Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

Caleb could still feel the crawling on his skin, the pain, and the disgust. How deprived did one have to be to try and feed their opponent alive to insects? The wounds had mostly healed and the insects were burned away, but the trauma stayed. Still, he kept his cool, unlike when facing Dumm Ting and blowing his budget.

The battle that ensued was an honest melee battle without much cunning. He had switched to his lance to keep her at bay and used his shield and its barrier to guard against the showers of hidden weapons. He wanted to beat the cultivator in a fair contest of skill.

To his dismay, they were evenly matched in melee combat. Despite having the better reach, he could not gain the upper hand against the poison fairy that kept agilely avoiding his attack. The fact that he had to avoid his own trap now, too, didn't make it better. His problem was that he wouldn't be able to keep going for much longer.

The match stretched on, closing in on the one-hour mark, meaning that soon the Trait of “Blood of Mithridates”, which granted him immunity to her poisons, would vanish. At this point, he didn't know what would happen.

Even if she had kind of given up on using the poison cloud, the dragon knight was still afflicted by 7 poison counters. It was nine before, but when the bugs attacked him, the counters slightly decreased for some reason. But he couldn't let his guard down, when his immunity was gone, he was guaranteed to lose.

Ultimately, Caleb decided to use more of the items he had prepared for the final stretch. Even if it meant losing the finale, he could accept letting her win after what she did to him.

...

Dowloon saw. The dragon knight had suddenly charged away from her, a piece of parchment appearing in his hands. She knew what that meant, she had seen his fight against the evil bloke. She gritted her teeth. She couldn't allow this guy to grow any stronger.

With a heavy heart, she made her final move. The Silver Sparrow would reap another life.

Seth had his eyes glued to Dowloon the moment the fight ended. it was the same move she used against April Vine. A special silver needle flung at incredible speed and exuding a peculiar power left her hand.

Using Theia's Vision he was able to observe the item in minute detail. With a sharp tip and small fletching protruding from its back, it looked like a crossbow bolt but the size of a knitting needle.

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Legendary

Phys. Damage: 2100

Qi Damage: 3000

Durability: 1/1

1. Ignore Defense

2. Deal 250% Energy Damage

3. Internal Rupture

4. +150% Poison Damage

The legendary Silver Sparrow, the perfect assassination weapon for the assassin practiced in Qi and poison arts. With a low durability by design, it will explode upon entering the opponent's body, becoming untraceable after killing the target.

Restrictions: One-time Use>

Now Seth understood what Yu meant when called it a consumable heaven-grade weapon. By design, it was made to destroy itself creating the effect of Internal Rupture, turning the opponents inside to mush.

The question now was: How many did Dowloon actually have? She used one against April Vine but didn't use it against the crusader before, despite her imminent loss. Was she hesitant to use it because she didn't have a great number of them, or was there a different reason she didn't use it at the time?

These were just a few quick thoughts that shot through his mind, as he watched the weapon unfold its horrifying power. Caleb's armor, fused with his Wyvern mount could barely put up any resistance, as the needle penetrated the armor plates like a hot knife entering butter.

With the speed and force that it flew, one would have expected it to straight up pierce the knight and exit his body on the opposite side. But as the description described, the needle completely vanished after entering Caleb's body.

The man in question, who was about to rip a scroll, froze where he stood before a fountain of blood ejected from his mouth, eyes, nose, and ears. (and maybe some other non-visible orifices). His internal organs had been ripped apart by the explosion of the Silver Sparrow and its shrapnel. He unceremoniously died, falling over after taking a final step.

Caleb was the second one felled in the arena this way, April was the first. Would there be a third? In the finale, she would either meet Mathias Bartholomew, the chosen of Baldur, or she would have a rematch with Ibelin Godfrey, who won against her before. Would she be able to win the second time around?

No matter what-

“We have our first finalist! Dowloon has slain Caleb, the Dragon Knight, and moves on to the finale!” Umi Kaldrops finally announced at the end of the one-hour-long fight. Now they were getting close to early evening with two more fights to go.

“ Do you want to go meet Caleb, now that he lost?” Seth asked Jane. After all, now that he was out of the tournament, he had some contractual duties to fulfill.

“You are right, it will be good if I brief him about our plans for today. I will also gather the other people we recruited, to give them an update all at once,” she agreed with a happy smile. Since she was the one who made the sla- employment contract with Caleb, it was only fair that she got to boss him around.

“Good idea, I will leave you to it,” he said his goodbyes. Since their plans for later had been rather spontaneous, they had almost forgotten to gather their mercenaries and friends and inform them about what was about to happen.

They would have some time to prepare and they wouldn't unknowingly interfere with their plan by jumping out at the wrong moment.

“On that note, any messages from the lookouts?” the blacksmith asked Mary and Leana. But the two shook their heads.

“There is yet to happen anything in their hideout and we have not gotten any messages of other forces making their way here, yet,” Luf gave a short status report.

“Muh, waiting for something even bigger kinda ruined my excitement for the finale,” Fin complained a little sullen. She had sunken down on her seat, watching people on the arena floor, busy cleaning up all the stuff Caleb had distributed to catch Dowloon.

“Right, it's a little like a spoiler, saying the result of the grand event isn't even that important for the plot, huh?” Seth sympathized with her but didn't quite agree. After all, the whole reason for the whole event still persisted.

Python was constantly gaining faith and Seth's reputation had skyrocketed thanks to repeating what was up for grabs as the final prize. The Power of Existence he gathered per day had more than doubled since the tournament started, reaching about 500p a day in the past few days.

His excitement over the quickly growing points was only dampened by the risen price for a level-up. Even if he saved up all his points, he was still weeks away from reaching lv.7 as a Legendary Forger.

On the other hand, if he didn't intend to rigorously save up, he finally had some points to experiment with upgrading materials, like Tored's near-Adamantium-Alloy, or the materials of the Guivre. They were projects he had put on ice for the past weeks, as he worked on other stuff.

He put these thoughts aside when things continued in the arena. The remnants of Caleb's strategy were cleaned away and Umi had called the next two participants to the arena.

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