Riley jumped into the arena together with Vrika, and they started fighting right away. The Silken Witch waved their hand at the Rodenti, who did the same, and the two spells connected in the middle. From our side, Riley had sent out a few strands of silk. And from Vrika's side, she had fired a couple of stone pellets. Neither blow was really powerful. Both were trying to test the waters.
The projectiles slammed in the middle of the arena, scattering around the center. Or at least that's what it looked like at first. On a closer inspection, I was able to realize that Riley's attack was a bit faster, landing more towards the side of the Rodenti than towards ours. And I wasn't the only one who realized that. Riley themselves fired another strand of silk, this time a thicker one that was more capable of doing damage.
The second attack slammed against another spell coming from the Rodenti. But this time, it was an actual barrier. Vrika seemed to have noticed the difference in their speed and, instead of attacking, went on the defensive to make sure she wouldn't be caught off guard.
The stone wall was tall enough to hide the mage completely, but Riley didn't really care about that. Instead, they rushed towards the arena and waited for their opponent to reveal herself once more. The Silken Witch waited for a couple of beats before the wall's center was lowered, leaving the edges still there but a hole appearing in the middle.
Riley shot out another strand of silk just to check the response, and that's when Vrika jumped from the side. Away from the opening, going around the arena, and fired a couple more stone projectiles at Riley. This time the attacks were faster and bigger, more powerful versions of whatever she was using so far.
But instead of trying to defend or anything, Riley used a single skill. The most expensive skill they had, {Thousand-Loom Dominion}. The entire arena was covered in silk almost instantly, and the webs started to lash out at anyone and everything that was nearby. Vrika tried to pull a stone from underneath, but the strands made her efforts useless. Riley's skill was overpowering any attempt to move or break free from it.
Not wanting to wait around, the Silken Witch also did something drastic. They fired a small ball of fire using a spell at the corner where Vrika was hiding. The flame didn't hit the Rodenti directly but instead hit the silk threads, which ignited almost instantly. As they continued to burn, the fire started to spread to more of the strands, causing the entire crowd to gasp and start to run away in horror.
Some of the other Rodenti on the side of Rixnala even stepped forward as if they were about to jump into the arena to help fight off the flames. But Rex's sister quickly stopped them from getting closer.
Vrika shouted and tried pulling dirt from the ground, but the webs were whipping too wildly. Not only was she getting hurt every time she tried to stay still, but they were not giving her enough time to concentrate to use her skills on something that was far away.
Less than twenty seconds after the fight started, the Rodenti mage jumped out of the arena with her feet burned and her clothes singed, along with various marks of lashes all around her body. And Riley was announced as the victor.
Despite the violent behavior of the spider webs, they all just vanished back into nothingness. Rixnala was now angrily staring at us and stomping her feet, and Rex had a smug expression on his face.
It was two to one, meaning that in the worst-case scenario, we would tie. That shouldn't be a win to anyone. Maybe we wouldn't be able to get Rixnala out of here, but at the very least, Rex wouldn't have any problems.
But it seemed like just thinking about that was enough to invite misfortune.
"Two, one. Good. You not worthless. But in tie, I win. Rex never returns."
"Wait, what?" I protested. "That's just not fair. Why are you going to get the same reward as if you had won if we tie?"
"Because I say first," she said with such authority that my thoughts got confused for a moment.
I turned to Rex, hoping that he was going to argue against it, but he just nodded. "Fine. Won't win, anyway."
"Are you not going to say that she's wrong?"
Rex just shrugged with a confused expression. "But she not. She said first."
I rubbed my eyes. "Rex, you really need to learn a bit more about fairness, but fine. I'll do my best to make sure you don't have to never return home again."
Rex smiled. "Thank you, friend."
Riley had extremely powerful skills, and Astrid was an amazing fighter. But I didn't feel like I was on the same level as either of them. If anything, despite them calling me a powerful leader, I ranked myself right above Michael in my chances of winning this fight. Not because I couldn't hold my ground, but because I didn't have a good way to finish the fight. It would end up going into a battle of attrition, and I wasn't that confident about being able to last longer than a giant rat.
Then again, I could take more hits. Between {Body Regeneration} and {Enduring Heart}, maybe that would be enough to keep me in the fight long enough to make sure that I was the one who came out on top.
Stepping forward with a sigh and already holding my staff beside me, I spoke as the System made the smallest adjustment to what I was supposed to say in my head.
"Cassandra, nimble, powerful leader, offers a challenge."
I waited a moment, and a Rodenti that was behind Rixnala stepped forward. It was the first time I really noticed him, but he was clearly more well-equipped than anyone else here, with maybe the exception of Rex's sister. Every step he took forward made the other members of the crowd step back in fear. He wore a wolf skull on top of his head, had various pieces of bones attached to his armor that were all trophies from different beasts. And held a large spear with a black obsidian tip in his left hand.
"Car-loss, powerful chieftain leader, accepts Cassandra, powerful leader, challenge."
Knowing that there was nothing else for me to do, I jumped into the arena together with Car-loss. This should be the leader of the entire clan, meaning that I couldn't really hold back on anything. However, that was easier said than done. I still didn't think that I had any big skills to finish this battle. But I wasn't about to give up now.
Car-loss brandished his spear, aimed at me, and, instead of preparing an attack as I would expect, he threw his weapon with all of his strength. It was something very similar to the Rodenti that I had seen when we met Rex for the first time, which made me wonder if this wasn't something that was passed on from various families.
