Limitless Path

The ref had quickly shooed them from the field, and Beth was tempted to immediately sign up for yet another match, but her stomach had turned into a supermassive singularity at that point. She left the floor of the arena and moved back into the main building from under the stands, making her way to the cafeteria. She went up and put in an order on a small screen at the front, noting that this cafeteria, likely based on its booming demand, had a group of full-time staff working in the back to both prep food and clean dishes.

She entered an order for a steak, though it was from a cow-type beast, and a giant bowl of noodles…and a big plate of fried rice…and a huge bowl of steamed vegetables. She had to wait a few minutes for everything to be ready, and got a few strange looks from some people, but she figured they were likely pretty new, considering the size and amount of servings she saw on a few other tables. A fresh Copper that was still a low level and had joined initially for training likely wouldn't have seen a person packing away huge amounts of mana dense foods to make up for a hard day of work or training.

She claimed a table for herself along one side of the room, meant to seat four and where she could sit in a chair with her back to the wall. Again, not that she was expecting anything to happen in a CRA Hall, but it never hurt to be cautious, nor to reinforce good patterns. She dug into her food like a beast that hadn't eaten for a month, shoveling food down her throat as fast as she could get in on her utensils. That meant her dinner lasted all of six minutes, but it was still incredibly good nonetheless. She took her dishes over to the counter when she was done, the attendant seeming impressed with how quickly she was back with clean plates.

She made her way down to the room next, entering to find it empty, confirmed when she stuck her head in every room briefly and didn't spot hide nor hair of the wolf. She moved into the bath and stripped, not making her armor or clothes disappear as popping sweaty clothes and dirty armor into her necklace didn't magically make them clean. She enjoyed some extremely hot water in the shower before getting out and lightly cleaning her armor. Her clothes she gathered, along with other clothes she had shoved in her necklace the past number of days, and threw on the bare minimum to be presentable before heading to one of the laundry rooms.

It was a bit strange passing people in a CRA hallway, as she was so used to her old room on a floor that nobody ever even used, but now she was walking by individuals and groups several times just on a short trip. She found several people in the laundry room itself, two simply waiting for washing to finish while one was loading a unit, and she joined in by tossing all her dirty clothes in a unit and scanning her room key to start it. She decided to wait, knowing the machines were quick and not wanting to leave her clothes unattended with so many strangers around, understanding she was of the same mind as the others sitting on the small chairs in the room.

She got all her laundry done in about twenty-five minutes, way faster than the machines in her parents’ house would be able to both wash and dry her stuff, and then headed back to the room. Blood was still not around, but she was a big girl and Beth wasn't ever worried about her. She felt the itch to get up and go to the forge, but it was a itch pretty easy to resist, considering it was late, she was a bit tired, and she had just cleaned up. No reason to go get dirty again, even if she really wanted to forge something, and she could just take another shower…

She shook the thoughts off and got a drink, not her favorite this time but something with a bit of a kick, something that could make even her feel it after a glass, or maybe two. She wound up having four glasses, finding the sweet and smoky spirit quite enjoyable, something that could easily fit into the whiskey category. Despite having been on the arena floor the entire day, she spent a couple hours watching fights before heading to bed, flopping naked onto the huge bed and passing out on top of the blankets.

She woke up the next morning, feeling her stomach was just a bit sour, before feeling warm fur draped across her. Blood had come back at some point later in the night and apparently decided to join her in bed, draping halfway across Beth's body before passing out herself. Beth stirring didn't wake Blood at first, and she just nuzzled into her companion a bit and enjoyed the warmth before finally rousing herself, which then woke Blood. The wolf joined her in getting through their morning routines, though Blood was perfectly happy to sprawl naked on the couch and remain there for the entire day today. Their meeting wasn't until tomorrow still, and Blood was taking time to not do anything, but Beth couldn't sit still.

