Around the arena, a lot of different reactions took place all at the same time. A small percentage of the ReSouled cadets panicked, screams of surprise punctuating knuckles whitening around weapons and feet shuffling in the opposite direction of the rushing monsters. Those would be the people from the peaceful pillars. Cadets who’d never had to fight for their lives. Sure, they’d gone through the week of torture along with everybody else, but that was an entirely different challenge than facing down the slavering maw of some bear-lion thing the size of a truck.

  The next—and largest—group of people amongst the ReSouled did a bit better than the first. These individuals knew their way around a weapon. They took fighting stances, blades and hammers at the ready. While they hadn’t fought something like Wordless before, they had confidence in their abilities. They were strong, and they knew it.

  Fourth was one of these people, stepping to the side of her group, daggers in hand, and her eyes locked on the birokk closest to her. It outweighed her dozens of times over, but she was a ReSouled with supernatural strength and reflexes. If there was anybody in the arena who had a chance against the monstrosity, she was one of those people.

  Out of the almost two hundred ReSouled in the amphitheatre, this second group had to be made up of almost three-quarters of the number. They were also the group that took the first “casualty”, with one of the birokk’s lashing out with a meaty paw to meet one of the cadets who charged at it with a spear.

  Maybe the man thought he could catch the beast off-guard with his longer weapon. Maybe he thought his strength would be enough to pierce the thick hide with his spear, and plunge the tip deep into the birokk’s heart. He clearly had some experience with the spear, his stance and thrust in textbook form like he’d lunged ten thousand times at a training dummy.

  Except, training dummies didn’t move. And they most certainly didn’t strike back with a dog-sized paw and sword-length claws. Yes, the man’s spear dug deep into the birokk’s shoulder, leaving the weapon protruding like a planted flag. On the other hand, the four claws tore through the man’s flesh, scarred his bones, and damn-near dismembered one of his arms. Then there was the fact the actual paw also hit, shattering his ribs before swatting him into the air.

  The man didn’t even have oxygen in his lungs to scream as he soared up at a forty-five-degree angle over his fellow cadets, before crashing to the ground thirty feet away. A single cough spewed a lungful of blood out onto his chin and the arena sand. Against any non-ReSouled, the injury would be beyond fatal. Even to a reborn superhuman, his body battled against the pain and damage, but they were too much to overcome. Just like that, he’d been taken out of the fight.

  Until he wasn’t, Baba appearing beside him, and a flash of light undoing all the devastation. She wasn’t going to let any of them die. Just… suffer a bit, as shown by another copy of her watching a cadet get gnawed on by a birokk like a dog with a bone.

  All that left the third and final group of ReSouled in the arena. Unlike the cadets who’d reacted with fear, or the individuals who’d rushed forward to rely on their own strength, this third group was just that. A group. Or, groups, to be more precise.

  As soon as the monsters had come out of the arena gates, Det and his group had formed up, Tena at the front with her shield, Det just behind her, sword in hand. Eriba and Sage dropped to the back, with Calisco and Weiss in the middle. They didn’t have their magic like they usually did, but that didn’t change their reflexes.

  Two other parties around the arena reacted in a similar way—only with slightly less precision and speed—from what Det could see in the chaos. Each of the three squared up to face their nearest foe, but Det only had confidence in one of them.

  His group.

  “Any idea what we’re up against?” Det asked over his shoulder while the birokk closest to them barreled through a trio of ReSouled like a bull in a glassware shop.

  “D-Rank,” Sage called out from the back. “Barely. They’re going to be stronger and tougher than us, but dumb as bricks, and their speed might even be E-Rank. One-on-one, they’ll…”

  A cadet ahead of them screamed as the birokk hooked its claws in his chest, chomped down on his leg, and then pulled in opposite directions. The halves of the man flew in opposite directions.

  “They’ll do that…” Sage finished, his point made.

  “If I had my magic…” Calisco started.

  “You don’t,” Det interrupted. “Tena, think you can tank that?”

  “Going to have to, aren’t I?” the Bulwark said, a frown creasing her face as she looked at the comparatively small tower shield on her arm.

  “Weiss,” Det said. “Any idea where we can hit that thing to bring it down?”

  “I was a doctor,” Weiss said. “Not a…”

  “Don’t care,” Det interrupted again, this time as the second cadet bought them time by getting stomped on—repeatedly—by the birokk rising up on its hind legs before coming down on it with both front paws. Det had seen videos of polar bears doing something similar to punch through ice to get to the seals below.

  The cadet did worse than the ice would’ve.

  “If this was your kickboxing opponent in the ring,” Det went on. “How would you take it down?”

  “Fine,” Weiss said. “It’s got strong defense. The front half of it is covered in thick hair, and probably a tough hide beneath it. If it’s anything like a bear would be, and at that size, the bone is going to be incredibly hard. You’re not cracking its skull open. It’s like a fighter who’s going to block every punch you throw at his face.”

  “So?” Det said. “That’s a lot of things we can’t do. What can we?”

