She did a quick stock of what was going around, she for once wasn't feeling pelled by hidden forces... Or she didn't think she was at least, grahe mog and taunting weren't in tuh her usual way of doing things. But this was something she o do if she was to deal with this kind of being.

  The muscled man seemed to be tense for some reason, was he feeling the same interference she had felt before with her skills?

  A quick s with her [Shadow Sense] didn't return any interferen the arena, it was the only pce where she could actually feel as if she was able to manipute shadows in this pce actually...

  Before moving forward with the fight she o do something, Rossie had said it so before and she wasn't sure why she hadn't thought it too, "So, are you going to [Identify] yourself?" asked the girl while sneaking the use of one of the [Skill] she had avaible to her.

  And the skill went without a hitch, it seemed that even with all the suspis she had about these skills, they still worked quite well. She dismissed most of the information about the man in front of her and only left the bare minimum needed.

  Status(Level 20)

  Strength: 100

  stitution: 100

  Agility: 50

  Dexterity: 30

  Intelligence: 13

  Wisdom: 13

  Charisma: 10

  Skill: Obsidian Berserker

  She wasn't sure what to think about that status, he had the same level as her, but his overall status was lower than hers, it didn't look like that now true. But she had around a hundred or so status points to distribute, If she followed a bruiser build like what he seemed to have going, she could match his strength & stitution and still have extra stats in other areas.

  She wouldn't of course, but it brought doubts about why she could matd overpower another oh the same level as her, these kinds of narratives usually were for [Heroes] from their own [Cheat Skills] granted by deities. And she didn't have [Fate's Blessings] as far as she was aware.

  Would she o file a pint? She would have plenty of questions for Alexanders.

  "Hmp, you are in front of the [Gdiator] and I hope your [Toy] is sturdy enough." Was all her oppo said while his muscles started to bulge.

  Disgusting. Why did the men always did that thing where their muscles would bulge? She didn't see the appeal of that at all.

  But even so, she still focused while sending a few ands into her shadows. "[Prepare to send the soldiers at the first opportunity, we will do a pitack if possible.]" She felt the shadot her and and wait.

  She was used to them moving on their own, so it surprised how they stayed as if nothing had happened. So with a flex of her will she spread her shadows in a web pattern across the floor, she tried really hard to not ugh at the rea of her oppo.

  "Gya!" A very mase sound from her oppo, "Y-You don't scare me!" and a very mase rea from him indeed.

  After not notig anything from her shadows decided to pump himself up by funneling his own skill into his body...

  Wait, how could she feel him funneling his skill into his body?

  She focused her [Will] once again on her skill and mumbled "[Identify]" while fog on the skill part of the skill in her oppo [Status].

  Skill: Obsidian BerserkerThe Skill Obsidian Berserker is a stunted evolution of the skill [Shadow Berserker]. It sacrifices the versatility of health and mana regeion and the on mastery afforded by the [Shadow] element. The user willingly stuhe [Evolutionary Tree] by trying te the [Shadow] element in the skill. Currently, it only offers Health Regeion and has no self-sustaining way to keep active for proloimes. It no longer provides on mastery so the User only fight with his own body.

  As the demerit of the skill [Berserker] stayed after the devolution, the user still loses reasoning while it's active. If the owner receives help from a higher-ranking shadow user it is possible to [Evolve] the skill back to the [Shadow] and gain the perks back. Getting bae sembnce of intelligence while using it.

  She gave a reread several times while the man oher side of the are screaming his lungs out while a weird red-ish fog-like type of vapor started beied from his whole body.

  She could even feel a heat wave ing from across the arena, what the hell was that weird aura-type kind of thing she was seeing? Was...Was she stu one of those sarios out of one of the stories her mother used to tell her?

  ...Was...Was she seeing things?

  She tried looking at everyone else using her [Shadow Senses] but no one made a mention, the man had been screaming for almost two minutes now, and she even saw his HP go down a few %...

  Should...Should she attack?

  "Amm...." Mumbled the bck-haired girl while the ma screaming his lungs. "...Attack?" she said while pointing with her left armored hand at the man.

