Seeing Thea assume a low, nearly crouching stance in the centre of the arena in preparation for the first round to begin, Astra could not help but marvel at her form.
Her eyes remained glued to Thea as she maintained her low stance, the air in the arena charged with anticipation. As the buzzer sounded, Thea shot forward with incredible speed, closing the distance between her and Lan in the blink of an eye.
Astra was amazed at how Thea seemed to dance around Lan, evading his chainsword swings effortlessly and using her smaller, more agile frame to her advantage in such a way.
Despite being in the same class as Thea, being around the same age and with a similar background, being a mid-worlder herself, Astra felt like she was watching someone from a different species entirely. Thea’s ability to perfectly stay out of reach for each of Lan’s brutal-looking strikes was a testament to her incredible forethought and control over her own body, something Astra had always struggled with in her own combat exercises.
'Her form is just so… perfect! I’ve never seen anyone fight with two knives like that; it’s like they’re a part of her body, rather than weapons wielded by a Marine… My sword style would not stand a single chance against her, whatsoever...'
As the fight continued, Astra's admiration for Thea only grew stronger. She was awestruck by Thea's strategic thinking and her ability to adapt to her opponent's movements in real time, despite the doubtlessly stressful balancing act she had to nail to keep up the pressure without being caught by one of Lan’s strikes.
Looking in from the outside and sharing a similar combat style to Thea, Astra could quickly tell that all of her moves were calculated with an uncanny precision. Pure luck or instinct would never be able to cover the large advantage that Lan’s superior Strength afforded him in a hand-to-hand match like this, after all.
She couldn't help but hold her breath as Thea dodged yet another powerful swing from Lan, her body twisting and contorting in seemingly impossible ways to avoid the deadly chainswords, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
Up until this point, Astra had thought that Strength builds were inherently superior to Finesse for close-range combat, but seeing her idol effortlessly dodge, contort, and twist through the oncoming assault of attacks, hope regarding her own Attributes blossomed in her heart. Inspired by Thea's performance, Astra resolved to push herself harder in her training going forward and attempt to emulate Thea’s graceful and fluid, yet deadly combat style.
She had been awestruck by Thea the first time she saw her on the podium the day before. A mid-worlder in Alpha Squad…! Not just any mid-worlder, but an undercity, cyan mid-worlder.
While Astra had initially been hesitant to look up to her as a result of that fact, having been told of the terrible things that undercity cyans were known for during her early years of education on Novaria, Thea’s showing on the podium had quickly changed that attitude.
The mixture of obvious apprehension at being there, coupled with her more than impressive demonstration involving the major, had quickly changed Astra’s opinion of the cyan undercity girl. Others in her little mid-worlder clique were still apprehensive towards Thea, but Astra was determined to change their minds… especially after this class!
For her, Thea was a shining example of the heights that even mid-worlders could achieve, despite all the prejudices levelled against them. After all, if even an undercity cyan like Thea could rise to such heights, why shouldn’t they be able to do the same?
Even if the inner- and core-worlders in her class mocked her and the other mid-worlders or looked down on them, having Thea and Isabella in Alpha Squad was a clear testament to the folly of their thoughts - that mid-worlders were somehow inherently inferior to them.
She was further amazed at how Thea seemed to anticipate Lan's next moves, always staying just out of reach of his weapons, regardless of how dangerous a given swing seemed to be. It was as if Thea was simply toying with the intimidating, hulking man.
When Thea timed her moves just right to exploit Lan's vulnerability and injure his arm, leaving him visibly frustrated and off-balance, Astra could not help but yelp in surprise at the sudden change in the fight. This opening should not have existed!
Astra herself had not been able to find any opening in Lan’s defences, much less such a devastating one, despite her best attempts at doing so. Although Astra was an outside spectator, she had somehow been less capable than Thea, who was in the middle of a fight for her life, at spotting this minuscule chance.
With sparkling eyes, Astra followed the rest of the fight, as it was clear to her that Thea had already won the first round with that last decisive strike. Being injured in such a way, Lan was obviously unable to keep up with Thea who rapidly closed out the round with another incredible gambit by throwing her knife to distract Lan, and get close enough for the kill.
Seeing the spectacular finish to the first round, Astra jumped up in joy, unable to contain her excitement. As she was clapping and celebrating Thea’s first win, Astra suddenly realised the looks she was getting from her fellow Marines around her, who all seemed to be taken aback by her candid show of support for the winner of the first match.
Feeling slightly embarrassed by their glances and the fact that she had so openly shown her support for her idol, Astra lowered her hands, smiled sheepishly, and said, “Ah… My apologies…” while trying to regain her composure in the midst of her fellow Marines.
