The matches continued to proceed at a steady pace, but this time the fighters were from the top half of the Lumen ladder. It only served to raise the level of the matches even further. He looked at the fights with a focused eye.

Christopher wanted to remember the names of all the fighters, especially the winners. He asked Hito about which fighters were the most surprising victors. Knowing the winners with the longest odds against them would be useful information on his next turn.

He saw a few more people that managed to project their weapons outwards, unseen to the eye. A slender man called Cilli, wielding a cutlass, managed to shallowly cut his opponent from quite some distance away, ultimately leading to his victory after the slashes had accumulated on his opponent. Still, it looked like this technique was rarely used, so he decided to ask Hito why that might be.

“Simple, the damage output is just lower compared to a direct hit from the real weapon. It is a great tool against the Blight, but against opponents that can reinforce their bodies with Soul Force, it is unlikely to achieve all that much damage. Using it here might be considered a waste of Soul Force reserve”

These fights were turning out to be quite informative. His fight was against the Blight so for him these outward projections would be a useful tool. It would provide a little range to any potential weapon, decreasing the chance of his head getting chopped off.

After some spectacular matches, it was finally time for the final match between the number one and four of the Lumen Ladder. The gold and silver horn blared to life, ready to introduce the fighters.

“The time has come, the final battle is now at hand, and this last match is a bit of a special one. Both fighters have agreed to loosen the restrictions that are normally placed on Soul Force techniques, which almost guarantees some spectacle!”

‘Oh, hell yes!’ He was finally going to see some new Soul Force techniques! Infusing your body and muscles with Soul Force did make the matches a lot more spectacular than a regular fight, but he knew that much more was possible after all.

Even Hito was pretty much sitting at the edge of his seat. “This is a very rare treat, even I only heard the descriptions of some of these techniques, and have never been able to see all of them myself.”

The tunnel gates opened, the two fighters striding through the sands of the Pit.

The announcer continued. “Not that these fighters need any introduction, but let’s welcome our contestants. Let’s start with our Challenger. Wanla is the number four on the Lumen ladder and also the owner of the Behuvan Horn Tavern. This 34-year-old has trained from a young age in the art of the War Fans and uses these deadly weapons with graceful proficiency.”

Wanla looked to be well over 6 feet tall. She wore fashionable light armor, patterned with graceful swirls. Her hair was intricately braided in the style so prevalent among women of this city. At the introduction, she twirled the two metal fans around in her hands. The fans had sharp teeth at the edges and looked quite capable of cutting through limbs. He was curious about how she would use those metal fans in combat.

After the cheering had died down her opponent was introduced. “And arriving from the Western tunnel we have none other than our number one fighter of Lumen. Anara is one of the generals of the Adenium Church and is tasked with planning and coordinating the war against the Blight. She uses her golden quarterstaff to devastating effect in both the Arena and against the enemy forces. We can all feel safe with Anara defending our fair City.”

Anara looked very ordinary to Christopher. She was 5 foot 4, she had a normal build, and looked to be in her late twenties. She wore simple light leather armor with the addition of two metal vambraces. One distinguishing feature was her almost golden blonde hair which looked quite stunning. Otherwise, she looked pretty unremarkable, he would not have guessed that this was the number one powerhouse of the city.

The golden quarterstaff she wielded was another story, it glistened and sparkled from the sun. Looking to his left he could almost see the twinkle of greed in Hito’s eyes. He speculated that all of these metal weapons had some hidden Soul Force purposes when fighting against the Blight. He also wondered whether there was some benefit to using Gold for the weapon since it was at odds with her utilitarian appearance. This was the highest-ranked fighter, so he did not doubt that there was some power behind the quarterstaff

When he looked at the Announcer’s platform above, he could see the Earl leaning over the platform, clearly also wanting a good view of the fight. Well, he was paying a small fortune to these two fighters after all.

Christopher was waiting for the gong to signal the start of the fight with bated breath, and he heard the reverberating sound only seconds later. Both women seemed content to take their time, staring at each other with concentrated glares. They each had positioned themselves carefully, ready to fend off any attacks. Christopher was concentrating just as much, not wanting to miss any potential technique.

