With a smile Palinus stalked around the minions, trying to keep them between him and Aurelius. He needed to be careful with his timing and manage the minions perfectly, accounting for their range and exploitable targeting preferences.

The first melee minions clashed in the middle, their ugly flesh and bone swords and shields taking rhythmic strikes at each other.

Palinus stepped forwards and moved as if to strike. Not prepared to back away Aurelius mirrored the action from the other side of the line of minions and closed in.

The smile widened on Palinus's face as he noted Aurelius take the bait of his feint, he immediately aborted the swing and stepped back. When Aurelius took a further step forward past the line of the melee minions Palinus nearly laughed.

The second melee minion targeted the swordsman and Aurelius barely flinched as the bone sword slashed into his shoulder. Giving Palinus a long glare he maintained eye contact as he took another strike from the melee minion before he backed off behind the skirmish line to allow the minions to battle.

Chuckling to himself Palinus imagined the boos from the crowd as he ran away from another clash. He imagined that Aurelius must be thinking he was doing a good job of intimidation, but Palinus knew the lane was now set up in his favour.

High in the stands in a brown robe rather that his robes of office Censor Caelus smiled as he watched the boy taunt the swordsman and successfully pull him out of position again.

"Nothing like his mother." Provocator Servius commented as he appeared in the seat beside the Censor. The tall special agent wore a similarly nondescript outer robe to cover his dark leather armour and the swords he always carried.

"No," the aging man laughed as he agreed. "She would have been blasting the fool as quickly as her ars became available. She never did learn the art of minion management"

"Boooooo!" A nearby drunk threw the empty clay demi-amphora into the arena, voicing the displeasure of the crowd.

"She never learnt patience you mean," Servius quipped as they watched the fight. "Are you worried that he will let himself be zoned off the essentia?"

"No I suppose that patience was always more your thing... The boy is clever, he set up the wave by baiting the enemy into being targeted by the minions, the few strikes did no damage - but they will set up the wave to move towards the boy's side where he can control the battle. The first minion is isolated and the second is set back towards his tower, so it will… did you see that?"

Caelus was suddenly excited as the boys clashed again, the crowd joined him as this time the boys activated their ars and exchanged several blows before Palinus retreated again. To more jeers from the crowd.

"He channeled his ars first to take a minor win in an exchange?" Servius replied. "It just seems like a needless risk."

"For all your experience you forget what it was like to be new at this. The boy is experimenting, did you see his movement? Steppign back and forth to find the minions' patterns and range. I think he has just confirmed something important."

"What was that?" The provactor asked as he adjusted the cloak that concealed his dark leather armor.

"The minions don't prioritise targeting Palinus for damage dealt from [Burning], but they do if he directly attacks Aurelius."

"That seems like a minor point, and he should really know that or have been taught it at Prima Disciplina." Servius commented, " Though the standards have been slipping in the training legion, and he certainly should not have spent such a short time in training."

"Bah," the older man said, "It'll be good for him to learn as he goes. Besides, you and I both know the capital isn't a safe place to be right now."

"... and the blood road is a much safer place?"

"Think of it as a grand adventure…a great opportunity." The censor prevaricated, "... Bah. It was the only chance to get him out and, besides, I agreed to let you go along and I have even had Marius watching over him."

The another wave of minions had engaged and the lane had indeed been moving towards Palinus's tower. As the boys clashed again and Palinus again retreated, the men in the stands took the opportunity to let the many times rehashed argument rest.

"Boooooooo, stop running away and fight!" The crowd was getting restless as the waves progressed.

"It was a good freeze." Servius admired Palinus's work as he managed to stall several waves of minions just outside of the range of his tower.

"Yes, and he has started to take the advantage in essentia."

"Though not a big advantage yet... he might get to the next level first. Does he engage with that edge?" Servius speculated.

"Hmm. He has a long cooldown ars that might allow him to be aggressive, but if he isn't decisive it will mean a roll of the dice and he would have to try to dodge the burst of the other boy."

Things were going as planned for Palinus, the wave had stalled and as he moved in to collect another wave of essentia beads he felt the familiar surge of essentia through his avatar that indicated he has hit level two.

He quickly selected his Saturnine Veil ars and assessed the situation.

In their exchanges Aurelius had been doing more damage when they traded more than one or two strikes, if Palinus had his shield ars he could use it to apply additional damage and burning as well soak up to two strikes from Aurelius's golden sword. Without a shield or defensive ars Aurelius was taking damage to his health points directly and from the strikes and the burning damage that lingered was ticking this up as well.

Aurelius Arcavius 523/688 | Level 0

Golden Warrior - Swordsman / Golden Warrior / Bruiser

The annoying swordsman's yellow attunement was hard for Palinus to read, but he found if he sort of squinted at the yellow blur or read it out of the corner of his eye it was darker and more readable.