Looking back towards her idol inside the arena, she saw Thea casually walk back towards the centre of the arena, readying herself for the second round by entering, what looked to Astra like some form of meditative stance. Astra quickly returned to her previous spot close to the blue barrier, anticipating the beginning of the second round with bated breath…
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Feeling a familiar tug at his mind, Lan suddenly found himself standing near the equipment racks inside the arena. Shaking off the slight disorientation caused by the reset, which he was keenly familiar with from the previous two years of basic, he knew what it meant for him.
'Damn it… She completely beat me in every regard… I just can't believe how natural her movements are! I figured, having trained all of yesterday evening to get my new body's Attributes under control, that I'd have a leg up, but compared to her, I might as well have completely wasted my time… It's like she has years of experience fighting with an enhanced body like this. Just how in the Emperor's name is this even possible…?!'
Looking over towards his adversary in the centre of the arena, who was similarly observing him as well, his frustration at the loss of the first round intensified.
'She isn't even winded… Just what do her Attributes look like?! And I haven't figured out her Ability yet either… Fuck!'
Realising that standing near the equipment rack, looking stunned by the outcome, wouldn't do him any favours when it came to his peers' perception of him, Lan moved back to the centre of the arena with measured steps, while trying to formulate a plan.
'I can't be defensive against this monster. She'll simply take me apart, slowly but surely, like she did last time. So full offence it is. I can't hold onto my Ability anymore either. I need to win at least one round; even if I end up out of Stamina by the time the third round comes around, I can't afford to lose against a mid-worlder 0:2… If only the rest of the guys were in here to actually fight her, they'd understand…'
With a deep, inward sigh at the fact that his clique's peers had such a strange, hardline obsession with mid-worlders being brought into the UHF Marine Corps having been a mistake, Lan prepared himself for the next round.
He briefly noted that Thea was still missing her second dagger, which had been left exactly where he had deflected it towards during her final attack.
'Looks like she's resourceful enough to use the arena's functions to the fullest, too… Alpha Squad is no joke, alright.'
Having come up with a rudimentary plan for the second round, Lan walked up to the starting position, indicating to Thea that he was ready to go again with a wave of his chainsword.
With an acknowledging nod, his adversary took her strange, crouched stance once again, before the countdown appeared between them. At the same time, the discarded dagger of the previous round, which had been lying next to Lan's starting position the entire time, suddenly disappeared and materialised in Thea's left hand.
They had shared no words since the very start of the first round, and Lan's respect for the mid-worlder before him inevitably rose another notch upon realisation. She was a real fighter at heart. Someone who understood that when it came down to it, blow-for-blow, there was no need for idle chatter or banter. All that mattered were the actions during the fight; that was their language to converse in during this bout.
Smiling slightly to himself upon realising this, Lan thought about how none of his peers seemed to understand this basic idea of duelling, yet claimed to be superior to the mid-worlder before him. He focused his mind on the battle ahead, swearing to himself that he would do everything in his power to win this round and hold nothing back.
Lan knew that this resolve was not just for his own sake, but also as a show of respect for his opponent, who had quickly demonstrated how wrong he had been to underestimate a member of Alpha Squad.
As the countdown reached the last second, he prepared himself to receive his opponent, anticipating that she might repeat the same, extremely fast, dash-in start from the previous round.
As the countdown reached zero, Lan's muscles tensed, ready to spring into action the moment Thea made her move. He was determined to win this round and prove to himself that he could adapt to her exceptional fighting style. The energy in the arena was palpable, and Lan could feel the eyes of his fellow Marines watching their every move from the outside, ultimately unable to fully remove the spectators from his mind.
Just as he had anticipated, Thea launched herself forward with lightning speed, replicating her dash-in start from the previous round. Lan, however, was better prepared this time.
Instead of being taken aback by her speed, he used his own strength and agility to respond, swinging his chainswords with precision and power, aiming to intercept her as she closed in.
As the chainsword sliced through the air, Lan noticed that Thea's movements were slightly different this time, perhaps anticipating his adaptation in advance. She nimbly weaved around his attack, her smaller frame once again proving to be an advantage in dodging his powerful swings. Despite her evasive manoeuvres, Lan could tell that she was being more cautious, likely aware of his newfound determination.
Lan refused to let this deter him. He pressed on, relentlessly attacking Thea with a barrage of chainsword swings, each one faster and stronger than the last, determined to follow his more offensively-oriented plan he had prepared before the start of the round. He figured that the key to defeating her lay in pushing her to her limits, forcing her to make a mistake or expose a weakness.
