Liz stood there in the arena, a cocky grin on her face while Mark did a few stretches as the start timer counted down. As soon as it hit zero, Liz unloaded a barrage of mana bolts, which on the monitor were completely opaque showing that they had an extremely high mana density. Mark bobbed and weaved around them quickly closing the distance with Liz. The barrage was thick though and there was a bolt that he couldn’t dodge heading straight to his face. He unleashed blazing fast straight, punching the bolt. The bolt exploded on contact with him, sending him reeling back. He kicked off in a sprint this time, going even faster than last time as Liz continued to calmly unleash bolt after bolt of mana.
As Mike rushed forward the scene from before almost replayed itself, but this time instead of punching it, he let the bolt hit him. There was a loud crash as it crashed into him, but he recovered faster this time, rushing her again in half the time it took him before.
“What’s his strategy?” I asked in confusion. “At this rate, he’ll get worn down way before he gets close to her,” I noted. His face was bleeding already from that blow, if he took any more of those I don’t think this fight would end up very long.
Luther chuckled, “You’d think, wouldn’t you,” he said, eyes not leaving the screen. I waited for him to clarify but he just shot me a quick smile, not saying anything.
The battle repeated this for a few minutes. Liz, unleashing an impressive flurry of mana bolts that made it difficult to approach, showed an impressively deep supply of mana as well as a decent understanding of her strengths. Mark was significantly larger and had a longer reach when not considering mana bolts. If he managed to close the gap it would be dangerous for Liz. But she maintained perfect control of the distance, slowly circling the large area to prevent herself from being cornered while using her bolts to maintain space control.
“This is ridiculous,” Lex piped up.
“What do you mean?” I asked him, looking as his face soured.
“The amount of mana she has, it is utter insanity. I have a fairly large mana pool and would have been dry several minutes ago at the rate she’s firing.”
He wasn’t wrong, Liz was firing about a dozen bolts every ten seconds, and they were all high density too, holding far more mana than any of the ones shown in the other fights showcased so far.
I thought about how I could barely manage to shoot a puff of mana, and the feat only felt all the more impressive. When did Liz get so good? She was always good at mana manipulation, but this was something different.
Luther jumped in the conversation, “Yeah but she’s not the one eating those shots. Lex, remember when you fought her and one of those to the head had to on the bench for three weeks after the healing?”
Lex grimaced and didn’t respond.
I recalled that she had mentioned a kinetic affinity that increased the “weight” of her mana during our conversation with Martha. I realized what she meant when I looked at Mark. His body had a bunch of large, thick bruises where the bolts connected. His face was a bloodied mess, and I swear he wobbled on his feet a few times before suddenly sprinting at Liz again.
His relentless pursuit seemed to slowly be working, he was closing ground inch by inch. Liz was looking winded at this point, as each mana bolt was accompanied by a focusing movement that often helped with managing and directing the mana.
An odd feeling started forming in my stomach at this point, as besides the injuries, Mark was not slowing down.
“How is he still on his feet?” I asked.
Luther broke into a grin, “His inscription,” he said as if letting me in on a joke, “Fighting him is like being hunted by an untiring hunter, never seen him get tired, and takes a fuck ton to knock him on his ass.”
“How do you think Liz will win this?” I asked, drawing a blank myself. It sounded like she was trying to outlast a bottomless fountain which was a fool’s errand.
To my surprise he just shrugged, “No idea.”
Lex sighed as I looked in disbelief. “Didn’t you say you had Liz winning this?” I asked him and he just laughed.
“I love a good underdog.”
________________________________________________________________________
As the fight continued Liz began to flag. Her movements started getting sloppy, the rate of her bolts started to slow. Finally, Mark got within striking distance.
“She’s fucked,” Luther said, eyes glued to the screen.
As he said this, Mark let loose a straight which Liz tried to slip but it clipped her head. She stumbled, allowing Mark to catch her with a haymaker to her side, causing her to fall to the ground.
