I will strive beyond this cursed bloodline!

She did a quick stock of what was going around, she for once wasn't feeling compelled by hidden forces... Or she didn't think she was at least, granted the mocking and taunting weren't in tune with her usual way of doing things. But this was something she needed to do if she was to deal with this kind of being.

The muscled man seemed to be tense for some reason, was he feeling the same interference she had felt before with her skills?

A quick scan with her [Shadow Sense] didn't return any interference in the arena, it was the only place where she could actually feel as if she was able to manipulate shadows in this place actually...

Before moving forward with the fight she needed to do something, Rossie had said it so before and she wasn't sure why she hadn't thought it too, "So, are you going to [Identify] yourself?" asked the girl while sneaking the use of one of the [Skill] she had available to her.

And the skill went without a hitch, it seemed that even with all the suspicions she had about these skills, they still worked quite well. She dismissed most of the information about the man in front of her and only left the bare minimum needed.

Status(Level 20)
Strength: 100 Constitution: 100 Agility: 50 Dexterity: 30 Intelligence: 13 Wisdom: 13 Charisma: 10	Skill: Obsidian Berserker

She wasn't sure what to think about that status, he had the same level as her, but his overall status was lower than hers, it didn't look like that now true. But she had around a hundred or so status points to distribute, If she followed a bruiser build like what he seemed to have going, she could match his strength & constitution and still have extra stats in other areas.

 

She wouldn't of course, but it brought doubts about why she could match and overpower another one with the same level as her, these kinds of narratives usually were for [Heroes] from their own [Cheat Skills] granted by deities. And she didn't have [Fate's Blessings] as far as she was aware.

 

Would she need to file a complaint? She would have plenty of questions for Alexanders.

 

"Hmp, you are in front of the [Gladiator] and I hope your [Toy] is sturdy enough." Was all her opponent said while his muscles started to bulge.

 

Disgusting. Why did the men always did that thing where their muscles would bulge? She didn't see the appeal of that at all.

 

But even so, she still focused while sending a few commands into her shadows. "[Prepare to send the soldiers at the first opportunity, we will do a pincer attack if possible.]" She felt the shadows accept her command and wait.

 

She was used to them moving on their own, so it surprised how they stayed as if nothing had happened. So with a flex of her will she spread her shadows in a web pattern across the floor, she tried really hard to not laugh at the reaction of her opponent.

 

"Gya!" A very masculine sound from her opponent, "Y-You don't scare me!" and a very masculine reaction from him indeed.

 

After not noticing anything from her shadows decided to pump himself up by funneling his own skill into his body...

 

Wait, how could she feel him funneling his skill into his body?

 

She focused her [Will] once again on her skill and mumbled "[Identify]" while focusing on the skill part of the skill in her opponent [Status].

She gave a reread several times while the man on the other side of the arena kept screaming his lungs out while a weird red-ish fog-like type of vapor started being emitted from his whole body.

 

She could even feel a heat wave coming from across the arena, what the hell was that weird aura-type kind of thing she was seeing? Was...Was she stuck in one of those scenarios out of one of the stories her mother used to tell her?

 

...Was...Was she seeing things?

 

She tried looking at everyone else using her [Shadow Senses] but no one made a mention, the man had been screaming for almost two minutes now, and she even saw his HP go down a few %...

 

Should...Should she attack?

 

"Amm...." Mumbled the black-haired girl while the man kept screaming his lungs. "...Attack?" she said while pointing with her left armored hand at the man.

 

Instantly after it, a couple of shadow dragons pounced from the web near the man attacking him. " And the [Empress] says she didn't come here to wait! She wants action!" Came the voice of the black-masked man.

 

Great, another commentator.

 

The screaming man didn't seem to mind either her attack or the commentator since he hit one of his shadow dragons with a fist destroying him in one hit.

 

She immediately felt the drain in her mana as the dragon tried to reform and pounce again, she of course stopped him from doing so. She didn't have nearly enough mana for him to destroy more of her dragons. "[ Stop the assault of close fighters, only fight at range.]" She ordered his dragons, this time she didn't even bother to do only mental commands.