Still, this attack was much weaker than the one I faced before. It didn't give off the same feeling of dread and didn't even make me think I should use {Mind of Possibility} to avoid it. Instead, I simply stepped out of the way, making sure not to be hit by the spear.
Now that Car-loss was without any weapons, I rushed at him. But at the same time, a part of me was expecting the Rodenti to do something. After all, no one would start a battle like this without a way to recover their weapon. And just like I was imagining, that's exactly what happened.
The spear, which was now halfway stuck into the wall, shifted and went flying back to his hand. But it wasn't so much as if the weapon was moving by itself. There was a very thin thread of sorts connecting them both. Maybe not an actual thread, but a thread made out of particles.
Even more scary was the fact that Car-loss was able to try to attack me with that returning spear. It forced me to jump away from my path while I shifted my staff to the side, using it to block the incoming weapon.
Due to the momentum that this block generated, I spun around and activated {Formless Swipe - Nodus}. Car-loss seemed to be very sure that my attack wouldn't do anything and decided not to even try to dodge. But that was exactly what he shouldn't have done. As my staff slammed on the side of his body and sent him toppling to the corner of the arena. Or as much of a corner as a circular area could have.
Car-loss gasped at the impact and struggled to stand back up, but I wasn't about to let him have a breather. And unlike Astrid, who fought against someone full of honor, this Rodenti clearly seemed to be more into underhanded tactics. Like, for instance, trying to hit me in the back with his floating weapon.
Car-loss tried to stab me with his spear once he noticed I was going after him again, but I spun to the side, using another {Formless Swipe - Emperor} at him. My attack hit the side of his face. And while it was more powerful than what I could do without any skills, it was nowhere near as strong as the blow with the heavier variation.
Car-loss still turned around to strike me, kicking my stomach and using his tail to lash out. But a quick burst of {Body Regeneration} quickly healed the damage caused by the attacks.
Or so I thought. Despite him announcing himself as a powerful leader, it was pretty obvious that the man was using some sort of poison skill to attack. I felt the burning coming from inside and even some of my limbs trying to lock up. Maybe this was the real reason this Rodenti was so powerful. He attacked people with poison and forced them to die before they could do anything else.
Maybe it was the {Body Regeneration} skill, or just the fact that the poison was supposed to work more with other Rodenti. But it didn't cause the same effect on me as it might have done with someone else, meaning that I could still fight without a problem.
So instead, I tried to do something I had never done before. This might not be the best moment for experimentation, but what the hell. Triggering {Elemental Imbuement} two times, I focused one aspect of it to wrap around one side of my staff, using {As I Flow So Does The Current} to cover it in water. On the other side, instead, I channeled {Firestarter} to create a small ball of fire.
The Rodenti seemed to be very disliking of flames, and I was going to use that against him. Without any extra skills, I hit him two more times, just doing my best to hurt him as much as I could. My attacks seemed to be doing their job. With each strike, I was not only able to hurt Car-loss enough but also confuse him with my attacks to the point where the Rodenti never knew if I was going to hit him with fire or water.
Still, Car-loss didn't let up and tried to continue to attack me. His spear dug into my arms, leg, and stomach. Never getting too deep that it became a problem, but always making sure that I would bleed with each attack.
I could tell that this wasn't a pretty fight. It wasn't like Michael, who noticed his weakness and gave up. It wasn't like Astrid, who was honorable and did her best to make sure her opponent had a chance to show their power. And it wasn't like Riley, who proved their superiority with their skills. This was just a mad brawl between two people who were doing their best to win a fight.
But it was also pretty obvious that Car-loss had no intention of giving up. It didn't take long before the difference in our power became evident as the Rodenti couldn't really do anything against me. Yet, no matter how much I was pummeling him, he refused to yield, meaning that the only way for this to end was for me to knock him out.
I kept hitting him over and over again, even when the man stopped fighting back. His arms were still up, meaning that despite everything, he was still acting as if the fight was going to continue. So I kept on hitting, my staff slamming against the Rodenti's body over and over again. I even dropped the fire aspect of my skill to avoid burning him to death by accident. But it did nothing to weaken the strength behind my attacks.
After a couple moments, when it became clear that Car-loss was not moving, I paused and stared at him for a moment. His eyes were open, and he was still breathing, but he seemed to be unconscious. I had to give it to him. Even through all of this, he was still able to portray the face of a noble leader, since he refused to get to his knees even after he was no longer conscious.
But that wasn't enough, and I gave one good strike across his face before grabbing him and tossing the man out of the arena.
No one was cheering like they did for the other fights. No one was complimenting me on anything. Everybody was just staring at what I had just done with their leader and how the man was now on the ground, not moving. Although people quickly became aware that he was at least breathing.
I could imagine that the sight of me was also not very good. Unlike my companions, who all were able to finish the fight in a rather unbothered state, I was bleeding from head to toe. Bleeding from cuts that were no longer there. In a way, I should be looking more like a monster than those giant rats.
After all, what else would you call someone who could bleed nonstop and still walk away as if nothing was happening? Not to mention the fact that there was still some poison in my body. I could still feel it burning and my limbs trying to lock up. Hopefully, Riley was able to fix that before the damage became any more severe.
Either way, I just climbed out of the arena and turned to Rex with a nod, who replied in kind, wearing a smile on his face. Once I was by his side, he just glanced at his sister and said, "Yes, the strong won."