As instructed, Samantha took her place in the wide circle of dirt across from Eileen. She set down her backpack behind Silas and opened it in preparation to access the contents. Then, she leaned over and gave her bond an encouraging pat on the head while doing a final check that everything was in order. Though she had gone over the contents of his vest near-obsessively this morning already, one more check never hurt.
Samantha looked up briefly and scanned the skies for any sign of the Sungleam Eagle, but didn’t see anything. She suspected that it would show itself at the least opportune time.
“Let me know as soon as you sense anything, and I’ll come back to defend you.” Samantha promised.
“Yes.” Silas agreed. “Let us show them who the prey really is.”
Though his words were steady, Samantha felt his nervousness getting the better of him. Perhaps the prospect of facing a natural predator in this exposed environment was kicking his survival instincts into a frenzy.
“I won’t let anything happen to you.” she assured, “Even if we lose. I’ll keep you safe.”
“Thanks, Samantha.” Silas replied, his anxiety settling some.
The Adjudicator began counting down from 10, and Samantha readied her weapon and took in her opponent’s appearance. Eileen was dressed in gray colored battle robes. The robes appeared to be a light cloth armor with hardened leather panels in the most critical areas. As Samantha had expected, Eileen chose to fight with a straight sword and shield.
Hoping to get a bit of an edge before the countdown finished, Samantha spent one of her 29 qi points on [Inspect]. Unfortunately, Eileen had some sort of defensive art or technique already in place, because [Inspect] seemed to glide right off of the woman. It was an unusual sensation that Samantha hadn’t encountered before.
[Inspect] has been countered by [Unknown Art]! Target notified of the attempt.
Eileen smirked as her eyes darted briefly to the side to read the unseen notification. She pressed her killing intent outwards in an attempt to throw Samantha off balance, but Samantha kept her focus sharp by leveraging the tranquility gained through [Sage’s Rumination]. For good measure, Samantha returned her own blast of killing intent towards her opponent.
“...1 …Fight!” the Adjudicator finished counting down.
Rather than jump forward into unknown danger, both women circled and tried to feel each other out at first. Samantha doubted trying to use [Inspect] would work even with more qi dumped into it, so she did her best to rely on her mind meridian instead.
Eileen’s gait was steady without any obvious favoritism for one leg or the other. She kept her center of gravity low and balanced, ready to react to any sudden movement from Samantha. She held the sword in her right hand and a round wooden shield bound with metal in her left, the grip on her weapons relaxed, but not loose. Every movement seemed simultaneously precise and graceful as Eileen looked over Samantha as well.
Deciding to prod Eileen with an attack to get a feeling for her reaction time, Samantha put one point into [Swift] to close the distance and stabbed forward with her spear. Eileen effortlessly parried the blow with her shield, then shot forward with lightning quick reflexes.
Samantha was caught off guard by the speed Eileen possessed. She was faster than Thomas, which was concerning because all of the reports that Samantha had seen suggested that Eileen was a well-balanced fighter. If all of Eileen’s attributes were this high Samantha might be in trouble, but she couldn’t linger on the thought.
Samantha jumped backwards to try and gain back the decreasing space between them but struggled to outpace the more experienced woman. Eileen slashed forward in a sharp crescent with her straight sword that Samantha was barely able to deflect with the shaft of her spear. The heavy blow was powerful enough to knock her spear far out of position, and Eileen took advantage of the opening. Eileen whipped her sword into reverse with a backswing that grazed Samantha’s armored torso, scoring it with a clean line across her chest.
Fortunately, the Steel Boar leather held up against the blow. Eileen seemed momentarily surprised that Samantha wasn’t bleeding, but quickly recovered and continued the onslaught.
Samantha tried to strike out with the butt end of her spear as she pulled the weapon back into position, but Eileen’s shield predictably got in her way. Eileen wouldn’t give her any breathing room to strike with the spearhead or attached counterweight, and the constant dodging Samantha needed to achieve in order to avoid a fight-ending blow left her unable to set up the proper footing for a kick. She kept trickling qi into [Swift] as the seconds ticked by just to keep up with the relentless woman.
