"I was here first. The piggy is mine." The rubbery green-skinned alien who had been the first to respond to Ronan's announcement warned the two new arrivals away.

However, neither of them seemed to take the threat seriously. It was the fairy-like creature, Feldramei, who replied first. "Avanalax, you seem to forget your place. That is not how things work in here. Only strength matters, and you are not stronger than the two of us."

"As if you would work together. Don't try to fool me, damned stringsucker!" The green-skinned alien seemed worked up, but the little ball-shaped creature was laughing, as far as Ronan could tell.

It bobbed up and down while small puffs of red smoke were released from the top of its head. "It has been a while since things in here were shaken up. Why don't we just settle this the proper way. Three-way fight—" It paused and glanced upwards. "—Unless you also want to get involved, Louri?"

There was no response to the question, and it turned its gaze back to the other two aliens. Ronan noticed that all of the inmates on his floor and even those on the second floor had remained completely silent and still during this entire exchange. He spotted a few heads poking out on the third floor, and a few of them had excitement written in their gazes.

The dynamics of the prison were being made evident to him through this conversation. While it hadn't been what he had planned when he spoke out, he was definitely learning more about the prison than he had hoped for.

He guessed that these three aliens represented one of the four factions each. The Louri that Hak Hak had called out to must be the one who represented the fourth faction.

Ronan was a little confused, given that there were still about five or six floors of cells above the fourth floor, where this lot had come from. He would learn about that in time, of that he had no doubt.

"A duel it is. I have no problem with that. The winner gets the prize, and the dead will become sustenance for the masses. That is assuming you are willing to fight to the death?" Feldramei stared tauntingly at the green-skinned alien.

Avanalax shivered once, its two humanoid arms clenching their fists tightly. "I am no coward. Of course we will fight to the death. Once the two of you are slain at my feet, I will claim the prize that is rightfully mine!"

Ronan wasn't sure whether he should feel insulted about being called a prize and talked about as if he wasn't there. He also wondered if he should find the alien who had told him the inmates on the upper floors got preferential treatment because of their wealth. Either it was a lie, or there was more to it than simply having enough credits to bribe a guard.

On the plus side, if a fight broke out between the three it would be a perfect opportunity for him to intervene and grow stronger. If he managed to land the killing blow on them all, he would soar towards level 200 and possibly even beyond, finally discovering what power-up awaited him there.

The fact that he was being dismissed as though he were irrelevant would work in his favour. He watched as the three aliens made space between one another, and all of those inmates from this floor retreated towards their cells. Clearly none of them wanted to get caught in the crossfire.

The three aliens all turned to him at once. "You, get back. The prize should not be damaged until the fight is concluded." The three all said the same thing together, though their words differed slightly and made his ears hurt.

He nodded and walked backwards. Not as far as the other inmates had, as he wanted to be close enough to make his move when the time was right. It stung his pride to behave as if he were truly weaker than these three, but it was a necessary act.

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Despite the large gap in levels between him and the three aliens, he was certain that his overwhelming stats meant he was probably already stronger than them at his current level. It made him excited to think about how powerful he would become once he killed them.

The three stared at one another from across the room. He wondered how they would each fight. The names of their classes gave him a clue, but there was just as much chance they fought in a way completely different to how he expected. His own class might make people think he was overly reliant on cultivation, but the truth was it was only a small part of his true power.

Silence fell over the general population prison area as the three aliens prepared to fight to the death. Ronan considered how he would intervene, but he needed more information about his three targets before deciding on a strategy.

A loud metallic clang broke through the silence from above. Glancing upwards, he saw a red-skinned creature on the fourth floor had smashed a fist against the railing. The creature didn't do anything else and simply retreated out of sight.

Down on the ground floor, however, everything had changed with that one sound. The three aliens moved as one, all performing their opening moves.

Hak Hak, the ball-shaped creature, hunkered down and started to shake like a boiling kettle. Red smoke began to pour out of the top of it, also reminiscent of a kettle. Ronan suspected it was gathering power.

Feldramei instead flung open its four wings, and Ronan could feel strange mana gathering in its chest. It opened its mouth and a sound so high-pitched he could barely hear it was emitted, making him stumble. That's fucking weird. He felt a trickle of blood dripping from his ears.

The effects on the other two, and the spectators, had been far more pronounced. Almost all of the other inmates on the ground floor had collapsed to the ground. Avanalax had been mid-charge and frozen, the two non-humanoid limbs shooting to its head and covering its five eyes.

The noise stopped three seconds later, but the damage done in that brief window of time was immense. Ronan saw that some of the weaker inmates had died. None were uninjured.

Hak Hak was shaking like an alarm clock, and Avanalax was taking shaky steps from side to side. However, the fairy-like Feldramei was clearly weakened from its opening move, and its scales had lost a little of their lustre.

The green-skinned alien was the first to recover, immediately rushing towards Feldramei and turning the two limbs it had used to cover its head into hammer-shaped weapons. When it was a few metres away, Avanalax lunged at the fairy-lizard and swung both hammers at its torso.

Hak Hak's abilities were unknown, while Feldramei was weakened and Avanalax was distracted. He brought his mythical javelin out of his inventory. The reward for completing the first step was unfortunately not something he could brand and keep with him, but it would suit his current purposes perfectly.

As Avanalax's hammers struck Feldramei, the fairy-lizard raised its four wings in front of itself to block. They were surprisingly sturdy, but two were crushed and the alien screeched as it was knocked backwards. Avanalax pulled its two hammer-limbs backwards, reeling from the force of its blows.

Now!

Ronan spotted his moment to strike. He whipped his arm forward and sent the javelin flying towards Avanalax. Still in the process of recovering from the heavy blow it had dealt Feldramei, the green-skinned alien had no time to react as Ronan's weapon tore through its chest.

Doubly enchanted with explosion and ice, and empowered with arcane piercing strike and magic strike, the weapon obliterated most of the alien's torso in a single strike. Ronan felt a subtle connection between himself and the weapon, and pulled on it.

The signature ability of the Eternal Stormkissed Javelin of the Saurthei proved its worth, as it appeared in his hand in the blink of an eye. Avanalax was not dead. He knew that because no notification had appeared.

Hak Hak and Feldramei both turned to him, shock written across their faces. Ronan had used the advantage of surprise, and he had less than a couple of seconds before they would react to his intervention. Before that happened, he needed to secure his first kill.

Without delay, he took a step forward and raised his arm overhead, before whipping it down again. The javelin rocketed from his hands and tore through the air. The sonic boom shook the prison as the javelin pierced Avanalax's head. A second later, it exploded.

Ronan heard the chime of death at the same moment he summoned the blood-stained javelin back to his hand. He glanced at the notification but didn't have time to read it, because a high-pitched noise cut through the chaos, followed by a loud rumbling like the engine of a plane.

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