Mash waited for the announcer to give Red her introduction, but it never came. It seemed like Red had some kind of plan prepared, either that or the announcer forgot what to say. Mash actually found himself hoping for the latter, as it would be an endless stream of humor for them. He watched the rising platform carefully waiting to see what Red had prepared.

They had discussed what each of them could do to cause a commotion, letting it become game to see if anyone could surpass Mash’s entrance from two days ago. Luke might have him beat, but it was close. Despite what Red had said earlier, she would have had a plan too. However, Mash didn’t know what she could do to compete with Luke or him. As Mash saw her rise to the stadium, the crowd gave a very different reaction.

The crowd had been somewhat dull for the past few fights and was subdued until this very moment. An eruption of discontent, of insults and death threats, flew from the audience, a violent cacophony of noise. It was the opposite of the silence that Luke made, and even different than what Mash had caused. More than fear or anger, Mash saw hate among the faces of the crowd. As he watched Red rise to the stadium, he realized that she was holding up a symbol of her house, of her family crest.

The Venfir family symbol was recognizable anywhere and was always met by either fear or hatred. The coiled whip drenched in blood laid overtop a pure white background on Red’s flag, and Mash watched as lit the thing on fire. She started on the bottom, and let the fire grow to consume the entirety of the symbol. The gesture was obvious, the meaning not missed by any of the reasonably intelligent among the audience. The loud noises slowly died down, as the people learned of what the gesture meant.

On top of denouncing her family name, it was practically a declaration of war against them as well. At the very least, the gesture would mark Red as their enemy, and Mash really hoped she thought this through. He thought that he didn’t like surprises very much and made a mental to never do something like this again. It was fun when he did it sure, but when he could only watch as chaos ensued around him, was less enjoyable. Especially considering the length his friends were willing to go to. He always figured that he was the craziest or most problematic of the bunch, but that didn’t seem so obvious anymore. Mash’s attention was caught up by Red’s actions that he barely heard the announcers start to speak.

“Our challenger faces, a golem of level forty-seven, a creature that lacks even the tiniest vestiges of blood. A hulking war machine, used to destroy walls, and gates! How will one who betrayed even the betrayers fare against such a monster?”

The announcer’s enthusiasm did get a reaction out of the crowd, though it was mixed. And for every insult Mash could make out, there was another cheer in support of her. It was a strange combination, that made the audience seem like they were fighting as well.

The aforementioned golem was easily bigger than a house. Towering over Mash’s creation from the other day. Entirely of stone with silver engravings along the entire surface of the creature. Light emanated from those engravings but shone most brightly from two blue jewels that placed as eyes. The thing possessed a mostly humanoid shape, though it had an extra set of arms, and lacked a neck. Instead, it just had a dome-shaped head that rested directly on top of its shoulders. It was not a living being, and he didn’t really know how to deal damage to it with something like blood.

“What would Red do?”

The question passed through his mind, and he sent it towards Priscilla while speaking it aloud for the group. Priscilla replied with no real answer but suggested that she would be fine. Her family must have prepared her to fight creatures without blood. Otherwise, they would’ve been killed off long ago. That logic made sense, and he refocused on the fight below. From the corner of his eye, he noticed Jill open her mouth to speak but stop as the fight began.

Red’s blood dress quickly formed around her, and she dashed towards the enormous golem. She held the blood seed in her hand and was pouring mana into it to increase the amount of blood it produced. It poured out like a steady stream and coalesced into an enormous greatsword. Despite being far larger than her body, it was basically just a dagger to the large golem. The blood slammed into the stone with a splash but did nothing to the creature. Not even a scratch was present as she pulled the sword away. It never stopped growing, even as the golem swung at her. It was slow relative to its size, but its size made it faster than Red could dodge. Though she did manage to parry the blow, using the great sword to deflect the strike slightly. Despite succeeding, she was sent flying by the residual force and tumbled across the ground. Rising to her feet in a fluid motion, she never stopped adding blood to her weapon.

Now, the weapon would be like a sword to the golem. However, Red didn’t leave it as a sword, and as the golem stumbled its way over to her, she changed the sword into a hammer. It only took a few seconds for the process, but the golem was already upon her. This time she managed to dodge the golem’s swing and retaliate with her own. She dodged its swing by spinning in a circle like Mash might have and used the spin to swing her hammer against the golem's left leg. Well, it was more of a stump than a proper leg, but the strike still landed against where a knee would normally be. The amount of blood that splashed from the attack drenched the golems entire leg in blood and even managed to make some cracks across its leg.