  Instantly after it, a couple of shadons pounced from the web he man attag him. " And the [Empress] says she didn't e here to wait! She wants a!" Came the voice of the bck-masked man.

  Great, another entator.

  The screaming man didn't seem to miher her attack or the entator since he hit one of his shadons with a fist destroying him i.

  She immediately felt the drain in her mana as the dragon tried to reform and pounce again, she of course stopped him from doing so. She didn't have nearly enough mana for him to destroy more of her dragons. "[ Stop the assault of close fighters, only fight at range.]" She ordered his dragons, this time she didn't even bother to do only mental ands.

  "And the [Empress] knows that fighting cle a bruiser is a mistake! At least one of the testants is smart!" Said the bck-mask announcer. Did he share a brain cell with the the crazy old man?

  They were speaking the same. Was this something to do with being an announcer? She hadn't noticed it before, but most of those who worked as announcers of some kind teo word things the same way.

  She didn't have enough time to dwell on that train of thought as the man seemed to notice how the dragons didn't go at him anymore, she didn't have many that had a ranged option, only two or three that knew how to carry onry worked, and even those they just dropped things on the berserker.

  So instead he started looking around to finally settle his eyes on her. She felt a shiver run through her spine as the berserker smiled and started running towards her, she got caught by surprise even after knowing his AGI status.

  He had the same speed as her, true. But his lower Dexterity meant that he couldn't be effit while moving, so she had expected him to be somewhat slower than his AGI status implied. Instead, he just ran forward with no care, he was closer to a bull than a human in how he ran forward, with no care about form or stability, he even o use his arms to prevent himself from falling ft on his face.

  And so she did what any good Matador or Torero would do, she sidesteped to the side. She had over twera points than him ierity, and they showed with the grace she mao dodge him and then ssh him in the side at the same time with her sword.

  The sword had morphed from a cymore into a more lithe sword, she was trying to not think too much about how her sword now looked like the one Rena had used while fighting...But katanas had its appeal as sshing swords and who was her to deny the funality of a on?

  "GAAAH!" The berserker only screamed and stopped his advance by pung the arena's floor and creating a crater from which to hold itself.

  She could swear that she heard the sound of bone breaking, but if the wound on his side was any evideo go by, he had a health regeive fun in his skill. Both the wound on his torso was gone and his arm seemed to be fine.

  He still seemed to be radiating that weird fog-aura thing going, and his HP was once again topped at 100%, she however noticed how his Mana seemed to be going down and his stress seemed to be going up.

  Iing, she hadn't used her skill to see how the status worked after learning how [Idea] worked, but something told her the stress shouldn't go up if the previous description was to be believed.

  For now, she had more pressing matters to focus on though.

  Such as a berserker running straight towards her again, "No fi all." Said the bck-haired girl while jumping and using the berserker as a stool to impulse herself higher.

  She had jumped and behind her, a web of shadows had risen with her, the berserker Instead of dodging had run straight at it with the grace of a bull in a a shop, so he got quickly entangled in that.

  Of course, he started trashing and breaking his bindings "GRAAAAAHAH" while screaming and trying to free himself while g his way toward Alice.

  "AAAAND THE [Gdiator] IS RESTRAINED, THE [Empress] KEEP HIM AT BAY THOUGH?" Said the entator while the bck-haired girl looked at her mana beied iime.

  She had dropped almost 20% after restraining him, she dismissed the web she had made on the arena floor and focused most of her shadows on the restraining of the man.

  She could see his mana go slowly down, but not fast enough. She would run out of mana faster than he would at this pace...At least till she noticed how he had a quick dunk in his Mana by ara 5% in one go.

  "Iing...What did you do?" Mumbled the girl while looking at him and notig how one of his arms had broken in an awkward angle while trying to wrestle out of the bindings.

  He had broken an arm trying to release himself? That was stupid, that never worked in the real world unless you could heal yourself fast enough. Being wounded ierritory was bad enough after all.

  But this brought ao her mind, an idea she would never be able to do as a [Hero], "Say...We are testing for joining a [Vilin] right?" Asked the girl looking at the announcer.

  The bck-masked man at least answered out of the [Announcer] persona he had going, "Of course, most of you will get to join even if you fail our testing, only in more mundane jobs of course. Why?" Asked the bck-masked man.