*Thump*
Eileen finally backed off from her assault as Silas landed a clean hit to her right leg and caused her to stumble. Concerningly, she looked more miffed at the interruption than injured. Eileen whipped her sword towards the falling Jackalope and caught him across the back as he twisted his body through the air. The leather from his vest helped to lessen the depth of the cut somewhat, but it was not nearly the same quality of protection as Samantha’s own armor.
Laceration has activated [As One]. Moderate damage to back (Silas) has been transformed into minor damage for Silas and Samantha.
Samantha used this disruption to reset her spear position and take stock of her condition. After this opening salvo of blows she was already down to 24 qi and was bleeding from several small nicks. At Samantha’s request, Silas dipped into his vest’s healing supplies and consumed a bundle of healing herbs before resuming his attack.
Now that Samantha was not fighting on the back foot and Silas was helping to occupy Eileen’s attention, Samantha began her own barrage of attacks. She didn’t aim for strong, damaging thrusts. Rather, she opted for quick strikes at odd angles as she twisted her spear in unexpected ways. This minimized the opportunity for Eileen to knock her spear off course again and close the distance once more.
Thanks to the threat of Silas throwing Eileen off balance during a critical moment, Eileen’s attention was split. As a result, a tense stalemate ensued and neither woman made much progress at markedly wounding the other. What injuries Samantha did manage to land–though not intended to be severe wounds–did even less damage than she was expecting. Her spearhead had difficulty penetrating the exquisite material of the battle robes. Even when Samantha managed to cut through the armor, the tip of her blade seemed to only cause superficial wounds as it glided off of Eileen’s skin. Samantha inwardly cursed at what appeared to be some sort of body-hardening art thwarting her efforts.
A sudden chill of terror made her hair stand on end as Silas sensed something approach from above.
“It’s here! It’s here!” Silas screamed into her mind.
The Jackalope tore away from the pair of women as it juked and dodged in wild patterns across the open ground back towards where Samantha had placed the backpack at the beginning of the fight. Trusting Silas’s judgment completely, Samantha committed to the riskiest part of their battle strategy.
Going into this fight, Samantha knew that winning was impossible if they needed to take on Eileen and her Sungleam Eagle simultaneously. Eileen was too experienced and had been at High Copper long enough where the stat differences between them would be nearly insurmountable. The only chance she stood was fighting against Eileen alone alongside Silas. This meant her first priority was getting rid of the bird no matter how much qi it would cost her.
Samantha dumped 10 points of qi into [Swift], bringing her qi pool down to 14 and her Agility up to 21. The last time she had raised her Agility this high in a fight she had torn her body apart every time she moved. Now though, after increasing in rank and having her aptitude for Agility raised, that outcome wasn’t a concern. Admittedly, there was a tearing sensation as Samantha flew across the arena like a speeding arrow–but it wasn’t her flesh. As [Swift] gave her more traction and allowed for nearly all of her acceleration to be preserved, the sudden shift in speed and direction caused her shoes to explode off of her feet. It was a good thing she had been doing so much training barefoot.
Time seemed to slow as she gained on–then passed–a fleeing Silas on her way to the open backpack. She came to a stop, dropped her spear, and grabbed hold of the precious item inside with both hands. With [Prey’s Awareness] she noted a diving eagle plummeting on a direct collision course towards her companion, mere moments away from impact.
“Now, Silas!” Samantha commanded, and it was only due to Silas’s unwavering trust in her that he immediately ceased all movement. He stood stock still as the predator descended, fighting every instinct that told him he was about to die.
Samantha initiated the active effect of [Prey’s Awareness], causing her sphere of dominion to blast out around her in a 15 foot radius. Like her experience in the Lattice, she saw everything. Eileen was charging at her at a full sprint with her shield held forward like a battering ram. The shield glowed yellow with qi, making it obvious that this attack was backed by some manner of combat art. The Eagle was at the edge of her perception, but descending at a predictable angle as its wings extended to exit the dive and scoop up her spirit bond with outstretched talons. Silas, unable to completely fight off his survival instincts, had begun growing the largest set of antlers Samantha had seen from him thus far in an attempt to defend his cowering body.
