The opponent chosen for her second to last match showed more clearly than words the situation. It was a fearsome beast famed throughout the world as a terror with golden fur. Eve witnessed the terrifying roar, which was rather diminished due to the beast’s current look. Indeed, she knew at once that if the Arena had actually been willing to put in effort for these last two fights, things might have been a bit different.

However, her current enemy, was fluffy.

It was also, a kitten.

Indeed, the Arena was clearly attempting to clean up its problems at the same time they handled Eve. There was probably a contract somewhere on a bigshot’s desk that didn’t allow them to kill the offspring of such a terrifying beast as a Nemean Lion. So they threw it in with Eve to wash their hands of the problem without breaking a sweat. She couldn’t leave for the next round without killing her opponent, so it was a nice Catch-22 to be hit with.

Their loss. Eve thought, picking up the tiny terror. I only need to kill my enemies, but there’s nothing that says I need to keep them dead. Besides, all witches need a cat. I’m sure it’s in the mandatory guidelines, somewhere. This one is gold instead of black, but that’s fine.

Yes. Eve was not at all lured in by the thrill of cuddly fluffiness.

Not a bit. She could kill something fluffy, anytime, anywhere. Always.

Since the Arena has chosen to be so accommodating I shouldn’t refuse their kindness. Eve thought with an evil grin. A small paper mouse complete with beady flashing sparkly glittery fur flashed into existence as she peeled Slowoff her Jian to bait the kitten before setting it back down. Since the rogue wasted so much of my time, I can only return the favor.

As she left the Soul Sheet busily dodging the tiny terror cat, Eve got down to business.

Talismans.

There was no doubt that she would be encountering higher Tier opponents in her attempt to escape. Eve would be willing to bet all her earnings that at least a few Tier Four, Fives, and perhaps even a Six would be on hand. If a Six was on hand it would be impossible to escape, but something of such a high Tier would have an exorbitant cost to employ even for a mere fraction of time. Taking action personally against a dust mite like Eve would be something someone double her current Tier could never live down. Eve suspected that if a Six was employed it would be for Spatial Magic. Demonstrating her teleport several times would require a mandatory insurance policy to stop it. If a person could earn more gold and power slaughtering their time away in the Deeps, why bother taking a job that paid less? No one would, unless they were cracked in the head!

No, the likelihood of fightinga Tier Six was about the same as a dragon being on hand. Barring shit luck, it wasn’t too high a possibility.

The System will provide transport after I win to a location of my choosing, but after thinking, Iron never said anything about non-interference. Eve thought as she created a paper table and chair before she started crafting a variety of Talismans. With the mouse attacking and escaping from the kitten, she fulfilled the requirements of constant combat that the rogue, Mick, from the previous match failed to maintain. I can’t believe I got so greedy I lost sight of the fine print. Matt would lord this over me for my entire immortal existence. Best not to mention this part of my adventures in the future. Nodding, Eve wiped this dark history out of existence there was no need for her little brother to learn of such things, overpowered or not, the principal of a big sister must be held sacrosanct! Wilson could still blather the knowledge, but Eve could simply claim it was third hand information, and thus completely unreliable.

Nodding with the brilliant yet slightly skewed logic, Eve printed more talismans using her affinity for Paper and Ink. She could essentially beat any laser printer copy machine from back home in both quantity and quality. Granted, it would be hard for a machine to inlay the mana at the same time they were crafting the talisman. Dwarf machines might be able to do it, or gnomes, those were both master mechanically inclined races, to be sure. Making something into viable magi-tech was almost the defining hallmark of their races.

How many affinities can I have? Eve thought in curiosity as she remembered her three current affinities.

“Status.” Eve said, glancing at the information displayed. She eyed the growing lengthy table before deciding to prune it down to more manageable levels. Switching a few parts around Eve nodded to herself in agreement. It didn’t escape her eyes that the affinities she had now had snuck into the current format, the System was nothing if not pervasive.

Level: 500

Race: Witch

Class: Witch of the Library

Profession: Talismanic Librarian

Affinities (4): Paper, Ink, Space, (None)

Health: 27,000/27,000 (2,700 HPs regen)

Mana: 27,000/27,000 (27,000 MPs regen)

Stats: (+)

Free Stats: 101,800

S/S Slots: 0

Skills: (+)

Spells: (+)

Mental Traits: (+)

Physical Traits: (+)

Eve’s knew her plan to escape by portal was a bad idea. The portal that had brought her into this world had no ill effects due to her brother shielding the house. She had long figured that something had prevented her from being rendered down into her component atoms when traveling the void. When the Hut had reached semi-sentience confirmation of Eve’s idea was obtained with minimal effort.

