The Arena II: The Grande Finale

Posted on Thu Apr 13th, 2023 @ 5:40am by Cass'e'Indira

Mission: Trade And Tribulations
Location: Trarim Arena

The entrances were different, that was for sure. During her previous fights, she'd come in on this side and the other side, but she knew why she and the other blue-clad fighter were coming in from this side and it wasn't because they weren't favored. They weren't and that was a fact, but because they were Indentured Servants and not professional gladiators, they were relegated to the lesser of the entryways.

Cass'e'Indira shrugged her shoulders with a bit of disgust. She still didn't have HER armor, that was being held hostage by the Ilari 'Master' that she was being forced to serve as she worked off hers and Tessa's debts, because it wasn't 'proper' for the fights in the Arena. With her own weapons and armor, she would have swept the floor with whatever she was up against and she was certain of it. With what odds and ends they gave her, she had to avoid taking hits whenever she could. Besides, the weapons she was given weren't the problem, she'd trained for nearly thirty of her thirty-five years on every weapon available on Tial, several hours a day, with very few 'off' days that weren't recovering from some injury or another.

The doors swung open in front of her and her fellow Indenture and the two walked out several paces apart. While HE showed off his weapon and the shield he bore, she left her own sword in the sheath on her belt, looking around the arena and towards where she usually saw... Her muscles tensed as she didn't immediately see the one she'd been sworn to protect, to her own death if needed. Her eyes swept the seats and came to the Governor's balcony and then exhaled in relief as she saw Tessa. She brought her arms up in a cross to her chest and gave a slight bow to her charge and got one in return.

That done, her eyes swept across the arena to the group of six 'professionals' that were approaching from the other side and scrutinized them and their weapons choices. One large axe, one with a pair of smaller ones, a dual-sword wielder, a single sword and shield, a spearman and... One with a quiver of four javelins. Quite a few swords to go around, but that last one was intriguing, as was the way that those six gladiators were chatting and laughing as if they weren't about to go into a fight that could end up with them killing each other. It was akin to what she'd done on a few occasions before going into battle with allies, but this was a different sort of combat. One of them pointed at the two Indents and they all laughed again.

"They're planning on ganging up on us first." Cass stated loud enough only for the other Indent to hear.

"Let them, I'll kill them all." He snarled.

She eyed him and almost immediately dismissed him, "We should work together." He cut her off with another growl and she changed her mind, "Fine, just stay out of my way and I won't be forced to kill you."

"You stay out of MY way." He responded, "I'm going to gain my freedom tonight and there's nothing anyone can do to stop me." There was a note of desperation, but determination.

"If you go against all of them, you're going to die. All I ask is that you wait to attack me until I've dealt with them." Cass went to one knee and picked up a few grains of the sand and rubbed them between her fingers and nodded, "At the least, let me take the fight to them." She reached up and checked the fitting of the left pauldron, there was no right. A leather cuirass, far too flexible to offer much protection, with metal greaves that came up to right under her kneecap. "If I get killed, at least I'll have taken some of them out first." She flexed her fingers, the half-fingered gloves giving a bit better of a grip than some others.

"Fine." He huffed, "I'll stay back for now, but I'm not going to show you any mercy if it comes down to it."

"Fair enough." Cass sighed and took a couple steps forward and reached for her blade, pulling it out an inch just to check it, then pulling it and taking several steps forward before planting it into the ground and stepping back several additional steps. That caused the professionals to give her a curious look, then one said something else and they laughed again. The whole time, the announcer had been announcing the combatants. Finally there was a few moments and the combatants spread out by a few paces, obvious in their intents. Another question, another set of laughs and the announcer finally made the one that had been awaited.

"Begin!"

There was no rush towards each other that would be expected from such a fight, but the javelin thrower had been inspecting the missile in his hands and took Cass into his sights with a smirk. She began to walk towards the group of professionals with a sly smile on her face. This was what she lived for, combat. Sure, she was part of the Kier'e'Sech sect, but the chevrons on her cheeks showed what she was: A war priestess.

The javelin came at her on a slight arc, thrown by someone who knew their weapon. Cass met it with an outstretched hand, joined by the other as she caught it in midair, forward momentum stopped and even pushed back as she allowed it to begin to turn her, feet going through the dance of a circle. She spun the javelin in her hands once, getting a feel for the weight and balance, three quarters of the way through the turn, her third step of it, she gripped it and drew back. It was a whipcrack motion as that back foot had planted on the third step, and then the javelin left her hand like a bullet, tracing a virtually flat path on the way back to the original sender who never had a chance, anticipating Cass's dodge or death, it had mattered not, watching what happened. Instead, they found the javelin as a 'return to sender' as it ran the Dashian through right above the clavicle. Eyes opened in shock, the hands of the javelin wielder grasped the haft before falling.

