62 Spear Boy Has Some Fun

(Cao Cao POV)

"It seems that the beast is quite large, given the size of the arena," Scathach says as I nod with a bit of intrigue filling my being. I hadn't seen what the beast was as I wanted to surprise myself. Barghest had already entered the arena as the other two guarded the queen.

Although I have to say that the fairies using a colosseum-like structure was definitely an interesting idea, it makes much more sense since most beings could extend their hearing and eyes to the battlefield.

The large woman had her armor and helmet on as she stood in the center of the coliseum, and as she stood there, the queen raised her staff, and the once exuberant atmosphere died in seconds. Morgan then stood up from her throne and addressed the crowd.

"I welcome you all to our annual meeting and hope that this year's entertainment is as exciting as the last. I present to all of you a beast that has been the bane of the realm- the beast of Cernunnos!" As she raises her staff, the ground in front of Barghest disappears, and a large creature covered in white fur appears.

My eyes widened when I saw the same beast from FGO at the end of the British Lostbelt, and my master, noticing my tenseness, asked, "Do you recognize it, disciple?"

"From a passing resemblance, yes, but it's not the beast itself and more how it looks." Valerie almost jumps out of her seat at what looks to be a giant furball that she wants to hug, and as I make sure she stays still, the battle begins.

Barghest hefts her sword, the alternate to the holy sword galatine, the black dog galatine. Fire spreads across the blade, forming an ominous red and black fire as she jumps into the air and slams her sword into the body of the beast. 

As it roars in pain, it swings one of its lanky arms, which causes Barghest to take her sword from the beast's side, jump onto the beast's other arm, and begin to climb its body.

Reaching the head, the beast rears its head back and slams one of its antlers into Barghest, causing her to slam into the ground, but before it could slam both its arms into her, she manages to dodge and roll out of the way before then sending out a large blast of black fire towards the beast.

But it takes a large breath and absorbs the fire before bellowing it back out as cursed-infused flames. The barrier at the end of the arena holds it back, but I make sure to enhance them with my anti-curse runes subtly, and while Barghest was able to dodge, a decent chunk of her armor was melted by the cursed flames.

Since the fire continued to spread across her clothing, she ripped off the armor, revealing a black dress underneath. And even from here, I could sense her bloodlust rising.

"She is holding back," Scathach says as I nod in agreement.

"I assume it has something to do with those seals on her mind and body. And while she is powerful, her opponent seems to be her counter with its ability to absorb those cursed flames she uses." Valerie somehow managed to form a "Go Barghest!" sign from her shadow while a row of small heartless held copies of it.

The large knight takes her sword and slashes upwards, sending a concussive wave of fire at the beast. This makes it lose its balance, and then it slams both its arms into the ground, cracking the entire battlefield and causing multiple rocks to rise from the ground. 

But the dust soon disperses as Barghest makes her move. She jumps onto the beast's back and stabbings her sword into it multiple times in various places.

After jumping from wound to wound, she connected all the wounds with a trail of fire before igniting the wounds in flames as a large explosion erupted from the beast's back, causing the beats to roar in pain. 

It then rolled over and got back up as it slammed its left arm, which was now covered in its cursed flames, into the arena's wall.

The shockwave from the hit sends the arena shaking in its entirety before the aspect of Cernunnos then slams into the ground over and over again to spread its black flames around the arena. 

Puddles of flames form around the broken arena as Barghest gets up from the ground after being sent flying by the force of Cernunnos's hits.

She looks to Morgan, who simply gives her an empty look as Barghest grits her teeth, her eyes gain a small bit of red, and her teeth become somewhat elongated. A black presence spreads across the arena, causing the beast to stop in its tracks for a moment before trying to destroy the wall again.

Her form changes as she grows what looks to be armor made from black and red bone and plating, and her fire becomes an even darker shade of red. Her irises turn black and red as her aura changes completely.

The cracks that began to form caused a small amount of fear, but they soon repaired themselves. They seem to be using ambient mana to self-repair, so the beast would literally have to burn all the mana in the arena to escape.

