Chương 41: Arc 1 - Chapter 20 - Final Round

Groaning in pure agony, she rolled off the mutilated body of Karania, collapsing on her back onto the blood-streaked ground. She marshalled her waning energy to focus on her meditation, ' Just a few precious seconds... even a single minute of rest can make a world of difference...' The surrounding world seemed to dissolve into an almost profound silence as her Meditation Focus took effect.

While a 500% increase to her healing rate was an impressive figure, her meagre Base Attribute, Recovery at a mere 2, significantly stifled any expectations of rapid regeneration. However, in her dire situation, she clung to any advantage she could get, no matter how minuscule, before the second round descended upon her... A fleeting moment later, at least as it seemed to Thea, her eyes fluttered open upon feeling a gentle shake. The sight of Karania's face, just inches from her own, took her by surprise.

Grunting in discomfort at her sudden jerk of surprise, Thea instantly wished she had reacted differently. Amidst pained utterances, she gingerly pushed herself off the ground, "Ah... I'm up… Just… give me a moment." Beaming brightly, Karania extended her hand to assist her squadmate to her feet, "That was incredibly fun! We really should do this more often, wouldn't you say?!" Karania's upbeat proposal was met only by an agonised grunt as they both made their way back to the arena's centre.

Glancing down at herself, Thea noted that her body was awash in multiple crimson layers of her own and Karania's blood. Her armour was fractured, bent and distorted across her stomach and chest, making it painful for her to even draw breath, much less move with any adequate agility.' This armour needs to go... It's practically useless against vibro-weapons anyway...' As though discerning her thoughts, Karania extended her straight vibroblade towards Thea.

"Ah. Appreciate it. I'll be quick, promise," Thea responded before accepting the vibroblade to start prying off the damaged armour from her body. Upon dislodging a particularly sizable piece of warped armour from her right side, Thea felt a sudden rush of liberation, almost as if she had been instantaneously refreshed by the arena itself. However, the illusion was shattered when she took a deep breath.

A searing pain erupted in her lungs, making her hack up more blood, which elicited a giggle from Karania across from her. Within a minute, Thea had removed all the broken and bent armour, leaving her torso, shoulders, and upper arms exposed. She decided to keep her slightly damaged gauntlets, thinking they might be useful if the next round ended up being just as messy. Karania looked at Thea's bare torso with a mixture of elation and bliss.

Confused by her reaction, Thea looked down at herself, immediately wishing she hadn't. Her usually pale and toned torso was now a mix of deep purple, yellow, and brown colours, with deformities where broken bones were pushing against her skin from the inside. Even her sports-bra, the only remaining piece of clothing on her torso, was caked with half-dried blood and overstrewn with cuts and tears.

Without her System enhancements, Thea knew she would not even be able to stand much less move around, considering the seriousness of her current injuries. As she handed back the vibroblade to her opponent, Thea could not help but wonder at the reason for Karania's excited demeanour, ' Why is she so damn happy about me being in this state…? I guess I'd be kind of excited too if my opponent was far from optimal for the second round, but this is going a bit far, no…?'

"Sorry for the wait. Let's get started," Thea said, assuming her mid stance about thirty metres from Karania. Given her current state, a frontal assault was out of question. Instead, she chose her more versatile stance over her typically aggressive low one. With a nod, Karania signalled she was ready and the holographic countdown appeared between them.' I need to keep my distance... try to recover even a little. I should aim for a single decisive strike; prolonged fights will definitely kill me...

Maybe the Freya gambit...? She likely won't fall for it...

'Maybe I can distract her with my extra knives... Throw them, then attack unexpectedly...? No, that's stupid… This isn't a game where distractions work because I want them to... Karania is too smart for such a basic trick...' Even after her considerations, Thea couldn't settle on a plan. The countdown hit zero and the buzzer sounded. Instantly, Karania took a surprising, aggressive step, propelling herself at full speed towards Thea.' Just as I figured, she's not holding back...'

Thea thought, as she readied herself for Karania's first strike. Despite her injuries, Thea stood her ground, her eyes never leaving Karania as the distance between them quickly closed. Her breath hitched in her chest, a painful reminder of her battered state, but she brushed it aside, focusing on the imminent confrontation. Like a sleek predator, Karania lunged at Thea, her vibroblades slicing the air as they aimed for Thea's vital points.

