Aegis snagged another arena worker from nearby to take his place at the entrance booth before he led her to a small changing area. Off to the side of the circular wooden bleachers that made up the edges of the amphitheater were 6 cloth tents arranged in a neat grid pattern. Most appeared mundane, but there was one that had a dim glow to it, and when Samantha took a closer look she could see Qi enchantments gracefully stitched into the surface.

Noticing her attention, he helpfully explained, “That tent is primarily for female contestants to change. It cannot be scryed into with arts and has a few other basic security features as well, so no one can barge in on you once you’re inside. Very sturdy material too. In years past there was an… incident before the fights, so we made the investment to get this made.”

“I see. And you mentioned some sort of uniform before?”

“There are several sets of uniforms and spare masks in various sizes in each tent, so feel free to use whatever suits you. If there’s not a good fit in one tent, you are welcome to pick and choose from the others.”

“Could you step inside the enchanted tent briefly so I can test the security for myself?”

“Of course, Lunara.” he said amicably, and obliged her request.

The scripts seemed to brighten slightly as he crossed into the tent, and the flaps stuck together as if they were glued or sewn as they shut behind him. Samantha pressed her hand against the entrance, and true to his word the opening held fast no matter how hard she pushed. She even tried to lift up the bottom of the tent to no avail, the entire structure feeling solid as rock, so long as the script was active. After a few more moments, Aegis emerged and the tent embroidery dimmed slightly once more.

“I won’t bore you with the inner workings of the enchantment, but let’s just say you’d need to be at least a Bronze to force your way inside.” Aegis beamed, obviously proud of the quality of the work they’d commissioned.

Satisfied with her findings, Samantha nodded and gave a shallow bow in thanks before she gingerly entered the enchanted tent herself. There was a familiar brightening of the scripts and sealing of the entrance flaps behind her as she walked in that told her that the enchantments had activated.

It was taller than it was wide, reaching perhaps 7 feet high and 5 feet across in both directions. As he mentioned, cultivators' robes in muted colors were neatly folded in stacks on a small side table next to a pile of thick, fabric head coverings.. She went through the clothing options to find a set that fit her smaller frame and quickly changed attire, leaving her mask for last.

She had been expecting masks similar to the one the fighters were wearing when she first walked in--something metallic and well crafted. She could only conclude that those masks must have been custom ordered, because these offered no protection at all. There were different types of textiles the masks were made of, some canvas, some silken, but the only one that fit her head and face shape well was a sort of elastic material. Still, in some ways it was an improvement to go into a fight with this over her head instead of the one she was loaned. For one, she was loath to damage something she had to return later. Secondly, at least this fabric mask wouldn’t shatter and potentially damage her face if struck.

There was no mirror in the tent to look herself over, but she imagined that the word “bland” would come to mind. The robes and mask were both a light tan color, with nothing that could even loosely be interpreted as decorative. The elastic mask fully covered her head, except for a horizontal opening at eye level that allowed her to see out of it. Samantha didn’t mind that much in truth, beggars couldn’t be choosers and it would suffice for a fight or two.

She placed her old set of clothes and headwear in her empty satchel, and spoke with Silas briefly before she left the changing room to meet back up with her impromptu guide.

“Hey, Silas, you there?”

“Yes, I’m really bored though. Will you be back soon?”

“Probably not for a couple hours yet, but I wanted to warn you that I’m going to be fighting in a tournament soon. Can you get to that half pack of healing herbs leftover from when we fought those 3 cultivators in the forest?”

Samantha felt an ominous surge of hunger and excitement through their bond at her question, and she quickly added, “Don’t eat them now!”.

“...You’re no fun, Sam.”

“It’s highly likely I’ll get hurt in the fights, though hopefully not too badly. You can eat them then. If all goes well, I’ll be able to buy you some more herbs on the way out to replace these ones.”

Silas sighed in disappointment as his gluttonous aspirations were dashed, but reluctantly agreed. “Fine. At least I will get to eat them though, right?”

