After being informed about the lack of sand in today’s arena, and thus about the lack of burrowable medium, Camiel got some clothes and rested.

Later that day, she was escorted to a teleportation circle and transported to the competition’s location.

When the light of the teleportation spell subsided, Camiel found herself in a tunnel. It was rather chilly and barely illuminated by a few glowing mushrooms.

She would have to get this fight over with quickly or risk falling into a state of slow metabolism, drastically reducing her combat capabilities.

She took out two of her six transformation-rods and willed them to change into spears.

Using these spears she hunkered down and moved through the tunnels in a gorilla-esque pseudo-quadrupedal form. This would reduce her frame and thus increase the likelihood of her seeing the enemy before the enemy saw her.

She continuously surrounded herself by a thin fog, this would further limit her time-frame, only barely due to how thin the fog was. Additionally, it would also make the enemy likely to notice something before she noticed the enemy, but the enemy would not know where in the fog she was hiding exactly. As an added benefit her reduced frame would likely make the opponent’s first attack miss her.

In effect this would give Camiel the stealth advantage. She would see out of the fog while the enemy could not see inside unless they came close. So close Camiel would get the first attack off no matter what.

When the wall of fog came upon a hooded figure, the fog thickened and condensed into multiple water-droplets. While the result was a very thin fog, it was infused with a multitude of small water-drops, suspended against gravity.

When the hooded figure rushed forth, a polearm seemingly materialised in her hands. Some of the droplets shot forth and rained on the figure like bullets.

None of them hit. They were, all of them, evaded by the enemy.

The droplets continued to form and many more shot at the figure. Never even coming close to hitting it.

When En saw the wall of fog, she realised that she was at a disadvantage, and took a few seconds to buff up.

She then rushed at the enemy, who should be somewhere in the fog. Most likely close to the front. If however, the enemy could extend their senses through the fog, they could be hiding anywhere in these tunnels.

She planned to bullrush the front of the fog-wall, and in case no enemy was found retreat away from the fog. Trying to find a way around the fog-wall and see if she could find it’s origin.

When the water-bullets began raining on her, before she had so much as touched the fog-wall, she knew the enemy was closeby.

She still could not see her enemy, but trusting the increased speed and reflexes from her buffs and in-born physique; she rushed forth, easily evading all the water-bullets. She did not even have to change her weapon from a polearm to a sword to evade, neither did she have to block any of the bullets with a shield. This being as easy as it was, her strategy remained unchanging.

Shortly before entering the fog-wall she could make out the opponent’s frame. A horned goblin?

From what she was told, the enemies had no such thing. But then again the enemies had fooled her mistress once before. Who was to say Ordo had not, again, fed them misinformation?

She would try to trade blows with the creature. If it, indeed, turned out to be a goblinoid, she would easily win the fight.

She stabbed her polearm at the creature. Not useing her full strength, instead deciding to be cautious, it might still be an illusion or ... Something interrupted her thought-process. In the next moment she was inside of the fog, assaulted my water-bullets from every direction; not all of them easily evadable. She also found a spear in front of her face.

She drew her off-hand back and allowed the spear to penetrate before jerking it out of the way. Not even allowing herself to react to the pain, or the panic which wanted to rise inside of her.

Luckily none of her vitals had been hit by any of the bullets.

The uninjured hand, still holding her polearm, shot forth. Not supported by her off-hand and not connecting with the enemy the attack’s momentum had her stumbling.

Her body tensed up, and she finally noticed the second spear, deep within her stomach.

She changed her polearm into a sword and, given that both of her opponent’s weapons were stuck inside of her slashed at the enemy.

A loud metal-on-metal collision echoed through the tunnels. En realised that neither of the opponent’s two weapons was still inside of her. The weapon which had previously been stuck in her hand was now blocking her sword-slash, not as a spear but as a sword. So the enemy had managed to recreate some of the effects of her magical construct?! Had the situation not been so dire, she would have been intrigued.

Her hand had already healed, but her stomach, and the bullet-holes all across her body would need a few more seconds.

She retreated a few steps, and wondered why her enemy did the same; instead of pushing their advantage.

Even in this weakened and damaged state, she could evade most of the bullets. Her regeneration healing more holes than the new bullets created.

And the longer she kept this up, the less bullets hit her. After only a few seconds she was, although still wounded, able to evade most of everything.

Not wanting to give the presumed water-mage too much time to prepare, she went for another push.

Camiel calmly watched the figure dodge her bullets, while retreating further into the fog.

After her spectacularly successful ambush, she had been surprised by the opponent’s tenacity and regeneration.

