Limitless Path

The woman Beth finally talked to was very polite, asking, "What can I help you with today?"

"I'd like to schedule my first ranked fight. I don't really know exactly how the scheduling works…" Beth explained.

"May I see your emblem?" she asked.

"Oh, right, sorry," Beth said, pulling out her emblem and handing it to the woman.

"I see you have several official matches, but haven't participated in any of the Ladders yet. Is that correct?" the woman asked.

"Yes, that sounds correct. I had a few official duels against a group a while ago but haven't done any of the Ladders or ranked matches yet," Beth replied.

"And you are looking to sign up for the Ranked Singles Ladder?" she asked.

"That sounds right. I want to fight others one-on-one and get on the boards," Beth replied with a nod.

"So, just to cover how it works, we break the early brackets into Awoken and Empowered, without much stricter regulation than that. Higher tiers of the Ladder are regulated slightly differently, but that will likely not be a concern of yours for quite some time yet. When you sign up for a match, you will be entered into a queue of Awoken, and your opponent will be randomly chosen. That opponent may be a remote opponent at another Hall, but that is highly unlikely based on the current request volume at this Hall. Would you like to join the queue?" the woman explained before asking.

"Yes, please," Beth said.

"You've been registered," the woman said after a moment, handing her emblem back. "As long as you are within the city, your emblem will pulse when a match is found. You have fifteen minutes to appear at the arena coordinator under the stands by rooms 1S01 and 1S02. If you don't show up in time, it will be registered as a loss, so please pay attention, as such losses cannot be undone or overwritten."

"Ah, OK, we have a room in the underworks where we'll be, so I don't think that'll be a problem," Beth said. "How do I check my ratings? Is it just on the net?"

"Yes, you can ask us what your rating is or check the net if you have a communicator," the woman explained.

"Alright, we have communicators, so that's no problem," Beth said.

"Anything else?" asked the woman with a polite smile undercut a bit by a slightly brisk tone.

"No, ma'am. Thanks for the help," Beth said with a nod to the woman before turning and leaving.

They started back down to their room, as Beth said they were likely going to do, but before they even made it to one of the elevators under the arena stands, she detected her emblem vibrating even though it was in her stat screen. She immediately pivoted on her heel, Blood stumbling a half step before spinning and catching up as Beth strode off down the hallway in a different direction. It didn't take more than a dozen seconds for her to find the area by rooms 1S01 and 1S02 where there was a counter embedded in the wall with a dozen people gathered around. Two attendants worked the counter and rapid-fire assigned people to rooms or places on the arena floor, and Beth saw their speed was due to a large volume of traffic, as more people walked up at roughly the same pace they left with their assignment.

She joined the gaggle around the counter and it was only a minute before an attendant demanded her emblem in a clipped voice. She scanned it and then told Beth to head to dueling field six before spinning to the next person, who already had their emblem out and ready. Beth made her way out from the underworks onto the arena floor, blending together with the other foot traffic. It wasn't crowded, per se, but there was a constant flow of people in and out all day long, and she was a part of that flow, making her way to the further end of the floor where the individual fields were located.

She found her opponent already waiting for her at the field, along with a referee that had been in constant attendance on the field for hours already that day. As soon as she stepped up to the field, the ref pointed them each to a side and waited for them to make themselves ready before going through his whole preparatory routine. They were cycling fields in these matches fast enough even during a normal day that there wasn't any great pomp and circumstance, nor much extra time taken for anything. Beth only had a moment to observe the man she would be facing, a tall human with dark skin and chainmail armor that wielded a longsword and a dagger.

The ref got both of their agreements after his short spiel, holding a hand up to Beth first before holding a hand to the man. When they had both nodded or bowed to him, he indicated that they were ready and counted them in before dropping his hands and yelling for them to start. The man was far more aggressive than Beth, who was just a bit hesitant in her first ever official, ranked Ladder match. He charged her straightaway, blitzing her as she moved forward slowly, readying her greatsword and starting to burn her buffs. It was a bit deceptive, as with her buffs burning at full power she could move incredibly quickly and hit immensely hard, but at the same time she could walk across the arena floor and slow roll her opponent, making him think she was slow and scared.

When he was two steps away from her, Beth leapt towards him with a monstrous burst of speed and power, slightly surprising the man. Likely he was at least a bit experienced in fighting other people and a sudden move like that wasn't something entirely new, though just how fast and strong Beth was clearly still surprised him. She met his sword with hers, spinning slightly to the left to avoid a probing slash from his dagger before bringing her sword around in a horizontal chop. He responded by stepping back and deflecting her blade with a parallel slash of his own, but was genuinely surprised when Beth let go of the hilt of her blade with her right hand during the attack to punch him in the face. He parried with his dagger hand, but the attempt was sloppy and Beth still caught him on the cheek, clearly overwhelming him for a moment.

He recovered quickly, however, and slashed at her rapidly, likely using some kind of skill to accelerate his swinging speed to faster than his DEX and weaponskill would otherwise allow. Beth stayed calm and deflected every attack, getting a feel for the opponent's skill level, particularly his weaponskill. She was a bit surprised as she saw several openings in his technique, realizing his skill was only a bit into the Journeyman ranks, almost a full tier below her. That kind of difference was something difficult to overcome even using other skills, and it appeared he only had some kind of minor speed-boosting skill on top of the flurry-like skill. Beth's Swift and Beastly Body combined would have been more than enough to counter his speed, but coupled with her skill advantage, she was easily able to hold him off without even giving ground.

