I couldn't believe my eyes.
"Aieeeeeeeee!" I heard a grown man scream. He got thrown into the air, and when I followed his trajectory, I found none other than the Princess. I failed to notice her, occupied with my fight against my three opponents.
Just what kind of bodyguard that made me? And what the hell was going on with her? The crowd went wild, and the other fighters paused to look at her. Their shock didn't escape me, but I couldn't miss this chance.
I murmured a quick prayer and sped myself up. With my enemies distracted, I cut them all within a second. One after the other, I disarmed them without causing a mortal wound.
Before they realized what I did to them, I stole the shield of the one closer to me, then sprinted toward Elizabeth. A few fighters decided to do the same after they came to terms with the events, but I ran faster than any of them.
"Cath!" The princess yelled at me. I was wrong to think she called me for help. "I fought too, did you see?!"
"Behind you, idiot!" I shouted back, sprinting as fast as possible. She turned to face her attacker and sent him flying with the shield. It almost looked comical, completely unreal, when she was such a small woman.
Well, maybe a tiny bit taller than me, but I digress. The defeated man probably weighed four times as much, so it didn't make sense. As if some miracle happened and a god aided the helpless little Princess. Then it hit me this might have been the case since she was a seer.
I held back the urge to shout out in the middle of the arena, but the Princess had awakened. What happened to her in the last few days while they separated us? If she got the same treatment as me, she must have spent the entire time alone and gained a blessing.
Even at my miraculous speed, it took me some time to reach her. And quite a few enemies aimed for her as well. Some of them enjoyed a headstart, and I tried to figure out what kind of miracle she used.
Her blessings seemed different from what I recognized from Remmol. My patron god provided lightning speed and a few tricks, but not the kind of strength she displayed. What she performed looked like Iron Fist.
"Blessed be Gadurien," I mumbled as she effortlessly punched one more idiot into the air. He ran at her as if they saw nothing when she knocked out two people already. Still, that miracle couldn't last forever, and once they surrounded her, she was done for. I hurried up.
"This is what I'm talking about! Aren't I amazing?!" I heard her yell, and the men aiming for the Princess finally slowed down. Two of them started a duel right in my path, and I used this opportunity to neutralize them both in one swift stroke. It wasn't the epitome of chivalry to attack them from behind, but I never asked to be put in this arena.
The second one noticed me, but his block was too slow. I knocked out the sword from his hand and kicked his teeth in. My miracle wore out, but I moved faster than usual without my armor. This also told me that the Princess probably reached her limits too and found herself in a rather sticky situation. Two men I remembered from the palace's garden tried to surround her. She swung her spear around, not how she was supposed to.
"I'm almost there!" I yelled, alerting those guys of my presence. As long as they occupied themselves with me, that increased the chances of Elizabeth surviving. One of them hesitated, and the tip of the spear, waved around by this crazy woman, managed to scratch his face. The others tried to attack her from behind, but I reached them to cover her blind spot.
"Finally, you got here." She complained without stopping that stupid spin for a second. "I tried to reach you, but you refused to look my way."
"I'm sorry, that woman from Shibalan said we wouldn't meet each other anytime soon," I explained, trying to examine the situation. "I thought we'd fight in different rounds too."
"Whatever, you take that one behind me, and I... Can I take this one on my own?" I felt like that question wasn't aimed at me. She most certainly acted weird, talking to herself, or did she hear some voices? I tried not to judge. Spending all that time alone took a toll on me as well. But some priests and paladins also conversed with their patron deities. It counted as a rarity, but royal blood flew in her veins.
In any case, I needed to win this fight and I ran quite a lot already, so my reactions felt slow. Without my armor, I had to consider the potential injuries too, and while I moved faster, I realized how vulnerable it made me. At the very least, none of our opponents seemed to be versed in magic or blessed by the gods. I guess we became the favorites.
None seemed nearly as skilled as the Elder or that blue-robed woman from earlier. Some behaved like complete amateurs, and I found them weaker than the guards I trained. But I couldn't let my guard down. Their skills would not be written all over their faces. The two we faced were huge and better built than the rest.
