The Spiderknight champion used [Charge] to get close to her, and [Strike] to send his magic twisted blade crashing against her saber. The strength alone sent her crashing across the air, barely having wiped the dust from her eyes before rolling out of the way of a permanent split of her head.
"This is more like it!" Arwen said, dodged the next strike too, then thrust.
The Spiderknight shrugged off the strike, wheeling about to send his steel screaming on another course for Arwen's head. Skillfully she caught the blade mid-air with her own, and deflected it harmlessly aside. Shocked, the Spiderknight blasted backwards before Arwen could stab him through the visor and end him.
"You're fast."the Spiderknight twitched uncontrollably.
"YOU ARE DEAD," Roaring, the Spiderknight flared with purple aura, yet Arwen was already upon him, and skewered one arm. The steel plate was still damn hard to break, but if Arwen could damage him even a little as she currently was, there was nothing to fear.
"[Smash]![Cleave]![Rend]!" Three strikes filled with power in quick succession, each enough to down the previous troll, not one landing. Arwen merely dodged, and when the stamina drain kicked in - no, the Spiderknight was not drained, and the expectation of him being exhausted had pulled Arwen too close.
"[Gladiator stance]!"a shift in his stance, the Spiderknight filled with more power again, his next strike cleaving across Arwen's shoulder, his second threatening to send her blade blasting away. Stomach bared, she hadn't any way to stop his kick landing, Arwen shooting across the arena to smack hard against the stone.
Coughing up crimson, a trembling mess, she arose through the dust and held her head high.
"You can do it Arwen!" Kenji said from the stands, "don't give up, fight!"
Stupid boy, he had no idea she had already won. Still, it had been a very long time since anyway had looked concerned for her. Kenji watched from the balcony, hands white as they gripped the railings, Honour buzzing in its hilt.
"YOU DIE NOW."
"That's my line," Arwen smirked and pulled off her gloves. Inside her knuckles were studded with crystal, each overflowing with blue magic. Peeling off the clear resin that held them firm against her, she lay them back in her gauntlets and pressed them safely into the earth.
"THAT WILL NOT HELP YOU-"
"[Silver dash]"In a blink of the eye Arwen appeared before the Spiderknight, their blades meeting with a great crash.
"[Smash-"
"[Silver Slash]" Arwen cut the SpiderKnight's arm clean away before his skill could be unleashed. Weapon slamming to stone, her power pumping unrestricted through her, Arwen delivered the coup de grace and cut the champions head from his shoulders.
A stunned silence rang out before he crowd roared with delight.
"That was the famous SILVER SLASH" the announcer cried, "ladies and gentleman, the newcomer could only be the one and only - the general of the Northern Army, heir to House Swan, Slayer of Giants - ARWEN THE SILVER SWORDSMASTER!"
Collecting her crystals, she reattached them to her knuckles and slipped the gauntlets back on. Only once her powers were again restricted, did she sauntered over to a raised platform. The instant the little chest was wheeled out she'd had enough.
"Send it to Kenji up there, he can return it to me later-"
"One more challenger, one last entrant into the race!" the voice was scratchy and high-pitched, like a demon infused girl scout determined to sell her last batch of cookies no matter how many bodies she had to out in the ground.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a surprise challenger! But seeing as it is unscheduled..."peering aside, the announcer looked into the thicket of nobles above and gulped. "It shall go ahead!"
"Like hell it will, she won already!" Kenji roared, "You think it's fair to face so many opponents in a row? I won't have it-"
"Kenji!" Arwen snapped, removing her gauntlets again," watch these for me won't ya? This will get messy."
Flinging the gloves, stones safely inside, up at Kenji, Arwen lowered her blade. Grinning she could barely wait as the creature entered. Shrouded in black cloth with painted red lines Crisscrossing wildly, the crowd might not recognise it but Arwen certainly did. This thing was strong.
Pulling back the cloth over its head, a bronze facemask was revealed, grand bronze horns thrusting above, bronze clawed gauntlets appeared from cloth that shouldn't have been able to hide them.
The crowd roared, then went wild as the challenger pulled a seven-foot-long spear shaft from its chest, the end shifting from speartip to twin-bladed sword, to axehead.
"This is your end, my lady," the creature purred, "for you and him both."
"DOWN WITH THE BOURGIOUSE," Shouted a voice from the stands.
"END THE MONARCHY."
"FREE THE THIRD ESTATE."
"KILL THE NOBLES."