Samantha couldn’t help but chuckle at that. He wasn’t at all worried about getting a few injuries so long as he was allowed to eat his fill. “Yes, you will.”

There was one more thing that Samantha wanted to do before leaving the tent, and that was checking her status sheet. It had been a while since she looked it over, and there was no better time for a refresher than before a fight.

Name: Samantha Cray

Age: 17

Cultivation Level: Mid Copper

Qi pool: 17/18 (+0.8 qi points/hour [+1.6 with Sage’s Rumination])

*Excess qi regen currently allocated to Flawless Regeneration

Body Cultivation:

Heart Meridian (Endurance)

Combat Arts:

Flawless Regeneration (Variable cost)

Meridian Requirements: Heart

By cycling qi through your heart meridian and circulatory system, you can repair any physical wound your qi has access to! All regeneration will occur without scarring, incorrectly set bones, or misplaced organs, so crippling injuries are a thing of the past! Qi cost varies greatly based on severity of the damage and the speed at which you want the healing to occur.

Inspect (Base cost 1 qi)

By focusing your spiritual senses on a target, you can get basic information about it. This art will have a higher rate of success for targets at or below your cultivation level and stage. On failure, has a chance to notify the target of your attempt. Extra qi can be expended to learn more details, but the cost will always be a minimum of 1.

Swift (Base cost 1 qi/second)

For every 1 qi point spent per second, you will gain +2 agility. For each additional qi point spent per second, gain +1 agility. After the ability ends agility will return to normal levels

Passive Arts:

As One

You and your bond share vitality. If one is wounded or healed, the effect is split between the two parties. You will rise or fall as one.

Prey’s Perception

Gain increased passive awareness of your surroundings. Affects all senses

Poison Connoisseur

Inherit the toxin processing abilities of your bond. You will more easily gain resistances to any poisons you encounter

Corrosive Poison Resistance – Rank 1

Future encounters with corrosive poisons will have their effects and duration decreased by half.

Attributes:

Strength: 6

Agility: 8

Endurance: 8

Resilience: 6

Spirit Bonds:

Silas (Rank 4 Lunar Hare – Low)

Strength: 2

Agility: 12

Endurance: 5

Resilience: 4

When she felt comfortable with the information, she went to meet up with Aegis.

“Well, don’t you look dashing in that uniform!” he complimented, grinning and waving as he saw her. Samantha couldn’t tell if he was being genuine, or subtly mocking her entirely unimpressive attire, but she didn’t comment on it. He continued, “I’ll show you to the preparation area and answer any lingering questions you may have on the way. You’ll be going last in the first round of fights, so you have a little bit of time to get situated still.”

It was a short walk to the area where the other fighters meditated, chatted, or warmed up, but Samantha’s questions were equally brief. In the end, only a handful of important points stood out to her. For one, even if she lost a fight, she could still win a decent amount of money so long as she put on a good show. “Putting on a good show” was highly subjective, but when in doubt, the crowd loved a little (or lot of) blood spilled, flashy moves, and the occasional low blow if you could manage to get one in. Virtually anything was permitted so long as the masses were enjoying themselves, but it was considered bad form to purposefully try and destroy or remove an opponent’s mask if they wore one. While not technically forbidden, anyone who did so may find future fights significantly more unpleasant than they would normally be. There also wasn’t an ‘optimal length’ of how long a fight should last, but the payout could be reduced if beatdowns were handed out too quickly or--on the opposite end of the spectrum-- dragged on for so long they became boring.

With her most pressing questions answered, she was seated amongst the rest of the competitors and had the opportunity to enjoy watching a few fights herself and getting a feel for how things were done. There were 16 tournament participants in total, with two battling in the arena at any given time. The two combatants would move to the center of the arena where the announcer was, and he would call out the matchup. There would be a bit of trash talk between opponents to get the crowd excited to watch, then a coin toss to determine which fighter would choose the weapon that both would be using. Lastly, there’d be a short 60 second period to place bets, and then the fight would begin. It was easy enough to get a grasp on.

