Limitless Path

Bai was back on her feet in a moment and waving the healer off, though not unkindly, and she walked over to Beth, both clearing the field at the ref's insistence. Beth walked with the other girl back over to the girl's team, who had been at the edge of the field behind Bai, watching their match with interest. They moved to the side, clearing the area around the dueling field, Beth noting that a lot of people were looking at them after their match, though more so her in particular.

"That was…something," Bai said when they stopped walking over by the wall.

"Well, I told you so," Beth replied with a shrug, grinning cheekily at the stunned girl.

"What was that?" Bai asked.

"My victory," Beth interjected.

"No! I meant, that move…the one that destroyed me. I've never felt anything like that before," Bai said, her voice a bit intense.

"Spatial Obliteration. Tier three damaging skill that I have in Platinum," Beth answered with a shrug.

"How can you be so blasé about a tier three skill? And excuse me but did you just say you have a skill in Platinum?!" Bai asked, trying to keep her voice down, but the edge clear for everyone to hear.

"Yeah. I've got, what, three skills in Platinum now? Takes a lot of work, but they're pretty strong now," Beth said, tapping her chin while she thought.

"Three?! We've barely got three Gold skills between us! How do you have three Platinum skills?!" Bai hissed back, doing a slightly better job of volume control but not of vitriol control.

"Worked hard. Got lucky," Beth replied, shrugging again.

"You're infuriating," Bai scoffed.

"Is it my turn now? Can I fight? Let's fight, okay?" Ming cut in, practically salivating at the chance to fight somebody so powerful that wasn't an instructor.

"We can do one, like I said, but it's not going to be very fun. For you," Beth said, shaking her head.

"Come on! Let's sign up!" Ming exclaimed, hurrying to get them queued up for one of the dueling fields.

"Again, years later, I'm still sorry about her," Bai said as Ming got them put in the queue.

"She's fine," Beth said. "I'd be a little more concerned if I were a little weaker, maybe, but she doesn't bother me."

"Thank you for that," Bai said, sighing a bit.

"What about the rest of your team?" Beth asked, glancing at Bai's team standing around. "Any of them able to speak Standard?"

"Yes, we can speak Standard," said one of them, a quick use of Beth's eye power showing his name as Wei. "We're just a little stunned, believe it or not."

"You've probably seen crazier," Beth replied.

"Maybe from an instructor," said another of the team, the tall man's name coming back as Li. "To see someone around our age, someone we fought against a couple years ago, fighting at a level some of the instructors might not match, is more than just surprising. How did you get so strong?"

"We fought. A lot," Beth said, giving an empty-handed gesture as if to say, 'What else can you do?' She then continued, "It took a lot of time, and we spent a lot of time in compressed time to get to where we are, but it's doable. The Path is a lot more flexible than a lot of people think, as well. I transformed an old skill I had into a totally different skill just through my understanding of the skill, of what I wanted it to be, and of the mana I use. People think inside the box too much and that constrains them."

"What do you mean you transformed a skill," asked Wei, but Ming interrupted them.

"Boring talk later! It's time to fight!" she exclaimed, dragging Beth off with her.

It was, in fact, time for them to fight, though it had happened as Ming was dragging her towards the dueling field, meaning Ming had been watching the queue like a hawk. She barely allowed time for the previous two participants to get off the field before dragging Beth onto it, practically dragging her to her starting circle. The ref was less amused by this than Beth was, but they held their peace as Ming got herself lined up and sorted out. The ref then performed the standard start with little fanfare, Ming recklessly rocketing across the arena as soon as the ref's arm was moving downward, which was technically legal.

