Those few, however, did include two rather powerful individuals that Beth suspected held leadership roles within the gang. One of them was a tall and thin man that used a set of daggers to great effect, clearly boasting some kind of speed boosting skill such as Beth and Blood had. The second person of interest on the floor was a short, thickset man that used a set of heavy gloves with chains wrapped around them. It was interesting for Beth to fight another brawler-type, taking on the short man as Blood dealt with the dagger user, but it wasn't particularly challenging. She was already thanking her luck for getting Baelvyr as her trainer, as well as pushing herself so hard, as the man she was fighting seemed to only have Unarmed at the top end of Apprentice. She was able to slowly but surely overwhelm him with superior skill, leading to him making a poor attack when he was already out of position. Beth was still using a combination of sword and fist and leveraged the opening to apply her blade with a fully empowered swing to the criminal's neck, cleaving his head from his body.
The tall, thin man had been holding even with Blood to that point, or at least, he seemed to be. When he saw his companion suffer from sudden decapitation syndrome further down the hall, he immediately became enraged. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't at quite the advantage he thought he was, and his moment of distraction let Blood get his right arm in her jaws in a move that twisted it around behind him. She used her powerful Rending Bite to practically tear the arm off wholesale, after which the man's rage was nothing more than spitting into the wind, as Blood made short work of the heavily injured leader.
As often happens with such things, the mop-up took far longer than the actual assault and battle, though one of the reasons was that Beth and Blood seemed to have stumbled into the jackpot. The tall, thin man was the local leader of the Yellow Leaves, and the short, thickset brawler was his second. They had managed to figuratively and, in one case literally, decapitate the leadership of the gang in a single assault. It appeared they had been doubly lucky as well, as Beth found some notes indicating that the two, for security and continuity reasons, were never in the same hideout at the same time. It just so happened that today, of all days, was when they were scheduled to hold an important monthly meeting to discuss the gang's business, and they had decided at the last minute to meet in person.
The cleanup of the building was a long, tedious process that was made somewhat more bearable by the assistance of the four specialized guards. The three women and one man were greatly helpful in identifying the deceased gang members, as well as in moving around goods and items of interest Beth wanted transported back to the city hall. The documents and books were reviewed by her while Blood patrolled the area around the building, catching and killing a gang member who had returned to the hideout early in the night.
Once Beth had everything organized and ready for transport back to city hall, the stage ended. They had done enough to not just pass, but pass with flying colors, and they were awarded two entire levels worth of freely channeled experience for the success. The fighting of the gang members hadn't really provided much experience and even less money, considering the penalties applied to fighting other sapient beings in terms of money collected on a kill. The two levels were a nice bonus, and Beth really could go for a shower to cap it off, even with the blood and gore not carrying over when they left the stage.
Beth and Blood took care of the shower and having a good rest first before heading back out of their borrowed room and to one of the eateries. Once they had vanquished their hunger and slaked their thirst, they made their way back to the array room, eager to continue moving through the stages. That last had been stage ten, meaning they were now officially more than a third of the way through the stages, though Beth had a feeling the difficulty would start to really ramp here in the double digits. They informed the worker at the counter that they were ready for the next stage and wanted to keep it private, moving over to the array in the center and entering the next stage when a Warder gave them the signal.
When the brief moment of blinding sensory overload cause by the transition was finished, Beth found that they were standing within a familiar structure, an arena of impressive size. The stands were only lightly populated, and it seemed the field was set up for something other than a duel, as the standard dueling rectangle wasn't present on the floor. Beth and Blood didn't have long to wonder what was happened before an announcer started with the typical pre-fight hype sequence.
"Ladies, Gentlemen, and Others! May I present to you today, a fantastic feat of valor and courage. Muscle and Brawn! Skill and Ability!" his voice boomed out across the partially full stands and arena floor, drawing a lukewarm cheer. "Today, we have our inestimable challenger! On the blue side! A member of the CRA and a competitor in our Challenge Hall! Elizabeth "Beth" Bell!"
After a few more lukewarm cheers, the announcer continued, explaining what was on the agenda for today, and apparently what the stage would be. "Today, in the red corner, we have prepared a series of challenges to thrill and excite you! We will be introducing a series of ever more powerful beasts to the arena to push our challenger to the limit! Watch with bated breath as she battles opponents the likes of which you have never seen! But what's a challenge without a little difficulty? Every time a beast is released, she will have but a limited time to defeat it! If the time runs out, then next beast will be released into the fray anyway! How long can our daring and determined heroine drag out this dastardly debacle?!"
After the speech, and a spattering of applause, the announcer signaled to Beth, saying, "Our brave competitor! Are you ready for a thrilling challenge?!"
