After cleaning up the mess and moving Carlos away to get treatment Catherine could tell the atmosphere had changed in the room, but not necessarily in the way she had wanted. The guards had clearly upped the ante after losing their previous bets and while they were now taking her seriously, they still didn’t fear her.

She sighed, it was better that they were no longer treating her like a defenseless little girl she still had some mixed feelings. If only she could kill… shaking her head she figured she should just be glad she finally got to crush someone after so long. The rush she felt when her opponent didn’t even realize what she had done, it caused her to shiver in delight.

These guards were low leveled, judging by the previous guard even worse then what was on the ship. Either that or she had gotten stronger, and that caused her to smirk.

“well for someone who just caused one of my men a lot of trauma, you seem happy.”

Catherine looked up, Alexander had finished his business and came back to her “just enjoying my victory.” She said “Where is my next opponent? I thought you said that was a hard one.”

Alex chuckled “It seemed that even I, have misjudged your abilities. I had you pegged for just some sneaky rouge like you cats usually are… but seems like there is something…” he paused for a moment but continued “no matter. You next opponent should be harder, but to make sure. Do you happen to have a rank?”

Catherine crooked her head to the side “rank?” she asked, the word familiar.

“yeah, your ID, spacer or planet bound, what is your rank?” Alexander asked.

Catherine was unsure how to answer that. As far as rank went she only had Nyoka and Rose to go off of, if she remembered correctly Rose was S-rank and Nyoka was C-rank but she had no clue what spacer and planet bound meant.

Alexander noticed her confusion, and smiled “You don’t have a rank eh?”

Catherine’s eye twitched, forgot to keep that in check “Ah, no! I do its C-rank!” she said, deciding it best to go with what Nyoka had.

“Oh? Spacer or PB?”

Well she hadn’t been on any planets yet so “Spacer.” She said.

“hoooh, no wonder you kicked Carlos’s ass.” He said “He was only an A rank PB.”

Staring at him, Catherine nodded “yeah, I guess so.”

Alexander chuckled “anyways, your next opponent is…” He rose his hand up into the air “Yo! Somebody call over Xioh!”

“Got it boss!” on of the guards yelled, then exited the room.

“Xioh?”

“hrm…” Alexander crossed his arms and brought a palm to his cheek “Not to fair giving you that much information… Ah, Xioh just uses a spear, pretty high ranked among us.”

Catherine nodded, then waited. A short while later the same guard entered the room, followed by a thin man in a blue skin tight suit, hair tied up in a pony tail, and holding a small metal tube.

The man named Xioh took a deep breath, then examined the room. His eyes narrowed in on Catherine and he scoffed. “This is my opponent? Just a beast in rags!”

The guards on the sidelines started cheering, before being hushed by the secretary.

Alexander nodded “indeed, she took out Carlos already.”

“And? Isn’t that already enough, I don’t see why you choose to drag me into this circus act.” Xioh said, motioning to the sidelines who started booing him, before once again being hushed by the secretary.

“Hrm, you were not here but I will admit, indulge us a bit Xioh, help your fellow men make up some of their lost money, or try and bankrupt the people booing you? “Alexander smirked

Xioh was taken aback “they think I will lose? Foolish.” Xioh held up the black tube in his hand, and with a click it extended into a sizable pole, and with another click a metal spear head popped out the top. “I will show them the errors in their ways.” He then walked passed Catherine and took his place opposite of Catherine, he frowned “At least give the child some proper clothes.” He said, confused when the crowd started cheering.

“Don’t need em, Don’t want them to get dirty.” Catherine said. Kneeling down.

“Hmpf, fair. It is a great annoyance to clean blood off armor.” Xioh said, spinning his spear before leaving it at the ready at his side.

Alexander laughed, raising up his hand “Fighters at the ready, Get set!”

Catherine smirked, ready to see if they were at least taking her seriously now.

“Fight!”

Like the last fight, Catherine took the initiative. Using the same movement as she did before she leaped, extending her claws on her hand she slashed, aiming to cut off Xioh’s left leg before moving onto the next. But what greeted her was the sound of a metal clang, as her claws caught the metal pole.