Now that I reunited with the Princess, I also needed to think about escaping this place. I couldn't just use up all my favors with the gods and start calling on miracles without considering the future. So I attacked my opponent the old-fashioned way, and he used his spear to block me. Not just big, he seemed more skilled than the rest.
"Cath, are you finished yet?" Elizabeth tried to urge me. I couldn't waste more time, skipping forward with my shield raised, I knocked his spear to the side and aimed for his arm. He reacted faster than I anticipated. He spun his weapon around like a staff to knock my shield away. He failed, but he was pretty good.
I blocked his next strike with my short sword, following up with a wide punch using the shield. Sadly, it didn't have the same heft as my falchion, nor the reach. He easily dodged my wooden shield, and I couldn't help but glance behind my back.
"Are you holding up?" I asked the Princess, but she kept the other man at bay, even if she couldn't use her spear properly. My opponent seemed upset that I looked away and tried to poke me before Her Majesty answered. I knocked it away with the shield and attempted another attack.
The rest of the fights concluded in the arena already. The remaining opponents slowly inched towards us, and the crowd cheered nonstop. I hoped they rooted for us.
"Piece of cake, how about you?" I heard Elizabeth asking, but she ran out of breath. I needed to end this quickly, but another stab managed to splinter my shield. I threw it at his face, which gave me an opening, just enough to jump at him. I grabbed my short sword with both hands and stabbed it right into his chest.
He would not recover from that. I felt bad for killing him, but he asked for it, trying to surround a helpless woman with his other buddy. That said, the woman in question acted less of a damsel in distress and more like a raging bull instead. She probably activated another miracle because her opponent flew right over my head. I neutralized the rest. Some of them even dropped their swords on their own.
"Splendid fight! Nobody expected the Amazons to win." The same person who started the event stood to fire up the crowd. He turned around with his hands raised. "However, this match can only have one winner. Let's see who prevails?"
"I won't fight her, you idiot!" The Princess yelled, but I doubted her voice carried that far. Instead of defying them openly, I tried to find an escape route for us both. The gates through which we entered the arena closed down, and besides, they led back to the well-guarded underground levels. The cheering audience sat above a thirty-foot-tall wall on their luxurious stands, completely separated from us.
The sky hung over the arena too far. We couldn't reach it even with a miracle. However, with the newfound talent of the Princess, anything seemed possible. The crowd started booing since we didn't duel each other, and the announcer warned us too.
"If you refuse to fight honorably, the monsters will end you both." He said, looking directly at me. I lost myself in thought, thinking about Elizabeth's new powers. Launched by her Iron Fist, reaching them did not seem impossible, but they gave me no time to ask. Another figure appeared next to the announcer.
"Please, Father, let me fight them myself." She spoke softly, yet her voice carried to the entire arena. I recognized that blue-robed, paint-faced woman who defeated me before we got locked up.
The crowd started cheering again, chanting her name in unison.
"Aoi! Aoi! Aoi! Aoi!" It went, and the loud man raised his arms to arouse the people. They sure enjoyed the show, entertainment for the masses. They watched us from a safe distance, far enough that I couldn't reach them. It pissed me off, especially the arrogance of this so-called Aoi who tried to challenge us.
"You heard the Princess, Aoi Sama will personally finish off the rogue gladiators." The presenter announced, clapping his hands together. The crowd went wild. Their Princess stepped off the balcony and fell straight into the arena. She effortlessly dampened her fall.
"Lizzy..." I said only loud enough for my Princess to hear it. That bitch enraged me too much to think about escape routes. I wanted to kick her ass. "Throw me at her. If we surprise her and get the upper hand..."
I tried to explain my plan but, Elizabeth didn't listen. She rubbed her jaws, throwing away her shield and spear. Did she give up? I mean, this woman defeated me. She used magic, and from her stance, it seemed like she was practicing hand-to-hand combat.
But the Princess completely ignored me. Lost in thought, she casually walked past me, straight toward the figure clad in blue. I tried to stop her, but she was already out of reach.
What the hell was she thinking? The enemy started sprinting towards us at speeds that matched my miracles, but I didn't see her activate one. She almost reached Elizabeth before I flinched, but I heard her yell.
"Blitzkrieg!" She uttered, and the lightning sent the blue bitch flying.