Unlike her experience in the Lattice, the enhanced processing power from her open mind meridian protected her from fatal damage from mental overload. This wasn’t to say she could use this ability without cost, though. A notification appeared as a small pressure began building behind her eyes.
Mental Overload has activated [As One]. Minor damage to brain (Samantha) has been transformed into negligible damage for Silas and Samantha.
Intrinsically, she knew that the pressure would continue to build and worsen the longer or more frequently she used this ability without proper rest in-between. She likely wouldn’t be able to leverage this skill again during this fight without significant damage to herself.
Samantha pulled the heavily weighted net out of the backpack and began twisting her body from right to left into a throw. The pressure built further.
Mental Overload has activated [As One]. Moderate damage to brain (Samantha) has been transformed into minor damage for Silas and Samantha.
Samantha calculated the trajectory of the bird, predicted how the net would fly through the air once she released it, and launched it forward with all the strength she could muster.
Mental Overload has activated [As One]. Serious damage to brain (Samantha) has been transformed into moderate damage for Silas and Samantha.
She knew as soon as she let go that the throw would be a successful one. She didn’t have the time to celebrate though. As she had been throwing, she had also been tracking Eileen’s charge. Samantha knew that as soon as she deactivated her art, Eileen would slam right into her with bone-breaking force. Already in the process of twisting her body from how she launched the net–and with the last moments of her absurdly high Agility–Samantha planted her left foot as a pivot point and brought her right leg into form for the perfect kick.
Samantha had ordered a commission from her parent’s shop earlier that week, and it had come in just in time for the fight as she had hoped. Since she had not sourced any of the materials herself the armor piece was pricier than she would’ve liked, but it was worth the cost. A set of sturdy metal plates inserted into her shin guards reinforced her bones as she activated a skill that would double her kick speed and increase her kick damage by half: [Flurry].
With an effective 42 Agility behind her kick, Samantha returned [Prey’s Awareness] to its passive state and prayed that her leg wouldn’t be ripped from her body.
Eileen was practically on top of Samantha now, but her kick moved with such speed that it was nearly invisible. Eileen’s eyes didn’t even have time to widen in shock as Samantha’s metal sheathed shin collided with the outside edge of the shield and ripped it out of her grip. Eileen’s left arm was jerked across her body with such force that it shifted her approach from a straight line to a twisted tumble as the two women crashed together and were flung in opposite directions.
Crushing has activated [As One]. Moderate damage to right leg (Samantha) has been transformed into minor damage for Silas and Samantha.
Samantha’s shin guard bent painfully inwards from the force of her kick–its purpose faithfully served. As she moved to recover from her fallen position and remove the spent armor, she noted that one of the Bronze cultivators in the front row had jumped to catch the deadly projectile before it could harm anyone behind him. The shield–if the crumpled mass of wood shards and metal could even be called that at this point–was completely ruined. The man held the caught trophy in the air with both hands and cheered heartily, his fellows around him getting caught up in the excitement and cheering as well.
Laceration has activated [As One]. Moderate damage to foreleg (Silas) has been transformed into minor damage for Silas and Samantha.
Samantha worked frantically to unlatch the stuck armor as she kept an eye on both Eileen’s and Silas’s progress in the fight.
Silas was harrying the Sungleam Eagle with his antlers as the bird struggled to free itself of the heavy, twisted cords of the netting. The more it struggled, the more tangled the net became, but that didn’t mean that it was helpless. Even restrained, the Sungleam Eagle strived to bite and claw at the Jackalope that dared to fight back against it, but it was obvious that it wouldn’t be enough. As long as Eileen did not interfere, the result of the spirit beast’s struggle was a foregone conclusion.
“No!” Eileen cried in outrage, rushing to defend her bonded beast. Samantha finished ripping off the dented shin guard and moved to intercept.