In between watching the fights she tried to get a read on her competition, but with so many cultivators in close proximity it was difficult to tell power levels relative to her own. As best as she could tell though, about half were perhaps Mid Copper like her, a fourth High Copper, and the final fourth a mix of Low Coppers and a singular Peak Copper. The Peak Copper sat alone, meditating quietly while the others clearly avoided going too near to him. Only about half wore masks (most of them fancy custom works), and Samantha didn’t recognize anyone on sight out of those who didn’t.

“New blood, huh?” a friendly sounding High-Copper woman asked, sidling up beside her on a nearby chair. She was an intimidatingly large individual, and were it not for the distinctly feminine speaking voice and the wrappings that were clearly intended to bind her chest to be flatter, Samantha might’ve mistaken her for a man at first glance. The woman was one of those who chose not to conceal their identity which gave Samantha a clear look at who she was speaking to.

She had distinctive eyes, one blue and one green, and her dirty blonde hair was shorn short enough so that it wouldn’t be a hindrance to vision but was unable to be pinned back. She appeared to be in her early 30’s, with the barest hint of wrinkles cropping up around the corners of her eyes and mouth, indicating she smiled more often than not. Despite her imposing physical presence, she gave off a sort of motherly air.

Samantha was unsure of how exactly to respond to the question. So, she decided on cupping her hands together in a respectful gesture and bowing slightly to the higher-ranked woman, remaining silent.

“Well, aren’t you a proper one! You can call me Tiny, a bit of a misnomer but I enjoy the confused reactions people give me.” Tiny responded, the corner of her mouth quirking up as she mentioned that last tidbit.

“Well met. You can call me Lunara. Is there something you wanted from me, or…?” Samantha questioned. She had no idea why the woman had come to sit by her, and she worried that she was being singled out because she was new.

“Not exactly, I heard you talking with the ticketer as you walked up and just figured us ladies should stick together since it seems like we’re the only two here tonight. Plus, I’m new around here too, in case my exotic looks didn’t immediately give that away.” She tugged at an unevenly chopped golden lock as she spoke.

As soon as she finished speaking, a flash of light lit up the center of the stadium. A fighter was flung two dozen feet from the site, skipping several times against the earthen floor like a flat rock on water before skidding to a halt at the feet of some onlookers. The thrown man shakily raised a broken arm in surrender, and the crowd roared in approval as he was carried off site on a stretcher into a medical tent nearby. A few of her fellow competitors nodded appreciatively at the finishing move or gave a small round of applause of their own, including the woman next to her. Samantha mirrored the clapping gesture out of habit.

“I figured as much. From Ipquel, perhaps? I’ve heard the people there have multicolored eyes. Or maybe from Teela because of the light hair?” Samantha politely inquired.

“Well, actually…”

The two chatted amicably as they watched the fights together, discussing places Tiny had visited or the techniques of the fighters they observed. Tiny was a goldmine of tactical information, as she critiqued where people made mistakes and how she would have done things differently.

Pleasantly surprised by the insights Tiny was freely offering in their conversation, Samantha asked, “You have such a good sense for the flow of battle, would you say you have a shot at taking the top spot in the tournament?”

Tiny guffawed, and Samantha felt a bit embarrassed as she could see the others noticeably turn to stare at the blonde before looking back to the fights.

“Oh, no. I’ve only been here a few weeks but even I know that no one beats him unless the proprietors arrange for it.” Tiny said, pointing over her shoulder to the meditating Peak Copper. “He’s on retainer you see. Hired to make sure no one can actually get that big grand prize payout. I might be able to get the gold piece for lasting long enough to fight him in the finals though, provided I’m not unlucky enough to face him before then.”

“Got it. I suppose I should’ve expected something like that.” Samantha said, a little disappointed. Not that she had expected to win the 5 gold in the first place, but knowing that the grand prize was just to lure people like her into the tournament while being virtually unobtainable left a bad taste in her mouth.

