Catherine, as it appeared to Pip, was evil. Perhaps evil was not fully encompassing of her sheer horror. Evil felt too light a word. To force a lesser Goddess to run for not one, but two bells continuously, surely it was a thing of unequal horror. The short stops for each bout and the inevitable checks on hall two to ensure they had not missed their cue, were beyond exhausting.

Truly, the lengths Pip went for her friend were extreme in their benevolence. Truly, if she were not a God, she would have earned the status of Chosen of one of the many lesser Gods. She was humble enough to admit that, though her suffering was great, it was not quite enough to warrant the attention of one of the True or Greater Gods, though it was quite clearly not so far off.

Huffing, Pip came to another stop at an awaiting hall, she thought it might have been hall six, though in truth she hadn't had the wherewithal to check the large numbers painted on the entryway.

Pip showed no interest in the dueling Bone-Rankers, focusing instead on Catherine's still impressive stamina. She stood tall, showing absolutely no sign of needing to rest after yet another run within the last bell. Not even breathing deep, she looked over the current duo fight, looking utterly serene.

Pip's pride felt bruised at that, seeing her own state compared to the nonchalance that Catherine affected. It felt... Insulting, to her as a Goddess. She would ensure to punish the mousey girl for her insolence, but given their relationship, she would ensure to tone it down a small amount. She would force Catherine to pay for their food on the next excursion. Pip's own coffers thanked her.

“I think we're due in a few minutes,” Catherine said, facing the arena.

“I believe the time is fast approaching as well,”

“We'll make our way over in a minute, then. I want to see how the underdogs handle these guys,”

“They will be crushed, I assume. They are too weak to handle such an opponent,” Pip said, moving past Catherine to get a better view of the fighters. She decided to lean forward on the railing, letting her not only see the duelists, but also catch her breath.

“I think they might have a chance, actually. The big one knows what he's doing,” Catherine said.

“indeed, but he is weak. He cannot harm the one of iron, and his friend is too large a fool to aid him,”

“Maybe so. I still think they can pull it off,”

Pip simply grunted in response as she had seen others do. Honestly it excited her to have slid the gesture into the conversation so naturally, and part of her expected Catherine to compliment her on it. It was a Chosen's duty to praise their God, but Pip figured she would let it slide once more. She was benevolent in her love.

A comfortable silence emerged, punctuated at each point by the sound of the fight below. Each block a thud, each apostle use an explosion of unique noise. Pip and Catherine simply contented themselves with viewing. Pip watched Catherine as much as she did the fight. She gauged her reactions to each shift in momentum, and saw the thin line her mouth became as her favored side lost ground in a subtle retreat.

Mostly Pip liked to see the girl in the moments in between. Her smile - the one she wore for everyone else - finally slipped in those moments. Pip doubted Catherine even noticed. Part of her told herself that she should let Catherine know, but the selfish part of her, incredibly small though it was, kept it to herself. She would consider it payment for Catherine's affronts to her.

A thud from the arena punctuated a twist to Catherine's lips that let Pip know the fight had become interesting. She turned to see a finishing blow landed on the one that they had called 'the big one'. His weapon handling was not enough to counter the two opponents wailing on him at once.

The man's partner wobbled onto his feet from a distance as he hit the floor. Catherine wagered the duel would reach its end rather quickly from there.

“It seems I was right,” Pip smiled to her friend.

“Don't count your wyverns before they're hatched, Pip,”

“Your hopes do you credit, Catherine, but they are ill-founded. The one they took down was the only one with martial skill between the two of them. The idiot will be hopeless without him,”

“Will he now? Perhaps you'd like to put your money where your mouth is,” She said with a quirk of her lips.

“Why would I wish to do such a thing. Talking would prove difficult with my money in my mouth,”

Catherine looked confused for a minute. “No... Pip that's not what that means. It means I want to bet money on the outcome,”

“Ahh. I see. You should have said this, Catherine. Your intentions were unclear, but I would be pleased to bet against you in this. I will wager my entire purse of coin; fifteen copper pieces,”

Catherine looked suitably impressed at the sum, before raising her hand to shake. Pip did so smiling at the free coin she had just made for herself, before both she and Catherine turned back to face the arena.

The idiot made it to his feet with a great effort, looking entirely too weak to fight back against his two opponents. He stumbled over himself, perhaps concussed, and righted himself with a spur of effort.

“Here it comes,” Pip said smugly in a sing song voice.

Catherine smiled as well, doing her best to look as punchable as possible.