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Because Samantha had tossed down her spear to throw the net, and Eileen lost hold of her sword in her recent headlong tumble, both women were now unarmed. As a result, what followed next was a knock down, drag out brawl between the two humans.
Samantha did everything she could to delay Eileen or cause her to lose ground. With her bond’s life potentially on the line, Samantha did not discount any strategy she could leverage. She bit, clawed, struck at vulnerable areas like the face and throat, and at one point even grappled her thrashing opponent to the ground. She endured a true pummeling as Eileen didn’t seem to be focusing on defeating her, but instead was solely focused on moving past Samantha towards the fighting spirit beasts. Only Silas’s continued consumption of healing pills and herbs kept her aloft as she was struck again and again by Eileen’s iron-like fists.
Again, it was impressed upon Samantha just how much more powerful Eileen was than herself at a baseline. Despite her best efforts, Samantha was being completely overpowered while doing minimal damage in return. Just as she was beginning to lose hope that she could gain Silas enough time, a resounding crack followed by a pained screech resonated through the arena.
Silas had managed to latch on to one of the Eagle’s flailing wings with his sharp teeth and crunched down, shattering the bones within. The bird cried out in pain, unleashing blasts of sonic energy desperately in every direction as it sought to throw off the Jackalope.
Just as Silas was going to go for the other wing, Eileen cried out, “Stop! Enough! My bond is bested. Let him retire from the fight and I will continue alone.” She had tears running down her cheeks, her love for her companion obvious.
Samantha empathized with the woman, thinking about how she would feel if Silas was in a similar position.
“Stop, Silas!” Samantha audibly called, rather than using their bond alone to communicate. “The eagle is out of the fight. Let someone come to take him away.” Silas looked up at her and hopped back, immediately consuming more healing pills and herbs as they waited.
As a Coliseum employee carried the bird away, Samantha saw what a sad state everyone (except Eileen) was in. The Eagle was bloodied with an obviously twisted wing. Silas’s antlers were twisted up in the net along with the bird, meaning that every time the eagle struggled it risked being punctured by one of the points. Samantha could see the antlers dissolving into light as previously plugged wounds in the bird began oozing crimson blood. Silas and herself were even more bloodied than the bird. At some point during her inadvertent beatdown, she had resorted to suppressing the unceasing damage notifications as the sheer volume was distracting. Samantha discretely activated [Flawless Regeneration] to get herself back into fighting condition during the brief respite they had found.
Both women retrieved their discarded weapons as Holt approached them, Eileen now without a shield.
“Since both parties have ceased combat, would one like to take this opportunity to surrender to the other? Or will you continue to fight?” the Adjudicator asked, his brush poised to write their responses into his report.
Looking to stall for a little more time to heal, Samantha spoke up first, “Adjudicator Holt, for me, this is a matter of life and death. Even if I were to waver in my resolve and submit to Eileen, that would spare me no suffering. My honor, along with my life, would be as good as forfeit. I will continue until the very end.”
The Adjudicator nodded as he wrote something down on a form, “And you, miss Braxand?”
Eileen first looked in the direction that her spirit bond had been taken, then up to the area where the brothers were seated, and lastly to Master Braxand. Her gaze lingered on the old man as if asking him a question, but if he answered her, Samantha did not notice it. He only looked back at her with an easygoing smile that Samantha couldn’t help but feel belied something more sinister beneath.
“I… I will continue to the end as well, sir Adjudicator.” Eileen responded simply.
“Very well. Please take up your original positions and I shall count you in again.” Holt instructed, walking a safe distance away before beginning his countdown.
Samantha and Silas were far from peak condition, but the four points she had put into [Flawless Regeneration] had helped immensely. With 10 points left in her qi pool, she still had some wiggle room as to how she could approach the rest of the battle. She wasn’t exactly confident that she would win, but she knew that she at least stood a chance now.
