Just barely.

“Any ideas?” Verdi asked, watching Fenri slump from fatigue as her body grew heavier, the hero suffering the worst debuff of her career. Rather than **** Fenri before she had a chance to gain her bearings, Bell was patiently waiting as Fenri spawned a potion in her stomach, the laceration on her cheek coagulating in an instant. Of course, the wound was still present, the effects of a low level potion Verdi had made incapable of closing someone’s wounds anywhere near as fast as healing magic or Citrinas’ potions. As the hero tossed the glass bottle into her inventory, her olive skin grew several shades brighter, her face growing pale from weakness. Despite that, she pulled her bowie knives out once more, taking a fighting stance as she took a deep breath.

“Yeah. Stab her.” Fenri growled, lowering herself onto all fours like an animal before pouncing forward, continuing to blindly charge forward without any deeper thought behind it. As she moved, Verdi couldn’t help but close his eyes thinking he was seeing some sort of illusion. It was only when he was detecting Fenri move that he realized the hard truth. Fenri was slower than ever. Between the debuff of Olskroya, the loss of her Divine Blessing, and the debuff she gained from interfering in a Hunt between Verdi and Bell, she was likely fighting at a fraction of her usual strength. Despite her lethargic movements, Bell stayed motionless, smiling as she stood out and waited for Fenri’s attack.

“Fall back!” Verdi shouted, realizing too late as Fenri’s knife struck Bell’s throat, her sluggish movements still faster than Bell’s immobility. As soon as the blade struck Bell, it was too late.

“The Beast takes a bite out of The Artist, but it looks like her fangs aren’t quite sharp enough! I think it’s over for Beauty and The Beast!” The harpy announcer bellowed, his booming voice twisting the metaphorical knife in Fenri’s heart. For the first time since meeting her, Verdi saw the hero almost tear up in frustration, the sight before her wholly alien to her. It was logical when Verdi thought about it mathematically, but seeing it unfold in real life was jarring.

Undead monsters had a natural 1000% resistance to physical damage. Bell was particularly tough among her peers. She also managed to steal all the stats Fenri gained from using Hunt, lowering the hero’s stats significantly while buffing her own stats. Finally, Fenri was interfering in a Hunt between Bell and Verdi, dropping her already debuffed stats to a fraction of her usual strength. All of this culminated in the greatest public humiliation Fenri had suffered in her life, her blade unable to leave so much as a mark in Bell’s skin as it scraped harmlessly across the vampire's ivory skin.

As she took in the laughter and scorn of the monsters, Verdi could see Fenri’s face turn tomato red from embarrassment as she began sawing at Bell’s throat in a vain attempt to reclaim her tarnished honor, completely ignoring Verdi’s previous request as panic set in. With each stab Verdi could see the hero's usual stoic and haughty expression fade, as though she were the one being stabbed as frustration turned to desperation. Throughout the ****, Bell was patiently standing around, letting Fenri stab at her neck, heart, eyes, and whatever else she thought she could cut. Before long, she was reduced to blindly stabbing at Bell’s stomach as Bell let the hero tire herself out.

“Don’t feel bad. Most heroes of the hunt would lose against me.” She said reassuringly as Fenri leapt back at full speed, her movements stiff as Bell squatted down a full second later, letting the hero build distance between them before pressing her foot down, the shockwaves from that simple movement reaching Verdi before Bell’s foot even left the ground.

“Fenri’s too slow. She’s not going to be able to get away.” Verdi thought, predicting Bell’s next move just from the shift in the vampire’s weight. She was going to leap forward and take a swing at Fenri’s ribs. There wasn’t any water in Fenri’s vicinity to help her, and Fenri didn’t have enough time to say “Inventory” to pull anything out to stop Bell’s ****.

“Fuck. What do I?” Verdi thought, grabbing the ice around him and trying to think. Bell was too fast for him to hit, too tough for him to cut, and if she landed her next blow on Fenri, then it was game over for both of them. As he opened his eyes waiting for the inevitable to happen, inspiration struck as he worked quickly, reshaping the ice around him to a flat panel just as Bell launched herself forward.

“Tch.” Bell said, clicking her tongue as several rays of light reflected from Verdi’s makeshift ice mirror, blinding the vampire as she swung at Fenri prematurely, her hammer contacting only the air as Fenri twisted her body like a contortionist to avoid the blow. Landing by Verdi’s side, Fenri stared at the blinded vampire as she rubbed at her eyes, more annoyed by the abrupt attack than injured as she squinted to try regaining some semblance of vision. They had a few seconds before she recovered and continued her ****.

