Damien's forces were stretched to their limit.
Ten Shadow Adventurers guarded his main area. Adonis held the eastern front alongside two Minotaurs. The central zone was fortified by six armored Lizardmen, reinforced by the Silverback and two infant Dragons. The western area was held by the remaining Minotaur, three Hellhounds, and Three Shadow Adventurers.
Igris stood on standby within the Ishtar Alliance's eastern territory, supported by three Shadow Adventurers.
And in the area Damien had taken from Samira, Seven Shadow Adventurers now stood watch.
Which meant there was no one left to follow him.
Damien Ardent advanced alone toward the Ishtar Alliance's middle area.
The terrain offered no mercy.
A wide grass plain stretched out before him. No buildings. No rubble. No shadows to hide within. Just open ground beneath an uncaring sky.
Waiting for him was the full force of the Apollo Familia.
On paper, it should not have mattered.
Apollo Familia was mediocre by Orario standards. Three Level 3 adventurers. A handful of Level 2s. The rest barely qualified as combatants. Against Damien, even without his shadows, it should have been manageable.
But she stood among them.
Karni.
She towered over the others, her presence alone bending the air around her. Nearly seven feet tall, her body was carved from dense Amazonian muscle, every movement coiled with violence. A massive scimitar rested across her back, its weight enough to crush lesser warriors.
She wore traditional Amazonian battle attire. A fitted armor top of layered leather and metal plates designed for mobility, paired with a hardened leather battle skirt. Practical. Brutal. Honest.
Her eyes locked onto Damien as he approached.
She grinned.
"So," she said, voice rich with hunger. "The man of the hour finally arrives. Do you know who I am?"
Damien slowed to a stop, gaze sweeping over her once before settling back on her eyes.
"No," he replied flatly. "From what I can tell, you're just another of Ishtar's goons. I see no reason to care."
Karni laughed, deep and delighted.
"Good," she said. "That is the mindset of a true warrior. Unconcerned with reputation. Focused only on the path ahead."
She struck her chest once with a closed fist.
"I am Karni. Crimson Carnage Former Executive of the Kali Familia. Newly appointed captain of Ishtar Familia."
Her grin sharpened.
"I challenge you, warrior of Orario. A duel. To the death."
Damien raised an eyebrow.
"Killing is prohibited in this War Game," he said calmly. "You don't seriously expect me to make that mistake."
Karni's smile widened.
"This has nothing to do with the War Game," she replied. "This is a challenge between you and me. For my pride as an Amazonian. I will defeat you and claim your life as my reward."
She turned sharply toward the Apollo Familia behind her.
"None of you interfere," she barked. "If a single one of you shames me by interrupting this fight, I will skin him alive and feed what remains to the dogs. Understood?"
They froze.
Not one voice protested.
Then the stone in her breast pocket pulsed.
She pulled it free.
Ishtar's voice screamed through the magic. "Karni! You stupid bitch! Do what I say! Attack him with everyone! Do not disobey my orders!"
Karni threw her head back and laughed.
"Sit down," she replied lazily. "Watch quietly like a good little goddess and let me handle this."
She cut the connection and turned back to Damien.
"Am I correct in assuming you accept this duel?"
Damien exhaled slowly.
"Sure," he said. "I don't mind. But I won't kill you. Not while the War Game is still ongoing."
Karni's eyes gleamed.
"You think you can subdue me without killing," she said. "How shameless. How arrogant."
She reached over her shoulder and drew the massive scimitar in a smooth, practiced motion, pointing the blade directly at him.
"For all I care, your head will be my gift to Kali. And when you die, your shadows will follow. Another offering for Ishtar."
She settled into a battle stance.
"Now then," she said softly. "Shall we begin?"
Black steel flashed.
Twin daggers slid into Damien's hands.
Across an open field, with nowhere left to run and no one left to help him, Damien Ardent faced a Level 6 Amazonian warrior head on.
...
The moment Karni moved, Damien understood.
This was not a fight.
This was a hunt.
She crossed the distance in a single step, the ground exploding beneath her feet. The great scimitar came down in a screaming arc, not aimed to test him, not probing. It was meant to erase him.
Damien barely rolled aside.
The blade struck where his head had been an instant earlier, cleaving a furrow through the earth so deep it exposed stone. The shockwave alone threw him tumbling, breath ripped from his lungs as if he had been punched in the chest by a giant.