It was a quick, deadly combination of strikes, showcasing Karania's exceptional skill and speed. Thea, however, was ready for it. With what little energy she had left, she fluidly manoeuvred her body, narrowly evading the lethal strikes.' She's fast, but predictable...' Thea mused, a spark of hope igniting within her. Utilising the higher centre of gravity of her mid-stance, she allowed Karania's forward momentum to guide her next move.

In one swift motion, she sidestepped the next attack and swiftly retaliated with her own strike, aiming for Karania's exposed side. But Karania was quick on her feet regardless of her lacking know-how for aggressive combat.

With a graceful spin, she dodged Thea's attack, her crescent vibroblade creating a barrier between them that almost seemed like a waterfall made out of plasteel. The clash of metal echoed in the arena as their blades collided, sparks flying from the contact. Successfully parrying Karania's first strike, Thea's confidence grew slightly.

It had quickly become apparent to her that Karania was not nearly as formidable on offence as she was on defence, when she was able to rely on her viper-like stance to bridge the gap in their differences in experience. This confidence did not last long, however. As their battle continued, a shift quickly occurred in Karania's strategy.

Previously focused on a strong offence, aiming to end the fight as fast as possible, she now shifted her attention to Thea's existing injuries, targeting her wounded arms, shoulder, and ribs with a vicious precision that took Thea aback. Each of Karania's vibroblades seemed magnetically drawn to Thea's most vulnerable areas, and despite her best efforts to fend off the onslaught, Thea found herself increasingly on the back foot.

Her arms ached with the exertion, her injured shoulder threatening to give out with each parry, and every hit she managed to defend against near her broken ribs sent waves of pain radiating through her body, that made her vision blurr. This change in Karania's strategy was painfully effective. Despite Thea's best efforts to dodge and deflect, more and more of Karania's strikes slipped through her defences, each one landing with an accuracy that seemed to amplify the pain of Thea's existing injuries.

Thea found herself faltering under the onslaught, each strike she failed to parry forcing her further onto the defensive, as more and more wounds opened up on her body, much to the apparent delight of Karania. Karania's eyes had once again taken on that fever-ish glare and her face was marred with a grimace, that one could only describe as the face of a lunatic observing their object of fascination.

The once hopeful gap in their differences in experience was quickly closing as Karania's approach grew more ruthless and more aggressive, her determination seeming to harden with every successful strike. Each time Thea let out a groan of pain, Karania's eyes lit up even further. Every time Karania's blades slipped through Thea's defences and cut a new bloody streak on her body, Karania's high-pitched laugh echoed through the arena. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

With no time to process Karania's mental state, Thea continued her defensive efforts, as she feverishly tried to come up with a game plan to turn the tables.' She's not even going for lethal strikes anymore… There's no opening here, whatsoever. She's not overextending, not risking anything…

'She definitely knows she can easily win the round if she just keeps up the pressure. I have no way to reply to this onslaught…!

'It doesn't look like a Freya gambit would work here either, she's too far away. By the time I make it close enough to attack her, I'd already be dead, if I give up on my defence…' Just as Thea was about to despair at the seemingly hopeless situation, her chest tightened with a familiar warning sign. Wasting no time, as it had become somewhat of a reflex for her by this point, Thea activated her Ability.' Sensory Overdrive.'

As time seemed to slow down around her, Thea finally got a look at her squad mate's face and was startled to see the sheer sadistic joy in the usually all-so-giddy girl before her. Not wanting to get bogged down by emotional responses or unnecessary thoughts, Thea quickly focused her attention towards Karania's swords, which were rapidly closing in on her. The straight vibroblade was slicing through the air in a stab, aimed directly at her heart, as if gravitationally attracted to it.

Karania's crescent vibroblade, on the other hand, was swinging in a wide arc for Thea's neck, leaving no doubt about her opponent's intentions.' So you've chosen to end it right here, huh…? As good a time as any, really…' Twisting her body in response, eliciting a pained groan coupled with a bout of blurry vision, Thea shifted her heart away from the incoming stab in a desperate bid, accepting the fact that she'd likely die regardless.

