Chrysalis

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.

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,

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

opponent's foot is all the

FAST!

CLANG!

side just in

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,

Whoa!

CLANG!

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

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.

try a little

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

and lashes out with a powerful swing. Unlike the other times, he activates a Skill. A wave of crystalline sword-light is

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

Gweheheheh.

as one, shocked that the mighty cut wasn’t enough to get through my exo-skeleton,

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

to take this a little bit