Ravens of Eternity

127 Rising Duelist, Pt Cheers erupted from the stands as duelists cut each other to ribbons on the arena floor below. Fresh blood splattered down across the fighting rings, and clumped up from the sand surrounding.

With slightly labored breaths, Eva adjusted her stance as she reassessed her opponent. There were a number of scratches across her armor, along with a handful of actual cuts. And her opponent – a tall and lithe Drogar in highly ornate armor – also looked similarly worse for the wear. Her breathing was hard, and her armor was covered with numerous cuts. A few bled.

In her hand was a long beltknife that held tiny serrations all along its edge.

The two duelists circled around each other and adjusted their stances as they searched for any openings from the other.

“You’re not bad,” said Eva. “A little better than Rezhathii, even. But not better than me.”

The duelist in front of her growled in response.

“I don’t understand your speech,” she replied, “so just shut up and fight!”

Then she advanced on Eva decisively. With sure steps and her blade tucked low, she looked for every opportunity to strike. She feinted briefly to the right, then stepped in to the left to thrust at Eva with great speed and power. But found nothing but air as her opponent spun out of the way and countered with a flanking slash.

The Drogar slapped the blade away then pursued after her quarry relentlessly. She pressed her with countless thrusts and slashes in the hopes of unbalancing her. It was a strategy that had worked for her greatly in prior matches.

.....

However, Eva’s dancing style kept her constantly in motion, and trying to set her off balance seemed an impossible task.

On top of that, the Drogar had heard the other duelists and random fans talk about Ra’ventrii. Their voices were filled with awe, disbelief. Some even held a hint of fear. And what they said sunk into her as their duel continued.

“Can you believe Rezhathii was cut down so blasted easily? And by a scrawny human! I lost thousands in that one bet!”

“That human’s clearly as strong as any of us. Watched her heal herself in front of me. Without nanos. Think about that for a second.”

“Rez was my fave! She was on her way to the top! Blasted ape needs to die for killing her! That savage beast needs putting down!”

“Some Seed Judge was saying that Ra’ven’s qualifying matches ended after seconds. Seconds. How’s that even possible?”

“You sure that’s actually human? They did say those prisoners are from some sorta lab.”

“That gods-damned ape needs to die!”

Every duelist who talked about Eva found they all wanted to fight her, to put her down. Some simply because of her species. But the rest – because they wanted to genuinely test her. To see if she really was as good as everyone said she was.

They couldn’t help it. That was who they all were.

Eva narrowly avoided each of her opponent’s attacks, one after the other. And with each that passed, she could feel how much power was sunk into each of them. Almost as though she could sense the energy rippling out into the air between them.

“What a waste,” she muttered.

She continued evading until her opponent committed to a strong downward attack, at which point she spun out of the way and countered with a horizontal slash at the same time.

Eva’s blade cut across the Drogar’s chest, and etched a cut right on her armor. A little higher, and it would have been her neck, just like Rezhathii.

The Drogar quickly slapped the blade away, then leapt back a few meters. She quickly adopted a defensive stance while she caught her breath with long gasps.

Eva was also breathing hard, but nowhere nearly as heavily. And hers was much more even. She still had plenty of stamina in the tank – all her breathing exercises helped her optimize her energy usage.

Every cycle she spent practicing her dances, her breathing, her Ascendant Form – it felt as though she was finally coming onto her own.

This is what she was meant to be. And more.

Eva twirled her blade in her hand as she took a few wide steps around her opponent. She wanted to give her a moment to collect herself. Then she stepped forward and began a new dance.

The Drogar narrowed her eyes and steeled herself against Eva’s advance. Unlike the straightforward style she was used to fighting with, the bladedancer didn’t approach her head-on. Instead, she always slid or spun to her flanks.

She mixed her feints in with half-retreats and full charges. The graceful sweeps combined with the sporadic attacks kept her completely off balance. It felt as though she was being moved into the right position before getting struck by a killing blow.

Like a hunter repeatedly striking their prey until they exposed their most critical weaknesses.

The human came in hard right, spun left, and sliced at her in the middle of all of it. Though she was able to parry and riposte, Eva herself was long since gone from her attack position, and the riposte struck only air.

Alarmed by the clear difference between their skill levels, the Drogar attempted to jump back and get space. But she couldn’t.

No matter how far she retreated, Eva was right up on her, relentlessly. Her dance was far too nimble, and allowed her to cover a great deal of ground in an instant.

How’s this even possible?! This human’s incredible! I... I can’t beat her!

Anger flashed through the Drogar when that thought passed through her mind. She stopped backing away and instead leaned forward and charged into Eva. She slammed into the human shoulder-first and threw her back with as much force as she could muster.