  “Take out its wheels,” Weiss said.

  “It doesn’t have wheels?” Calisco half-said-half-asked.

  “Reduce its mobility,” Weiss said. “If it has anything like an Achillies tendon, I’d start there. Ankles and knees of its hind legs. Remove its ability to move around, then we can whittle it down. Pick our targets and set our own pace.”

  “Now I want an axe,” Sage said.

  “Then go get one,” Det said, his sword slashing out to point at the tables still laden with weapons. At the same time, the birokk backhanded the third cadet so hard, he shot past the group like he’d been launched by a catapult. His abrupt stop when he met the stone wall of the arena couldn’t have been any more pleasant, but at least Baba was there waiting for him.

  “Guess it’s our turn,” Tena said, the huge birokk turning its wide head to glare at them.

  “Tena, hold its attention,” Det said. “Eriba, stay behind her and back her up. Put as many bolts into it as you can. They won’t hurt it much, but maybe they’ll slow it down. Calisco, your stick isn’t a great match up. Do what you can to keep it distracted. On the left. I’ll go right. If we can keep it turning and its attention split, we can land some hits.

  “Weiss and Sage, you’ve got the job of taking out its wheels, as it were.”

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  Instructions given, Det gripped his katana’s hilt in both hands, and darted out to the right. He’d have to hope the others would…

  They did, without hesitation. Tena dashed straight in, shield up, and yelling at the top of her lungs to get the birokk’s attention. It worked. A huge paw came around with the power to punt her into orbit.

  Tena may’ve only been a novice Bulwark in the grand scheme of things, but she was also the best fighter in the group. She saw the telegraph a mile away, and slid to a stop to brace her feet, shield shifting perfectly in line with the coming swat. The gong of the blow echoed through the arena, and Tena’s booted feet skidded in the sand.

  That was as far as she moved, though, and the half-bear-thing seemed to pause in surprise it had been stopped cold. The surprise only doubled when Tena twisted at the waist, her shield pulling the dangerous claws past her, to thrust out with her spear. The weapon wasn’t quite long enough to reach anything important, and the tip vanished within the thick fur of the upper arm, before coming back red.

  A roar from the birokk promised revenge for the injury, until the beast winced and shuffled to its right as a Det’s blade cut its flank from top to bottom. Targeting the feline flesh behind the bear’s hide had been more than worth the extra few steps it took, the katana cutting deep inches in with a splash of blood. Another growl rumbled in the monster’s chest, its weight shifting to get its claws in line to tear Det apart.

  It got a shield bash to the nose for its trouble. In the moment of distraction, Tena had slipped in close, backhanding her heavy shield across with all her strength. As to why she hadn’t led with her spear, well, that question got answered in the next second. Smashed to the side by power of the blow, the birokk’s head extended to the full length of its neck. Which was exactly where Tena thrust, the entire bladed end of her spear vanishing within the thick hair.

  The monster’s whole body spasmed at the deep blow, and a gush of blood followed the Bulwark’s weapon as it was withdrawn. A large paw slammed to the ground to catch the birokk as it was still reeling from the original shield bash, muscles tensing and flexing in preparation for whipping back around. Motion in the corner of its eyes made it pause for just a heartbeat.

  All the time it took for Calisco to bring her staff down like a baseball bat square on the bear-like head. With the full power of her ReSouled strength, and holding the staff all the way at one of its iron-capped ends, the swing had all the torque she could muster. Her feet even left the ground as the second, iron-capped end slammed into the birokk’s forehead.

  A pair of cracks echoed out at the impact. One from the staff splintering, and the second from where the iron-capped end struck. She hadn’t broken any bones, but there was no way the birokk wasn’t dazed after that. A crossbow bolt tearing its ear off at the same time didn’t make its day any better.

  Stunned, bleeding, and cut, the D-Rank beast had been backed into a metaphorical corner, the four ReSouled around it moving in to lay on more injuries while they had the advantage.

  Too bad for them, a beast backed into a corner was when it was at its most dangerous.

  Completely ignoring the wounds, a berserker-like rage filled the birokk’s eyes as its growl vibrated the sand on the arena floor, before it opened its mouth in a spittle-flying roar.

  Not willing to look a gift-birokk in the mouth, Tena stepped in and thrust her spear straight down the beast’s throat. The blade skipped off the top of the thing’s mouth, tearing through the sensitive flesh there, before driving in well past where the thing’s tonsils would be, if it had any. A terrible wound that…

  … would just piss the thing off.

  The birokk’s jaws clamped down on the spear, and the monster snapped its head to the side so fast, Tena didn’t let go in time. Ripped from the ground, the Bulwark only released her grasp on the weapon a second later. By that point, she was already soaring through the air.

  The birokk wasn’t finished there, either. Heedless of the damage the spear lodged in its throat was doing, it spun hard to the right. With its left paw coming up and down, it sought to squish Calisco like an egotistical pancake. It just barely missed, the ReSouled woman diving out of the way at the last second.

