Ouroboros pulled his mind back from the tutorial where his newest disciple was about to start a fight with one of the legendary fire giants, well it would be legendary if the system didn’t scale it down to a pathetic level thirty, but that wasn’t his business, nobody interfered with the system. It’s not like the people didn’t try it, they just got punished so severely that nobody dared to do it again.

  When his mind returned to his body he gracefully rose from his throne and walked towards the large double door on the far end of his hall. He hated this kind of building, the gardens in his domain a much more pleasant experience than halls of cold stone and metal. The guest he had expected to come was not someone you wanted around living things. The moment he opened the door a thick miasma rolled into the room and overtook it easily. Ouroborus just smiled while the giant of a man stepped into his hall.

  Nyxalith was the god of curses and undeath, the snake god already knew why he was here, his little experiment failed, the boy he tried to nurture died at the hand of Ethan. The smile on Ouroboros' face stretched into a grin as he saw the hate filled eyes of Nyxalith. This will be interesting, was Ouroboros first thought as he folded his arms behind his back and looked up to the man, his head tilted.

  “How good to see you Nyx, I’m so glad you visited I must tell you a story. You see, one of my new disciples managed to kill a curse user. Color me impressed that-” the fist that hit him was so quick nobody would have noticed, except another god, still Ouroboros didn’t even flinch as he saw it slam into his face. He didn’t even move as he flew through the hall and landed on his throne, which broke apart instantly.

  “My, my you’re in a bad mood today huh? Well nothing we can’t change, I guess you’re here for a bet?” The serpent god casually jumped back on his feet and sat down on a new throne. The god of curses nodded and spoke for the first time, his voice sounded like someone ripped his throat out and sewed it back on the wrong way round.

  “Indeed serpent, like always your information is accurate. I request a revival of my disciple, this tutorial will be mine and NOT yours…”, Nyx stopped a few steps in front of the throne and stared at Ouroboros, he answered, the casual smile never wavered.

  “As expected, but what can you offer me or my disciple? I’m interested because neither mine nor his path align with curses. So I’m curious what you offer in exchange.” Ouroboros raised an eyebrow, for once he didn’t know what Nyx would bring to the table.

  The undead good grabbed three things from a fold in reality. The first was a rather simple amulet carved from bone, the second was an hourglass with mist and ice inside and the third was a screaming bottle.

  “If you accept my conditions I offer you these…” He pointed to each object. “The amulet of souls, for you…the hourglass of frostblight…and at last…the flask of the frost wraith.” Ourobors looked very surprised because two things would help his disciple out a lot if he could utilize it properly. The amulet of souls was special, he knew there were thirteen of them and Nyx offered him one of those. Still he couldn’t decline.

  “I accept your bet, if your disciple beats mine I will not interfere with the whole tutorial. If my disciple beats yours a second time those three objects will switch their owners to me and my disciple, Ethan Delaney.” The serpent and the undead shook hands and the hulking beast of a man vanished in black flame. The objects were now in stasis where Nyxalith put them. Here they would remain until the bet ends.

  “Don’t lose now my young disciple…there is much to gain if you win.”

  They stared at each other, ice and fire, the season of winter against the might of a volcano. It was a fight like David versus Goliath. Both of them gathered power, his muscles stretched to the breaking point as Ethan pushed himself from the church, his arms outstretched, the staff held tight he used magic.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Chains erupted from the ground like the tentacles of an octopus, at the front a massive meat hook covered in barbs, but also on the chain itself where wicked spikes and hooks to make them as secure as possible. The chain links the size of his fist and is flooded with his new eternal ice. Both the chains and Ethan arrived at the same time. His staff held in front of him he launched multiple large ice drills, the construct of ice spikes, twisted into a spiral, that he used to kill a ghoul once. The second he launched them his chains tried to wrap around the imposing arms and legs of the giant. The hooks dug deep into its flesh, some each reached the bone and managed to anchor themselves to it.

  The giant screamed, a shout of defiance as he struggled, ripping chains loose or chunks of flesh. There was savagery to its movements as he ripped wounds open all over his body. But the moment his flesh was free of the chains they started to close, flames licking over the wounds, closing them for the naked eye to see.

  Ethan groaned, even his ice drills, while doing damage, were of no consequence to him. The giant just dug them from his own chest and flicked them away. Ethan landed back on the church and focused a new set of chains on the legs of the giant, trying to hold him in place.

  He looked at the monster, the wounds healed up and his chains breaking easily no matter how much he reinforced them, he flinched when the next one broke. While damaging the giant he didn’t know how much energy it consumed to heal them again. Ethan was only sure about one thing, the beast had more energy than him.

  His eyes wandered around the battlefield, there must be something he could use to kill him, he thought back to his thoughts about David and Goliath. Ethan smiled, it shouldn’t be possible right? But with no other option he decided it was worth a shot. Slamming his foot down he shot upwards on an ice pillar, he watched as his mana dwindled but he kept rising until the giant was not bigger than a normal human.

  Without his new ice variant this wouldn’t be possible. “Here goes nothing…” Ethan whispered and his mana streamed from his palms, mixing and forming into something new. The first thing that emerged was the tip of a spear, it was formed like a maple leaf, the edges sharp and tapered to a point, each little tip of the leaf shape made to penetrate the thick skull of the giant.

  Blood streamed Ethan from eyes and nose as he focused his magic, his fingertips got black from frostbite again, his veins burned by the amount of mana he used. The shaft of the spear emerged, oval shaped and covered in ridges and spikes, after the spear reached twice his height in length it ended in a sharp spike at the bottom.

  He coughed up blood as the staff floated next to him. The pillar he stood on vibrated, the giant finally made enough damage on the eternal ice. With a nudge from his mind the spear started to rotate, the speed it picked up was impressive and soon a tornado surrounded the spear. With the last points of mana he sent the spear towards the giant. His magic and gravity itself gave it an impressive amount of speed.

  Ethan stumbled on his ice pillar, another hit shook it with vibrations. Thanks to his boots he didn’t fall, his eyes locked on the spear. The giant looked up once he heard the screeching of the wind that surrounded the spear, it slammed into its forehead, still turning at an impressive speed it ripped apart skin, flesh and bones. The spear exploded inside of the giant’s brain, the power infused in it making the giant’s head explode in a shower of blood and viscera.

  Grinning, he removed the pillar in sections until he stood several meters over the collapsed body of the giant. “I can’t believe that actually worked.” Ethan smiled and checked his notifications, but there was nothing. Something moved below him, the head was gone but the chest and belly of the giant moved, its skin ripped open, the wet sound of skin and flesh parting made him gag. On the chest two eyes open while the belly formed into a full fledged mouth, with teeth and a tongue. “You gotta be kidding me.” drained as he was he could only flee and regenerate his mana and health. With fast steps he ran away from the giant only to run into an invisible wall.

  *Update* Contestants can’t leave the challenge area until foe is defeated.

  “Well, fuck…” he turned around, his staff held in a two handed grip. “Round two…”