After all, he just needed to connect a single strike to win the round.
As the battle raged on, Lan found himself gaining ground, slowly forcing Thea to retreat as she continued to dodge and parry his onslaught. He could feel a newfound sense of confidence surging through him, fueling his resolve to win this round. Every time their weapons clashed, sparks flew, illuminating the arena with a brilliant display of their intense combat.
Once again, Lan found himself in awe of his opponent’s ability to fully utilise her heightened Attributes. He was unable to detect any wasted movements in her feints, dodges, and parries. 'How did she get used to this body so quickly? Does Alpha Squad have access to a training room with the time dilation tech Major Quinn mentioned?!'
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As Lan continued his aggressive barrage of chainsword strikes, he began to feel the weight of his heavy armour, which had been dutifully protecting him from Thea’s relentless counterattacks.
'I'll lose if I continue at this pace,' he thought. 'She might not seem like she has a ton of stamina, but her ability to conserve energy with her efficient movements really makes up for it. If we were fighting a couple of weeks down the line, once I’ve learned how to use this new, enhanced body, I might even be able to beat her outright. But as it stands, I'll run out of steam before she does.'
Realising that he needed to alter his attack pattern to speed up the fight's conclusion, Lan pushed his body forward into Thea’s range, trusting his heavy armour to withstand the brunt of her retaliatory stabs and slices.
Lan noticed Thea's eyes widened slightly at the sudden change in his fighting style, further convincing him that he was on the right track to overwhelm his opponent. As his attacks grew more ferocious and his persistent forward movement pushed Thea further back, he finally detected a pattern in the way she parried his strikes.
'That's it! When I attack with my left sword, she parries downward instead of to the side...!'
Unable to fully conceal his excitement at the sudden revelation, Lan smiled as he continued to relentlessly swing at Thea's retreating form. After confirming his suspicions with a few more combination attacks, paying extra attention to how his opponent parried his left-hand strikes, Lan became confident in his plan.
During the next combination attack, just as he executed his left-hand strike, he mentally commanded the System to activate his Ability.
‘Surging Strike’
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Seeing Lan’s typical end-of-combination left-swing come towards her, Thea prepared herself to deflect it towards the ground, as she had been doing for the entire second round.
‘He’s definitely running out of breath very quickly, this time around. Leading him on into being more aggressive, by continuously falling back and giving him ground was definitely the right call, he’s exerting himself a lot…’
When the chainsword had nearly reached her and Thea twisted her upper body to increase her leverage on the incoming strike, she suddenly felt an intense pang of danger in her chest. A pang she had become all-too-familiar with in recent times.
Unable to detect any changes in Lan’s typical attack pattern and the left-sided swing at a glance, Thea immediately activated her System Ability.
‘Sensory Overdrive.’
As time seemed to slow down around her, Thea was able to observe her enemy and her surroundings with heightened care and focus. Initially unable to detect any changes in her opponent, she turned her attention to her surroundings to determine what had triggered such a strong sense of danger within her instincts.
The arena's bright lights shone down on her and Lan, casting sharp shadows on the ground. Behind the shimmering blue barrier that separated the two fighters from the audience, she could see a crowd of fellow Marines watching the ongoing battle with bated breath. Each onlooker's face was a mix of anticipation and curiosity as they observed the intense match.
She could see beads of sweat on their foreheads, a testament to the sheer tension in the air, created by the brutal showdown before them. Some of them clenched their fists, while others whispered to each other, speculating about the outcome.
Despite Thea's heightened awareness and careful observation of her surroundings, she found no obvious threats lurking nearby. All of the Marines behind the barrier seemed solely focused on the fight, with no signs of malicious intent or hidden weapons. The arena itself appeared to be secure, with no obvious structural weaknesses or hazardous elements that could pose a danger to her.
Thea’s gaze swept across the floor, walls, and ceiling, searching for any indication of a potential trap or hidden danger, but came up empty. The environment seemed as controlled and predictable as it had been since the beginning of the fight.
With no discernible threats around her, Thea realised that the source of the danger her instincts warned her about must be coming from Lan himself and the incoming swing on her right side.
She instantly knew her deduction had been correct, when the chainsword connected with her knife just moments later.
Previously, Thea had been able to easily deflect Lan’s swing towards the ground, using their relative heights, the angle of his attack, and her high levels of Finesse to leverage more of her upper body weight to push the oncoming strike down.
But this time, she felt as if she were trying to redirect an incoming grav-train.
