Chapter 24: New Unique Job Holders enter the Arena

There were two things that had caught Joshua's and Henry's attention at the moment. The first was only because it was somewhat funny to see. Lilly had finally joined a fight. It seemed to have taken longer than the others because the system was having trouble figuring out who to put her up against. This didn't surprise Joshua since Lilly was the most versatile person around when it came to combat. In the end some poor fire mage that had won a couple of matches in a row was put up against her.

At first with Lilly's basic get up and staff her opponent seemed to think of her as a mage of some sort. When the poor guy saw her level of seventy-five he was shell shocked at the difference in strength. He was at a decent level of sixty-four which mean he was most likely at the top of a mid-tier guild of some sort, but the level disparity was alarming to him. The fact that his opponent seemed to be a small woman that only smiled and waved at him for introduction also seemed to throw him off his game.

The mage jumped back and started casting some spells that would last over in to the start of the fight. One spell was a wall of flames in front of him to keep Lilly away and another was some fire traps around him to protect himself. He then started channeling a powerful spell that Joshua figured was some sort of opening salvo attempt at taking Lilly by surprise since she wasn't able to see him through the flames.

Just before the countdown ended Lilly brought out Cinder who grew to her full size and covered half of the large arena shocking her opponent. At the moment their match was in the main arena since Amy's win streak was on break as the system tried to find another opponent for her to face. The crowd in the stadium was shocked at the sight of such a powerful beast suddenly appearing in front of everyone. Cinder was in her fire based form generating a large amount of heat that greatly overpowered the flames of Lily's opponent.

When the countdown ended Lilly's opponent was just looking wide eyed and open mouth at the giant spider that was more powerful than any boss that he had faced in his entire career as an explorer. A cold sweat started to overtake his body before he tried to calm down and blast Cinder in the face with a massive fireball. In the end all his attack did was act as food for Cinder as she opened her mouth and sucked all of the fire in before letting out a terrifying screech directed at the poor fool that tried to attack her.

Lilly hopped up on to Cinder's leg before climbing to the top of her back so that she could stay out of harm's way as he her beast companion started her own attack. Cinder let out a torrent of flames from her mouth that covered the entire side of the arena that the fire mage was located. All anyone could see was the large spider standing over a sea of flames and eventually a small white light blinking out in the middle of all the fire causing the end of the match.

From that match alone Joshua knew that Lilly was going to have an easy time in the battle arena at the start of things until someone like a large guild leader decided to come along and try to go after her. Luckily for everyone that was participating it would be difficult for Lilly to use multiple beast companions at once since the arena was barely large enough for Cinder on her own. Tank would just take up nearly all of the space if she tried to use him.

After watching Lilly's first match Joshua turned his attention to the other thing that had actually caught his attention. Since Joshua and Henry had been looking through the two on two matches to keep an eye on Jayce and Monika along with the bard couple that had decided to join that side of arena combat they were able to come across an interesting pair. There were a pair of what looked like sister since they looked so similar to one another. They weren't twins, but they resembled each other so one of them was probably a little older than the other. They were apparently on their third set of matches and at this point the system had decided to put them front stage in the two on two arena.

The sisters both had straight black hair. The older one had it tied in a ponytail while the younger one let it hang straight down her back. Thy both looked to be of Asian descent from their looks, but were clearly American raised since they lived in this hub city. What stood out about the both of them was their equipment. They wore what looked like shrine priestess outfits that came straight out of Japan. It was odd seeing such things when everyone else was wearing armor or mage robes. The older sister had as short sword strapped to her waist while the younger one had a bow already out and ready to fire. Joshua didn't see any arrows though so he figured the bow must have something special about it.

When Joshua used the system to observe them he saw that their names were Natsumi for the older one and Katsumi for the younger one both with the last name Asawa. What shocked Joshua wasn't the fact that they were both level sixty-three which was great on its own, but the fact that they both had the unique job of Shrine Priestess. Joshua didn't know what the job could do, but he was interested in finding out. Apparently the pair had already taken out a couple of other groups since they were on their third match in a row at this point.

When their opponents came into the arena for the fight and the countdown started Joshua was glad to see their opponents were of good level as well. They were a knight that was decently armored and already level sixty-five and a mage that was well geared that was level sixty-four. Both of their opponents were from the same guild and the tank was the guild leader. It was a mid-size guild so Joshua knew the two had to be fairly experienced.