“Hoh, a fast little cat.” Xioh said, being able to keep up with her movements, he flicked the pole, moving her claws away from him “Retractable claws, fitting skill. No wonder you didn’t need a weapon”

Catherine’s ear twitched, that way of speaking… Catherine leaped into the air, up above and tried to hit him in the back of the head, again it was deflected by the spear.

“Jumping up into the air and leaving yourself open for a counter attack? Novice!” Xioh taunted, spinning his spear around from the deflect and using the momentum to swing, aiming at her foot that was within reach, but was surprised when his spear passed through empty space. “I missed? How?!”

Simple, Catherine had shortened her limb to avoid getting cut. She laughed “not so open as you thought?”

“Hmpf, clearly you have some sort of skill, lets see you use that multiple times!” He then went on the offensive, dashing forward he thrusted his spear forward multiple times “Displacement skills take a lot of mana! I doubt you can do that during my assault!”

Catherine frowned, dodging the spear thrusts without morphing her body by any noticeable degree.

“How!? How is my spear missing?! You slippery cat!” Xioh yelled “Fine then! Lets see how you deal with this!” Xioh jumped back, bringing the spear behind him readying a thrust. The tip of his spear glowing.

Oh, a skill? Catherine readied herself and when Xioh thrust the spear forward a beam of light shot out from the tip. Catherine simply stepped to the side and allowed the beam to pass her, then raised an eyebrow at Xioh “That’s it?”

Seeing Xioh smirk Catherine felt something was off, she turned glanced behind herself once she realized she didn’t hear the beam collide with anything, and quickly ducked as the beam flew passed her again. Homing, great.

The beam passed harmlessly by Xioh, then turned in a wide arc “Ohhoh! And that’s not all!” he said, bringing his spear back to a ready position, the spear tip glowing again “have another!” he yelled, firing off another beam.

Catherine looked at the beam coming towards her, and the one a ways behind it coming towards her as well. “…fuck this.” She said then raised her hand.

“W-wait, what are you doing? Dodge it!” Xioh yelled.

She raised an eyebrow “Why the hell did you fire it if you wanted it to mi-“ Catherine was cut off as the beam collided with her palm, and explosion sounding around the room as smoke quickly filled the space where Catherine had stood.

“You fool!” Xioh yelled, another explosion ringing out as the other beam found it’s mark amongst the smoke. The girl was fast, he had intended to overwhelm her and then pin her down once her movements where restricted, and an indirect hit wouldn’t hurt as bad, but a direct hit? By two of them? That would kill some monsters at mid-rank.

Xioh faced towards the referee, Alexander, after being unable to see the state of his opponent “What are you doing? Call the fight so we can rescue her!”

Alexander faced him, raising his brow “Do you surrender?” he asked.

“S-surrender?! Did you not see those hit?! Are you mad?! She is clearly dead at worst!”

“So do you surrender?” Alexander asked.

Xioh was taken aback, his boss had gone mad. He tightened his grip on his spear and looked towards the pillar of glowing red smoke, ready to leap inside and hopefully save the foolish girl who took… his…skills…

Glowing red?

As the realization dawned on him, a flaming orb broke through the wall of smoke and crashed into his chest, exploding on impact and blowing him back till he collided against the wall, the wall itself cracking on impact. Xioh, with a burning hole in his suit, then slid down and collapsed on the ground.

“The winner! Prison escapee!” Alexander announced

Cheers resounded in the arena, cheers that only got louder once the smoke settled, revealing an unharmed Catherine who rose her hands triumphantly.

That match had triggered a descent into betting madness, Catherine fought countless battles in the next few hours, almost all of them easily beaten by her to the point she questioned why they even bothered fighting if she didn’t know what the bets entitled.

The guards where betting and participating like mad, the arena filling with more people from outside, and it even got to the point they had to move to a bigger room, at one point she even saw Roger participating in the bets. The bets went from the initial “who would win” to things like “how many hits would they land on the prison escapee” or “how long would they last” or even “which limb would be cut off first” Some people would even bet against themselves in one way or another and jump into the ring.

