Afilada was pacing in the stone room beneath the arena. Gods, combat made her feel alive. She could vividly recall each of her fellow corellians that she had butchered upstairs. Just like the other contenders for Sir Cabbel’s squireship they had been weak and lacking in proper bloodlust.

  There were warriors on her world, but they were only there to fight off the many dangerous predators that existed on Corell. There hadn’t been a war anywhere on her planet in the last two hundred years and the population had grown soft. Anyone like her who showed a trace of bloodlust was banished from civilization and usually did not last long without walls around them at night.

  The feeling of her sword slicing through flesh and bone as they cowered before her was thrilling. She took pleasure in thinking of how they probably looked down on her savageness even as she ended their pathetic lives. As fun as it had been, it couldn’t compare to a true fight. One of the fighters, a jaguar person, had shown surprising skill with a pair of short swords. It only lasted thirty seconds before she overwhelmed him and drove her sword through his heart, but it had been one of the best thirty seconds of her life.

  Killing wild beasts was fine, and the triumph she felt over killing the jilipold boss was enormous, but to see the other person slowly lose all hope and then the agony in their eyes as you drove your blade through their body? That was an almost orgasmic experience.

  It wasn’t long before the attendant returned. It was a shaggy goat man who barely came up to her shoulders. He was wearing pants for some reason but they were clearly not well maintained.

  “Your fight was the last of the preliminary rounds. You will now face the survivors from the other three fights. The winner here will get a truly special reward before returning back to their mentor. Follow me please.”

  As she returned to the arena floor she once again checked her new title.

  Gladiator: you have won at least one fight in a Warrior’s Arena. +1 to all attributes and 25% off the entry fee for all future fights.

  She had also gained an opal stone to upgrade her fighter class. It was an uncommon stone, which was decent, but she had already upgraded her fighter class using a rare stone. Her new class, Gale Blade was one that excelled at quick slicing attacks. She was no match for her mentor still, but Afilada knew that no one back in her zone would be able to face her. It also synergized well with her rogue class since it required a high dexterity.

  She finally had an opportunity to see what the other races in the tutorial looked like. This was the first time she wished she had used her identify skill more because all she got on them was their name and race.

  Horus: Bodarian

  He was the biggest of her competitors, even slightly taller than she was. Where she had sleek muscles covered in fur, he was simply muscles on top of muscles barely concealed by thick leathery skin. That skin was a dark brown color with no hair on it. Its head looked similar to a rhino person except instead of a single horn it had a ridge of small horns running around its jaws. He was holding a sword that Sir Cabbel would have been proud of in one hand and a large tower shield in the other.

  Ixteria: Nivex

  Afilada wasn’t sure whether to call this one he or she. It was some kind of insect creature. It had four legs holding up a long abdomen. It also had a torso coming up out of the abdomen that extended another meter in the air. It had two arms that ended in three fingered hands. The head was similar to some mantis creatures she had seen in the wilds of Corell. It was carrying a staff in one hand and some kind of ball in the other.

  Alan: Human

  The last fighter looked the most similar to her own beast people. He had two arms and two legs, but no claws. He also had some hair on his body, but other than on his head it was very thin. He also was by far the shortest competitor in the arena. The only weapons she saw were two long daggers on his hip. He looked the least intimidating of the group, but he must have some skills if he got here. That, or his species was truly worthless.

  The announcer's voice once more cut through the sounds of the crowd. “Here we have our final match of the morning. Each of these competitors has managed to defeat four elites from their own world. Now we will see who truly is the greatest warrior on their new planet.” There was a brief pause before “Warriors, let the battle begin!”

  She had expected a little more time to develop her strategy but the announcer seemed to be in a rush. She noticed that the insect thing was turning toward the small human so she directed her attention toward the bulky Horus.

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  He had also turned toward the small human, but seeing Afilada approach, he let out a bellow and advanced on her instead. He took a few practice swings as they closed the distance. He was clearly strong as just lifting that giant sword in one hand would have been a challenge for her. However, it was also obvious that he wasn’t quite strong enough for it either as his swings were slightly sloppy and out of control.

  Drawing her own bluesilver longsword she started energy moving through her body. With her upgraded class came an increase in her energy pathways. Her mentor had shown her some rudimentary methods for using that to empower her attributes, it was kind of like a boosting skill. Unfortunately she was currently only able to enhance her strength, as that was her only opal class, but it should help against this mountain of a foe.