“Any ideas?” Fenri asked, a tinge of concealed panic in her voice as she spoke. It seemed having her knife bounce off Bell’s skin had affected her worse than Verdi expected. He could see the sweat beading on her skin, the slight bounce of nervousness in her footsteps as she realized the prospect of victory had been denied to her. What stood out the most, however, was how tightly she gripped her knife when she spoke, the mere act of asking for help cutting her worse than any stab wound. He looked back to Bell, the vampire pulling out a blindfold and wrapping her eyes to stifle the blinding light as he thought of a plan.

She had Fenri’s speed right now, meaning that she was too fast for him unless he used his blood to cut her or lured her into a trap. More importantly, she was tougher now. Even if Verdi coated Fenri’s knife with his blood and used it to cut Bell, it was doubtful they could leave a scratch on her considering alchemists were known for their lack of attack power. Once again, it was a matter of Bell’s numbers being too high for them to do damage. They needed something to increase their damage.

Inspiration struck him as Bell’s eyes adjusted to the light, the vampire’s blindfold sealing off any future tricks Verdi could pull on her. Unfortunately, those 2 seconds of vulnerability were all Verdi needed to think of a countermeasure. He just needed to ask Fenri a single question, her answer determining whether or not they had a shot at success.

“Can you stab her?” Verdi asked as Fenri’s shaking stopped, her body relaxing as she looked at him in surprise. She waited for further explanation as he grabbed some of the ice on the ground and reshaped it into a knife before chanting, all 8 monster cores and his brain at full capacity for his next spell. His concise mathematical equation for his next spell suddenly became a labored gurgle. Looking over, he could see Bell holding up a stake, her blindfolded eyes still recovering from the light as she focused on Verdi’s figure. Taking aim at his head, she raised her hammer and swung it, chiseling the air itself as Fenri tackled Verdi, clutching him in one arm as he continued to chant. 2 seconds had passed.

Diving forward, Bell grabbed another stake from her inventory and closed in on the pair while Fenri raised her knife, setting Verdi aside as she prepared to buy him the time he needed for his next spell. An explosion rang out as Fenris knives shattered like glass, Bell’s hammer now an unstoppable **** as Bell dove forward, ignoring Fenri completely as she tried to break Verdi’s concentration. An explosion of blood filled the area as Bell’s hammer made contact with Verdi’s right knee, liquefying everything it touched as the alchemist lost all mobility. 3 seconds had passed.

“Fuck off!” Fenri shouted, grabbing Bell by the throat and pushing forward, the residual frost on the floor enough to make even an implacable **** like Bell fall backwards. A squeak escaped Bell’s lips as she landed on her back, Fenri straddling her as she grabbed the vampire by the throat, hoping to **** her out. Gritting her teeth, Bell rammed her stake into Fenri’s right thigh, the hero letting out a grunt of pain as she continued **** Bell. Rather than focus on Fenri, Bell threw a wayward glance to Verdi as she dug around Fenri’s leg, twisting the stake in the hero’s thigh as blood escaped Fenri’s lips, the hero biting her tongue by accident. 4 seconds had passed.

Bell smirked, her stake hooking onto Fenri’s tendon as the hero squeezed harder, her hands incapable of even stifling the vampire’s breathing. Twisting the stake, Bell slowly pulled on her stake, pulling Fenri’s tendon out of her leg as the hero’s low grunts became stifled moans. With a smile worthy of a devil, Bell yanked her stake out in one final motion, tearing Fenri’s tendon like a rope completely as the hero finally screamed. 5 seconds had passed.

“Oh, looks like Bell has a leg up on them!” The harpy announcer shouted, giving some nasty commentary as his voice intermingled with Fenri’s pained screaming. Leaping backwards to Verdi’s side, she dropped one of her broken knives and clutched her thigh, blood spurting out of her thigh as she grew paler, her breathing now labored as she fought to stay conscious. As Fenri crumbled, Bell rose as the vampire returned to her feet, looking to Verdi as she charged forward, the alchemist still chanting numbers. 5.5 seconds had passed.

“Inven-” Fenri began as Bell reached the pair in a single bound, the vampire studying the pair’s faces. Fenri was busy stifling a pained expression while nursing her thigh, the hero seemingly **** to stifle the pain by spawning a potion. Verdi was still in the middle of chanting, the alchemist somehow staying focused despite his own ally being agonizing pain next to him. It was only when she came within arm’s length that she noticed something was wrong.