Cass's hands went out to her sides, open and empty as she resumed her walk forward coming even to, then past her sword without picking it up, but the professionals were just that and used to seeing death, usually caused by their own hands. Once again, she wished that she had her own gear, but dismissed that as she saw them spreading out and them come at her simultaneously rather than one by one. The sword and shield coming at her from straight ahead reached her first as she blocked his strike with crossed arms, rushing in close so it was his wrist she caught, then swung that to the left to deflect an axe blow before lifting her right leg to avoid another sword strike aimed at her leg.

She used that foot to plant on the shield and push off, doing a backflip over the spear thrust and cartwheeling backwards as the dual-swords and axes went on the offensive. The other Indent had backed off as he'd said he would, but maintained a defensive stance. The crowd was going wild with the action as Cass'e'Indira retrieved her blade and began a frenetic defensive weave as she dodged the attacking gladiators and waited for the right moment. It was an unspoken agreement where the two swords struck high and the single axe went low while a spear-thrust to the center that Cass made her first move, leaving her feet to pass between the two swipes and deflecting the spear thrust. She twisted in midair past the tip of the spear, slashing out and catching dual swords in the ribs with her own blade, drawing blood.

The Dashian female she'd slashed yelped and jumped back, giving Cass a minimum of space to maneuver while the shieldbearer moved to fill the gap. Her sword whipped out and was blocked by the spear, which she swung out by sheer force and slid the blade down the handle. The spearholder released the weapon rather than lose fingers and Cass took hold of it as she slung the sword at the shieldbearer, forcing him behind the protection as she took a grip on the spear and measured the balance while she whipped it around, cracking the original holder across the temple and to the ground with the blunt end.

She began to treat the spear more like a staff, batting away the twin swords before spinning the shaft and forcing the single axe away with a thrust before blocking the overhand twin axes with the shaft. Another twist of the shaft and a jerk and the twin axes were jerked out of their holders hands, the butt of the spear hitting him in the sternum with the recovery, knocking breathe out of him. Cass backed away past his whooping gasp as she put the three current fighters in front of her, spinning the spear as she outright grinned at them. It wasn't the killing that she loved, it was the love of the fight itself. She figured she had about fifteen seconds before the odds were against her again as the dual axes recovered his breath and was back up.

Before, she had been on the defensive, now she went on the offense, engaging the single axe on the left side of the line with a series of thrusts and slashes with the spear that also served as a deterrent to the sword and shield. A burning line of pain across her back served to remind her of dual-swords and she spun away from single axe, cartwheeling followed by a backflip to create space. From the feel of the wound, she knew it was shallow, more a tentative attack of opportunity than actually out for her blood.

Her eyes flashed with fury, whether at herself or at her opponents, she didn't know, but in that second and a half before dual-swords was upon her, she settled herself and reached down deep inside for her inspiration. A stop-thrust with the spear invited dual-swords to spit himself on it and stopped him short. He lashed out to bat the spear to the side and resumed his attack. Cass parried the first sword before catching the second as well on the haft of the spear and spun the weapon to push both swords out of line before slashing at face height, marking him across the face.

Weaving the spear as a staff again, Cass was moving away from the group of four combatants when it really started. She was focused, fully focused and there was an eerie semi-glow coming from her. In more fact, it seemed like a deep purple miasma was emanating from her even as her smile grew again. It didn't stop the single-axe from coming at her with a downwards strike meant to split her head open, but she caught it on the shaft of the spear at the last moment, shattering the wooden handle, leaving her with two pieces of wood, one with sharpened steel on the end.

Her combat style changed accordingly as she used the piece of wood behind the knee of the axe wielder to upend him off balance, moving past him as she advanced on the other three, spinning each piece of the spear in her hands. She met the two axes in a flurry of matched blows that ended with a piece of wood across the temple of dual axes, spinning him to the ground before Cass planted a boot onto the shield and avoided the quick slash from her sword. She wasn't ready for that one, yet. Blocking another swing from dual swords, Cass snap-kicked her in the knee before driving the blunt-end of the spear into her chest and knocking her over. Damn, that was no good.

Cass spun against single-axe again and noted that the former spear holder had gotten back up and was making their way to the corpse of javelin, presumably for a weapon similarish to her original. It was back to five on one. She caught the axe on crossed shafts then slid them up and wrenched the caught axe off-kilter again, nearly taking it from the grasp of the man, but causing him to stumble and go to one knee. Cass extricated the pieces of wood before they were pulled from her and elbowed him in the neck before going back at dual-swords, back on her feet.