He barely recovered before she was on him again.
Karni did not fight like monsters did. Monsters lunged, roared, committed. Karni flowed. Every swing chained into another. Every step closed angles, stole space, crushed options.
Damien raised his daggers to intercept the next blow.
Steel met steel.
The impact numbed his arms to the shoulders and sent him skidding backward, boots carving trenches through the grass. He felt something tear in his side as he twisted away, too slow to fully escape the follow up slash. Pain bloomed across his ribs as blood soaked into the wolf armor beneath his cloak.
She laughed.
Not mocking. Delighted.
"Yes," Karni growled, eyes blazing. "That's it. Struggle."
She pressed harder.
Her scimitar was too long, too heavy, too fast. Damien could not close in without risking being cut in half. Every attempt to dart inside her reach was punished by a knee, a shoulder check, or the flat of her blade smashing into him with bone cracking force.
A backhanded swing clipped his thigh.
His leg buckled. He barely caught himself, teeth clenched as fire shot through his nerves. Before he could recover, her boot slammed into his chest and sent him flying across the field.
He rolled, came up coughing blood, daggers raised.
Karni did not give him time.
She came down on him like an executioner.
Damien crossed his blades to block.
The scimitar crashed against them and something went wrong.
There was a sharp, ugly sound. Not a clash. A failure.
One dagger snapped cleanly in half.
The broken blade spun away, end over end, useless.
The scimitar continued through.
It struck his shoulder.
If not for the wolf armor, the cut would have taken his arm. Instead it tore through muscle, deep enough that Damien screamed despite himself. Blood poured down his side as he staggered back, vision blurring.
He barely managed to disengage, breath ragged, heart hammering like it was trying to escape his chest.
In his mind, through the pain, one clear thought surfaced.
Thank you, Tsubaki.
Karni rolled her shoulder and grinned wider, eyes shining with savage approval.
"Good armor," she said. "You would already be dead otherwise."
She advanced again, slower now. Enjoying it.
Damien was losing.
No tricks. No pride. Just truth.
He was outmatched in strength. Outmatched in reach. Outmatched in experience. Every instinct screamed that this was what real man to man combat at the highest level looked like.
And still, he stepped forward.
He attacked.
Again. And again. And again.
He darted in, slashed, retreated. Took cuts on his arms, his side, his thigh. Each one burned. Each one slowed him. Karni blocked, deflected, punished every mistake with brutal efficiency.
Then, as she raised her scimitar for a finishing blow, Damien made a choice.
He stopped thinking like an adventurer.
He reached inward activating his armor's special skill
Wolf's Instinct.
The world fractured.
Time slowed, peeled back like a curtain, and suddenly Damien saw it. Not possibilities. Certainty.
Five seconds.
Karni's next step. The angle of her swing. The twist of her wrist. The moment her guard would open.
Reality snapped back.
She attacked.
Damien moved before the blade fell.
He slipped inside the arc, body twisting at the exact moment needed. Her scimitar passed where his neck had been. His remaining dagger flashed.
He cut her wrist.
Blood sprayed.
Karni's grip faltered.
Damien did not hesitate.
He leapt, drove himself upward despite screaming muscles, and slashed across her face.
The blade carved into her left eye.
She roared.
The sound shook the field.
Karni stumbled, dropped to one knee, one hand clutching her bleeding face, the other hanging uselessly as blood poured down her arm.
For a heartbeat, the world went silent.
Damien stood there, shaking, drenched in blood that was not all his, chest heaving.
"Surrender," he said, voice raw. "This ends now. I don't want to kill you."
Karni laughed.
Even on her knees, wounded, half blinded, she laughed.
Her blood hit the grass.
And something changed.
A red aura erupted from her body, thick and violent, wrapping around her like a living flame. The pressure crushed down on Damien, forcing him back a step.
Crimson Arete her Own special skill...Was now active
He felt it instantly.
She was stronger.
Faster.
More alive.
Karni rose, towering again, blood running freely from her wounds. She seized the great scimitar with her left hand, muscles bulging as if the injury meant nothing.
"More," she snarled, voice trembling with ecstasy. "Fight me more."
Her aura flared brighter.
"Break me. Or I will break you."
And Damien realized with cold clarity that the real battle had only just begun.
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