She realised that she did not have the required speed to fully dodge or parry the uncannily precise stab, so this was her only choice. For the crescent blade, Thea moved both of her knives into the direct path of the incoming swing, certain she'd be able to deflect it. Strangely however, her instincts continued to scream of death, despite Thea's best attempts to cover her vital points. Confused, Thea wondered briefly, 'What is…?', before she abruptly realised her fatal mistake.

Wide-eyed, Thea tried her best to jump backwards, as she saw Karania let go of her weapons, eliciting to aim for Thea's neck with her outstretched hand instead. In that moment, Karania's gauntlets exploded from the inside out, as her fingers suddenly elongated, her nails glistening sharply in the golden light of the arena like scalpels. Thea quickly realised one thing, ' I won't make it… FUCK!'

She decided to go for one last attempt, as she forcibly tried to strike at Karania's neck with her knives, which were mid-move to deflect the crescent blade, only to feel a jolt of sharp pain as her left shoulder refused to budge. With only a single arm listening to her command, Thea tried her best to aim for Karania's throat, as she accepted the incoming fatal strike with a slight grin.' Well played, Karania.'

With a sharp, unimaginable pain, Thea felt her head get separated from her body, as the world began to spin. As her Sensory Overdrive was still active, Thea's mind kept functioning for a few moments and she saw her own body crumble beneath Karania's feet. As her vision blurred and darkness seeped in from the corners of her eyes, Thea could make out that her last gambit had not been without success. Karania was clutching her throat with one hand, as a rhythmic pulse of blood kept spouting through her fingers.

With that last image, Thea died. A brief moment later, she suddenly found herself standing next to the equipment rack, inside of a cage of light. After getting used to her new body for a second and fixing up her jumbled memories, Thea frowned. She had never seen someone be respawned inside of something like this strange cage of light, ' What… What in the Void is this…?' As if the arena had read her mind, a holographic text suddenly appeared on the cage itself. [Round 2 still in progress. Please wait for the end of the round to re-enter the arena.]'... Still in progress…?' Focusing her Perception on the distant Karania, Thea quickly had an idea of what was going on.' Oh…! My last strike must have counted as a potentially lethal attack. So the arena is waiting to see if Karania dies, I guess…?' Karania was frantically moving her hands around her throat, which at first seemed like a panicked response to Thea. She quickly realised how utterly wrong she had been, however, ' Wow… That's… insane.'

Karania was rapidly treating her own slashed throat, by ripping pieces of flesh off the back of her own hand, as if they were mere paper to be used, and wrapping it tightly around her profusely bleeding neck. Thea's eyes widened as she saw the ripped off skin on Karania's hand rapidly regenerate, prompting another tearing sound to echo through the arena, as the girl once again ripped off the freshly regenerated skin, to wrap it around another part of her throat.

Subsequently, Karania forcefully stabbed her fingers into the wrapped, covered parts of her throat, only for her fingernails to abruptly bend and distort into make-shift staples. Ripping out her own fingernails with seemingly practised ease, leaving them behind to act as binding pieces between the ripped pieces of flesh from her hand and her throat, Karania continued to rapidly stem whatever bleeding she could.

Thea simply stood, mouth agape, inside of the cage of light, watching her squadmate perform make-shift surgery on her own throat, using her own body pieces to do so. The mixture of abject body horror and unmistakable proficiency, almost as if this wasn't the first time Karania had done so, left Thea in a state of utter disbelief and shock. At this point, it slowly became apparent that Karania had, despite her efforts, lost a significant amount of blood, as the girl started stumbling and fell onto one knee.

Regardless, she kept operating on herself. With a renewed tearing sound, Karania ripped a fresh piece of skin from the back of her hand, before applying it to the last remaining major breach, which was still rhythmically pulsing crimson liquid out of her body at an alarming rate. Rapidly applying the skin, Karania's hand suddenly overgrew with chest-nut brown, thick strands of hair, roughly 10cm long.

With practised efficacy, Karania ripped them out, before her right hand underwent another frightening change that was accompanied by the tearing of skin and breaking of bones. Her fingers had suddenly transformed into some kind of tweezers, which she quickly used to grab the strands of hair, before forcefully pushing them into the newly applied skin on her throat, essentially starting to sew together the two pieces of flesh.