The chainsword didn't react to the initial contact between itself and her knife, spelling grave danger for Thea, as her defence for this type of attack depended entirely on her ability to deflect it away from her.
Wide-eyed, Thea scrambled to come up with a viable strategy to escape the situation, as the unstoppable swing slowly plowed its way through her attempt at redirection.
Desperate for a way out, Thea's mind raced, searching for any possible solution to escape the relentless force of Lan's attack. Her heightened Perception and Finesse worked in tandem, giving her just enough mental agility to come up with what she hoped was a last-second solution.
With only fractions of a second to spare, Thea made her move, acutely aware that her Strength was unlikely to meet the requirements of what she was attempting to do.
Summoning every ounce of Strength in her body, Thea pivoted onto her left foot, throwing her body off-balance, away from the incoming swing, to avoid the full brunt of the chainsword's strike, while pulling her right arm back towards her body, mid-deflection.
As the powerful swing tore through the air and connected with her body, which was now in the process of falling in the opposite direction, Thea fervently hoped that Lan’s Finesse was not high enough to adjust the direction of such a brutal strike, mid-swing.
At this moment, her ‘Sensory Overdrive’ ran out as well. For Thea, the world suddenly felt as if it had been sped up by a factor of ten or more, making the incoming strike seem all the more deadly and brutal, as it seemed to instantly reach her.
The chainsword relentlessly cut through the air, its teeth gnashing and grinding as it connected with Thea's right arm.
The force of the swing, coupled with the rapidly moving, deadly chains of the sword, easily ripped through her armour, tearing apart the protective layers and sinking deep into her flesh. The pain was instantaneous and searing as the chainsword continued to rip through her right arm, cutting a swathe of flesh and muscle from her body.
Unable to hold back a scream of pain, Thea cried out as the chainsword finally left her right arm.
While her last-second reaction had saved her from being cut in half, her right arm had been utterly savaged by the chains of the weapon in Lan’s left hand. Thea was certain that she could still move it, to some degree, but her combat power had been significantly reduced as a result.
With the chainsword now covered in blood and gore, Lan looked at the falling Thea in front of him with a mixture of confusion and surprise. It was immediately apparent that he had not anticipated Thea to be able to survive the strike, as his right-handed follow-up swing, aimed at the still falling enemy, was just a fraction of a second delayed.
Racked with severe pain and an equally severe feeling of nausea due to the after effects of her ‘Sensory Overdrive’, Thea quickly rolled her body away from Lan, as she finally reached the ground, leaving behind a trail of blood and gore where her maimed right arm scraped across the ground.
Realising that she wasn't out of danger yet, Thea immediately jumped back up to her feet, readying her only remaining dagger in her left hand to counter any incoming follow-ups from Lan.
Despite the nausea and pain, Thea's mind raced to come up with a viable plan to regain control of the fight.
'That's definitely his Ability. Whatever that strike was - there's no doubt. If I can't deflect or parry those strikes, what am I supposed to do?! Does it have a cooldown…? My Abilities don't, so I'm going to assume his Ability also doesn't have one. I can't risk getting hit by that again… I also need to finish this fast; I'm losing way too much blood…'
Rapidly dodging the incoming, increasingly more accurate swings from her opponent, Thea left behind a veritable torrent of blood flowing from her right arm that seeped into the floor of the arena at a rapid rate.
The shock-absorbing material of the arena floor was now stained crimson and had a slightly damp sheen to it, as the two combatants continued their deadly dance across the arena.
‘I don’t think I have another choice… I don’t have enough time to come up with anything better, right now… Freya Gambit it is…’
Determined to win the round, despite her dire circumstances, Thea took a couple deep breaths, as she mentally and physically prepared herself for what she was about to do.
Meanwhile, Lan’s face was showing a continuously increasing amount of frustration, as his swings were just barely missing the retreating Thea, again and again.
When he tried to push up towards her with his superior Strength and speed, Thea circled around him with her high Finesse. If he tried to counter her Finesse with his own, he lacked the fine-control over his Strength to make up the difference.
His only real retort was to continue swinging for her, forcing her to exert herself immensely as she continued to bleed from her maimed right arm, waiting for her to finally slow down enough to get a solid hit in and end the round.
Having gathered enough courage and dealt with the initial bout of nausea and pain from her previous miss-step, Thea channelled down her Perception towards Lan’s incoming swings, with a renewed precision and focus.
‘I only get one shot at this… I need to find the exact right swing that will leave his neck exposed from my left side…’
Over the next few combination swings from Lan, Thea focused intently on the exact position of his body, his arms, his weapon and his neck, as she tried to deduce the perfect way to make him overexert his reach in just the right way for her gambit to succeed.