“Wait… He’s not calculating anymore. He’s just saying random numbers.” Bell thought as she saw Verdi’s smiling face, the alchemist’s effeminate appearance contrasting with the devilish expression he had on his face. Bell’s eyes went wide as Fenri finished speaking, her tone shifting as the hero leaned forward and thrusted the handle of her broken knife forward.

“-tory.” Fenri said, her tone shifting in an instant. The scared, panicked tone she once had was gone as the hero’s face turned to a smug arrogance of a masterfully orchestrated plan. It was only at that moment Bell realized she had made a terrible mistake. She had underestimated Verdi’s magical casting time and Fenri’s acting ability. Rather than fight in a head on confrontation where Bell could use her speed to the fullest, they laid a trap for her.

From the look in Verdi’s eye, she guessed he had a cast time of 4, maybe 5 seconds. He continued listing out numbers to pretend they weren’t ready to counterattack. At the same time, Fenri’s previous panic attack and screaming served as a way to get into position and lower the vampire’s guard. As Bell swung her hammer into Verdi, she couldn’t help but applaud the trust the two shared.

If Fenri couldn’t handle the pain, if Verdi’s cast time was slower, there were so many ways their plan could have gone wrong. Furthermore, there was no way for them to plan such an intricate plot from the few words they shared. This entire charade was built upon their mutual trust in both each other’s skill and mental fortitude. As Fenri pulled several gallons of water from her inventory, Bell was overcome with a gentle envy of the bonds the pair shared.

As soon as the water appeared, a portion of it froze into a thick cylinder of ice at the base of Fenri’s knife handle roughly 3 inches in diameter. Blood exploded in every direction as Bell’s hammer swung downwards into Verdi’s torso, his spine shattered to dust as his organs turned to sludge. Bell had a glimmer of hope as she saw Verdi’s spell waver, the ice cylinder he had formed remaining hollow as the water remained unfrozen. Despite that blatant flaw in his spell, Fenri continued to thrust forward in spite of the half formed spell, trusting her compatriot more than her own eyes. To maximize the power behind her attack, Fenri placed her elbow against her remaining good knee,

As the cylinder reached Bell’s chin, Verdi raised a bloodied hand, the crimson fluid freezing and shooting forward in the blink of an eye with instinctive magic. As the frozen blood reached the hollowed ice cylinder, the still liquid water freezing in the blink of an eye. As Fenri pressed the ice baton against Bell’s chin, Verdi’s mind wandered as the basic rules of Ruyanei’s physics came to mind.

Formulaic magic was slow, remote, and strong. Instinctive magic was fast, cheap, and weak. Alchemists could reinforce materials to a far greater extent than offensive classes. Ice magic could only affect water, and crystallization rates were based on the impurities within the water. They were simple rules that essentially said that an alchemist like Verdi could never hope to hit as hard as a normal mage in a direct fight. In a purely theoretical basis, this sentiment was true. It was only now that Verdi realized there was something he could do to subvert these supposed rules of reality.

Water was fundamentally different from every other molecule known due to one trait. When it changed from liquid to solid, it expanded. If you were to put water in a closed container and froze it, that container would either explode or hold out long enough for the ice to switch to a structure that didn’t expand. If one were to use formulaic magic which was known for being slow and strong to create a cylinder of ice, filled that cylinder with water, used instinctive magic to freeze the water, you’d have a cylinder under **** pressure. If you used magic power to control the crystallization of ice, you could continue to build pressure.

And if someone were to, say, swing that baton under pressure at someone else’s chin and released the magic reinforcing the tip of that baton, you’d have a handheld ice cannon.

The effects were instantaneous as the sound of breaking ice and shattering bone came together in a twisted melody of ****. Fenri could feel every bone in the right side of her body shatter like glass, the spirit reinforcing her body incapable of matching a defense oriented class like Verdi. Her tibia and fibular snapped, the bone breaking through skin like a lance while her kneecap fractured into dust. Her ulna and radius were no different, breaking through her skin while her wrist snapped out of place. There was no doubt that the hero was finally down for the count with both legs and one arm out of commission.

As Fenri’s body shattered from the recoil of the attack, Bell’s body took an equal amount of damage as the ice shot upwards in the blink of an eye, crashing into her chin and breaking her jaw as her feet left the ground. Bell flew several feet upwards as her pupils dilated from underneath her blindfold, the vampire’s consciousness waning as her skin almost glistened from the sweat and ice coating her. Eventually, her ascent slowed as she returned back to the land of Ruyanei, collapsing in a heap of limbs as she laid on the ground.