It didn’t break though, and it swung with its right arm. It was faster this time, apparently growing more agitated from the damage. Mash gave an idle thought to wonder how golems could grow angry but stopped when the swing connected. It landed against Red’s side. Mash expected to hear a sickening crunch, and Jill stood up like she was going to teleport in. However, she stopped when they realized that the golem’s swing had been neutralized. Her dress of blood had moved to one side of her body, thickening significantly to stop the blow. It obviously didn’t manage to stop it completely, but it had done much to disperse the force. There was a violent splash at the impact, and Red was sent rolling again, but she got up quickly indicating that there was no serious damage. All the while she never stopped enlarging her weapon.

“If she runs out mana get ready to teleport her out. I will handle the fallout.”

Arthur gave the command in a militaristic style. Jill nodded her head, but never took her eyes off the battlefield. This was something Mash could ignore, but he had been worried about Red burning through her mana as well. If she ran out then the fight was over, and nothing could change that. Mash didn’t know what the consequences would be if Jill saved her, but it didn’t matter to any of them.

Red’s hammer was enormous now, easily large enough to damage to the golem, but Mash didn’t think that it would beat the creature. She didn’t swing it though, instead, the blood poured back towards her, suffusing her dress until it formed into a colossal visage of herself. Her blood now reached the shoulders of the golem, and she charged towards the monster, tackling it and using her better footwork to topple the creature on its back. The ground shook when it slammed against the ground, but Red didn’t stop there quickly using her enormous size to stomp on the golem’s arms and legs.

They didn’t break in a single hit, but she danced on top of the golem, constantly pounding away at the creature’s joints. It was a mesmerizing and fluid motion, that was made more magnificent by the sheer size of her creation. The fight wasn’t a grand display of overwhelming power like his or a unique ability like Luke’s, but a simple and exciting fight that riled up the audience. The dance only lasted a few moments, but the golem's arms and legs were destroyed. After which Red jumped away from the creature as she ran out of mana. The blood collapsed around her pouring like a river around her. She was left lying on the ground, and slowly started to recover her mana.

She started meditating, much to the horror of the audience. The fight had been exciting, and the audience had grown loud when the two colossuses clashed, but now they were left with nothing. Red was able to mediate peacefully, the golem unable to move an inch without its arms and legs. The monster was recovering too, the arms and legs slowly rebuilding themselves, but it was clear that it would take several hours for a creature of that size. So everyone started yelling for Red to finish the fight, the announcer throwing in a few jeers herself. She ignored them though, spending almost half an hour in meditation. Only after she was finished did she move to finish the golem off. She formed a pickaxe of blood and started hacking away at the creature’s chest. Eventually, the core of the thing was exposed, and she was able to finish it off easily. The whole fight took over an hour, and the audience was not very pleased by the end of it.

Opposite to the reaction of the audience, Mash and the others were celebrating and laughing as Red struggled to pick apart the golem’s remains. It had been ridiculous compared to the display of power from earlier. Jill’s fight was soon so she had left by the time Red returned to their room. The crowd didn’t seem particularly angry or hateful as she made her way to the room, most seeming to give her a compliment. After all, the fight had been exciting to watch, even if the ending was not particularly dramatic. Rather than fancy tricks or skills, she had overpowered the golem with raw force, which was unnecessary but highly enjoyable to watch.

As she entered the room, Red quickly moved towards the couch that she and Jill had been sitting on so far. The room was large, with a large window from which they could see the entire arena. Inside the room, there were several comfortable couches, and even a dining table to eat at. It hung over the audience, but there were smaller windows along the sides for them to look over the crowd. Red sat down at first but fell to the side until she was lying down on the couch.

“That was exhausting.”

Letting go of her tension, she spoke while sinking further into the couch. Since Jill wasn’t there Mash took it upon himself, to make a snide remark.

“Half an hour of meditation not enough for you princess?”

“It’s called mental exhaustion. Not all of us have a freakish meditation skill meant for monsters.”

Quick with her reply, Mash figured that she was not as tired as she let on. She wore a big smile on her face clearly happy with how the fight went and happily waited for Jill’s fight to start. It didn’t seem like she had any intention to the next fight, and neither did Mash for that matter. Red’s fight had been stressful and was clearly designed to counter her abilities. He was worried to see what Jill was up against and only glanced at the next fight. It was somebody wearing full plate armor, hiding their entire body completely. Mash didn’t care much for it but stopped when he saw the person summon his weapon. The sword was intricately designed and recognizable to everyone in the audience. The weapon of a hero.