  The girl couldn't help but smile under her mask at that ahat was all she needed "No reason..." And she turo look at the berserker, keeping him restrained wouldn't work, not at her current mana level.

  She would probably manage if she dumped her remaining stats into the more magically ined status...But she felt that would be a waste and something her blonde side would no doubt do.

  "[Shadow Iment - Shadow Spike]" Said the bck-haired girl while funneling her i into her shadows and through the web that the berserker was stu.

  "GRAAAAAAHG!!!!" Screamed in a primal way the bck-haired man while the shadowy s that were keeping him in pce grew spikes that dived into his flesh.

  He had good defense, over 100 points into stitutio that he was durable enough, but with wounds all over his body, she could already see his HP plummeting and his mana going down the drain trying to heal his whole body at the same time.

  Her mana loss was negligible since she only o keep the spikes from breaking with his trashing, so her mana expenditure was at an all-time low, against that the berserker kept healing his wounds and possibly replenishing the blood loss...

  Yeah, she would win the test of who would outst this " This wasn't how I imagined you would end after making me wait for almost two minutes you know..." She said while walking slowly towards the trashing berserker.

  She dispelled the onry in her right hand and even the face mask that guarded her against debris or attacks to her face, "But I will settle for this too, now..." She stht in front of the man whose eyes now held fear as his wounds kept opening and his skill was running out.

  It seemed that the skill had been deemed uo deal with the current predit his owner had found himself in and was turning off "W-What?" Said the man after regaining his sciousness.

  Then after looking around and trying to stand "AAAGHH!! WHAT THE HELL?!?" screamed in pain as the shadowy s sank into his body, now that his skill wasn't keeping him healed his wounds would only worsen.

  "As I was saying...[Bow]" Decred Alice while f the body of the berserker to ply with her and.

  The shadow s tensed and shoved his fato the arena flah, what the hell?!? Are you mad or something?!?" Trashed the berserker while trying to free himself, she had made it so the spikes in her s no longer hurt him unless he tried to force himself free.

  But they stayed there, as an insurance "I wasn't the oo ask for a bat... I wasn't the ohat used a [Skill] that took the reasoning out and made a mad dash against a frail girl with less than half of my defenses." She said while putting her armored boot in the face of the berserker and shoving it down the arena floor once again.

  He had enough to heal it after all, so he got no mercy from her, after shoving his head down and making her shadows secure it into the floor she kneeled near him "And more importantly... I wasn't the oo cripple my [Skill] because of [Fear]." She whispered into his ear.

  Getting a small whimper from him...Was he g?

  Wait... Why was he g?

  "Okay that's enough for today, we don't want to traumatize our future coworker do we?" Said the bck-masked man who pushed a button in a remote and she suddenly felt all the shadow in the arena stiffle.

  Her trol over the shadows was being tested, she felt like if she wao, she would be able to test it... But decided to allow the effect to settle over her.

  She however didn't allow the effect to spread more thaer around her, making a small bubble of shadows arouhe masked man didn't seem to mind it, but this allowed the berserker to quickly wipe his fad jump away from her.

  Almost as if she was a monster out of a nightmare.

  "Your eyes." Said the bck-masked man.

  She didn't get what he meant about her eyes, many had sung praises for her blue eyes granted, but so far no one had seemed to like the red eyes her [Alice] persona had.

  "What?" Said Alice while fishing a small mirror from inside her jacket (It came from her [Iory] actually) and seeing her refle.

  Her eyes were shining red under a blue fme, "What the hell?" said the girl toug her face with one hand while seeing her refle.

  That...That was new, she tried to flex her [Will] into her eyes but that didn't seem to do anything, a more focused effort into how her mana was moving.... Ended with nothing.

  Her mana seemed to move sluggishly, she got the feeling that if she wao she could probably make a spell work, but outside of the pre-set spells she had for her [Elemental Weaver] persona?

  Nothing, it was as if she had never practiced [Mana Manipution] at all..." I didn't practice that before did I?" mumbled the girl, dispelling her full armalia and only leaving behind his street clothes.

  The weird blue fme started dissipating the less [Shadows] she was maniputing aually stopped burning, her eyes also lowered their color from shinio a more toned-down bloody red.