The images Nota had given Eve made her understand that the Void between worlds was not empty, not by a longshot. The things that moved in such a harsh environment were Entities of a much higher power than her own meager Tier. As such, escaping notice was the only chance.

Eve narrowed her eyes before crafting a few Talismans pumping them full of massive amounts of mana. Her female intuition was ringing alarm bells at the current train of thought. She didn’t know how massive signal flares of mana might help, but for some reason it felt they were vital to assist in her escape. Shrugging her shoulders, she followed her instincts to make the Talismans that felt most applicable.

Several hour later, Eve looked upon her Talismans with glee. The runes were all in Native American languages. While the power of Polyglot was immense, it would still take time to decipher her runes. Glancing at the exhausted kitten by her feet, she sighed. Killing such a fluffy little thing didn’t sit well with her, but it had to be done.

The unfortunate thing about Nemean Lions is their complete resistance to mortal weaponry. Eve thought remembering her Greek History. The Jian that she was carrying shifted to a circular paper ring, much like a collar. Best to copy a hero from the ages.

The ring floated down to wrap around the tiny kitten before choking it to death within a short amount of time. Eve felt the kitten’s pulse ensuring it was no longer living, before taking one of Kudzu’s rarest potions out of her Inventory. A few moments later the kitten had once again rejoined the land of the living, albeit with a suspicious look attached to her features. Slow unraveled into a paper strand before stacking onto the Jian once more. Eve picked up the tiny terror, teleporting back to the waiting room door in a noiseless burst of magic.

She had an hour until her escape attempt and there wasn’t much time left to work with. Attaching a note to the kitten, Eve tossed them into the Hut for Kudzu to handle. Combat preparations were complete on her end, so Eve focused on the mental preparation. She unraveled her Soul Sheets storing them within her Inventory.

A bath was created, heated, and prepared and Eve scented the water with relaxing aromatic herbs. She allowed herself to luxuriate in the bath for forty-five minutes before finally getting out. Cleaning up with fluffy paper towels Eve unraveled the room’s defenses with the exception of the doorway leading out into the Arena corridor. She took a special glee in creating a solid runic barrier filled with explosive talismans. Anyone coming in from that door to her waiting room was in for a wonderful treat.

As the soft chime sounded, Eve crafted a skin tight paper jumpsuit before wearing the one piece. Floating, she drifted up the exit ramp, trapping the corridor, ramp, and ceiling with more talisman traps. Exiting onto the sands, she floated to the starting stone dais.

Her opponent took several minutes to arrive, and the reason was instantly obvious. The cat released for this fight was deathly sick, barely able to summon up the energy to reach the enemy stone dais. Once her opponent had managed to reach the other side’s starting point, the ill cat collapsed breathing roughly. Mange, wounds, and a poisonous green ichor dripped from Eve’s newest opponent.

What am I, the garbage disposal unit now? Eve thought in annoyance. Glancing up at the shield overhead she took a look around noting there were hooded and robed people spaced around the Arena stands now. There wasn’t a single sign of the crowds from before. Counting carefully, there were only twelve people split among the cardinal points in even numbers. Eve couldn’t accurately make out the mana of her observers since the Arena shield prevented accurate reading.

Well, time to start phase one. Eve thought. She leaped up into the air pulling a plethora of talismans from her Inventory as she rose into the air. Bracing one hand against the dome high above the Arena sands, Eve threw the talismans down at the enemy below.

Moments before they struck Eve mustered her mana triggering resonance. Her hand touching the Arena shield allowed her to decipher the frequency, and her two newest abilities joined in boosting the ripple effect.

Harmony of Nature I and Nature’s Song I were both massive multipliers purchased for this singular opportunity. The combined effects of both were crucial in creating a breach.

Eve wasted no time, as soon as cracks appeared on the Arena shield, she threw explosive talismans en masse.

The observers below had one moment to realize things were not proceeding according to plan before the shield gave way.

Without delay Eve teleported into the open air above the Arena, at the same time the sickened cat below died. Wasting no time she made another line of sight teleport out of the city into the desert sands.

No way escaping is this easy. Eve thought as she pushed her speed further, accelerating through the desert without delay. She managed to reach the Story Steles within a short amount of time using a large amount of mana. Looking back at the city in the distance the glow of multiple mana signatures racing towards her location was brighter than the sun burning overhead.

