The blood stone rising from Nafız's hand was moving slower than the others; it was like a planet progressing slowly in the starry sky.
"What is this, it's literally bigger than my head!"
"Weren't they coming from the most loser fiefdom?"
The place turned into chaos; Nafız had waited and waited, but she had done it again.
"Bets Are Closed!"
When the announcement came from the betting office, the shorter of the clerks at the very opposite side shouted harshly.
"Begin!"
The larger of the two crowds, with one ear on this signal, changed their stance in the blink of an eye. They had a front line consisting of two hulking men and a slender female assassin right behind them, and a back line consisting of an archer and a bald energy expert standing five steps behind them.
"Is this the formation they call the Five Lilies?"
"Yes sir, an arrangement where the two people in front drag, and the assassin and the archer make surprise attacks!"
"Very interesting; it reminded me of my weapon that I haven't used for a long time!"
When her words finished, a short composite recurve bow appeared in Nafız's hand; this weapon was one of the three items she had received from Mora.
"Are you going to use that?"
"Why not? Of course, I don't intend to create arrows from blood. I don't know if they are ready for this yet or not?"
Nafız reached her hand to the quiver that appeared on her back and took an arrow the length of an arm; while drawing the string made of blood that she gripped with her right hand, her eye caught something.
Half of the tattoo on her wrist had disappeared; the place where she could pull Alis into was vanishing. Although it had been about two days since they separated, half of the bond between them had disappeared, and Nafız realized she couldn't feel her presence.
"Watch out!"
When her absentmindedness passed and she turned her eyes forward, she saw a blood arrow that had come right up to her being blocked by Jashua's weapon.
"Charge, only the male one poses a danger to us!"
With the bald youth's instruction, the front-line warriors of the Five Lilies took action; the assassin coming just one or two steps behind them had also drawn her daggers.
"Did you see, that bow was just a bluff; she isn't even aware of where she is yet!"
"And you say she is at the Essence Shaping stage, don't be ridiculous!"
Although those who came here from the morning class told their friends what happened, after Nafız's stance in her absentminded state, the opinion of the majority in the arena became completely different.
"Archer, keep the hulking one under pressure; the other one has no tricks!"
The bald energy expert whose hood had fallen shouted at the top of his lungs until he fell three steps back with a painful cry.
"My shoulder, my arm. Where is my arm?"
When the right arm of the youth managing the Five Lilies was fixed to the arena wall with an arrow, Nafız made a few sounds mixed with growls.
"Jashua, fall back!"
Smoke was coming out of the young girl's mouth.
"Sir, you cannot kill them!"
"I said fall back!"
Nafız released her aura containing blood energy, and Jashua was pushed back a few men by the energy. The Young Count involuntarily protected his face with his hand; then, when he lowered his hands, the girl with blood-red hair was not in her place.
"There, there!"
When a person outside of those focusing on the severed arm right in front of the spectator rows started shouting, everyone turned to the direction he pointed.
A graceful hand grabbed the assassin, who was advancing rapidly behind two huge men, by the head and slammed her to the ground. This was the scene the crowd saw as soon as they turned their gazes, but everything was not over yet.
Without letting go of the head between her hands, Nafız took ten more steps in the opposite direction of where the victim was running; meanwhile, the black ground had eroded, and a red strip ten steps long had formed on it.
"Come on, did she catch the Five Lilies' assassin that easily?"
"The real question is, when did she pass by the two men?"
When Nafız lifted her head and looked at the type running after his arm, she released the half-dead body in her hand; the two people she had passed by turned towards her and went on the attack. Their steps were large and hard; before two breaths passed, one from the right and the other from the left began to bring their heavy weapons down on the young girl.
Until blood spurted from the cuts reaching three spans wide on their waists; although everyone thought Nafız had just passed by them, the Blood God hadn't forgotten to do what was necessary.
"Now it's your turn, come on, let's compete!"
The addressee of her words was the opponent's archer; she called out to the person who tried to catch her off guard by making the first attack. The answer was a drawn bow; he understood that the enemy was someone who finished the job she started.
He fired an arrow surrounded by purple mist; its speed was equivalent to the previous one, but this time another arrow met it halfway. There was a thin blood-red aura around the long black arrow, and it was more than enough to disperse the purple mist.
"Take this then!"
The Five Lilies archer immediately organized a new attack; this time, the purple color of his arrow was darker and its shape a bit larger. He had fallen a few steps back in terms of speed, but all other characteristic features seemed developed.
"Seeing speed didn't work, you increased the power; you aren't as loutish as you look!"
Nafız spoke while reaching her hand to her quiver; when she drew the bow two breaths later, a shiny metal arrow caught the eye. Contrary to the usual, the head of the arrow was not sharp; there was a huge round metal ball at its tip. The arrow did not proceed in a straight line; it took a slight curve and fell upon the other arrow.
"Detecting the movement of an arrow coming directly at her and dropping another arrow on it while in the air?"
"What kind of archery skill is this?"
When the second shots also ended, those in the spectator rows stopped holding their breaths and started shouting. Meanwhile, the bald kid who reached his arm hanging on the wall was also trying to take it.
"When did I say I gave you permission? That arm belongs to me now!"
"Shut up, you insolent!"
After the words of Nafız, who was bullying their leader's brother, the opponent's archer shouted furiously; an arrow coming out of his bow accompanied this.
This time, what was coming at Nafız could not be called an arrow. With the effect of the energy he put into it, the attack had practically turned into a sword with the thickness of an adult human arm. Nafız quickly drew her new arrow from her quiver; she nocked a wooden arrow the thickness of a finger on her bow.
"With that thing in your hand? This time both the speed and the dimensions have increased; you will pay for what you did!"
The archer was boasting about his attack, but a second later, words got stuck in his throat. When the arrow Nafız drew set off, the red energy layer around it increased madly; a red lightning bolt was coming against the arm-thick purple arrow.
It proceeded straight like a thick column, ignoring the opponent's attack, and landed on its target; all those in the spectator rows piled forward.
"She killed him!"
"He is definitely dead; it is not possible to survive such an attack!"
A voice came from every head in the uncertainty that lasted a few seconds, but when the truth was revealed, they all fell silent. Nafız's red lightning-like attack had passed just two spans beside the archer and embedded itself half a meter beside the bald boy trying to save his arm stuck in the wall.
The teeth of the archer, who had fallen to the ground, were chattering so much that the sound echoed inside the Blood Arena, which had fallen into silence, and mixed into the air.
The person missing a single arm was not in a different situation. When he saw Nafız passing the archer with small steps and coming to his side, he jumped over the low wall and started running towards his brother.
"Brother, save me!"