 

"And the [Empress] knows that fighting close range a bruiser is a mistake! At least one of the contestants is smart!" Said the black-mask announcer. Did he share a brain cell with the the crazy old man?

 

They were speaking the same. Was this something to do with being an announcer? She hadn't noticed it before, but most of those who worked as announcers of some kind tended to word things the same way.

 

She didn't have enough time to dwell on that train of thought as the man seemed to notice how the dragons didn't go at him anymore, she didn't have many that had a ranged option, only two or three that knew how to carry weaponry worked, and even those they just dropped things on the berserker.

 

So instead he started looking around to finally settle his eyes on her. She felt a shiver run through her spine as the berserker smiled and started running towards her, she got caught by surprise even after knowing his AGI status.

 

He had the same speed as her, true. But his lower Dexterity meant that he couldn't be efficient while moving, so she had expected him to be somewhat slower than his AGI status implied. Instead, he just ran forward with no care, he was closer to a bull than a human in how he ran forward, with no care about form or stability, he even needed to use his arms to prevent himself from falling flat on his face.

 

And so she did what any good Matador or Torero would do, she sidesteped to the side. She had over twenty extra points than him in Dexterity, and they showed with the grace she managed to dodge him and then slash him in the side at the same time with her sword.

 

The sword had morphed from a claymore into a more lithe sword, she was trying to not think too much about how her sword now looked like the one Rena had used while fighting...But katanas had its appeal as slashing swords and who was her to deny the functionality of a weapon?

 

"GAAAH!" The berserker only screamed and stopped his advance by punching the arena's floor and creating a crater from which to hold itself.

 

She could swear that she heard the sound of bone breaking, but if the wound on his side was any evidence to go by, he had a health regenerative function in his skill. Both the wound on his torso was gone and his arm seemed to be fine.

 

He still seemed to be radiating that weird fog-aura thing going, and his HP was once again topped at 100%, she however noticed how his Mana seemed to be going down and his stress seemed to be going up.

 

Interesting, she hadn't used her skill to see how the status worked after learning how [Idea] worked, but something told her the stress shouldn't go up if the previous description was to be believed.

 

For now, she had more pressing matters to focus on though.

 

Such as a berserker running straight towards her again, "No finesse at all." Said the black-haired girl while jumping and using the berserker as a stool to impulse herself higher.

 

She had jumped and behind her, a web of shadows had risen with her, the berserker Instead of dodging had run straight at it with the grace of a bull in a china shop, so he got quickly entangled in that.

 

Of course, he started trashing and breaking his bindings "GRAAAAAHAH" while screaming and trying to free himself while clawing his way toward Alice.

 

"AAAAND THE [Gladiator] IS RESTRAINED, CAN THE [Empress] KEEP HIM AT BAY THOUGH?" Said the commentator while the black-haired girl looked at her mana being depleted in real-time.

 

She had dropped almost 20% after restraining him, she dismissed the web she had made on the arena floor and focused most of her shadows on the restraining of the man.

 

She could see his mana go slowly down, but not fast enough. She would run out of mana faster than he would at this pace...At least till she noticed how he had a quick dunk in his Mana by an extra 5% in one go.

 

"Interesting...What did you do?" Mumbled the girl while looking at him and noticing how one of his arms had broken in an awkward angle while trying to wrestle out of the bindings.

 

He had broken an arm trying to release himself? That was stupid, that never worked in the real world unless you could heal yourself fast enough. Being wounded in enemy territory was bad enough after all.

 

But this brought an idea to her mind, an idea she would never be able to do as a [Hero], "Say...We are testing for joining a [Villain] right?" Asked the girl looking at the announcer.

 

The black-masked man at least answered out of the [Announcer] persona he had going, "Of course, most of you will get to join even if you fail our testing, only in more mundane jobs of course. Why?" Asked the black-masked man.

 

The girl couldn't help but smile under her mask at that answer, that was all she needed "No reason..." And she turned to look at the berserker, keeping him restrained wouldn't work, not at her current mana level.

 

She would probably manage if she dumped her remaining stats into the more magically inclined status...But she felt that would be a waste and something her blonde side would no doubt do.