Beth was becoming much more confident as the seconds wore on, but she was experienced enough to know not to make any broad assumptions in a fight. When the opponent's flurry skill ran out, she decided it was now her turn, starting with a swift chop followed by an overhead slash that transformed into a Crush infused side-kick. The man deflected or parried every hit, though she was able to notice a distinct wince in response to the kick through his open-faced helm. She followed the kick with two quick slashes, reversing her blade with a tricky twist of her wrist to make the second slash happen surprisingly quickly, catching him off guard before she again kicked him in the same place. He had more trouble stopping the blow the second time and wasn't prepared for Beth's speed to rocket through the ceiling to deliver the blow a third time as soon as he finished blocking it.

Beth forced an opening with the kick, chopping at his head while he was slightly off balance before taking advantage of his strong deflection to burst forward and shoulder check him, slamming the edge of her armored shoulder into the center of his chest. The unusual move was clearly a surprise to him, the man staggering two steps back before he could regain control of his balance, though that was already too late. Beth burst forward after the shoulder check and lashed out with a leg that was little more than a blur to her opponent, smashing into his left leg and pulverizing his armor while cracking the bones beneath. He had not even had a chance to recover his balance and was nearly entirely knocked off his feet, opening him to a Monstrous Blow to his side, lifting him from the ground and sending him flying into the barrier around the arena.

Beth didn't take that as a victory, pursuing him across the dueling field floor to slam into him again, the man blocking her sword but failing to block a powerful hook to his injured side that was followed by a swift kick to his injured leg. He was getting desperate and used a skill that created a blast of lightning on his dagger that he lobbed at Beth, but she exploded forward through the attack, sending streaks of blue and white electricity flickering across the ground and through the air around her. She smashed her blade into the man's side again, his dagger out of position again as he was still finishing the gesture to throw the lightning blast. This time, her blade caught him against the wall, chopping into his damaged armor and splitting his chest partially open.

She withdrew the blade with a terrible ripping sound and a gout of blood, using that moment to shift her weight and punch him in the injured area with her left hand with full force, seeing his eyes widen and blood burst from his mouth in a thick spray. She was already moving for the next strike, her blade blurring through the air when the man disappeared, the ref declaring Beth the winner as she staggered slightly, having expected the resistance of his body in the middle of the swing. She straightened up and saw the man back on 'his' side of the ring, his wounds healed and his gear restored. He gave her a deep but quick bow, straightening and walking from the arena rapidly. The ref then asked Beth to clear the ring so it could be ready for the next fight, Beth exiting the ring quickly, glancing around to see the stands about a quarter full and not many people paying attention to the singles matches.

There weren't any high-end or well-known participants in the singles, which meant the more entertaining draw for many was the group matches, of which there were three fields constantly cycling teams of three and five in group battles. People rarely did doubles, so there wasn't any field currently solely dedicated to it, and if Beth and Blood wanted to participate in larger-scale fights, they'd have to find either a solid third or even three more they could add to their line-up. Beth thought about Sabs and her sisters, but Sabs was still a fresh wound, and her sisters just didn't quite operate at the level needed to keep up with them.

She stopped for a moment to watch the group battles, seeing two teams of five enter a field and get ready, one team in mostly heavy plate while another was in much lighter leather and armored robes. It was a bit of a brawn versus brains match, with the lightly armored team having a variety of spells at their disposal while the heavily armored team used brute strength and heavy muscle to try to mash their opponents quickly. The problem for the casters was the heavy team clearly had a lot of resistances, combined with enchanted armor, that let them power through a lot of the lightly armored team's damage. The fight looked like it was going to entirely go in the heavies’ favor until three of the light team's members cast some kind of joint spell that dealt a devastating blow to the opposing team, flat out eliminating two of their members and heavily injuring a third.

Beth lost a bit of interest at that point as it was pretty clear there wasn't anybody really outstanding on either team. None of the ten people were a lynchpin that their team was built around, nor a powerful elite that could operate independently and turn the tide of a fight. It was nice to get a chance to see how people at her relative level of strength fought in groups, but without anybody standout, it wasn't exceptionally entertaining, at least not to her.

She had lost track of Blood as she came out to the arena floor to fight, and the wolf wasn't there when she went back under the stands. She wasn't bothered by it, even by Blood missing her fight, if she did, and went back through the ground floor to the front. She approached the same desk in the lobby again and signed up for another fight, putting herself back in the queue. It was apparently a pretty hot day for Awoken, as shouldn't really be a surprise considering that solo fights in that tier were the biggest overall bracket, and she was up again in just a minute. She went back down to the same counter on the ground floor under the stands, knowing now to present her badge as soon as an attendant was ready for her.

Returning to the floor of the arena, she made her way to field four this time, finding another male opponent waiting for her with a female referee, a very short woman who was barely wearing anything but palpably radiated power, getting them into position as soon as Beth walked up. She went through the introductions and opening very quickly, starting the fight barely a second after they had both nodded their readiness to her. Beth had to say, it was a little bit distracting as, despite her short stature, the woman was very well endowed, and dropping her arms and yelling caused a lot of bouncing and jiggling.

She was less distracted than the man somehow, as she burst forward after half a second and was still moving before him. The distraction of the ref proved almost unnecessary, as she quickly discovered she was faster, stronger, and more skilled than this opponent. Where the previous man had put up a bit of a decent fight, certainly in the beginning, this man was not at the same level. If he had a boosting skill, it wasn't very powerful, and his weaponskill was likely not even at Journeyman. Beth wasn't really sure what somebody like him was doing challenging ranked fights in the arena, but she wasn't going to go easy on him just because he'd overestimated himself. She slammed a series of rapid and brutal sword blows into him, tearing open his armor and seriously injuring his torso. It wasn't long after that that she had dealt him enough damage that the ring considered it fatal and ended the match, teleporting him away from a sword swing that would have definitely put an end to the match if the accrued damage hadn't done it.