"Many who teach the arts martial favored rigid, learned forms in their teachings, patterns and habits often based on their own, or that of their masters. My own masters in the past were of this sort.

Yet others favored a more instinctive way of fighting, a few ingrained tricks and feints paired with otherwise instinctive strikes. They eschewed the whole idea of patterns in fighting, and often fought almost like wild animals, albeit smart ones who had learned to use weapons.

Both schools of thought had their benefits, to be honest. The former, more formal way made passing down knowledge a far easier thing to do, even if the individual skills suffered somewhat.

On the other hand, those who fought more instinctively often made for fearsome warriors, but poor teachers. In all my life, I had seen all of one such person who successfully trained others in their way of fighting, namely Celeysria.

How she managed to pass down those instincts to so many students was beyond me. Deities know I've tried and mostly failed when I tried to do that myself in the past." - Aideen deVreys, the Silver Maiden, circa 691 FP.

"Two upsets in one night, folks! Two in a row! Our first-time contenders had proven themselves superior once more! The Tyrant of the arena is dead!" yelled the announcer with audible enthusiasm even as the crowd cheered and whooped at the spectacle. "Will it be three in a row? Our next young contender also came from the same region as these two, and word has it that they had registered together!"

Cal failed to prevent herself from smirking at that, as the announcer riled up the crowd even more. Giselle had walked out of the pool and had allowed the healer to tend to her wounds, though Cal knew that such wounds wouldn't have hampered her even if it was left untreated.

Giselle had definitely grown a good bit beyond that, the girl's competitiveness was stoked after the tournament in Sabaya last year where she had lost to Ognar. She had redoubled on her training almost like possessed since then.

That has provoked Ognar to redouble on his training as well, as he had not wanted to be left behind. Willa was comfortably ahead of the two thanks to her blessed physique and higher natural magical potential, though even she got into the mood and joined them as well.

Willa strode out towards the pool at that moment, even as the announcer introduced her to the crowd. The girl was only clad in a loincloth for modesty - though given that her body was covered with fur Cal doubted anyone found that immodest anyway - and unlike her fellows, had not carried her weapons with her.

The half-therian girl had mostly finished her last growth spurt. She stood comfortably and confidently, half a head taller than Cal now, and very noticeably broader on the shoulders, with larger limbs as well. Cal had no doubt that should the girl keep up with her enthusiasm she would eventually grow to be a better blood mage than her.

"Our last and youngest contender for the night had chosen the oldest beast in the arena as her opponent! You heard that right, folks, our arena's own legend!" yelled the announcer with great enthusiasm in his voice. "She faces Losvar the Immortal! Veteran of one-hundred and seventy-seven battles in the arena, with only three losses, and twenty-nine draws. More than forty overconfident fighters had fallen to this legend!"

Shortly after the announcer's words ended, Willa's opponent arrived from the pathway. The creature resembled a gigantic squid or cuttlefish, Cal thought, with its slick skin of an iron-gray color.

Its body was easily eight or so meters long, with eight tentacles of the same length underneath it. Another two tentacles were larger, and half again as long, ending in a maw that split into three, three-pronged beak-like structures at the tip and sharp, curved fangs to catch its prey lined up behind it.

Willa charged straight at the beast, as she used her powerful legs to kick hard on the cage and launched herself straight at it. That seemed to have startled the beast quite a bit, as the announcer excitedly - if with some worry evident - brought the crowd to an uproar at the unexpected development.

The beast had used two of its tentacles, sinuous limbs lined with sucker pads which sported long, curved fangs, to grasp Willa as she charged in. For a moment things were silent, then to the surprise of most everyone, the therian girl tore one of the tentacles apart with her bare hands as she fought her way out of the creature's grasp, many broken, curved fangs sticking out of her body.

Almost immediately, the surprised besst reacted as it tried to grab and strangle the girl with the rest of its tentacles. The shorter ones tried to hold her in place, while the two long ones struck with their beaked maws.

Willa ignored the beaks and the sucker pads even as they gouged her skin only to falter against her rock-hard flesh. Her fangs and claws tore apart the tentacles that got in her way with pure brute force.

Where Ognar showed great persistence and Giselle used ingenuity to win their fights, Willa showed none of those. The fight she displayed was one of pure savage brutality, one that made many in the audience shrink back in surprise and fear, and made many others cheer like madmen at the rarely seen spectacle.

To witness a fighter dispatch a beast using tactics or persistence? Those happened more often than not. On the other hand, a spectacle where a fighter tore into the beast with even more savagery was unheard of, and such a display drove the audience wild.

The struggle was brutal and bloody, but after a short ten minutes, a victor was found.

Before the widened eyes of the audience, the massive cephalopod ran for dear life, back towards its cage, as Willa remained triumphant in the cage. Six of the beast's tentacles - including one of the longer ones - were left behind in the cage, torn apart by the girl's claws.