 

"[Shadow Investment - Shadow Spike]" Said the black-haired girl while funneling her intent into her shadows and through the web that the berserker was stuck in.

 

"GRAAAAAAHG!!!!" Screamed in a primal way the black-haired man while the shadowy chains that were keeping him in place grew spikes that dived into his flesh.

 

He had good defense, over 100 points into constitution meant that he was durable enough, but with wounds all over his body, she could already see his HP plummeting and his mana going down the drain trying to heal his whole body at the same time.

 

Her mana loss was negligible since she only needed to keep the spikes from breaking with his trashing, so her mana expenditure was at an all-time low, against that the berserker kept healing his wounds and possibly replenishing the blood loss...

 

Yeah, she would win the contest of who would outlast this " This wasn't how I imagined you would end after making me wait for almost two minutes you know..." She said while walking slowly towards the trashing berserker.

 

She dispelled the weaponry in her right hand and even the face mask that guarded her against debris or attacks to her face, "But I will settle for this too, now..." She stood right in front of the man whose eyes now held fear as his wounds kept opening and his skill was running out.

 

It seemed that the skill had been deemed unable to deal with the current predicament his owner had found himself in and was turning off "W-What?" Said the man after regaining his consciousness.

 

Then after looking around and trying to stand "AAAGHH!! WHAT THE HELL?!?" screamed in pain as the shadowy chains sank into his body, now that his skill wasn't keeping him healed his wounds would only worsen.

 

"As I was saying...[Bow]" Declared Alice while forcing the body of the berserker to comply with her command.

 

The shadow chains tensed and shoved his face into the arena floor, "Gah, what the hell?!? Are you mad or something?!?" Trashed the berserker while trying to free himself, she had made it so the spikes in her chains no longer hurt him unless he tried to force himself free.

 

But they stayed there, as an insurance "I wasn't the one to ask for a combat... I wasn't the one that used a [Skill] that took the reasoning out and made a mad dash against a frail girl with less than half of my defenses." She said while putting her armored boot in the face of the berserker and shoving it down the arena floor once again.

 

He had enough CON to heal it after all, so he got no mercy from her, after shoving his head down and making her shadows secure it into the floor she kneeled near him "And more importantly... I wasn't the one to cripple my [Skill] because of [Fear]." She whispered into his ear.

 

Getting a small whimper from him...Was he crying?

 

Wait... Why was he crying?

 

"Okay that's enough for today, we don't want to traumatize our future coworker do we?" Said the black-masked man who pushed a button in a remote and she suddenly felt all the shadow in the arena stiffle.

 

Her control over the shadows was being contested, she felt like if she wanted to, she would be able to contest it... But decided to allow the effect to settle over her.

 

She however didn't allow the effect to spread more than one meter around her, making a small bubble of shadows around her, the masked man didn't seem to mind it, but this allowed the berserker to quickly wipe his face and jump away from her.

 

Almost as if she was a monster out of a nightmare.

 

"Your eyes." Said the black-masked man.

 

She didn't get what he meant about her eyes, many had sung praises for her blue eyes granted, but so far no one had seemed to like the red eyes her [Alice] persona had.

 

"What?" Said Alice while fishing a small mirror from inside her jacket (It came from her [Inventory] actually) and seeing her reflection.

 

Her eyes were shining red under a blue flame, "What the hell?" said the girl touching her face with one hand while seeing her reflection.

 

That...That was new, she tried to flex her [Will] into her eyes but that didn't seem to do anything, a more focused effort into how her mana was moving.... Ended with nothing.

 

Her mana seemed to move sluggishly, she got the feeling that if she wanted to she could probably make a spell work, but outside of the pre-set spells she had for her [Elemental Weaver] persona?

 

Nothing, it was as if she had never practiced [Mana Manipulation] at all..." I didn't practice that before did I?" mumbled the girl, dispelling her full armor regalia and only leaving behind his street clothes.

 

The weird blue flame started dissipating the less [Shadows] she was manipulating and eventually stopped burning, her eyes also lowered their color from shining red to a more toned-down bloody red.

 

"That's more like it, so...What did we learn?" Said cheerfully the masked man.

