Pandora Unchained - a Cultivation Progression Fantasy

Three days before the Shrine Descent, Sorin received a letter from Haley that included a private-class ticket for the afternoon's arena matches. Since refusing Haley wasn't an option, Sorin reluctantly headed to the sweaty and crowded entertainment venue. Thanks to his two-star apothecary medallion, mortals and cultivators alike gave him a wide berth.

The arena was a massive one that could seat as many as 50,000 people. It was made of large stone blocks augmented by steel and glass stands, as well as a large four-sided mage screen providing a magnified and curated view of the competitors.

Betting between combatants was possible, but Stephan's afternoon match was a mystery exhibition match. Exhibition matches pitted human combatants against demons, making the normal betting system impractical. Instead, the combatants were rewarded based on the 'tips' they earned by pleasing the fickle audience.

Sorin wasn't the first member of their team to arrive. Haley had yet to arrive, but Gareth was already sitting on a small couch. There was one other person in the room: the myth binder, Astley, whom Sorin had not seen in many months. The fashionable scholar was clearly in her element in Delphi, wearing a black and red dress cut according to recent fashions. The room smelled faintly of dusty books and cigarette smoke.

"Mr. Kepler," Astley greeted as Sorin entered.

"You look stunning as always, Ms. Chaser," answered Sorin. "It's clear that your talents were wasted in the countryside."

Astley's lips broke into a smile. "It seems returning to your ancestral home has had quite the effect. You never used to be so cautious with your words; should I start doubting your sincerity?"

"It's been a while, Gareth," said Sorin, greeting the team's archer. "How did that monitoring job you were talking about go?"

"It went as expected," answered Gareth. "I found nothing amiss and collected a lot of meaningless information. The pay wasn't bad, and my client was pleased with my performance."

Sorin ordered a drink from the attendant at the door and took a seat. The private room was furnished with plush couches and ample table space. The current fight was between two gladiators in the arena: Bone-Forging rogues specializing in stealth. They'd chosen a battlefield well-suited for their class. The bulk of the commentary revolved around near misses and close calls, and in the end, the match dragged on for 45 minutes before one rogue committed a small error, granting his opponent the initiative.

Neither Astley nor Gareth was keen on talking, so Sorin was greatly relieved when Lawrence and Daphne walked in. "What's she doing here?" snapped Daphne as she spotted Astley. "I hope it wasn't one of you who brought her along because there will be hell to pay once Stephan's fight is over."

Astley maintained her calm demeanor and even lit up her cigarette. "It's nice to see you too, Miss Philips. Life was proving quite dull without your stubborn banter, though I do hope you brushed up on your history lessons since last time."

"And here I was wondering why my danger-sensing skill was tripping just outside the room," said Lawrence, waving. "Hey Sorin, hey Astley, hey Gareth. Have you all lost weight? And wait, what is that smell?" He rushed up to the small table Lorimer had occupied and snatched a half-eaten chocolate chip cookie from the rat, provoking a hiss. "These… thieves. These immortal, unsociable recipe thieves! This is clearly my father's recipe."

"Isn't it much more likely that it's the other way around?" said Gareth, finally deigning to speak.

"Impossible," said Lawrence. "My dad is many things, but dishonesty isn't one of them. His cookie recipe is, and I quote, 'totally original and definitely not copied from anywhere.'"

Sorin couldn't help but chuckle as Lawrence ate the half-eaten cookie. Lorimer jumped on the rogue, and a battle ensued, wherein they proceeded to take turns eating a cookie while the other tried their best to steal it.

Light discussion ensued as the rogues left the arena, and the arena staff prepared for the exhibition match. The door opened just as Stephan walked onto its blood-soaked sand, and frightened cultivators started pulling open spike-covered gates.

"It's good to see that everyone showed up," said Haley as she walked in. "I was worried some of you might interpret my invitation as a request and not show up."

Sorin's eyes narrowed as he inspected Haley. Others might not be able to tell, but Sorin had interacted with many powerful individuals since arriving in Delphi. His instincts screamed danger in a way that only made sense if Haley had secretly entered the Flesh-Sanctification Realm.

