I stood in the centre of the arena across from my second opponent, feeling my armoured vest dig directly into my skin. I'd forsaken the sodden undershirt and donned the armour directly over my bare chest, and while it had saved me a few moments of comfort when putting it on – and looked a bit more dashing now too, if I did say myself – I was starting to regret it.

I'd been hoping for another quick win, and it was looking increasingly unlikely. I had trudged through the waterfall and out into the arena-proper, greeted Finanda, and slipped easily onto the dais to await my opponent. The first I saw of them was a massive tower shield bursting through the water, followed immediately by a large woman huddled beneath it.

Her bright red hair flicked water everywhere as she shook like a dog after emerging through the curtain, but that seemed to be the only part of her to get wet despite her more vigorous entrance. I was still very much the soggiest person around, it seemed.

That wasn't so much the issue though. No, the problem was that she had arms and legs like tree trunks, crisscrossed with scars, and a short, no-nonsense haircut. Clearly, this was an experienced fighter and not simply some rich brat using his father's money to live vicariously as a warrior. And she had a massive shield and a short gladius, which was not a combination I liked the look of.

I'd felt my attributes reset once more as she emerged from the waterfall, and once again I'd had time to adjust. A little less than a third of my attributes gone. She was stronger than the last man, brushing the peak of the 1st tier if I had to guess.

I couldn't tell much about her attributes just from the way she moved, but I could make some deductions from her armour and weapons, at least. She was clearly following a path meant for her to stand in the centre of a battle and hold her ground. An enduring rock in a chaotic storm. High strength, low agility. High cognition, too, to help process the maelstrom of sensations in a battle and sort through which was most important. Perception wouldn't be as useful when she was unlikely to move around at high speed, and so I suspected it was ignored in favour of greater endurance and strength.

A solid fighter then, if unexceptional as a duellist. She didn't need to defeat an exceptional duellist though, just had to beat little old me. Fuck, this is going to take a while.

I rolled my shoulders and hitched the armoured vest up away from my armpit again, trying to avoid the chaffing already building there. Deep breaths, and then Finanda was between us once more. A few more heartbeats to observe my opponent, catching the gleam of golden eyes beneath a curtain of ruddy red hair, and then the Holder was gesturing us together and stepping away.

Setting the tone, my opponent shuffled forwards carefully. Her feet moved deliberately, taking her forward and round, circling to my left while closing the distance. Shield up protecting her from shin to shoulder, blade poised at her side, its tip winking at me as it caught the sun.

I let her take the initiative, responding in kind to her movements. My spear darted out a few times, testing her reflexes, and what I saw was not promising. She might lack my agility, but she had a large shield and knew how to use it, closing off angles of attack with her positioning before I could even think of exploiting them.

Her blade sought my front leg when I darted forwards for a strike over her shield, but I was able to check the stab with my greave. I backed away again and we exchanged a few more strikes of that nature. Back and forth. Probing. Uncertain.

It was a boring way to fight, and I felt impatience nipping at the edges of my mind. She was utterly unexceptional, but I knew that if this continued for too much longer, I would be the first to make a mistake. Her muscles were defined and strong, her jaw set firmly and without a hint of doubt on her face. Her entire figure spoke to a discipline that I lacked, and I knew that in a fight of attrition, as long as our attributes were evenly matched, I would lose.

Luckily, we weren't just two fighters with different weapons and fighting styles. We were two warriors with entirely different builds, entirely different Skills. The Forgotten Spear had fed me the knowledge of an ancient spear-art, but she no doubt had her own weapons Skill, too. Jorge and Vera, and even Nathlan bless him, had trained and sparred with me for days on end, sharing their own knowledge and styles. But she had also trained with others, presumably an entire clan. I couldn't rely on beating her with superior skill at arms, or with superior training.

I had to therefore turn to another strength. I had to make this unpredictable. Guerrilla Warfare wasn't so useful here; setting traps and taking advantage of the terrain was not possible in an open arena, governed by rules. I'd forfeit the match if I stepped through the waterfall, and without the ability to break line of sight, I doubted I could really surprise her.

Luckily, I had other Skills to fall back on. I let my stone-sense sink into the ground, and circled around her, just out of stabbing range. I sent a few more flicks with my spear, aiming to remind her of my range and to keep her hesitant. Then I sent a rush of mana through my soul into the constellation of Faultline, willing the rock beneath her feet to crack.

Lunging forwards at the same time, I had hoped that my sudden attack would make her back-peddle and trip over the newly uneven surface behind her. Unfortunately, she had her own Skills that I'd not accounted for. It was a subtle aura Skill I hadn't noticed yet, as it had no direct effect on me or herself. It did affect the environment around her, though. I was able to sense the stone beneath us, but as I sent my intent into the floor, it abruptly cut off in a sphere around her, roughly a dozen feet in diameter. Where she moved, I could not influence the rock.

