Limitless Path

They settled down for a longer break this time at the Hall, Beth getting quite cozy with Sabs the first night. They were interrupted, though not at night, by her sisters, who had a request that originated with Lyrissa, of all people. They had all been doing training, but Lyrissa insisted that Soph needed some experience sparring against and fighting other people, and she had suggested it was often easier to start with people somebody knew. Navere had also told Kim it would be a good idea for her to get more experience against other people, so the two of them had decided to ask the most experienced and strongest person they knew, apart from the Seniors.

"So, how do you want to do this?" Beth asked them once she had the gist of what they were asking.

"I mean, go to a training room and train? What other way is there?" Kim asked.

"Several," Beth replied with a chuckle. "Including fighting training matches on the arena floor, or even fighting official matches on the floor overseen by one of the Seniors."

"Oh, well, I don't think we're ready for all that," Kim said with a small frown, glancing over at Soph to see the normally haughty expression replaced with some genuine nervousness and maybe even a little fear.

"Alright, training room it is, then," Beth said with a shrug, making sure everyone was geared up before leading them out of the room and to what she still thought of as 'their' training room. "We can use this for today."

"So, what are we gonna do?" Kim asked.

"You and you, on the stage," Beth said, pointing at Kim and Sabs. The two glanced at each other before shrugging and climbing up onto the stage. "Now, I want to see how you two do against each other. Oh, and no Presences for now. I want this whole training session to go longer than five minutes."

"Okay, sure," Sabs replied, readying her weapons and squaring off. Beth activated the training field as Kim got ready more slowly, drawing her sword and shuffling her feet to get positioned and set. The shield at the edge of the field snapped into place, strong enough to stop anything the girls would be able to generate, Presences included, but thin and light enough that it was barely perceptible.

"Whenever," Beth said a bit impatiently, as the two just stared at each other.

Sabs was the more decisive of the two, darting forward while clearly making use of her own Swift, already at Copper[9]. Kim responded very steadily, firmly planted and swinging her blade in broad strokes. Sabs was able to deflect one of Kim's swings with a slashing parry from one of her daggers, moving forward to try to slide her other knife into Kim's torso, but the younger girl activated a skill and very nearly caught Sabs herself in the torso.

The two went back and forth for a little, Beth surprised at how evenly they were matched, though it did appear that Sabs had an advantage. Kim, from the looks of it, had been training and practicing to fight more defensively, despite her not using a shield during any of her battles. Beth supposed that might be the better way to do it, at least for her, and it certainly was safer, but the lack of aggression really hindered her, particularly against other sapients. It was fine when Kim was fighting beasts and could whittle them down, or had the support of others like Soph to deal the heavy damage, but a humanoid opponent wasn't going to let her just sit there forever.

Which is exactly what happened, as Sabs eventually got inside Kim's guard and got a good shot in at the same time. That was basically it, though Kim did gamely fight on for another minute, as she wasn't as used to fighting injured, and not against an intelligent opponent. Sabs got her in the armpit at the end, the field recognizing a lethal injury before healing both back to perfect health. Sabs didn't even need to clean her blades off, as everything was reset to the conditions at the duel's start, though Beth had always hoped that the blood didn't go back inside the person. That would be a bit…gross.

"Okay, not bad," Beth said, stepping onto the field with them. "Sabs, like the aggression, don't like how you don't capitalize on some opportunities. The second time you darted in, you had a decent chance at a neck shot. I would've liked to see you go for that cut, even if it was a bit risky.

"Kim, good defense, but you're not fighting beasts. People aren't going to attack in the same dull patterns and let you slowly chop them up, they're gonna get aggressive. You have to know when you can attack. I know Sabs is faster than you, but you have to find chances to pursue her and drive her into a corner. If you do nothing but defend, you'll wind up in the position of a beast and get slowly chopped up."

"I just get nervous," Kim muttered, shifting back and forth. "This is supposed to be training for what we do in the field. If I'm too aggressive, that's gonna be bad."

