Seraphina and Ariel, having been tackled to the ground and pinned beneath the panthers, were immediately overwhelmed. Claws and fangs tore relentlessly into their bodies as they fought desperately to escape.
It couldn't be helped. The gap in combat experience alone was insurmountable, never mind the difference in class. Seraphina and Ariel were barely a century old, while their opponents had spent well over a thousand years honing their craft through countless life-and-death battles.
Seraphina answered with a point-blank Cremation Pulse, hoping to blast her attacker off. Instead, the panther simply endured the flames. Digging her claws deeper into Seraphina's shoulder, she anchored herself in place and used the force of the blast to drive them even farther through flesh.
Seraphina tried Parry, Dodge, Dash, even Jump, but every attempt had already been read. The instant she committed to an escape, the panther mirrored her with a Dash of her own or tightened her grip, refusing to surrender even an inch.
Left with no other option, Seraphina poured everything into Deathflare at point-blank range. The inferno engulfed them both, yet the panther never even considered retreating. She was completely confident she could reduce Seraphina to pieces before the flames consumed her.
Ariel fared no better. Normally the more agile of the two, that advantage disappeared the moment she was pinned. Claws and fangs sank into her chest, shoulders, and wings, reducing the graceful half-hawkwoman to little more than a bird caught in the jaws of a cat.
Storm Blast, Storm Call, and Storm Barrier erupted one after another, but every gale was interrupted before it could force the panther away. Deprived of the space she needed to maneuver, Ariel could do nothing but endure as she was methodically torn apart.
Fortunately, neither of them was fighting alone. Since the battle had begun, Lilia had remained safely in the rear, patiently preparing her net of threads and was finally ready to begin helping.
Glowing water gathered around Seraphina and Ariel, rapidly knitting together shredded flesh almost as quickly as it was torn apart. The healing wasn't enough to completely overcome the panthers' relentless assault, but it was enough to tip the balance. Instead of Seraphina and Ariel dying first, it now looked as though the panthers would burn or bleed out before they could finish the job.
Still, Lilia was far from done with her support. More spells layered themselves over the four combatants in rapid succession. Frost crept across the panthers' limbs, steadily dulling their speed, while ribbons of multicolored light enveloped Seraphina and Ariel, hardening their defenses and further reducing the damage they suffered. At the same time, their attacks grew stronger with every passing second, while the panthers' bodies steadily weakened under a relentless barrage of debuffs as Lilia continued stacking spell after spell onto them.
Alarmed, the panthers finally glanced behind them and realized their cheetah companion had been brought down without them even noticing. This had left the third member of their opponents' party completely unchecked, and she had seized the opportunity to turn the battle around.
She was a dedicated support mage, layering buffs onto her allies while crippling the panthers with debuffs that landed with unnerving precision. They hadn't even noticed the spells before they took effect.
Realizing the threat, the panther pinning Ariel immediately disengaged and sprinted toward Lilia, intending to eliminate the support first.
That freed Ariel to do more than desperately defend herself with her poor knife skills. She shot into the air, conjured a bow and arrow of condensed mana, and drew back the string. Instead of firing at the panther that had been mauling her moments earlier as it sprinted toward Lilia, she targeted the one still tearing into Seraphina.
Arrow after arrow buried itself into the panther's flank. Each hit compounded the slowing effects already covering her body, steadily robbing her of movement and ferocity as her injuries accumulated. The relentless assault on Seraphina began to falter.
Meanwhile, Lilia was moments away from being run down when a small tornado suddenly swept beneath her feet, lifting her into its eye and carrying her safely into the air. It was Ariel's unique application of Storm Blast, using the skill as a rescue technique.
Even as she ferried Lilia away, Ariel continued raining arrows down on Seraphina's attacker. This left the panther that had been pursuing Lilia with no choice but to give chase, since both of her targets were now airborne.
Ordinarily, catching an airborne target would have been a simple matter within their domain. But the surrounding forest had already been burned to ash, leaving no trees to spring from and fully exploit her incredible Dexterity. Now, every leap took just a little too long, allowing Lilia to narrowly escape each pounce, much to the panther's growing frustration.
The situation only deteriorated further from there. Storm clouds spread overhead, forcing her to dodge repeated lightning strikes while violent winds battered her from every direction, nudging her trajectory just enough for each pounce to miss.
At the same time, Lilia filled the battlefield with dense mist while continuously refreshing buffs on her allies and layering new debuffs onto the panthers. The fight had rapidly become one-sided, and for the first time, even centuries of combat experience were no longer enough to close the gap.
Finding themselves in an increasingly precarious position, the panthers resorted to their final trump card, Ancestral Embodiment. A thunderous roar shook the area as two colossal ethereal panthers materialized above them. Their spectral forms descended into their bodies, which rapidly swelled and twisted to match.
