When we got back to the waiting room, Wren was gone, but Abel, Mel, and Sloane were there waiting. Sloane was particularly impressed, cheering loudly when she was within range of us. "That was FANTASTIC! That guy was a monster, his Might must be insane. I was afraid he'd kill one of you by mistake, but you kept him off balance the whole time. He never even had a chance!"

Abel rolled his eyes, holding up a hand. "Alright, let's not take this too far. It was a decent fight, but he wasn't going all out. He never even used his ability. Granted, you kept plenty of your tricks in reserve, which I approve of, but you had plenty of room for improvement. Either Mel or I could have taken him one on one pretty easily. It's fine to recognize your strengths, but don't let it go to your heads. These next two weeks are for training, and if you lose motivation you'll stall out."

"He's not wrong." Said Mel in a conciliatory tone. "But still, I do think you two did a damn good job for your first major fight against an outsider. With the caveat that you can still learn plenty, it's not a problem to be proud of your battle. In that vein though, why don't you point out some of the things you did wrong. It'll help to contextualize where you can improve in the future." She gestured over to the nearby seats. "We can wait over here. Sloane signed up for the singles matches, but she needs to wait until her name is called."

Callie, as usual, picked up the inconsistency first. "Wait, where are Beric and Croll and the other Beast Lord Initiates?" She asked. "Also what are you all doing down here? Weren't you being escorted to like an observation deck or something?" Thinking about it that way I was pretty curious too.

"We were." Answered Abel. "It was more of a VIP box. But the part time fleabag decided she wanted to fight, and Mel and I know this place pretty well. The others are up in the box watching the fights, but we figured coming with her would be a good chance to give you some feedback." He pointed to the back corner of the room where a scan box was projecting an image of a currently starting match onto the wall. "We can watch her match over there. Now, like Mel said, what did you do wrong? Solomon, you go first."

I wasnt sure if he decided that because Callie was better able to note details or because I was more in tune with combat, but it didn't really matter. I cocked my head slightly in thought before I responded. "Off the top of my head, using my triple strike on his ankle might have been sloppy. I was trying not to use any of my powerful tricks before the tournament. It might have been noticed and given away some more of my abilities."

To my surprise, Abel shook his head at that. "Nah. It was a physical attack, hard to tell when those are more than they seem. And you showed enough variety with DS Mastery to make it unlikely for anyone to catch the slip. It was a measured risk that you put thought into. I'd say it worked out fine, given the overturn in the combat dynamic when it happened. Try again."

That had been the most obvious slip, and I had to dig a bit deeper to find something else. "The mist?" He raised an eyebrow over his mask, gesturing for me to continue. "I used it without warning Callie it was going to happen. She adapted on the fly, but it was a stupid slip to make, cutting off her line of sight to me without letting her know." It was sometimes hard to remember that while we were incredibly in sync, we couldn't read each others minds. Trust could become a liability if it wasn't tempered with knowledge.

Abel smiled. "Good. The hardest part of perfecting team dynamic is to find your partner's limits. You two did well taking advantage of the mistake, but it still happened. You count on your partner in all things when in battle, which means you need to be able to estimate how much information they can glean. Without knowing what they know, you can't predict what they'll do, and someone you can't predict isn't an asset in a battle, they're a liability."

"I guess." Callie said thoughtfully. "I mean, I feel like that was a good move though. Using that combo to take care of the sand. He communicated some of it with handsigns. I wasn't expecting the steam, but it didn't seem to hurt us. Are you saying we can't improvise? Because that doesn't sound like you." I smiled a bit at how defensive she sounded of me. It was sweet how much she cared.

Abel shrugged. "Not at all. I'm saying you need to game out these combinations and responses beforehand and have contingencies for them. It's not a matter of never reacting, it's a matter or making sure your partner has a frame of reference for every action you take. The whole, magma mist combo was a smart way to solidify the ground, but it was NEW. Trying new moves outside your partner's grasp on your abilities creates gaps."

"So...more training?" I asked wryly. His answering grin was response enough, and I rolled my eyes. "Fair enough. I can't imagine how many years you two trained together when you were younger to have as good a grasp on your combat style as you do. How did you even maintain that level of cooperation for such a long time? Even after Apollyon was gone for a while you just fell right back into it."

