Ravens of Eternity

132 Orsethii Reborn, Pt Eva faced off against opponent after opponent in the Viper Pit. She saw victory after victory as the blood of her enemies flowed freely at her feet. And with every victory came the price – each time she was cut, beat, stabbed, crushed. But not once did she fall. Instead, she was the only one that stood at the end.

Just as her opponents fell before her, so did her odds. Every win instilled a measure of confidence in her, and more and more bets flew her way. In the beginning she had few cheers from the spectators, but that grew greatly over the course of nine fights.

By the time she cut down the Second Seed of Tier Five, nearly half the seats cheered for her, and yet her numbers were still 10 to 1.

Those who watched her began to truly understand her capabilities, though there were plenty who still wanted to watch her fail. To see her blood spilled. To see any human blood spilled.

Like Szereth had told her – rile up the anti-humans. All they needed to do was bet against her, and it would keep her odds working in her favor.

And their anger towards her existence certainly grew. It came to the point where they made signs targeted directly at her. They made sure to display them boldly when the EyeCasts looked in their direction.

The signs had angry rants written all over them such as

‘APES DON’T BELONG’

‘Gut It And Feed To The Avicii’

.....

‘It Should Be Dinner, Not A Winner’

Eva found most of them rather amusing instead of insulting. She smiled secretly at their foolishness. Their blind hatred was so strong that they didn’t realize they were literally lining her pockets.

Every lost bet they made enhanced her own ledger, as well as her friends’ ledgers. It was to the point where she began to enjoy riling them up.

“If you’re all so great,” she told them, “come on down here and prove it.”

Many roared at her, and threw screams and slurs at her en masse.

A handful of Drogar watched the scene unfold on a large disc screen. They were all in some kind of gathering hall which appeared to be both well-used and well-stocked. Weapons, armor, food, and various supplies lined various shelves all along the walls.

Every single Drogar in the hall wore blood red robes and incredibly angry faces.

Among them was a female Drogar, a little taller and more muscular than all the others. She too had the same robes, but hers was hooded. Mostly to hide her alabaster scales and sensitive pink eyes from everything else around her.

An elderly Drogar entered the room and shook his head when he saw them all watching an arena fight.

“Colviss,” he said. “You shouldn’t be watching that. You didn’t get Reborn Anew just so you could rot your brain on ‘Cast trash.”

The albino Drogar laughed oddly in response.

“I’m doing important research,” she said. “Our species has enemies that we can’t ignore.”

“There’s more important things to look at. Let me show you.”

The old Drogar went up to the screen and placed a clear disc no larger than his palm into its side. The screen itself suddenly shifted to a 360 degree view of the Lacroseth skyline.

Surrounding the drone camera, which appeared to be camouflaged, were a number of Avicii Raptors all along a roof’s edge.

“Look here,” said the old man.

He adjusted the view so it zoomed at a small section down below. He kept on going until the view clearly went into a Yellow Zone. Inside it, humans and Drogar were in sparring circles, fighting each other.

No, training each other.

“Do you see? This is why this is much more important! They’re literally training apes to fight against us. On our own core planet! Do you honestly believe some stupid ape duelist is more important than this?”

Murmurs floated around the Drogar, but Colviss answered with slight exasperation. It was as though the old man didn’t know a real threat when he saw it.

“Not just any stupid ape,” she replied. “But a Reborn ape. Heavily equipped and highly trained in old Drogar ways. Don’t you find that interesting?”

The old Drogar was immediately taken aback. His eyes went wide as her words sunk in.

“A Human Reborn?” said the old Drogar. “Are you sure? I thought we were the only ones graced with your kind.”

“Maybe if you watched more trash ‘Casts, you would have seen for yourself. So switch it back, so we can all see for ourselves.”

The old Drogar shook as he ejected the disc out the screen, and set it back to the previous OmniCast. On it, Eva continued to rile up the anti-human Drogar to near mouth-foaming anger.

“Are you not entertained?” she asked them.

She was answered with a great many boos and insults from her detractors. Some even attempted to throw some of their trash at her, but the sheer distance between them meant they fell flat. Sometimes back into the stands itself, onto their friends’ heads.

“I’ll entertain you, ape,” said a voice from behind Eva.

Eva turned to look, and saw a large Drogar walking towards her. Like the other Reborn Eva had seen, this one was also ridiculously tall at 2.6 meters. She was also burlier than most other female Drogar she had come across.

Unlike most of the other duelists, her armor was much more barebones. Instead of covering her from head to toe like everyone else, it only covered up the most essential parts of her body. Though there were some sections that were completely covered, like her head and chest, other sections were almost completely open.

Her bracers, for example, only protected from the outside, but not the inside of her forearms. Similarly, it was the same with her greaves. Underneath the armor was the base framework of her power armor, minimal as it was.

Perhaps it was that way because of her gauntlets – both hands were huge and thick. Though she wore a beltknife, it appeared to be more decorative than not.