Samantha looked across the arena at her opponent, trying to pick apart what Eileen’s strategy would be now. In terms of a purely martial victory, the odds were leaning more in Samantha’s favor at this stage. Eileen was outnumbered, and with Silas’s help to split her attention, Samantha felt they could outlast her qi pool until her defensive arts couldn’t prop her up anymore. If Eileen tried to close the distance like before without her shield, Samantha could make her pay more dearly for each attempt to get inside her spear’s attack range.
The question was if Eileen would maintain the same style of combat. Samantha could already see Eileen switching to a two-handed sword stance. While she wasn’t familiar with this particular form, in general, two-handed weapon styles were much more aggressive than sword-and-shield ones. As Samantha was contemplating her options, the countdown ended.
“...Begin!” Holt called.
Eileen’s sword glowed with ominous blue energy that felt inexplicably sharp to even look at. She performed a horizontal slash through the air that sent an arc of slicing force Samantha’s way, then followed after the rapidly approaching projectile at a sprint.
Not wanting to be caught vulnerable in the air after a dodging jump, Samantha put 1 qi point into [Swift] to give her the boost of speed needed to duck the qi slash before it reached her.
“Do everything you can to slow her down!” she told Silas mentally, and received an affirmative in response.
Like towards the beginning of the fight, Silas thumped Eileen on the right leg as she came into range. Eileen hardly registered the blow this time though, continuing to barrel forward like an unstoppable tide. Samantha pierced forward at center mass with the expectation that Eileen would shift her stride to dodge, thus halting her intimidating momentum somewhat.
This is not what happened.
Trusting in the strength of her defensive art and reinforced armor panels to protect her from grievous injury, Eileen ran straight into the spear as if she had no regard for her own life, only twisting her body slightly to avoid being completely skewered. She moved just enough so that the spear tip impacted with a hardened section of the robe near her ribs, but did not slow down or flinch at the resulting injury. While Samantha’s spear tip first met stiff resistance when it clashed with Eileen’s armor, it inevitably punched through and pierced into Eileen’s left side. The defensive art did what it could to negate the damage, but a spray of bright crimson burst out of the woman as the spear gouged a chunk out from her ribs.
Silas was still doing his best to hinder the woman’s progress as Samantha had requested, but Eileen was ignoring him entirely. Despite latching onto her left leg with his sharp incisors, continuously kicking out at her with his claws, and yanking with all the force his body could muster, Eileen didn’t do more than wince at his attacks.
As Eileen’s still-glowing sword came down in an overhead chop with dangerous precision towards her right shoulder, Samantha could only manage to lift up the shaft of her spear to intersect it. Samantha knew that if she did not redirect the energy of the sword at least somewhat it would likely bisect her weapon and still cut her deeply. So, she made the split second decision to sacrifice something else.
As the maneuver required inhuman timing, Samantha utilized her sphere of dominion. Time seemed to slow as she took in every minute detail within a 15 foot radius of herself. Just as the sword touched her spear shaft and began to cut through, Samantha twisted her spear to the side and at a downward angle. This deflected the sword so it now traveled parallel down the shaft and towards her hands.
Mental Overload has activated [As One]. Serious damage to brain (Samantha) has been transformed into moderate damage for Silas and Samantha.
Samantha felt her nose start to bleed as she deactivated the sphere and continued following through with the twist. Samantha intended to push the sword enough so that it missed her hands, but Eileen’s speed and strength was overwhelming. She was only partially successful as the pointer and middle fingers on her left hand were severed from her body.
Laceration has activated [As One]. Serious damage to left hand (Samantha) has been transformed into moderate damage for Silas and Samantha.
The adrenaline from the fight combined with the incredible sharpness of Eileen’s weapon and combat art made it so that Samantha didn’t feel any pain from the clean severance of her digits, but it was difficult not to feel sick as she saw her fingers fly through air. There was one small upside though. Eileen had fully committed to this charge, and with Samantha’s unexpected success at deflection, Eileen’s sword was out of alignment with her stance.
Samantha was put in a tight spot by Eileen’s reckless advance. She hadn’t predicted that Eileen would rely on her higher Resilience to ignore injuries to try and take down Samantha as quickly as possible. This strategy essentially made it impossible for Samantha to try and wear Eileen down while Silas split her attention.
