Like I said, the Folk seem like they’re down to fight at pretty much the drop of a hat. Before ten minutes have passed, I find myself in an arena, surrounded by hundreds of spectators, while the dog-kin is stretching and taking some practice swings of his blade.

[How many of these arenas do you have?] I ask, a little bewildered.

[A lot,] he says. [We hone our skills in battle constantly against each other, and then against the Dungeon. Sometimes there are demonstrations where captured monsters are brought in so our warriors can test themselves against them. Most of these people probably assume that is the case here.]

He waves to the crowd and they cheer.

I wave to them with an antenna and get no response. Rude.

[Alright, what are the rules?]

[Fight, but don’t kill.]

[... That’s it?]

[That’s it. Use your full strength, because I will be using mine.]

So saying, he takes a firm grip of his sword and lowers himself into a grounded stance. The atmosphere becomes serious in an instant. A hush descends upon the crowd, as the audience holds their breath, waiting for the moment the battle begins.

For my part, I’m still pretty confused. This guy is just going to fight me, with a sword? Just one? Look, I don’t have the biggest ego in the world, but I’m a tier seven, mythic monster over here. I don’t have the kind of ant numbers within range to really fuel the Altar, but am I even going to need it?

Then again, this guy seems to be a professional warrior, someone who knows their stuff. Is there something going on he’s aware of but I’m not? It would be seriously embarrassing if I were to lose in an instant to some trick I didn’t see coming, so I decide to brace myself, spin up my mind constructs and take things seriously.

A slight shift of my opponent's foot is all the warning I get.

FAST!

CLANG!

Antennae blaring in warning, my nerves fire and I shift my position, angling my head to the side just in time for the blade, which would have punctured my eye, to spark off my carapace.

Holy moly! That’s some serious speed! Surprised that he missed, my opponent is still quick to react, pushing off my thorax with both feet to create some distance before he readies himself again. Not wanting to be caught out, I turn to face him directly, baring my mandibles.

Whoa!

Stolen novel; please report.

CLANG!

Again, he leaps forward with incredible speed, launching from the ground like a guided missile. I shift my head and again, the blade strikes hard against my gravity compressed diamond carapace, sending sparks flying high into the air. This time, I’m not going to let him reset himself so easily. I lash out with my mandibles, not using Void Chomp, because… I don’t want to destroy the arena, but I put a bit of force behind it.

With an insanely fast move, he parries one of my mandibles in mid air, using the force of the blow to bring himself back down to the ground. Legs tucked, he prepares to launch himself again.

Let’s try a little Force magic.

I hit him with a blast in the face, or at least, I try to, but he somehow senses it coming and leaps to the side. So I try it again. And again. And another five times after that. I don’t manage to land a hit. Even though the spell itself is invisible, he somehow knows it’s coming, but I’m not allowing him the time to set his feet for one of those rocket jumps. In the end, all that happens is he bounces around the arena while my spells slam into the reinforced earth walls with resounding thuds.

Eventually, he gets bored, or frustrated, and lashes out with a powerful swing. Unlike the other times, he activates a Skill. A wave of crystalline sword-light is formed on the edge of the blade before it flies off, racing toward me with incredible speed.

I’ve never seen sword-light this dense or fast moving before, clearly this guy has a high level sword Skill. Of course, my reactions are on point and I angle my carapace perfectly. When the light hits, I feel the impact through my whole body, but my trusty carapace doesn’t yield a bit.

Gweheheheh.

Not enough! Not even remotely enough! The crowd gasps as one, shocked that the mighty cut wasn’t enough to get through my exo-skeleton, but the dog-Folk isn’t done!

With a shout, he pulls back, leaps up into the air and unleashes a flurry of strikes, each of them sending an arc of sword-light flying at me. A roar of approval bursts from the crowd, but it soon quietens as I roll deftly out of the way. Well, I say deft. The ground literally rumbles when I roll now, given how large I am.

Time to take this a little bit more seriously.

I pull out a huge chunk of gravity mana and begin to compress and shape it, my minds working in concert to complete the work. In short order, the gravity domain is ready and I deploy it, ensuring it covers the entire arena, but not beyond.

For good measure, I give it a kick from the Altar, empowering the spell massively as it expands with me at the centre. The moment it catches my opponent within the diameter, he buckles, but doesn’t fall. Clearly, he hasn’t skipped legs day, but I doubt he can perform those fancy bullet like jumps with the weight of the—

YOOOOOO!

CLANG!

Or… he can. Not as fast as before, sure, but I wasn’t expecting it at all. Thankfully, my trusty future sense and reflexes are up to the task, and once again, my precious eyeball is saved from certain slicing. This guy really likes going for the eyeball. I guess he figures he can’t get through the carapace? His sword strikes have been heavy, sure, but my gleaming carapace has barely a scratch at this point.

I lunge again. This time, I know something my opponent doesn’t. Under a gravity domain of this kind of strength, he isn’t going to be in the air for long.

He slams into the ground, and my mandibles are there. I chomp down with enough force to hold onto him.

Now, I don’t want to bite through the guy, so what exactly do I do….

In a flash of inspiration, I drop the domain before I start to spin, building up momentum as I turn once, twice, then I release! As if he were shot from a cannon, my opponent streaks through the air before he slams into the wall with thunderous force.

Whoops?