Tower Climber (A LitRPG Adventure, Book 1) by Jakob Tanner (interesting books to read for teens .txt) 📗

“Incredible!” shouted Max at the TV screen.

Toto squealed and cheered on his shoulder as well.

Max turned smugly to Cyrus who had slumped in a sofa chair and crossed his arms with a scowl.

“She’s freaking doing it!” shouted Max. “Go, Casey, go!”

The wind began to die down. The paper cranes fluttered back to Casey’s pouch, disappearing once more.

The arena was clear for everyone to see.

“What was that, Sybil?” asked Casey. “About you promising me mercy?”

Sybil couldn’t even respond. She staggered back and forth until she collapsed on the ground.

The referee blew his whistle, while a medic team appeared from one of the arena’s side tunnels and picked Sybil up onto a stretcher and carried her away.

The referee grabbed Casey’s arm and lifted it high in the air.

“AND THE FIRST MATCH OF THIS YEAR’S CLIMBER ACADEMY FINAL EXAM GOES TO CASEY EVERTON!”

The whole arena erupted with cheers of excitement and delight.

86

Everyone stood up and congratulated Casey as she stumbled back into the waiting area.

Toto leapt off Max’s shoulders and onto Casey’s, nuzzling his head into her neck, giving her little kisses of joy and happiness.

“That was incredible,” said Max.

The move was so powerful and cool and so uniquely Casey’s own, it made him slightly jealous. He needed to work on his own extra special ability. It also made him nervous for his own fight; what if his own opponent had readied some incredible trump card like that? After witnessing Casey’s fight, he realized he had to be ready to face anything.

“Look,” said another student.

On the TV screen the next contestants were being chosen.

A name appeared.

Max Rainhart.

“Looks like you’re up,” said Casey. “Good luck.”

Max gulped and stared at the screen. Who was he going to be facing?

Everyone gasped as his opponent was named.

It couldn’t be more perfect.

The second name to appear on the screen was none other than Cyrus Archer.

Everyone in the room turned to Max then Cyrus.

Cyrus stood up off the sofa and smirked. “I was hoping I’d get to face you. Glad it happens sooner rather than later.”

“Shut up, Cyrus,” shouted Casey. “I’ll kick your ass with my paper cranes!”

Two of Cyrus’ goons stood up to defend him and it looked as if the student waiting room was going to turn into an all out brawl.

The debuffer suddenly stood up and in a flash was between all the kids holding out his arms.

“Can you step out into the arena, please.”

Samuel looked down to the large screen across from them in the arena.

Max Rainhart versus Cyrus Archer.

“You must be so proud to see your boy here today,” said the climber president, smiling fondly at the man.

The fool, thought Samuel. He doesn’t have any inkling, does he?

Samuel smiled back and nodded his head.

“Yes,” he said. “It’s a true pleasure to see one’s own child grow up and train to become a climber.”

The climber president smiled and Sakura simply nodded her head at him.

Sakura was definitely suspicious of him.

It didn’t matter though any more.

It was already too late.

The plan would begin any moment now.

87

Max stood across from Cyrus in the large arena as the massive audience roared around them.

He was nervous but he didn’t want anyone to see it, especially Cyrus.

“The match will begin at the blow of my whistle,” said the referee.

Max gulped. For a long time now, he’d wanted an excuse to punch Cyrus in the face. The boy had given him plenty of reasons in the past, but now the opportunity was officially sanctioned by the climber’s guild.

There was just one thing that was bugging him. He actually had no idea what Cyrus’ trait was. That said, he was pretty sure Cyrus didn’t know the two different abilities he currently had up his own sleeve.

The referee leapt backwards and blew his whistle.

SHRIIILLLLL!

The match had begun.

The crowd let out a massive roar that tremored across the arena. They then quieted down to watch the opening moves of the match.

Max rushed towards Cyrus.

He wasn’t going to hesitate or dilly-dally, he’d attack as soon as he could

“You idiot,” snickered Cyrus.

Even now he was still an arrogant jerk, thought Max. But he could see why his current plan might appear idiotic: he was rushing straight ahead into an effectively unknown enemy.

Too bad for Cyrus it was all misdirection.

Max triggered shadow blink.

He emerged right behind Cyrus. His opponent’s shoulders jumped in surprise.

The whole arena gasped.

The only thing Max didn’t like about this strategy was that he didn’t get to see Cyrus’ smug grin disappear off his face as Max bested him.

Max swung a clenched fist right into the back of Cyrus’ head. As he propelled his fist forward, he sent as much mana as he could to imbue around his knuckles.

POW!

His fist smashed right into the back of Cyrus’ head. The power of the blow was enough to send Cyrus hurling across the arena.

“Incredible!” cheered the crowd.

Max watched as Cyrus was knocked back through the air. The boy must have low endurance stats compared to everything else. In a weird way that wasn’t surprising. The boy had spent his entire life with bodyguards and henchmen, he probably never thought he needed to train that stat. He assumed he was invincible already, but as Max had just shown him, he was far from invulnerable.

Cyrus collapsed a few meters away into the dirty ground of the arena. A swirl of dust formed around the boy after he made impact with the ground.

The crowd chanted Max’s name.

Sakura smiled from the observation box at the top of the arena.

She placed her hands on the glass, and looked down at Max, who was standing ready for a retaliation attack from his opponent.

“Your pupil is putting up quite the magnificent display, Sakura,” said the climber president.

“Thank you, sir,” said Sakura. “I only nudged Max a little bit, this impressive display is mostly down to him.”

Max was truly remarkable though, she thought. The amount of abilities and moves he’s learned in so short a time was incredible. Even more amazing was