather long gash on the exposed skin.

  Unbothered by it, the amazoness swung her fist at him again, the archer ducked under it and swung at her legs, slicing into her thighs that caused her knees to buckle a bit.

  And again, Akran ignored her new injuries and swung her fist down on him; Drake, in act of unorthodoxy, leaped back to avoid the attack before throwing his weapon at the amazoness.

  And like the true berserker she had become, she didn’t even avoid it as the hybrid dagger found itself embedded into her shoulder, disabling the use of one of her arms.

  “Did he just throw his weapon away!? Is he mad?”

  “Hard to say. But I think I know what he’s up to…”

  Ignoring the loss of one of her limbs, Akran rushed at him and swung her fist at him, grazing Drake’s cheeks as he barely managed to tilt his head to the side to avoid the strike before countering with a strike of his own to her face.

  And in the short time when the amazoness was left stunned by the strike, he got behind her and wrapped his arm around her neck into a chokehold before gritting his teeth as he tightened his grasp.

  “Oh! From a counter into a chokehold!!”

  “Taking out her arm first would make it harder for her to get out of it. And with how unrestrained the amazoness is, it shouldn’t take long to knock her out.”

  “What an excellent expnation! As expected of Captain Shakti!”

  Akran immediately began filing about in a panic as strained gasps left her constrained throat in a failed attempt to breath, her hand grabbing into Drake’s arm and tried to free herself from his grasp.

  Yet no matter what she did, the archer refused to let go of the chokehold; the amazoness was even buckling about like some wild horse trying to throw him off of her back, but it only caused him to tighten his grip even more.

  In a desperate st attempt, just as she was about to run out of air, Akran leaned back and took a leap backwards, allowing the both of them to fall onto the ground and thus smming Drake into the stone tiles.

  “Oof!! The head again!! How many concussions does he have now!?”

  The archer let out a painful cry, which had the amazoness smiling in relief that her attack had some effects on him; but that smile soon disappeared, but she found her arms bound up by his legs, and his chokehold still firmly tight around her neck.

  Unable to move her upper body, Akran kicked about as she tried to push herself back to her feet, but found that she couldn’t put any strength into them, unaware that the injuries that Drake had inflicted on her alongside excess blood loss had weakened her badly.

  Helpless and unable to escape his grasp, all the amazoness could do was struggle against her bonds in futile as the st of the air in her lungs ran out and her vision began to fade.

  ‘This is how it ends…!? Held down on the ground like some animal by that archer…!?’

  Eventually, after seconds of tense silence as the spectator watched on with bated breath, the amazoness’s limbs went limp and her eyes rolled to the back of the head as she finally fell unconscious from the ck of oxygen.

  “Akran, down!! Winner, Lone Ranger Drake!!”

  Once the referee made the call, Drake finally let go as all his limps flopped onto the ground like a wet noodle, a long sigh leaving his lips as he id underneath the unconscious amazoness, unable to move from sheer exhaustion.

  And all the while, the spectators cheered and appuded for his victory, with Varis exchanging hands among the many disgruntled men who had bet against him.

  He could see one of them was Kaede, the hume bunny happily accepted the bills from the men next to her much to the dismay of her close friend.

  The archer gnced down at the amazoness, specifically at the uchine inside her shoulder; one of the reasons that his gambit with the chokehold had paid off in the end, even if he didn’t want to admit it.

  ‘I guess I owe Lord Miach one…’

  …To be continued…

  Hey, hey, hey!! The first fight of the War Game is done!! Man, that is an intense fight!!

  I’ve got to say, this fight was actually one of the first ones I came up with when I was pnning this arc.

  And we also get some little backstory between Drake and the Miach Familia! And his past retions with Naaza!

  And for the sake of not dragging things too long, I decided to make each fight fit into one chapter each. So there will be no cliff hangers between fights!

  Now then, who shall be fighting the next duel…?

  With that, I thank you all for reading this!