Master Of None

The other battle finished almost directly after the two had tied. The medical staff had been prompt as before and cleared the arena. Even if the traditions around battle were tough in this country they did not hold back when it came to healing. Walker was still wondering about why they weren’t using potions but was not in a position to focus on it at all. Scylla omitted Walker’s group from the next fight so that all the participants would battle after for the final spots at the same time. Su had entered her area with a frog trait demi-human. She could see the webbed feet and fingers along with the larger chin. She was preparing herself for longer ranged attacks, she had witnessed bullfrogs catching flies before. 

The two introduced themselves respectfully and with the motion from Scylla had begun battle. Surprising Su her opponent had made a massive leap putting themselves directly in front of her. She was forced to place the small shield in front of her since she could move that one faster. However with their mouth open a pink tongue shot out landing a hit right on to Su’s face. She was knocked off her feet leaving her rolling in the dirt, the small shield flung from her grip. She managed to hold her main shield and use it to help her stand but was just in time for her opponent to release the next attack. Su was able to deflect this one out of instinct and regain her footing. She had taken a hard hit that shook her brain and blurred her vision but that was not enough to put her down. She was now prepared for her opponents strong legs and the same trick would not get her.

Knowing this her opponent got in close to her again using a series of kicks trying to put her off so they could use their tongue again. Su was blocking all of them expertly not letting any damage through. ”Lets go you green faced toad!” Su taunted her opponent and slammed her shield forward. The sudden taunt caused her opponent to be distracted and landed a kick dead center on her shield. With her push she knocked her opponent on to the ground, this was the perfect chance to start her own attacks. Using her own kick she stomped on to her opponents foot wanting to damage them enough to slow their speed. Her opponent made a high pitched groan in response and tried desperately to stand on their now broken foot. The pain clouded their judgment as they used their tongue to lash out at Su to get her away, Su was expecting this and blocked with her free hand wrapping in around the tongue. 

With her opponent stuck in close range she used her shield bash skill three times directly in the face of her opponent. The frog trait demi-human cursed itself for its panic before they were knocked to the ground and released by Su. Many in the audience were shaking their head, this was disgraceful to panic so wildly in a battle. The frog trait opponent had started out strong with a sound strategy utilizing their two strongest features, but pain had completely overshadowed all that work. This demonstration here today would lead to many lessons in pain tolerance for the unfortunate demi-human participant. 

The battle having ended, Su was having her bruised cheek healed. Scylla was surveying the final pairs that would face off, this was her prediction in motion. The battle that her king had prepared was something that didn’t seem to interest any of the other generals whatsoever. But she had always enjoyed scouting out young talent and pushing them in to the next stage of strength. This may also stem from a slight desire to cause pain to others but she blamed her monster bloodline for this. It was rare enough for those in the demi-human kingdom to have traits of monsters and often the person became influenced in some way by these traits. Motioning for each of the pairs to move forward in to the open areas she saw many possibilities, she had a firm grasp on the two winners from the second and fourth groups. The gorilla trait participant was well known for his strategy and analysis being much higher than someone his age normally has. The fourth group just had an above average martial arts user that seemed to already have terrified their opponent with their last show of skills, the match would be over easily and nobody seemed interested. 

The two outliers were Su in the first group and Walker in the third group. Scylla had been learning a lot from Su as she fought and knew what to expect from a calm and collected shield user. On the contrary she had no idea what to expect from Walker who showed such a strange system, she even went so far to believe that he was incredibly limited by the rules that he could not directly attack with magic. For her if she allowed him to use it to attack she believed he would have finished the fights much faster. Feeling more excited than previous rounds she raised her hand to signal things would begin. With the same motion again she started the battle. 

Walker was facing a very strange trait on a demi-human, instead of the usual animal trait this demi human had the traits of a slug. Specifically the slime that was produced by a slug. This would seem very weak to use to one’s advantage but it seemed that they could cause the slime to be slippery or sticky. They basically could produce something that radically altered the immediate terrain for their opponent giving them many openings to use martial arts to knock them down in to defeat. This was one of the unusual outliers that became stronger only with a more intelligent use of the skill. 

Su was facing an equally challenging opponent, the girl facing her was heavily augmented by the traits she possessed. Her traits came from a scorpion making one of her hands in to a large claw, she also had a very long stinger and tail as an extra limb. There were rules not to use deadly force so Su knew that her opponent would not be using poison or they would face severe consequences, but the crushing power of the claw could easily shred the tougher defenses she had. The girl was eyeing Su like she was prey to hunt which made Su want to fight her more to show she was not some easy target. 

The battle having begun they started to feel each other out. Walker immediately started creating earth swords that rose from the ground around him, he made them so that they were spread enough to grab in an instant. He did not worry about his opponent grasping one because it this occurred he would just manipulate the earth to fall away in to dust. His opponent was not phased by this having seen the last instance of this magic. In reaction they threw blobs of their slime at the swords making them impossible to pull out, while this happened Walker was able to approach and attempt his first few attacks. The swords hit his opponent but slid off their body leaving only small cuts. This was the highly resistant skin and slime combination a slug had against predators in the wild. Walker saw that he could in fact cause some damage so used his higher agility to reign down small attacks, soon his swords became heavy and it was hard to lift his arms, they had become covered in the slug trait opponents slime. He could no longer use them, as if on cue his opponent lifted his leg to kick Walker, the only choice left was to drop the swords and back up. 

Su was struggling herself on the opposite end, her opponent was attacking relentlessly. Her tail worked in tandem with her claw in an attempt to either piece through Su’s defenses or sheer them away. Even worse, whenever Su thought she had blocked every attack her opponent would then use their leg or normal arm to lash out to try and put her off guard. Su had absolutely no room to push back. Her agility was just not enough, however her opponent was unable to do any real damage so they were in a stalemate. 

The two found themselves in a much more disadvantageous position in their respective battles than they had planned. Su was able to see what she needed to do to put herself in to victory but it required more agility, something she did not have. Walker had plenty of tricks left and was prepared to start using them, he still had the weapons that he had gathered from the preparation area. He could use the throwing knife to distract his opponent then go in with the ax. He could lure in and use the spear to pierce them. He could even utilize his scythe if need be to cause some more serious injuries using his crescent moon skill. It would all depend on how his opponent reacted.