Another exchange of blows, including having to adjust with footwork to avoid dual-axes and shield and Cass put her back to a clear field with all of her opponents before her. She hooked the spearhead behind one of the blades and twisted in past the second blade. The second piece of wood dropped and with a grip of steel, Cass both twisted with the spearhead piece and tore the sword from dual swords hand, reversing it in the span of a heartbeat and plunging it into dual-swords exposed abdomen. Cass pulled it straight out so as to do the least amount of additional damage, but knew that it would likely be fatal unless the fight was over soon. The healers here were very good, so long as a combatant was alive at the end, they were likely to survive.

The black miasma was all around her now as she picked up the second sword from where dual-swords had dropped it and backed away from the remaining four fighters, paying no attention to the other indentured servant who had still remained well away, on guard but clearly not retired from the fight. Dual-axes, single-axe, sword and shield and the one that had the spear, now using a javelin like a short spear. Pacing away from the wounded woman, Cass grinned like a girl at play, which this was to her. Her back still burned from her injury, but Spear likely had a minor concussion, Single Axe was bleeding from a cut on the cheek and the other two were uninjured. She herself was checking the balance of the swords and found them pleasing, changing her fighting style once more. It was time.

She was the personal armswoman of her charge, trained to go up against unfavorable odds and come out on top. In a normal battle, she was at a disadvantage, because her command experience was lacking, but this was something she was used to, something she'd faced before, basically, against far better trained fighters than these.

Knowing her weapons at last, she held them out to her sides in an invitation to the others, but chose to meet them on her own terms. First was the one with reach, new-javelin. Without the spear, there wasn't nearly enough reach and while one sword engaged the polished steel-tipped wooden stick, the other slipped in and out of the left leg, dropping them to one knee before the javelin fell to the ground and Cass's own knee came up into the jaw and Spear dropped to the ground once again, this time not moving.

The three axes came at Cass at once, the two wielders working with each other as sword and shield approached from the flank. She went on the defensive again, wishing for her armor, parrying the lighter axes with a single sword and avoiding getting it hooked even as she ducked under the single axe and disengaged her sword and rolled forward, slashing out and cutting the back of dual-axes leg, buckling him in pain as a tendon was severed. Cass came up and went at single-axe with momentum, engaging the weapon with one blade and swinging it wide, then sweeping one blade down the chest, and the one that swept the weapon across the throat.

The crowd cheered as this gladiator went down in a gout of blood and Cass turned on dual-axes, still on one knee and backing away in a shuffle that was purely to make distance between them. As the Tialan began to advance on him, he tossed the pair of weapons away and made a submissive gesture, indicating his surrender.

That left sword and shield and Cass spin the twin blades around her hands as she turned to face this one. He looked around, seeing his friends dead, dying and surrendered, eyes open wide in shock and fear, but still determined. The Tialan came without fear, having already seen how this one had acted before, knowing that the best defense was a good offense and she was definitely good at that.

In the end, it took about ten seconds with the shieldbearer trying to use both sword and shield offensively, leading with a shield bash that Cass had avoided before stepping in and engaging the single blade while clotheslining the Dashain and placing a leg behind the knee to throw them down to the ground. It was more pro forma than anything when Cass showed her flexibility as she twisted and pinned them to the ground with one of her blades, leaving it there as she regained her feet and looked around.

Two dead, one unconscious, three wounded, one possibly fatally if this didn't end soon. And then there was the one hale and healthy, also wearing the blue of the Indentured. Cass began to walk over to him, now only holding a single blade as she faced him and his own sword with a long dagger as a second weapon. He tensed up as she approached and held the blade up towards him, the miasma around her still flickering that deep purple, "Do you yield?" She asked softly, reaching up and wiping her face, looking at the red that came off with the swipe of her hand.

"I.. I can't, this is my freedom. If I win this, I'm free." He stated simply.

"If you fight, it will be the freedom of death." Cass'e'Indira was emotionless, "My fight is not with you, we are only enemies of convenience. My fight isn't for my own freedom, it's for that of My Lady and for her I would kill everyone in this building." Her features grew softer, "Don't make me."

He looked at her as he readied his blades, then hesitated and looked at the six she'd just gone through like a scythe through grain. Only one was actually moving, one was crying while clutching a very, VERY bad wound, another was stuck to the ground like an insect on display. He tightened his grip, then tossed the weapons to the ground and went to one knee in submission.

The crowd murmured for a while as Cass gave him a slight bow of acknowledgement, then raised her one sword and the crowd cheered and the medics rushed the grounds to save what they could.