Limitless Path

That was all that there was for the first day's festivities, at least that was required of them, though the home crowd wasn't at all happy with the outcomes. The fights had been a bit entertaining, at the least, and they weren't riotous, but there were going to be more exhibition matches and entertainment to try to even things out. Beth's team had most of a day to do whatever they wanted, and none of her team were very interested in the dog and pony show the opposition was putting on out on the floor. They retreated to their suite where they swapped stories, practiced small adjustments to their crafts, and tried to figure out what Veren and Baelvyr were doing that was going over everyone else's heads.

The next day was much the same, and the crowd that gathered was even larger than the first day, the arena abuzz with a dull, heavy roar, like a stormy ocean heard through thick walls. That was just when they were at rest because, when the local heroes showed up just slightly late, the place was much more roaring hurricane with no walls at all. The noise hitting like a physical wave combined with the stench of so many different bodies in a place where cleanliness seemed to be an afterthought made even the arena floor a less than stellar experience for the teams. Beth was sure the opposing team felt much the same way, but they were playing up being the home crowd heroes while Beth and hers, the villains. She thought the whole thing trite, really to an extreme, but they could have their ceremony and their show; her team would be victors quite soon, so no reason to fuss.

It took them some time to get to the first match of the day, but they eventually called the contenders, some random man from the enemy team before they had Beth come up. Beth eyed the guy as she got across from him and was not at all impressed. She had started to really get a sense of how strong people were without even engaging her eye power, some combination of sixth and even seventh sense that let her feel out a person and analyze what she was observing at a deeper level. The man she was against would be a powerful opponent for many people, most teams only able to fight beasts around their level not even having much experience fighting other people, but he wasn't anything exceptional. If Beth had to break it down, normal people would level a little, maybe do a rebirth, and that would be it. Skilled fighters would push further, and that's the category she'd put people in all the way up until rebirth nine typically, ones that got there slowly and didn't even manage to make their Mana Physique. Above them were elites, people who could push to rebirth ten fast and actually hit it not long after reaching that barrier. Beyond them would be prodigies, people like Veren who just crushed all expectations and competition. Of course, these were just general categories, and she only really roughly estimated people around where she thought their talent and drive put them.

Most of the people she dealt with ended up being elites in a varying degrees, and a somewhat outsized portion were prodigies. It was a bit hard separating who was who, but she knew plenty of Exalted, and that alone took talent, plus two Manumitted, and then there were the oddballs and freaks like Tazeen and Veren, people who grasped concepts and combat at a level that others couldn't understand. In her overall estimation, elites were the broadest category, as she would have classified everyone from her sisters, who were still pushing through the levels and rebirths and doing so fast, all things considered, to people like herself and even Blood. Blood herself was a bit of a question, as her use of her blood-based skills was exemplary, and her level of humanization and speed that she was advancing might truly be at a prodigy level. The point was, she thought, as the referee got through his whole spiel and started the fight, that the categories were broad, in her mind, and that the enemy team fell pretty firmly in the middle of elite. Most places, that would be pretty impressive, and having a person like their leader, or maybe a hidden card that was a true, top-level elite would make the team a big threat to most groups, but Beth's team were beasts of a different stripe.

Case in point was this fight itself, as the ref started the fight and Beth exploded out of the gate, streaking across the field at an ungodly speed. She wasn't even teleporting, nor using her Ideal, or even expressing her Presence; she was just that fast. The opponent appeared a bit surprised, but he quickly settled in for a slugfest, likely thinking she was going all-out and that she was a speedster-type fighter. Well, that might have been true if he were facing Blood, though they had all seen what allowing the wolf free rein led to yesterday, but Beth was about to teach him a different lesson. The man wore a kind of thick leather armor that had a couple layers, so something stronger than what a typical leather or hide armor might be, but not of the kind of level that an advanced alloy in scale or plate might offer. He used a shield and sword, though his sword was a bit longer than what most might be using in that configuration, and he demonstrated some kind of electricity skill when Beth was close. It didn't really phase her, and she saw the look of surprise come back in full force when she hit him, not bothering to try to snake around his shield. The blow lifted him off his feet and sent him back through the air, the man having to twist a bit to right himself and land on his feet. He was prepared as he landed, expecting Beth to pursue and continuing attacking him, but she had stopped and just observed his movements.

He resettled himself and attacked her, though cautiously, likely understanding that he had grossly underestimated her but likely believing he could correct that earlier lapse in judgement and recover. He didn't use his full strength, Beth could tell, but did close with her rapidly and use a series of skills to attack her, trying to hem her in and pin her down. The strategy was a wonderful little display of competence with both weapon and skill, using both sword and shield together to attack and maneuver while weaving in various abilities that damaged and corralled. The man must be the other team's primary frontliner, soaking up damage and attention when they fought beasts or worked as a group in the arena, and his defenses were pretty solid. She still thought the leather an interesting choice for armor, but he was competent and resisted a few probing strikes fairly well. He didn't quite fully grasp what was happening, settling into a rhythm and likely assuming her strikes were using a greater portion of her power than they really were. He likely thought her going at two-thirds her strength or something near there, but in truth, she was just gauging the overall level of the team based on his actions, using barely ten percent of her power, and that wasn't even considering her Ideal. If everything she had at her disposal was taken into account, she was fighting at maybe six or seven percent of her total strength, and that already seemed a bit much for the man.

