“Um… Did the tower make a mistake?” Riva called to her companions.

“I don’t—“ Leone started to answer before turning to the knight. “Did it?”

“Lemaerk does not make mistakes,” he replied definitively.

It wasn’t just her companions who were bewildered by the situation. It was everyone in the arena. Even a few new faces that had manifested into the stadium seats. Riva had been selected for the next match, just as everyone had, and was delivered by Lemaerk into the center of the arena by a glowing, yellow aura. As she was, she and the rest of the crowd had seen a second bubble of golden light shine from across the stadium, before entering the fighting area just as she had.

The only difference between her, as well as everyone else, and the light in front of her was that no one seemed to be encased in it. When the lights dissolved, Riva was standing ready, yet no one seemed to be standing opposite her in the arena. It was odd. And no one could figure out why.

Azim overheard someone a few columns over mention something about magic detection and how there was no cloaking spell or anything similar in place. The fellow adventurer seemed to be keen on the more subtle uses of magic, and yet even they were not reading anything from the arena. The concept fascinated Azim. He thought about how he might be able to perform similar detections, both through the possible uses of his metal magic and practical developments to himself. The robot did not have much to his build; he was instead somewhat… simple. Though he could not remember much about his past, he was still able to ascertain that his model had been rather plain. A simple body with simple features, no weapons built in, and no extra abilities as far as the android could recall. The only thing somewhat impressive were his visual and auditory capabilities, which were able to pick up on sights and sounds notably far away, as well as isolate sounds or fixate on subtleties to “hear” things that were incredibly difficult to pick up. The metal man was not sure why this was such a prominent feature that such a simple robot had, but he assumed he would find out in time.

Riva was still staring up at her companions when a force smacked across her face. It wasn’t all that strong, only leaving her to stumble on one foot, but it was slimy. Really slimy. Putting a hand to her cheek, she felt some stickiness as she tried to pull away. Gross, she thought.

While the crowd around her was still blissfully unaware of what had just occurred, Riva was already starting to piece it together. Despite her lack of combat experience or confidence in taking on big threats, she recognized her smarts. She was likely the most intuitive among her companions, which, combined with her decent amount of knowledge of Irvana, made her more capable than people often gave her credit for.

Immediately, the woman started running to the side of the arena, perpendicular to her and where the force had come from. As she ran, she felt another sticky impact smack into the back of her hand. There was a tension to whatever had struck her, as if it was tied to something heavy and not letting her go. She tried to draw her arm back, pulling against the tension of whatever was stuck to her hand, but she could barely move it. She had a nervous yet determined look on her face. One that understood two outclassed she might have been in the situation yet was not petrified by the fact.

Soon enough, as the woman expected, she began to feel the tension get even tighter, pulling her arm towards another direction of the seemingly uninhabited arena. Holding out just a little longer, Riva crouched down and put her one free hand in the dirt, hoping to grip something for even just a bit of resistance. When she decided it was time, she stopped pulling against the force, clamped her hand shut, and let her body go limp. All at once, the woman flung towards nothing, being pulled by an invisible force stuck to her hand that no one on the floor could identify. No one… except Riva.

Considering there was nothing to see ahead of her, Riva had to test her gut on the timing. All of her efforts were banking on a hypothesis, however she anticipated that she was right. Despite being pulled and no longer having feet on the ground, the tension pulling the woman’s hand never gave up. Even though she got closer with each millisecond to what had snagged her, the elasticity of the mysterious force was not receding. Not yet, anyway, she asserted.

Not doubting her movements for even a second, the woman tucked her knees high into her torso. With her stuck hand open and her other hand clutched tight, she sprung her bent legs back out ahead of her. To her delight, they made contact with something besides the wall of the fighting area.

Her feet pressed into something squishy, something almost rubbery. Riva wore simple flats, the undersides of which were lined with thin slabs of marble. They were of her own design, and in this moment, she was especially proud of them. The shoes were durable enough to give her kicks a little extra punch but thin enough that her feet could still feel whatever was beneath them. In this case, her shoes had seemed to press into something large and impressionable.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Riva felt whatever was sticking to her hand detach as she landed back on the dirt floor. Her left hand still clamped shut from before, she opened it up and flung a clump of sand from the floor toward whatever she had made an impact with. To her delight once again, the dirt clung to something in front of her, slightly revealing what had attacked her.

Then came the full reveal. Her opponent dropped its camouflage and revealed itself, a seeming byproduct of the pain from Riva’s kick. “Ow!” a whiny voice groaned. “What the hell, lady?”

Standing before Riva, towering over the hunched woman, was a Lizardfolk.

