Ajax didn’t know why the mana he was sensing felt so odd. It was clearly an affinity he hadn’t felt before but neither fighter had the time to chant anything, more than that however the mana wasn’t a rigid spell the way enchantments activated either.

“Seriously?” the king’s oldest son sounded a little shocked, he had figured out what was going on, Ajax wouldn’t have the time to put the pieces together before the reveal.

The leather belt that was securing the princess’s robes turned out not to be a belt at all. As the snake wriggled loose and launched itself towards the beastkin it started to grow mid leap, the original two foot long snake was visibly growing.

“She has a bond?” Lexi quickly put together why the officials hadn’t interfered.

“She has a sizing python?” Anna was a lot more composed but she hadn’t expected the surprise either.

To his credit the beastkin did well reacting to the bond joining the fight from such a close range, he had managed to dodge the bite by twisting his body out of the way. Unfortunately for him however the snake went from two feet long and the girth of a baseball bat to triple that in the space of the jump, making the follow up tail strike to the stomach break through the enchantments and knock the beastkin away.

“What the fuck is a sizing python?” Ajax asked, it was hard for him not to break the rules and use his inspection skill on the bond.

“An extremely rare creature.” Anna began to explain as the snake continued to grow at the princess’s feet. “Almost impossible to bond unless the bond is formed as the snake is born, not only that but they have a slow initial growth period for the first two years where they require high amounts of mana rich food.”

“They make up for it with a very quick increase in power during their adolescence.” the prince continued, not taking his eyes off the fight. “This one here is at about halfway mark, I’d guess a little lower than level seventy.”

“That must be why she wasn’t openly flaunting it.” Ajax thought aloud. “The snake by itself is very vulnerable to the other contestants.”

“That’s not the biggest reason.” Anna corrected him. “While sizing pythons do have great control over their mana their core is also very specialized. In exchange for that power the snake gives up on most of the innate benefits monsters gain from mana cores, like shoring up elemental weaknesses.”

The beastkin was already back on his feet and chanting but so was the princess, not only that but she had actually started chanting before him, with the quicker chant and the power of her domain it was looking like the match just swung in her favor.

“You mean her snake is affected by the winter domain?” Ajax asked as the princess unleashed a small avalanche that forced the beastkin to retreat further.

“Until she has better control over her domain, yes.” the prince answered.

“So what can that snake do besides grow?” Ajax asked as the snake was now fifty feet long and coiled defensively around the princess.

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“It can shrink.” The prince answered. “Hiding away as a belt was most likely as small as it can get.”

“When the snake grows it’s mana core focuses on reinforcing the body, making it a lot stronger and sturdier.” Anna continued the explanation. “When it shrinks the mana is mostly focused on empowering its venom.

From there the fight quickly shifted further and further into the princess’s favor as she used her spells power and quick chanting to slowly corner the beastkin until she landed a devastating ice lance to his liver ending the match.

The crowd went wild as the two fighters left the arena, the snake had shrunk down but only until it was ten feet long, it remained fully visible as it coiled around the princess as she returned to her seat in the stands.

Much as he wanted to ponder on those revelations Ajax pushed everything to the back of his mind as he started making his way down to the arena, he had his own fight now against a powerful rune mage.

As he stepped into the arena Ajax silently cursed as he saw the gladiator sandpit be the layout. As much as he didn’t want to stereotype people it was simply a fact that the dwarf was naturally inclined towards earth magic, so giving him access to sand without grass or trees on top of it was to his advantage.

“They look so odd facing off against each other.” The king’s oldest son couldn’t help but laugh as he looked at the two fighters. Ajax was two feet taller than the dwarf yet he was fully geared in leather, the dwarf on the other hand was bulked up in thick plate armor covered in runes.

As the starting stone hit the group the oddness of the match really showed. While Ajax was the hybrid fighter who would usually look to close up on a mage he simply took out his bow and began aiming. The dwarf on the other hand started pumping his short legs looking to close the distance.

“Why is he trying to get close to Ajax?” Xavier sounded surprised.

“Rune mages cast spells a lot faster than chanters.” the king’s oldest son replied. “If he closes the distance he will limit how much Ajax can weaken his spells.”

Ajax was very tempted to put an end to the fight early by firing a void mana infused arrow, Against such a heavy defense something like that would guarantee him a win but Ajax wanted to keep that up his sleeve for the finals. Not only that but a well placed Void arrow stood a good chance at actually killing the dwarf as he had no physical stats to endure the blow.

The first arrow Ajax shot bounced harmlessly against the wind shield the dwarf created. Ajax hadn’t even empowered his physical stats with [Mana Syphon] before shooting it. The moment the dwarf activated his wind wall however Ajax started draining it.

Looking to conserve as much mana as possible the dwarf lowered his wind wall as soon as the arrow stopped. What he didn’t expect was for the arrow he was stepping over to suddenly detonate, soaking him in water while also tripping him.

“Why would he bother with that?” Anna asked, confused.

“To make him mad.He wants him as enraged as possible so he won’t notice it coming.” Lexi answered. “That and water makes using lightning a lot easier.”

“Wait, he wants to do that?” the king turned shocked towards Lexi. He hadn’t expected Ajax would show off his magnetic mana discovery so publicly while using the dwarfs high quality metal armor in the process.

The second arrow Ajax shot bounced off the wind wall the same as his first. The dwarf however didn’t get a chance to prevent his earlier mistake as the arrow released a burst of water while it was still falling to the ground. This sent a wave of water directly through the slits in his helmet.

Much like Ajax had hoped the dwarf had gotten quite angry by this point after two attacks that on the surface seemed like nothing more than a joke. At last however he had managed to get close enough to Ajax that he could start using his runic weapons.

Unlike chanters a runic mage is actually a lot deadlier in close combat compared to at range. The runes inscribed on their swords, axes or hammers are fully specialized to increase the power of an attack with almost no control since the target is the point of impact.

“Oh no…” the king’s oldest son felt a little self conscious as he watched the dwarf pull out a rather large one handed hammer out of his spacial ring. He was reliving a memorable spar against Ajax where he had agreed to limit his power, he had a feeling the dwarf was about to do the same thing he had done.

As soon as the dwarf started the motion for his swing Ajax quickly withdrew his bow and arrow and focused on releasing two spells. While his spells were weaker they were just as fast as the runic ones which meant that his magnetic bolt and lightning bolt quickly made contact with the dwarf.

The dwarf hadn’t expected Ajax to free cast magic, the wind wall shield he brought up did almost nothing as the lightning and magnetic mana passed straight through and both hit his non-dominant arm.

The lightning bolt wasn’t all that strong, barely managing to cause a small jerk in half the dwarf’s body making him turn at an unnatural angle. That odd pivot added to the magnetic bolt that hit him however was enough to bring the hammer swing back into his own body. The impact launched the dwarf backwards as he felt the bone in his non dominant arm snap from the blow.