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She didn't really mean to lead him on, nor was she trying to embarrass him, but it was good to see what other strong teams were capable of. Sure, they very likely didn't have a Veren in their midst, or even a Blood, but they would have people at Andrea and Val's level, and likely even at Kris and Adam's. Part of the unfortunate thing is that Beth suspected Bjorn, Blood, and her got three of their stronger fighters, maybe even two of them being the two strongest, if the team leader was at the top and this man was second. Pound-for-pound, her team faired much better when ranked straight against these guys, and if Beth and the others took on their top talent, then Andrea and the others had very nice odds in beating their opponents.

Beth traded some more blows while she thought about the matchups, surprised when the man pulled out a fire-type skill and threw it at her. She didn't even need to do anything; by this point, fire was nothing to her, and the skill splashed across her armor and dissipated quickly. She could feel there was a lot of mana in the slash that the man had done to create that flame blade, and he was likely a good return for that kind of investment, so he was quite clearly shocked when Beth didn't even bother blocking and yet took no damage from the hit. Perhaps she should have played it up a bit, but she was no actor, besides having a general disdain for theatrics on the arena floor, and she simply walked forward and hit the man as he tried to line up for another. She forced him on the back foot, and the fire blade that he hit her with the second time used far less mana. In truth, she had given him quite the opening the first time by fighting slow and leaving gaps in the pacing for him to act. Now, she put on the pressure and he wasn't able to create such a big blast, not that it mattered either way. Beth hadn't even used her Mana Physique or dominion skill to squash the fire; she was so resist to fire, flame, heat, and even things like plasma, that she could simply walk through them without taking the slightest injury.

Her not contesting for control of the skill or spell, nor even smashing it apart, just letting it harmlessly dissipate, was something that opponents didn't expect and weren't exactly prepared to counter. If she grabbed his flame blade, he could turn it into a battle of will and mana, one that he would still certainly lose, but it was a different type of fight. People were often used to skills getting countered, broken, or contested in an arena fight. What they were not used to was there skill just splashing across the opponent, expending all of the mana used to cast it just for none of the expected effect to materialize. People just weren't used to fighting somebody that could quite literally walk through their strongest skill without any harm, and it really changed how the whole flow of battle moved and stunted most people's reactions. Beth was able to take advantage of this to great effect, not that it was really necessary, and she pushed the man back, getting his back to the wall before he managed to return to the center of the ring with a masterful move. Beth was impressed, her thought that he was their main defensive fighter and centerline just being proven by his finesse in controlling the space while blocking her damage.

That changed when she decided to start really fighting back, her very first hit heavily denting his shield and sending him sailing again. This time, the first class flight didn't end so nicely, as Beth intercepted him in midair and smashed into him again, kicking his shield so hard, the screaming rend of the metal could likely be heard all across the station. Blood sprayed as the man's arm was ripped apart from the force carried through the shield, though his bones had mostly survived the kick intact. The blow had, however, sent him hurtling again, and he was stopped by the force screen around the arena right before Beth hit him again. She wasn't even dishing out the hits all that fast, but her overwhelming strength and high level of skill with her Unarmed meant that she was dealing devastating hits with little the man could do to fight back. Oh, he tried, for sure, slashing at her with a combination of different mana types from his blade, but it was all a bit pointless. Beth ignored the fire, tanked the electricity, and smashed through the ice without even slowing.

The final indignity was when he used his last trump card as she fired off a combination that he only mostly blocked with just his blade. He retaliated by slashing out, cutting apart space itself with a move very similar to her Spatial Slice, just a whole lot weaker. Likely the skill he used was both at a lower rank and a lower tier skill, showing that a skill rather worse than one of her top skills was considered an ace-in-the-hole for people to turn a bad fight around. Beth, much to the man's, and the ref's, and the enemy team's, and the crowd's astonishment, grabbed the ripped space and spun around with it, realigning space in the arena and smashing the skill back into the man, only amped up to eleven. She targeted his lower torso, as she knew the strike was going to be incredibly destructive, and even if he blocked, he was in for a world of hurt, especially with his shield out of commission. This was another one of those blows that a ref might step in and stop either before it finished running its course or before it even hit altogether, worried about just how much damage and lingering destruction it would cause. There weren't many ways to overwhelm the safety systems the fighting arenas used, but they weren't infallible, either, and that was why refs were still an integral part of the whole process.

Almost as she had foretold, the ref stepped in to stop the attack, the man an Ascended that could clearly analyze what she was doing and respond with time to spare. He actually called the match and stopped the attack outright, in that order, making sure she and her opponent separated and stayed separated. Not that he had to work all that hard at it, as Beth hadn't pushed to follow up at all and had just sat back after twisting the attack back around against the man. Even if that hadn't been a knock-out, it would have done serious damage and she would have barely tried to create that effect, leaving her with plenty of options on where to go next. As it was, the ref called the match, blocked the attack (and she did notice the very slight wince he gave when he blocked which, even considering the passive boost of her Ideal, was surprising), and checked that both fighters were finished and apart. The medics rushed in, more concerned with the man by far, which was no surprise, considering everyone with eyes had watched Beth walk through flames and all over her opponent with no issue at all.