Limitless Path

As they came up in the queue, the place had started to fill up, and Beth made her way to field one at the far end of the floor. She looked around as she walked down to the field, seeing the stands were filling a little more rapidly. Now, obviously, they wouldn't fill fully, as the place could easily seat over fifty thousand people and there weren't nearly that many people there to participate in or view the matches. People had also slowly started to gather around field one, and when Beth took the field, followed by Bai's team, that gathering increased in speed and size. It got to the point where the other fields had openings for the first time that week, the refs able to watch the match with their full attention, including using the camera systems of the arena to see what was happening.

Beth took her position on the field in her own circle, getting her sword out of her necklace and grasping it in both hands. She set the tip against the floor in the center of the circle, flexing her fingers on the hilt as Bai's team got ready across from her before going still. The ref gave them an extra moment, clearly understanding this match had some importance, before giving them the starting spiel and asking for their readiness. Beth just gave a slight nod, going back to impassivity as she watched Bai's whole team give shallow bows to the ref. When they had both signaled, the ref raised her arm and waited a moment for the countdown before dropping her arm and yelling for them to begin.

Bai's team approached Beth cautiously, even Ming keeping in line and not rushing off on her own to get into the fight any quicker. Beth continued watching them approach without moving at all, sword still held in front of her and the thick metal mask on her face. This clearly unnerved Bai's team, especially Bai herself, who had just had quite the reminder that Beth really wasn't somebody to mess with, even in a regulated duel. Beth waited for them to get close before going on the attack herself, something that seemed to surprise them. Likely they were still remembering the last time the whole team had fought Beth, every instance of which Beth had waited for Bai's team to be actively attacking her before she had countered.

This time was rather different, considering Beth was extremely handicapped in what she could do. The restrictions to skills meant she had nothing other than her weapon skills, and that included her Presence. One of the reasons she was still confident despite all that was that it was much, much harder to restrict something like a Mana Physique than it was even an advanced skill; it could, perhaps, be considered that Beth was playing on their ignorance again, as she had when she used her Presence to beat them in a surprise upset several years ago, but Bai's team was older and wiser now. She would have to hit them hard and fast before they realized that she was stronger and more durable than she should be; it might take them a minute, but Bai's team could figure out that she had something besides a weapon skill that the arena hadn't deactivated. In fact, it was likely Bai's team would figure it out rather quickly, they just might not believe their own conclusions, a delay that Beth was going to use to hopefully win before they could reorganize.

A second factor she was banking on them not being totally prepared for was her weapon skills being in Expert, near the top of the grade, and that that gave her more options. She could attack at range with concentrated waves of mana fired from her weapons, which included her own body, and having a Mana Physique only made this phenomenon stronger. She used this factor as soon as she was moving, swinging her blade rapidly, though it felt like she was moving in slow motion compared to her normal power, her lack of stats and skills making her seem to crawl compared to her usual lightning-fast movements. Still, the combination of her unexpected attack, her burst of movement, and the fact she led by firing sword waves at the group clearly put Bai and her team on the back foot.

Beth took advantage of that, darting among them, using her sword in one hand while punching, kicking, throwing elbows, and even headbutting one of Bai's team members. All of her strikes were powerful and precise, all of them carrying extra mana, all of them either landing a clean hit or creating an opening, whether on the person they were directed at or a different team member, for Beth to land a good strike. She danced among the six of them, wary about being tied down, which was certainly possible with her reduced stats and restricted skills, trying to keep moving and constantly monitor all six of her opponents. It was very tough work, especially with how fast some of the people on Bai's team could move, as least relative to Beth's restricted movements, and she was trying to watch them all while dishing out as much damage as possible.

Things didn't go fully her way, of course, the restrictions she was operating under being quite harsh. The team had rallied around Bai, following her commands and boxing Beth in, allowing them to restrict her movements to a certain degree. If Beth had been able to teleport still, this would have been a rather stupid strategy, but surrounding her and keeping a relative distance from her while trying to block or deflect as many of Beth's attacks as they could was a good strategy if she had no fast way out. That allowed Bai's team to get several heavy blows in, blows that would have done serious damage to another person, but Beth was wearing very good armor, even for the level she was currently at, and she had a lot of extra toughness from her Mana Physique. Bai's team seemed to realize this pretty fast, despite not understanding exactly what was happening, coordinating to try to limit Beth's mobility, striking at her legs and joints as much as they could.

Beth was definitely under the gun in terms of time; the longer the fight, the worse the position she would be in, especially as Bai's team realized Beth still had an extra oomph factor that was helping in multiple aspects. She decided to kick it into high gear after they had been fighting for just under a minute, knowing that speed, at least speed in acting and in decisive measures, was going to be her greatest advantage. Despite the stat differences, and despite her skills being locked, she knew that Bai's team was entirely in Journeyman in terms of weapon skills. That alone gave her a big advantage, though it was because her Mana Physique helped in all things that the advantage was so big. If she didn't have her Mana Physique, the restrictions might have been enough to give Bai's team the win. Might have.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

But they weren't, and Beth proved that when she started attacking even more aggressively. One of the things about her as compared to others was that Beth wasn't afraid to go for the throat and take an exchange that would injure her if it would cripple or kill her opponent. This was different than many others on Earth, even though the Path had been there for a while, as many people still remembered a world before all the fighting and death. People also just had a natural instinct to avoid being too reckless with their own safety, especially during a fight, and they would often assume, consciously or not, that others operated the same way. Beth used all those factors to charge through two skills that Bai's team used, a blast of fire from the third woman on the team and an explosive punch from Ming to catch Ming at an unexpected angle. Beth's sword pierced the small girl's chest, none of them having summoned their Presences yet, which Beth had understood gave her a big opening on the battle maniac. That was a flaw that Ming would have to work on in arena fights going forward; if her armored undershirt wasn't very strong, and an opponent knew she used that because she was going to summon her Presence, then that period of time before she actually did summon her Presence was a major vulnerability that any skilled fighter would try to exploit.

