Knight

The faceoff between Marcie and the bear ended when the bear stood on its hind legs and Marcie shot forward with blinding speed. Despite the bear being large, it was fast, its paw coming down in a vicious swipe at Marcie. She managed to evade it with what seemed to be ease and proceeded to stab her blade into the arm of the bear while still running, dragging the knife through the skin and muscles of the beast.

The creature roared with anger, and it reverberated through the forest. It was likely that more attention would be attracted to the area if the fight dragged on, and Marcie seemed to realize that as well. She pulled her knife from the bear's arm and jumped back as its other paw came crashing down where she just was, pulverizing the ground effortlessly.

Marcie went on the offensive yet again, running forward and jumping at the bear's chest with a kick, somehow managing to impact the massive beast hard enough to send it toppling onto its back. The bear recovered quickly, but had clearly been hurt by the attack, and it wasn't happy. It began to run at the still landing Marcie, a paw swiping at her in the air, and seemingly connecting with her, sending her flying back into one of the many trees surrounding us.

I almost reactively ran to go help her when I heard her cursing through the slight dust that had picked up. For a moment, I saw a pale green flash of light, but it was as if my eyes deceived me, because once I blinked, the light was gone, and so was Marcie. She was now stabbing her knife right into the eye of the Cruentus Bear, dragging it through the tender skin.

Every time the bear tried hitting her with its claws she moved away and was in another position so fast that my eyes couldn't keep up. It was as if she was a blur instead of a human, moving so fast that I couldn't believe it. It took a bit, but the bear finally let out its final grunt and collapsed to the ground, a blade sticking straight through its forehead.

Despite the fact that she'd just fought a bear and been hit pretty hard, the only indication of the fight on Marcie was the blood staining her hands and the slightly disheveled state of her clothes and hair. It was like being hit by a 5 meter tall bear did nothing other than make her angry.

"You good, Marcie?" I hesitantly walked up to her and the corpse of the bear, and she seemed to be staring at it with pure contempt, contempt that faded when she finally turned to look at me. Her face was drawn in her normal smile, which was kind of off putting with the splatters of blood that were present on her face. I looked through my pockets, hoping to find a handkerchief of some sort, but she grabbed her own cloth and cleaned herself off.

It was my first time witnessing a person without a gun take down a beast of the Ros Forest, and especially a beast of the size and strength of a Cruentus Bear. While I had been lost in thought, Marcie had begun to stare at the corpse of the bear once more, its claws in particular.

Before I could ask what she was thinking, Marcie went over to one of its paws and took out her knife, declawing the bear in a few seconds, leaving her with 5 wickedly sharp claws, each one the size of a short sword.

"What are you-?"

"I'm gonna take these into someone I know. I've heard knives made from a Cruentus Bear's claws are especially powerful." She cut me off, but answered my question at the same time, so I didn't particularly mind. Now, all that was left was to get to The Ditch. 

The rest of the trip was uneventful, thankfully. I wasn't sure my heart could handle encountering two beasts of the Ros Forest in such quick succession. The entrance to The Ditch was exactly what it sounded like. A ditch, or more like a sinkhole on the other side of the Ros Forest, the side furthest from the city. The only people that went to The Ditch were those that could make it through the forest safely, meaning it was rare to see anyone that you didn't recognize after one or two trips, seeing as it wasn't often that new people tried getting through the forest. And despite that, it was still full of people daily.

Marcie and I entered, dropping down the hole, which was not as far as a drop as you'd think it was based on how dark the hole was, but it still shook the bones in my legs each time I made the drop. At the bottom of the ditch, there were lights in the shape of arrows pointing the way to the main area, other than those lights, the entire place was pitch dark. You couldn't even see a foot in front of you, and no matter how much you tried walking closer to the arrows off to the side, the distance would never change.

The only option was to walk down the direction they pointed in. Even jumping or climbing out of the ditch was impossible. The only exit was in the main area, so once you got in, if you regretted your choice, you still had no option other than to move forward.

The walk to the main area wasn't long, but it also wasn't short. The only indication that we'd gotten any closer to it was the slight light that appeared in front of us, about 100 meters in the distance. Going through the light was a surreal experience every time. 

My eyes opened and slowly adjusted to having visibility, and I was able to take in the full glory of The Ditch. The underground area was as large as the Colosseums I'd read about from the Old World, if not a few magnitudes larger. The stands were packed, barely any seats being empty. They all overlooked a large ring in the center of the arena, where a fight was currently going on.

Two people stood at opposite ends of the arena, one of them clothed in what looked like Old World traditional martial arts attire, while the other was in a high tech suit of armor. I couldn't see it in detail from the distance I was at, but I could tell that the armor was immensely detailed and intricate. Small grooves that had red light shining from them, the dark grate on the face similar to the armor of the knights of Old shone with the same colored light that was present in the grooves.

The gauntlets had holes in the palms about the size of a cue ball, but instead of skin showing, it was light. Similar holes were present on the back of the calves, elbows, and probably the bottom of the boots. I wanted to take it apart piece by piece. The complexity of the armor, no piece of art, at the bottom of the arena was practically calling out to me. I couldn't bring myself to take my eyes off of it.

At first, Marcie simply walked off, paying me no mind, thinking I was following behind her, but when she realized I wasn't she came back, dragging me off and snapping me out of the trance I was in.

"Something catch your eye?" Her voice was almost taunting.

"Who is that guy?" I pointed at the armored man in the arena and Marcie smirked at me.

"The newest challenger of The Ditch. He hasn't been given an alias yet, since this will be his first fight, but I'm sure that will be changing soon enough. For now, the people have been calling him 'Knight', I think it's pretty catchy."

"Knight… I have to meet him."