Sadly, Barghest, with a bit more savagery in her step, roars into action as she slams her sword into the beast, with the flames being able to damage the beast, and as she stabs the eyes of the beast, it tries to shake her off but fails to. This goes on for a minute before the beast slams its head into the ground like an ostrich.

But Barghest seemed to expect that move as she grabbed one of its antlers before ripping one-half of it off and jumping into the air.

Cernunnos, reeling from half its antler being ripped off, stumbles back with Barghest throwing the antler-like a spear that pierces Cernunnos's face with Barghest slamming her fire-coated fists into the antler sending it deeper and deeper before it pieces the beast entirely, leaving a giant flaming hole in its head.

Cernunnos then falls to its knees and turns to dust as its flames disappear with it. Valerie then claps for Barghest as the audience tries to stop her. The girl was confused as Barghest, whose eyes had turned red, looked at her, jumped at the arena wall, and tried to attack her.

I simply snap my finger and reinforce the barrier, and she is left scratching and scraping at it while looking at us with ravenous eyes and not in a fun way. I look at Morgan, and she stares at me with that same empty look, but I can sense a bit of curiosity behind those eyes. Valerie then looked at me pleadingly, and I smiled at her.

Looking at Barghest, I shake my head. I know she is playing me, but I am interested in this fight. While she is not my match, I want to face her anyway.

As I float across the seats, Morgan announces, "It seems that my knight desires another challenge. So for her next opponent, the anomaly, a god slayer, an abnormal human, the spearman Cao Cao!"

I phase through the barrier and float to the center of the arena. Barghest then jumps from the arena wall and stares at me like a lion would look at its prey. Not wanting to kill her, I crack my fingers and do some basic steps.

Sadly, Barghest did not respect my pre-fight calisthenics and summoned a wave of fire from her blade, and as I saw it and traced it, I could feel the history behind those flames. 

Multiple images flash across my mind as, with a wave of my hand, they are dispelled thanks to archmage and my demon brain allowing me to understand her magic, but it is as if she was expecting that move the tall woman attempted to grab me. 

I dodged to the left before she tries to do multiple quick strikes. Similar to Broly when he fought Goku and Piccolo in the original Dragon Ball Z movie, I dodged her attacks while barely moving from my spot. 

I could sense the power behind those blows and was slightly impressed, and as I caught her fist, I pulled her closer to me and looked her in the eyes.

Ravenous anger and hunger are what I see before I kick her in the face with an upward kick. Followed up by a spinning top kick and using my renewal taekwondo, I kicked her rapidly multiple times and blitz-passed her before landing on the ground. As I do so, the impact of the blows land, and Barghest is sent flying into the wall in front of me.

Blood began to spurt from her mouth as she pulled herself from the wall and charged me again. She threw a punch, but I dodged underneath it. Using my flowing water fist, I redirected and used her own force to slam my fist into her face multiple times. After the last strike, she tried to bite at my hand, which made me chuckle.

"I can definitely say you're the first woman to try and take a bite out of me, Barghest."

"HRAGGGGHHHHHHH!" Her response is to be expected.

"Good talk," I say as I then grip her arm that tried to grab me into a rather tight hug and kneed her in the chin, sending her flying again. I keep my hits nonlethal, so she is just sent to the opposite wall. But thanks to her durability and agility, she managed to reorient herself mid-flight and launched herself off the wall in a manner befitting a beast.

So I then lifted my hand in front of me, and as she was about to hit me, her attack was stopped mid-flight. Her fist, unable to reach me, causes her to grow even more angry as every hit never reaches me.

As she tries to throw another punch, it is topped again, and I grip her hand and lift her into the air and palm strike her stomach over and over again, and right after doing so, I grip her face and slam her into the ground hanma style leaving very large crevice.

The arena goes silent as the crowd is left baffled by the ease at which I dealt with her. Morgan, with a slight smile on her face, gestures to her other nights, and they enter the arena. As the small white-haired and pink-haired girls look at me, I take a combat stance and await the next round.

So far, this has been an amazing vacation.

( I apologize if I have not been showing my character's intellect. That is mostly due to my inability to understand and write an intelligent or super-intelligent main character. I am also tempted to end this story as I always seem to shoot myself in the foot with these meta-essence characters.)