Moments later, two towering 3-meter-tall panthers stood where they once had, their sheer presence radiating overwhelming pressure. One of them slammed a massive paw onto Seraphina, pinning her to the ground. Its enormous head lowered, jaws parting as fangs the length of daggers closed in to tear her in half.
"I finally got it!" Lilia suddenly shouted before snapping her fingers.
Immediately, the surrounding Jungle Domain began to collapse. The towering trees burning in the distance crumbled into dust before vanishing altogether. The expanded space compressed back into itself as the lush vegetation withered away, revealing the hardened wooden floor of the original arena.
As the domain disappeared, their equipment instantly returned, restoring their armor, weapons, magic bags, and every other advantage they had been denied.
Seraphina, on the verge of being bitten in half, reacted immediately. Her grimoire flipped to a familiar page and cast Nature's Escape, allowing her body to melt into the wooden floor. A heartbeat later, she emerged several dozen meters away beneath Ariel.
While airborne, Ariel drew both of her Rank 2 pistols and opened fire, concentrating every shot on the giant panthers' faces and eyes. The barrage was threatening enough to force the panthers to either retreat or shield their faces, sacrificing the use of one of their forelimbs in the process.
Meanwhile, Lilia regrouped with the other two before throwing a metal plate onto the ground. The artifact unfolded in an instant, expanding into a 5-meter-tall Rank 2 defensive tower that enclosed the trio behind thick reinforced walls while allowing them to attack through its windows.
In the span of a few seconds, the battle had transformed from a desperate struggle for survival into a full-fledged tower defense.
The crowd gasped, cheered, and watched in stunned amazement as the tide of battle turned in an instant. They were thoroughly captivated as one impressive feat after another poured in from the three combatants, who had been expected to lose against the slaves of a seasoned veteran.
First, Lilia had shattered a domain. To the spectators, that was practically unheard of. Breaking a domain required identifying and destroying its nodes in perfect synchronization before they could regenerate, a feat that normally demanded the expertise of a powerful Rank 3 wizard.
Second, Ariel had drawn firearms. Guns were infamous throughout the continent for being prohibitively expensive to operate. Between the ammunition and the specialized materials required to produce it, only dedicated crafters could realistically afford to use them in prolonged combat.
Lastly, even the panthers' overwhelming trump card was being held at bay by an artifact that expanded into a Rank 2 tower. Every swipe of their massive claws left nothing more than deep gouges before the damage was automatically repaired, with fresh layers of reinforced walls forming over the weakened sections.
The two monsters found themselves repeatedly battering a fortress that simply refused to stay broken.
Everything about Ravok's opponents defied the audience's understanding of arena combat. It seemed Ravok had finally bitten off far more than he could chew.
"What an amazing match, ladies and gentlemen!" the announcer shouted. "Just when you think you've seen everything, some random merchant from a distant land overturns your entire understanding of a proper fight. I hope none of you wagered your life savings on Ravok, because at this rate you might be our next contender!"
The joke drew laughter from some sections of the arena, while many others could only grimace at the prospect of losing their bets.
The panthers threw themselves at the tower, determined to tear it down and reach their prey, but the structure proved far more resilient than expected. Every section they managed to tear open was met with a barrage of bullets, fire, and spells to the face, forcing them to recoil. Before they could capitalize on the opening, a steady flow of mana immediately repaired the damage, forcing them to destroy the same sections again and again while Seraphina, Ariel, and Lilia continued bombarding them from the safety within.
Most frustrating of all were Ariel's bullets. Each shot was aimed at their eyes, forcing the panthers to shield their faces with one forelimb instead of using both to batter down the tower.
As the relentless barrage continued, their situation grew increasingly hopeless. Eventually, the panthers exhausted themselves. Storms, flames, ice, and bullets rained down upon them without pause until they had nothing left to give.
Their Ancestral Embodiment finally dissipated, their massive bodies shrinking back to their original lithe forms as both their health and mana bottomed out.
Desperate, they reached for the healing potions stored in the magic pouches hanging from their waists, but Ariel was one step ahead. The instant the bottles appeared, her bullets shattered them one after another before they could even be uncorked.
The fight wasn't over until a winner and a loser had been decided. Until then, they would continue inching closer and closer to death or be knocked unconscious.
"We surrender!" the panthers finally shouted.
Only then did Ariel lower her pistols, allowing them to finally heal themselves.
"And there we have it, ladies and gentlemen!" the announcer bellowed. "What an incredible battle we've just witnessed! Who would've thought some random merchant from a Rank 2 kingdom could win with such absolute dominance? Although, to be fair to Ravok, this wasn't really a 3-on-3, as it was more of a 2-on-3 given the circumstances."
GROAAAR!!
Ravok's furious roar silenced the entire arena. With a violent sweep of his arm, he flipped the table separating him from Bastion before extending his claws, every muscle in his body tensing as he prepared to rip the human apart.
Bastion rose to meet him without hesitation. Pristine Rank 2 armor materialized around his body in a flash, while a sword and shield appeared in his hands, ready for the fight to come.
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