When Beth bowed and shouted "Ready!" in response, the announcer called the start of the matches. As soon as his shouted start command was done, an massive grate drew up near-silently on the far side of the arena floor. As soon as it was a little over halfway raised, a massive goblin charged out from within. It was clearly a goblin, and Beth identified it as such:
Level 76 Goblin Savage
But there was something certainly off about it. It was far taller and uglier than any goblin she had encountered so far, with muscles and even flesh that bulged grotesquely, and a crooked gait that was likely due to its misshapen legs. Even so, it still closed the distance to her in a flash, arriving in front of Beth and trying to swat her into meat paste with a huge, distended left hand. Blood had taken off and circled the beast as soon as it emerged and charged, getting its back quite quickly. Beth easily dodged the swat, sliding to the side and returning the attack with one of her own, drawing her sword and cutting across the beast's arm. It left a shallow wound on the outside of the arm, which the goblin entirely ignored as it flailed at her.
The great part of this enemy was its low level of speed and agility, relying on its high STR stat and mindless aggression to beat down anything in front of it. Beth and Blood had quite some experience fighting this type of enemy, and they made rather short work of chopping it apart. Blood focused on the legs while Beth focused on the arms. The only difficult part was the bloated, bulbous flesh of the grotesque goblin made cutting through to the actual tendons and joints rather difficult. That still didn't slow them down very much, with Beth disabling both arms in the time that Blood managed to take a leg entirely out of commission. From there, it was just cleanup, as they basically tore the opponent apart entirely.
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"And let's hear it for our challenger!" the announcer called out. "She beat that overgrown and overblown goblin in near-record time! That means she has plenty of time to wait before the next opponent is released. Those of you in the stands today, please make sure to purchase refreshments from the vendors as you wait for the next round!"
Beth had a very good idea of what they were dealing with at this point; a boss rush. They would be facing increasingly powerful individual enemies over time, and the announcer had already said that there was a certain amount of time for each fight and an overrun would cause the next boss to be released. She and Blood relaxed and meditated while they waited for the next round to start, assuming that they would have a decent bit of time based on what the announcer had said.
It was nearly twenty minutes when the opposing gate was raised, giving Beth and Blood a pretty good idea of just how much time they would have for each round; that being roughly twenty-five minutes. The next beast that lumbered out from the gates was a massive troll, with legs each like an old oak tree and a huge gut, heavy in fat. The beast was another of a type, massive and slow, but with great power in its every movement. It followed much the same pattern as the first boss, tearing across the arena towards Beth as soon as it could fit out of the gate, its heavy and lumbering steps pounding away at the stone of the arena floor, a deep drumbeat that reverberated through the air.
Beth and Blood fought as they had against the first opponent, aiming for the limbs first and foremost. This was slightly more difficult against the troll, as it was a bit quicker than the goblin, as well as possessing the famed regeneration that trolls were so well-known for throughout the universe. It wasn't to the point that the troll instantly healed from any damage they managed to deal it, but the two girls could definitely see the wounds they dealt closing as the fight dragged on. Given time and levels, such an ability would be able to counter a lot of their damage, assuming they didn't get better skills and higher skill levels, but for now it was merely an inconvenience.
The regenerative factor made the fight take a bit longer than it otherwise might have, but it was still just under a five minute fight to bring the troll down. They rested until the next fight was starting, Beth noting that the stands were actually slightly more full than what they were at the start. It looked like their winning would, over time, attract a bigger crowd to watch what they were doing in the gauntlet.
The gate glided open with nothing but a slight clang soon enough, the darkness of the hallway beyond hiding the next opponent until it was out on the sand and stone of the arena with them. Beth quickly identified the next beast as it lumbered out of the gateway, noting the trend of strength over speed continued.
Level 77 Ogier Brute
This beast was a massive slab of muscle and fat, slowly lumbering towards Beth with a heavy plod that slapped against the stone with a meaty *THUD* every couple seconds. Beth and Blood circled up and started slashing again, working on doing as much damage as they could. The problem they encountered with this beast was its tough hide, thick as Beth's fist and like it was made of some kind of treated rubber, absorbing and deflecting blows. Beth again suspected that these fights were a form of training as well, as what the attendant had told her when she asked about it being a trial to give advantages to elites had clued her on to that connection.
The heavy and thick skin of the ogier coupled with its tough, resistant flesh made cutting it down something of a chore. The only good point was that it was clearly slower than even the strangely mutated goblin, everything focused on power over speed. It could swing its limbs quite quickly, for certain, but it simply lacked the finesse to deliver anything more than broad, well-telegraphed attacks. Beth was able to duck under, slide around, or bob back from every attack thrown, easily staying out of danger for the entire duration of the fight.