 

No one seemed to want to answer, at least till the berserker strode forward "Pure [Shadow] based skills are better powerwise if you ignore the weird mood swings they give their owners." And stated that proudly... While leaving the black-masked man between himself and her.

 

Coward.

 

The masked man said nothing and just stood waiting, "It's possible to control the [Shadow] based skills so long we practice?" Said a girl with dark-greenish hair.

 

"Exactly," applauded the black-masked man. "So long you hone your control you will be able to deal with [The Madness]." He said and she felt the shadows around her try to act up.

 

She quickly gave a scan in her [Soulscape] and found new tendrils of [Taint] trying to sneak inside her [Soulscape] so she focused her [Shadow Essence] and once more flooded her soulscape with her mana flushing the [Taint] to the outside.

 

This time however, as more of her consciousness was in the outside she was able to see small wormlike shadowy creatures being ejected from her [Shadows] and how they were burned by the normal mana in the air.

 

"Whoops, sorry about that." Said the black-masked man, most of those around her were on the arena floor holding their heads, and only two people still stood.

 

And somehow she wished that she hadn't reacted as fast as she did, "So...Who are you? Truly?" The black-masked man said while a sinister smile was carved in his mask.

 

It felt as if the mask had grown a vicious maw, "I'm Alice..." She started saying, she hadn't time to try and think of a last name so she used the one that felt right considering her situation "...Alice Saintsworth."

 

She would had so many problems later on if one of the Saintsworths worked for [Echidna], but right now she needed the extra protection that name could bring her, besides... They owed her a favor since [Alexanders] was creating so many troubles for her anyway!

 

"And I don't like being toyed by strangers." She tried to summon her armor regalia but the shadows suddenly seemed lethargic, right. He had turned on whatever that suppressed [Shadows].

 

She still managed to materialize a dagger in her right hand and...A chain?

 

Somehow a shadow chain managed to materialize itself in her left hand, she would look into that later, for now, beggars can't be choosers.

 

"Hmm...I thought you would present yourself as a [Windsor]..." Said the masked man, "Or perhaps [Ashcroft]...I could even understand if you said [Starlight] or [Brighton]. " He started saying different last names.

 

She didn't recognize the first, but from the second onwards? That made her wary, "Now...Why would you even..." He started saying only for his hand to shoot straight to his throat, he clawed at his throat for a second before his whole body was engulfed by shadows and he disappeared.

 

Unlike how she was clad in shadows as if they were a body armor, he quite literally got engulfed in shadows... As in a reptilian maw rose from the arena shadow and ate him.

 

"Sorry about that, he gets ahead sometimes." Said the voice of a girl whom she had heard before, "My name is Zoe. I will continue with your induction, and before moving on..." She said and suddenly the air around her was sweeter.

 

Did someone light up an incense?

 

"We will not be having more fights unless you want to find yourself in the infirmary." And she felt dread in her back...

 

She remembered what that black-masked man had done before... And what Zoe had said about her skill before... She started sharpening her will into her mana to use her [Identify] on her but got stopped since Zoe said first, "And since I know that at least two of you have a [Infosec] skill. I'm wearing an artifact that wards against that type of skill as most of the higher-ups in the organization. You will not find anything useful."

 

Alice could only sigh and let her mana dissipate, as the shadow weaponry. She could admit defeat, she was a big girl that knew how to admit defeat.

 

She would also use the skill anyway later when more people were around and from a hidden spot.

 

But for now?

 

"Now be a darling and help those by putting these on them." Said Zoe while pointing to a box that was being dragged by a small drone in the form of a dog.

 

The box was full of silver bracelets with red finishings in them, they looked like the silver one she was wearing in her left hand, "These will help them purge the [Taint] Nyctophagia shoved their way, they work the same as yours so don't mind it too much." Said the girl while grabbing a bundle of them and starting to do just that.

 

She grabbed a few (And maybe shoved one or two into her [Inventory]) and did the same.

 

She couldn't wait to see what more they would send her way, with some luck the second part of the induction could solve at least one of her questions? As far as it was concerned she had at least found how to deal with [The Taint] so she was good on that front...

 

But that couldn't be all, could it?