Riva had never come across a lizardfolk before, though from what she had heard, they were somewhat similar to amphiomes. Recalling her enjoyable introduction with Filio back in Appilus, she had to admit… there were some similarities.

Lizardfolk tended to have an entirely scaly body, same for maybe a few patches, which emulated the slippery spots of an amphiome. Their skin also ranged from a variety of colors, just like amphiomes. This seemed to be where the familiarities stopped. Lizardfolk harbored thin, scaly tails and often had big, bug-like eyes. Such traits were relatively unique to the species.

The lizardfolk before the woman had a predominantly dark orange body, with faded yellow along his underbelly and similar places. The reptilian man, much to Riva’s surprise, was also noticeably fat. The lizardfolk was so obtuse that Riva’s kick had actually left had imprint in his belly, which was still slowly pushing out the impression. He wore large, black, baggy shorts and a matching vest, which barely stretched down past his pecs. The lizard wore no shoes, though that was likely the reason why he had gotten away with not leaving footprints. He was careful, clearly putting a lot of effort into his stealth, making sure no one detected his presence before he was ready. That was, until this brazen woman before him and catapulted into his stomach.

Riva took a couple steps back to distance herself from the opponent. Now that she could see him, and see how much taller he was than her, she felt more of a need to be cautious. “You gonna’ answer me?” the lizardfolk asked the woman. “What was all that?”

The textile seller did not appreciate the lizard man’s whiny tone. “The kick? You’re getting mad at me for defending myself?” she asked in return.

“What? No!” the reptile chided, holding his stomach. “I don’t give a damn about that. How’d you see me, I mean? How’d you know I was here, and how’d you know where to kick me?”

“Oh…” Riva giggled. “Well, that was rather easy.”

“What?!” whined the lizardfolk. “No, it wasn’t! Nobody else here knew who was in here with you. I overheard several guys in the crowd freak out because no magic was being used. And that’s true! I wasn’t using magic. So how the hell did you figure out anything?”

“Hun’, I really think you should calm down, you’re getting all worked up,” Riva addressed.

“Shut up, lady! Just answer the question!”

“I am not going to show respect to someone who does not show it to me. Doesn’t matter if you’re bigger or badder than I am. Even if you put my life in danger, you cannot demand respect from me.”

The reptilian man groaned loudly and shook his thick arms. “Fine then. I’ll just have to make you tell me,” he uttered.

“You’re not a very good listener, dear,” Riva commented back.

Before saying another word, the lizardfolk turned invisible once more. As far as Riva knew, it was not something every lizardfolk could do, but it was not all that rare either. A decent majority were capable of adjusting their skin cells to refract light and become invisible, just as many were able to cling to walls or shed their skin. “Good luck, lady,” the lizardfolk snarled. “Because you ain’t getting another lucky hit like that again.”

“Oh, I don’t think I’ll need luck, dear,” remarked the woman. “I’m sure I can land one more hit on you just fine.”

The tubby lizard folk bobbed around the woman, creeping closer and backing away, saying, “Oh yeah? And what about when you lose track of me?”

The woman calmly and politely replied that she did not see that happening, even despite the lizard’s camouflage. When he bothered to ask why, she made him aware of the fact he was covered in sand. Despite being invisible and tiptoeing all over the arena, Riva, as well as the rest of the audience, could see a floating array of sand swaying back and forth.

Flustered, the invisible lizard brushed all of the sand off his body, making quick work to regain his advantage. Soon enough, the sand was gone, and the crowd could no longer see any sign of the lizardfolk. The rotund reptile laughed with a sliminess to his voice. “And what are you gonna’ do now, lady?” he taunted. “All your precious sand is gone. So your tacky little tracking idea is gone now, too. You’re done!”

Riva had to admit that the man before her certainly unnerved her. He wasn’t overtly threatening by any means, but his demeanor was still a lot. He carried himself with an unnatural amount of confidence, almost to a point of self-obsession, Riva thought. The woman was honestly unsure of who was more capable of winning this fight. She, of course, was not the strongest of fighters, but it did not seem like the lizardfolk really was either. If anything, the stature he carried himself with was almost a facade. Riva held onto that idea, and decided to bank on it.

“Actually, hun’,” she began. “I think I’ll be just fine.”

“Oh my—“ the reptilian man sighed loudly, as if put off by the woman’s words. “And why is that? Huh? Your stupid sand is gone, and so am I! So hm? Why do you think you will be? Tell me.”

In spite of the fact that he could not be seen, the lizardfolk could not help but shiver for a moment at the fact that the woman in front of him was staring right into his eyes. “Because,” she uttered slowly. “I can still see you.”