Unfortunately for her, she felt her vision turn blurry about three combinations in, as her blood loss was taking its toll on her body, which she continued to push past its limits to keep herself in the fight.
‘Fuck…! Alright, all or nothing, Freya Gambit, don’t let me down now. You’ve won me so many Championships…!’
Realising that she had no more time to spare, Thea suddenly ducked underneath Lan's next swing, instead of circling around him as she had done in their recent exchanges.
With widened eyes, Lan's follow-up strike from the left side was slightly misangled, having fallen into too much of a rhythm from the chase, allowing Thea to twist her body around the attack without harm.
His third swing, another right-sided one from Thea's perspective, similar to the one that had initially maimed her, bore down on Thea's position with overwhelming force and speed, as she gritted her teeth for her ultimate gambit. Raising her maimed right arm towards the incoming chainsword, as if to grab it out of thin air, Thea jumped towards Lan with all her might, hoping that her opponent had not activated his Ability quite this early into the swing.
As her gauntlet connected with the chains of the chainsword, she inwardly breathed a sigh of relief, as it bent slightly backward from the force imparted upon it, with the full weight of her body pushing towards it in an attempt to deflect it one last time.
Simultaneously, she screamed out in indescribable pain, her vision going blurry, as the infinitely fast, rotating chains of the sword ripped through her gauntlet as if it was made of paper, flayed the flesh from her hand, broke every bone inside in an instant, and continued to work its way through her entire right arm - destroying everything in its path with uncaring, brutal efficiency.
Her gambit, however, had paid off, as Lan's swing was deflected away from her just enough to let it pass through her entire right arm, ultimately cutting it into a million pieces and ripping it from her shoulder, instead of ending the fight then and there.
As Thea's jump landed her directly next to the surprised and awed Lan, she pushed her failing body one more time, as she rammed the combat knife in her left hand into the weak point of his armour that protected his neck, just like she had done in the first round.
The arena buzzer signalling the end of the round rang almost immediately and was the last thing Thea heard before she blacked out from the overexertion, blood loss, and pain that ravaged her body and mind.
One last thought passed through her mind as the darkness took her - a memory of her first ever attempt at the ‘Freya Gambit’, as it was later named by the community.
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Freya, her all-time favourite character in ‘Ashes of Centuries’, had inspired Thea to find unique ways to play her in order to win different championships and competitive matches. Simply playing her like everybody else was not an option if one wanted to be exceptional, after all.
Thea had come up with the strategy as a result of Freya’s unique passive skill, ‘Berserk’, through which she would gain increased attack power based on a percentage of her missing health. It had generally been considered a bottom-tier passive, as it didn’t provide any advantages to the player if they were doing well. Nobody wanted to get hit in AoC, after all.
The Freya Gambit, thus, had been quite simple yet ingenious in the eyes of the player base at the time.
Thea would find a moment in the fight when the opponent seemed to have the upper hand, and she would go blow-for-blow, sacrificing her own HP in droves to create a nearly guaranteed opening.
Due to her passive skill, Freya would continue to grow stronger as her opponent grew weaker, allowing Thea to snatch victories from the jaws of defeat many times. She would strike at the opponent’s weak points in the last moment before her own death, using the vastly increased stats from her passive skill to land a final, critical blow.
It was generally considered a massive gamble later in the game’s life, as the enemy player could simply pull back from the blow-for-blow exchange and take the free damage on Freya if they realised quickly enough what the Freya player was attempting to do.
The first time she had ever used it was during a championship game in the golden age arcade back on Lumiosia. She had been matched up against an Argus ‘the Demon-Lord’ player, one of Freya’s best counters.
Pretty much everyone had assumed she would lose as a result, but during the final moments of the match, Thea had brought out the Freya Gambit for the first time, having theorycrafted the strategy for months beforehand.
The many sleepless nights she had spent staring at stat sheets, attack multipliers, and scaling coefficients for every character and each one of their individual moves in AoC to figure out against which character it would potentially be effective and at which percentage it would be most effective had borne fruit in that moment.
The spectators, commentators, and even her opponent had been absolutely floored by the self-sacrificing move that had ultimately won her the championship.
The recordings of the match had been circulated around the galactic net for years to come, with many players picking up Freya as a result. The fad quickly died off, however, as barely any player managed to pull off the Freya Gambit, not realising the amount of effort, care, and attention that had gone into Thea’s strategy originally.
With a last pained, smile at the memory, Thea’s thoughts went blank and she passed out, just as she felt a familiar tug at her mind…