After quickly running through several possible outcomes with her mind meridian, she came to one conclusion. Her only choice at this point–if she didn’t want to be cut to ribbons while Eileen forced her to run–was to entangle the woman with her spear to stop her from getting in any full-force swings. Samantha just needed Eileen to pause for a fraction of a second so that she could set her feet properly. One half step back, one stumble, and Samantha could launch a counterattack.
Following through on the thought, Samantha drew her spear up in a diagonal line across her chest and pushed into Eileen’s arms to pin them down. She leaned her entire body into the push as Eileen continued pressing her backwards, fighting to disengage the sword and her arms from Samantha’s close proximity.
“Put everything you have into it! This is going to get ugly.” Samantha warned Silas. Silas redoubled his efforts, struggling against the High Copper woman as he was dragged behind her in the dirt. Samantha pitched in as well, crying out in defiance as she gathered her frustrations and pain into a single, powerful, push.
The cheers of the audience was deafening.
Eileen, seeing that her forward rush was stalling out, jumped a half step back and began to raise up her sword for another powerful chop. It was enough.
Before Eileen had the chance to complete the attack, Samantha set her feet, used her right foot as a pivot, and dumped 1 qi per second into [Swift]. Then, she activated [Flurry].
Her left shin–still reinforced with a plate of metal–crashed into Eileen’s right outer thigh with the power of a blacksmith’s hammer. Three more heavy kicks landed their mark before the first second ticked over, and the shin guard sang like a struck gong with every impact. Eileen’s leg buckled slightly, and she backed off in an attempt to reset her unsteady stance, but Samantha pressed the advantage. This time acting as the unrelenting aggressor, she closed the gap once more and thrust her spear shaft towards Eileen’s face.
Eileen caught the shaft against her forearms to protect her face, but that suited Samantha’s purposes just fine. Again, she put 1 qi into [Swift] and activated [Flurry], bringing her available qi down to 3.
Aiming for the exact same place as before, Samantha was able to get 5 kicks into Eileen’s thigh this time. Each kick further pulverized the tender flesh until Eileen howled in agony and fell to one knee.
“Disengage now, Silas!” Samantha commanded as she jumped back from another blue arc of slashing energy that Eileen sloppily aimed at her knees.
Eileen shakily stood, using her sword as a support to lift herself off the ground. The spot where Samantha had been kicking had a dark red stain spreading slowly through the fabric of the combat robe, and the other leg savaged by Silas wasn’t in much better condition.
“Give up now!” Samantha implored, “You won’t be mobile enough to keep up with me anymore, and I have the better reach. The outcome is practically decided already.”
Eileen spat into the nearby dirt, “You wish.”
A shiver ran down Samantha’s spine as she felt an unexpected blast of killing intent rush out from Eileen. The suddenness of it stunned her for a brief moment, and Eileen activated an art which Samantha could only expect came from her spirit bond. A translucent pair of red and gold wings nearly 10 feet wide on each side spread out from behind Eileen, pausing outstretched for one terrible moment until they flapped forward with a gale of wind. As the wings extended forwards, the feathers detached from the tips of the wings and shot through the air like a volley of arrows.
Recognizing that she didn’t have time to dodge, Samantha crunched her body inwards and raised her arms up in front of her face to prepare for the impact. The feathers, blessedly, were not heavy hitters individually. Unfortunately, the sheer volume of them made the barrage painfully effective. Samantha’s armor was able to block the damage from a fair amount of them, but many still cut through the tough leather or into exposed flesh.
“Dodge left!” Silas warned, and Samantha obeyed without question.
She threw her body left blindly even as the rain of feathers still fell on her. Yet another blue arc blasted past her, clipping her hip and shaving off a clean cut of flesh. Samantha began running as the last feathers were shot and frantically dodged the increasingly large and fast arcs. Eileen seemed to be overcharging the art to increase its effect, and Samantha couldn’t imagine that she could keep up the pace long. At least, she hoped not.
