The Primal Hunter

“Welcome to the Colosseum! Today, we have two New Bloods, both here to prove their worth! As they set foot on the sand soiled with the blood of their predecessors, who will come out on top!? Who will have a chance to move forward!? Perhaps... no! Not perhaps! Surely, today is the first match of a coming champion!”

The voice of the announcer echoed loudly throughout the entire arena as Jake stood behind a fenced gate leading up to the arena itself. After talking to the Battlemaster, the guy had looked him over once before agreeing he was ready and sent him down one of the many hallways leading into an arena. These hallways were a mishmash of spatial distortion, taking you pretty much anywhere in the arena without you even noticing. No one around seemed to comment on it either, as everything was indeed very low-fantasy. There weren’t even teleportation gates anywhere, and regular gates had replaced magical barriers everywhere. He also had to admit that everything large-scale magical going on could only be detected by him due to his sphere.

“Combatants, enter the arena!”

Jake began walking forward, bow in hand and ready to go. He quickly made it up to a still-lowering second meshed gate, his opponent directly ahead of him.

“Go Jake!” he heard yelled from the stands as he saw Owen there.

The arena was entirely circular and pretty small, only about thirty meters across, the ground covered in sand. Jake knew that as one moved up the ranks, arenas got bigger and grander, but for a starter arena, this was honestly pretty good. The stands all around were just benches, but there were surprisingly many in the audience. Though, Jake quickly came to realize they weren’t humans. They were instead small green creatures.

Jake stared at his opponent at the other end of the arena as he cursed internally. Really?

[Goblin]

The goblin looked exactly as he would have expected. It was not even a meter tall and carried with it a wooden club that it held over its shoulder, trying to look intimidating. This was Jake’s first time encountering a goblin that truly personified a starter mob, and he honestly had no idea what to expect from the fight.

He knew goblins came in many different forms. They were an enlightened race as they had professions and classes like humans and elves but rarely reached high levels. If a goblin reached D-grade, chances are it wouldn’t be a goblin anymore but, at the very least, some kind of hobgoblin. Jake even heard that goblins sometimes evolved into orcs and ogres or other such races.

As for the audience? Yeah, it consisted of ninety-five percent goblins who were all cheering and hollering loudly at their fighter. The crowd definitely wasn’t on Jake’s side.

Right as the mesh was about to fully lowered, the announcer spoke one more time:

“Let the battle begin!”

Without hesitation, the goblin charged toward him, having no doubt realized he would have a better chance in a melee. Jake had a bow, and the faster the goblin got close, the fewer shots he could get off. Additionally, Jake only had a knife for melee combat, which would make it very difficult to block a club.

The goblin knew all this and quickly ran across the arena, closing in at an impressive speed. The sand barely seemed to slow him down as he sneered at Jake, soon getting within only a few meters with Jake yet to nock a single arrow. The goblin prepared to swing its club the moment he entered striking distance, with Jake still yet to respond.

“Oh no! The goblin is simply too fast for the human to respond in time and draw his bow! How will he-“

Jake kicked the goblin.

His small green opponent tumbled to the ground, losing grip of his club. The little guy tried to get back up and find the club but stumbled again. After a dozen seconds, Jake just sighed as the goblin had managed to stand back up, even if he looked wobbly on his feet, barely able to hold onto the club.

“If you try to hit me again, I will kick you harder than last time.”

The goblin stared at him for a second.

“I give up!”

Silence persisted for a good three seconds as the announcer yelled loudly.

“A perfect victory for the archer… no, the martial artist! A glorious display of misdirection to bring a bow and confuse his foe! Truly brilliant!”

Jake tried to ignore the announcer guy as he walked back the way he came. He raised his hand and waved as the goblin bowed while Jake made his exit to the excited yells of Owen. Reaching the tunnel, he checked his menu and saw it had been updated.

Current rank: New Blood (1/5)

Colosseum Points: 2

Lives remaining: 10

one victory down… if you can

actually kill his opponent to win. The rules of the Colosseum were rather simple in regard to obtaining victories. One could win in one of three ways: kill your opponent, knock them out, or have them surrender. Apparently, in higher ranks, the rules could change, forcing some matches to

a match would give you one point toward promotion. Getting five points – at least for now – allowed you to do a promotion match and reach the next rank. If you lost a match and survived, you would lose a point, and if you went too much in the negative, you risked getting demoted to a lower rank. All in all, a

another fight. Before Jake could protest, he heard running from behind as

as he stared at Jake with starry eyes. “I didn’t know you were a

didn’t want to use a weapon…

kick was clearly practiced. You hit him right on the chin, too, and the timing… definitely not something you

knowing he wouldn’t get anything out of saying

for a bit more before Jake decided

going for another match,” Jake said as he

you don’t really need

up to the

“Hmph. Don’t get overconfident just because you won one fight against a goblin, New Blood. Plus, I heard

really wanted to point out how he literally just kicked the goblin normally but nodded solemnly. “I will

me for giving you permission,” the Battlemaster scoffed as he pointed at the tunnel for him to enter once the timer above it was done. Which would be about half an hour, it seemed. This time was given for a few things, including studying your opponent using stuff from some of the many information brokers around, but naturally, Jake didn’t feel like he needed

Also, who the hell was in charge of all those timers? How did they even know how long something would take? Of course, he knew it was all

down the tunnel. He soon found himself in a nearly identical arena, ready for his next match. Everything proceeded as before, as it was even

was against regulation. She held a simple wand in her gloved hands, looking incredibly full of herself - something her words that sadly interrupted

only skill is thoughtless kicks! I have been training under my revered master for years, and your meager

Not a martial artist.

mesh was down, the woman walked slightly forward as she held out her wand. “Behold! The power of

G-grade, he could still easily

as a fireball about the size of a basketball condensed over the next dozen or so seconds, as the elven woman looked incredibly strained. She kept her eyes trained on Jake, who kept walking, and as he passed a bit over the

“Try to dodge this!”

He did.

for him, and Jake pretty casually side-stepped it as she stared wide-eyed as the fireball hit the sand and left a nice black burn mark. It

bit as he kept walking until

you cannot

He could.

wall of the arena behind Jake. Now, standing within a couple of meters of the elf, she

win, I am

one step closer, slightly

“Please don’t kick me.”

and raised his eyebrow as she

stumbled back and fell down on the sand. Before Jake could even do or say anything, she

quickly scurrying out of the arena

me out

fight;

he was once more told not to get cocky. Alas, at least the guy wasn’t a complete idiot as the middle-aged man allowed Jake to

he had another quick

for how he

One kick.

All three of his last fights had been humans, and all had gone down the same way. Honestly, it was amazing how good a quick kick was at convincing someone that continuing fighting was probably a

finally allowed him to make actual progress. That’s right,

more challenging than the fights prior. In fact, it took twice as much effort than

Two kicks.

he got down from his grand promotion match, the Battlemaster had a smile on his lips and gave him a pat on the shoulder. “Good job, New Blood… or should I call you, Initiate