-Radiant-

I minimized the live video of the match, and pulled up the betting tables on the tablet. I started with a modest bet of 100 points on the white fluffball winning to start out. Apparently the name of the large fighter was Ak'Baan, and their Lithoid opponent was Crushmin. Though, from what I could hear from the crowds in the stadium, Ak'Baan was being called Crusher, and Crushmin was being called the Iron Mortal. It was somewhat confusing, but I just decided to call them by their names, not their titles.

Looking at the betting odds, they were fluctuating ever so slightly before the match started, but they were definitely in favor of Ak'Baan. The betting odds weren't static, and one could keep betting even after the match started, so I wanted to wait and see if my Curse would take effect and change the betting odds as the match went on.

The announcers were commentating before the match started, one of them saying, "Now the crowd obviously thinks Ak'Baan will be the ultimate victor and win the chance to accompany the Raging Ravens Guild on their upcoming journey into the recently discovered rift, but what do you think about this Dan?"

The other commentator, probably Dan, replied, "Well Quill, it's hard to argue against Ak'Baan's chances of winning. If I had to give my own opinion then I'd say that Crushmin would need the terrain generation to be in his favor if he wanted to have a chance against Ak'Baan."

The first one to talk, Quill said, "I agree Dan, the terrain generation is about to begin, so we'll see whether the odds of victory will change. The Raging Ravens Guild has said that they wouldn't interfere in any way during the tournament, so the ultimate victor won't be certain until it's all over."

A sphere appeared between Ak'Baan and Crushmin, the sphere was about the size of a large boat, completely overshadowing both opponents, and it started to cycle between many different terrain views. From caves, to beaches, to forests, to mountains and even volcanoes. The cycling started to slow down, and started to cycle between fewer and fewer terrains, until it was only cycling between two.

When the cycling reached this point, Dan hyped up the drama, "This is it Quill! It all comes down to whether it will land on the caves or the mountains. If it lands on the former then Crushmin will have an advantage, but if it lands on the latter then Ak'Baan will definitely win this tournament."

The crowd seemed to quiet down slightly in anticipation, and it wasn't long before the orb settled down on the view of a deep earth cavern that looked like it was ideal for mining. The orb quickly expanded and enveloped the entire arena, converting everything within into the exact copy of a mineral filled cavern. Everyone in the crowd was still able to see everything clearly though, a basic feature of the arena it seemed.

Dan said, "It landed on the caverns! What an exciting development, I'm sure this will stir up the crowd."

And just as Dan had said, the crowd in the stadium erupted in roars of excitement, eager to see the upcoming battle that wasn't looking to be quite as one sided as before.

Quill said, "The crowd is clearly anticipating a more exciting fight. However I'm still leaning towards Ak'Baan being the victor. Although the terrain is now in favor of Crushmin, it isn't in Ak'Baan's disadvantage either. I'd say that this only gives Crushmin a slim chance at victory."

Dan said, "You make a good point Quill. The mineral rich cavern will definitely empower Crushmin, but will it be enough to overcome the unfavorable matchup?"

Did my Curse cause this? I can't really be sure I guess, since the announcer said that it's still in Ak'Baan's favor. Let's watch for a bit to see how the match goes at first.

Looking at the betting odds, they shifted slightly in response.

It wasn't long before a countdown started, with floating numbers appearing between the two fighters, and they both shifted around taking in the terrain and getting ready for the fight.

As the countdown reached closer and closer to zero, everyone held their breath as the match began with a Bang sound.

Ak'Baan rushed towards Crushmin, while Crushmin rushed towards a nearby wall that looked like it had a lot of shiny minerals and stuff inside.

Quill spoke up to narrate the fight, "And it looks like Crushmin noticed something. He's probably looking to empower himself using the minerals and metals within the wall in that direction."

At this point I mostly ignored the announcers and focused on the fight. With my Curse at play I wanted to make sure I didn't miss even a minor detail.

Ak'Baan reached Crushmin just as Crushmin was nearing the wall, and he started swinging his club at Crushmin. The metal covered Lithoid barely dodges and deflects the blows with his large sword.

The fight is clearly not in Crushmin's favor, with Crushmin already taking a few glancing blows, but he didn't stop slowly moving towards the mineral rich wall.

Thinking that now was a good time to see if my Curse would do anything to the fight. I bet another 300 points on Ak'Baan's victory.

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Nothing special happened for a moment, but then Crushmin poorly deflects a club swipe thrown at him, and his huge sword flies into a nearby rock with a huge cracking sound. The sword isn't broken, but it now has a large crack in it near the hilt.

Crushmin was somewhat off balance from this, but he tries to use the rebound force to swipe at Ak'Baan's furry legs, but Ak'Baan's fur takes the sharp edge of the blade with ease and leaves Crushmin without any momentum in his blade.

Ak'Baan takes advantage of Crushmin's swing to take a swing of his own, and lands a decisive blow to Crushmin's shoulder, and a glancing blow to his head. This leaves one of Crushmin's metallic plates all bent and deformed, with Crushmin shaking his head and making some distance between them.

It doesn't seem like my Curse had any negative effect on Ak'Baan. If anything it looks like Crushmin was the one to suffer from bad luck.