Beth had done exactly that, and done it with a beautiful lunge, not just a textbook maneuver in terms of the movement of her body and the timing, but she had led the way with a piercing sword wave, breaking apart Ming's light armor before her blade even got there, allowing her thrust to do maximize damage. That maximum damage was enough that Ming literally teleported off Beth's blade, the arena having pulled her out a few milliseconds before Beth's movement was even fully complete. Other challengers might have been surprised by a sudden change like their pierced opponent teleporting away suddenly, but Beth was moving in the second millisecond after Ming had disappeared, the teleport in its entirety only taking a couple nanoseconds. The CRA systems were quite good.

It might not seem to others like that was a pivotal moment, but experienced fighters, particularly arena fighters, knew that that was a key play for Beth. Ming was one of the strongest fighters, if not the strongest fighter, on Bai's team, and she was also the most aggressive one there. Taking her out eliminated the best of Bai's fighters, who also likely had the most arena fights and experience under her belt, making Bai's team much more than just one sixth weaker. Not that Beth was simply doing whatever she wanted without consequence. Even with having been very swift and decisive, both in taking Ming out and in continuing to move after she was confirmed eliminated, Beth still got hit again, taking a heavy strike to the side as she moved to eliminate a second of Bai's team. Once again, she absorbed the hit without even flinching, despite the fact even such skills as Pain Tolerance were not working for her, taking the opportunity shrugging off the blow presented to critically injure another of Bai's team, the man named Li that had talked about just how surprised they were at how strong Beth had gotten.

Li wasn't fully eliminated, but Beth counted him as such. He was so injured that he had a hard time moving after Beth got done slicing him apart, though even a severely wounded opponent could deal an unexpected blow if they weren't actually eliminated from the ring. She still moved on from him for now, twisting between three attacks to fire off blade waves at two more of Bai's team before spinning around and punching Bai, the shorter woman surprised that Beth had been able to anticipate her attack. Beth knocked Bai away before slashing apart a spell from the team's third woman, Mei Mei, who was using a lot more magic than the others, the girl a proper caster. That was also a weakness in the arena, at least at their level, as the girl wasn't very good at dealing with other intelligent opponents. Beth had maneuvered in such a way that her next attack unexpectedly targeted the girl, lopping off an arm. It wasn't enough for the ring to teleport her out, but she was basically out of the fight. That made it a one-on-three, which most people would take as very bad odds for the one, but when that individual was Beth, well, the three had a low chance.

Bai clearly realized that even with their advantages, they were still getting taken apart and so she made the call for them to deploy their Presences. Obviously, the thought was they would get a major boost in power and crush Beth before she eliminated too many of them to make up the difference. The problem was, Beth was very used to navigating these waters, and like she had thought earlier, Bai and her team were slow in deploying their Presences. That split second might not matter most of the time, in most situation, but against Beth, it proved a fatal opening. As soon as Bai had given the command, all five of the on-field members had activated their Presences simultaneously, even the two heavily injured ones. During the second it took them to complete the activation, Beth had spun around in a flurry, slashing and punching almost one hundred times, a crazy feat with her low stats and no skills. Every single blow contained mana, firing off blasts from her fists and waves from her sword.

The results were devastating, both the injured spellcaster and one of Bai's uninjured teammates teleporting away just as their Presences settled. It was now Bai, one other lightly injured teammate, and Li, who was seriously injured, against Beth. That practically made it a two-on-one, and, with Beth's experience and skill, that wasn't going to be something Bai's team could win. They tried, and the effort they put in wasn't bad, especially considering the extra power their Presences gave them, but it just wasn't enough to bridge the gap. Considering how restricted Beth was, the fact that there was a gap they needed to bridge at all to get to her and not the other way around was astonishing, but she proved a terror in the arena. The injured Li was eliminated within another ten seconds, making it truly a two-on-one, and then Beth took Bai out. That left only the sixth of the team, Fang, who was simply no match for Beth. He used two swords and leaned more on speed and agility than power, but his fast movements did him little good, especially since Beth had him pegged at about Journeyman[4] with his Swords, which was not nearly enough to stop her Expert[7], let alone her Expert[8] with Unarmed.

When Beth's sword made it through a gap in Fang's defenses and nearly split his head into two pieces, causing him to be teleported and healed instantly, the ref called the fight for her. She didn't think it was anything all that impressive, but the place exploded, the most people Beth had ever seen in her home Hall gathered in the stands and on the floor of the arena. She gave the crowd a few seconds of bowing and waving, acknowledging their cheers, the ref more than happy to let her soak in the spotlight for a moment before shooing her off the field. She walked over to where Bai's team was all gathered then, Sera and Blood both present beside them, Sera looking a bit impressed and Blood looking a bit bored. In contrast, Bai and her team all looked various levels of morose or depressed, many shaking their heads and sighing as she walked up to them.