Eva skidded back and swung out her back leg in order to slow her down and stabilize her at the same time. The wind had been knocked out of her, and saw stars momentarily.

She shook off the dizziness, and watched as her opponent roar into the air. The Drogar then charged her directly with renewed vigor, and with a wild look in her eye.

“I won’t lose!” she screamed.

Like before, she poured every ounce of power she could into her slashes and strikes. She hoped to push Eva into making a mistake – even a single one would allow the Drogar to dominate.

So she pushed herself further than she ever had before, and put everything she had into taking out Eva.

Eva was driven back by her opponent’s ferocious storm of blades. She had no choice but to back away and evade as much as she could. And even then, she ended up getting cut across her right thigh and both of her forearms.

She grit her teeth in pain – those serrations literally tore at her skin and her wounds stung as she moved.

Ultimately, Eva decided to enter a fully defensive stance and held off on countering or attacking even in the slightest. She shook her head at how foolish her opponent was being.

Eventually, she’s gonna burn herself out. Then the match is mine.

The stands near their dueling ring went wild as their fight went back and forth. To them, it seemed like it was a completely even bout. Well, to most of them, anyway.

To the few dueling connoisseurs such as Alevos, what they saw was a thoroughly entertaining demonstration of skill and stamina. It was clear who was the superior duelist of the two.

Regardless, there were many who cheered on for both of the combatants. Though there were more voices against Eva than there were for her.

“Crush that ape!”

“Go, Ra’ven! You can beat her!!”

“Slice the human to ribbons!”

The cheers and jeers rose even louder when the Drogar began to falter. Her footwork became slightly clumsier, her attacks less forceful, her breaths more ragged. And when those cracks started to show, Eva began to adjust her dance.

She upped the tempo of her beats bit by bit. Her steps became harder, faster, more decisive as she expertly danced around the Drogar’s attacks.

Eva allowed herself to sink into her dance, to fall into her beat, to allow her trait to guide her blade. Every step and spin and parry and dodge got her ahead of her opponent by a fraction of a second.

Eva tightened her footwork even as her opponent began to crumble further and further. And with each moment that passed, the skill and stamina gap widened between them. And at the most opportune time, right in between two of the Drogar’s slashes, Eva swapped hands, stepped in to the right, and thrust upwards.

Out of breath and unbalanced by her relentless attacks, the Drogar stumbled as she tried to get out of Eva’s way. But failed. Miserably.

The tip of Eva’s beltknife dug right into her opponent’s ribs, but didn’t stay there very long. Instead, Eva quickly drew it out and slashed upwards across her body.

The Drogar was sliced open like a fish being gutted. Though it was skin-deep at best, it was the first massive blow she had received. And it marked the end for her.

Although she had done a great deal of damage to her opponent, she was far from done. In fact, that was only the beginning. She continued slashing nonstop and viciously cut her opponent to ribbons.

The Drogar did her best to stay on the defensive, to evade and step and dodge, to slap Eva’s blade away. But she felt she was one strike behind, every time. She found herself cut to pieces – her legs, arms, chest, sides, everywhere.

With a groan, she pooled all of her energy and struck out at Eva. But her opponent had already ducked down and dashed forward. And with a decisive strike, slashed deeply across her belly. Blood immediately gushed out from the wide gap in the armor. Horrifyingly, her intestines spilled out inside it.

The Drogar screamed as she grabbed at her stomach in pain. At this point, nothing existed for her – not the duel, not the pot, not the win. Only the pain that wracked her body.

Eva sidestepped forcefully, jumped up, then spun downwards, blade-first. And with little effort, cut off her opponent’s head cleanly from her neck.

The Drogar’s body and head fell down at the same time and poured blood out of both ends of her neck.

Eva flicked the blood off her knife, sheathed it, then bowed to her fallen opponent.

“You weren’t bad,” she said. “For being halfway up Tier Six, anyway.”

Great cheers erupted from the stands around her. There were also groans, but they could hardly be heard over all the celebrations.

Up on the screens, Eva’s odds chances sat at 34 to 1. Although it wasn’t as high as her first fight, it was still a serious payout. Everyone who placed bets on her saw incredible gains, though they were few. Not counting hedged bets, anyway.

Alevos once again jumped up from his seat after having won such a large pot. Szereth, Doleth, and Miko also cheered, but not with quite as much gusto. Not because they weren’t excited for Eva’s win, but because they weren’t gambling addicts like the old bladesmith.

“And Ra’ventrii is the victor once again!” cried a male announcer. “She successfully laid claim to the 216th Seed of the Sixth Tier in a decisive match! All that’s left now is to confirm the Seed after facing a challenger!”

Eva raised her blade in the air, and many around her cheered her victory.