Seeing that the Gorgon is about to win, Eva charges against her, beheading her with a single blow.
Turning to the Amazon, who is half lying on the ground, catching her breath, Eva says, "Before you say you didn't need help and that you could handle it by yourself, you should know that sometimes asking for help when you need it, is not a sign of weakness, but of courage."
Then she reaches out to her to help her get up. The amazon stares at her. Eva raises an eyebrow, as if challenging her not to accept her help, but in the end, the Amazon gives in. She takes her hand and Eva helps her to get up.
Once standing Eva says, "My name is Eva, from the Drakos clan. And you?"
"Akiyne, daughter of Xethya, leader of the Amazon clan in Dhismiar. Thanks for the help," she says, lowering her head a little to hide her redness from shame.
"Well, Akiyne, nice to meet you. But I think, it's time to get rid of a bunch of scum, don't you think so?" she says, winking her eye, and charging towards the group that is being created around the poor Valzun.
The young Amazon, despite having large wounds and the armor stained with blood from the fight against the Gorgon, she smiles and, with a spear in her hand, she decides to follow Eva.
When they reach their destination, both Eva and Akiyne are ready to defend the gargoyle of the Rugarith clan.
"You're late! You almost missed all the fun," Valzun says as he claws into the chest of one of his attackers. "Wow, I see you've made friends."
"I'm sorry. I got distracted. By the way, this is Akiyne," Eva says as she cuts off another fighter's arm, then kicks them to the ground in the chest. Then she puts her foot on each other's chest to prevent them from getting up and stabs the dagger.
The fight goes on for hours, without many casualties.
Six hours later, the fighters still don't give up. Only the strongest of the participants remain, but at this point, many are running out of stamina.
The public is gradually losing interest as no one else has died for an hour and a half. In fact, there are many who are considering leaving the Arena. While they are talking to each other, they suddenly hear a sound that makes them shut up.
Whoosh!
When the audience looks at the wrestlers, everyone is amazed at what they see: a young girl on top of the body of an underground giant.
This kind of giants are the little ones of the giants' race, but it's still bigger than two tall elves put together.
"What was that noise?"
"What happened?"
"It seems that the girl has knocked down the giant!"
"It can't be!"
"Impossible!"
"But look! That girl had two daggers, and now she only has one dagger in her hand!"
"But where is she?"
"There! In her throat!"
Everyone notices the throat of the corpse. In fact, the dagger, which looks like a thorn compared to the size of the giant, is stabbed on one side of the throat, where the carotid is.
And, while the audience keeps trying to figure out what happened, the gong sounds.
The clan leaders rise and approach the gallery railing, and this time it is Ashatises who is speaking.
"Congratulations to the winners: Astrophel, from the clan of vampires; Dirs, from the clan of half-orcs; Zursa, from the clan of cold blood; Akiyne, from the clan of Amazons, Rhook from the clan of birds; and Eva, representative of the Rugarith clan."
The audience is slow to react but finally cries out in cheers to the six winners.
"We will be looking forward to the second-round tomorrow," said Ashatises and the other leaders turn and leave.
Eva continues to look towards the gallery, where she has made eye contact with one of the leaders. She recovers her dagger and jumps off the giant.
She heads towards one of the bodies in the Arena. She crouches and whispers, "I'm sorry. I had to."
Eva gets up and heads towards the door through which the fighters entered, crossing the road with the cleaners.
"Wait," she says to one of them and points to the body she had approached. "That one over there, take it to this address."
Then, she gives them a piece of paper.
Eva goes to the fighters' room where Lucien, Isabel, and Leah are waiting for her.
"What did just happen?" Leah asks when Eva is close.