Sala struggled to her feet as she
was not allowed to stop
was not allowed to rest
was not allowed to eat
was not allowed to drink
was not even allowed to die.
In this arena, there was only one thing she was allowed to do and that was to fight. She could not fight as a dragon however that was another thing that was pounded and engraved not in her mind, body, and even her soul the hard way. The dragonic method of just tanking everything and/or attacking was not going to work here. She had learned that very quickly as the enemies she was being forced to fight against were already able to strike hard enough that her defense could not handle it. If it was not for Arca somehow making it so that even if she took a fatal blow. The blow itself would kill her as Sala would still feel all the pain associated with such an attack but death would never come for her as she just feels the pain of what would have otherwise been a killer attack.
Over and over again in an endless loop that never ended. Her endless torment was to fight and just fight over and over again. At first, she learned that the dragonic way of fighting was not going to work. She just stopped fighting back thinking that they would just endlessly let her attackers pumble on her without mercy. Sala learned how wrong she was when that exact thing happened to her. Thus she knew the only way to beat this was to fight to win if she could win the dragonic way then she would fight the way that would eventually get her out of here. She went from an tank that could attack to an attacker that could tank as all she had to do was get to the end of this trial without breaking.
Thus Sala started fighting this way and she was starting to win however if she won against her foe then a stronger would appear. So she would fight against the next enemy before her endlessly as well. If she lost to them then they would beat her until she got back up and started fighting them again. She could not just stop fighting and allow them to endlessly beat her anymore. That was not even a dead end cause there was no end that way just constant and consistent beating over and over again. At least when she fought she was making forward progress as eventually, the enemy could not get any stronger thus she would win that way
She started out with her own weapons though the shield that she was using was the first to break. Then the scales that she had strengthened using everything she could find during her time in the Rotune group that was next to fail her. However, it was not because they were weak but the enemies she was being forced to fight had attack power that surpassed even her padded defense but a mile. It was as if she did not even have a scale or dragon in the first place.
While no weapons or armor (be it crafted or natural) were able to fight her enemies effectively. Her enemies were able to use weapons that were all the type that were naturally strong but were super effective against her kind. Sala was of the dragon race that was known for their defensive capabilities and she was a cut above the rest when it came to combat at least. None of that mattered before these enemies' raw strength and power and that did not even include their weapons and armor in the mix
If Sala wanted to get through this then it would only be if she shone in her own way as she was....slapped in the head again shocking her back to her reality. To start thinking about things that were not helping her win against her enemy
A blow to her head that was so hard she looked to see that she was bleeding from the head as a result. However, this would not be enough to kill her though she currently could not die. If she was to suffer a blow that could have been fatal it would be somehow in the end and Arca would heal her back to full health somehow. That girl was now calling herself Arca the Beast Mage and would go berserk when not addressed as such by anyone.
Despite all her constant fighting in endless battles, Sala's body no longer was able to integrate with armor. In fact, her overall defense dropped back down to its base level before the things she acquired as part of Rotune group. Before what it was during the exam to be the chosen Dragon and even before her family just bought the best armor for her to integrate with in an attempt to overcome her weakness. Though she could not integrate with armor the same could not be said with weapons though. She replicates weapons she took into herself and produces them from her scales. This was why her defense dropped as the weapons she created were her scales thus if she was using them as weapons they could not also be used as defense. Further if ripped the weapons she created from her scale out of her hands or off her body. The scale took some time to grow back rapidly and the weapon itself was the same material as ancient dragon weapons that were kept as highly priced goods but not of the same quality though.
All those bonuses that she had on her defense might have been removed but then had vanished entirely as they were repurposed and now boosting her attack in equal measures. Even her body was drastically different as her scales no longer covered her body anymore as they shifted to just cover her hands, wrist, and quarter of the way to her elbow. The same was going on with her feet to go way past her ankles. Her tail however remained to have the same amount of scale it always did but that was because it was now like a bladed weapon itself than a typical dragon tail.
Sala continued to fight the light that was in her eyes continued to die away as that was the life that was stll left in them and her in general. Once they were devoid of life an expression appeared on her face. That was seemingly one where she seemed excited and pleased about something.
"Go fight. You were the better attacker than me, right" Arca told her
Sala then slowly got up and started fighting once again and again and again. She just kept fighting as she eventually noticed that attacks were not causing any damage to her enemies anymore. Her attacks were not causing damage but she had to beat her enemy otherwise they would endlessly beat her instead. She started a new train of thought that was different than what she was thinking after she decided to fight
I have to fight
I have to win
I have to not get pummeled
Arca had shot up one day as she passed out from overusing her mana only to see Sala looking down at her.
"My enemy. Direct me to my next enemy" Sala stated as she looked at her
"Huh they should be right," Arca said
"This is not my enemy," Sala told her
Throwing the corpse of the creature she had been made to fight in an endless loop. One she had been fighting over and over again without realizing. What she thought was an endless stream of enemies was just a single one that trapped her in a place where she was supposed to fight endlessly until she just died from going up against a foe she could never hope to beat. Though she beat them through basically becoming nothing more than a weapon whose only purpose was to fight the next enemy.