As she finished the sewing process, Karania started laughing - a terrible, gurgling sound that escaped her patchskin throat - before she fell backwards onto the arena floor, laying in a veritable pool of her own blood. A moment later, the buzzer rang, indicating the end of the second round and proclaiming Karania as the victor. With a quiet sizzling, the cage of light around Thea disappeared, allowing her to move freely inside the arena once again.

She quickly approached the prone Karania near the centre of the arena, who was silently chuckling to herself. Unable to find the right words, Thea muttered, "That… was something. I honestly don't even know what to say to that, Karania… That was utterly insane. What the fuck was that?" With a bloody grin, Karania raised her right hand, now returned back to normal, with a thumbs up.

"Hey there. Looks like cat's out of the bag, huh? Nice to meet you, Thea. I'm Karania, the Medic for Alpha Squad!" Once again speechless at Karania's declaration, Thea simply stood above the girl, unable to process what she had just heard.' The Medic… of Alpha Squad…? What the fuck does that even mean?' Seeing Thea's speechless, confused expression, Karania laughed heartily, before she addressed her squadmate, "Don't worry, the stuff's all sterile. It's part of my Ability.

"Can't wait to be elbow-deep inside of you and fix you up! Now let's get going and finish this up, I don't think the last round will take long…" With an expectant look, Karania held out her right hand towards the still stunned Thea, who startled out of her daze a moment later, helping Karania back to her feet.

"I… I don't really… What? We'll have to talk about this later, okay…?" Was the only thing Thea managed to squeeze out in her confusion. A high-pitched laugh, that sounded slightly raspy compared to its usual luster, was all that answered her request, before the two of them returned to the centre of the arena. Thea could not help but steal glances at the sheer body-horror that was Karania's throat. Pieces of flesh simply stapled to herself using her own fingernails.

Strips sewn together using her own hair, to stem the bleeding. All of that being covered with another layer of freshly ripped off hand-skin. The sight alone was enough to make Thea feel queasy, yet she could not stop from continuously glancing at it, as they walked back to the centre of the arena.

She also quickly realised why Karania had stated the third round wouldn't take long, as it became immediately apparent on their way back, that Karania was barely able to stand, much less put up a competitive fight for the last round. Entering her low-stance, Thea mentally confirmed her readiness, prompting the holographic countdown to appear between them for the last time. As the buzzer rang and the final round began, Thea kicked off with full-force towards a slightly swaying Karania.

It was painfully obvious that Karania was in no condition to fight, as she had not even been able to assume her usual defensive, viper-like stance. Instead, Karania had opted to drop her weapons, brandishing her strangely mis-shapen, elongated fingers like a voidhound ready to rip Thea apart. Apprehensive at first, Thea opted for some exploratory exchanges, seeing as Karania had decided to join her in the super-close-range level of fighting.

She could not help but feel that Karania had made the only logical choice, by fully committing to her Ability. While the vibroblades were not very heavy, they undoubtedly put a lot of additional strain on Karania's already exhausted body. Using her own claw-like hands, however, seemed to be a lot more natural and a lot less taxing for Karania.

Despite that, however, Thea could not help but feel somewhat sorry for her squad mate, as it quickly became apparent that regardless of her best efforts, the toll that the previous battlefield surgery had taken on her was too much. While Karania had started off lively, with quick repeating combination attacks that even managed to put Thea on the defensive momentarily, she had rapidly run out of steam.

By now, Thea was gradually making strides into cracking Karania's rudimentary defenses, as she managed to cut and stab at Karania's arms and torso over and over again, furthering the inevitable end for her opponent bit by bit. Realising the same, Karania suddenly charged forward, going for one last attempt at Thea's life, stretching out her arms to pierce Thea's unarmoured torso. Thea however, was unperturbed, as she had expected something like this from her squad mate.

She quickly sidestepped the clumsy, final attempt at a draw and rammed one of her knives into Karania's temple as the girl stumbled forward, unable to stop her momentum. Karania's body crumbling down before her immediately, Thea could not help but be amazed at the girl's incredible skills and tenacity. While simultaneously terrified of the implications of Karania being the squad medic, Thea had trouble finding any reasons to protest the role.

After all, she had seen first-hand how incredible Karania's skills were, when it came to battlefield triage, even on herself. As the buzzer rang, indicating the end of the final round, Thea started walking towards the equipment rack, to wait for Karania's respawn. As she walked towards the racks, only one thought echoed in her mind: ' That was… utterly… insane...'