The two opponents circled the man like a group of wyverns preparing for the kill. The man did his best to keep them both in his field of view as he struggled to keep on his feet. Anyone watching could see the fight was nearing its end. Anyone but Catherine, of course.

As one of his opponents finally escaped his sight and charged at his behind, something finally changed. The man's eyes closed, abandoning his sight, and the ground of the arena began to shake. Both of his opponents fell to the floor, one after the other, as their cornered prey rose on a small pillar of earth.

Clearly the man's apostle was still weak, obviously bone, but it proved powerful enough to hold him. The earth beneath his feet crumbled at the sides, and the shaking faded at a truly brilliant pace, but it held. Eventually the two challengers managed to find their balance, but not before the defender stood a full span higher than each of them on a raised pillar made from stone.

From this position, he grew rocks to throw at the pair of them. He didn't yet have the mastery to launch them straight from the ground or his platform, but his strengthened muscles seemed up to the task.

In the relatively cover-free arena he was a monster.

Rocks as large as the larger man's skull were thrown hard enough to make a man paste.

“This is surely considered a misdirection of the rules,” Pip moaned.

“How is that, dear Pip? It's not the man's fault that those two can't hurt him,”

“it was not to the duel that I refer. You knew somehow that he would do this. How were you able to surmise this, Catherine? Tell me now,”

“Haha! That's what you're sour about? Because I figured it out without you?”

“Indeed. You clearly had insider information, therefore the bet is void,”

“Uh-uh. No way. You're the one that didn't want to believe. This one's on you, Pip. Maybe next time you'll pay more attention to the apostles at play. Let it be a lesson from your magnanimous teacher,” she said with a malicious grin.

It would have been wrong of Pip to try and kill her friend. She knew this. It did not cure her of the terrible anger that grew in her.

“You will pay for this, Catherine. Of this I guarantee,” she spat, handing over the agreed amount. Her coffers once more hit zero. Truly' the mortal plane was a crueler place than she had imagined.

Inevitably the man best his opponents to the great joy of the watching crowd. Only a few hundred strong, the sound of their cheers was nearly deafening. How the sound echoed so greatly was a mystery, but it proved enough to quite nearly deafen Pip, even as she raised her hands to her ears.

From there the two of them ambled from one arena to another once again, leaving Pip once again out of breath and wishing for death. Catherine was fine.

Eventually, on their third check of the second hall, their names had risen high enough in the queue that they decided to join the throng of spectators. Their were closer to thousands in the packed second hall, and Pip felt decidedly better about fighting there than any of the lesser halls. Of course, the first hall was a better choice, but was scheduled entirely by Earth-Rankers and higher, much to her dismay.

Even the second hall was booked for Earth-Rankers, but oftentimes they relaxed this rule for famous fighters. The merchant brothers, apparently, constituted this given their ability to book the second hall. This infuriated Pip, but she conceded it would only be a matter of time until it would be her name that was called out in these great arenas. Hopefully the next arena would be in a city with fewer rats, but she would make do with what she had for the moment.

“When the bell sounds, that's our cue to head down to the arena, ok? We're up next,”

“Yes Catherine, I am able to read the sign. I do not require your aid in basic reading comprehension,”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yes!”

Catherine giggled at her irritation, which she knew should have angered her, but instead brought a smile to her lips. Something about the way Catherine smiled and laughed made her rankled pride seem a small thing. The whole of a Gods being, dismissed over a smile? What a life she lived.

Interrupting that thought was the aptly timed ringing of the hall's bells, marking the end of ninth bell, and the fight that was to proceed them. The actual fight would go on for a while longer, the two duelists more evenly matched then the last duo fight had been. More importantly, it was time for the two of them to make their way down to their positions in the arena.

“You remember what that bell means, don't you Pip?”

“I will end you, Catherine. I will make it very painful for you,”

Catherine cackled wildly.

.....

It was not Pip's first time standing alongside Catherine in an arena, watched by thousands of animalistic, screeching, cries. In the weeks between their respective duels to the death the two had fought a great number of times. Sometimes they lost, many times they won. They had even grown to be a name of some renown within the tight-nit community of Dasgad's duos.

Not once had the nervous energy escaped her. Every time she faced enemies in these halls she saw only two things. First she saw the empty throat of the man she had killed. Next she saw Ferros' smile. Her earnest, innocent smile.

She did not like that memory.

