The two teams squared off against each other from the arena's walls as the ground was prepared for their meach to begin. It was obvious to everyone present which team was more intimidating, but the Forbidden Treasure Sect wasn't backing down, and their complete confidence in themselves was contagious, making many of the spectators wonder if they knew something that the others did now.
[Teams to the arena floor for the official announcement.] The referee announced.
No abilities or items were allowed to be prepared in advance, so they would need to be standing on the ground when the match began, a crucial point that Luna was hoping would give her spiders a moment to catch the tricky cultivators before they could fly up out of range.
[Everyone, I want to see a good, clean match. Now ready? Begin.]
The crowd roared in excitement as the match began, and three dozen enormous spiders, each the size of a full-grown bear, appeared in the ring and began shooting webs at the startled cultivators.
Blades of wind flashed and cut apart the sticky webs the moment they approached the Mountain Wind Sect, but that delay still bought Jen enough time to make her first attack, using [Crushing Blow] along with [Smite] to both extend her reach and add Holy damage to her sword swing.
The five-meter-long energy field around the crystalline blade which also doubled as her flying sword crashed into the head of a cultivator, driving him to his knees and ejecting him from the ring in a flash of light.
An instant later, everything was on fire as Sabbat used an area-of-effect spell and lit all of the tattered webbings with smoky orange tongues of fire. Flames and smoke were everywhere, and the remaining cultivators charged each other, knowing that the limited visibility would reduce the advantage of being able to fly.
With that advantage gone, it was down to melee combat skills, and the Forbidden Treasure Sect Disciples were certain that they were as good as anyone in that department.
A dozen nearly invisible wind blades raced toward Tena, who the Mountain Wind sect thought was the most vulnerable, only to be met with the entwined forms of light and dark energy dragons.
The dragons were cut apart by the furious assault, but the reduced number of blades was enough to allow the Monk to escape, rapidly moving through the smoke to kidney punch her designated target and escape his reach again.
Luna's twin blades were wreathed in blue flames as she used Record Keeper's [Balance] Skill on her own weapons to enhance their damage instead of using it as an area attack. A touch would burn the enemy or heal her allies, but the rapid attacks of the twin scimitars were doing a wonderful job of driving her opponent back.
He leaped into the air, intending to gain some distance from Luna to counterattack, but she didn't follow, instead driving both blades into the Mountain Wind Disciple who was going after Sabbat, parrying her flames with his blade as the mage ran frantically around the arena.
"Dammit all." The leader of the wind users cursed and burned a large amount of his energy reserves to blow all the flames and smoke out of the arena so that they could fight without distractions again.
"Find out how they are able to see in the smoke, and someone dismiss those damnable spiders." The man yelled, dodging more webbing as he quit chasing Tena to focus on Luna.
"Bad call," Cain told the violet-eyed cultivator beside him as Tena was suddenly left unguarded, along with Sabbat, while Jen kept another fighter pinned down in this three-on-five fight.
"Target priority, he takes out the summoner, and the fight gets much easier." The man suggested, but Cain shook his head.
"Tena doesn't specialize in attack. She specializes in mobility. You can't just leave her unattended and expect to get more than a half-second advantage." Cain explained while the man smirked at the new information.
"Is that so?" He asked as Tena proved Cain's point.
Tena attacked the back of the man engaged with Jen, breaking his rhythm and getting him trapped by the spiders, then slashed by Jen and knocked unconscious by Tena with a blow to the face.
The unconscious Mountain Wind fighter was ejected from the ring, and the two free fighters went to help Luna, who was stuck in a stalemate against the highly skilled leader of their opponents.
Though he wasn't gaining much height, he was using the wind to his advantage, attacking with tremendous speed and flittering around Luna, forcing her to spin and parry to avoid being eliminated in a single strike.
He was too fast for the Spiders to properly hit, but Penny, who had hidden in the smoke until it was dispersed, transformed into a huge wolf and forgotten in the smoke that nearly matched her fur, finally made her move, clamping her jaws around the neck of the only other fighter before shaking him like a ragdoll until he disappeared in a flash of white light, eliminated from the fight to go sit in the medical bay.
Surrounded by all five Forbidden Treasure Sect fighters as well as a horde of spiders, the leader of the Mountain Wind Sect team took a knee and looked at the referee.
"Mountain Wind forfeits the match." He stated proudly.
He was surrounded by a lightning barrier as a formality, but the girls all stood down and put their weapons away while Luna dismissed the spiders.
"You are an incredible fighter. I don't think we could have taken you, even two on one, with that speed." Luna told the big man, who smiled down at her as he regained his feet.
"You are tiny but vicious. Any blade-wielding sect would be proud to have you as their disciple." He replied, then leaped out of the ring to go check on his teammates.
[Winner, Forbidden Treasure Sect.] The referee called to the stunned audience.
Half of them might have bet on this outcome, but actually seeing it in action was something else entirely.
Every Sect had a specialty, blades, infiltration, assassination, alchemy, inscription, or even simply a monastic life. But with the wide variety of tricks and techniques that the Forbidden Treasure Sect had displayed, it was unclear what sort of place this unknown Sect was.
It wasn't even clear if all the Disciples were female since they had a male leader and had shown up with only six total people.
That begged the question, were they assassins or possibly monster hunters? Or could this be a specialized team hand-picked to build the Sect's reputation in a land far from their home? That wasn't unheard of, especially for a sect looking to establish a branch location when their original got too large or encountered a division of ideologies.
Nobody had the answer, and Cain wasn't talking about it, currently engrossed in a conversation about the effectiveness of psychological attacks on the enemy. Cain had made a magnificent-looking Rune Weapon seconds before the fight, but his Disciple hadn't even taken it out in the arena, much less used it.
Some speculated that it might have been fake and intended to break the confidence of the Mountain Wind Sect, but others maintained that it simply wasn't necessary since the smoke had kept them all near the ground anyhow.
The arguments continued right up until the ladies returned to their seats, receiving warm congratulations all the way up the bleachers.
"Excellent work, everyone. I have a special treat for you to celebrate a crushing defeat of a very tricky opponent." Cain told them, then brought out one of the decadent chocolate cakes that the Bunnies on the farm loved to make.
They only made cakes in bulk, designed to be distributed to the entire farm, with each pan perfectly filling the oven, so there was far more cake than their small group could possibly eat.
Cain passed around the sample squares to the confused cultivators around him with a smile. The cakes were made with Mythic ingredients for healing and stamina recovery and had an energy-enhancing cherry filling, which kept the already high-energy Bunny clerics going all day.
"What is the base of this? The dark and sweet but with a somehow rich flavor?" The same Gold Robed Elder who had been seated beside them yesterday asked.
"You mean Chocolate? I suppose it might not grow near here. You're missing out. Young Luna here considers chocolate as one of the essential food groups." Cain informed her.
Luna gave a thumbs-up accompanied by a chocolate-lipped smile while she stuffed her face full of cake and went for a third piece, only to be blocked by Penny, the responsible one in the group.
"You're hyper enough already. I don't know what the Master put in the cake, but I can feel the extra energy accumulation already. If you have any more you won't sleep for days." Penny informed Luna, ignoring the teary-eyed pleading from her fellow disciple.
"Master Cain, please put the cake away. I can't resist that look for long." Penny begged, giving Cain the same pleading look Luna was giving her and making the violet-eyed cultivator chuckle at their antics.