I guessed it would probably hold true of all elements to a rudimentary degree. Even had I control of other elements, I would not be able to suffocate her by withdrawing air from around her mouth and nose, or blind her with wind to whip her hair into her eyes, or draw moisture from the ground and cover her head. As the ideas occurred to me, I realised how prone I was to a sudden death from a skilled classer.

I aborted my charge, slipping past a lightning-quick stab of her gladius, and spinning to face her once more on the other side. So much for that plan. The momentary realisation of all the ways I could have killed her had I the Skills, or all the ways she could likewise kill me, was a slap in the face. I was thinking too narrowly.

Much of my recent training time with the others was focused on weapons work and fighting directly. Jorge had always championed the philosophy that the most effective way of killing an enemy would be to use your weapon. Skills were powerful, but your weapon was your greatest ally in combat.

Didn't much feel that way right now, but alas. I had spent long hours drilling forms and sparring, but equally I had spent many days working on my Skills. Faultline wasn't just a way to trip my opponents. I was only using it mostly like that because I lacked the power for greater feats, and the control for more accurate ones. Sure, I couldn't send a rock hurtling at the speed of sound at my enemy's face with mana alone, but I could just throw one myself. I might not be able to grip my enemy's legs in the ground, but I could litter the battlefield with craters and divots to make their footing less even.

I backed away, and my opponent let me, cautious in all things as she was. Focusing my will and marshalling my mana, I began to transform the battlefield to something more suited to my style of fighting. Cracks formed in the rock all around and the dais split as first dozens and soon hundreds of small fissures appeared in the rock beneath our feet. They weren't deep, but even a small depression could be treacherous at the wrong moment.

My opponent seemed perplexed, staying crouched in place within their sphere of nullification and simply watching as I scuttled around the arena, cracking the stone in varied patterns. I looked up to see if the Holder of the circle would protest, but I received no sanctions, just a simple nod at my clear questioning posture. So, I continued.

After the first dozen heartbeats, my opponent started to move. She tentatively stepped forwards, but the ground didn't reform to its previous state. She was wary of an ambush, but my ambush had not yet been sprung. Or, more accurately, I hadn't figured out what it would even be yet. The first step was to transform the battlefield into something a little more chaotic, and that's what I had worked on. I pranced back from her advance, staying out of reach and further altering the terrain around us.

She clearly decided that enough was enough though, as she raised her sword to the heavens and shouted. A bolt of brilliant lightning crashed down from on high, hitting the rock where I'd been standing only a moment before. Branching scorch marks stood out against the white marble surface of the floor like hands grasping out in all directions. There were small chips and flecks of stone left in the tiny crater where the bolt had impacted as well.

Luckily, I knew to get the fuck out of the way when someone gestured dramatically and did something unexpected, and so I was unhurt by the strike. I doubted she did it on purpose, but I knew from experience that impressive Skills like that involved lots of mana and an intense focus of will to control – both of those things were easier to carry out when you made a big deal about them. Just as lifting a heavy boulder was harder when you had to keep silent, so too was activating powerful abilities without an obvious tell.

It didn't make the effect any less awesome to behold though, and I'm sure the crowd would argue that it made it all the more dramatic. I couldn't yet pierce her defences, and she could call down lightning on my head. Great.

I was at least forcing her to use some Skills though, and I had to admit that while the Skill itself was impressive in a raw 'calling lightning from the sky itself is awe-inspiring' kind of way, it didn't seem to fit with her fighting style. She turtled up, taking no risks and seeking to outlast her opponents, and she could call lightning – there was nothing more to it that I could see. Where was the cohesive path? The synergy between Skills that would turn her from a one-trick pony into a true warhorse?

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Perhaps she had yet to show it, but I suspected I was looking at simply a competent fighter with one or two interesting Skills. 'Simply' might be underestimating her unfairly – after all, she'd displayed just as much as I had so far – but I knew my path forward. The environment was my own now, familiar in its chaotic nature. It was evident in the way she chose her footing carefully, unable to move smoothly around like she had before for fear of unbalancing at a crucial moment.

Mountain-Born and ample experience in the mountains kept me steady as I danced around her, spear flicking out like the forked tongue of a serpent; agile, testing, tasting the air for a hint of weakness that I could exploit.

I tried to wobble her with a judicious application of Tilt, but she seemed unfazed. I wasn't sure if it was related to her nullification sphere, some other passive Skill, or if she simply had an unusually stoic constitution. Whatever the reason, my newest Skill fell flat, so I returned to more tried and tested methods.