The thought of what would have happened if she had less time for preparation frightened her. The ambush was only as successful as it was, because she had time to amplify the duration of her mental-ping-attack.

Even with such a powerful ping, the enemy refused to succumb. The figure had reflexes, speed, strength and regeneration beyond anything Camiel had ever seen. She had fought enemies with greater reflexes, but those could be overpowered with strength and attrition-warfare. She had encountered stronger enemies, but they would either have a disadvantage due to their size or lack of speed. She had seen monsters with better regeneration, but none of them was as fast or as strong as this one.

After the ping, she simply sidestepped the mindlessly rushing opponent; evading their polearm, comanding the remaining bullets to fly into the enemy, and stabbing both her spears into the hooded figure.

The figure had reflexively spun her body in a way that none of the bullets hit a vital organ, and even managed to shield their face from the lethal spear.

In the first instance camiel had been shocked, then glad she had managed to wound the enemy, then surprised by the enemy’s reaction, and shocked for another time when she saw the figure regenerating all the wounds at an incredible pace.

She retreated further into the fog and began creating a massive amount of bullets.

One of the bullets hit the still open wound in the opponent’s stomach, but the figure did not notice or simply didn’t care.

The figure was visibly slower than before, yet there was no hesitation nor doubt. It came running, so Camiel created a film of water on the floor. Hidden by fog, the slippery trap should have been unavoidable.

Camiel prepared a sword and a spear and, while seemingly standing still, shifted her weight so she’d be able to act as soon as the enemy was struggling with their footing.

The hooded figure did indeed step on the water, but against all odds, managed to slide upon it with their body upright and their posture intact.

Camiel shot almost all her bullets at the figure while harassing it with mental pings. To great success, the figure was barely able to defend its vitals.

The enemy arrived where Camiel was and a small brawl ensued.

As a result her Spear got stuck in the enemy. For all intents and purposes lost. She almost managed to sever their head with her sword, but the cut was too shallow and did not reach the figure’s spine. The head remained in contact with the body and immediately started healing. A head reattaching itself to its body was a grotesque display, to say the least.

Seeing the figure jump behind an alcove, Camiel got a bad feeling, created some distance and hid where the tunnel had a 90° curve to it. All while leaving the width of the tunnel covered in a small film of water.

She took a new weapon from her pouch. While waiting for the opponent to show their hand she cycled both weapons through their available forms. Meanwhile, she created more fog and more bullets.

A spear.

A sword.

A halbert.

A mace.

A warhammer.

A short spear.

Now that she thought about it, most of her weapons had not seen any use in this competition. The enemies ... as well as her allies, seemed to detest the idea of heavy armament.

While having such thoughts she heard a massive projectile flying through the narrow tunnel. Fom the sound, she knew that it wasn’t very fast. She peeked around the corner and saw a gigantic icy boulder heading her way. Hurriedly she hid herself in an alcove deeper into the curve.

The projectile turned the corner instead of impacting the wall.

Camiel barely had enough time to put her two halberts in front of her body, before the massive ice boulder impacted them.

That was enough to get it off target, but both her weapons were bent beyond repair. She discaded them and took two new ones from her pouch. She realised that there was only one remaining. She could not even remember the last time a single entity had managed to push her this far.

Two in hand, one in the pouch. Her weapons were running out and the cold was beginning to get to her. If she did not get this over with quickly, she’d lose her life here.

She formed her weapons into two identical swords. Added depth to the film of water. Stepped on the water. Created currents. Accelerated. Shot forth. 

She was practically flying through the foggy tunnel. At about neck-height.

Stretching her arms, the swords covered most of the tunnel’s width.

A second icicle, prematurely released and way smaller than the first, hit Camiel in her left arm; severing her hand in a gory display of pain.

The severed part spun out of control, even managed to hit the enemy but did not do a lot of damage. It simply lacked the force necessary for that.

The rest of Camiel’s body also tilted out of the planned trajectory. She got her own flight path under control and in the last second spun around her own axis to slice at her enemy. With that much momentum and force she managed to slice through the forming icicle, cut through the arm and into the enemy’s side. Where it remained stuck. Camiel however did not. She continued uncontrolled dance through the thin tunnels.

The opponent did not waste a lot of time trying to get the sword out of its side. Instead turning to face Camiel. The spear Camiel had lost earlier, was nowhere to be seen. The figure must have taken it out somewhere along the way.

Camiel took out her last remaining weapon and transformed it into a sword. After a few short bouts, she sent a final ping into the opponent’s mind, and used the split-second delay of the opponent’s mind to stab her sword into the opponent’s brain.

Although the figure ceased all motion, Camiel took no chances and decapitated it with the sword stuck in it’s side.