Limitless Path

The meeting room was, fortunately, not a part of the arena complex itself, and they trekked their bookended by Baelvyr and Bjorn. Sera being in the middle threw the illusion off a bit, but it was still a very impressive sight, even to the other team, who had showed up early. Maybe they thought it would be a bit intimidating for them to all be there and waiting, glaring at Beth's team as they walked in, but Beth's team was the far more intimidating of the two, so only a slight backfire in their plan. Beth's team took seats across the room from the opposing team, the room set up for two groups to seat facing each other with a table at a slight lower elevation in the center. Baelvyr and the elf from the other team took up positions at the table, and a troll woman sat at the elf's right hand while a human woman stood behind the two with a tablet to take notes and assist. Baelvyr was by himself, but the arrangement didn't really seem that lopsided.

"Are we ready?" the elf asked.

"Long as the wager is confirmed," Baelvyr said casually.

"It is not in question," the elf replied testily. "Now, have you decided your draw order?"

"It don't matter. Not unless ya mean to say it ain't random?" Baelvyr replied casually.

"I assure you, it's fully random," the elf retorted before setting two devices on the table. One of the people from the opposing team stood and walked to the table.

Baelvyr turned and gestured to Beth when nobody from their side moved and she took the hint, walking down to the table herself. She and the other team leader, if her guess was right, each reached out to one of the devices and pressed a glowing white button. The rectangular blocks hummed for a second before each spit out a small card with a number and a glyph on it. Beth had drawn number three, which she assumed was the number of fight she'd be participating in, while the opposing team leader had drawn number one. Beth just shrugged and kept the slip, as they would be used during the fights, staring in a couple days, to verify the fighters. Technically, they weren't allowed to change slips between them, but she was sure the other team would try to pull a fast one at some point, considering they were bound to realize partway through the week that they were outmatched and outgunned.

The rest of the two teams, or all of Beth's team and most of the opposing team, took slips and got their ordering arranged. Beth had to do everything in her power to play it straight when Bjorn drew number one, though the leader of the opponents realized he was in a bit of pinch when he saw the nine feet tall man get his same number. Bjorn was first, Blood second, Beth third, Andrea fourth, Adam fifth, Sera sixth, Neph seventh, Val eighth, Kris ninth, and Veren tenth. There were contingencies for if there were to be a tie in the matches, a five-for-five sort of thing, but Beth was quite sure they wouldn't need it, as she couldn't really see a way in which they lost more than four matches. She and Veren were going to win, no ifs, ands, or buts about it, and she didn't think Bjorn or Blood likely to lose, either. Sera was also pretty much guaranteed, which took them to five assured wins. Beyond that, she was quietly confident that Adam would beat the man he was against without issue, as Adam was far stronger than he looked and very experienced in the arenas. Andrea might be a bit less of a sure thing, but she was also extremely experienced, and Beth was counting her as a win. Val, Kris, and Neph weren't as sure of a thing, but Val had her new, extremely powerful skill that gave her overwhelming speed and strength, so she would likely do well. Kris was less experienced in arena fights, though not entirely lacking, and Beth wasn't sure how exactly she'd stack up against a powerful opponent. Lastly, Neph was the youngest and freshest of them with the least overall experience, particularly in fighting other sapient beings, so Beth thought that was their likeliest loss. Still, that was seven fights she was sure of, one that was a bit uncertain but where they had a hidden ace, and two she lacked confidence in but could still be wins.

They only needed six wins to win the whole thing, which might happen by the Sera's fight was over, if Andrea pulled out a win, and she wasn't sure that the end fighters would even get a chance to get in the ring. If, somehow, the other team proved insanely powerful and managed to take it all the way to Veren, the tie breaker was going to be a group fight after the initial ten fights were finished, but that was just the opposition unknowingly signing their own death warrants. Still, she had faith in her team to finish it well before that and wondered if the teams themselves might be able to place some bets. Likely they couldn't bet through third parties, but they might be able to place bets directly against the other team. Well, if the other team were willing to talk, but it did feel like they were all at least a bit assholes, from the way the acted and spoke and from their body language in particular. Still, as Baelvyr and the elf hashed out the scheduling and when they fights would be happening, Beth was thinking of striking up a conversation with the leader of the opposing team.

Those hopes were dashed when the meeting ended and the whole enemy team stood up and left at once, shooting glares at Beth's team and promising to crush and destroy them. Beth would have been a bit more offended if the whole thing wasn't so damn funny, considering the kind of beating that team was in for in just a few days. Still, it derailed any hope she had of striking up a conversation with them and maybe luring them into a bet, which would have been rather easy considering their level of confidence. Or overconfidence, as the case may be.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

They had showed up early, and so had a few days left to their own devices where they could do what they wanted, including having full free reign over the space station. Beth had very little interest in exploring the place and only passing more in going down to the arena, considering showing off her skills at this point might not be the best idea ever. That left private training as the only thing to do to really occupy her time other than slacking off, which she also did for a while, though she preferred to think of it as bonding time with the team. That and the fact that she wanted to spend more private time with Sera; not being able to fight, use her gate, or train openly meant that time alone in their rented bedroom became something of a fallback and panacea all in one. The hours moved significantly quicker when it was just her and Sera alone, which was funny in a bit of an ironic way, as they were both either practically immortal or downright fully immortal at this point. Time was an almost meaningless concept to them, but it still had a great weight in Beth's mind.