Silence overtook the arena, the crowd waiting for Bell to rise back to her feet. A second, 2 seconds, 5 seconds, 10 seconds passed as Verdi crawled forward, grabbing what remained of his right leg and freezing it to his stump. Returning to his feet, he limped over to Bell and formed a knife from his own blood, placing it next to Bell's throat before looking to the harpy announcer.

“Winner, Beauty and The Beast!” The harpy announcer said, his voice booming through the city as the audience shouted at him, the energy overwhelming.

“YOU LITTLE FUCKER! THAT WAS ALL MY MONEY! GIVE ME BACK MY MONEY”

“OH BABY, THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!”

“GET FUCKED MONSTERS! HUMANITY NUMBER ONE!”

“FUCK! GET UP ARTIST! GET UP!”

“MANKIND! MANKIND! MANKIND!”

“I HOPE YOU BLEED OUT!”

Cheers for the resilience of mankind, curses from the monsters of the stadium, and curses from anyone who bet on Bell’s victory came as Verdi drank in both the vitriol and cheers. He glanced in the crowd to see Belsach, the hobgoblin happily recording his moment of triumph. The crowd, the cheers, the fame, it was everything he wanted in life. As he took in his glorious victory, he walked over to Fenri and grabbed her thigh, freezing the bloody wound as the hero winced.

“Clench your teeth.” Verdi warned, sending out several tendrils of ice to the hero’s fractured bones. Grabbing him by the shirt with her remaining good hand, Fenri clenched her fist to bear with the pain as Verdi **** her bones back into place. Freezing the arteries to keep her from bleeding out, Verdi looked down to see that she was still incapable of moving. The cogs in his head turned as he remembered their entrance to this arena, the embarrassment of being carried into the arena still fresh in his mind.

“Hey Fenri, guess what?” Verdi asked as the hero spawned several potions in her body, the wounds slowly healing while her bones and torn tendon remained broken.

“What?” She asked, her mood far from amicable as she tried to crawl forward with her one good arm. He squatted next to her, gathering the residual ice around the arena and letting it gather around the hero, his next two words filled with maliciousness and spite.

“Payback time.” He said, raising a platform of ice underneath Fenri and lifting her up.

“The fuck are yo-PUT ME THE FUCK DOWN YOU LITTLE FUCKER!” Fenri screeched, struggling in Verdi’s grip as he gave her a princess carry out of the stadium. He made sure that Belsach had a good angle of him as he carried her out, her incessant cursing and insults like music to his ears. “When my legs heal I’m kicking your ass! I’m gonna kill you! I’m gonna pin you to the fucking ground and **** you until your cock falls off! Let me go!”

“You don’t have to be shy Fenri. Friends help friends when they’re down.” He said cheerily, the casual remark causing the hero to clam up as her screeching died down to low grumblings and muttered **** or **** threats. As Fenri quieted down, he could hear stirring from Bell, the vampire recovering from the uppercut of a lifetime as she rubbed her chin.

"Ow... What... Oh." She said, instantly remembering her last moments as she realized she had lost the battle. Looking down at her current skin tight outfight, she squeaked and shouted inventory, donning her previous cloak as the haze of combat died down, leaving her ashamed for exposing so much skin.

"Good fight Bell." Verdi said, still facing away from the vampire as she awkwardly laughed.

"Y-yeah! You two did wonderful!" She said nervously, unable to look them in the eye as Verdi remembered something important. Bell brought up a white wolf and had a carbon copy of Citrinas stuffed in her museum, the copy still leering at them from the stands. She probably knew something important.

"Hey Bell, are you free to hang out tonight?" He asked casually as the vampire stiffened.

"M-m-me?"

"Yeah. We had a good fight, and I wanna give you a gift. It might help with the sunlight." Verdi said, interested in gathering some intel from the vampire without her knowing. Invite her to Belsach's bar, give her some gifts, get her drunk, and see what she knew about Tristiana. It was a simple plan, and it wasn't like it could go wrong.

"I-I-I'm free, but... Um... Okay!" Bell said as Fenri stared at Verdi, puzzled before flashing a knowing smile.

"When you're done with her, I wanna fuck her next." She said as the pair left the arena, assuming the worst from Verdi. Rather than correct her, he continued carrying her out, memorizing the sight of the hero shrinking and covering her face from shame as they made their way back to the bar.