Kitsue stood in front of Gobo and ground her teeth angrily. She was getting more and more riled up, and Eiro was able to see that she was physically preparing to use that ability of hers. The Kitbold leaned forward a bit, careful that this wouldn't be taken advantage of by Gobo, and then dropped onto her arms so that she was on all fours.
Her back arched as one could hear her bones crack and her muscles rip. And it wasn't just Eiro that was able to hear it, most others around here were able to as well. It seemed like especially Bavet was interested in this, since she was making use of the slime's personal expertise. Shapeshifting.
The physical structure of Kitsue's body changed as she let out a deep roar. She had turned into a large feline. Something akin to a Tiger, Lion, or Panther, but something that was none of that as far as Eiro could tell. Well, it wasn't like he had ever actually seen any of these in real life, only in beastiaries that he happened to pick up here and there, but from what he could tell, Kitsue's current body shared a few common parts with all of these, while having some more unique aspects to it as well.
But one thing was for sure... Her physical ability must have increased considerably compared to before. She buried her long claws in the ground as she prepared to jump forward. And sure, even in this form, Kitsue should not be a challange to Gobo at all. At least if he was capable of moving around freely. But since he restricted himself into neither being able to move out of the circle he drew on the ground nor being able to use his legs to fight, that was another deal.
Of course, Eiro had little intention to actually let Kitsue be the leader of this village. If she won, he would just kill her when nobody was nearby and make it seem like she ran after a Highland Orc to kill it for revenge, but was killed instead herself, so that Gobo could still be the leader.
That, however, would be quite the shame in Eiro's opinion. While Kitsue was weak compared to Eiro and after the training he received by the Demon, Gobo as well, she was obviously quite powerful, capable of overwhelming this whole village filled with Goblins. It would probably require a C-Rank party of Adventurers to take her down, if not a B-Rank party, even. At the very least, she was more powerful than Gobo was when Eiro first met him.
That being the case, she would be a good individual to train and bring up as well next to Gobo and the other 'special' Goblins. There were probably some special individuals amongst the Kobolds as well, like this one right next to Eiro that was capable of using Common already, even better than Kitsue, who was surprisingly good at it already.
After thinking for a few moments, Eiro turned his attention back onto the fight happening in front of him. Kitsue was ready to jump forward, and Gobo changed his stance in order to receive her attack more easily. He even got out his main weapon, the one that he had become most capable of using over the last little while, the Staff. And of course, that didn't mean the sort of staff that one used to cast magic, but the pole-weapon.
Well, Eiro did use materials that made it viable as a magical staff, however, although it definitely wouldn't be nearly as capable as a regular staff or wand. But it did its job, either way. Gobo took a deep breath and rubbed his hands over the staff, infusing Darkness into it, the Darkness that he created by pressing his hands onto the surface of the staff.
This wasn't particularly the best place to use this element, but it seemed like Gobo had a plan. He took out the spark-snapper that Eiro gave to him before and used it to create some flames. Flames that he spread out in front of him like a wall to make sure that Kitsue wasn't able to attack him from certain angles.
Eiro thought that it was rather obvious what Gobo was trying to do, but considering that Kitsue probably didn't know much about magic, not to mention darkness magic in particular, he didn't judge her for her foolishness. Rather, she was able to use her speed to nearly get through to Gobo before he was able to create the wall, which just showed her physical abilities even more.
The Demon watched the fight curiously as Kitsue jumped at Gobo again. But now, she was attacking from an angle where the sun was at Gobo's back, creating a shadow that he was able to make use of to strengthen the Darkness Magic he infused into his own staff just now.
Gobo got rid of his flames as the last source of light disrupting his darkness magic, and then pushed the staff forward at Kitsue. But somehow, it seemed like she was able to make use of some sort of special ability of hers to dodge.
It was as if she was able to set her feet down mid-air for a split second to jump away again, which she used to just slightly change the angle at which she attacked.
But even with a slight change like that, due to the nature of Gobo's attack, that didn't matter at all. The Hogboblin had pushed the staff forward and pushed out as much Darkness Magic as he was capable of, concentrating it at the tip of his staff. And then, a solid spike of pure Darkness Magic shot out of the tip of the staff, burying itself in the Kitbold's flesh.
