Isran rubbed her head gently. The joy she had felt while fighting had been swift and a little unsettling. She had been sulking the day before, almost traumatized by the damage she caused.

  She did feel joy at fighting. It was fun. But that feeling she had after using her Protector’s Oath skill seemed almost… foreign.

  “You were amazing.” Isran gnced at Elowin. They were sitting in the stands as the arena was cleared before the next match began. Brawner was sitting on her other side.

  He grunted with a nod. “Amazing.”

  Isran gave them both a small smile. “Thanks.”

  She lifted her eyes and spotted Morgana talking to the governor. Her fme-haired colleague was staring at her, they were a good distance away from each other. But Isran could tell from the way his head was angled and the feeling of being watched by a predator.

  Her Protector’s Oath skill had worn off when the match ended. Isran realized it sted as long as those she was protecting were in danger of some kind. She did take the opportunity to look at her multiplied stats before the match was decred won.

  NAME: ISRAN THE GREAT

  RACE: HUMAN

  PRIMARY CLASS: WARRIOR

  SECONDARY CLASS: KNIGHT

  STRENGTH: 9(38)

  DEXTERITY: 5

  SPEED: 8(32)

  ENERGY: 7(28)

  ENDURANCE: 5

  SPECIFIC CLASS (1): KNIGHT OF GREATNESS [10]

  SPECIFIC CLASS (2): NONE

  HEALTH: 110/110              MANA: 0/0

  Knight of greatness was beginning to have truly paid off for her.

  The fming-haired cursed knight stopped staring once the announcer began to hype the crowd up for the next match. She also averted her gaze and immediately spotted red.

  The sentient silk cloth immediately recognized she had spotted it and floated down into Elysi’s p.

  She blew a kiss at Isran that the adventurer, subtly caught.

  Calliope was asleep, her head in Elysi’s p while Phaedra was smiling at her. Isran's thoughts about the match were less worried as she looked at them.

  The second match was introduced in much the same way. It seemed Isran was the only person whose name the crowd had learned. And from the way she spotted some people pointing at Alden, that may not stay the same for long.

  They were less enthusiastic with the cheering for the second match but still very much excited.

  Isran kept her eyes on Alden, preparing to follow him through his match as the crowd began to count down.

  As soon as the match began the blonde orc rushed towards team four’s simple mage, a human woman. She stretched out her hand to cast a spell but Alden had covered their distance too fast for the magic caster.

  The orc feigned a left then used his entire body to shove the mage to the ground.

  Isran couldn’t help but wince when Alden stabbed the mage in her belly.

  There was blood on his sword--Isran could tell—but it was much less than you would imagine for where he had stabbed the mage.

  In fact, as Alden ran towards his next opponent Isran noted the ck of blood beneath the mage. Considering she had sustained next to no damage throughout the games she had no idea how it felt to be injured.

  Alden met Isabelle next. The wolfkin was fast and more than prepared for Alden’s attack.

  She dodged his swings, finding small opportunities to ssh him in his sides.

  Isran gnced at a different part of the arena to see the other sword and shield bearer on team four withdraw his sword from the illusion mage on Alden’s team. He was shortly hit by a fireball after.

  Isabelle seemed to be gaining the upper hand on Alden when Isran looked back at their fight. He was being pushed back, his stance breaking as well as doing more defending than actual fighting.

  It seemed he had a good amount of endurance, considering the damage Isabelle had managed to inflict on him wasn’t small by any means. In fact, he was bleeding.

  The earth mage on team four unched a rock at Alden from behind. A truly stupid move.

  The blonde orc ducked and a surprised Isabelle fell to the ground unconscious. The rock that had just hit her fell to the ground beside her.

  The ck of cohesion in fighting was undoing team four, and nothing could make it clearer than a different fight in the same arena.

  The sword and shield fighter on Alden’s team--a gnome--together with their fire mage and simple mage were tag-teaming their axe and simple mage opponents.

  They moved with a clumsy sort of cohesion. Their movements meant to complement each other but obscured by too many close calls.

  It didn’t matter that they didn’t work well with each other. They worked with each other, and that was all they needed against a team that hadn’t even attempted that.

  The sword and shield bearer made quick work of the axe wielder once he was cornered enough, and that was the end of him.

  The only person left was the earth mage. And Alden was trapped in the same stone formation he had trapped her in when she had faced his team the previous day.

  The fire mage attacked him at the same time the simple mage did, but the earth mage was a good fighter.

  He erected a stone wall just as the attacks would’ve hit him and jumped several feet away from his then-crumbling formation.

  Though there was no way he could win.

  Alden had managed to climb out of his stone prison, having thrown his sword out and probably jumped to grab the ledge of it.

  As soon as his feet touched the ground and his hand was wrapped around his sword he made a beeline for the mage.

  He was the closest and appeared to be faster than his other teammates, so he reached the mage first.

  The mage stumbled back and threw rock pieces at him, simir in size to the one that hit Isabelle earlier in the fight. Alden dodged a few of them but did his best to not stop moving forward. The attacks did slow him down but after four of them, it seemed the mage had run out of mana.

  Right before Alden would be in attack range of him, he threw his hands up in surrender, signaling the end of the match.