Chapter 80: The Basilisk

I wasn’t playing around. The guy seemed decent enough, honestly, but we were stuck in a place where one of us had to die. I’d rather kill him than get killed.

His mistake was not thinking the same way. Maybe he hadn’t fully adapted to how cruel this world was, or maybe it just hadn’t clicked yet, and he hadn’t grasped the sorry situation he was in.

The moment I got in front of him, I attacked with my nails. Not even using my ability, just my body’s raw strength and my bloodline.

I thought I had him. My hand shot toward him like an arrow, closing in fast. But something appeared between us and blocked the strike.

A summon! It was some kind of blue beast made of mana. It swiped with its paw and clashed against my claws.

A loud crack echoed through the arena.

"Incredible! What kind of speed was that? I could barely track the movements."

"And that summon? When did he call it? I didn’t see him move at all. Can he summon that thing without even gesturing?"

The crowd was commenting on everything as it happened. I jumped back, putting some distance between us and studying my opponent and his ability more carefully.

"Impressive," I said, clapping slowly. "You summoned that creature fast. Almost instantly."

My opponent, who’d been visibly shaken by everything going on, looked almost proud hearing that coming from me.

"I’m more skilled than you think," he said. "And maybe if you’d listened to me, things would’ve gone differently. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to kill you here."

Now he was delusional. He blocked one attack and already thought the fight was won? That was naive, to put it lightly.

"You’re getting ahead of yourself," I said. "Your death is certain."

The crowd’s comments only made me more determined to end this quickly.

"That Basilisk just keeps talking. Fast, sure, but that’s probably all he’s got. He can’t be that strong."

"They’re rookies," some other idiot in the crowd chimed in. "Normal for them to be this useless. Let’s just enjoy watching two weak fighters go at it."

Wasn’t it enough that I was trapped here, forced to fight strangers to survive? Now I had to listen to these people trash-talk me? No. No way.

The fight was already over.

"Sorry," I said. "You actually seemed like a decent person."

I ran at him again, just as fast as before.

"Same move? You still haven’t figured out that my summon is just as fast as you?"

I ignored him completely and kept running. The blue beast came at me to cut me off, fast and no doubt powerful, but him? His body was far weaker than mine.

I summoned my cube. It appeared out of nowhere and dropped toward the blue beast, forming a cage around it, same as what I’d done to those villains before.

"What is that?" the crowd buzzed. "I thought his ability was serpent-related? What is that thing?"

Since I had snake eyes, claws, and was clearly stronger and faster than normal, they’d assumed that was all my ability was. Of course it wasn’t.

I vaulted over the cube and went straight for my opponent. His beast slammed its head and paws against my cube, trying to break free. It didn’t work. Not even a crack appeared.

"Wait, wait!" my opponent said. Begged, really.

I ignored him completely, obviously. One quick, clean slash with my claws, easily slicing through the muscles and tendons in his neck. His head flew to the other side of the arena. The rest of his body dropped lifelessly to the ground.

Blood poured out everywhere, soaking my hand and clothes. But I was already covered in filth with my clothes torn up, looking like a vagrant, so honestly, it didn’t make much of a difference.

The crowd went completely silent. I don’t think all the fighters were as cold and decisive as I was.

Then, after the silence, came the applause and the "positive" commentary.

"I said he was going to win," a spectator who hadn’t spoken yet shouted from the corner of the arena. "Bet everything I had on him, and now I’m loaded."

"Shut up, you just got lucky," someone else shot back.

"This fighter could be something special. We should keep an eye on his next fights."

Even in that situation, I felt a rush when I took that guy’s head off and the applause followed. I don’t know if that was a good sign.

The announcer said a few words, and then I was taken back to the room where everyone else was waiting. But before leaving the arena, the guard injected that substance into me again, the one that blocked my abilities and weakened my body. Then they cuffed me.

When I got back to the room, I noticed something funny.

That guy who’d confronted me earlier, the one who was absolutely convinced I was going to die, had gone ahead and claimed the bed I’d picked out for myself.

When he saw me walk through the door, he froze.

"Impossible," he muttered. Seeing the look on that bastard’s face was priceless.

The guard who brought me in made an announcement to everyone. "The Basilisk won his fight. Since he won, he’ll be moved to a different location with better conditions. The same goes for the rest of you if you do the same."

I wasn’t expecting a better room right off the bat after just 1 win, but it made sense. Since every fight was to the death, surviving even one already put me in a completely different category from the ones who hadn’t made it.

I left the room and we went through another door I’d noticed in the corridor on my way there earlier. We entered a different hallway lined with doors on each side.

"Each one of these doors leads to a small apartment. Yours is number 103. We’ll bring supplies regularly so you don’t starve and stay strong for the fights."

We stopped at apartment 103, and honestly, the place was decent. It was basically a luxury hotel room, complete with a spacious bed, a bathroom with a bathtub, and even a small kitchen I doubted I’d ever use.

Well-lit too, and there was a TV showing the fights currently happening in the arenas.

"The only thing you can watch on that TV is the fights, and you’d do well to pay attention. The fights between those who’ve already won 1 match happen less often, so it’s a good opportunity to study the other fighters’ abilities."

That was the last thing he said before leaving. The cuffs around my wrists were removed as well.

My body was too weak from the injections to try anything, not to mention the high number of guards patrolling that corridor.

Alone in that little apartment, I went straight for a hot shower and washed off all the blood, dirt, and filth that had built up on my body. I was absolutely disgusting.

Inside the bedroom closet there were some fresh clothes, but they were basically just prison uniforms. Still better than walking around in torn, filthy rags, so I changed.

After my shower, I noticed a fight was on TV. And it was that bastard who’d tried to steal my bed.

Obviously I had to lie down and watch. And to top it all off, someone knocked on my door.

"Brought your dinner."

They handed me a tray loaded with different kinds of food and left. One of the staff who worked there.

With the insane hunger I had, and the fight I wanted to watch playing on TV, it was simply perfect. For a moment, it made me forget the complete mess I was in.

My mind zeroed in on eating and relaxing, rooting for that bastard to lose and die.

He won. Damn it. I wanted to go down there and kill him myself, but that wasn’t going to happen since we were apparently on the same team.

Just like I got moved to a better room, so did he, and it was right next to my apartment. The son of a bitch walked past and actually knocked on my door to chat, since walking through the corridors wasn’t forbidden.

"Looks like you’re not the only one skilled around here, you piece of trash," he said.

The guard immediately stood him up and shoved him.

"No insults, or you’re getting hit."

I was annoyed at him, sure, but it passed quickly. I went back to my new bed, sat down, and started thinking. How the hell was I going to escape this place?

On top of the heavy security, constantly getting those injections was keeping me weak and cutting me off from my abilities.

But there was one reason to hope.

[Strange liquid detected in your body]

[Bloodline working to develop antibodies...]

[Estimated time to full immunity: 14 days]

My bloodline was working to protect me against the injection. In theory, in 14 days I’d be immune.

"I just need to survive 14 days in this hellhole..."

But that part might end up being harder than actually escaping.