Dee parried the sword upwards and dove under the blade. At the same time, she used her gauntleted claws to swipe at her enemy while using a free hand to try and grab her enemy’s sword arm. The enemy quickly retreated out of range and let go of the blade to save his arm from Dee’s grasp. The magical weapon reappeared in his hand almost immediately as the male vampire backpedaled away from Dee to gain his bearings.

“Tch.” Dee gave a small click of her tongue at his escape. She had maneuvered the man into making a mistake, but the man’s skill and quick thinking had saved him. In many ways, her current opponent was the most dangerous enemy she had faced in the arena of the Cauldron of Blood.

She had fought four more times against enemies from the Peak of Glory that denoted the hundred best fighters taking part in the festivities of the Cauldron. The male vampire in front of her was ranked 31, and would be the final opponent Dee would face for a while. Those in the top 30 would all be people that were either immortal or had powerful Authorities with powers that made them rival immortals. Thus both Dee and the Four Winds had decided that she should not go further until gaining her own immortality.

The four enemies she had faced had varied wildly in skill and style, but none of them had been as difficult to face as the enemy she was now facing. The man wielded a blade commonly known as a katana with two hands but could switch to a single-handed grip when needed. The man was very strong and fast, enough that Dee could not just overpower him or completely outpace him with the added speed from Lumen’s blessing. He also used a very strange but intriguing fighting style.

At a glance, his style was deceptively simple. He focused his ki into the edge of the blade, increasing its cutting power, and his muscles to increase speed and strength. When it came to defense he mainly relied on his ability to redirect blows or dodge attacks entirely. Toughness was not his forte, but it was not really needed either. He rarely performed any flashy attacks or used bursts of ki. It gave the appearance of a simple swordsman trying to slash his enemy with the simple blade in his hands. The seeming simplicity belied the sheer skill with which he wielded his blade. Even for a control and flow style fighter like Dee, it was difficult to create any openings to exploit. The simple style also didn’t mean that the vampire had no tricks up his sleeve.

The most obvious difficulty came from the fact that both the vampire’s sword and the rare blades of ki he sent off seemed to ignore any barriers placed in front of it. Dee had tested both barriers made from psionic energy and even those made from holy energy, and they had done nothing. That had been a nasty little surprise. The edge of the sword the vampire used also seemed to be able to cut through any armor like it was made from tissue. Dee had a small wound on one of her hands to show how bad of an idea it was to try to block the sword with her gauntleted hand. The wound had started out much larger and had regenerated into a much smaller wound. The strange energy in the blade made both healing and regeneration slower, which was similar to the corruption caused by Umbra’s power, only less potent.

The style the man used was not entirely without ranged attacks either. Dee had started the fight by trying to blast the obvious swordsman from range, and she'd had some limited success. It was clear that Dee was far better at range, but the vampire had held his own. He had created a storm of tiny blades of ki that moved erratically in his surroundings as if leaves or petals caught in the wind. It was unpredictable and covered a large area. Not enough to match Dee, not by a long shot, but still very effective as the tiny blades passed through all defenses.

He had also created a weird pyramid shaped barrier of ki around himself that seemed to be reflecting some of the power from the attacks against themselves, effectively nullifying them. It had been surprisingly effective against Dee’s dark pearls, which had been completely nullified. At least as projectiles, as the pearls had many other uses. Still, it had made the man into a turtle being bombarded by Dee. She could’ve eventually won the fight that way, but that would’ve been unsatisfying both for the two combatants and the audience. So she decided to match the man’s specialty and defeat him in close combat. That would be much more striking and theatric.

Dee had become something of an audience favorite in her fights due to the seeming ease with which she defeated her opponents and her penchant for beating her enemies in what they were best at. That popularity had reflected well on the Four Winds, so Nyx, in particular, had encouraged her to continue. It also doubled as decent training. Besides, she didn’t need to take advantage of the vampire’s weaknesses to defeat him. In fact, she almost felt a little sorry for him, as covered in wounds as he was.

