Colosseum I

Taking a deep breath and steeling himself for the chaos of the battle to come, Nox flew up from the abyss surrounding the Colosseum to reach the arena before setting down on the edge.

He could seen countless monsters going at each other and they seemed to fight only other types of monsters and not their own, but never as a team. In addition, stronger monsters like the Spartoi were fewer than other weaker ones.

The ratio of monsters between each type seemed to be kept stable by the spawning system and never did any species drop their numbers significantly.

The only exception was when a Peluda spawned in which led to massive casualties and subsequent massive spawning until it was finally brought down.

Mere moments after Nox set down and took the occuring battle in, a Loup Garou dashed towards him at blinding speed, its specialty.

Nox was already ready with his Archon Skill powered to the maximum and his Invictus Salamander at full blast. Seeing the monster charging at him, Prometheus was out with a quickdraw and slash, the Loup Garou was split in two as it passed Nox.

His boosted abilities along with Invictus put Nox at the very peak of Orario's Level 4 adventurers. With the added bonus of hs overpowered gear, he could take on a Level 5 no problem so long as they weren't too busted in terms of special abilities.

With the bursts of his flaming Invictus combined with the flames of his sword's Prominence ability, Nox dashed into battle, huge blasts of flame exploding out with each swing as he mowed down his opponents.

Loup Garous whose speed could not let them dodge the radius of the flames, Shull Sheep that were incinerated to ash and even tough and powerful Barbarians fell bisected before the Ardent Blade ability that made a huge sword of fire to cut them down to size..

Suddenly however, Nox' white hot sword, burning with the Ardent Blade and Prominence was stopped with a loud noise of hitting stone.

'Obsidian Soldier!'

Their resistance to magical power and though defence allowed them to weather Nox's blows, even if just a few. The resulting waves of fire blew away the surrounding monsters or outright killed them but the golem like monster was still standing tall, even with a large gash on its body.

Dodging the slow counter of the Obsidian Soldier, Nox swung with even more power in his Invictus and the Monster fell apart, allowing him to continued his killing spree.

The Skull Sheep were quite an annoying foe with ranged attacks using piles but in the huge brawl of the Colosseum, they rarely had clean shots on Nox.

One thing he noticed though was that should he get close, monsters immediately abandoned their fights and turn to him but so long as he kept a sufficient distance they would still fight each other. They all had a preference for adventurers though and that was quite obvious to see.

Nox continued fighting the less armored monsters and racking up his kills while getting used to the environment before challenging the more powerful ones like the Spartoi that he was currently actively avoiding.

Once again, he came upon an obsidian soldier and, despite putting all of his power behind the strike, it barely survived but just as Nox was about to deliver the second and finish blow, two monsters jumped through the flames.

Lizardmen had fire resistance and while the majority of surrounding monsters had been mauled by the flames like before, they hadn't and mounted a ferocious counterattack.

As they both swung down their weapons, Nox deployed the shield on his left bracer and deflected the blows away, leaving the Lizardmen open as with a single swing of Prometheus, he bissected them at their waists.

The battle kept going and Nox's energy recovery was starting to not keep up. So far in his life in this world, tough or easy, his battles had been short due to his explosive attack power. As such, Battles of attrition were not something he was used to.

Against a single opponent it was fine since he was confident he would outlast them but against an inexhaustible army of monsters? That wasn't going to work.

He started to be more conservative, using his shield more, positioning himself so that weaker hits would just glance of his armor, not longer using Invictus for every strike, just when he needed a decisive blow.

Nox was certainly taking more punishment but his armor and shield held strong, the shock that came through from strong attacks still hurt him some but his natural recovery took care of that.

As his new fighting style took shape, a balance between his quick recovery and low expenditure meant he could just keep fighting nonstop until the mental exhaustion got to him.

So far, he had not relied much on his new equipment but also avoided the stronger foes to refine his style of combat against large amounts of decently strong enemies.

Still, it was his first try, once his focus started deteriorating from his mental burden and his body did not move as it should despite having the energy to do so, Nox decisively retreated and jumped into the abyss, quickly making his way back as not monsters jumped down to follow him.

"That wasn't bad for a first try! Not bad at all!" Nox said to himself.

"Still, next time I'll used my new toys and try to fight some of the stronger enemies as well . . ." He decided before laying down to sleep, already having informed the girls and his Familia he'd be out in the Dungeon for a good while.

Next day, Nox woke up feeling refreshed, took a nice breakfast from his Item Box and ate up while thinking on his battle plan for today.

'Let's go with the Garden of Agony for my main offense today, this also should heavily decrease my need to use Invictus so it might be even more efficient than yesterday. It also has a drain effect so it's even better.' He considered.

'Power of Pain ability though is one that relies on my mental strength to weather pain so I best not use it unless it is in an emergency situation since my mental energy is also something I need to conserve.' Nox pondered as he set out.

"Alright! Let's do this!" He exclaimed to hype himself up as he left his hideout fully geared and ready for battle.

He started out around the same place were there no Spartoi and few Obsidian Soldiers to bother him and got to work.

Holding out his right arm, countless reddish black thorny vines burst out from within Nox's sleeve piercing every monster in a wide area in front of him.

The damage was significant but not crippling so the monsters were still very much in fighting shapes . . . Or they would have been if not for the Garden of Agony's passive abilities Curse of Pain and Demented Drain.

Causing massive amounts of pain while draining Mind, Stamina, Health and blood and injecting toxins that make the crippling pain even worse that just the magical effect.

Soon, all the monsters were husks and Nox just went into the crowds.

Monsters that got to close were blocked with a shield before being pierced by multiple vines otherwise, Nox would use them like whips, crippling everyone hit with numbing pain except for the annoying Skull Sheep and Obsidian Soldiers.

As being of bone and rock respectively, they did not possess a sense of pain in the first place so they were only affected by the physical power of the vines.

Nox could still overwhelm the Skull Sheep wrapping them in vines and just crushing them to pieces but the Obsidian Soldiers didn't go down that easy so he just rolled them up is vines and left them be. While they would not suffer pain, their energy would still be drained until they finally croaked.

As he did this though, Nox suddenly had a very bright idea. The original purpose he had created the precursor of the Garden of Agony, the Rose of Agony . . . It was taming was it not?

'So, why not use the Garden to forefull control the monsters vulnerable to it to serve as shields and weapons against the monsters that aren't?'

The Vines could be put into the target and then separated from the Garden to keep a hold on them remotely.

Nox sent out another wave of vines, targeting the fleshy monsters only and then letting a vine grow within each of them. This was the active form of the ability Teachings of Pain possessed by the Garden of Agony.

Now, with three Barbarians and eight Loup Garous under his thrall, Nox was about to wild.

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