She left the room, heading to the cafeteria first to consume a huge amount of mana rich food before heading over to the area under the stands. She queued herself for a fight and had to wait a couple minutes this early in the morning before there was a response. She stepped up to the counter and got assigned by one of the two attendants to field six, walking out the tunnel to the arena floor, finding the stands almost empty and few people on the floor. She saw yet another difference from her home Hall, in that every single ref, including the ones for the team fields, was different than the day prior, the Hall having access to enough Gold-and-up emblem holders that they could cycle them daily for ref duties.

Even with it being dead, the refs weren't messing around, the tall, gold-skinned woman urging Beth onto the field. She complied, then had to stand in her box waiting with the ref glowering around at everything, her opponent not showing for a minute. Then two. Then three. Eventually, whatever the person who had been selected was doing was clearly not running to the ring, and Beth was grumpily declared the winner by the ref, and she left the floor and queued again. It was another couple minutes after she queued before she was buzzed, walking over to the counter and getting assigned to field one. She made her way out from under the stands and sauntered over to ring one, finding only the ref waiting for her, a short man who was drinking something from a steaming cup. Apparently, even Senior members weren't always up and ready to go an hour before the crack of dawn, Beth pondering if it was coffee in his mug.

Her opponent did deign to grace them with his presence this time, showing up only twenty seconds after Beth and entering the ring immediately. The ref went through the initial forms rather tiredly before waving one arm and telling them to 'get at it.' Beth rolled her eyes a bit at his laziness and darted forward, seeing right away she far outpaced the opponent in terms of speed. When they clashed, much closer to his starting position than the center of the field, she found she outmatched him in strength. After a couple blows, she also found she outclassed him in skill, though as they fought, she found it wasn't as bad as some of her other fights where she instantly stomped the person. Likely his skills were mostly in Silver and at Journeyman, just that he didn't have them maxed for that bracket, nor were his stats quite up to snuff. A quick check of his level confirmed her theory, as he was displaying as level one-forty to her eyes, a respectable number, and likely not his first journey to two hundred or beyond, but his current stat pool just wasn't enough.

Beth took just a bit of time, not exactly playing with him, but focusing on her technique and trying to match him in terms of speed. She wasn't really trying to teach, either, but she was working on her forms, doubly so because she still was sorely lacking in experience against other people. She tried to focus on honing her sword swings, using less movement to create a greater effect, and more viciously targeting his vital points, attempting to blow past his guard with every strike. Despite her holding back, she could see the man sweating as he desperately swung his spear, using it much more to block and deflect, the haft of the weapon getting cut and smashed by Beth's blade. He was only able to keep it up for so long before Beth just entirely overwhelmed him, getting through his guard twice in a row and doing enough damage to knock him out of the fight.

After the ref waved his free hand to declare Beth the winner, she left the ring and queued again, waiting a few minutes for her next match. She was assigned dueling field three after her emblem buzzed and she presented herself at the counter, strolling back onto the floor at a leisurely pace. If even the refs were gonna fuck around this early in the morning, she didn't feel a particular urgency to be serious and run around. She still made it to the field before her opponent, taking a spot in the box the ref directed her to and waiting. And waiting. And waiting.

She had thought she might get another default, but the other fighter showed up about ten minutes into their allotted fifteen minute window. Beth didn't really think anything of it, and gave her opponent a quick once over, not finding anything particularly alarming about the woman. She did note her next opponent didn't have any visible weapons, though she did have a set of massive gauntlets on that more than rivaled the ones Beth wore. Her greaves were also clearly heavily reinforced, mirroring or exceeding Beth's own heavy plate boots. She knew that the signs were pretty clearly pointing to another Unarmed fighter, but she had already seen plenty of stranger things, and wouldn't make any full assumptions until they actually engaged.