Aurelius Arcavius 523/688 | Level 0

Golden Warrior - Swordsman / Golden Warrior / Bruiser

The swordsman's higher physical stats were taking effect with reduced damage and him healing significantly more between skirmishes, but the first phase of the fight so far was a minor win to Palinus, who had yet to take much damage.

With the edge of getting the level with additional stats enhancing his damage and the Saturnine Veil ars to protect him from some of the potential damage he considered if he could strike to attempt a kill and secure the match or at the very least do a bunch of damage and get a further lead.

Before he commited a worming doubt crowded Palinus's mind. If he used the Saturnine Veil ars it would be on cooldown for a long time. The threat of Aurelius's burst would be most significant at level one where he picked up his beam attack and the Veil would be incredibly useful at countering an all in attack.

Taking the initiative of the additional level, Palinus pushed into the minion wave and tried to bully his opponent away from his minions.

In response the swordsman glared at him as if daring Palinus to use his ars and strode forward into the wave to meet him. They stood a half dozen meters apart as Palinus hesitated to commit to an all out attack.

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A flash of essentia from Aurelius as he picked up some essentia bead scattered on his side of the minions ended the stalemate as the swordsman picked up the essentia he needed to level up as well.

Aurelius had no hesitation to engage, he instantly activated the ars that made his sword light up and began to strike at Palinus. The quick action catching him unaware and the first strike of the golden light hit his health points and leaving a shallow cut on his skin before he activate his smoke shield to block.

As Palinus prepared to returned fire he sensed a surge of essentia that preindicated a massive ars like the beam attack he had been waiting for. THining quickly he aborted the slash of his whip to dodge quickly to his left. The projected sword of light slashed through the air in a blur and smashed through the smoke shield and cut into Palinus's side.

"Take that!" Aurelius yelled as he followed up with another slash of his sword.

Palinus was forced to backpedal past his ranged minions as he collected himself.

Palinus 545/615 | Level 1

Smoke Mage - Flagellant / Smoke Mage / Mage

The swordsman was building up a head of steam and kept attacking with slashes of golden light. The attacks stopping against Palinus himself as they wildly lashed at the minions in the wave.

"Hyah!" he exhaled weith each swing as Aurelius began to dismantle the wave as quickly as he could.

It seemed the fight had entered a new threshold and Aurelius wasn't going to allow Palinus to sit back and keep control. Now that the minions were dying faster on his side the wave would reset and get pushed against the tower. If that started happening then Palinus would lose the essentia advantage and get disintegrated by pure force once Aurelius hit level three first. It was time to change it up and go on the offensive.

With his smoke shield on cooldown he couldn't apply burning, but he could still do some damage with his whip. Swinging the meter long stick and whipping out the essentia it projected as fast as he could started on the melee minions and tried to whittle them down as quickly as he could. If Aurelius stepped too far forward he would make him back off with a quick crack of the whip or two, though the major deterrent remained the damage of the supporting minions - a threat that the swordsman was cutting to pieces.

The new pace of the fight was frenetic, but through the exertion of attacking as quickly as he could Palinus remained alert to Aurelius's essentia patterns. The fight could be lost in a few moments if he was hit full on with sword beam ars. If he could dodge one or two of those he could leverage an advantage, but needed to stay in the fight to force the attacks.

The skirmish continued unrelentingly with constant movement from both avatars as they attacked minions feverishly, with only the occasional break to attack each other.

In a flurry the stalled minion wave was dismantled, with Aurelius joining the couple of ranged minions that survived from his side as they moved under Palinus's tower to do the first tower damage of the game. The swordsman couldn't resist the opportunity to attack the tower and the extra essentia that it provided. The swordsman grinned with delight as he activated his golden sword to carve gashes of golden light into the towers structure, and harvest essentia from the damage.

The hubris of Aurelius's choice made Palinus's eyebrowns raise. He could see the focus on his opponents face and knew instantly that this was a chance to strike. Rather than clear the ranged minions faster and protect the towers health he moved in to attack Aurelius directly, waiting a few seconds before activating his shield ars to add some bonus damage to the stacking combination damage.

The ranged minions finally died with the tower taking more than half it's health. It was a dangerous amount of damage to take, and probably meant that Aurelius had claimed nearly half a level of essentia already. The swordsman retreated slowly from the tower trading blows as they ran up the now clear lane. Keeping up the pressure Palinus gradually moved in a slightly leftward direction rather than following directly.

As he nearly made it to the brush Aurelius suddenly spotted his movement and snarled in frustration and rage, surging his essentia for his powerful attack. The glow on his sword went up several degrees and the swordsman started to bring it down.

Palinus had already reacted by running towards the brush and the obscuring cover that it would provide as soon as he stepped into the line of the tall grass. It felt like minutes as the blade descended, following him left as it tracked his movement into the brush.

