The previously bare open space of the adventurer’s hall had become a stadium. It wasn’t a circur space and it was wider than it was long, like almost everything in Kestin.

  Several stands had been erected around a rectangur demarcated space, with a section for what appeared to be the governor and other rich-looking persons.

  Isran anxiously looked over the hundreds of people in the stands. She wondered how many people were in Kestin. She searched for her girlfriend but after not finding her she decided to focus on the game, Alden saying light encouraging things to himself helped ground her.

  Isran had hoped their team wouldn’t go first. But Isran was beginning to realise wishing for things was having opposite effects.

  Team two against team five.

  The rectangur space had red glowing lines drawn on it, Isran made sure to step over them. It wasn't for any particur reason if she was being honest. She just didn't want to step on a red line.

  After some announcements and hyping up the crowd, their teams were ushered into the arena.

  The gnome repeated the introduction to the game once again but this time expining the point system.

  “The midline divides each team’s side of the arena. There are two lines on each side. Cross the midline and you have earned ten points for your team, crossing the line after the midline is twenty points and the line separating you from the fg is forty points to your team. If at the end of the hour, no fg had been taken the team with the most points wins. Good luck, may Vycor create paths of victory for every one of you.”

  They huddled together to go over their formation once more and when they split to take their positions--Isran right behind the midline--and her sword withdrawn from its sheath that had been strapped to her back, she looked over the crowd once more and smiled when she spotted red, messing up Phaedra’s hair.

  Elysi’s smile broadened when their eyes met and she blew a kiss to Isran.

  Calliope waved with her fingers and so did Leopold, though Isran only assumed that, the rat was even smaller from the distance.

  Isran hadn’t realised till that point how much she was stressed. How much she hoped they had shown up to support her. And so with a new sense of vigour, she tuned out the sound of the crowd and focused on the task at hand.

  “Let the crowd count with us for the commencement of the first challenge in the first-ever games held in Kestin.” The governor’s voice called out, projected for the crowd to hear simirly to the gnome before him… magic.

  Isran turned to lock eyes with Alden.

  “One!”

  Alden nodded at her and turned his face to look forward.

  “Two!”

  Isran did the same, flexing her thighs in preparation to bolt.

  “THREE!”

  The elf waited for them both to take off, Alden was just barely fast than Isran and The elf matched her speed instead of his.

  He zoomed past Jorn who Isran had only just noticed, as he swung at her.

  Ft end of her sword against her hand, Isran met the dwarf’s axe, much smaller than the one he carried around but still a rge weapon.

  Isran wasn’t pnning to engage in combat with him. He had jumped to deliver his blow and with a strong shove that sent him flying, she continued on.

  The elf and Alden were still running, the opposing team was much less organised than them, most had run to attack, leaving a very small percentage to guard their red fg.

  Isran grunted when a force struck her from the right, she didn’t have time to groan about the pain of the blow, instead, she dove out of the way, no second attack came but she had learnt to always anticipate one.

  Her attacker was a small woman with a channelling staff, she mumbled under her breath with her eyes on Isran.

  Isran made the decision to engage with her, if she tried to run again the woman would only attack once more. She had read that attack mages, especially low-level ones, were cking in defence.

  So with that decision, she propelled herself towards the woman.

  The mage's eyes widened and she took a step back before moving her staff to fire off an attack. Isran dove out of the way once more, narrowly avoiding being hit. This time, however, she dove at an angle, avoiding the blow and getting closer to her target.

  Her sword helped propel her forward, it had caught on the ground when she dove and had served as a short polearm. She nded right in front of the startled mage.

  The woman tried to take a few steps back, but Isran—not wanting to engage in time-wasting combat—snatched her channelling staff from her and ran away.

  She was closer to the boundary of the arena and nearly stumbled when a rose was thrown in front of her from the crowd.

  The elf was fighting off a rge bull man that was surprisingly fast. Alden was heading towards the fg while an elf had a bow drawn, following her orc friend’s movement with it.

  Isran wouldn’t reach them in time. Alden would get hit and she would have to be the one to get the fg. They had no idea how close their opponents were to their blue fg. So Isran stabilized herself, standing in a way that wouldn’t mess up what she was about to do. Her feet slightly apart and knees bent, pnting her feet as firmly into the ground as she could.

  The channelling staff had a rounded top and so with as much precision as she could muster, she threw the staff straight at the archer.

  Almost in slow motion, she watched as the staff hit the man in the face, messing up his shot. Alden didn’t stop as the archer fell to the ground. Isran had also started running but after two steps she stopped.

  She watched as Alden dove for the fg, probably for the purpose of cutting time or maybe to show off. Isran would ask ter. Not even a second after he wrapped his arms around the white stick holding up the fg a loud horn bred through the arena, signalling the end of the round.

  “Team two have captured team five’s fg! They win this round.”

  Isran panted slightly, adrenaline wearing off as she heard their win announced. She turned around to see that their opponents had actually made it fairly close to their fg, a few seconds of dey and they would’ve lost. She was gd she had made the decision to attack the archer, and the fact her throw had bee accurate.

  Like a sports team, her team ran towards each other, cheering along with the crowd. Instead of joining Isran looked up at Elysi, Phaedra and Calliope, and smiled at the proud expressions each woman wore. She was fucking amazing, and the win she had just helped secure would remind her of that.