The vampire had a lot of strengths, and against most enemies his skills would’ve prevailed. Unfortunately, none of it was enough against Dee. He was someone who had dedicated his long life to perfect his own way of fighting, yet Dee was easily showing the wide gap between the two. While the man was strong enough to not get overpowered by her, she was still quite a bit stronger. That forced the man back and prevented him from matching her head-on. He might have been fast enough to somewhat keep up with Dee’s speed, yet she was always a little faster. She got everywhere first and forced him to react to her, putting him on defensive.

When it came to skill, the man’s style and ability to utilize it was topnotch, but he was only using a single style. Dee had been trained by the old man who had drilled hundreds and thousands of styles into her skull, forcing her to adapt and learn to counter them. She also took the best of each style to complement her own. The vampire man’s swordsmanship was one of the styles Dee had been drilled in, even though she could not use it due to her lack of ki. She could see every attack coming and was already there waiting with a counter. Although Dee had received a rather nasty cut on her gauntleted hand, that was simply because she had been caught by surprise and it was the only wound she had received. The vampire, on the other hand, was covered in wounds ranging from small cuts to larger gashes.

As the two stood with a decent distance between them, Dee suddenly lowered her fists and released her stance. “I have enjoyed our little game, and I commend your skill, but I think it’s about time to end this dance, and for you to make your last move. Since it will be the last, make it count.”

The vampire frowned, the expression marring his otherwise delicate appearance. It was true that he was losing, but Dee’s words seemed a little premature. He didn’t understand. Dee had been spending the last fifteen minutes crushing his abilities and his body. She had come here to make a spectacle, and that meant crushing her enemy’s spirit and confidence. And that was what she planned on doing.

The main thing that kept the fight going was the man’s ability to cut through defenses, and it was the primary strength of the fighting style he used. That’s what the whole style was based on and what their school of fighting was founded on. No barrier could hinder their attacks and no armor could block their blade. They could also cut through magical spells with techniques that had not been shown in this fight, as Dee didn’t use such spells. That meant that unless their enemy was much stronger than them, those enemies would have to fight the members of the style with their own skill in close combat. However, nothing was absolute.

It was true that almost no barrier or armor could match the cutting power of the style. Even Dee’s fur in her kitsune form which could match the best magical armor or dragon scales after the incident with the Tree of Life was insufficient against that blade. Not that she had actually tried. Transforming into that form would not have matched her image in the eyes of the audience. However, there were always exceptions. There were certain Authorities that broke all rules and would be able to prevent anything from breaking through them. There were also certain beings and items that would simply be too much. In a meeting of an unstoppable force and an immovable object, the immovable object would in this case win since in the end the technique simply increased the cutting power of the vampire’s attacks. As it happened, Dee also had one such method to block the sword.

Despite his misgivings, the vampire also realized that he was headed towards defeat, so he decided to stake everything on a single attack. The ki around his blade grew much thicker and the blade even seemed to grow in size as the thick aura surrounded it. He dashed forward and slashed towards Dee, who made no move towards trying to defend. As the strike got close, the vampire suddenly saw something lavender colored move faster than he had ever seen and directly block the sword.

In that short moment, the vampire recognized the blocking object as a wing, just before that same wing bashed him away. As he struck the ground, he saw another rapid slash and felt pain in his shoulder. This time he saw a black wing of the same type pinning him to the ground, with the tip of the wing going through his shoulder. He heard Dee’s voice. “I’d like to point out that my wing could’ve just as easily gone through your heart or your head.”

The vampire man slumped in defeat. He knew he had lost utterly. His enemy had already accommodated him in bringing the fight to close quarters, and he had been outfought. Even his precious style had been defeated by the weird lavender wing. “I surrender.” He uttered in a weak tone, signaling the close of this match.