We could all see her struggling to get back on her feet but Mark wasn’t giving her the chance. He flew into a mount, creating an onslaught of blows. Liz balled up, using her arms to deal with a brutal combination of blows.
“I don’t see how she wins this," I said, dejected. Luther laughed at that, somewhat irritating me.
Lex looked on, his grimace lost. I sighed, watching Liz deal with the brutal beatdown. A few moments later though, Mark fell off of her, falling onto his arms looking dazed.
We all looked on in confusion.
“What was that?” Lex asked. Our table was quiet in our confusion, but the man at the center of the room barked out a laugh.
“That girl used a cute trick,” he said, pulling out a remote. The smaller display changed to a feed from a few moments ago. We all focused on it.
This feed is from another camera at a different angle. We could see from this angle that Liz shot a mana bolt… from her forearms?
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“Holy shit!” Luther said as he jumped out of his chair. We were all shocked. Most people shot mana bolts somewhere from their hand because it was simply easier. We don’t know why it’s easier, but learning to shoot them from somewhere else for the vast majority was extremely difficult. Excluding select scribed of course.
This led us all to the same question, “Where the hells did she learn that?” asked Lex as his face melted in astonishment. I immediately saw his brow furrowed in concentration, obviously trying to replicate the feat. He gave up quickly and all of us looked back at the screen, staring at the two who were both on the ground.
Mark both were trying to make their way onto their feet but Liz was faster. She was tired and badly beaten sure, but she didn’t just take a kinetically enhanced bolt to the chin.
Mark was on a knee by the time Liz managed to get on both her feet. He almost fell back down as he tried to push himself to his feet, stumbling in the process. He was likely concussed. One thing I knew about scribed battles is that being concussed is only something that ends it if you’re on your ass for more than thirty seconds. It only took about ten for Mark to get back on his feet, and with enhanced durability he’d likely be back on his feet in ten more, recovering enough to fight down the disorientation.
Unlucky for him, Liz didn’t give him ten more seconds. She took a deep breath as her hands were on her knees and then stood up and sprinted at him. At the same time, I saw the healer sprint to the door to enter the area. Mid-sprint she threw a bolt when Mark was in no condition to intercept and he ate it, getting knocked back on his ass. As the healer opened the arena door, Liz reached Mark’s fallen-over figure. Her leg cocked back something fierce and the entire crowd winced, realizing her intentions.
Liz’s leg blurred forward, kicking Mark’s head like a ball. His head recoiled, dragging the rest of his torso a few inches with it as the healer rushed to his side.
“Hells, that was fucked,” A girl sitting across the room shouted. No one was inclined to disagree, at least not out loud. But the judgment ended there. This was how people tended to fight around here. Tina aimed for an artery, Lex froze her mouth causing blistering and frostbite. It was the brutal nature of these types of fights, especially in this area.
Head injuries tended to be different, harder to heal, more likely to heal wrong. But individuals that had enhanced durability and the like often healed better than average. Harder to take down, more likely to get up. The math was simple, especially if you want the win.
What surprised me was how badly she must have wanted that win. Brutal wasn’t Liz's way of operating. Something about it threw me for a loop, it was something unknown about his best friend. Something a bit unsettling. A part of me wondered in amusement if this was how she felt about some of the vague awareness she had of what he did for Martha.
My musing came to an end as Liz walked out of the room, arguably the most intact person the two fights I saw had to offer.
She sat down next to me, her eyes unreadable.
“Whatcha think? ‘Bout the fight?” She asked between deep breaths.
“Well,” I said, “You kicked ass.”
She let a small smile out, “Never haven’t.”
“That was insanity, I didn’t think you actually had it in you,” Luther said with a wild grin on his face. I didn’t think she did either.
“Well you know how it is, gotta please the crowd, and a win streak is a good way to keep ‘em invested.”