"EAT THE RICH."
Realization flooded Arwen, auras being revealed throughout the arena.
"KENKJI, DEFEND YOURSELF, IT'S A TRAP!"
A howl ripped through the air, explosions, the twang of crossbow bolts, screaming. The nobles in their private viewing box were ripped apart like sheep, a handful sending blasts of magic back into the crowd, dozens of innocents blown to pieces.
Tearing her eyes away, Arwen was forced to focus everything she had on holding of the creature at bay. Unveil her true power here and she was likely to be targeted by the nobles too, and so all she could do was fight as she normall would.
The creature rappidly approahced and grew another two hands holding twin weapons. Striking at once he pushed her back, shifted blades to axes and tried again, shifted to maces and clubbed her down.
"[Twin strike][Cleave][Critical strike]!" he roared, using the skills of three different classes to send crash against her guard four times, mithril armour cut deep, pain smashing through her arms.
Arwen couldn't help her smile, the blood pumping, the danger, the powerful opponent.
"Is that all you've got?" She sneered, "I'm disappointed."
Howling the creature grew a set of leviathan tentacles, leathery wings, and a great gleaming scorpian tail. "How about this, my lady? Does an ever more one-sided last stand suit?"
As the creature neared, Arwen's grin threatens to split her head in two.
"Oh, you have no idea, [Silver slash]!"
***
Crossbow bolts cut down soldiers and nobles alike. Servants contorted either into bronze masked creatures that could manipulate their bodies at will or exploded to form wild demons of flesh and bone.
"Exaltier, behind me!" Violet said, rose her hands and unleashed "[Summon - knight][Summon - knight]!"
Twin explosions of crystal formed a pair of glinting knights, immediately met by snapping monstrosities of twisted flesh.
"I think not, a man can defend himself," Lord Exaltier announced, and moving his hands through the air cast"[Summon - Blade][Summon - Shield]!"
Sparkling orange and pink formed arcane sword and shield to float in front of him. The blade promptly split a demon down the side, while the shield rotated to block crossbow bolts fired from the stands. There, a series of red cap-wearing revolutionaries busily reloaded crossbows while the arena's guards charged through the stampeding crowd to stop them.
"This is the damn rebels, those 'communists' have made the first move!" Exaltier pointed to the stands, "[Summon - Blade]!" a second arcane sword exploded to life and zoomed into the ground, engaging in fierce combat with the communists. Blades and crossbows in hand, they should have been butchered. Instead, their eyes flared red, teeth lengthened, and they moved with speed and strength far greater than a normal human as they fended off the magic and mauled the first guards to arrive.
"I don't think communists work with demons, Lord," Kenji said and pulled Honour free. Activating "[Overdrive][Martial Aura]" he leapt forward to batter aside a bronze faces sword, yet halted before delivering the killing blow. The Bronze face had a scorpion stinger to Kenji's neck but similarly froze.
"What are you?" the Bronze face said.
"I was going to ask you the same question."
Both were interrupted by a howling demon, fresh from having butchered a pair of nobles and now came for Kenji. The Bronze face turned his stinger and blade upon the demon with him, and together they cut through a tough hide, only for a wild headbutt to skewer the Bronze face with a demonic horn.
"[Full frontal assault]!" Kenji crashed into the demon, Honour sweeping through its organs to burst out the other side, the smouldering corpse hitting the ground and exploding into flame. A screech filled the air, a howling, wind like note that made Kenji want to run.
"Fleeee, weee areee beeeaton," the screech seemed to say, although certainly not in any language Kenji knew. How then, could he understand it?
Wiping the gore off him, he found the strange Bronze Face had left, as had the Sidkhani, the challenger below fleeing with great bursts of grey goo from severed limbs trailing. Forming a pathetic pair of wings, the creature fled, goo spraying the crowd, red-capped communists left to fight to the death against a full company of guards.
"Go, protect the people!" Lord Exaltier roared, clutching his chest as red spread throughout his cloth. Uncertain, his red plated guards saluted and charged into the halls, the sounds of steel on steel clanging there too.
In the stands the red-eyed communists fought ferociously, those 'captured' suddenly convulsing on the ground as foam spewed from their mouths. Cyanide capsules? And how would they have been convinced to take their own lives instead of falling into the nobles hands?
And this goo, putting his finger in a blob Kenji sniffed and found it scentless. He'd seen it before though, when he was wounded in his base form, he had bled the same material.
Those Bronze masked assassins, they had been mimics.