The sisters started preparing for the fight the moment the countdown started and they did so in a way that Joshua had never seen before. They did so by taking out what looked like talismans that they had prepared before the fight. The older sister brought out her sword and wrapped its hilt in one talisman that caused lightning to cover her blade. She then stuck talismans to her arms that started to glow for a moment before turning back to normal and another pair on her legs that made them do the same. She had another couple of talismans tied to her shrine outfit so that she could use them easily when needed.

The younger sister didn't use her talismans in the same way. Instead she tore one talisman apart that created this see through pyramid structure around her body which seemed to work as some sort of barrier. She then placed another talisman on the bow she had been using. Joshua couldn't read what was written on the talismans that the two sisters used, but he knew they were central to the power of their unique jobs. Now he was excited to see just what the pair could do. It was clear that the older sister would be the type to charge ahead and attack head on while the younger sister will stay back and attack with her bow, but the talismans would be what would decide if they were strong enough to go up against the guild master and his right hand man that they were fighting.

Their opponents didn't just stand around and wait for the countdown to end either as the mage jumped back and out of the way. He casted a spell that created a heavy wind that circled his body as protection and allowed him to glide above the ground. He also created a few balls of wind that hovered around him ready to be sent out the moment the match started. The knight however took out his shield and let out a shout as an energy seemed to surround his body. It was clearly a power up of some kind.

When the countdown ended the older sister Natsumi rushed forward at speeds comparable to Adrian when he was using shadow steps. The talismans she had placed on her legs seemed to be what gave her the large speed boost, and she used it to dance around the tanks shield and strike him from the open side. The tank was forced to use his sword to block the blow. At first it was clear that the tank expected his strike to have more power since his boost earlier seemed to be strength based, but when the two clashed neither was knocked away. Natsumi backed away after testing her opponent's strength and started to rely more on technique rather than the raw power that her talismans had given her.

From Joshua and Henry's perspective it was clear that Natsumi had the advantage in the fight between the two. Their strength was on par, but Natsumi was much faster and far more skilled with a blade than her adversary. As the clashes between the two went on the knight started freezing up from time to time and Joshua could see little currents of electricity run across his armor. It was clear that the lightning that surrounded Natsumi's katana was starting to show its effects. Each time her opponent froze up from the lightning effect she would dance around his shield and strike at his armor slowly tearing it apart so that she could go for a more lethal blow.

The mage would have helped out his partner, but his situation wasn't any better. At the start of the match he had sent three of his wind balls to explode alongside Katsumi's pyramid barrier in an attempt to break it so that he could take her out, but things didn't go as he expected. When his spell collided with her barrier it didn't shatter, but instead absorbed it. The absorbed energy was then transferred to her bow which created a powerful green arrow that seemed to create a gust of wind around it. The side of the pyramid that took the hit shattered soon after, but the pyramid then twisted around her placing another one of the intact sides out front. The broken part was quickly fixing itself showing how well designed the barrier was.

Katsumi then fired the arrow directly for the mage. At first the mage just scoffed as he glided to the side in attempt to dodge it while he started forming a more powerful spell to try to break through the barrier. He was caught off guard when the arrow twisted in the air and honed in on him like it was locked on to him. He was forced to blast it with the spell he was channeling, but he didn't get the expected results. The arrow made of wind exploded into a large gust of wind that shook the entire arena knocking the mage away and destroying his wind barrier.

As the fight went on it was clear that the sisters were going to win. Natsumi was tearing the tank apart piece by piece until it got to the point where she was able to get behind him and stab him through an opening she had created earlier. The tank disappeared in a blinding light making the match two on one. Natsumi didn't have to help her sister out though as the mage was already on his last leg with arrows sticking out all over his body. Katsumi had been using regular arrows alongside the wind energy to pierce through any of the spells that the wind mage tried to use to fend them off. The talisman on her bow made it so that all of the arrows fired by it would lock onto her target which was a nightmare for the mage that couldn't attack her. She also had a talisman on her hand that would create arrows for her to fire when her barrier wasn't forming any.

In the end the match was settled as an arrow pierced the poor mages heart taking him out and making the victors obvious.