"These exhibition matches aren't ideal for showcasing Stephan's talents," Haley continued, "but the skills he'll use in this matchup are very transferable to the Shrine Descent, as you'll primarily be fighting demons.

"Throughout the years, there have been three main formats: monster hunt, runic labyrinth, and demonic arena. All of these challenges involve fighting a large number of mutated two-star demons. Some formats are suitable for teams, and others are better suited to individuals."

She paused as Stephan entered the arena with his arms raised to please the crowd. His hands were pre-transformed into bear paws, prompting a prominent group of fans in the stands to start shouting, "Bear! Bear! Bear!"

Notably absent was Stephan's armor; the beastshift warrior wore nothing but a simple loincloth, meaning that his abnormally thick hair chest and back hair were on full display. Stephan's carved musculature was a testament to how much effort he'd been putting into his training.

"He really does look like a bear without a shirt on," muttered Lawrence. "Is he sensitive about it?"

"He used to be," said Haley. "I used to call him a bear all the time when he was younger. It became a sort of mental trauma, and as a result, he became obsessed with bears."

"So his class…"

"Mostly incidental," answered Haley. "There aren't many in our clan who pick it up. Now, this should be interesting. This fight isn't a four-on-one like I expected, but an eight-on-one. I wonder if he'll lose a limb this combat."

Sorin's eyes widened in disbelief. These two-star demons weren't just first-forging demons. Each gave off an aura that was no less powerful than that of a third-forging cultivator.

Stephan, the experienced gladiator as he was, quickly shifted into his Pigmy Shadow Bear form and darted out from the demons' encirclement. He utilized what appeared to be a movement technique to probe each of his opponents: three demonic wolves, two demonic tigers with strange eyes, a horse with a fiery mane, a badger with metallic fur, and a red-eyed demonic weasel that was just as quick as the Pigmy Shadow Bear.

"Nice!" said Lawrence as he watched Stephan weave between his multiple opponents to evade the demonic weasel. "It looks like he's been working his but off. Is that a skill he's using? I thought one of his weaknesses was that he didn't have many skills."

"It's something he's been working on during his time in the arena," explained Haley. "Beast Shift Warriors can't learn many skills because their transformations tie up skill slots. That's why most of them end up specializing.

"But that's not to say the forms themselves can't be improved. What you're seeing here is an innate skill of the Pigmy Shadow Bear, Shadowless Prowl. It also has an innate stealth technique and a devastating attack technique that deals extra damage to opponents taken unaware."

The weasel was a tricky opponent for Stephan, but by using the other seven demons he was fighting as screens, he eventually managed to evade the weasel's line of sight and blend in the shadows. This proved confusing for the demons in question.

Just as they started sizing each other up, the Pigmy Shadow Bear appeared behind the weasel and tore a deep gouge into its fur. He followed up on the first attack with a second and a third until, finally, the weasel was slain, and Stephan transformed into his Silver Spine Grizzley form to receive the simultaneous attacks from seven two-star demons.

"Frenzied Shadow Maul is a risky technique," explained Haley. "It's an attack technique that can't be stopped. Once used, he enters a berserk and single-minded state that won't end until the enemy he's targeted is either slain or leaves his perception range.

"That's quite the downside," commented Gareth. "But I suppose it more than makes up for it with its devastating damage."

"And once his enemy is slain, he'll immediately regain his lucidity," agreed Haley. "Note how swiftly he entered Silver Spine Grizzley Bear form and activated two of his skills, Needle Bite Accumulation and Silver Spine Defense. The former allows him to build up attack potential as he takes blows, while the second allows him to survive this combined attack. As for this form's third innate skill, Silver Spine Explosion… well, you can see for yourself."

As the words left Haley's mouth, a devastating flurry of metal burst outward, with Stephan as the point of origin. Thousands of needles blasted back all seven attacking demons and severely injured them. Stephan's body was badly mangled and covered in blood. His eyes were tinged fiery red.

Yet instead of attacking head-on like Sorin expected, Stephan restrained himself and transformed into his third form, Arctic Rune Bear. The stands shouted, "Bear! Bear! Bear!" as an ice field spread out from the creature and trapped his opponents in place. A thick layer of ice coated the bear's mangled hide, freezing his wound shut and creating a makeshift suit of armor.