"Sure, you don't want to go too aggressive and put yourself in a bad position," Beth started, pausing when what sounded suspiciously like a laugh turned into a cough from Blood. "Anyway, like I was saying, you have things like armor, healing skills, and even potions to mitigate that damage. Don't go crazy, but sometimes you at least have to be a little aggressive. That's especially true when fighting other people; they're not going to sit around and wait for you to wear them down. That kind of build might be possible with better skills, especially with a higher weaponskill, but you can't just wear out a thinking person. Not as you are now."

"So, I should just go wild attacking?" Kim asked with a frown, a single brow arched as she gave Beth a bit of a look.

"No, but you could take some lessons from Sabs," Beth replied calmly. "Or watch how I fight-"

Blood laugh-coughing interrupted her again and she sent the woman glare before continuing, "Or, better yet, take some time to watch a bunch of arena fight videos and analyze them. I don't know how you've been training with Navere, but you could also ask him to help you train against thinking opponents. It's something you're going to have to learn if you want to keep doing this whole adventuring thing."

"Right, I'll check into that," Kim replied with a bit of a frown, chewing on her lower lip a bit.

"Next, you and you," Beth said, pointing at Sabs and Soph. "And remember, no Presences."

Kim traded out with Soph in the ring and Beth made sure the dueling system was running before yelling for them to start. Soph started by blasting bolts of ice and frost in an arc in front of her, trying to intercept Sabs from charging right into her. The tactic was minimally effective, doing enough to slow Sabs so that Soph could get two other spells prepped and partially cast. As Sabs closed with her, avoiding the last of the frost projectiles, Soph shot out four bolts of lightning that curved slightly towards Sabs. The older girl danced out of the way, slipping to one side before leaping back to the other, getting grazed by the last bolt.

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That was the exact moment Soph's other spell hit, a wave of frost and chunks of ice tumbling across the field and right overtop of Sabs. Soph didn't stop there, having learned that lesson a while ago, and continued casting her spells. A good thing she did, as well, as Sabs burst from the fog of ice to dart close to the tiny girl, readying to slash at her with both knives. It would have been a good attack if Soph hadn't prepared a cage of lightning mana around herself that she activated when Sabs was two steps away. The older girl couldn't fully stop in time, running into the cage and getting electrocuted, which left her just open enough that Soph could blast a hole through her chest with a powerful spell.

That signaled the end of the match, with Sabs collapsing to the floor as the healing kicked in and restored them both. Beth strode up onto the platform and over to Sabs, leaning down to roll her girlfriend over and check on her. She was awake, with a grimace on her face, not looking very happy about what happened.

"Fuck, that hurts," Sabs groaned, Beth pulling her into a quick hug. Sabs wriggled loose after a moment, grunting and feeling at the front of her armor. "I can't believe I just had a hole in my chest. Casters are crazy OP."

"Early on, yes, to an extent," Beth replied, helping Sabs stand back up. "But later on, they're hindered a bit by a number of factors. Even now, if you could run her out of mana, you'd win basically guaranteed."

"Hah, I've got tons of mana," Soph said snootily. "That tactic wouldn't work."

"You've got less than you think," Beth said with a small grin. "Why don't you stay on for another round. Sabs, you get something to drink and hit the sidelines."

Beth stayed on the floor and Soph asked, her features scrunched, "What, you're gonna beat me up now?"

"Yes, but not how you think," Beth replied with a chuckle. "Blood, set me to limited."

The lupine woman grunted while the others watched, puzzled, and set Beth to be limited to one hundred in every stat. Beth gave a little grunt as the weakness hit her, her stats getting sharply cut in half, stretching and bouncing on her toes a little to try to get used to being so much weaker. When she was ready, she took her place across from Soph, seeing that Blood had already engaged all the dueling protocols.

"I still don't think this is fair," Soph said.

"Soph, what are your stats right now?" Beth asked in response.

"Uh, here," Soph said, just showing her screen.