The First Legendary Beast Master

There was a short delay before Dana's fight, while the Elders returned the arena to its base configuration, and the unranked Immortals placed their wagers on what the fighting style and power level of Dana was going to be.

They knew that her actual advancement was tied to Karl's, but his skills made him ridiculously difficult to defeat.

If she had a somewhat normal skill set, fighting her might not be such a terrible time.

They had no idea what they were getting themselves into.

"Would you like to make a request for your opponent?" The Elder asked when he saw that the last contestants were coming back out of the healers' tent.

"Just make sure that they are a combat specialist. I am a Mystic Blademaster by class, a battle mage." Dana explained.

That excited the warriors. It wasn't often that a mage was anything other than squishy in a duel. If she was a mage who knew how to use a sword, she might be worthy of becoming part of their friend group.

Assuming that she was somewhere near the same level as her husband.

Because even without an Immortal Spirit, there was no doubt that Karl was not among the ranks of Common Immortals.

"Are you going to do something dirty like summon Golems?" One of the warriors asked.

"Undoubtedly. I am a mage, after all. If I didn't at least summon a couple of Golems and cast a fireball, they would take away my union card."

The warrior laughed, and hopped down into the ring.

"Alright, let's get this started."

Dana smiled and summoned two Epic Golems, in the form of the Dark Elven Kings, into the arena with them, while the crowd began to boo and jeer her lack of sportsmanship.

It was mostly good-natured, but there was some jealousy there from other newly ascended Immortals who were seeing their chances at moving up the ranks vanishing.

How were they supposed to get out of the bottom tier when people like that existed?

"We might need three men to deal with this woman as well. Feels a bit odd to say that, since the phrase is usually reserved for Succubi." One of the senior members noted in a dry tone.

The Elder rolled his eyes. "Surely, it won't be... no, you are right."

"Send two more to the arena floor. If not, that pair of Elves is going to chop someone up."

The two Kings turned to stare at him with the utmost of disdain. They might have never fought at the Immortal Rank before, but they were Kings of the Dark Elves, Epic Golems summoned by the Dana Mage.

A single Common Immortal warrior was not going to be enough to stop them from doing whatever they wanted.

Two more men joined the fight, and Dana gave the signal for them to begin.

The warriors moved, activating skills faster than most eyes could follow. But the Kings were already gone, and two pommels hit two skulls at exactly the same instant, before they turned on the remaining fighter and drove him to the ground in a single series of attacks.

"Halt. You three, head to the tent. We need a better team to fight those things, we didn't even get to see the mage in action.

Yes, the Golems are a sure sign of her power, but we still need to rank her combat skills." The Elder insisted.

"I can dismiss them, or have them stand aside. If you just want to know how my blade skills are, it's easy enough to do now that everyone understands the power of the Epic Golems."

Saying that they understood was a stretch. They had seen them in action for less than a second. But for the Immortals, that was enough to get a rough idea of their base power level.

"Do it. It will save us all some time."

Dana nodded to the Elves, who moved to the edge of the arena, confident that they could rescue Dana if something went wrong.

A gesture from the Elders sent another Immortal into the arena. This one looked like he had seen more than his fair share of combat, middle-aged with leathery skin toughened by exposure.

But here in the Immortal Realm, that didn't necessarily mean anything.

Her senses told her the man was close to a thousand years old, and that was much more relevant to his skills than his appearance.

He didn't hesitate, and drew his blade to launch directly into a flurry of attacks that sent sparks flying into the air as Dana's sword deftly parried every strike. The sound of the blades echoing through the arena as everyone else fell silent.

With a skill activation, the Immortal increased his speed, and Dana's sword became a blur, with [Auto Parry] stopping his assault short of the target every time, while Dana adapted to his fighting style.

Using [Warbeast] only made her a more furry version of her foxkin self, but it gave her the same Epic constitution that Karl enjoyed. However, it was focused on speed and agility.

Dana settled into a rhythm as she learned the combat style of her opponent, and then began adding Arcane Element power to her attacks, based on the [Arcane Missiles] spell, but altered with her understanding of Mana Manipulation.

The result caused an increase in the sparks flying around the arena, as well as a lot of lingering mana, that she could use as a secondary attack, without her opponent immediately noticing that she was building up a skill.

Finally getting a chance to make a move, Dana activated a movement skill, intending to walk through the air, only to realize that as an Immortal, that was no longer necessary.

She could fly without a skill.

That gave the fight a whole new dimension, and she began drawing her opponent up off the ground, where the lingering mana could gather in every direction, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.