Ultimate Level 1-Chapter 403: A Fight to Prove a Point

“What’s happening?” Batrire asked, a bit of concern in her voice.

As she spoke, the platform they were on started to rise as the thick cables began to move.

“We’re in a tower floor, and somewhere up there is a race from another world,” Max replied, his weapon and shield out, turning in a circle to see what was going to appear when they reached the top.

“How do you know that!?”

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“I can understand them,” Max replied, not looking at Cordellia. “I have a skill… remember?”

“Who can keep track of every skill you have? Still what—”

“Just wait, please. I’m not sure what we’re going to face, and I don’t want to wait to see what’s up there. Stay put.”

Without giving anyone time to protest, Max jumped upward, feeling Bob add a little bit of wind magic to his feet to propel him out of the rising lift and into the bright sky above.

All around him was a colosseum crafted in metal, filled with the beardless dwarves and weird-looking goblins they had faced before.

His appearance silenced them for a moment before a loud Booo came from the crowd.

“It appears one of the villains of the tower has returned! It is time for paaaayyyybaccckk!”

The voice carried out from boxes all over the arena, and as Max came to land on the metal floor, he saw the lattice cage above and around them.

A three-hundred-yard circle was their prison, with a roof of small metal wire to prevent them from escaping the fifty-foot-tall walls.

His eyes tracked the stands as those in them hurled insults and some threw different containers at the wire enclosure.

Thousands of them…

Perhaps maybe even ten thousand or more. And there is the one in charge.

Max’s eyes found what had to be the place where those in charge sat, a large opulent box, filled with a variety of different robotic animals, all normal size, moving around the area where a female dwarf and a male goblin reclined on metal thrones.

Beside them was a dwarf holding a small box up to his mouth and pointing a finger at Max.

“Behold! The first of the many who will die! Which champion should be allowed to crush them?”

Dozens of names that Max didn’t know came from the crowd, but he could sense that his friends were going to be up here in less than ten seconds.

Moving to where the two who were obviously in charge were, laughing and drinking from large cups, Max jumped into the air, letting Bob handle the magic while he moved as close as possible to the wires.

Hundreds of drinks with different colored liquids were tossed in his direction. Most failed to reach him or the mesh, but a few hit it, frying instantly.

“Can you understand me?” Max shouted. “Do we really need to fight?”

The pair on the throne both started choking on their drink, and the dwarf who was obviously the announcer speaking in some mechanical device all looked at him in surprise.

“How!? How can he speak our language!?”

“I do not know, my love!” the goblin roared. “It must be a trick! Gringulndo, how is this happening!?”

The dwarf, dressed in the ugliest green and yellow outfit Max had ever seen, rubbed his bald chin with his free hand and then shrugged.

“A trap? A test? It’s the tower, my king. Still, he must die! They slayed your fourth cousin!”

The goblin rose, his size and stature larger than Dagon. His orange robe hanging from around his back, a dark purple top, and light blue pants couldn’t steal the show from the polka-dotted boots he wore. The rainbow color of dots on a lime green pair of clothes was too much, and Max couldn’t help but wince at the fashion sense of the goblin.

“You have killed one of the royal family! My wife’s blood demands yours in return! Still, what is your name, so I may etch it into the box that will hold your charred and torn skin?”

Is there any chance I can find a way to not fight?

Most likely no. Still, this is something we need to consider. There are worlds, and somehow these are connected in the tower.

“Gringulndo, is he deaf?”

“I’m not deaf,” Max replied. “I had just hoped we could find a way to end this without me killing another of your people.”

Laughter came from the dwarf who sat on the throne. As she rose, Max felt his stomach roll. The orange robe that had been draped over her shifted, and her whole outfit was the same color as the goblin’s boots.

“I would go in there myself and squash you, but the rules forbid it. Be a grateful human. I would take my time playing with all of you.”

The cacophony of noise from those in the arena rose as the hairless dwarf queen raised her hands, seeming to enjoy the praise of those gathered in the stands.

Sighing, Max shook his head.

“Then whoever you send to die, their blood is on you.”

Without waiting for a reply, he moved quickly to where the other four were, huddled in a circle, each facing a different direction.

“The pink-skinned human has insulted our beloved king and queen! As such, they will decide which of the royal line will earn the right to collect their skin!”

Max tried to block out the noise of the crowd, the words that occasionally made it through the chaos all sounding worse than any curse he had heard in his entire life.

“What is going on!?” Fowl shouted. “You seemed to piss them off.”

“Apparently, we killed a distant cousin of the queen. As such, we can’t talk our way out of this,” Max replied, equipping his shield and hammer. “Whatever we’re going to fight, it’s going to be nasty.”

“Do we have a plan?” Tanila asked as Batrire started to cast her buff.

“Don’t die, stay close, figure out what we’re facing, and hit it with everything we got.”

“That’s not much to work off of,” Fowl muttered. “I mean that’s our normal plan.”

Shaking his head, Max turned and felt the vibrations of thousands of feet banging against the stands.

“We need to be ready. I think it’s about to start.”

“The queen has chosen their end! From the dark mines of Okuhoha, Broagu shall come and crush them beneath his might!”

As one the crowd began to roar and shout.

“Broagu! Broagu! Broagu!”

“Uh… what does that mean?” Fowl asked.

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“It means we’re facing someone named Broagu, and apparently they like him,” Max replied. “Who or what he is, I have no idea.”

Minutes passed, and the chaos in the crowd never stopped as spectators continued to rain down their drinks, most hitting the goblins and dwarves that sat rows beneath them.

Finally a thudding noise came, and soon it picked up the pace, growing louder and louder.