The moment he was holding his breath for came in a jarring transition as he crossed that threshold to the tall grass and the sounds of the fight were instantly muted to be replaced with a distinctive rustling and the lighting of the rift shifted. With all the force he could muster in his body he slammed himself backwards.

"Hyah!"

The sword beam went off with a blast and a yell it's thick golden beam and the enormous sword projected along it barely missed him as it pulverised the brush ahead of him. Aurelius had tracked his movement perfectly, and even with his dodge it was mere centimeters from his body.

Immediately Palinus launched his counter attack, he lashed Aurelius with his whip as fast as he could. Striking repeatedly into the swordsman's frustrated face and making him raise his sword to try to divert the pain of the blows.

"You sneaky twig!" Aurelius growled as he tried to retreat and fire back.

Palinus was using the line of the tall grass to dodge every other blow, he managed to use the smoke shield soaking up smoke from Aurelius's burning wounds to completely mitigate three of the blows he was unable to dodge, leaving Palinus in a strong position.

Palinus 472/615 | Level 1

Smoke Mage - Flagellant / Smoke Mage / Mage

Aurelius Arcavius 365/715 | Level 1 [Burning]

Golden Light Warrior- Swordsman / Golden Light Warrior / Bruiser

With his combination damage stacking up from the whip blows Palinus commited to the attack and channeled the Saturnine Veil.

As soon as the smoke filled the battlefield Aurelius wisely turned to a full retreat. With the additional speed boost Palinus was able to continue to rain down blows and even managed to almost catch up to the swordsman as he continued to chase after him and attack his back, which was beginning to look raw and bloody.

With a curse Palinus dodged past the melee minions of a new wave turning to attack him as they closed in on the tower.

Aurelius Arcavius 203/715 | Level 1 [Burning]

Golden Light Warrior- Swordsman / Golden Light Warrior / Bruiser

He was forced to take some strikes from the minions as he balanced his continued damage to Aurelius against the damage he himself would take. It was time to give the golden boy a taste of his own medicine as Palinus made the choice to full commit.

*Crack* Another whip strike surprised Aurelius within range of the tower. He would have assumed that Palinus would have already retreated.

*Crack* Palinus was eyeing the tower as it charged up it's attack.

*Crack* "Ugh!" the bolt from the tower stung just as much as he thought it would, and staggered Palinus for a moment. Gritting his teeth he took a quick step forward to finish his opponent off.

"Curse you, you little maggot!" Aurelius gave up running to yell. "I hope the tower blasts you to pieces!"

Aurelius Arcavius 43/715 | Level 1 [Burning]

Golden Light Warrior- Swordsman / Golden Light Warrior / Bruiser

Palinus 287/615 | Level 1

Smoke Mage - Flagellant / Smoke Mage / Mage

*Crack* The final blow struck and Aurelius's avatar popped in a wave of essentia beads that Palinus didn't stop to watch. He was already retreating at full speed. He knew that there was only a small window to survive the dive as he ran with the buff of his Saturnine Veil and his fingers rossed.

Edging wide and right he needed to thread the needle, there was no avoiding the blast from the tower he knew was coming, but he needed to make sure that he avoided taking any more damage than that from another tower strike if he left it's range too slowly or the minions hitting him if he got too close.

A sudden blast in the back and the accompanyment of searing pain came from the expected bolt from the tower. It's strike knocking loose the breath that Palinus was holding as he sprinted, only 39 HP remaning. The melee minions cut off his retreat from the middle of the lane, one from the side and another slightly ahead. Palinus gritted his teeth as he prepared himself for the blows and cursed himself as he accepted that he had stuffed up diving and would probably lose the match now.

The melee minions raised their boney swords the strike his shoulder as he sprinted past. He forced himself to not close his eyes as he watched the first sword slash that tore through his tunic and flesh. The second sword came from nearly behind him by the time the minion struck. It's right handed slash racing towards Palinus's body as he tried to lean away from the blow. The tip of the bone sword clipped through the gash in his red tunic formed from the previous slash and somehow missed the flesh beneath.

Losing his balance in the surprise of living he fell on his face, the momentum of his headlong sprint making him skid for several meters before he could collect himself. It took a while but he gradually recovered his breath, and then his wits as he capitalised and collected the essentia as he cleared several waves and solidified his advantage and a level lead.

When Aurelius finally respawned he was forced under his turret repeatedly as Palinus used his Multistrike ars to blast him and the minions to pieces.

Standing under the tower and glaring impotently Aurelius looked like he was upset. For the first time the mask of rage had slipped and it almost looked as if the golden haired young man was going to cry as he stood and watched Palinus farm the waves

Even as he mopped up the fight and stood to the smattering of applause and jeers of the arena crowd, Palinus's mind wandered.

"I wonder what Rufian is getting up to?"

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