After another half dozen strikes from different angles, I was still no closer to wounding her, but she had hunkered down behind her great tower shield in the centre of the arena, no longer so keen to chase me down. I'd established a threat and now could move on to the next phase of my plan with the breathing room that had given me.

The marble beneath my feet was shot through with whorls and streaks of reds, blacks and greys where the heterogenous rock had mixed its different elements together. Along these minute faults, my Skill had done its work, and now those same colours demarcated cracks in the stone. Some were thin and deep, others wide and shallow, and they varied in length and shape dramatically. One type of crack was particularly useful to me though; those that split apart on either side of a seam, leaving a small island of rock disconnected from cracks running to either side of it.

From above, I had played god, cracking the landscape into snaking canyons and winding cliff-edges, and as I put distance between myself and my competitor, I took a moment to survey the ground. Finding those unconnected islands of rock, I stamped down, severing them with the help of Faultline and pure physical force, until thin slithers of marble were left rolling across the surface of the dais.

I grabbed one such slither in hand and hurled it at her as she peeked over her shield's rim. She ducked her head back on instinct, and we both heard the rather anticlimactic patter of tiny stone against metal. As she looked back around the shield though, my spear was hurtling at her head.

She barely managed to avoid it, yanking her shield up and reeling backwards from the impact of my throw, my weapon clattering to the ground at her feet. It had been an unlikely gambit, and might even have worked – I saw the Holder just behind my opponent and off to one side, clearly ready to have grabbed her and pulled her out of the path of my weapon if she hadn't defended herself properly.

But she had, and now I was down a spear. The red-haired woman agreed, and I had to backtrack fast as she took the opportunity to rush me, quick stabbing jabs of her sword aiming for exposed parts of my thighs and forearms. I kept my cool, despite the uneven surface, and used my heavy bronze bracer to deflect one stab, raising my lead foot to avoid another and hopping backwards to avoid the third strike.

She clearly thought I was in trouble without my weapon, and took the opportunity to harry me with blows, taking care to interpose herself between me and where my spear lay behind her. I continued to parry with my shield and armour while moving through the jumbled mess of raised and cratered stone. Every opportunity I got – which was fewer than I'd like since she was a solid fighter – I took to stamp on the odd thin canyons of rock I'd formed with my Faultline skill, kicking over any that looked small enough and leaving a trail of thin shards of marble in my wake.

We were both beginning to tire by now, having been fighting for a while. Nowhere near exhaustion, mind, but her thrusts were a little less crisp, the footwork from both of us a hair sloppier. We would be able to trade blows for another half an hour, but each one would be weaker and slower than the last.

Though I wasn't trading many blows myself currently, having no spear to hand. I had my primal dagger at my belt and the small hatchet too, but knew it would be near useless at this range. I'd need to get past her shield before I could make use of the weapon, and that wasn't something I could achieve yet without becoming full of sword-shaped holes.

But things were looking better than before. I decided to try another bit of subterfuge, and leapt forwards at her, raising my free hand in the air and bellowing an indistinct war-cry. As I did so, I activated Indomitable Prey, and I saw her flinch back behind her shield.

The combination of the big gesture and shout, and the intense change in atmosphere as my powerful aura Skill activated, had convinced her that I was going for a big finishing Skill. My raised arm would no doubt be filled with holy light as I descended upon her with the force of a thousand meteors… or something. I didn't know what she was expecting, but neither did she, and that was the point.

Her uncertainty made her cautious, and she abandoned the opportunity to thrust at an open target in favour of sheltering behind her no doubt Skill-reinforced shield to survive the incoming attack. The reality of the situation was that I thudded into the front of her shield with only the momentum of my physical body. I was also not quite as strong as her thanks to Jorge's stupid test, and I lacked the Skills she clearly had that helped turn her into an unshakable bulwark behind her shield. She didn't so much as stumble.

My round shield was now pressed against her larger one, both of us shoulder to shoulder with only two sheets of metal separating us. I could hear her heavy breathing, and while I couldn't affect the stone around us due to her nullification Skill, my stone-sense still worked. I felt her weight shift slightly, and knew a stab was coming.

Praying my gamble would pay off, I sent a burst of mana down the artifact link with my shield and willed one of the segments to retreat into itself. Her blade shot out past her shield and towards my chest like a charging bull, swift and deadly, but I was ready.

I twisted aside, turning the piercing thrust into a simple slice along the skin. As I did so, I twisted my wrist to spin the shield, catching the blade in the open segment and twirling it further. I heard her grunt as her sword was twisted from her hand, and she elected to drop it rather than have her wrist snapped to maintain her grip on the weapon.