Before long, it was her turn to fight. Her new acquaintance wished her luck as she was pitted against one of the unmasked Mid Coppers, and they both walked out to the center of the stadium. He was an unremarkable looking man, average in every way with plain but symmetrical features. He was a touch taller than herself, with light brown hair and brown eyes. Despite his ordinary appearance, he carried himself as if he were a beloved and famed celebrity, and perhaps in this arena he was.

He grandly waved his arms, did a few acrobatic flips for show, and blew kisses to some of the young women in the audience while the crowd chanted “Levi”. Apparently, this wasn’t his first time fighting here and he was well-liked by the crowd. Samantha suspected that she wouldn’t be able to outshine him in showmanship if this was how he acted just making his entrance, so she decided to play the part of the stoic warrior to contrast his somewhat flamboyant behavior. At least she could differentiate herself that way.

As they stopped near the announcer and took up loose fighting positions on opposite sides, the announcer’s voice carried with effectiveness that had to be the result of some Qi art.

“Ladies, gents, and degenerates, we have yet another new blood participating in the tourney tonight. A Mid-Copper by the name of Lunara will be fighting one of our returning favorites, Levi!”

The cheers somehow got even louder than before.

“So, let’s get right to it. Do either of you have anything you’d like to say before we do the coin toss?” he continued.

“Why don’t you take off your mask, little coward? Afraid you’ll lose face from fighting me?” Levi mocked, trying to goad her, “or, shall I just rip it off myself after you’re face down in the dirt?” his words carrying as impressively as the announcer’s.

The crowd began laughing and jeering along with him, but Samantha stuck with her decision to remain undisturbed and aloof. She had expected this behavior from watching previous fights, so she dished back some trash talk of her own. “It’s unfortunate you’ve opted out of covering your face. Perhaps your unsightly countenance will improve a bit after I rearrange it.”

“Ohhhhh!” The spectators heckled, at Levi’s expense this time. His cheeks reddened slightly at her words, but before he could retort the announcer cut in.

“As a newbie to the scene, you’ll have the honors of picking the toss result. Heads or tails?” the announcer asked as he flipped the coin high into the air, end over end.

“Tails!” Samantha called out, and the announcer caught the coin in his palm, flipping it onto the back of his other hand.

“Bad luck for the newbie! It’s heads. Levi, what form of combat will you two be using tonight?”

“Hand to hand.” Levi declared confidently, taking a common unarmed stance and beckoning Samantha to come attack him.

“Hand to hand it is!” the announcer decreed, “You all know the drill. 1 minute to place your bets for this fight if you have them! Only 60 seconds to get in on this debut match for our young Lunara! Check with the nearest--” he called out as he left the arena space, Samantha tuning him out towards the end to focus on observing her opponent with the 60 seconds she had at her disposal.

Activating Inspect as the betting period neared its end, she looked at his expression, stance, and anything else that could give her a clue or an edge on the fight. She fully expected that he was doing the same to her.

“The betting is over! The fight begins in 3, 2…” the announcer’s voice rang out, but before the countdown concluded her Inspect lit up his right leg muscles tensing to push forward. Sure enough, he darted towards her before 1 was called, and the fight began.

Samantha’s first goal was to get a feel for what his fighting style was. Utilizing Inspect alongside the quick reflexes gifted to her by high Agility, she was able to estimate when and where he would strike and easily danced out of his reach. She was able to occasionally land quick jabs to the sternum and gut when there was an opening available, but wasn’t able to put much power behind the blows and her fists weren’t doing much damage overall. Once or twice she went for the face, but he seemed to be working extra hard to guard it from being damaged. Maybe her trash talk had actually affected him mentally? On the flip side, he was having an equally hard time damaging her, but for a different reason--he was unable to catch her with anything other than glancing hits.