Dee pulled back her wing and flapped both of them just to flex them around a bit. She hadn’t had the chance to really use them for a while, and it felt nice to flex them a little, even if this was not the form usually associated with the wings. She would’ve preferred to hide the color of her lavender wing as it stood out so clearly, but for some reason the wing’s defensive strength increased when it retained the original color. She had not wanted to take any chances.

Even back when she had lost her fight against the lich and had been saved by Moirai, her wing had managed to block attacks from an enemy several ranks higher than herself. The passage of time, the events with the Tree of Life, and her impending immortality had only increased the defensive power of the wing. Incidentally, it had done the same to the offensive power of the black wing, just that she had plenty of other weapons so she rarely used that particular feature of her wing. It still remained as one of her favorite maneuvers though, to block with one wing and attack with the other. The wings also added to her current image, as shown by the reaction of the audience. The appearance of her wings had at first been greeted by a deafening silence, soon followed by a chorus of wild cheers.

As she got out of the arena, she found Nyx waiting. The Meilin representative was counting her winning from the bookies once again. “They’re still allowing you to bet?” Dee asked incredulously.

“Me? No. I have a permanent ban from all the bookies. However, they can’t prevent my associates from placing bets in my stead. That was a really nice fight by the way. Was that the first time someone managed to block those nasty little floating weapons of yours? Anyway, the others have sent a word that we should hurry back. Something has happened. They didn’t give any details in case someone was listening in. So if you could kindly make one of those portals of yours, I would appreciate it.” Nyx replied. She was the person who most often accompanied Dee’s protective detail to the arena, mostly because the two had become something like friends and because Dee was making money for her.

Dee and Nyx found the other representatives huddled over a large mirror placed on the ground. Incidentally, Amarog had been picked as the representative of the wolf beastmen. The group was also accompanied by a pair of seers from the Threads of Fate, one of whom was controlling the mirror. The mirror itself was a square almost three mel tall and wide, and it seemed to be showing a bird’s-eye view of a battle somewhere. There seemed to be only about two dozen beings taking part in the battle, but from what Dee could tell, they were all immortals.

“What’s going on?” Nyx asked as soon as they entered.

“The first Night city communities are making official attacks on the Day city communities of the second and third circle.” The Dagon representative summarized the situation.

“Isn’t it a bit early?” Shunkaha, who was also present, asked. “From everything I hear it should still be years if not decades before the spot in the first circle opens.” Amarog was grooming his son to become the next Alpha of the tribe so he took Shunkaha to all these meetings.

Nyx grunted. “Not really. The spot is opening in Day city after all, so the Night city communities will need some time to really establish themselves and gain a foothold. Gaining a spot in the first circle isn’t as simple as just walking in with a bunch of immortals and demanding the spot. There are certain qualifications they must meet. Besides, they need to have a position from which they can launch an attack against the Crimson Witches and the other top second circle communities.”

Dee suddenly realized a gap in her knowledge and felt a bit silly. “Umm, this might be a bit stupid as a question, but how is the new community for the first circle decided? And how does the whole ranking thing even work?”

The other representatives blinked a bit in confusion before they realized they never actually really talked about it. “Oh right, this isn’t obvious information to people and communities below the third circle.” Shioko was the first to react. They had all assumed Dee knew, even Shunkaha who had been taught by his father. Dee has simply never asked before.

“Well, taking the second question first, there are several ways the rankings can change, but in a nutshell all that is required is for the lower ranked community to claim the spot they vie for and the leader of the community that holds the spot currently must agree. Or if there is no one alive to contest the claim. That has also happened. The agreement of the previous holder of the position can be acquired in many ways, but most common method used is a challenge.” The Anshar representative explained.

“The most common and the one viewed to be the most honorable, but not always the most effective.” Nyx interjected. “The agreement has been given for much seedier reasons such as ransom for a kidnapped relative. It has also been traded away pretty often. Some communities simply buy their ranking, though usually if they don’t’ have the power to protect the ranking they will be brought down pretty quickly.”

