Vivien and Bridgette finally signed their contracts after a decent amount of negotiation. Nothing they requested was a deal breaker for Eve, and after the sparkling shards of paper vanished, her attention turned to the upcoming fight.

“Without both of you fighting, what will the Arena do for the last two spots?” Eve questioned.

“Contingency part of the agreement will allow the Arena to pull two non-humanoid creatures to replace us. I read up on it beforehand.” Bridgette said, with an adorable smirk.

Vivien nodded and said, “While I don’t mean to disparage Beasts, Monsters, or Demons, they aren’t really at the same level as sapient fighters. Those who are would be worth so much that the risk of fielding them against you would never cover the cost of deployment.”

Eve nodded at the monetary logic involved.

To the Arena, her fights were a cold calculation of profit. As the soft chime she was now familiar with rang through the room, Eve floated a few inches off the ground before heading up the ramp. The evening light was starting to creep into existence as the sun dipped lower than the Arena walls above. Moving without haste, Eve studied her platemail armored opponent as she floated to stand over the raised stone dais in the sands. He resembled nothing so much as an old Dark Ages knight. The slits in his visor were small, and would take a precise thrust to enter.

Savage Survival Mind easily allowed Eve to ignore the crowd’s shocked babbling at her costume.

As she appeared in the center of the stone dais, the anti-magic field exuding from her opponent snapped on. The short drop to the ground didn’t affect Eve at all courtesy of Grace V. Looking out at the sand between them, she gave a sigh. Only the insane or the deluded enjoyed fighting in sand. She was neither.

Withdrawing the Jian from the sheath she held it loosely in her right hand, while the left kept the sword’s partner close. Tilting the weapon into low guard Eve walked casually towards her opponent as if she was taking a late Sunday stroll. She could practically feel the man’s eyes staring at her tits, which were held up from gravity on full display.

Men. Eve thought with a mental eye roll. Skintight leather and a fake gravity defying bra melts their mind better than acid.

Granted there were men that wouldn’t be affected, but she was rather certain her Charm and Grace V could at least get her their number. Not that she had any plans on getting pregnant, Thomas’s tales of what happened to female powerhouses in history were enough to dissuade her.

Stress relief will have to come from paper toys until back on Earth. Eve thought closing the final meters to her enemy. Her sword flashed into a straight lunge and the dance was on.

Savage Survival Mind used her weapon and body like a puppet twisting her into impossible dodges and hair-thin gaps in the knight’s defense. Eve’s sword left afterimages it was moving so fast, and she could smell the fear as the enemy realized the anti-magic field was useless. Her motions were mechanical, but precise like clockwork as Grace V turned the entire fight into a ballet of death. It was useless, striking Eve was like attempting to fight the wind. Her body contorted as if a center of gravity was a mere suggestion instead of solid physics.

In the world of martial combat, speed rules. Eve thought. Time to end this farce.

The Jian blurred like falling rain and in a mere fifty exchanges, a final thrust penetrated the weakened armor straight through the knight’s heart. An observant person would be able to see that every single strike from the start of the fight to the end had been on the exact same part of the armor. Every palm, punch, elbow, thrust, and slice Savage Survival Mind had calculated to perfection. Eve essentially, ground the mana defense down, then the metal itself, until finally there was nothing stopping the lethal Jian from a final thrust taking the enemy’s life.

It was a brutal display of power, and Eve let the blood drip from her blade to drive the point home as she walked back to her waiting room. Outside of view, she flicked the blood against the ramp walls while walking down before sheathing her blade. Anti-magic fields were a gimmick, a powerful one true, but barring a genius fighter that could adapt on the fly it wasn’t going to stop her.

The fight had been so brief, she barely needed to consume any food. That didn’t stop Vivien or Bridgette from taking full advantage of the clause that required her to feed her servants. Eve secured her second helping of chocolate cake against the vicious sneaking hands before asking, “Are the other two going to be that easy?”

Vivien nodded, “This is a minor Arena, not the Empire’s capital city. If you had come a few years back, there was a blind genius sword and alchemist kid that would have given you a good run. The current Fifth, Fourth, and Third are just lecherous idiots that depend too much on the A.M. field and not enough on actual skill.”

“Elemental fighters are easy to raise, but the A.M. field counters them hard. Don’t expect everyone to be a monster like you, Boss.” Bridgette said eyeing the chocolate cake with greedy eyes.

Eve ate relentlessly until it was time for the next bout once more.