Limitless Path

They exited the stage to an arena that was losing its collective minds, with every single spectator on their feet and screaming their accolades. Blood gave a couple half-hearted waves before disappearing while Beth soaked up the praise as if the victory had been all hers, waving her arms and returning the cheers. The other teams were not particularly happy with her antics, but what could they do about it? If they didn't want her to carry on like that, maybe they could try winning even a single match against her team.

She was still waving when the other two teams were called up to the stage, the crowd slowly calming down and getting back in their seats as the second semifinals fight was brought underway. There was a team from outside the dragon clans facing off against Barnabas' team, and whoever lost would be facing the team Blood had just knocked out while the winners would step up to face Beth. Beth had seen both teams fight before, though they had clearly been holding things back each time they fought, but Beth could really care less. The finals match was a big deal and all of both teams would have to be present for it, meaning it was going to be even less than a bad joke, considering she was still confident she could solo it.

It was clear that the two teams understood they were fighting for second place, as they unleashed everything they had, including every trump card they had been holding back, almost from the moment the ref started the fight. Beth got to see a lot more of what the teams had to offer and she was more impressed than she had been, but she was truly impressed by their performances. The teams really gave it their best effort and put everything into winning, but she was pretty sure it wouldn't be all that difficult for her to fight both teams at once by herself and still come out on top. Maybe it would be challenging if she didn't reveal her Ideal, which she still had yet to do, but she could definitely beat both the teams even including their hidden measures.

In a slight bit of an upset, Barnabas' team lost to the outsider team, which was only slightly surprising considering that the outsider team was clearly an elite unit with six incredibly powerful members. Beth suspected that the dragon clans had sold a slot to that team for an arm and a leg, and they were making the most of the opportunity. The team was a full team of six and all six were Enlightened, which was a lot better than many of the dragon clan teams. Beth had scoped the team out some and she suspected the lowest level member of the team was the heir or VIP and the other five were that person's protectors. The way the others acted and moved, especially in combat, really gave the game away, unless they were all incredibly good actors and playing that the person was a VIP and they weren't.

The other teams cleared out and the festivities continued the rest of the day with exhibition fights and big performances. Beth watched most of the exhibitions and performances, though the performances were a lot better than the fights. She found she was starting to have a tendency to critique the fights and had to stop herself before she sounded too much like Baelvyr. Maybe there was a career out there in coaching, but not likely, as she wouldn't want to be tied down for months or, more likely, years at a time. Her gate power, as it so often did, ameliorated a lot of the negatives, as she could train people during the day and then go back to her room at night and enter the gate, getting a few dozen hours of leveling in without having to even leave the Hall she was at. It was likely something she could do if she needed some mission credits or some CRA Points as training others for the Association paid reasonably well, but she was recognizing that she was doing as more a bored habit right now. She felt like it would be a long time before she were at the kind of level where she could confidently train someone else, but then again, if she was working with people who were Apprentices or the like, she could give them a lot of tips and coaching.

The next day was the final part of the losers' bracket, which had pretty much no surprises, as the teams all at least participated. The biggest upset was the winner of the whole bracket was a team that nobody expected, but that was at least a little due to Beth, as she had eliminated a few teams that hadn't participated until late in the bracket. It caused the whole thing to be a bit chaotic, and one of the teams that hadn't really gotten to perform a whole lot because they ran into Beth partway through the winners' bracket wound up winning the entire losers' bracket. That took most of the teams out of the instance, as there was no reason to leave the teams around the Grand Palace after their fights were complete. There were only four teams left now, and they next day they started with the runner's up match competing to see who would get third and who would get fourth. That fight wasn't all that interesting for Beth, especially since Barnabas' team won, which was both fairly predictable and fairly boring. Also, kind of annoying, since she had hoped that awful asshole placed as low as possible. Just a shame that Val and Sera couldn't figure out a good way to eliminate their team before it got to the point of these finals matches, but Barnabas had somebody on his team that was rather smart and good at countering espionage.

Beth was holding the fort down during the morning, and the others showed up after lunchtime, ready for their match. She had been a bit worried that something might have happened to her team, as this would be the perfect time to mess up their perfect run, but she needn't have worried. The other three appeared right at the appointed time and fully ready to participate in the match, which was called for as soon as they were present. Beth let the others lead the way up onto the arena, having done more than enough to prove her strength during this running of the instance. It would be a lot better if the other team forgot about her, as much as that could happen, as they were getting ready to experience an incredibly challenging battle. Beth didn't pull a chair out this time, as that would be just a little too gauche, even for her, but she did just equip her gauntlets and stand at the back, leaving her sword in her necklace. She suspected that Blood or Sera could, individually, win this fight with some strength to spare, but they weren't going to be taking chances. She was going to play second fiddle here, just there to back the other three up and make sure they won the match. She suspected that Val would be doing a lot of work here, just because the kresnik hadn't really gotten the chance to perform. That, and the fact that the others didn't want to give everything away about their current capabilities, which they were sure the other teams would be discussing when they were out of the instance.

Stolen novel; please report.

