7.9

Eve ran through her supplies as she drifted over the sands to the starting dais for her next battle. Listening to Vivien had made her suspect there was more at play regarding the rogue, Mick than first shown. It was the reason she had taken Sword and Shield of the Library. If she were paranoid, it would certainly be the most expensive mistake made so far.

The upgrades to my main Bibliotheca Traits should keep the poison from being a major problem. Eve thought. Resupply is possible for years with the Hut on hand if I’m willing to eat only vegetables and bread. My supply of meat is enough for a year if I ration it.

When she listened to how her enemy was supposedly able to escape detection while vanishing, several things stood out to Eve. First was the rogue’s ability to work under an active anti-magic field. That meant it had to be a Stamina fueled Skill or an enchanted item. Second, the number of times the rogue effortlessly used it, Mick, implied it wasn’t a Skill.

The next problem that stood out was the lack of physical tracking characteristics. Vivien had mentioned there was no scent when the rogue vanished. That implied the disturbing idea that the scent had gone somewhere. It couldn’t be spatial manipulation because hiding within space would cause the A.M. field to disrupt it.

So, Eve reasoned it was an item, probably extremely rare.

When is a person hiding in a spot yet not? Eve thought with a flinch as her idea rushed to the fore. When they are in the same location, in another dimension.

That rampant concept had taken hold of Eve’s mind and caused her paranoia to skyrocket. If the enemy had an item that allowed them to slip into another dimension, then there was no telling of their available resources. Her own Inventory was immense. For all she could fathom, the rogue was accessing a complete other Plane of existence filled with treasure, food, and weapons. On second thought, it probably wasn’t filled with treasure, or the rogue wouldn’t be working for the Arena.

She wouldn’t be fighting someone with a small back of tricks and a few poisons. Instead, she would be fighting a person with countless methods and resources. Eve was even more almost frozen when she had thought of another possibility.

What if I could be pulled into this Dimension as well by the enemy? The mere chance of that happening had forced her hand to purchase the Sword and Shield Traits. She privately admitted that being transferred to a completely new world might have given her a slight phobia. The idea that someone might be able to move her to a completely different dimension against her will, again, made her blood run cold with fury.

I’ll get one strike. So Eve thought as she finished moving to the stone-starting dais in the Arena sands. One opportunity to kill or cripple the enemy irreparably before they learn I can reach them between dimensions in my Domain. If she weren’t able to get a kill or string enough Curses onto the enemy, then the fight would get brutal. She hadn’t been able to get a message to Sara while in the waiting room. Clearly, a careful trap was closing around her, one that was designed with maximum effectiveness to take advantage of her greed and stupidity.

Even as the announcer chatted, Eve’s mind was working full throttle. Plans, counter-plans, and choices were flowing through her primary thought-stream as well as the other four. She was concerned about resources because it was also possible the Arena would work a delaying tactic. Eve was operating on the assumption that if they had a way to block mental communication with Sara, they had a way to tap into it as well. Murphy’s maxims were in effect even in another world. They would know about the land acquisition and the location she planned to go to. While that might not seem like an issue at first, it would practically guarantee that after a week was over from winning the twentieth round, higher Tiers could show up at their leisure. Capture, in that case, was all but certain. The only question would be how many survived on her side.

Eve noted the enemy rogue vanishing within the night’s creeping shade.

Eve would eat her left toe if the Arena didn’t have any higher Tiers than the Third working for them. With sauce.

Control what you can, ignore what you cannot. Eve thought. Sara will most likely have noticed something is suspicious. Since she has no current allies other than Iron, she can most likely work with A’nar.

Following that line of thinking, her thought-streams flowed quicksilver fast. Sara could ask for assistance, but the merchant would want something in return. As long as nothing he desired violated the contracts her people were already under, it would be acceptable. Eve, on the other hand, needed to make plans for her own escape. It wouldn’t take any time at all to locate Sara wherever she ended up, as the Scroll Witch was bound to her by bonds tighter than blood. A final resort would be using the temporary hibernation chamber seeds that Kudzu created.

Eve needed another route out of this situation, however.

She couldn’t compromise the possibility of a clean escape by carelessness. Eve would need to decoy away from her people and head somewhere unknown. As the announcer finished speaking, Eve pulled her Jian out, letting the sheath vaporize. She closed her eyes and waited like a spider in the middle of a web. While standing still, her mind flashed to the Story Steles she had encountered earlier. The place that detailed the battle between Light Elves and Demons. Suddenly a flash of insight made her mind focused on the runic engravings of the portal stone steles with utmost clarification.

Three of her thought streams diverted to calculating how to open the portal and ensure no one followed her. Savage Survival Mind focused on the current battle, while Eve’s primary thought-stream held a conversation with Nota.

Nota, are portals dangerous? Eve sent.