The ref here wasn't half-asleep like at field one and went through the full opening intro, though he did do it pretty snappily. Once he had both fighters' consent, he did the standard countdown, dropping his arms and yelling for them to start. The opponent launched herself at Beth, surprising her with her speed, though it wasn't at the level where Beth had trouble tracking her movements. Beth met her charge-for-charge, finding their clash happening just a bit on her side of the center of the field, with the woman opening with a fast, incredibly powerful punch. Beth was barely able to deflect the strike with her sword, being put on the back foot immediately as she had to take a small step back to stabilize after that strike.

The other woman didn't wait for her, of course, but launched into a rapid series of punches and kicks that left Beth struggling just to keep up, unable to match up in speed or strength. It was even worse when she found out that she was thoroughly outclassed in base stats, as pumping her boosts to the maximum didn't help at all. As soon as Beth started moving faster and hitting harder, the woman countered by speeding up and hitting harder herself, clearly only now starting to use her own buffs. And her buffs put her back firmly above Beth in every category, whether it was strength or speed or even resistance to damage. A quick series of punches from the woman followed by a front snap-kick that sent Beth staggering three steps back as it punched past her guard and hit her torso clearly demonstrated such.

Beth really hated this, despite knowing it was something that was bound to happen, repeatedly, as she fought in the arena. Being so easily overwhelmed and tossed around, quite literally as she was grappled and thrown across the ring, by someone who was supposed to be one of her peers was immensely frustrating. It was also, to some extent, exhilarating; this woman was in the same bracket as her and was clearly way more powerful, showing just what kind of potential remained for her to tap into over the next few rebirths. It was also exciting to have someone who outclassed her that she could go all-out against, a person that nothing she did would be excessive or an over commitment.

They met back in the center of the field and Beth fired off rapid punches interspersed with swings of her sword, the changing rhythm of the attacks the only thing that was capable of throwing her opponent off for even a moment. The speed they were moving at, combined with the speed the other woman parried and returned attacks, left Beth almost no time to throw any kicks in, the woman able to continue to pressure Beth with fists and feet while Beth's attacks just didn't allow her to respond adequately. She lashed out with her sword, having the blade deflected up and to the left, having to elbow away a heavy punched aimed at her jaw before matching a side kick with one of her own, only then bringing her sword back down in an overhead chop. She tried not to overcommit to the chop, but the woman slid out from under the strike and knocked it away almost contemptuously, going for a boxing combination in response, Beth blocking the one-two but not quite managing to stop the hook, feeling armor crumpling and bones cracking from the force. The woman had something like Crush only way worse, totally pulverizing whatever her gauntlets made decent contact with, a light hook having done Beth serious injury.

Beth had been holding back to an extent, not wanting to reveal her full capabilities in the arena yet, but this was clearly a time when she needed to lay all her cards on the table. She committed to the hilt, pulling on her Presence to summon her crown, slightly surprised when the woman was a bit slow to respond, seeing a good opening in there. She then immediately used Spatial Step to appear behind the woman and just slightly to her side, a perfect angle for a fully charged Celestial Annihilation to the back of the woman's lightly armored head. The opponent was still summoning her own Presence when Beth's fist made contact with her helm, obliterating the metal and cloth before smashing part of the woman's skull, annihilating some of the bone in the process. The pain was obviously terrible, and having caught her while she was calling on her Presence made it even worse, the woman staggering forward and nearly going down on one knee.

She tried to rise and spin to face Beth, her Presence now fully deployed, making her much deadlier than Beth, but it was all for naught. Beth had predicted the movement nearly perfectly, teleporting again while charging an even more massive strike, appearing just as the woman was spinning and delivering another punch right to the back of her head, the wave of annihilating mana this time catching some of her opponent's brain. The safety measures of the field kicked in instantly, stopping the match while restoring both of them to full health and teleporting the woman out of danger. The ref called the match as soon as he saw they were disengaged, having watched Beth's movements closely to be able to rely on his own judgement for the outcome. It was very rare the arena made wrong decisions or bad calls, but there was a reason for a living ref to be officiating every ranked match or match that involved serious bets or reputational consequences.