Though it was possible that he was holding back, Samantha suspected that she was significantly faster than him. His relentless attacks and generally sturdy body made her suspect that he was someone who focused on a mix of Resilience and Endurance, but it was hard to tell for certain. She’d need a plan to do lasting damage, or else he’d wear her down in a battle of attrition, which was much easier said than done when your only weapons were fleshy limbs.

As she dodged and strategized, Levi hurled insults and taunts at her with every attack, but she hardly registered the words as her brain worked overtime to find a solution. The quiet grumbling emerging slowly from the audience was a sign that they were getting bored of watching them without anything significant happening.

On the brink of a potential solution, Inspect alerted her to an irregular movement in his torso as he punched towards her, and instead of ducking the blow as she originally intended she jumped backwards and out of range of a vicious low-kick. However, what she didn’t anticipate was the shoe that flew out towards her face at the end of the kick’s arc. Logically, she understood that getting smacked in the face with a cloth shoe wouldn’t do her any harm, but logic couldn’t always prevent an ingrained reflex. She flinched, and that was the opening Levi needed to connect a solid kick to the side of her head.

*Ding* Damage to head has activated “As One”. Moderate Wounds for Samantha have been transformed into Minor wounds for Silas and Samantha.

The crowd resumed it’s cheering as she turned her stumble sideways into a dodge roll, narrowly avoiding a heel kick. Off balance from getting her bell rung, she unsteadily backed up to build some distance between them. Levi looked back to her with a gleeful smirk as he put the fallen shoe back onto his foot.

“Shaken from that little love tap? Come on, fight like a true cultivator and quit dodging around!” he shouted as he ran at her, activating the first flashy qi art of the fight. His fists and feet were covered in a bright layer of pure qi, the art giving his punches and kicks range. With each strike, solid slashes and bursts of qi whipped towards her at breakneck speed, the tide unceasing as she temporarily utilized Swift to dodge between some of the kinetic energies.

*Ding* Damage to right shoulder has activated “As One”. Moderate Wounds for Samantha have been transformed into Minor wounds for Silas and Samantha.

*Ding* Damage to forearms has activated “As One”. Moderate Wounds for Samantha have been transformed into Minor wounds for Silas and Samantha.

*Ding* ...

“Is dodging the only thing you’re good at?” Levi called out, frustrated that even with this barrage and Samantha’s unsteadiness she was able to prevent the worst from striking her. That wasn’t to say she came out unscathed, though. Pain flared in her body from when she inevitably fumbled a dodge or block, and some of the qi slashes from his kicks had been the ones to draw first blood. It wasn’t fight-ending damage though, and the slow influx of healing energies from her Spirit Bond allowed her to continue without investing into Flawless Regeneration for now.

“It only seems like I’m dodging because your aim is so bad!” Samantha retorted, getting peals of laughter from the audience for her trouble.

Levi looked flustered by her words. Apparently he was the type of person who could dish out trash talk but couldn’t take it himself. Seeing this, she doubled down to try and mentally unbalance him.

“Don’t feel too bad, I hear it’s a common thing for men like you to have performance issues.” she ridiculed. This time, the crowd “Oooh”d at her insult.

“You’re… That’s…!” he stammered, turning bright red with embarrassment and anger as that particular barb hit a little too close to home. He took a moment to collect himself, and then a cruel smile spread across his face as he glanced down towards her chest. “I thought with all that talk earlier you’d at least make things interesting. I suppose I’ll have to take things into my own hands.” he announced, making a vulgar grabbing motion towards her while the crowd entered into a new round of hollers and cheers.

Deciding not to wait to see exactly what he was implying, Samantha took her turn on the offensive. She had given him a little time to speak in the spirit of showmanship, as instructed, but it was time to get serious again. She leveraged all 8 points of her Agility to get a burst of speed, but he wasn’t just waiting around for her either. They clashed together once more, but instead of moving to strike her, he grabbed a fistful of the front of her robes and pulled.

The fabric of her borrowed robes were of good quality, but not nearly enough to withstand being yanked with a cultivator’s full strength. Predictably, the entire fistful of fabric came away in his hand as easily as someone could tear down a spider’s web, nearly exposing her chest.