The move had cost me though, as I was now unbalanced compared to her steady stance, so even as I flung my shield aside, and her trapped blade trapped with it, her foot came stamping down on my own. I hissed in pain, which turned into a gasp as she drove her whole body forwards, knocking me off balance and onto my back. She followed me to the ground, a great mass of muscle and steel baring down upon me like a falling tower.

I managed to roll aside, leaping to my feet and backing away, fast as a ferret. She had climbed to her feet almost at the same time I had and sprinted towards her blade, but while we were roughly matched in strength, I had the advantage in agility. I had already reached down to snag another thin, irregularly shaped shard of rock from the broken ground and raised it above my shoulder by the time she neared the weapon.

Her eyes widened and she brought her shield around to face me at the last moment, aborting her lunge for the sword to protect herself from my incoming throw. There was a tense moment where we stared each other down; her crouched on the ground, tower shield propped between us and one hand scrabbling against the uneven rock behind her, unable to look away to see what she was reaching for. And me, standing tall with a brittle arrow of stone clutched in hand and ready to throw the moment she looked away.

Each breath that passed brought her hand closer to her blade and back to the status quo that favoured her. Especially with my shield now out of reach. Luckily, the stone projectile I had in hand wasn't the only one of its kind. I bent down to grab a couple more, and started throwing them as quickly as I could collect them. The repetitive crack! of sharp stone smacking against shield made her flinch each time, but she was closing in on the sword with each second that passed. A couple of my throws missed entirely, which was rather embarrassing, but each one that hit contained enough momentum that she had to take the threat seriously.

I was circling her around her, trying to find the right angle for my impromptu projectiles and forcing her to rotate her shield to keep herself safe from my barrage, when a better idea came to me. Instead of aiming for any exposed part of her body – already a slim target given the size of her shield – I instead took a heartbeat longer and aimed at her sword.

I knew she would be able to block the throw and seeing me take longer to aim she'd know it was a more critical shot for me and hence take it more seriously. So, to divert her attention, I hefted another shard of rock in my left arm and slung it underarm at her shield, clenching my face up in concentration and trying to make it look as if I had imbued a Skill into it to give it extra power. At the same moment, I threw the shard of rock in my right hand at her sword where it lay on the ground off to the side behind her.

Two projectiles rushed through the air towards her, one possibly imbued with a powerful Skill and aimed right at her head, the other simply made of rock, unenhanced and brittle, and on track to miss her by a good foot or two. It was an easy choice to make, and she slid her shield in front of the first one, where it broke apart into harmless pieces with a crash. That sound was echoed though by stone on metal, as her sword was hit by my second projectile and sent spinning off the edge of the raised dais we fought on.

She had clearly heard the noise and knew what it meant, but had no time to turn and confirm before I had launched myself at her, flying through the air like a vengeful squirrel. I slammed into her shield and we both rolled about on the ground, grappling for a dominant position. She had the weight advantage with her large shield and heavier armour, and our strength attributes were roughly equal. The crucial difference was that I had two hands free, while one of hers was still wrapped around a shield handle.

I managed to slip around her back and take a mount position, raining blow after heavy blow down over her head, covered as it was by one arm and her shield. She kept trying to interpose the shield between us, to push me away with it and regain her distance from me, but I had wrapped my legs around her waist and held on even as I continued to punch her.

Eventually I managed to pry her shield arm out to the side, and while I received a heavy punch to the side of the head for my trouble, I now had her spread out below me, only one arm free to defend herself. A few more blows exchanged by both of us, and then my knife was in my hand, its ancient and faintly serrated edge pressed against her throat.

I felt her muscles strain beneath me for a moment before she relaxed slightly, and I looked into her golden eyes for long moments before she spoke.

"I yield."

Her voice was higher than I'd expected given her size, but I had no time to consider my surprise. I quickly disengaged and stood, reaching a hand down to help her to her feet, which she accepted graciously and gave me a firm nod of respect as she pulled herself to her feet.

I suddenly noted Finanda's presence at my side – clearly, she had been close enough to intervene if the woman hadn't yielded, or I had proved too bloodthirsty. She nodded to me briefly, slipping past and whispering as she did so, "Thank you for your restraint. It would have been difficult to intervene without hurting one of you."

She stood in the centre of the arena and gestured sharply once more, signalling the end of the fight and no doubt communicating with someone up above to confirm the outcome. I went to collect my weapons, as did my opponent, and we shared a warrior's handshake before exiting the arena once more.

I smiled to myself as I passed through the waterfall once more. Once is a fluke. Twice is a pattern.

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