With each clang that erupted, the crowd’s roars grew.

“Broagu is in the Colosseum! Prepare yourself! Hopefully you wagered correctly on which of them dies first!”

A section of the wall underneath where the king and queen of this chaos sat began to slide apart, loud creaking of metal on metal echoing off the walls and causing them all to wince in pain.

“What in the gods is that?”

No one answered their archer as a shape came from the darkness, each step ringing out against the metal floor.

It ducked slightly to clear the opening and, when standing at full height, was forty feet tall and a colossus of metal-shaped destruction.

“A clockwork,” Fowl said. “Those… are legends.”

With mechanical arms and legs, the boss was larger than any of the robotic creatures or things they had faced on any other level.

“We need to be smart,” Max said as they watched it take a few more steps into the open space of the area they were going to be fighting in. “I can try to go all out, or we can play defensive.”

“Tear it to shreds.”

All of them glanced at Tanila, who was glaring at the boss.

“What?”

“You heard me. Rip it to pieces. You tried to offer them a way out. They rejected it. Now go show them, the tower, and anyone else watching us, what you’re capable of. Someone is still playing a game and thinks they can control us. Prove to them they are wrong.”

Her tone and voice were harsh, and had she taken her bracelet off and shown her true nobility, Max wouldn’t have thought twice about the way she spoke. Yet hearing her talk like this bothered him for some reason.

“She’s right,” Batrire said. “We’ll stay here. You got this.”

Frowning, he saw Fowl give him a nod.

“I’ve got them. You got this.”

They are right. You still have so much inside you to use, and yet we didn’t really go all out. If anyone out there is watching, we need to let them know we’re not playing around.

So use everything?

Yes. We both know I am so far from reaching the next evolution that honestly I’m not sure when it will come. If what we must do requires me to use my power to put on a show, then I will.

Clearing his throat, Max took a few steps toward the boss and spun the hammer in his hand.

[ Lightning Enchantment ]

Arcs of magical energy crackled along the hammerhead, and as the increase in spell took hold, some even leaped from his body and to the floor.

“It appears our victims are ready! Let’s get ready to smash!”

The metal colosseum vibrated once more from the roars and pounding of their feet, and the metal clockwork pointed a hand at Max.

“Prepare to be mounted on my wall!”

Laughing, Max made his move.

He sped toward the boss, his feet coming off the ground as Bob managed the skills they planned to use.

There is no time to play cat and mouse. Make a statement that will be heard across the entire system.

[ Ultimate Form ]

[ Power Strike ]

[ Ghost Strike ]

[ Rampage ]

[ Magical Strike ]

[ Quick Attack ]

[ Berserker ]

As his body grew, the boss’s hand came forward, preparing to punch Max.

Each of his teeth could be seen as he swung the hammer, using one last skill to reach his target.

[ Demonic Teleportation ]

With the massive robotic fist out of his path, the metal that covered the boss’s chest took on the full impact of his attacks.

Bob continued to drive Max forward with the wind spell, metal fragments exploding under the force of the strikes as he blew a hole through the armor that was thicker than him. Each swing of the hammer caused the metal to buckle and break, unable to withstand the force that was delivered.

In less than two seconds, he had punctured his way through the outer shell and reached the inside where cogs, gears, hoses, and other mechanical devices were moving. Inside all of it was a core, surrounded by a metal cage, a bright red light being given off as Max tore through every piece of metal that was meant to protect the heart of the clockwork.

His Engineering and Tinkering skill told him where the weak points were. A few more seconds passed as he eradicated each of the support structures that held it in place, and as soon as it was freed from where it had been suspended, Max reached out and stored it.

No time was wasted as he turned upward, knowing what lay above.

Finish it.

With the wind driving his body to where the head sat, Max’s rage did what it did best.

Everything within his path was torn apart.

One hand swung with a weapon he made.

The other tore pieces free, his strength far too great for them to stay attached.

In a blink of an eye, he was where the connections for the head lay, and he smiled as Bob increased the force that drove him upward.

Storing the hammer, Max reached a place where swinging wasn’t an option.

[ Harden Body ]

[ Phasing ]

He blew through the metal and found himself inside the area where a hairless dwarf sat strapped to a chair, arms moving frantically as he adjusted levers and slammed his hand down on buttons, a small orange light blinking and providing the only illumination in the tight quarters.

A shriek came from the dwarf as he stared through goggles at the appearance of Max, hovering in midair before him.

Thrusting his fist into the dwarf’s chest, he grinned, watching as the man slapped at his hand and arm as it passed through.

“Time’s up.”

As those words came from Max’s mouth, his Phasing ability ended, and a weird sound came as his hand materialized where the dwarf’s heart was. With a single flick, he freed his hand, and the dwarf fell limp, held upright by his harness.

Free your legs.

Glancing down, Max realized that his legs had been encased in the metal around him, his skill and body stronger than the machine he was currently towering in.

Using his bare hands, he went to work, ripping apart the inside of the metal prison.

I’ve got this part now.

[ Demonic Teleportation ]

He appeared in the colosseum a few yards before the head of the boss of this floor, floating in the air.

Max watched as a pair of wind blades came from both sides and struck the top, causing the robotic creature to start to fall backward.

With a loud thud, it landed against the metal ground, bouncing twice before not moving again.

As the colosseum went silent, Max turned in the air, looking in the direction of the king and queen.

“I warned you. Decide if we meet again if you want someone else to meet the same fate.”

Both said nothing. Each of them appeared in shock based on the expression they wore.

Boos came from the crowd, and they started to fade out as the body of the boss began to vanish, taking the spectators of this beating with it.

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