Beth decided that she would humor the rather short girl for a little, Ming being almost a head shorter than Bai, and Bai wasn't winning any height competitions any time soon. Beth went back and forth with the girl, exchanging blows without using anything other than pure weapon skills to fight. Ming, on the other hand, threw just about everything but the kitchen sink at Beth, using every skill and capability that she had, not hesitating to deploy her Presence just a short time into the fight. Ming's Presence was a hauberk that covered her torso but didn't extend onto her arms, explaining why her heavy gauntlets went up onto her upper arms but she wore only a lightly armored shirt otherwise. The shirt allowed her Presence to fall into place over her torso without interfering with its deployment while still providing the battle maniac a bit of armor. The hauberk was all of a single piece, made of some kind of black material that was hammered into a blunt shape, the stomach a heavy cylinder and the chest a brutal wedge of the material connected around to a thick back plate.

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Beth continued using nothing but her weapon skills, noting that Ming had invested quite heavily into Strength, using most of the rest of her points to buff out her Dexterity. It really felt like that was where all her points went, with very few having gone into Endurance and basically none having shored up Intelligence and Wisdom. Beth was able to get a good idea, even though both skills and her Presence made everything more complicated, gauging how much damage each of her blows was doing to the girl. She was a bit surprised her normal hits didn't do much to Ming's Presence, though it wasn't anything shocking considering Presences were always quite tough. She got a look at Ming's markers as the girl spun away from one of Beth's punches, two bright lines glowing on Ming's back indicating her rebirths.

As fun as the spar was, for that's what Beth considered it, she was much more eager to get to the fights against the whole team with some limits in place. She knew if she let Ming go that the girl would fight the whole day without stopping, only ceasing her efforts when she dropped from exhaustion. Beth closed with her suddenly after Ming had used an explosive punch, which was clearly a skill, both trying to throw Beth off balance and to clear some space to set up a new attack. Beth stepped into that space, little phased by the punch, instead delivering a right straight of her own, punching right past Ming's defenses and hitting her in the face. She used her overwhelming stat advantages and her greater skill to deliver a rapid series of punches to the other girl's face and head. She didn't have to hit too many times before the ref was calling the fight, Beth backing up as Ming flopped on the floor, gasping as the ring fully healed her.

"Again!" Ming exclaimed as she leapt to her feet. Laughing, Beth grabbed the tiny girl, picking her up with one hand and carrying her off the field, much to the ref's relief.

"Ming!" Bai exclaimed as Beth deposited the squirming girl with her team.

"Again, I told you so," Beth said with a small smirk.

"More!" Ming cried again, looking like she was practically ready to attack Beth right then and there.

"Easy, tiger," Beth said, gesturing the girl to calm. "We have plenty of time. I'm here every weekday as well, even after this weeklong event. You can get to me with one easy teleport."

"That is true. We should-" Bai began before cutting off, tilting her head rather far back and looking over Beth's shoulder. Beth could guess what was going on even before two long arms with black scales scattered across them wrapped around her and Sera's hot breath caressed her right ear.

"What do we have here, my love?" Sera asked.

"Sorry, forgot to say something," Beth replied contritely, turning and giving Sera a quick kiss on the cheek. "This is Bai and her team; they're from a country on the other side of the world. Blood and I fought against them a few years ago. We were all still early on and they did some matches with us. When they saw me today, they wanted to get some more rounds in."

"Nice to meet you all. I'm Beth's girlfriend, Seraphinalla Narzareen Andromeda Schwarzdracchen, but you can just call me Sera," Sera said to Bai and her companions.

"Wife, by the way," Beth interjected.

"Fiancée," Sera retorted.

"Deal," Beth finished their little repartee, giving Sera another very quick kiss.

"I want to fight her!" Ming exclaimed, getting muffled by one of the others almost immediately.

"You'll get a chance," Beth said. She turned to Sera right after she said it, saying, "If you don't mind, that is?"

"Of course not," Sera replied. "I can easily spare some time."

"We can't fight both of you," Bai said, trying to keep a serious demeanor even while Ming's muffled protests grew louder at that statement.

"No way," Beth said, laughing loudly. "Of course you're not fighting both of us at once; that would be way overkill. Even fighting one of us with limits is still overkill."

"Well, you're quite confident, but then again, I've experienced it firsthand," Bai said, rubbing at her torso through her chest armor, obviously remembering what a Platinum skill had just done to her body not that many minutes before.

