Sworded Affair

Chapter 5: Milites

“I’m ready for the trials.” Emma declared after a few minutes of thought, seeing no other way to fulfill her objectives.

Facing the Centurion, Emma was expecting another speech, or perhaps a dramatic opening of the gilded gate to allow her into the Academy proper. What she wasn’t expecting was for reality itself to glitch, for lack of a better word to describe the phenomenon. All she knew was that one moment, she was outside under the cloudy English sky; the next she was center stage beneath bright sunlight in the Colosseum, as it must have looked before centuries of disrepair and looting took hold.

Epitaph disappeared, Emma’s rational side noted, whilst the rest of her was far too busy admiring the view.

Pristine white walls loomed in every direction, filled with cheering crowds dressed in tunics interspersed with the occasional toga. A pack of wolves slowly circled the edges of the arena, staring hungrily at her but never ceasing in their patrol. Glancing across the stands, Emma could see what must have been tens of thousands of spectators, none of whom were immediately recognizable except for one. Sat in the lowest (and therefore best) seat directly facing the main arena was her brother, a single dash of purple in a sea of white, watching impassively and giving no sign of having noticed her presence at all.

“An impressive recreation,” Emma had to admit. “Not all the details are right though.”

Indeed, even a quick glance saw men and women mixed freely amidst the crowd; laudably progressive but historically inaccurate based on the scant seating charts available to scholars in the modern day. Likewise whilst Felix, as the Emperor had the best seats; he appeared to be surrounded by a cross-section of society rather than solely a delegation of the senatorial and equestrian classes. Then Emma blinked, feeling a strange sense of vertigo for a brief moment. When her eyes refocused, she could see that the discrepancies she'd noted were no more; women being assigned to the highest rows alongside the foreigners, slaves and the poor, whilst Felix was surrounded by only the elite of society.

Oh wow, Felix looks annoyed now, Emma noted.

[The Dungeon distorts to accommodate the whims of its Master.]

And on that ominous warning; the cry of horns sounded, coinciding with the opening of the Colosseum’s Gate of Life. Two massive lions emerged, each towering over Emma as they approached; one adorned in a coat of purest white and the other a midnight black, their eyes gleaming with intelligence as they took to the stage. There were no words from Felix to mark the occasion, no signal from the Emperor to begin proceedings as dramatizations often showed. Just another round of horns, and then the bout was on.

[Dies & Nox - Level 3]

“Day and Night,” Emma sighed. “Very original.”

Holding off from re-summoning Epitaph, Emma waited in place, wanting to observe her opponents in action. They clearly had the same idea, leading to a full minute of staring before the crowd began to boo. That spurred the lions into action, charging towards her with a speed belying their bulk. Not fast enough though, as a short sidestep brought Emma out of their trajectory; Epitaph coming into being as her downward, one-handed slash carved a slice out of Dies’ flank.

[Anima: 55]

As expected of a Level 3, that didn’t do much damage, Emma's thought as she examined her work.

Backpedaling to avoid two furious swipes from the wounded Lion and his companion, Emma proved reasonably successful at leveraging their bulk against them, darting to and fro such that only one was in a position to strike at her in any given moment. As their exchange lengthened, with neither Dies nor Nox able to land a telling blow on her, Emma dared to hope that the entire fight would be this easy. Predictably, her hopes were soon crushed as Dies began to glow, his movements slowing to nothing as he curled up, seemingly asleep.

[-1 Anima

-2 Anima

-3 Anima

-4 Anima]

Emma felt unpleasantly warm all of a sudden; which painted an unfortunate picture paired with her sudden and rapid loss of Anima. On a hunch, Emma crouched and rolled underneath Nox’s latest lunge, getting a free swipe to his soft stomach but more importantly positioning Nox between herself and Dies. The burning sensation halted immediately, confirming her guess - the only countermeasure against one lion's ability was to leverage their opposite.

[Anima: 47]

Thus began a game of cat and mouse, with Emma dodging swipes and the occasional bite from Nox, dealing opportunistic slashes in return all whilst repositioning as needed to keep Nox between her and the stationary Dies. It was a delicate dance Emma wasn’t entirely successful in, but that was fine. She was the only one in the fight with built-in healing on every hit she dealt, so taking an occasional pulse of Fire damage or an odd swipe wasn’t the end of the world, as long as she ultimately gave better than she got.

[Anima: 53]

With attrition on her side, it was only a matter of time until luck turned Emma’s way. Slowed by a baker’s dozen of bleeding wounds, Nox was too slow to dodge a hamstringing blow that toppled him to the floor, one leg now lame. Seeing victory in sight, Emma went on the offensive against the crippled Nox: who, true to form, went entirely immobile and began to glow a pale blue, whilst a faint sheen of frost began to envelop Emma’s form.

[-1 Anima]

A quick glance at Dies saw him moving again, running to the opposite edge of the arena to deny Emma cover. Knowing that trying to catch him was futile in the time available, Emma committed fully to taking down the wounded Nox; with nowhere to hide, this had become a pure damage race - betting her strikes and self-healing against the ramping damage of Nox’s frost. Abandoning subtlety altogether, Emma swung one two-handed blow after another into Nox’s neck, aiming to take just a little off the top. It was hard going, Nox proving uncannily durable even when completely defenseless, but just shy of ten harrowing seconds and half a dozen swings later, his head finally toppled to the floor, dead at last.

[Anima: 6]

“Not even close,” Emma laughed a tad maniacally as she glanced at her status.

By many metrics, she was in a really bad spot; barely standing whilst Dies was still mostly fresh barring a single injury to his flank, and rapidly approaching her position to boot. None of that phased the euphoric Emma in the slightest though; because for the first time since her rebirth, she’d finally secured enough experience points to level up.

[50 EXP Gained. Level Up!

Emma Knight - Level 2 Revenant

Alignment: True Neutral

Anima: 6/150

EXP: 135/240

Level Tree unlocked!

Select one of the following:

1) Ability - Grave Song (Cost: 5% current Anima /second): Sing a song of death, causing increasing damage to the living the longer they hear it.

2) Ability - Ephemera (Cost: 10% base Anima /second): Become intangible while active, able to pass unhindered through physical objects and blows.

3) Trait - The Wolf: Your strikes are preternaturally sharp, tearing through flesh and steel with equal ease.]

Smiling widely, Emma didn’t hesitate to make her choice.