While the others outside of the arena didn't know what was happening, Eiro knew exactly what this attack was. He had developed it together with Gobo, after all. At some point, he had figured out that the focus of Gobo's Darkness Magic, or rather the talent he had for it, was in 'Darkness Solidification'. At first, they just practiced creating spear-tips for Gobo's staff that he would be able to make use of surprise attacks with.
Of course, just like he did now, that 'spear tip' didn't need to just come out at the very front, but instead basically anywhere on the staff. If an opponent grasped the staff, Gobo would be able to just use magic to create a darkness-spike right there to damage their hand.
But right now, Gobo did something else as well. Gobo had created this spear-tip into the direction that Kitsue tried to dodge the Hobgoblin's attack, and when he stabbed her with it, he spread solid bars made of darkness magic out through Kitsue's body. She was now unable to move, and was completely connected to the end of Gobo's staff.
The Hobgoblin swung the staff around his body to make use of Kitsue's momentum, and then slammed her down into the ground with all the force he could muster.
Eiro heard a few of her bones breaking, and some of those in her chest were close to piercing her vitals after Gobo proceeded to pull the darkness magic back out of Kitsue's body.
The Kitbold tried to stand up again, but was in too much pain to do so. Gobo figured that he should finish this and knock her out, but when he was about to hit her with his staff, Eiro stopped him by hooking onto the staff with his foot.
"I think that's enough. Don't you?" Eiro asked Gobo, "You'll kill her at this rate."
Gobo stared back at Eiro for a moment and then pulled his staff away, "I see..." He replied. Eiro smiled a bit as he then turned toward the onlookers again.
"The fight is now over! Kitsue has indubitably lost!" The Demon exclaimed, before he heard a voice from behind him. It wasn't a normal voice, though, since it didn't seem to be created through vocal cords, but instead through some sort of magic. That made sense. Usually, large felines aren't capable of speech, after all.
"Kitsue hasn't lost! Kitsue can fight!" She tried to protest, but Eiro turned toward her and squatted down while rubbing his hand over her head, "You're going to die if you even slightly move around. So that's not a good idea." Eiro pointed out, and he immediately proceeded to swing his tail forward, pressing his stinger into Kitsue's neck into one of her veins.
Of course, Eiro didn't poison her to finish her off, he simply pushed some anesthetics into her blood to make her sleep so that he could properly treat her wounds in a bit. The Demon stood back up and pressed his hand onto Gobo's shoulder, "Goob job." He said, and then continued to speak to the Goblins and Kobolds that were in front of him, with the support of the two translators he had help him out.
He first explained that Kitsue was totally fine and that she was just sleeping and needed to recover a bit, and then proceeded to speak about what would happen to this Village and the Kobolds from now on, telling them that he chose to make the Kobolds valid members of this place, with Kitsue as their representative, while Gobo was not only the representative of the Goblins, but also the Village Chief.
And then, he told the Kobolds to come gather at the front, while he had the Goblins go back to their normal lives. They could calm down for a while from now on after being treated like that for the past few weeks.
Eiro slowly pressed his foot into the ground and caused a plate of rock to lift up from it, holding up Kitsue so that Eiro could bring her to the cave, where treating her would be easier. He, followed by Gobo and the other Hobgoblins as well as the Kobold-Translator, who seemed to be the second-in-command amongst the Kobolds anyway.
With a slight sigh, Eiro looked at Kitsue's body, "You really did a number on her, huh?" He muttered quietly, before looking at the Kobold, "You. She can't transform back until her body has been healed, right?"
A bit surprised, the Kobold nodded his head, "Yes. Only change when body not broken. Can be damaged, can not be out of place." The Kobold explained to Eiro. So it was fine if she was still sore or felt pain, as long as everything was in the right place.
Eiro could work with that. He quickly took out his three of swords and then proceeded to combine them with some small scalpels that Armodeus made for him. And then, the Demon began to repair Kitsue's body.