Wanla was the first to start swinging her silvery fans towards Anara, even though there was still quite some distance between the two fighters. Small sparks lit up around the pointed barbs of the fans, and he could spot the dull red glow of the now-familiar Soul heat on the metal. Projecting out from every swing of the fans, he could see the air shimmering with great heat, racing towards the staff wielder. The shimmering was the only thing giving away that something deadly was moving forward.

Anara actively dashed, ducked, and contorted to avoid the thin and shimmering Heat waves trying to hit her. Under all the dodging she started hitting back with the swings of her own staff. The effect projecting out of the staff was the most visible of the day.

It turned out that the golden quarterstaff was hollow, and from its circular end departed a visible wind funnel. Where he would describe the technique from Wanla as thin slices of shimmering heat, the technique from Anara was more of a small and thin tornado moving out from the staff’s circular point. The spiral blasts of air could even be felt like a breeze all the way in the stands.

Both of them dodged the outwardly projected waves with skillfully executed Soul Dashes. Christopher wondered how the hell they managed to use multiple Soul Force techniques while on the move. All the fighting between the two women was happening from quite some distance, making it a battle of ranged Soul Force techniques.

The real insanity happened when the two projection effects finally clashed. The combined effect of the Heat and Air projections feeding onto each other ignited one of the tornado’s into flame and changed its direction upward. He could feel the spout of flaming heat all the way in his seat.

He could now understand why there were normally restrictions on these kinds of techniques, and he also wondered if it was not also to protect the spectators from potential harm. He actually felt slightly nervous when the wave of heat washed over him, and a few startled yelps confirmed that he was not the only one.

The two women actually both stopped their fighting after the Spout of flame, maybe deciding that this was getting kind of out of hand. Only a second later they sprinted towards each other, and for the first time, he heard the clashing of steel on steel.

They skillfully intercepted each other’s hits for a few seconds, but the strikes from Wanla were quite ferocious and the staff had difficulty intercepting all the strikes. Wanla was then the first to draw a line of blood, grazing Anara’s arm. Anara responded by creating some distance with a gust of wind, which blew Wanla slightly back. she increased the distance even further by dashing back as well.

A change clearly came over Anara after the last attack, some anger could be discerned from her movements. This was confirmed soon after when Anara started a ferocious offensive, her staff becoming a blur of motion. Wanla impressively blocked all of the strikes but was slowly being overwhelmed. Suddenly with a sweep of her staff, Anara let out a gust of wind, and Wanla’s leg was swept away in the process. With Wanla stumbling forward, Anara quickly took advantage, whacking the woman on the forehead with one end of her quarterstaff, it immediately knocked her out cold. The fans dropped from her hands onto the sand. And just that suddenly the fight was over.

The two women had put up an exciting spectacle, this certainly was one of the most exciting matches of the day, all due to the unleashed Soul Force techniques. Judging from the sounds in the arena, the others appeared to agree. Bara to his left still looked towards the Pit with admiration, clearly a fan of the strong fighters.

It was the Earl himself that now appeared for the second time. The Earl moved his head towards the Horn to speak. “Thank you to all of our fierce fighters for demonstrating their strength today. Like I mentioned there is one final surprise that we have prepared for you. Due to the efforts of one of our outbound teams we are now able to bring you a rare spectacle.”

Everyone in the stands looked somewhat confused, speculative looks adorning their faces. Many of them had assumed that the loosened Soul Force restrictions during the last match had been the surprise so Eugenius Swift had their rapt attention. Listening closely, Christopher thought he heard some guttural sounds coming from a tunnel nearby. Others quickly picked up the sounds and swiveled their heads towards the Eastern Tunnel leading into the Pit.

He and some others quickly figured out what was coming, and as a result, some shouts could be heard across the Arena. Not long after multiple guards pushed a wheeled cage to the edge of the sands before it came to a stop. In the cage, he saw multiple enraged giant creatures that could be easily identified as Orcs