"Let's figure out what we're doing," Beth said, glancing over the team, all of whom seemed varying degrees of hesitant, other than Ming, of course.

"Stat limited?" Bai asked.

"That won't be enough," Beth replied, shaking her head.

"You think you could still beat us if your stats are limited? And it's just you versus the six of us?" Bai asked, though she didn't seem particularly skeptical, just more asking for confirmation.

"I think I could do it only using one skill," Beth said. "I think we need a pretty advanced ruleset if you want to even have a chance."

"Double versus limited, only weapon skills for Beth," Sera cut in, glancing between them.

"Sure, we could try that," Beth said with a shrug. "If the six of you have double stats and I have, say, four hundred in each stat? Maybe three hundred? I think that might work. We can have a match and then tweak it, depending on what happens."

"I think that sounds vaguely insulting, but I'm willing to follow your suggestions," Bai said.

"I'll have to go to the counter to set this up. Wait here for a minute," Beth said.

She walked out of the floor and to one of the counters, finding John and one of the newbies there working. She approached and waited a minute for a couple people in front of her to get through their whole deal first. One of the five people that had been waiting was totally new to arena fighting and asked John what seemed like a thousand questions before John got frustrated and told him to just go fight. Beth had wanted to wait for John specifically to be free, more comfortable with the Seniors she knew.

"What do you want, girl? You don't have five hundred questions, do you?" John snapped at her, still a bit peeved.

"Need to set up a special limited match," Beth replied, leaning against the counter and ignoring his annoyance.

"Oh, now this I gotta hear," John said, leaning back against the wall and crossing his arms over his chest.

"Got a team in that I fought a couple years ago. Wiped the floor with them then, even in a Limited Match, but they've improved a lot. I could still wipe the floor with them, even in a Limited Match, but they want to give it a go. I want to try four hundred stats for me, double for them, and I can't use anything but weapon skills," Beth explained. John was smirking by the end while the new worker was looking at her with wide eyes.

"This sounds fucking fun. I'm gonna send out the call. I'll set it up on field one; look for the match in the queue," John said, his eyes getting a far-off look as he finished speaking, clearly setting the match up. Beth saw it pop up in the queue, though John stayed distracted for another minute. He was probably 'putting the call out,' whatever that meant.

Beth returned to the arena and told Bai's team that they were in the queue for field one. When she had told them which match they were, Sera immediately went to get Blood, who had slunk off after their ref duties were done for the day. She wasn't the only one getting people, as Beth noticed more people gathering in the arena section over the next few minutes. It wasn't just regular spectators, either, though there were plenty more of them. Several of the new Seniors, as well as all the 'old' Seniors, gathered in the stands or on the floor.

Beth supposed a much younger and less experienced her might have been made rather nervous by so many eyes on her bout, but she was used to such things by now. Besides, despite all the heavy restrictions, including her stats being limited to something she hadn't experienced in subjective decades, she was still extremely confident. Even with things like Beastly Tyrant fully off, which is one consequence that her being limited to weapon skills only would have, she was still highly confident. If she had to guess, Ming probably had the highest single stat among them with her Strength stat, and that was likely a bit north of a thousand. Beth recalled that when she had been two rebirths in and at level one hundred as she and Blood were heading for rebirth three, she had about twelve hundred Strength, and that was with the first two rebirths being True Rebirths. She suspected Ming was just scraping over the one thousand line, and that was focusing everything she had, even her class, into as much Strength as possible while still have enough Dexterity to fight properly.

Sera returned with Blood right before they were ready for the match, the wolf giving a short, desultory greeting to Bai's team. The team seemed impressed with her as well, though Beth was pretty sure Bai had been telling the truth when she talked about their Identify skills being in Silver still. If the group could see rebirths, they wouldn't agree to this match, even for a training experience. Then again, Ming was a crazy battle maniac and Bai was quite determined, so maybe she wasn't giving them quite enough credit.