Catherine managed to keep up, pick up a few pointers, and vent off her frustrations by curb stopping the other side, but was frankly amazed that despite everything she had done, the limbs she cut, the bones she shattered, the skills she took directly. The mood in the room remained high, and barely any of them feared her. She was keeping her disguise up the best she could, not unnaturally stretching or shrinking her arms a noticeable amount, and not morphing. So she contributed the lack of fear to that, it still felt off.

Finally, after a few hours Alexander spoke up “Alright you bastards! I’m sure all of you either made a killing or are going to be asking for overtime! Regardless we are cutting it here!” he shouted, only to be booed “What? You got a problem with that?!” he yelled, The guards screamed in response. The ones who have been on a losing streak particularly were loud in their displeasure.

“Fine! How about one more?” The guards started cheering “That is, if the little lady is up for it? It has been a few hours, must be feeling tired?” Alexander asked, seemingly in a taunting manner.

Catherine smirked, she didn’t feel tired in the slightest, if anything she was drunk on the cheers, ready to go “Hmpf, Only one more? I could go on for a few more hours.”

“Oh but this last one will be different little lady, this one will be against me.” Alexander smirked.

The crowd cheered in response. Catherine could already hear arguments on who would win. Oh? Not how many limbs will be cut off? Back to underestimating me again I see. “Bring it Al, lets see if the leader can at least amount to something.”

The crowed jeered.

Alexander smiled “Oh? Still cocky, no matter.” He then waved the crowd off before walking to the opposite side of Catherine. “Before we begin, I told you earlier that you… piked a certain interest, remember?”

Catherine nodded “Yes? What about it, I just figured you meant how I escaped prison.”

“Well, that’s part of it. Y’see, I have been alive for a… very long time and have, noticed… a few things about our humble universe. But rarely, with being cooped up here and all, I rarely get a chance to… confirm my hunches.” He said then laughed dryly, as if mocking himself.

“… what are you getting at?” Catherine asked, lowering her stance once she saw Alexander raise his hand.

“Hrm, well If I am right, do know that doesn’t change my earlier stance, If possible I’d still want you to join us, I’m sure the Organization hasn’t been kind. If I am wrong then… “He laughed again “Please humor an old man.”

What the fuck is he talking about? Catherine shook her head, what ever it was it didn’t change anything, she just had to kick this guy’s ass and then move on from there. Maybe see if she could take her *share* of the bets.

“Ready?” Alexander said, flicking his raised hand, seven translucent swords appearing around him.

Catherine’s eyes widened, her danger sense immediately ringing alarms in her head.

“set…” one of the swords flew into his raised hand, he closed his grip around it and tightened.

Catherine got ready, ignoring the alarm as she tried to formulate a plan but was drawing up blanks how she would do it while staying in this form, hoping she could at least out speed him.

“Fight!” Alexander swung the sword down.

Catherine leaped back, hoping to create some distance to keep him at bay, but when the sword was level with her Alexander vanished, appearing behind her and in the next moment she felt the blade stab into her back, coming out her stomach and scattering white liquid across the arena.

“Hrm, It seems this old man has his intuition…” He said with a chuckle before retracting his sword and leaping away.

Catherine fell to the ground, clutching her chest as the wound closed, white liquid dripping from her body.

In the silent room the secretary stepped forward “And the winner i-“ She was about to announce the winner, when Alexander rose his hand.

“Its not over yet, isn’t that right escapee? Or now that we are officially introduced, why don’t you tell us your name slime? or are you a gel?” Alexander asked, the six swords flying to his side and spinning around him.

Catherine gritted her teeth “Catherine…” She stood up “no clue what a gel is, I’m a slime.” She narrowed her eyes.

Alexander chuckled “Well, nice to meet you Catherine, Now that you have formally introduced yourself it is now my turn.” He said, standing up straight he struck a pose, raising his sword into the air while the others fanned out behind him “My name is Alexander! Alexander of the Phantasmal swords!” He then pointed his sword at her “Let’s see if I can end a few of the betters losing streaks yeah?”

The crowd cheered, but all Catherine could hear was the alarm going off in her head and the building rage in her chest. no

we are not doing this.