“The challenges also work in various ways, but simply put the two sides decide on the terms of the challenge, and the winner gets the spot in the rankings and even the actual physical location in the third or second circle. The most common challenges are battles either between individuals, small groups or large groups. Battles are not the only way, but they make up for the vast majority of challenges.” The Anshar representative continued his explanation.

“Who gets to decide the terms of the challenge?” Dee asked. It was obvious that some communities had a wider base of strong individuals, while other communities had few individuals but those few were very strong. Obviously, they would prefer different terms, as the communities with fewer strong individuals would fare better in small group battles or even duels.

“In theory the two sides have to come to agreement. Usually the challenger comes with a suggestion, but the one being challenged has no obligation to accept. There are outside pressures to accept though, as refusing is looked down upon. Besides, the challenger always has the option of just attacking the other community. The second most common way for a ranking to change hands is an all-out war between the two sides. Like I said, there’s no need to get agreement if there’s no one left to contest the claim.” The Anshar representative replied firmly.

“And the spot in the first circle?” Dee asked after a moment of consideration.

“Well, in theory it should work the same.” Nyx replied with a non-committal shrug. “Only thing is, no one picks a fight with a first circle community. They got their position for a reason. Those spots haven’t changed hands for so long that there’s really no procedure in place. I think everyone’s pretty much winging it.”

“That problem is partly why there is so much chaos brewing. The current situation is somewhat unprecedented.” The seer not in charge of the mirror pointed out. “In theory the Crimson Path should take the spot, but their might is not as absolute as the first circle communities, and everyone smells blood in the water.”

“So the Night city communities are taking precautions and preparations by coming early and establishing a stronghold.” Nyx brought the discussion back on topic. “What exactly is the situation?”

“Well, two second circle communities are currently fighting for their rankings. Unlike the third circle communities, those in the second circle didn’t make alliances and combine communities to make room for the attackers from the Night city. They were all a bit too confident in their own strength after all. One of them seems to be holding, while one of them is clearly losing. There are also Night city communities coming to the third circle, but there’s more room here.” The seer explained.

“What’s the Night city community that is winning, and against who?” Nyx asked.

Shioko grimaced. “The attacker is the Hive and the defending side is the Mystical Kingdom.”

“Damn! We were eyeing the Mystical Kingdom as well.” Nyx made a displeased face. They had made plans on becoming a second circle community in the future as well, and the decadent Mystical Kingdom was ripe for picking and a rich prize to boot. “All that great land will be wasted on the bugs from the Hive.”

“It’s the arid environment. It really favors certain types of insects from the Hive, so they will have an easy time establishing colonies.” Amarog pointed out.

The battle currently being displayed was the one where the Day city community was winning, though the fight was still undecided. Dee frowned as she looked at the mirror, as she felt very little magic from it. The participants of the battle didn’t seem to notice their prying either. “What is this mirror?” She asked the seer.

“Oh, it’s called a Heavenly Mirror. They’re not terribly common, but communities from the second circle and up have at least one. It allows us to stealthily observe almost any location or person, though keeping track of a person is much harder as you can’t just wish to see someone. You need to know where to look for them.” The seer explained.

Dee frowned as a thought suddenly occurred to her. With the faint presence of magic in the mirror, would even her sight be able to spot someone observing her, assuming the mirror was far enough away from her? And hadn’t she been suspecting that someone was observing her on several occasions, but had not noticed anything? “A question. If someone had really good vision, could they use a mirror like this to observe a person from a very long distance?”

The seer frowned a bit. “Theoretically, though like I said, it would be difficult to keep up with a single person.”

“You think someone’s been peeping on you?” Nyx asked with a grin. “Don’t worry, how would anyone be able to keep up with you with your portals?”

Dee wasn’t so sure. She was reminded of the old hunter idea of catching elusive prey. You didn’t track or chase the prey. Instead, you waited where you knew the prey would appear at some point, like a watering hole. A good observer could pick up things from there.

Her thoughts were soon interrupted by the Anshar representative. “That reminds me. Dee, do you have any idea why an angel would have a reason to try and find out information about you?”