Mel just waved that off. "Once you hit a certain point your combat style tends to solidify. I was able to predict how he fights because he hasn't changed it much. He still uses the same martial art, the same ability, he just uses them more smoothly. It's a benefit of developing your cooperation now. Less change at this point in your journey, at least in terms of combat. Not that no one ever pivots or changes their style, but most people tend to stay on brand. Consistency helps build a bigger impression."

That made sense with how most people gained stats. Less of a priority for me honestly, but I could see how even without that factor, specializing in a certain kind of combat and sharpening that skill set would be a big help. Hell, I'd been doing exactly that lately. Deciding to do the rest of the 'what did you do wrong' exercise later and in private, I turned to Sloane. "So, you decided to fight next? I haven't really seen too much of your serious combat abilities. Some during the siege but I'm curious to see what you can do."

I knew she could merge with her animals somehow, she got bird wings and...,fox ears? I guessed foxes had good ears since they were so big. It would be interesting to see more of what she could do with them. She'd mostly been fighting random minions in the siege, so she hadn't had a chance to shine.

She certainly looked excited enough. Sloane was one of the many WCP residents that didn't bother with a mask. Some of the kids of the E-rankers, like Sage, just figured there was no reason for a second identity given who their parents were. I wasn't sure if Sloane was Melinda's daughter or just her apprentice, but she seemed to have gone with the same general idea. It made it incredibly easy to see the energy and anticipation on her face as she spoke. "Hell yes! I saw your fight and it got me pretty pumped. I hope I get someone that strong!"

Mel chuckled. "You won't. None of the regulars are that powerful, but you might get someone with a drastically opposed power to yours. Those are always fun. I remember one time I got matched against an opponent who absorbed fire and converted it to physical strength. That fight was annoying."

Callie nodded fervently. "I'm lucky my constructs are dense enough that normal light doesn't affect them much. I've run into a few counter powers and they are absolutely awful to deal with. Unless you work with a team, the easiest way to deal with them is to have some kind of combat Skill." She cocked her head. "Although, actually, I don't think I've ever asked if you have a martial art Skill. Being the direct disciple of an E-ranker I figure you probably do though, right?"

"No spoilers." Sloane snickered. "You'll have to wait and see like everyone else. Don't forget that the Beast Lord Garden is entering the tournament too. Don't want to give away any tricks to the competition too soon. If you can figure some things out from watching me fight that's fine, but I'm not giving any hints." She gave a mysterious smirk, making it clear she'd be holding back just as much as we had.

We talked for a bit longer before a voice called for Sloane and she headed out to get ready for her fight. I raised an eyebrow at that and turned to Mel. "Wait, why did she get called but we didn't? We were able to just head out when we were ready, is that not how it usually goes?"

"Nah." Mel said casually. "You were benefiting from Wren's status. He's been tearing into their best for days, and while he isn't at the same level as Lament, he's got quite a rep at this point. If there wasn't a qualitative difference in renown at higher levels I don't doubt factions like the Spear Legion would just send all their kids to backwaters to crush everyone else. Hell, some of them probably do that anyway, though thankfully it's not common."

That made sense. "So he was just allowed to go up whenever he wanted and took us along? I'll have to thank him when we see him again. So can we place bets down here? Also how much did we win off the last bet? I'm pretty confident in Sloane and if we got a bunch of extra cash anyway might as well keep it going." I wasn't sure how much Mel had put up for us, but our odds had probably been decent if Wren was so well known here.

My enthusiasm got a chuckle from Mel. "I figured you'd say that. I put some of your winnings on Sloane, though the odds were much less favorable for her. I figured if you decided not to bet I could just take it out of my personal account instead to cover the difference. You won about a hundred G-rank chits. I put twenty down from your Pavilion account and you got five to one odds. Pretty decent, though I doubt it'll be anywhere near as much if you do it again. I put twenty five on her for you, but it's only two to one odds."

"If?" I asked in confusion. "I figured we'd be spending most of our trip down here. Seems like a great place to train. We need to polish our combat skills don't we?" I'd been looking forward to possibly becoming a champion pit fighter. It seemed like such a cool accomplishment.

Abel answered with a laugh. "Kid, most people aren't responsible enough to come to a fighting pit in Doomtown. We'll get in just as many fights out in the wild, and under plenty more circumstances, besides, it'll be a good idea to establish your brand a bit around here. Aside from learning about your opponents you'll have plenty of opportunities to expand your reputation." Before I could respond he held up a hand and pointed over to the screen. "We can talk about it later. First lesson of the arena kid, always watch matches you bet on." And with that bit of wisdom, we turned to see Sloane's fight.