The fight between Ak'Baan and Crushmin continued, with both of them exchanging clashes with each other, but neither getting any hits on their opponent.

Both of them seemed to be mostly pure physical fighters, having shown no obvious magical or metaphysical attacks or anything. However, Crushmin seemed to see where this fight would go if this continued, and slammed his left foot into the ground sending an almost imperceptible ripple into the ground and nearby wall he had been moving towards all this time.

The wall filled with minerals started to glow, and Crushmin started to glow with them.

Whatever Crushmin did seemed to empower him dramatically, and he started to move faster than Ak'Baan could keep up.

Crushmin started to land multiple blows on Ak'Baan, both with the cutting edge and blunt force attacks with the flat of his blade. However it was clear that the fight was still in Ak'Baan's favor, as Ak'Baan maneuvered his body so that his fur took all of the attacks he couldn't avoid, and his fur took the blunt and slashing attacks with ease.

Seeing Ak'Baan weather the flurry of blows, but with the betting odds changing to be slightly in favor of Crushmin, I bet another 500 on Ak'Baan, leaving me with only 283 points left.

Ak'Baan seemed to land a lucky blow to Crushmin's sword, sending it flying into a nearby rock once again at a strange angle.

Crushmin's already cracked blade seemed to hit the rock at exactly the right place, and the blade made a loud snapping sound.

Crushmin's previously rectangle shaped blade became a wicked looking broken blade, with the crack starting near the hilt and ending at where the opposite corner of the end of the blade had been. The blade now looked like a jagged triangle rather than a rectangle, and once again I was left wondering how this was anything but good luck for Ak'Baan.

Does Ak'Baan have some kind of Talent that makes all bad luck bounce off of him onto his opponents or what?

Crushmin also seemed to look like he couldn't understand how something like this could come about. Although I wasn't a master at discerning the facial expressions of Lithoids, I could still tell that Crushmin wasn't happy with this turn of events.

At this point maybe I should just bet all of my remaining points before the betting odds shift too much from this.

With this thought I bet almost all of my remaining points on Ak'Baan, leaving only enough to buy back my mana crystals if I lost everything.

I took a casual look at my Status, and to my surprise just as I placed the bet the Curse started to fluctuate between Active and Inactive.

[Blessing/Curse: Ascending Bad Luck (Degraded/Unfinished); Currently Active- Inactive- Active- Inactive…]

Until finally it settled on Inactive. I was somewhat relieved, and looked back at the battle to see if anything had changed.

Crushmin started to look rapidly between his newly shaped blade and Ak'Baan, and seemed to realize something as he gripped his sword tightly and moved with purpose towards Ak'Baan who was taking the opportunity to catch his breath from the rapid exchange of blows.

Crushmin, still glowing, rushed towards Ak'Baan.

Crushmin made a swing at Ak'Baan just like all the times they had clashed before, and Ak'Baan reacted to this telegraphed display. However, Crushmin interrupted his swing, leaving Ak'Baan off balance, and Crushmin used his newly shaped blade to stab Ak'Baan in the chest.

Ak'Baan was surprised, but still barely reacted, and the blade pierced him in the shoulder. Crushmin had been aiming for what I assumed was Ak'Baan's heart, but Crushmin could only retract his blade and continue to stab at his opponent.

Before, when Crushmin had been attacking Ak'Baan, he had been slashing and bashing, but now that he had turned to stabbing, Ak'Baan started to receive injuries and bleed, making his white fur or whatever it was start to be stained red in various spots.

I thought that this might actually end in Ak'Baan's defeat now that Crushmin had a way of harming him, but Ak'Baan expertly handled the flurry of attacks, and was able to avoid any critical wounds from Crushmin's stabs.

It wasn't long before I saw that Crushmin's glow started to wane, and his attacks started to slow alongside the glow. Ak'Baan was breathing heavily, but he had held on through Crushmin's assault; and it seemed that Crushmin wasn't able to remain in such an empowered state for long, because his glow faded away and left him moving even slower than he had been before he used it.

Although Ak'Baan also seemed exhausted, he let out a low sound of effort and rushed towards Crushmin's slowly retreating form.

What followed was a repeat of the start of the battle, with Ak'Baan unilaterally beating up Crushmin, and Crushmin doing his best to weather the blows. However it wasn't long before Ak'Baan landed a solid blow to Crushmin's head, and Crushmin fell to the ground with a protective light barrier forming around him signaling the end of the fight.

I looked at my betting payout on the tablet, and was surprised to see that I now had 1820 points. Originally, without my Cruse messing around with the betting odds, I would've had around 1400 points; but with the Curse doing its thing, I had been able to make bets with better odds and made more than 400 more points than I was expecting.

I guess I can see why the System doesn't distinguish between calling them either a Blessing or a Curse. In the end I guess it's all down to whoever has it and how it's used whether it's one or the other.

I wasn't an expert on Luck or anything, so I couldn't really say that I would be able to pull something like this off again, but at least I had managed to turn it off before I left here. In the end it was still a Curse for me, but maybe in someone else's hands it would be a great Blessing.

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