Several days passed, most of them spent in recreation, though Veren and Baelvyr were doing some kind of high-level mental sword drill thing that nobody else in the group could even keep track of. Beth was pretty sure it wasn't some ruse, but she had a greater and greater suspicion that Veren was already on the verge of becoming a Sage, which was totally unbelievable, but she had fought the man before. She knew just how unreasonable the power of a prodigy could truly be, and it would just be the cherry on top if Veren had an epiphany and became a Sage even before fighting the other team. The rest of the team occupied themselves in various ways, with some of them working on professions a little as they could, some taking the time to relax, and Andrea disappearing somewhere to get in a particular kind of trouble. They all showed back up early the morning of the first fight; the fights were spaced out to happen two a day and, if the tie did happen, the deciding team fight on the sixth day. If no decider were necessary, they still had to stick around for the full week, as there was a party on the final day of the week where prizes were given out and where the exchanges between Baelvyr and the elf would happen based on the teams' performances.

The first fight of the first day had some build-up to it, as the opposing team was on home turf and was making this a bit of a thing. Not something Beth would have recommended, but nobody asked her opinion, and Baelvyr was more than happy to let the other team walk into steel pole without looking all on their own. The pomp and ceremony killed about twenty minutes and then the first match was announced, with the team leader of the opposing team coming out first and getting thunderous applause in the arena, the noise filling the massive space like oversweet wine pouring into a big barrel. The ref let it go on for a minute before gesturing the crowd back down to a reasonable level and announcing the opponent. The crowd started to give Beth's team shit right away, but she had to struggle very hard to keep from cackling as Bjorn, rising up and up like a slumbering giant awaking before the crowds' very eyes, caused the jeers to quiet at a record speed. His taking the ring and towering over both the opposing team's leader and the ref didn't do anything to bring the crowd's mood back up, and his shrugging off the first strike against him without even showing a sign of registering it sunk their fervor to the moldering depths of an old tomb. The fight was a bit closer than it first appeared, but Bjorn, to practically nobody's surprise, won with a handy margin to spare, beating the team leader into a pulp while still being quite fresh himself.

That match set the tone, including the crowd had come in expecting a one-sided beating, though of a vastly different nature, and that that beating would go on for a long, long time. Bjorn stoically taking every hit with indifference while pounding the opponent into something resembling ground beef with his maul in just under two minutes was not what the crowd had been thirsting for and the ref had to vamp a little. Beth almost thought they were going to do a full half-time entertainment show now to keep the crowd satisfied, but they did eventually get around to calling the second match of the day. The opponent from the elf's team was a short, stocky woman built like a powerlifter and wearing a ton of plate, probably literally, and she had two impressive maces as her weapons. Blood, by contrast, was tall, svelte, lightly armored, and, indeed, lightly armed, certainly when compared with the impressive wedges of old, worn metal that her opponent was sporting. The crowd was able to pick up on impression of strength versus slim fragility, or so Beth assumed they were deluding themselves into believing, as the excitement, and volume, level of the arena picked up by a fair margin, a turgid ocean's roaring mixing with smells of too much cheap beer and greasy, shitty food.

The matchup was almost a classic power versus speed pairing, as the woman, likely with at least some dwarven blood pumping through her veins, hit like a truck and mirrored Bjorn in attempting to shrug off blows. Blood went a little easy at first, looking like she was playing to the crowd to those who knew her true strength, but also, it must be remembered, the most laconic of the group and one that would use less effort for a bigger result at any opportunity. It was a bit of a farce, in Beth's view, to watch the crowd cheer and react as the woman attacked and even scored a couple hits. What nobody but Beth realized, and likely Val and Sera, considering they also knew Blood's knew skill decently well, was that the longer a fight went on, the better it was for Blood. Even one or two tiny cuts were a big advantage for her and a big detriment for any opponent, and she was being very careful to cut up the dwarven woman without doing serious damage. All those wound left blood to leak out, slowly coating her opponent like the last rays of light before a dark night painting the sky a deep red. The blood flowed, though it wasn't much of a problem for the dwarven woman at first, as she had very high Endurance and likely had a good self-healing skill or regeneration of some kind.

It became a much bigger issue when Blood finally revealed her trump card after five minutes of back-and-forth attacks with no serious damage done on either side. Blood caused a tidal wave of, well, blood to surge up around her opponent, forming into massive, serrated vines with cruel barbs that wrapped the fighter, easily sliding into gaps in her armor and under any slightly open section. The vines weren't just for show nor were they something that were just meant to dish out a little damage but could otherwise be ignored. The vines were incredibly powerful, binding the woman so she was practically immobile, strong to the point that they twisted her powerful arms into a pose that would make a contortionist wince, the noises coming from inside her great helm having became very pained very quickly. Blood was done holding back, so the noises didn't last very long, the wolf using her Platinum-level skills to explode out with an insane attack that combined dozens of massive, horrific blades and lances of blood together into an assault that dyed the very air of the arena a dark red and shredded the woman's armor into less than scraps. The woman herself didn't fare any better, Blood's attacks too numerous and powerful to be stopped by even a decent set of plate armor around their level. The dwarf's flesh was blasted apart and it was one of the few times that Beth had seen a ref end a match and block attacks before the arena could make the call, clearly worried about the fighter's safety even with the defenses and healing in place to prevent the worst from happening.