The ref got them all lined up, bowing, and confirmed ready before giving them the countdown and starting signal. Beth remained at the back, arms folded, as the others rushed forward, all nine of them, launching skills and spells at their maximum. Being not just a frontliner but often the frontliner in the deepest depths of the fight, it was always odd for Beth to stand back and watch a fight she was technically participatory in, but she could clearly see she wasn't needed. Attacks that would have crippled others basically bounced off of Sera to little effect, and Blood was so fast and skilled that nothing even came close to hitting her. Val was no slouch, either, but it was clear she was the furthest behind in terms of her combat abilities, especially when fighting against other sapient beings. Val had plenty of experience and slotted in just fine against beasts and even had some experience against monsters, which is something that only a few could really say, but she had not spent much time on the arena floor. Something about fighting a lot of other people would not have been a good PR angle for the Young Scions, at least according to her.

The other team, from a combination of hope and despair, threw everything but the kitchen sink at them from the moment the referee's arm started moving downward to signal the start. The burst of power was…significant, as it caused the air within the dueling field to tremble and ignite. That wasn't from anybody using any kind of fire spells or magic, but was just from the sheer amount of energy that the two teams were putting off. Beth was also interested to see that the opposing team wasn't wasting any effort on her, not throwing even a single hidden weapon or minor spell at her. Clearly, the assumption was that they would have to get through the rest of her team first and if they couldn't, then there was no point drawing her into the fight and making things harder for themselves. Beth appreciated the ability it gave her to watch the fight without having to field all kinds of attacks and counters, though she thought the strategy of waiting to fight the strongest opponent until one's team was very tired, injured, and out of mana was a bit blockheaded.

Sera waded through the storm of energy without even needing to block most of the team, and it was amusing for Beth to watch the enemies faces changing from a cautious optimism to looks of dawning horror as nothing they did even scratched Sera's skin, let alone her scales. They made a smart call after just a couple seconds and started trying to lock Sera down while throwing most of their energy at Blood and Val, and they quickly realized that Val was the weak link, considering they couldn't even hit Blood. The problem was, they couldn't really lock Sera down very effectively, as she just walked through damage, shrugged off crowd control, and ignored most attacks. It was more like fighting a dreadnaught or implacable colossus than it was fighting a person, and Sera would constantly put herself in the way or simply stay stationary and allow Val and Blood to maneuver around her, using her as a shield.

Still, the other wasn't just going to throw in the towel because the rest of Beth's team was tough, and they persevered for a fairly long time, dishing out some powerful attacks that did manage to catch Val out a few times. They even very slightly damaged Sera, which wasn't all that surprising considering how many attacks she was eating without even blocking, but that was about as far as they got. They couldn't even singe Blood's fur, and the wolf was capable of dishing out massive amounts of damage over long periods of time, attacking from different angles and with different frequency. Fighting her was a real nightmare, and the fact that her blood attacks were very hard to defend against, as they were a mana type that wasn't seen super often from other sapient beings, or even from beasts, didn't help the other team's chances any. The wolf was mainly focused on crippling and slowing the other team at the start, taking pressure off Sera and Val as the other two worked to start eliminating opponents.

The first of the six out came from an unexpected source, or maybe a totally expected one, depending on one's perspective, as he made a very foolish move. The fight had gone on for a couple minutes at that point and it was clear desperation was starting to set in, so the young man teleported next to Beth and sliced at her head. Well, that was what he tried to do, from what Beth could tell, but she had the best senses and reflexes there. If she was even using a decent bit of her current power, most of the field, excepting Blood, looked like they were moving in slow motion, maybe as little as half normal speed. She could easily see the man prepare and use his teleport skill, something that likely felt instant to him, and she grabbed space around herself as he teleported and clamped down on it. The young man landed several feet from where he thought he was going to be, and his swing only slid about a foot through the air before his movement was locked down entirely. Beth wouldn't want to interfere in the fight otherwise, but if somebody was going to directly aim for her, she had no problem in stepping up and dishing out some pain.

Pain she was sure the young man would be in when he woke up as, though the ring healed people when they were teleported out, that didn't mean someone knocked unconscious would automatically be awoken. She had stepped forward, appearing next to the young man so fast he likely couldn't even register it, and had punched him directly in the face. Hard. The blow had also channeled Spatial Obliteration and, despite the fine craftsmanship of the other team's gear, and his own strength, there was no way his head was going to withstand a strike like that. It might have been a fatal blow on its own, but it was already enough that, before Beth's second strike could land, the arena teleported him out as it considered him too crippled to continue battling. Head blows were no joke, and even more moderate damage to the brain would trigger a dueling field to withdraw the combatant, as it was thought rather pointless to let someone with a head injury stay in a ring and act as a punching bag before pulling them. Beth just shrugged and crossed her arms again, ignoring the reaction of the crowd, all of whom went wild at the sight of her eliminating a strong opponent with a single punch.

That already tipped the scales quite a bit, not that the other three truly needed it, but after that it was downhill for the opposing team. Five versus three should still have been heavily skewed in their favor, but the young man had been launching some of the most complicated attacks of the group, and now his pressure was gone, allowing both Blood and Val to maneuver far more freely. The remaining five put up a very good show, but they dropped one-by-one until the field was clear of all but the four of Beth's group. She wanted to say it was a surprising result if one considered the strength of their opponent's and how important the battle was, but she wasn't at all surprised. If anything, she was a bit startled by just how long the six had held out, forcing her team to spend quite a bit of time and effort before the first big mistake had eliminated one of them. She looked over to see the team of six disappear together, the instance not having kept anybody around after their place in the tournaments was determined. Even for her team, there would be no victory podium, just a chance to pick a new skill or upgrade an existing one, plus a delivery of any other prizes their points had earned them.