Included in this suit of armor was a pair of clawed gauntlets, which Stephan used to devastating effect. According to Haley, the first skill was called Ice Hell Prison, and the second skill was called Ice Hell Armor. He also had a passive skill called Ice Hell Reflection. It enabled any ice-attributed attacks he inflicted on slowed or frozen opponents to reflect off the original target and cause 'splash damage.' In other words, attacking one target was the same as attacking them all.

It came as no surprise when the first enemy fell in ten seconds flat and the second fell in five. Each subsequent enemy took fewer attacks to take down until, finally, only the two tigers remained.

Stephan could have easily ended the fight quickly, but he chose the flashiest method to take them down. A spectral sun and moon appeared as his paw began to glow with a bright light.

"Lunisolar Paw!" shouted Stephan as the paw blasted the arena sands apart. Bits of mangled flesh fell from the sky as the dust cleared, adding a bright coat of red to the arena's crimson sands.

"Bear! Bear! Bear!" the audience shouted, and Stephan, clearly reveling in the attention he was getting, transformed back into his human form with bear paws. His body was covered in deadly injuries, only held together by a thick layer of frost.

"This, ladies and gentlemen, is the standard of a participant in the Shrine Descent," Haley said as Stephan left the arena. "Every individual participating will either meet or exceed it. Moreover, each team participating can't be lacking in a single aspect. Whether it be damage dealing, stealth, spells, runes, or rituals, all of these can't be lacking.

"That's why I invited Miss Chaser to this exhibition match. You've all worked with her before and displayed great effectiveness as a team. Conveniently, Miss Chaser is keen on participating in the Shrine Descent but lacks a team. It's a match made in Olympus."

"This is a terrible idea, and I won't stand for it," interjected Daphne.

"Don't worry," said Astley. "I try not to get offended by offhand comments by the ignorant and the proud. Defending myself against such petty insults is tedious at best."

"And this is exactly the type of behavior other teams won't be displaying," said Haley. "Daphne, I understand your philosophical disagreements with Astley, but you can't deny that she complements your standard magic with atypical magic and makes up for your lack of expertise in divination and ritual magic.

"Astley also shores up a key weakness in your team's composition: the lack of a secondary tank. Stephan can do just fine if you're not surrounded, but Natural Selection's range is limited. Daphne, Gareth, and Lawrence all require full mobility to fully display their skills, which is why Sorin's talents have been wasted as a secondary tank instead of the damage dealer he's supposed to be."

She paused as the door slid open, revealing Stephan, now fully clothed and healed up. "Man, that fight was rough," said Stephan, plopping himself onto a couch. "Exhibition matches are supposed to be easy, you know? If I didn't know any better, I'd think my dear sister was trying to get me killed.

"Oh, hey, everyone. And is that Astley? Daphne, were you and Astley fighting against? I've told you many times that's not the image we're trying to present."

"Daphne was just saying how delighted she'd be to work with Astley during the Shrine Descent," said Haley.

"Say what now?" said Stephan, surprised. "Oh, I see what's going on. I said it before, and I'll say it again: adding another team member now isn't a good idea. It'll wreck our coordination."

The room's atmosphere grew chilly as Haley, who'd kept her aura withdrawn the entire time, suddenly came bearing down on the entire group. Sorin had expected a display of power and remained relatively unaffected. The others, however, were having a hard time coping.

"I'm sorry. Was there something you wanted to say?" Haley asked with a smile that was not a smile. She withdrew her Flesh-Sanctification Power, allowing everyone in their group to let out a sigh of relief."

Stephan quickly made eye contact with everyone on the team. Daphne looked resigned, and Lawrence made throat-cutting gestures. Lorimer crawled between his legs and used the rogue as a human shield.

"Right," said Stephan. "Like I was saying, it would be most prudent to add a critical member to shore up our team's weaknesses. Are we all in agreement?" Everyone, including Sorin, nodded. "Then, on behalf of everyone, I'd like to officially welcome you as a probationary member to Team 'We Don't Need a Life Mage. ' It's a great name, and we stand by it. We'll fight anyone who dares say otherwise."