  At the same time it attempted to murder Calisco, the beast’s club-ended tail came around like a wrecking ball in Det’s direction. Practically whistling in the air as it moved, the club promised nothing short or liquifying Det on contact. Not something he was looking to see if Baba could heal, Det dropped face-first down to the ground.

  The air above him practically ripped at the velocity of the attack he’d just dodged, but it didn’t end there for him. Even though the birokk was facing the other way—its jaws stretching for Calisco’s tasty flesh—its back foot crashed down a few inches in front of his head. A flex of its leg told Det exactly what was coming next, and he rolled to the side to avoid the backward kick and feline claws that would’ve torn him apart.

  That left him on his back, one huge leg on each side of him, staring up at the bottom of the very male birockk looking to dismember them all.

  Weiss said to limit its mobility… but I bet he was still thinking we had to fight by the rules. Screw that.

  A twist of Det’s wrist to line up the blade, then he stabbed with every ounce of ReSouled strength he had. Whatever the sword was made of, it had no trouble punching through the hanging, melon-sized weak spot, then continuing on its way into the birokk’s gut. The whole beast’s back end jerked up into the air at the sudden, unexpected pain, legs kicking up and back.

  This time, Det wasn’t fast enough to avoid the aimless attack, hand-length claws catching his left shoulder—of course it would be that shoulder, like always—and tearing him from the ground. Pain flashed in his mind before his body suppressed it, and he flew head over heels for a dozen feet before coming back down.

  Reflexes took over as he landed, turning the crash into a roll that got him right back to his feet and sprinting toward the weapons table. His sword had been left in place, nailing the birokk’s vulnerable bits to its gut.

  Calisco lay on the ground ten feet in front of the monster, a pair of tears straight down the front of her chest oozing blood, but forgotten by the birokk in its agony. One of her hands went to where a claw must’ve caught her, while the other went to half of the broken staff she’d been carrying. She didn’t even use it to help herself up, and she charged back in as soon as she was on her feet.

  As the birokk hopped and tried to dislodge the sword with its back legs, it completely ignored the woman running back in for her revenge. Correction, it ignored both women.

  Tena had returned as well, a much longer spear in her hand from where she’d picked it up on a table. Unseen by the birokk—and even with the tower shield still on one arm—the Bulwark took the spear in both hands and then gave a mighty leap into the air. Peaking around twenty feet up, she spun the weapon so it was pointing tip-down, then let gravity do its dirty business.

  With her weight and strength—along with her aim—Tena buried the spear in the birokk’s back, just above the hips to its hind legs, then drove it down, feet-deep into the monster. Her body hit a second later, but she didn’t let go. No, she held on tight, even as the beast bucked and thrashed like a rodeo bull. Held on, then somehow stood up. Defying physics or logic, the Bulwark somehow planted her feet on the bouncing back, then hauled the spear side to side like some kind of lever, ripping the wound even wider.

  The roar that came out this time was far more pained than furious, and the beast’s head turned just enough so it could see Tena out of the corner of its eye. When it stopped bucking a second later, that was all the warning anybody had before the tail snapped around like a whip.

  Tena’s shield was the only thing that kept her alive, though the metal crumpled entirely around the blow before shooting her away for a second time.

  Sage ducked under Tena’s flipping body soaring just over his head, then came in swinging. True to his word, he’d gone and traded his sword in for an axe. One he proceeded to bury in the back of the birokk’s ankle. Aimed well and with all of Sage’s supernatural strength, the blade bit deep, slicing through tendon and muscle both, before continuing its arc to glance off the beast’s other leg. Not that Sage let missing the other tendon discourage him.

  The birokk faltered on one side, leg suddenly not working right, and Sage let loose with a barrage of hacking slashes. With single-minded fury, he chopped at the back end of the birokk like it was a stubborn tree. Three, six, ten blows ripped the hind quarters apart, Sage side-stepping in time with the birokk trying to spin around so it could bite Sage in half.

  When that didn’t work for the beast—and with Sage in too close to tail smash—the beast took on a new tactic. With an agility unexpected from such a weighted appendage, the birokk snaked its tail around Sage and lifted him from the ground.

  Arms up when he’d been caught, Sage struggled to get a swing in, but the tail was already squeezing. Like a constrictor with its next meal in its coils, the tail gripped with all its D-Rank strength.

  Right up until Weiss proved he didn’t play by the rules either. Still without a weapon in hand, the Medic darted in and executed a perfect punting kick. One that connected the front of his foot with the hilt of Det’s sword, driving it even further through the birokk’s manhood.

  It was probably Det’s imagination as he ran back in with a new weapon, but it felt like every guy in the arena winced along with the birokk and the way its face puckered up.

  Freed from its tail, Sage landed on the ground, lifted his axe back above his head, and charged in. Not far away, Tena was already running back—this time with a lance—while Eriba buried another crossbow bolt in the birokk’s throat. Calisco came in swinging with her half-a-stick, wailing with it like it was a baseball bat, and Det struck hard from the other side.

  This time, they really had the advantage, and they were not going to let it go.