“We’ve got a special fight coming up,” said the announcer. “We’ve got human bladedancer Ra’ventrii here laying claim to the Fifth Tier’s Second Seed. Her win streak has been utterly unbelievable. Every Seed Judge has been mystified how she’s made it this far!”

As always, reactions to Eva were mixed. Although, now the cheers and jeers were more or less equal in amount. The insults and death threat section had barely changed, of course. Well, maybe it grew a little bit.

“But can she confirm the Seed?” continued the announcer. “Because this time, she’s being challenged by Orsethii, a Reborn Anew! Like the other Reborn, she too is on the climb towards the top ten. And nothing seems to be standing in her way!”

Orsethii raised her fists in the air and received a monumental amount of cheers in response. The adulation of the crowd for a Reborn seemed mythical to Eva. As though they could never do wrong.

“Betting for the duelists at Ring Ashta can now commence!”

There was a great murmur that spread across the stands as they placed their bets on their favorite duelist. A few placed bets on both.

And as the spectators placed their bets, Eva and Orsethii both moved towards their dueling ring. Eva loosened up her muscles while Orsethii psyched herself up by pounding her fists together.

Up on the screens, the odds quickly stacked up against Eva. They shot out of her stagnant 10, climbed up to her first high at 42, then continued to rise. It eventually peaked at 68 to 1 odds.

Orsethii’s was the exact opposite. Hers sank down to a dismal 0.13, but she hardly cared. She had gotten used to seeing numbers like that. It did bug her a little that it was higher than she expected. For the Reborn, the lower their odds, the bigger their boasting rights.

But she quickly shook it off as an annoyance, and placed all her focus on her opponent instead.

Once a full minute of betting had passed, the announcer’s voice boomed across the arena.

“Aaand betting is over! The fight can now commence!”

Cheers rose up from all around them, and even a few of the other duelists paused their own match to watch. This was a fight everyone wanted to watch.

Neither opponent hesitated and advanced on each other, both fully intent on bringing the other down.

Orsethii’s arms were up and guarding her head and upper body, just like a boxer. She advanced forward in a zig-zag pattern and searched for the best opening she could find.

“I was told to pound your head into the sand until you’re part of it,” she said.

“Honestly,” Eva replied, “that sounds like a lot of work. A lot. I don’t think you’re up to the task.”

Parallel to her movements, Eva danced closer with wide sashays left and right. She matched her opponent’s movements to maximize her best opening. Or at the very least, minimize her opponent’s.

Both of them moved expertly and with absolute precision. Every step they made countered the other’s and maintained an even playing field.

But when they met, it was Eva who struck out first. She leapt left, then slid further to swipe at her opponent from her flank. But Orsethii pivoted her entire body and very narrowly avoided Eva’s blade.

In the same movement, she swung down with a fast, yet powerful strike. But despite its speed, was still a hair slower than Eva, and she ended up smashing sand instead. The ground shook a little from the impact, and a small column of sand erupted into the air.

Eva had spun out of the way in the opposite direction, and reopened Orsethii’s other flank. She slashed decisively at her waist, but frustratingly only found air as Orsethii hopped back just out of reach.

After each of them tested each others’ capabilities, they both stepped back to reassess each other. Clearly, neither were dealing with a simple opponent.

The crowd went wild with every attack either of them threw. Both were fast, decisive, powerful. And many just couldn’t believe their eyes. That human was able to fight toe-to-toe against a Reborn!

Some realized that they might have made the wrong bets.

What they couldn’t see was that Eva was already breathing harder than normal, while Orsethii’s was labored. She knew that she needed to end her match quickly. But she had a few things she wanted to know.

“Tell me,” she said, “what were you before you were Reborn, huh? A lonely Drogar in the darkness of her bedroom, playing games to escape a cruel world?”

“Shut up and fight!” yelled Orsethii.

“Did I strike a nerve? Were you a nobody before you came here and became a god? Is that why you’re angry?”

“You know nothing, ape! I was a great Drogar in the past! I destroyed thousands with my own hands in a single battle! The Battle of Fellryn V! I was there – look in the records!”

She swung at Eva in frustration, but was evaded with ease. The two then exchanged another flurry of blows, to great cheers from the spectators surrounding.

Despite Orsethii’s size, she was incredibly nimble and fast. Far faster than any other Drogar Eva had ever encountered. Stronger, and with much more endurance too.

It took everything Eva had to stay out of her way.

She knew she needed to even the odds somehow. She hoped the mind games would help her out. But if not... well, she still had plenty of stamina for her trump card.

“How many button presses did it take?” she asked. “To kill those thousands, I mean? Two? Three? Did you use torpedoes? Or bombs?”

Orsethii screamed with rage at Eva’s words.

“How dare you mock me!” she screamed. “I am the meta-controller of a Holy Mechanoid Devastator! My job was to act as the consciousness of my superiority war vessel and devastate our enemies over their own skies!”

Alarm shot through Eva as she heard Orsethii’s declaration. The pieces quickly fell together in her mind. Meta-controller? Mechanoid? War vessel?

“You’re a mecha pilot?! Me too!”

.....