Wasting no time Eve sliced her left palm placing it onto the left portal stele. The space between both steles gained a murky rippling black like liquid tar given life and form. Eve threw several talismans in to no apparent effect before she attempted to step through.

Grinning she moved to enter the portal before being bounced back.

Shit. Eve thought, turning to look at the massive mana signature that revealed itself several paces away. Tier Five, without a doubt. Her eyes couldn’t look directly at the individual, instead glancing to the side at the lesser signatures on approach from the city. The faint image she caught from her side glances revealed the form of a massive drake superimposed within the mana surrounding the space mage blocking her escape.

Eve hastily scribbled a message on a piece of paper, floating it to the enemy. She watched as the middle aged man took the paper with a raised eyebrow and opened it to look inside.

“Tenebras consumit, qui elegit me in societatem perlicere iussus. Adiuua me, et retribuetur ei. Et aeternum oblivioni noces exemplum maxime errare potest errare.” the space mage read aloud. A soft chuckle escaped the mage before he said, “There is no way a lower life form could have contact with the Darkness. Setting aside the normal idiocy of cults, do you really think this would be worth me placing my trust in?”

“The System can verify the truth of it!” Eve said, her eyes tracking the closing mana signatures of people who would be far less reasonable.

“No thank you. I’ll take my payment for keeping you contained.” the drake mage who faking being a real space mage replied with a shrug.

Eve narrowed her eyes as she realized the drake mage was somehow twisting space so that her own Domain didn’t take effect to block him. It merely reinforced the terror of a higher Tier to Eve. A soft sigh escaped her as the three fastest pursuers landed to her right. She glanced at the other mana signatures in the distance, but they weren’t a threat. It would take hours for anyone else to arrive at the speeds she departed.

“Are you certain I can’t convince all of you to let me escape?” Eve said.

The three new arrivals ignored her words, as the leader of the trio turned to the sand drake mage saying, “Greetings, Lord Raphael. Thank you for your assistance.”

Lord Raphael merely grunted not taking his eyes from Eve. The trio’s leader took the snub in stride, clearly understanding he was a far lesser being. Eve estimated her new enemy arrivals to be one Tier Five, and two Tier Fours. In the time it took her to analyze their mana emission signatures, the leader barked simple orders, “Mitchell provide water, Alan provide air, I will seal the woman in place!”

Mitchell immediately provided a globe of water to Eve’s left, while Alan provided a small portal of air to her right. Eve looked on as five glowing spheres surrounded her. The topmost sphere exerted a precise force of gravity, bypassing her Domain with the power of basic physics. As soon as she floated up in to the air, a sixth sphere became stationed underneath her feet.

Eve felt gravity lose hold of her as she was suspended within a field of perfect force transposed like a fly in amber. The wind around her died into nothing, as the only source of air was the small portal maintained by Alan.

“Another fantastic display of skill Master Vor!” Alan gushed, clearly laying it on thick.

“As expected of Master Vor, terrific work.” Mitchell added, the scent of a brown nose clear even with the air around Eve frozen into motionlessness.

“Look, I’ll make you all a deal. Let me go now, and I won’t hunt you down and extinguish nine generations of your families in the future. Scout’s honor.” Eve said raising her hand to give the honorable motion of girl scouts who swore sacred oaths on Earth. Her voice echoed through a piece of paper outside the stasis field. Bibliotheca Body managed to prevent her from being unable to think.

“How exactly do you expect to escape, girl?” Master Vor said, a sneer apparent in his voice.

“Oh, I can’t escape. I have no clue how you are doing it, but I’m well and truly trapped. The power of higher Tiers is pretty bullshit.” Eve said calmly, “But I’m not the one you need to worry about.”

Mitchell and Alan looked at each other before Alan said, “Who should we worry about then, idiot?”

“Yourselves,” Eve said, putting everything into pointing her bleeding left hand to the portal that was still active. It took all her mana to gesture and say, “Don’t you think it’s strange the drake mage hasn’t closed that yet?”

The trio’s expression turned to Lord Raphael as everyone witnessed the powerful fake space mage’s forehead dripping with sweat.

“Run.” Lord Raphael said, his eyes never leaving the portal.

Eve felt vindication in her intuition as every eye snapped to the rippling darkness of the portal.

Within the deep swirling black, multiple questing tendrils breached into the desert’s air.

“No plan survives contact.” Eve said with a wide manic grin.