  "That's more like it, so...What did we learn?" Said cheerfully the masked man.

  No one seemed to want to answer, at least till the berserker strode forward "Pure [Shadow] based skills are better powerwise if you ighe weird mood swings they give their owners." And stated that proudly... While leaving the bck-masked maween himself and her.

  Coward.

  The masked man said nothing and just stood waiting, "It's possible to trol the [Shadow] based skills so long we practice?" Said a girl with dark-greenish hair.

  "Exactly," appuded the bck-masked man. "So long you hone your trol you will be able to deal with [The Madness]." He said and she felt the shadows aroury to act up.

  She quickly gave a s in her [Soulscape] and fouendrils of [Taint] trying to sneak inside her [Soulscape] so she focused her [Shadow Essence] and once more flooded her soulscape with her mana flushing the [Taint] to the outside.

  This time however, as more of her sciousness was iside she was able to see small wormlike shadowy creatures beied from her [Shadows] and how they were burned by the normal mana in the air.

  "Whoops, sorry about that." Said the bck-masked man, most of those around her were on the arena floor holding their heads, and only two people still stood.

  And somehow she wished that she hadn't reacted as fast as she did, "So...Who are you? Truly?" The bck-masked man said while a sinister smile was carved in his mask.

  It felt as if the mask had grown a viaw, "I'm Alice..." She started saying, she hadn't time to try and think of a st name so she used the ohat felt right sidering her situation "...Alice Saintsworth."

  She would had so many problems ter on if one of the Saintsworths worked for [Ea], but right now she he extra prote that name could bring her, besides... They owed her a favor since [Alexanders] was creating so many troubles for her anyway!

  "And I don't like being toyed by strangers." She tried to summon her armalia but the shadows suddenly seemed lethargic, right. He had turned on whatever that suppressed [Shadows].

  She still mao materialize a dagger in her right hand and...A ?

  Somehow a shadow mao materialize itself in her left hand, she would look into that ter, for now, beggars 't be choosers.

  "Hmm...I thought you would present yourself as a [Windsor]..." Said the masked man, "Or perhaps [Ashcroft]...I could even uand if you said [Starlight] or [Brighton]. " He started saying different st names.

  She didn't reize the first, but from the sed onwards? That made her wary, "Noould you even..." He started saying only for his hand to shoot straight to his throat, he cwed at his throat for a sed before his whole body was engulfed by shadows and he disappeared.

  Unlike how she was shadows as if they were a body armor, he quite literally got engulfed in shadows... As in a reptilian maw rose from the arena shadow and ate him.

  "Sorry about that, he gets ahead sometimes." Said the voice of a girl whom she had heard before, "My name is Zoe. I will tih your indu, and before moving on..." She said and suddenly the air around her was sweeter.

  Did someone light up an inse?

  "We will not be having more fights unless you want to find yourself in the infirmary." And she felt dread in her back...

  She remembered what that bck-masked man had done before... And what Zoe had said about her skill before... She started sharpening her will into her mana to use her [Identify] on her but got stopped since Zoe said first, "And since I know that at least two of you have a [Infosec] skill. I'm wearing an artifact that wards against that type of skill as most of the higher-ups in the anization. You will not find anything useful."

  Alice could only sigh a her mana dissipate, as the shadoonry. She could admit defeat, she was a big girl that knew how to admit defeat.

  She would also use the skill anyway ter when more people were around and from a hidden spot.

  But for now?

  "Now be a darling ahose by putting these on them." Said Zoe while pointing to a box that was being dragged by a small drone in the form of a dog.

  The box was full of silver bracelets with red finishings ihey looked like the silver one she was wearing in her left hand, "These will help them purge the [Taint] Nyctophagia shoved their way, they work the same as yours so don't mind it too much." Said the girl while grabbing a bundle of them and starting to do just that.

  She grabbed a few (And maybe shoved one or two into her [Iory]) and did the same.

  She couldn't wait to see what more they would send her way, with some luck the sed part of the indu could solve at least one of her questions? As far as it was ed she had at least found how to deal with [The Taint] so she was good on that front...

  But that couldn't be all, could it?