Lex snorted, and Luther responded, “Yeah, the viewers are real bastards, the cruelty prolly got ‘em rock hard,” he said laughing.
“Viewers?” I asked confused.
“Yeah, that feed is streamed. We got a few hundred who tend to watch,” Liz said. “They tend to like watching and putting money up. Lots of foreigners too since they can gamble on our sites.”
“Ah,” I said in nondescript acknowledgment. I felt like a fish out of water with how little I knew about this. It made sense, the bills had to be paid somehow.
As we watched a few more fights Liz leaned against me, using her exhaustion as a guise for asking some questions.
“Whatchu think,” she said, voice quiet over the audio from the tv and those talking around us. Right now it was another mana artists’ fight.
“It’s… something,” I responded noncommittally.
“Not a fan I’m guessing,” she said back. “You’ve never been into violence for sport to be fair. Always a means to an end with you.”
I noticed the thinly veiled shot she took. It wasn’t mean-spirited but there was discontent layered in the comment.
I shrugged, “For me, it’s always been more of a tool and a skill than a hobby,” I said.
“Don’t you obsess over improvement?”
“Only for things I care to get good at. I’ve been good enough at violence,” I retorted. Well, at least when I had a weapon on me. “I’ve gotten by.”
Liz turned her head some more using my shoulder to suppress the sounds of her groaning. She repositioned again a moment later back to how she was before.
“You know things are gonna be different at the academy if—when you go there. The methods you use won’t be enough to get by and there are all sorts of rules about honorable combat and bullshit like that.”
“And that artful head kick you used earlier would count?” I joked. “Don’t worry, I’ll be okay, I’ve done some studying it.”
“Yeah, I know I just—” Liz started to talk before being interrupted.
“Whatcha talkin’ ‘bout?” Luther said, bringing a bit of attention to us.
“That head kick,” I responded quickly. Luther didn’t appear like terrible people but I wasn’t exactly keen on sharing the personal conversation we had with him. Or them for that matter
“Yeah, that shit was brutal. Why’d you do it? You tend not to like stuff like that.” He asked Liz, completely derailing any hopes of us finishing our conversation right now.
“Had a feeling he’d get back up and didn’t wanna lose. Simple as that really,” she said.
Luther had a massive grin on his face, “Victory really is intoxicating innit? You got me a pretty penny there too! I ‘ppreciate you,” Luther said.
He raised a plastic red cup with an indistinct liquid in it and said, “long live the empress, and long may she reign!” he cheered in mock reverence.
He didn’t seem like bad people but he did rub me the wrong way. Whatever.
“By the way, Trey right?” He started back up, “You want in on this? The bettin’ is almost as fun as the fighting, outta try at least one of' em out.”
I was about to decline but Liz spoke up for me, “That’s actually not that bad of an idea, we should have him do one of the last martial fights. Robinson still don’t got anyone right? Trey should fight him.”
Lex guffawed. “You want your boyfriend to get beaten black and blue? Robinson is a power-tripping asshole only saving grace is he has less skill in mana arts than most toddlers so is stuck with the basic shit.”
Who the hells was Robinson?
Liz laughed in good humor, “Trey will do fine against Robinson. Best case he wins, worst case his recently ballooning ego takes a decent hit.”
She sat up and punched my shoulder as I looked over at her in confusion. As we made eye contact I could tell she actually wanted me to fight this mystery Robinson. I could feel the eyes of the group on me. Everyone watching expectantly as a thin undercurrent of bloodlust that was being roused from the videos was stirred in a deeper way.
“Fine,” I said, then shouted to the host, “Hey! Put me up against Robinson!”
The host looked over a lackadaisical smile hanging from his face as several shouts and whoops came from the crowd in this room. Excitement bubbled in the room and a bunch of people looked at me. I saw a combination of shock, excitement, amusement, and… pity?
My gut flexed with a warning. I had a feeling this wasn’t going to go well.