  He took a giant swing at her and she felt an intense sense of danger from the blow. She didn’t try to block it, instead, using her swiftness, she dodged to the side and then with her sword she pushed her opponent’s larger blade faster along its path. Horus was clearly not ready for this as it added momentum to his swing and prevented him from bringing it back to guard himself.

  She took the opening to slice into his side but it was like trying to cut through stone. His hide was almost as tough as the jilipold boss’, and the muscle underneath was even more dense. Her slight boost to strength was not going to get it done.

  She stepped back as he finally brought his sword around again. This time she allowed her sword to meet the gargantuan blade. She wanted to test the strength behind those swings. Not wanting to risk her sword being damaged she didn’t try and block it completely, simply using her blade to direct his away from her body. The force was still tremendous and she gauged his strength to be at least thirty percent higher than hers.

  His tower shield was also a problem as it completely blocked her from attacking his left side, which happened to be the same side her sword style favored attacking. Luckily this large brute was not particularly nimble, and while the shield protected his whole left side on the front, it offered no protection on the back.

  She allowed her sword to make contact with his next massive swing and used the momentum it generated to move her to the side. She took the opening to dash around the shield and get behind him. While he wasn’t spritely he wasn’t actually a rock either and he was already starting to turn to get his shield between them again.

  With only seconds before he could block her once more, she increased the energy flowing into her strength above what she managed before. A surge of power filled her muscles as she sliced low at the back of his knees. If it worked on the jilipold it could work here too.

  Her sword bit deep in first one leg and then the other as she brought it across almost faster than the eye could see. Horus let out a groan as both of his legs failed beneath him. He used his shield to keep himself from collapsing completely to the ground, but this just lowered his neck to a convenient height. With another swirl of energy through her muscles she sent his huge head tumbling from his body.

  All of her attention had been on her opponent and she took a chance to see how the other fight was going. Her battle had lasted less than a minute and in that time the other two had been going at each other. The insect seemed to be some kind of guardian mage hybrid. It was sending beams of fire from the ball in its left hand while warding itself with the staff in its right. The human was doing his best to dodge the fire lances but she could see several spots on his torso that had been singed. One large section of his tunic had been burned away completely but the flesh underneath seemed undamaged. Perhaps he had some kind of healing class or was resistant to fire?

  The damage was not all one sided as the bug was missing one of its legs below the knee. It only seemed to impair its movements slightly. Suddenly a torrent of water appeared near one side of the Nivex and rumbled across the ground knocking it off its feet. The human used the collapse of his foe's legs as an opportunity and thrust one blade into its thorax. He brought the second blade across the bug's face in a brutal slice that ended up taking its mandibles clean off.

  Afilada was already moving quickly toward their fight but couldn’t get there in time to finish the bug off herself. In a scissoring motion the human used both blades to cut through the neck and send the creature’s head flying. She approved of the theatrical finish.

  She saw the human turn toward her, but he was far too late. While she wasn’t fast enough to get there in time to strike the killing blow herself, she had already closed the distance between them and was now in striking range of the insect’s killer. Her sword was flashing toward the human’s neck. In an impressively quick motion he thrust one hand toward her and a glowing blue ball exploded in front of her face. She found herself in a world of rainbow sparkles, unable to see. This didn’t deter her in the slightest, though. She had trained with her mentor in fighting under various disabilities. Her sword was already committed to its swing and she simply continued with the motion. She might not be able to see her opponent anymore, but he simply couldn’t be fast enough to get out of the way of her blade. There was a slight resistance as it cut through something and she stood there sword at the ready while she waited for the colors to die down.

  Finally they dissipated and she smiled at the sight before her. Her aim was slightly off, or possibly he was faster than she thought and had almost managed to get out of the way. Instead of cleanly popping his head off she had actually sliced right through the middle of it. The top half of his head with his dirty blond hair was lying several meters away. The rest of him was crumpled before her with his brain slowly sliding out.

  She bent down and scooped it up before it hit the filthy floor of the arena. She raised that quivering bloody gray mass over her head to the cheers of the crowd. She squeezed and the remains of his brain turned into pulp. It was absolute mayhem in the stands when she brought her hand down and licked her fingers clean. Delicious, the taste of victory was absolutely delicious!