Her eyes went wide as her off hand instinctively moved to cover her bare skin. She had been told that most anything was fair game… but disrobing your enemy to embarrass them? Certainly, that should be counted as too far!

But, it wasn’t. As they continued to exchange blows, Samantha kept piling on the incremental damage to his torso and legs. She could tell by his grunts of pain that her attacks were having some effect, but nothing that would stop his relentless assault on her clothes. No referee called foul as Levi reached to rip off more and more robe pieces, prioritizing humiliating her over defending himself or directly attacking. The crowd howled with laughter each time he was successful and Samantha’s appearance became a touch more disheveled. She managed to defend the most important sections of her clothing from being removed, but that only meant other parts of her outfit were sacrificed instead.

The more exposed and ashamed she became, the more anger simmered in the pit of her stomach. All she wanted was to watch or participate in some fights to clear her head, maybe making a little money on the side. While she had been told that low blows were encouraged, she had never actually considered using such tactics and planned to fight as fairly as she could. Now though? If this was how Levi wanted to play the game, she could play dirtier than him.

Her robes were so tattered and torn by this point that she would have to choose between covering up and fighting back, but she consoled herself by thinking that at least no one would know who she was.

Breaking away again to create some distance, Levi stopped not more than 10 feet away from her. “Finally going to face me? It’s about time, if you ran away any longer--”

Samantha pumped more points into Swift at once then she ever had before. 5 points of qi into the art saw her Agility nearly double, jumping up from 8 to 14. In a blur of motion she dashed forward faster than he could effectively react, Inspect revealing that his cockiness had gotten the better of him and he was caught flat footed.

She flicked both hands loosely out towards his eyes, not to harm but to distract. It was his turn to be forced to flinch as he reflexively closed his eyes for a split second and tried to step back. She utilized the opportunity to make her move.

With primal savagery and speed that could rival a High or Peak Copper, Samantha went for the nut shot. Her shin felt initial resistance as it met a hard protective cup, but the force of her kick surpassed the stress allowances of the material and it crunched inwards like crumpled paper. There was then a definitive squelching sound that seemed to echo throughout the amphitheater, and a collective gasping and groaning emerged from the onlookers. A breath later, they erupted into wild, ferocious cheers.

Not waiting to see exactly how effective her groin kick had been, she cancelled Swift before the next second ticked over and she was charged another 5 qi for the art. Utilizing the twisting momentum of her torso she had used to power her kick, she smashed the tip of her elbow directly into the center of his purple, agonized face.

Another wet crunch resounded through the arena as she shattered his nose, broke teeth, and possibly fractured the facial bones beneath. Unlike the body shots she’d been performing previously, very little muscle or fat stood to protect these sensitive areas from damage. He fell backwards to the ground and his eyes rolled back into his skull.

She quickly looked at her Qi pool, and saw that she had 9/18 points remaining. Probably enough to be a contender for the next round if she fought someone of equal or lesser rank.

The match was declared her victory, and Tiny came out from the preparation area to throw a cloak over her ruined robes in a show of support. The cloak was comically large on her, the excess material dragging on the ground making her seem like a child wearing her mother’s dress, but she was glad for the coverage it offered. Levi was taken away on a stretcher to the medical tent as the audience began turning on him and booing him out of the arena.

“Nice kick!” Tiny praised her, leading her back over to the preparation area, and as she left the battlefield behind her a new chant emerged from the spectators.

“Lu-na-ra! Lu-na-ra!”

Samantha really hoped that she at least got a good payout for this farce of a fight.

The announcer began on introducing the next round of participants, and Samantha left to go get a new set of robes. She promised to return Tiny’s cloak shortly after and thanked her for the assistance, but Tiny insisted it was no trouble and reiterated that ‘us ladies should stick together’.

Making a beeline for the enchanted tent, Samantha sat in the lotus position once inside to recenter herself and reflect on how things had turned out.