Very. Nota responded, the word accompanied by thousands of images. Eve saw spatial cracks that sliced thinner than reality and monstrous tentacle forms devouring ships the size of worlds.

If we had to go through one, how to make the trip safer? Eve questioned.

Dead. Nota sent the word showing an image of Kudzu’s capsule coffin-type plant hibernation chambers. Another set of images showed a strange series of space shields formed around the Hut. The last image showed a perfect deep blue hexagonal crystal.

Everyone with me asleep in hibernation chambers, the Hut shielded by Felix? Eve replied, trying to parse the images she had been given.

A feeling of affirmation was sent from Nota, and Eve began to put together the O.S. plan with duct tape from her dreams and baling wire from her fears.

Eve felt a presence attempt to enter the Domain from the left before being soundly rebuffed by her Shield trait. Her stomach dropped as her pulse raced from the confirmation that the enemy was in another dimension. A glance at her left from under half-closed lids showed there was nothing there. Daggers flew out in a basic attack from her blind spot, the edges tinted with sinister smears of green and blue. Without a Domain, the attack would have been dangerous. Instead, using her Aura to target the slivers of silver-steel, she effortlessly tagged each with her Jian to rob them of momentum. Eve smirked before striking them all with Shatter, a blur of motion.

Shatter turned the daggers into harmless sand speckling powder.

“Try harder,” Eve said, taunting the enemy with a derisive tone. He wasn’t able to step within her Domaindue to Shield unless he exited the dimension he was attacking from. Taking out an apple from one of the fake pouches formed from Thirst at her waist that provided a decoy for using Inventory, Eve took a mocking bite with a solid crunch. Apple in her left hand, Jianin her right, the picture of uncaring nonchalance.

Eve left no doubt of her disregard for this opponent.

It also serves to demonstrate that I have food supplies. Eve thought. This will show me whether they are fighting a delaying action or going for gold.

Finishing her apple Eve tossed the rind behind her. She could hear the murmur of the crowd going restless. They had come for a battle, not a contest of patience, and it showed in their rising voices. While she hadn’t bothered to play to the crowd in the past few fights, Eve was pandering to them now. It was one thing to fight an assassin in the Arena. It was quite another to pay for boredom.

Her goal was simple, to force the enemy rogue into melee. Eve only needed a single solid strike to take him down. Unlike the previous fights, a rogue couldn’t effectively wear plate as the distribution of that much-weighted armor would render many of their mana or stamina-based skills ineffective. The mana structure of Classes caused such issues, although she was certain any competent researcher would eventually find a workaround given enough time to focus on the problem.

The flash of a blade as it stabbed into Eve was all the warning she got. Instantly her mind twisted as all five thought-streams aligned into a singular gestalt mind with one target.

Eve felt the pain as poison ripped into her body, but it was merely pain. Her free hand whipped faster than mortal minds could follow, grabbing the hand attached to the knife, while her body disregarded how the action made her wound worse. Thirst wrapped her body, acting as a temporary bandage of perfect precision. The Jian flashed up at her mind’s command, and twenty thrusts struck out into the enemy’s body as one. Each of the thrusts from Eve’s weapon contained a different Curse as she brought each to the fore in fractions of a second.

The rogue, Mick, was struck with Rot, Disease, Blood, Feebleness, Weakness, Slow, Blind, Confusion, Laughter, Soul-Burning, Madness, and Aging. Then, a single palm slap delivered both Thirst and Shatter, breaking every bone possible in a brutal strike.

Even as she watched, Eve knew it wasn’t enough. In a slow-motion, before the rogue’s body could strike the ground, he blurred to a nearby shadow outside the Domain and vanished. Eve raged as she knew the enemy's escape was due to a life-saving enchanted item activated due to him being on the brink of death. 

Moments later, a sense of despair struck her.

The announcement of her victory didn’t come.

The rogue was still alive.

Eve focused her mind onto the poison within, pushing it into a finger that she ruthlessly chopped off and regenerated. Once purged of the insidious mixture, her body rapidly regenerated the grievous wound across her back. Healthy pink skin, a scar replaced the lengthy bloody gash, and then unbroken skin as Eve fed mana into Bibliotheca Body.

Settling in to wait once more, Eve prepared to go with the madcap plan she had thought of earlier. The first and most difficult part of escape was exiting the Arena itself. Teleporting off the sands was impossible due to the shields that prevented damage to the crowds. Exiting the waiting room was also not an option, as by now, she fully expected guards to be waiting outside.

For her own protection, of course.

Eve quietly created a paper note before dropping it into her Inventory, and from there pushing it into the Hut. Her senses allowed her to see Kudzu pick up the note, and the blank expression across his face told her louder than words his rage. With the plant alchemist preparing the Hut, she only needed to grab Bridgette and Vivien. Once everyone was inside her home, Kudzu would finish the rest.

Turning her full attention once more to the Arena, Eve settled in for the hardest part of any plan.

Waiting.