“Hang on!” Silas encouraged, “I’ve got a plan!”
Not able to do anything else but dodge for the time being, Samantha did just that. Horizontal, vertical, and diagonal arcs carved through the air like an ever shrinking net. Each strike was somehow wider or faster than the last, and they were all adding up to the point where they were nearly unavoidable.
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Silas noted that he had been either forgotten or entirely discounted by their opponent while she made a final stand against his human. [Thump] was nearly off of cooldown from earlier, so he couldn’t use it immediately. However, he still had one art that could be useful: his antlers. He had grown an unusually large pair earlier to protect himself from the accursed bird, which meant that trying to grow another set so soon would result in unusually small ones. Still, horns were horns, and Eileen’s back was wide open.
Silas concentrated and squeezed out energy from the spent well of power within him until it coalesced at his temples. Rather than multi-pointed antlers, these horns were more similar to a bull–a singular cone with a sharp point facing forward on each side. They were only about six inches long, but he had to hope that would be enough.
To give himself the best chance of success, he activated [Translucence] to better blend in with his surroundings. He moved forward towards the unsuspecting enemy as quickly and quietly as he could, shifting his position whenever she turned to change her angle of attack on Samantha. Before long he was within striking distance, a mere five feet away.
Waiting until the perfect moment, right as Eileen was about to finish one attack and draw her sword arm back for another, he used the considerable strength in his legs to launch himself straight at her severely injured right leg. He twisted his body and head in mid air, and both horns embedded themselves deep into Eileen’s thigh one on top of the other. At this exact moment, [Thump]’s cooldown elapsed and he placed his hind legs against Eileen’s thigh in preparation, then activated it. His dagger-like appendages ripped themselves out of the woman’s leg, and he was flung away to safety as a wild sword swing came down in the space where he had just vacated.
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Samantha was relieved as Eileen screamed and the deadly arcs stopped coming. She looked over to see the woman had crumpled to the ground on hands and knees, but she was already struggling to pick herself up again.
Using another qi point to boost her speed, Samantha rushed the fallen woman without ceremony. Talking hadn’t worked before, and Samantha wasn’t going to give her the chance to recover her wits. Upon reaching her, Samantha used the last two points in her qi pool to activate [Flurry] one final time.
The first kick was aimed at the arm that still held the straight sword. As her armored shin smashed into the back of Eileen’s elbow, whatever defensive art Eileen had been relying on ran out. The elbow broke as it bent too far in the wrong direction, and the sword was flung into the front row where it was caught by an onlooker. The second and third kicks were aimed at Eileen’s torso, each kick strong enough to lift her entire body off the ground. Eileen fell on her back, winded from the strikes, when Samantha used the fourth and final kick of [Flurry] to stomp down on Eileen’s collarbone. Bones audibly crunched under Samantha’s bare feet as Eileen grabbed at Samantha’s calf with her good arm, frantically trying to push Samantha away.
Samantha lifted her spear high, looking down on the broken woman as she unleashed her own killing intent to drive her words home, “Yield!”
“I yield! Stop! You- I admit defeat.” Eileen cried out, and immediately Holt appeared beside them.
Holt physically separated Samantha from Eileen, pushing on her slightly until she was a few feet away. Two cultivators rushed over and immediately laid hands on Eileen, performing some sort of healing art. They also gave her some healing pills as they put her on a stretcher and carried her out at a fast jog.
Samantha went over to the place where her fingers had fallen and scooped them up off the ground, figuring that it would be easier to reattach them than regrow them from scratch.
“I, Adjudicator Holt Dempster, declare this dispute settled. Let all know that Samantha Cray is an honorable cultivator, wrongly accused and justified through battle. Before one month's time has passed, Liam, Anthony, and Darryl Braxand must exile themselves to the second floor, on pain of death.”
The crowd went wild at this announcement, redoubling their cheers and applause as Holt finished speaking. Caught up in the moment, Samantha looked up at the audience and lifted her spear up in salute, smiling.