The tough hide and thick flesh only made it take a little longer than the previous fights, Beth finishing the ogier off with a fast dodge and perfectly timed stab, right through the mouth of the beast, splitting its palate and skewering its brain. She withdrew her sword with a quick movement, kicking the massive body off of it to tumble to the sandy arena floor. She flicked the blood off the blade as she returned to "her" side of the arena with Blood, watching as the huge corpse disappeared, some kind of cleanup function of the arena taking care of it.
Beth sat and relaxed, waiting for what would come next, recharging the bit of mana she'd used so far. Blood had used almost no mana and paced behind her, waiting for the gates to slide open once again and for more blood to be spilled on the sand. It really wasn't much time before the gate rolled up again with just a mild creak, allowing the next lumbering opponent out. Beth stood and identified the beast as it lumbered forward, Blood moving to circle around behind.
Level 78 Kobold Hulk
Beth's face lit up in a feral grin, recognizing an old and well-worn foe. The kobold had a massive club, looking more like an old tree that it had ripped out of the ground, roots and all, and it broke into a staggering run as soon as it sighted her. This was a familiar dance, and Beth and Blood knew all the steps, all the motions, and all the moves they needed to execute to kill the enemy with certainty.
The fight proceeded just as Beth knew it would, with her able to deflect or even entirely block swings from the kobold with her blade. Her STR had breached the two hundred mark at this point, and it allowed her to stand toe-to-toe with boss-level beasts, even if a few of the hits she had to parry instead of block because of their power. She was able to heavily injure the kobold's arm within two minutes of the start of the fight, something that added fuel to the fire of its rage, but Beth held off on activating her own fire for now. She knew that that would start the final stage of the fight, whether they were ready for it or not, and she wanted to make sure the kobold was well and thoroughly injured before enraging it.
Taking down this kobold turned out to be slightly easier than what Beth and Blood were used to, considering it had no elemental alignment, unlike the frost kobolds they were used to. Its flesh wasn't quite as tough and resistant as what they typically had to cut through considering the lack of the frost affinity they were used to dealing with, which made destroying its limbs all the easier. Once they had sufficiently damaged its limbs to the point where it had trouble moving and attacking, it was really a foregone conclusion. The levels of the bosses were increasing slowly, and that was the one thing that was really countering their damage output, as even one level for such a strong opponent greatly increased the tenacity of the beasts.
The kobold was tough, dealing out heavy strikes even as it limped about crippled, but it simply couldn't keep up. Beth timed a beautiful, empowered sword swing to its left elbow, removing the arm below the joint with a meaty, grinding crunching noise. It was all over after that, as the beast could barely hold its crude club, Blood latching onto its leg to take it down and render it fully immobile. Beth then dealt the death blow, using only a little mana for a more technically precise Monstrous Blow to decapitate the beast. She was a little surprised as the creature's blueish blood flew through the air to hear the roar of the crowd, its size and interest having swollen during the course of their performance. She took a minute to acknowledge them after flicking her blade mostly clean of beast blood, holding it high before giving a bow.
They had just enough time for a little rest, meditating to stay focused and top up their mana before the grate slid up yet again. Whereas Beth grinned viciously at the last opponent, she very nearly laughed at this one, but didn't quite want to try to turn that into a little act for the crowd at this point, just managing to suppress it. The next opponent they had to face was one she was all too familiar with, and all too good at utterly destroying.
Level 78 Golem Thug
She had no idea how a golem could be a thug, but she had to say she could see it a little bit. This beast was brutish and blockish, standing at about seven feet tall and nearly that much wide, it appeared to have been carved from a heap of old granite, the creator not even taking the time to roughly square the edges. It's lumbering gait was slightly uneven, and Beth could swear one arm was several inches longer than the other, squinting her eyes to try to determine if the slightly different color indicated it was made of slightly different stone or just a trick of the light.
She dismissed her idle musings as the beast closed with her, ready to fight this fight the good old fashioned way; with her fists. She was in her element here and, even though the golem was quite tough and resilient, her new Silver-rank Crush was more than up to the task. The only concern she had was mana conservation, as she didn't really have any idea just how long this challenge was supposed to go for. She wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea of exhausting herself at fight five if there were a hundred fights, so she was trying to be a little sparing with her mana.
Even so, the fight was still a breeze, with Beth entirely demolishing the golem in under three minutes. Blood was still not great against armored opponents, but her somewhat high level Rending Bite was able to dish out some damage. It was hardly necessary as Beth pounded the big lump of stone into just as big a pile of gravel, taking a bit of perverse delight in the utter destruction of such opponents. As a nice bonus, once the golem was rubble they received their first level of the boss rush stage, which Beth was quite happy with considering they had been fresh level seventy-fours just a few hours ago.