Catherine smiled next to Pip. It was her false smile - the one she wore for everyone else's sake. It didn't comfort Pip. Her presence, however, did.

“The duel will begin on the count of three, is this understood,” announced the hidden voice of the arena. Every duelist, Catherine, herself, and the two Merchant brothers, nodded their assent.

“Then without further ado, let us begin.

3. 2. 1. Begin.”

No one moved. Conventional wisdom said that seizing the advantage would win the day. The fear in her bones said otherwise. The calculating eyes of the brothers seemed content to let that fear set in. They exuded arrogance. Pip could finally see the depths of her ignorance in that regard.

Plate armor on the fields of battle had largely become a thing of the past in the great wars. A shelpiece could pierce even the thickest armor like paper, turning it into shrapnel that would deal even more damage than it protected from. This rendered it moot on the largest battlefields of the many great battles of the modern day. Those were the battles that Pip grew up watching.

It would seem enchanted armor, by contrast, was a different beast altogether, because the brothers wore it like kings. Kings had no fear for shelpieces.

“Remember, Pip. The big one is mine, you take care of Theo and make sure he can't play support. If we end up with both on one of us, it's over,”

“I remember, Catherine. Let us instead focus on making it happen, yes?”

“Heh. Lets,”

“I will make the first move on Theo and try and move him away from his brother. You should try and attack Rudd after I do this,”

“Sounds good to me. Good luck,”

“And to you as well, Catherine,” Pip said, feeling more nervous than she looked. She made the first real movement of the match, approaching the two brothers, who themselves had stayed close enough together to support one another.

She avoided using knowledge from her time in the Land of the Gods, but the way the pair stayed together reminded her of the way the duelists she watched would gather. Close enough to support one another while far enough to avoid any group attacks. It was a simple strategy, but left Theo close enough to Rudd that he would be able to aid his older brother.

Of course, the truth would prove true for the reverse as well.

“Why do you skulk, peasant? Is your God not kind enough to give you the strength to face us?” Theo shouted to her. Pip, utilizing a gesture that had quickly become a favorite of hers, flipped her middle finger up at the boys and scowled at them. Rudd, in all of his glory, threw a small rock at his brother, and nodded his head in apology. Pip flashed what she hoped was a friendly smile at the boy, before she subtly extended her shadow to Theo.

Her shadow moved like a oil, undulating in a disgusting lurch. Forgoing her usual fluid grace for animalistic jerks. The psychological aspect was part of it, but only a part.

'Avoid the oil, Theo. I don't like the looks of it,” Rudd shouted to his brother without looking at him. If Theo needed to be told, Pip did not have high hopes for how this fight was going to go for the younger merchant. For his part, he did react quickly, moving elliptically toward his brother, keeping the distance from Pip's shadow while remaining close to his brother. It was a solid strategy.

If it had been her goal to slowly approach him, it may well have worked in his favor.

Rudd chose this moment to break up the tension. Marking the first use of an apostle by the brothers, he brought forth a small plate of gold from his hand. The gold slid from him like water on a too hot pan, beading on his skin and coalescing into a concave disc.

“watch closely, Theo. Maybe you'll learn something for a change,” and just like that Pip shuddered in her boots.

Rudd lifted the disc, reflecting the light off of it and onto her reaching shadow. A predatory smile chased his lips when he saw that her shadow didn't disappear.

“And that, Theo, is why we read up on our opponents,”

“Shut your mouth, Brother. That was luck, nothing more,”

“Of course it was Theo. It always is,”

Catherine slipped her shadow from the light and shot it like an arrow toward Theo. She ran alongside it, pushing her weak body for all that it was worth. She was fast enough to keep pace with the Chosen Theo, but not by much. Her Shadow, by contrast, was far faster than she would ever hope to be. It was nipping at the young merchant before Rudd had thought to stop gloating over his brother.

Leeching his shadow paled the boy a small part, and finally knocked his older brother out of his stupor, sending him running with speed that might even rival Catherine. Theo retreated as best he could toward his brother, but not before Pip finally made some headway toward him.

“Brother, it's- it's draining me!”

“I know, you idiot. I'm coming as fast as I damn can, you briny idiot!”

Catherine would hopefully cut him off before he could make good on that promise. Pip would just have to trust her in that. All she did was keep running at the younger boy, eventually closing in enough to send a strike at him. Her shadow was already gorged with his, and she used a small portion.

A sleek needle of darkness appeared in her waiting grasp, aimed perfectly for the gap in the boy's armor.

His skin bent.